InuYasha - Season 2 (DVD, 2005, 5-Disc Boxed Set)

This is the American English dub from VIZ Media, not a subtitled Japanese version not a bootleg.
It is the full Season II of Inuyasha, a licensed product in English from Viz Media, on 3 DVDs with a total of 27 full episodes in this boxed set.

Inuyasha may have been my introduction to Anime, watching late-night television and looking at the beautifully painted backgrounds in each episode. At first, I more or less ignored the plot and the characters and just watched for the backgrounds: having done cross-country running for years in Taiwan, it transported me back to the vistas that are still so clear, fresh, and exciting in my mind and which I miss every day still. The visuals then, have both an emotional connection for me as well as an aesthetic one: watching these -- over and over, I never get tired of them -- is like lying back and watching watercolors in motion.

Inuyasha (like Naruto) is a rich mine of entertainment, culture, and aesthetic pleasure. I think I watched these on Adult Swim for close to six months before anything like plot really came to my conscious attention: every time these are shown, I learn something new about the characters, their history, and their interaction.

Although this is shown on Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network, nothing is really unsuitable for upper elementary school children: at its most risqué is a kiss on the cheek, and the woman-loving monk Miroku, who pats female booties every chance he gets and tells every young lady he meets that he wants her to bear his children, as a running gag line. The monsters are colorful imaginary monsters, many drawn from Japanese folklore, and, as such, they provide a platform for later learning in Japanese traditional culture. In the first season, the episode about the Haunted Noh Mask is drawn from legend, folk tales, and can be seen in different forms in Japanese Cinema classics.

The plot itself has roots in what is termed Magic Realism in Latin-American literature -- the ability to shift from one world to another, in this case between Japan's Feudal Era and Kagome's everyday life as a middle-school student in present-day Tokyo, living on the family temple/shrine, run by her grandfather.

The early episodes (seasons one and two) are my favorites because the characters are new and developing and we see them wearing a variety of clothing, whether it is different outfits, in Kagome's case, or wearing the same outfits in different ways. Beyond the clothing worn by the main characters, whom we come to know through repeated viewings (my favorite kind of DVD to own are those that bear repeated viewings and provide enrichment with each viewing), is the visually impressive aspect of every kimono being a different pattern and color throughout this generously peopled series .