The Inuyasha Sixth Season Box Set includes four DVDs, which contain twenty of the episodes from the sixth season of the anime. The first three discs contain five episodes, and the fourth disc includes five episodes and the special features.
The main menu on the first three discs allows you to play the disc, set up your options for viewing, and scene selection. The menu on the fourth disc includes these options, as well as a choice for special features. In the Disc Set-Up menu, you can choose between the Japanese and English language tracks, as well as choose whether or not you want to see the subtitles.
Disc four contains three special features. The first feature is a “Textless Opening,” which is essentially the opening that appears at the beginning of each episode, but this version doesn’t have the text that covers the pictures. The second feature is a “Textless Ending,” which is the ending credits without the text covering the pictures. I was very surprised and pleased by the new ending credits song that appears in the sixth season. The song was much more electronic-based than the other themes (which have been more rock-based).
The third special feature in the set is labeled as, “Inuyasha Special Footage – Down the Well: Inside the Feudal Fairytale.” This feature runs for almost eight minutes, and utilizes the English dub actors, as well as the English dub versions of the Inuyasha footage. Over the course of the piece, the characters of Myoga and Totosai are giving some explanations about Japan’s feudal era. They talk about what the feudal era was like, they explain what yokai are, and also talk about the religious figures of the time (humans who have spiritual powers). Unfortunately, it felt more like the voice actors were reading straight out of Wikipedia entries, rather than the piece being written to truly educate the viewer. On the other sets, the “Inuyasha Special Footage” was originally produced in Japan, and subtitled for the American DVD releases. Personally, I like the Japanese “Inuyasha Special Footage” pieces better than the one that appears on this set.
This box set of Inuyasha includes a combination of short story-arcs and stand alone episodes. However, very few episodes in the set felt like filler material. It felt like almost all of the episodes were important for progressing the story.
If you’re a fan of Inuyasha and want to have all of the episodes on DVD, then you need to acquire this set. Like the other Inuyasha box sets, this one retails for around $90. While the episodes on the set are good, the relative lack of special features is a mark against this set. If you really want to have a complete Inuyasha set, then you need to acquire this item. However, if you don’t need to complete your collection right away, it’s probably better to wait until this set comes down in price before purchasing it.
In order to write this review, I checked out a copy of this DVD box set from the King County Library System.
