Before Inuyasha: Fire Tripper

Back in the 80s, Rumiko Takahashi wrote a gothic horror, fantasy and romantic short story titled "Fire Tripper". This story can be found in the first volume of Rumic World/Rumic Theater/Rumic Trilogy (actually published by Viz). Many of the concepts and even character designs are similar to Inuyasha, which establishes how many of Inuyasha's roots are in Fire Tripper.

Since I haven't had a chance to read this short story yet, if you want a more in-depth summary about Fire Tripper, visit Rumic Theater.com. But here's the basic concept of the story: Suzuko is a normal Japanese school girl from modern times, but has a strange memory of being trapped in a burning house when she was little. She doesn't know why she has this memory. One day when she's walking home from school, she sees a little boy she knows who is named Shuhei. He's showing off a scar he has on his stomach from having his appendix removed to some other boys. Suzuko tells Shuhei that she'll walk him home, but then a huge gas explosion happens in front of them. When Suzuko wakes up, she finds herself in a post-battlefield, in Japanese medievel times, with dead bodies all around her. Some men find here in the field, and attempt to rape her.

However, a young man named Shukumaru comes to Suzuko's rescue. After Suzuko is saved, Shukumaru takes Suzuko back to his village. He's the village thief/protector. Upon their arrival there, Shukumaru gives a young girl, named Suzu, a bell. (The name Suzu means "bell", whereas Suzuko would mean roughly "little bell" or "bell child"). Shukumaru tells Suzuko that she needs to change her clothes, and at this point, Suzuko comes across Shuhei's shirt. She then realizes that Shuhei must have traveled back in time with her. She tries to find him, but can not locate him.

Suzuko soon realizes that she is in fact the little girl in the village named Suzu, and that she was born in Shukumaru's time. When she saves Shukumaru from a falling log that was set on fire, she realizes that fire allows her to travel through time, and that is how she survived the house fire she remembers being in when she was little, and how she got to modern times. When back in modern times, Suzuko takes Shukumaru home to take care of his wounds and notices he has a scar on his stomach that is exactly like Shuhei's appendix scar. Suzuko realizes that Shukumaru is Shuhei, and he must have been seperated from her in mid-time switch earlier. Shukumaru is Shuhei from the present, and he had been raised in the past all along. Suzuko doesn't feel guilty about what happened to Shukumaru however when he tells her how much he's enjoyed his life in the past. From there, Suzuko and Shukumaru use the same gas explosion that sent them back in the time the first time to travel back to Shukumaru's time again, and they live happily ever after. Awwww...^_^.

HOW INUYASHA TIES IN WITH FIRE TRIPPER:
A huge difference between Inuyasha and Fire Tripper is that Inuyasha deals with reincarnation and demons, while Fire Tripper does not. But there are a lot of similarities.

1. The concept of time travel to Japanese medievel times are very similar. Using an specific object to time travel is similar also (Suzuko specifically uses fire, while Kagome uses the power of the Shikon Jewel in the Bone Eaters' Well).

2. Suzuko's school uniform is very much like Kagome's. That's not much of a big deal since a lot of Japanese school uniforms look like that, but Rumiko didn't bother changing Kagome's uniform to look differnt from Suzuko's.

3. Even though the drawings of Inuyasha are more stylized (because they're newer) than the ones in Fire Tripper, Kagome and Suzuko look very much alike. Actually, Suzuko look even more like Sango than Kagome, especially when it comes to hair styles.

4. Love is slowly emerging between Kagome and Inuyasha. Romance blossoms between Suzuko and Shukumaru also.

OTHER INFORMATION:
Fire Tripper was animated in a OVA (straight to video) movie back in the 80s. It is said to be a good animation for having been made in the 80s.

I hope to be able to read and see this anime/manga sometime soon so I'll have more information and comparasions between Fire Tripper and Inuyasha.

FIRE TRIPPER SOURCES AND LINKS
Rumic Theater.com
Anime Colony: Rumik World: Fire Tripper -OVA-
Animetric.com - Fire Tripper
Fire Tripper at Anime Genesis.com