The 2000s Anime Resurgence: Why Inuyasha, Nana, and Ouran Still Matter
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## The 2000s Anime Resurgence: Why Inuyasha, Nana, and Ouran Still Matter
Something interesting is happening with early 2000s anime. A generation of fans who grew up with *Inuyasha*, *Nana*, and *Ouran High School Host Club* are rewatching them as adults — and finding that they hold up better than expected. Simultaneously, a younger generation discovering these series for the first time is responding to them with genuine enthusiasm rather than treating them as historical curiosities.
This isn't nostalgia operating in a vacuum. These shows are being streamed in contexts where they compete directly with current releases, and they're winning on merit.
### Inuyasha: The Long Game
*Inuyasha* ran for 167 episodes and a sequel series (*Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon*) four years after the original wrapped. The original series had structural issues — a notorious period of filler and an unfinished adaptation — but these problems have mostly been solved for new viewers, who can watch the complete story including the manga's actual ending in *Inuyasha: The Final Act*.
What remains, stripped of the filler, is a genuinely compelling fantasy romance with one of the more interesting love triangles in anime history. Kagome and Inuyasha's relationship is slow-burn in the most frustrating and rewarding sense — the emotional payoffs take a long time to arrive, but they arrive correctly.
### Nana: Still Unmatched
*Nana* is the outlier. It is not a nostalgia-driven resurgence so much as a belated recognition. The anime, which ended in 2006 mid-arc due to Ai Yazawa's health issues, was never fully resolved — but even as an incomplete adaptation of an incomplete manga, it stands as one of the most emotionally honest portrayals of young womanhood in the medium's history.
No anime has replicated what *Nana* does with female friendship and ambition. The show treats its characters' romantic lives as real complications rather than the point of the story, and the punk music at its center is taken seriously as art rather than decoration. It remains sui generis.
### Ouran: Genre Awareness Before Genre Awareness Was Cool
*Ouran High School Host Club* was doing meta-comedy about shojo and reverse-harem tropes in 2006 — years before self-aware anime became common. The show's secret weapon is that it never lets the parody hollow out the genuine warmth of the characters. You laugh at the Host Club's absurdity and also root for them.
Haruhi Fujioka remains one of the most grounded protagonist designs in shojo history: practical, unimpressed by wealth, and clear-eyed about what she wants. That clarity reads as fresh even now.
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*Inuyasha, Nana, and Ouran High School Host Club are all now in the Otakiva catalog. Browse our full collection of 140 anime.*
