After years of battle, Inuyasha and his friends have
finally brought down their long time enemy Naraku. Before they can decide what to do next,
however, a new villain takes advantage of Naraku’s absence to make her own play
for conquest. The Princess Kaguya seeks
to bring about an age of timeless eternal night and needs Inuyasha’s help to
bring it about. When Kagome is kidnapped
trying to protect Inuyasha from Kaguya, Inuyasha must reunite with Miroku,
Sango and Shippo to track her down and save her. But Kaguya claims she can grant Inuyasha’s
greatest wish. Will he choose becoming a
full blooded demon over his feelings for Kagome?
So I was hoping that the mistakes made in Affections
Touching Across Time would be lessons learned and that progress could be made
for the sequel. Oh man, it’s hard to
believe but Castle Beyond the Looking Glass is actually worse, taking all the
problems with the previous film and either making them worse or not doing
anything at all with them.
But let me get this off my chest. One of the reasons this film suffers is right
from the get go. Naraku has never been
one of my favorite villains in any anime.
He was around too long on the show, seemed more annoying than
threatening and had one of those freaking God mode eternal life cheat codes…SO
WHY THE HELL DO YOU EXPECT US TO BELIEVE INUYASHA AND HIS FRIENDS CAN KILL HIM
IN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES OF THE MOVIE???!!!
If Naraku was to be killed off it would be one of two ways: 1. In an
epic arc on the show, more than likely the series finale or 2. Make a full
movie out of it and not shoe horn it into the opening act. They’re basically spoiling that Naraku will
be back by the end of the film and that’s just stupid. Now im sure option 1 was probably accomplished
in the sequel series Inuyasha: The Final Act but having not seen it I cant be
certain. Still this is one of the most
aggravating moments of any Anime film and the rest of the movie suffers for
it…but not just for that reason.
In Naraku’s place we get Kaguya…who is not as powerful
but just as boring and standardized as Naraku.
Lots of speeches and some flashes of powerful attacks but again like
Menomaru before her nothing to make her truly threatening. Even having Naraku’s lackys Kagura and Kanna
by her side doesn’t add much to her. Why
those two even went to find her is beyond me.
I thought it was so Kanna, good little silent soldier, could bring back
Naraku, but their purpose was never clear and they’re eliminated from the film
(but not killed) just as quickly.
The movie also grinds to an agonizing halt as we see the
main team go their separate ways following Naraku’s demise. Slowly, everyone finds out the existence of
Kaguya and the “threat” she posses and that leads to a lot of boring exposition. Actually, the parts of the movie that never
suffer from this are from the most reliable element of this series: Inuyasha
and Kagome. They get some great moments
in this film, one of them being a very amusing fight in a photo booth resulting
in the best quartet of mini pictures ever.
They’re just too good together and that chemistry is as strong as
ever…which leads to what might be Inuyasha’s biggest moment to date: the first
kiss. Now im not sure if Kagome told
Inuyasha she loves him before this point in the series but to hear her say it
then kiss him to keep Inuyasha from turning into a full demon is monumental and
worth the ridiculously long wait to get to this moment. Naturally though, this is a movie and not the
series so it doesn’t last long and before you know it, they’re back to their
normal will they/wont they selves. But
it’s still a great moment with love, affection, and even a bit of humor as
Miroku tries to capture the moment and make it work with Sango.
A lesson this film should learn: never split this cast
up, their lives are pretty boring without each other. But there is one surprising lesson that was
learned. While im not a big fan of the
puppy dog eye look character designs, the animation is way more consistent than
Affections Touching Across Time, helping it look more like a movie than an
episode of the TV series. Eh, giving
credit where credit is due.
Two films down and two to go and right now a win is
needed. Both films showcase a great team
dynamic and family feel amongst Team Inuyasha and Inuyasha and Kagome are still
the couple to root for. But boring
villains, stories that don’t feel bigger than a two part TV episode and
unnecessarily cute animation have kept the Inuyasha movies from being truly big
adventures. Here’s hoping Movie 3 gives
us more that what weve been given so far.
6/10 (would be lower but that kiss man, wow)
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