InuYasha 25 by Rumiko Takahashi: B

From the “In this volume” blurb:
Inuyasha and friends are in for the fight of their lives—again! This time they square off against the accursed Band of Seven—a group of monsters each with their own special brand of killing techniques. Can Inuyasha and his comrades overcome this bloodthirsty band of killers?

Review:
Firstly, a gripe about “The Story So Far,” which appears in each InuYasha volume. It is so not the story so far! It’s, like, the story of volume one, and has never been updated so as to be truly useful in reminding one what went on in the previous volume. Yet, I always read it every time just to be complete about things. Irksome!

The back cover was way spoilery for this volume, so I used the rather vague blurb above. Doesn’t it sound like every shounen manga, like, ever? I’m certainly not going to argue that the ongoing plot is terribly original or that it has a clear sense of direction. Even though the same plot elements with Naraku seem to replay multiple times, and the whole love square with Koga, Kikyo, Kagome, and Inuyasha replays multiple times, this is still an enjoyable title. The main charm in this title is in the characters.

It’s rare for me that my favorite character in a series is the main character, but such is the case with Inuyasha. I’m also quite partial to Shippo. In this volume, he had these little wailing acorns that he used to signal Inuyasha that something was afoot. They were so cute!

So, yeah, anyway, Inuyasha fights some bad guys. Sesshoumaru turns up and fights one. Koga turns up and fights one. Kagome-tachi are endangered, by poison and then by fire. No progress is made on capturing Naraku. None of this is very surprising, but there are enough twists and turns to provoke character reaction and interaction which, in turn, are what’s worthwhile. Am I going to keep reading to the end, even if it’s twenty more volumes of the same? Totally!