Inuyashiki (いぬやしき) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku. It was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Evening from January 2014 to July 2017, with its chapters collected in 10 tankōbon volumes. The story follows two people, who via a mysterious event, are endowed with superhuman abilities, but the way they choose to use these abilities is completely different.
A 11-episode anime television series adaptation produced by MAPPA aired on Fuji TV's late night programming block Noitamina from October to December 2017. A live-actionfilm adaptation premiered in April 2018.
Plot
Inuyashiki Ichiro is an older, friendless man with an uncaring family. One fateful evening in a nearly empty public park, he is struck by an explosion of extraterrestrial origin, and his body is replaced by an incredibly powerful, but still outwardly human, mechanical body. He quickly realizes the extent of his body's powers, and after saving a homeless man being beaten by a pack of teenagers, he decides to dedicate himself to doing good, using his powers to heal those with incurable diseases and fight crime.
However, a teenager who was with him at the time of the explosion, Shishigami Hiro, had the same fate as Ichiro, but unlike Inuyashiki, Shishigami becomes a psychopath who goes about using his newfound abilities to murder various people, from classmates that annoy him to innocent families, including young children, just for amusement. His acts of merciless cruelty bring him the attention of the police, who can do nothing to stop him. Hiro becomes the most wanted criminal in the country. The series follows these two different people who once shared the same bizarre experience, as their paths are destined to clash.
The head of the Inuyashiki family who looks older than his age, being 58 years old. He has no friends and is disrespected by his family, with the only thing he trusts being his dog, Hanako. He was on the verge of death, but after being struck by extraterrestrial beings, he was transformed into a cyborg. Not wanting to lose his humanity, he fights to save those in trouble.
A teenager who was with Inuyashiki when the extraterrestrial beings struck them to death. He also became a cyborg, but he takes pleasure in killing people, which, according to him, keeps him human. The only people he cares about are his mother, his friend Naoyuki, and, later, Shion and her grandmother. His standard method of killing someone is making a finger gun and saying 'Bang!', which has the same effect as shooting someone with an actual gun. This will work on anyone who witnesses it, even if played on a television screen. He can also imitate a machine gun by shouting "da-da-da" while pretending to hold one, which will have the same effect.
Hiro's childhood friend who initially shut himself in at home after being bullied at school. He is the first person to learn about Inuyashiki and Hiro's cyborg bodies. Wanting to stop his friend from killing, he teams up with Inuyashiki. He is a fan of Gantz, another manga of Hiroya Oku.
A classmate of Hiro who has a crush on him. She sheltered Hiro at her home after he first escaped from the police, and became another woman that Hiro loved.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku, Inuyashiki was serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Evening, from January 28, 2014,[6][7] to July 25, 2017.[8] Kodansha collected its 85 chapters in ten tankōbon volumes, released from May 23, 2014,[9] to September 22, 2017.[10]
Kodansha USA licensed the manga for English release in North America in 2014.[11] The ten volumes were released from August 25, 2015,[12] to December 19, 2017.[13]Crunchyroll started publishing the manga in a digital format in 2015;[14] the service is set to end in December 2023.[15]
An anime television series adaptation by MAPPA began airing on October 12, 2017, and a live-action film adaptation has been announced for 2018.[32] The anime series' opening theme is "My Hero", performed by Japanese rock band Man with a Mission.[3] The ending theme "Ai o Oshietekureta Kimi e" (愛を教えてくれた君へ, lit. "To You Who Taught Me Love") is performed by the band Qaijff.[5]Amazon had licensed the series and streamed it online on Amazon Prime Video in Japan and overseas. It was streamed on Anime Strike in the United States.[33] Amazon discontinued Anime Strike on January 5, 2018, which in turn made their titles, including Inuyashiki, free to stream for Prime members.[34] The anime series became available on Crunchyroll on April 26, 2023.[35]
Salaryman Inuyashiki Ichirou feels trapped within his humdrum life and aging body, automatically going through his workday routines. When he takes his wife and children to their new modest home, the children are unimpressed. After a visit to the doctor, where he is diagnosed with stomach cancer and given 3 months to live, he tries to call his family, but they ignore him. One evening, while walking his dog in a park on a hill, he breaks down and cries. Suddenly, he and a young man standing nearby are struck by a mysterious explosion, apparently of extraterrestrial origin. His body is replaced by an incredibly powerful, but still outwardly human, mechanical body. He realizes some of his body's powers after saving a homeless man being beaten by a group of teenagers. The electronics within his body also manage to identify and expose the teenagers to the public. He then realizes that even though his body is now an electromechanicalcyborg, he still thinks and feels like a human.
Student Hiro Shishigami remarks that one of his friends, Naoyuki Andou, has been absent from school and goes to visit him. Shishigami says that he is no longer human and demonstrates some of his powers. Naoyuki is impressed, until Shishigami causes cars to start crashing in the street and realizes that they are not just tricks. Shishigami reveals his cyborg body and convinces Naoyuki to return to school, calmly offering to kill the student who beat him up. Naoyuki, however, is fearful of Shishigami's mental state and powers. After leaving Naoyuki's house, Shishigami picks a house at random and casually kills the occupants by shooting an invisible beam while making a finger gun gesture. He remarks that he feels 'alive'. When the daughter comes home, Shishigami threatens to kill her, and Inuyashiki hears her screams of fear. He drives, following the voice he hears in his head, until he hears her die. He finally arrives at the house, finding the bodies, but is confronted by Shishigami, who shoots him in the head. As Shishigami leaves, however, Inuyashiki has already recovered and stands at the doorway, much to Shishigami's amazement.
Surprised at Inuyashiki's recovery, Shishigami uses the jets in his back to fly off. Inuyashiki realizes that Shishigami has undergone the same metamorphosis as him but cannot understand his motivation. Shishigami again visits Naoyuki, who still refuses to return to school. Meanwhile, Inuyashiki sees some thugs take a young man into an alley. He follows them and beats them up using only his physical strength. He then hears the voices of people trapped in a building on fire, and tries to invoke the flying mechanism he saw Shishigami use. Desperately trying, he sings the Astro Boy theme song and takes off but has difficulty controlling the jets. He eventually reaches the scene, rescuing those trapped inside. Shishigami finally convinces Naoyuki to return to school, but when bullies threaten Naoyuki, Shishigami intervenes and forces them to back off. Later that afternoon, he kills the bullies at a distance as Naoyuki watches. Shishigami describes to Naoyuki his many powers, including control over electronic devices, including milking an ATM. Naoyuki then says that he can no longer be friends with someone who kills and steals, and Shishigami walks off. That evening, Inuyashiki discovers his healing power when he revives a cat that had been run over. Meanwhile, Shishigami again enters a house at random and kills all the occupants.
A Yakuza is sexually assaulted by his boss Samejima for the death of a woman from a drug overdose. Elsewhere, Fumino Inoue, a young woman working in a café, becomes engaged to her boyfriend, Satoru, but she is abducted on the way home by Samejima's men. She is injected with drugs for the purpose of sexual assault but wounds Samejima and manages to escape and return home to Satoru. Before they can act, Samejima and his men burst into their apartment to take Fumino. Samejima begins to choke Satoru, but, suddenly, Inuyashiki arrives at the apartment, and disables the men. Inuyashiki begins to crush Samejima, who pulls out a gun and shoots Inuyashiki in the head, causing Inuyashiki to collapse. When Inuyashiki wakes up, he is alone in the apartment with a dead Satoru, but Inuyashiki manages to revive him. Meanwhile, he traces Samejima and flies to find him at a Yakuza meeting. He calls out Samejima and beats him up. When the rest of the Yakuza fire volleys of bullets into Inuyashiki, his cyborg body's self-defense mechanism activates, and laser beams from his power pack blind and maim the men, leaving them all crippled for life. He then tracks down Fumino, rescues her, and reunites her with Satoru.
There are media reports of the attack on the Koudankai crime syndicate and that another home in the Suganami ward was attacked by a type of firearm, but there was no sign of bullets. At school, Shishigami and Naoyuki are suspected by the other students to be responsible for the deaths of the bullies. Naoyuki tries to report Shishigami but cannot bring himself to do so. After reading about people with serious illnesses being miraculously cured, Naoyuki suspects Shishigami, but dismisses it, thinking there may be others like him with similar powers. In order to find out, he screams out that he is going to be killed, and Inuyashiki arrives at his door. When Inuyashiki admits who he is, Naoyuki vows to help him stop Shishigami even if it means killing the latter. Fellow classmate Shion Watanabe confesses her feelings to Shishigami, who thanks her. That night, Naoyuki gets Inuyashiki to test his powers, but he has trouble controlling them. Meanwhile, Shishigami's mother tells him that she has cancer and only months to live, and Shishigami cures her. The next morning, she finds that she has been cured, and Shishigami vows to stop killing for his mother's sake. However, after the media report a breakthrough in the household murder cases, police surround Shishigami's home and attempt to take him into custody.
6
"People of 2 Chan" Transliteration: "Nichan no hito tachi" (Japanese: ２ｃｈの人たち)
Hirokazu Yamada
November 16, 2017 (2017-11-16)
Shishigami escapes the grasp of the police and flees, taking refuge at Shion's house. Meanwhile, Naoyuki tells Inuyashiki that Shishigami integrated his mobile phone into his electronics system and gets Inuyashiki to do the same. In testing the communication distance, Inuyashiki flies as high as an orbiting satellite. While laying low over the next few days, Shishigami finds out that people are insulting his mother on 2chan. Ashamed at Shishigami's actions and hounded by the media, his mother commits suicide. Distraught at his mother's death, Shishigami goes to his father's house. Finding the media talking to his father outside the house, he kills them in front of his father and then seeks revenge against everybody on 2channel who posted insults. He kills them by hacking their computers and shooting them though their computer screens.
Shishigami returns to Shion's house, overwhelmed by recent events. In a flashback, Shishigami waits for a train in a crowded underground station, and a middle-aged man steps in front of it. Later, Shishigami admits to Shion that he is the killer, but she refuses to believe it. He tells her about the railway incident, the pleasure he felt when a life was erased, and how alive he now feels at taking other people's lives. She refuses to accept that he is not human until he carries her into the sky. Rather than fear for her life, she pleads with him to stay with her and her grandmother. Changing his mind, Shishigami decides to save the lives of people who are about to die. Shishigami begins healing people on a daily basis, bringing much joy to Shion. Two months later, Shishigami and Shion are leading happy lives, but the police have managed to track him down.
A police SAT squad invades Shion's house and commences shooting at Shishigami, also killing Shion and her grandmother. Under the intense attack, he grabs the bodies of Shion and her grandmother and flies off, later using his healing power to restore them to life. Inuyashiki tells Naoyuki about his estrangement from Mari Inuyashiki, his daughter, and they practice using Inuyashiki's powers. Mari is surprised to see Naoyuki with her father and follows them to a hospital, where she discovers that her father is the mysterious miracle healer. That evening, Mari tells her parents that she wants to write manga rather than go to college, and Inuyashiki supports her decision. Shishigami assaults the Gokokuji Police Station, killing every officer but one. As Shishigami leaves, he is shot by a sniper and fired at by a police assault team. Unconscious, his self-protection mechanism raises him off the ground and fires rockets, wiping out the entire assault team and surrounding police.
9
"Shihjuku People" Transliteration: "Shinjuku no Hito-tachi" (Japanese: 新宿の人たち)
Yasunori Gotō
December 7, 2017 (2017-12-07)
The Inuyashiki family watch TV news of the attack on Gokokuji Police Station by Shishigami. Suddenly, Shishigami announces on all broadcast television stations that he is declaring war on the country and vows to kill the entire population of 120 million people. He begins killing people at random in the streets of Shinjuku, creating panic. He then telephones a TV presenter and kills him while he is broadcasting live on air. Naoyuki realizes that Shishigami is using smartphones to kill people and, through Inuyashiki, issues a public warning. Shishigami realizes that Naoyuki is working against him. Shishigami then begins killing people via TV screens and threatens to kill 1,000 people a day. He offers to take Shion and her grandmother away, but she refuses and asks him to stop the killing. The next day, Shishigami crashes an in-flight passenger airplane into the city.
10
"People of Tokyo" Transliteration: "Tōkyō no Hito-tachi" (Japanese: 東京の人たち)
Tatsufumi Itō
December 14, 2017 (2017-12-14)
Shishigami crashes multiple passenger airplanes into Tokyo; however, Inuyashiki manages to save some airplanes by landing them in the bay. Meanwhile, Mari is trapped in a burning building and telephones her father for help. As Inuyashiki is about to fly to save her, Shishigami finds him. After a brief discussion, Shishigami realizes that they were both in the park when they were struck by a mysterious explosion, which resulted in them metamorphosing into the cyborgs that they are now. However, Inuyashiki has become a hero while Shishigami sees himself as the villain. Shishigami attacks Inuyashiki, but they are evenly matched, and while Inuyashiki tries to reach his daughter, they battle with all of the comprehensive internal weapon systems available to them. Eventually, Inuyashiki manages to damage Shishigami, and they both fall to the ground. Inuyashiki recovers, reaches Mari's lifeless body, and desperately tries to save her. He finally manages to resurrect her, then goes to save others killed during Shishigami's attack on the city and their subsequent battle. Meanwhile, two young women find and help the severely damaged body of Shishigami in a laneway.
11
"People of Earth" Transliteration: "Chikyū no Hito-tachi" (Japanese: 地球の人たち)
Kiyoshi Matsuda
December 21, 2017 (2017-12-21)
Inuyashiki reveals his metamorphosed body to his family, remarking that he may only be a mechanical copy. Although, when he recalls events from their honeymoon, they realize that he has all of his memories of the past and accept him as he is. Shishigami visits his friend Naoyuki, just wanting to hang out like before, but Naoyuki calls Inuyashiki, so Shishigami leaves. The family spend some time together, but after hearing news reports of the impending approach of a meteor to Earth, Inuyashiki decides to do what he can to stop it. He flies into space and tries to destroy the meteor, but fails. Shishigami appears, reveals the mechanical body's self-destruct button, and asks Inuyashiki to push it (lacking arms), saying there are also people on Earth that he wants to save, such as Naoyuki and Shion. Inuyashiki informs Naoyuki of this, making Naoyuki cry. Inuyashiki helps Shishigami self-destruct, but it is not enough, and he also self-detonates to complete the task. Following these events, Inuyashiki's son learns to fend off bullies, and Mari's manga is selected for publication.
On December 21, 2017, a teaser trailer and website appeared for a live-action adaptation of Inuyashiki. The film, the first in a planned trilogy, was released on April 20, 2018, directed by Shinsuke Sato, who had previously directed the live-action Gantz, and stars Noritake Kinashi as Inuyashiki Ichihiro and Takeru Satoh as Shishigami Hiro.[37]
By April 2018, the manga had over 3.1 million copies in circulation.[44] Volume 2 reached the 18th place on the weekly Oricon manga charts[45] and, by November 2, 2014, it had sold 76,886 copies;[46] volume 3 reached the 15th place and, by March 1, 2015, it had sold 74,974 copies.[47]
In February 2021, it was reported that the series, along with Death Note and Tokyo Ghoul, was banned from distribution on two unspecified websites in Russia.[48]
Anime
At the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards held in 2018, Inuyashiki was nominated for "Best CGI" and the character Hiro Shishigami was nominated for "Villain of the Year".[49][50]
Notes
^All English episode titles are taken from Anime Strike.
