#trashahime

Mao's plot does involve a girl traveling to a past period and meeting a sword user like Inuyasha, and there might be some other things that could remind you of Inuyasha, yet it differs in lots of ways. I won't spoil the story but I’ll reveal 4 traits that make it differ from Inuyasha that I believe are safe to reveal:

1. ⁠While Inuyasha’s group is of 6 characters always traveling together, Mao’s group is of only 3 which in fact is like Rinne's group of Kyoukai no Rinne (a boy not rude running an honest business with his little servant and a female companion), and their allies appear on and then.

And fun fact: Mao debuts on April 4th, which is the same day the anime of Kyoukai no Rinne debuted 11 years ago.

2. It features demons, yet most of the major characters are humans. There are between 20 and 30 significant characters so far, and only 3 of them are demons, and some are similar to the Black Cats of Kyoukai no Rinne.

3. Unlike the mystery of Inuyasha and Kikyo's tragic past which was quickly uncovered, the pieces of the puzzle of the past in Mao are slowly coming together and even after more than 300 chapters, not everything has been uncovered. In other words, unlike Inuyasha and all of her other long series' in which she had *no* clue where she was going and no idea how or where or when she'd end them, Rumiko Takahashi has a direction and a basic ending in mind that she wants to reach.

4. In Inuyasha, despite regularly coming across Inuyasha’s group and Naraku and some of his incarnations, Kikyo, Sesshomaru and Koga rarely crossed paths (Sesshomaru and Koga in fact never cross paths in the manga (ep99 was a filler episode)). In Mao, the handling of the major characters crossing paths seems better.

If anyone were to still consider it Inuyasha 2.0, I'd say Mao is an improved Inuyasha. And unlike Yashahime, which I consider to be an amateurish what if full of recycled stuff from Inuyasha and also Sailor Moon, Mao is a masterpiece like all of Rumiko Takahashi's handy works. I highly recommend it. As much as I hate that Sunrise got their hands on it, Mao deserves to be more popular so either give it a chance watching it in anime or reading the manga.

PS:

Some anime have all the right ingredients, but still leave viewers disappointed. Often, the problem isn’t with the story itself. It’s the genre that holds it back. Genre can be the kiss of death for an anime. A great premise could feel stiff or disappointing simply because it's trapped in the wrong genre box. Sometimes, the action itself is great, but then the pacing feels like a slice-of-life story. Other times, a rom-com story gets wedged into a supernatural thriller, and the tone just never quite finds solid ground.

Not every anime gets to live in the genre where it actually belongs. Among these series are cult favorites, like Darling in the Franxx and Sword Art Online, that didn’t quite land. They all had something special, either in the form of fantastic characters, a great concept or top-shelf animation, but the wrong genre killed them. A simple switch, whether to horror, drama, mystery or even to comedy, might have made all the difference. These anime could’ve been way better if they'd embraced a different genre instead.

10. The Promised Neverland Season 2 Should’ve Been Slow-Burn Horror

The Promised Neverland Season 1 was nearly flawless. It built tension gradually, had the viewer terrified of every shadow, and transformed an orphanage into a horror house. Then Season 2 tried to shift gears into a fast-paced escape thriller, and lost a lot of what made the first season so interesting. Instead of creeping dread, the second season gave viewers timeskips and chase scenes. What the anime needed was more stillness.

9. Darling in the Franxx Should’ve Just Been a Coming-of-Age Drama

Darling in the Franxx tried to do too much. It wanted to be Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, Aldnoah.Zero and The Notebook all at once. The result was a confused series where interesting emotional arcs were constantly interrupted by mecha battles and sci-fi plot twists that barely made sense. At its best, Franxx wasn’t about fighting aliens. It was about connection, puberty and loneliness.

8. Future Diary Would’ve Made More Sense as a Black Comedy or Psychological Horror

Future Diary is pure chaos. It has murder games, yandere romance, godly powers and time travel. But while it’s often categorized as an action-thriller, it would’ve been far stronger as a dark comedy or psychological horror. Yuno Gasai is one of anime’s most iconic yandere characters, but her relationship with Yukiteru is more disturbing than romantic.

7. Sword Art Online Would’ve Been Stronger as a Romantic Sci-Fi Drama

Sword Art Online had one of the strongest first-episode hooks in modern anime history. Gamers trapped in a world where death is final? That's goldmine material for character drama, tension and moral ambiguity. However, instead of working on that potential, the story descended into a high-stakes power fantasy in which the hero cuts through enemies with barely any scratches.

6. Charlotte Should’ve Been a Slice-of-Life Drama

Charlotte starts off strong with a group of teenagers with unstable superpowers. That’s a great setup for a school-based character drama. For the first few episodes, the tone is light but passionate, like Angel Beats! with more restraint. However, halfway through, the series falls into time travel, worldwide conspiracies and a salvation-of-the-world-at-the-last-minute plot, completely losing its composure.

5. Tokyo Revengers Should’ve Been a Gritty Crime Thriller

Tokyo Revengers was poised to be a gripping character-driven crime drama. Time travel, gang war, broken friendships and life-and-death violence were all the ingredients to build a tense, gritty, suspenseful and deceptive story. But what audiences got was a shonen-spiced soap opera with sobbing characters in every other episode.

4. Deadman Wonderland Could’ve Been Prison Horror or Psychological Thriller

Deadman Wonderland had the perfect setup for a horror anime: an innocent kid wrongfully imprisoned, a secret underground death game and a nightmarish prison run by sadists. But instead of leaning into its terrifying premise, the anime chose blood-soaked action and edgy powers. Gore was used for shock value instead of suspense. If Deadman Wonderland were more of a psychological horror show, it would have been a slow-burn nightmare.

3. God Eater Would Have Benefitted From Being a Survival Horror

God Eater has gruesome Aragami destroying a post-apocalyptic world, and the only chance for humanity rests on the shoulders of young fighters. However, instead of relying on suspenseful survival tension, the anime comes across as an endless cutscene from a beautiful video game. The weapons are cool, and the animation is bold, but the stakes rarely feel personal. God Eater reimagined as a true survival horror would have paid off more for this anime.

2. Yashahime Could Have Been Slice-of-Life With a Mythical Twist

The Inuyasha sequel aspired to be epic, but it needed heart, not fight scenes. While it tried to be as much of a fantasy-action adventure as its predecessor, the show never found the emotional or thematic roots to support its flashy fight scenes. Yashahime:Princess Half-Demon lingered on plot developments and monster-of-the-week fare without regard to the internal lives of Towa, Setsuna and Moroha. Their relationship, abuse and gradual bonding may have produced something much better in a softer, slower-paced genre.

Reimagined as a mythical slice-of-life series, Yashahime could have leaned into the folklore and quiet moments of healing that defined some of Inuyasha’s best episodes. Watching the girls travel, exorcise spirits and learn to become a family would have offered emotional growth and lore-building, rather than constant power-ups and recycled villains.

1. Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song: From Sci-Fi Action to Emotional Character-Driven Drama

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song begins with an android on a mission to prevent a robot apocalypse across a hundred-year timeline. It has slick action scenes and smart worldbuilding, but its strongest episodes aren’t the ones with combat. They are the ones that explored memory, emotion, legacy and the painful gap between AI and humanity. When Vivy slows down to focus on quiet moments, it transcends the typical sci-fi action mold.

Really. At barely 10 she literally YELLED at Sesshomaru "What the hell are you doing mom, Inuyasha is a good one, what are you fighting him for?". Just to say she's not stupid and, what's more, in first place she would never be Sesshomaru's trained child bride, for even in case of Sesshomaru being creepy around her, Inuyasha, Kagome, Kaede - but even Jaken and A-Un! - would punch the shit out of him, like, lol, where's your head?!

Bonus- Rin saying Kagura has a crush on Sesshomaru lol

left top and bottom: from Inuyasha (TFA?); right top and bottom: from HNY

But,

BUT

I also discovered someone who works in animating yesterday's HNY scenes, specifically Sesshomaru's part, tweeted this:

left: from Inuyasha; right: from HNY

I mean........

Do they have no shame left or what???

If they want to copy the original art style, then it's okay! Nobody would complain. But to copy the exact panels?........... 10 years difference and the battle scene is copied, right to every and each angle. LMAO 💀💀💀

And idk if it's too far-fetched or not, but the fact that they proudly telling everyone that they basically reusing old panels and altered them just a bit feels like an insult to all animators out there that work their asses of to draw anime scenes from scratch every fucking day. Oh, and let's not forget all those fanartists who also draw from scratch, not tracing them, yet they still couldn't get a high engagements.

If you’re going to insult me, do it properly.

Better a bitch than a creep like you, and you clearly don’t pay attention to your dear precious garbage heap of a show. Kagome gave a timeline, one proving Rin is a child, and all the adult women are drawn with identical body shapes- and guess who doesn’t have that shape? Rin. That’s a child.

She’s also a shit ass mother who doesn’t care if her kids are gonna be attacked for being half demons, simply laughing and giggling at the thought, and her so called shit ass pedo of a husband doesn’t care either. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It’s just a bad fanfic anyway. One that’s been stated to be a “scenario” and “what-if” by its creators.

The only one here crying anymore is you. I made that post an eternity ago. So how about you go ahead and block me? Because I’m too lazy to put in the effort to bother. M’kay, @b4kurafr0st?

And, please, learn to come up with an actual argument. This is, quite honestly…