In 'Inuyashiki', a Cyborg Middle-Aged Man and a Cyborg Teenager Clash and Struggle for Their Humanity

Inuyashiki is a science fiction superhero anime series about a kindly, elderly man named Ichirō Inuyashiki.  He’s friendless and his family doesn’t respect him; he only finds companionship with his dog Hanako.  Though he’s only 58 years old, he looks much, much older than his age and suffers from chronic body pain.  One day, he’s diagnosed with stomach cancer and told that he only has three months to live.  Unable to tell his uncaring family about it, he goes to the park that night to mourn.

Suddenly, a mysterious, extraterrestrial ship suddenly pops out causing an explosion that obliterates his body.  Before the aliens depart, they reconstruct him.  He wakes up the next morning making nothing of it.  He feels extremely thirsty, but his body feels stronger and refreshed – gone are the pains.  Then, to his shock, he discovers that, though he has a human exterior, he’s now completely a machine internally, and possesses unbelievable abilities.  Soon, he begins using his newfound powers to do good by fighting crime, protecting the weak, and healing people with terminal illnesses and grave injuries.

However, Inuyashiki isn’t the only person in that park that night.  A teenager named Hiro Shishigami was also struck by the explosion, and received a new powerful body, too.  Unlike Inuyashiki, Hiro uses his powers to indulge his sociopathic tendencies and becomes a serial killer.

Inevitably, their two paths cross.

Inuyashiki is somewhat of a unique anime.  A weakling receiving powers is a pretty common trope in both the superhero genre and anime.  But this almost always happens on a young protagonist (e.g. My Hero Academia).  On the other hand, Inuyashiki applies this instead on a feeble old man.  And this aspect is what’s initially appealing about this anime.  It basically shows how the superheroing bit is going to be handled through the perspective of a middle-aged man – gauche but wise, no showboating, no flashy enthusiasm, and no romanticizing.

This is perfectly illustrated during the first time that Inuyashiki uses his powers to help someone.  When a bunch of juvenile delinquents try to assault a homeless man, he steps in.  But he doesn’t necessarily beat them up.  In fact, he’s the one left lying on the ground.  The young villains basically come out of it without a scratch.  However, he does enough – albeit maybe unconsciously – to scare them away, and then he hacks into the Internet and ensures that they will get punished eventually.

Unfortunately, though he does several more crime-fighting acts afterwards, this is already the most satisfying and most unique one he does in the entire series.  The rest of the way, he more or less does stuff in a more typical superhero manner.

Inuyashiki is a likable and interesting character.  However, his arc is somewhat one-note and dormant all through the rest of the series.  Right from the start, he’s established as a kind, selfless man.  And that’s all there is about him until the end.  Meanwhile, his adversary Hiro is a more complex character and has a much more dynamic arc.  He effectively draws your loathing, but at the same time, he also effectively draws your sympathy.

In addition, Hiro’s arguably as much of a main character of the story as Inuyashiki is.  Basically, the whole idea of their shared storyline is how they have the same motivation but have different applications.  Both of them struggle with the idea that they are now machines, and are desperate of feeling human.  However, Inuyashiki achieves this by saving lives, while Hiro achieves this by taking them.  The two characters are given just enough development and interactions to express this thought before bringing their storyline to a predictable yet emphatic conclusion.

Inuyashiki only has 11 episodes, and I think that’s just about right.   I personally found its first half stronger than its second half, which was starting to feel a bit pretentious, and if it had been longer, this might have concretized into a real turn-off.  But with just that amount of episodes, it didn’t overstay its welcome and told its story at the optimum level possible.  Thus, it was able to finish with the reputation of being a thoughtful and enjoyable anime left intact.