By now most people know that the manga Inuyasha has finally been brought to a close in Japan. If you don't want spoilers, then read no further.

Unlike Ranma 1/2, Takahashi-sensei gave Inuyasha an ending which wasn't so open ended. Kagome has graduated, is living in the past, and she and Inuyasha are together as a couple. Miroku and Sango are married and have kids. We know what is happening, in general terms, with the lives of Rin, Shippo and Kohaku.

But in the final analysis, I found the ending to be very weak, and if that's the best she could do I find myself much more accepting of the open ended way in which she finished off Ranma 1/2. I honestly think I would not have wanted to see an analogous ending there.

What I'm trying to say is, if I'm going to be given an ending, then I want it to be an ending. Otherwise, why bother? An ending should wrap things up. What did we get with Inuyasha? Inuyasha and Kagome are together, but are they married? There are some implications they may be, but it's never said. Are they planning to have children? I suppose the villagers have accepted Inuyasha, but what will they think of his children growing up there, if they do have kids? What about the different rate of aging between Inuyasha and Kagome? Is the well sealed and Kagome cut off from her original family forever? And more questions.

The way I felt after reading it was - if she's not going to give us a real ending, then why give us as much of an ending as this?

Imagine if Ranma 1/2 ended with a couple of scenes where she tells us it's three years later, or whatever, and she shows us that Kasumi and Tofu are married and have a kid, and she shows that Ranma and Akane are teaching together in the dojo and presumably married - though she doesn't bother to say - and that the other suitors/rivals have stopped chasing them. And that's it! What if she didn't tell us any more than that? I think I'd have felt even more cheated than the non-ending she gave us.

What do other people think?

I've read both it both myself and I have to say, that the Ranma "ending" left me much more pleased than the one in Inuyasha, so I feel I understand your position... guess it's up to FF.net to fix this huh? xD

The problem with FFnet fixing it is that, in my experience, almost all stories in the Inuyasha category are crap. It's almost impossible to wade through to find anything worth reading.

Of course, this is true of the majority of stories in most categories. But at least in the Ranma 1/2 category the signal-to-noise ratio is higher. Perhaps 5% of the stories are decently written. In the Inuyasha category, I'd put the number at around 0.2%, maybe.

I don't think I'm likely to do anything about that myself, either. I haven't read the entire manga, and don't have nearly the level of familiarity that I have with Ranma 1/2. There's also the issue of motivation - I have lots of story ideas I still want to write for Ranma 1/2, while I don't feel my muse trying to push me to write any Inuyasha stories.

After the anime ended, I did start reading the manga so that I would get the entire story. That was years ago, and I had stopped for a long time, until I learned that it was finally ending. So I went back and read the rest of it. It certainly is a much more definate ending than Ranma - it makes it a little harder for fanfics to be written that's for sure - but I think I have to agree with MZ in saying that it was kinda dissapointing. It kinda ended fast after Kagome found that she was on the opposite side of the well that she wanted to be on.

However, I do feel that it seemed to be more definite than you guys feel. Miroku and Sango obviously got married like they'd been saying for years. Kagome's calling Sesshomaru "Oniisan" says to me that she gets married to Inu Yasha. The aging thing could be a problem, but it was never brought up before, so maybe he will age the same as Kagome. How long did it take for him to get to this age? He was shown as a child in flashbacks, did it take him longer to reach that level of maturity? Somehow I don't think so.

I do have to wonder however if this is going to be Rumiko's last work. She's getting kinda old, and comparing the art of the last chapter to the art showing the entire cast that was on the page afterwards makes me wonder exactly how much of it was her own art and how much of it was her assistants. She just finished IY, and One Pound Gospel finally ended a few months back, all she's really got left is Mermaid Saga before all her projects are done. Being the richest woman in Japan means you can retire whenever you want, and I'm wondering if that might be soon.

I agree that Inuyasha and Kagome probably were married, on the basis of that oniisan, but how much trouble would it have been to say so? I'm also virtually certain that it was said somewhere that Inuyasha was one hundred fifty years old when Kikyo's arrow pinned him to the tree.

It does seem unlikely to me that she'd start another project with the scope of Inuyasha or Ranma 1/2.

I don't think so, in literature it is only partially the responsibility of the author to be clear (and never to be perfectly clear), but it is more so the responsibility of the reader to be able to read in between the lines to catch what significance things such as "brother-in-law" mean. Trust me, if you want obtuse try "Hills Like White Elephants" where critics are still debating whether or not the woman was pregnant. That was more obtuse than any ending anyone else could throw at you.

Technically, she called him "brother" (using the word for older brother). I'm not sure the Japanese have a word for brother-in-law. I agree, however, that reading between the lines, that does seem to say that Kagome and Inuyasha are married, or at least living in the manner of a married couple, and so brother-in-law is a reasonable translation into English.

I suppose my complaint comes down to saying there was too little ending, it was too rushed. If they had a wedding ceremony, I would have loved to see Inuyasha's nervousness during it. I'd have liked to see who was invited. I'm sure Rin would have been there. Maybe even Sesshomaru, acting haughty, as if it's all beneath him. I'd have liked a scene after they had children, showing Inuyasha trying to deal with a son who is just like him. I wanted, simply, more. Like a man who is given a spoonful, when he knows there could have been a feast.

I have not kept up with Innuyasha, but from the sound of it I can tell you that neither it's, nor Ranma's , ending can compare to how well Takahashi wrapped up Maison Ikkoku. I'm just glad that I'd read Ranma's ending online years before I read the Viz Maison Ikkoku. Otherwise, I'd have felt just plain ripped off at Ranma.

If anyone here has not read Takahashi's Maison Ikkoku, I can tell you that it has one of the most satisfying endings I've ever encountered in any media. Though, judging by the amount of continuation fics on the net for Ranma, I guess an open ending really succeeds at leaving the audience wanting more (goes back to editing old chapters of continuation fic).

I wonder if that may be part of what bothers me about Inuyasha? With Maison Ikkoku, she gave us a satisfactory ending. With Ranma 1/2, the ending was so open that there was lots of scope for enjoyable fan-fiction stories which continued it, stories I've liked reading and writing. With Inuyasha, she gave us an ending which wasn't enough to satisfy, but does put significant constraints on the scope of fan-fiction stories which could give us more detail on how things wrapped up.

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