Inuyasha: The Movie-Affections Touching Across Time

(Originally Written December 7, 2014)

When the Sacred Shikon Jewel was shattered, its shard spread by the hundreds across the land and infused themselves in demons everywhere.  One such demon is the slumbering Menomaru, whose father Hyoga was slain ages ago by the Great Dog Demon.  Now he needs one more piece to unlock the power of his families dynasty and become all powerful, Inuyasha’s Tetsaiga sword.  Now Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango and Shippo find themselves facing their most dangerous foe yet.  It’s a fight that will pit friend against friend and might separate Inuyasha and Kagome forever.

Welcome to Inuyasha Month.  All this month to close out 2014 ill be taking a look at the Quadrilogy of films centered around everyone’s half dog demon/half human hybrid and his friends.  Inuyasha appeared here in the states in 2002 as one of the biggest Anime to grace Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block.  It’s popularity may not have been a cross genre worthy as Cowboy Bebop but it was still decent enough, not to mention long enough, to end up in constant circulation on the late night block for more than a decade.  Being a series based on a Shonen Jump character (aka a character with a series that goes on forever i.e. Dragon Ball Z, Bleach and Naruto) movies based on the popular series were inevitable.  So how is Inuyasha’s first date with the big screen?

Pretty uneven actually.

Yeah for a first big movie outing, Affections Touching Across Time doesn’t really end up being epic or grand in any sense.  Well at the most it doesn’t feel like something the show hasn’t done yet with many of it’s stories.  They do try to give it some weight by pitting some of the characters against each other and those actually work pretty well, more so in the case of Inuyasha vs. Kagome than Sango vs. Kirara but that’s still a well done battle as well.  Menomaru and his underlings never feel special to warrant being villains on screen, coming off as pompus and arrogant and in sore need of getting their asses handed to them.  It’s all about revenge and power, nothing new, nothing less.

I also have to say the animation quality is pretty uneven with this film.  Most times they’re trying to give the characters more of a…cutesy design.  This goes definitely for characters eyes ESPECIALLY INUYASHA.  But then the film jumps back to the shows regular animation and character designs like it can’t make up its mind what it wants to look like and stick with it.  That was pretty distracting.  I mean yeah the animation of Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone wasn’t any different from the TV series but it still looked feature film worthy.  All first films of a series should try to be stellar, make a good impression with the visuals, make us see that this is something we cant turn into every week on TV.

I do have to say though, for a story that goes through the regular Inuyasha motions, the cast is still great to watch on screen.  Little demon fox Shippo may still annoy the heck out of me but Miroku and Sango are still the comedic action couple to love.  Miroku’s lecherous ways will never die down and neither will Sango’s loud slap replies to his stroking any part of her body (and man can she rock all black and pink demon slaying armor, so sexy).  And Sango isn’t trying to keep Miroku’s hands off her, the demon slayer and monk are doing an excellent job holding their own in battle, getting the best action of the film.  True you might not feel as much for Sango and Kirara because they don’t get as much screen time as Inuyasha and Kagome but you still feel for their friendship and want Kirara to break the mind control spell over her.  Plus how often do you get to see a wind tunnel showdown with Miroku and one of Menomaru’s underlings? Bad Ass.

While I don’t think they do so well in the action department this time around, Inuyasha and Kagome still have great chemistry together, jumping from reluctant, bickering allies to a boy and a girl who care a lot about each other without having the guts to say it outright.  Helped by Kaoru Wada’s heart tugging score, Inuyasha and Kagome share a tender, and probably the best, scene where they reflect on how they need each other no matter the distance of time.  They’re still the couple you want to root for both on TV and in film.  And there’s no way im ever getting tired of Kagome’s “SIT BOY” commands that make the Jewels around Inuyasha’s neck force him to slam to the ground, classic. 

Affections Touching Across Time has a lot that doesn’t work to make a fully satisfying first movie outing but where the plot fails, the characters continue to deliver.  You care about these core five and want to see them win the day.  And who knows maybe the later films will learn from the mistakes of this one and deliver on the promise of a large scale adventure you can’t see on the big screen every week.

7/10