First things first, episode 3 of Inuyasha Final Act will air at 2:35 AM JST (1:35 PM EDT). Hopefully the broadcast times will stabilize soon. I hate these drifts.

With that out of the way, let's get down to business…

By now, you've probably seen this on Youtube or live during the YTV broadcasts:

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, this is an animated promotion for Kyoukai no Rinne and Weekly Shounen Sunday. If you're wondering what this means for the future of Rinne, stop. While you may be excited to hear Rinne (Uchiyama Kouki), Sakura (Ise Mariya), and Rokumon (Kugimiya Rie), you need to remember that these types of trailers are fairly common for series published in Weekly Shounen Sunday.

Let me explain.

Twelve years ago, in 1997, a trailer was commissioned to advertise the relatively new Inuyasha manga:

Things look quite different, don't they? Heck, I'm not even sure if Kappei and Satsuki were the voices for that ad. Anyway, no more than 5 volumes of material were published (magazine or tankoubon) at that time in Japan. An Inuyasha anime was only a fleeting thought in 1997 and wasn't feasible until at least 2000.

With the Rinne ad, not even 3 volumes of material have been published and generic, minimalist nature of the ad reflects it. The Rinne manga, 24 chapters in, is quite far behind where Ranma and Inuyasha were at the same point. Of course, none of the three had a solid plot until much later. At this point, Inuyasha was full-throttle action and Ranma was finding mixing action and fanservice as a viable path. Rinne, on the other hand is dabbling in light-hearted comedy and character development. Unfortunately, the persistence of a monster-of-the-week format for the manga is beginning to get tiresome. Rinne needs to have a decent fight soon or even start an arc.

This sentiment was echoed somewhat at the Viz panel at NYAF. I happened to meet a Rinne cosplayer, perhaps the first ever, and he, despite being a big Takahashi fan seemed to lament over the lack of progress and hype regarding Rinne. While the sales figures for the first volumes (Japanese or English) are still weeks away, a poor start would be quite uncharacteristic for a Takahashi manga. We'll just have to wait and see.

At any rate, despite where Rinne goes over the next few volumes, an anime still a few years away. It will be animated eventually.