NoaIzumiAnime Review: Inuyasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time
May 15th 2009 01:32
Kagome has returned to the past in the nick of time, as a new foe has emerged. A shard of the Sacred Jewel awoke the demon lord Menomaru, who now plans to follow in his father’s footsteps of conquest. Can Inuyasha, Kagome, and the others stop him before he absorbs every human soul in Japan?
With an anime series as long as Inuyasha was, a feature film (or four) was inevitable. So, how does our favorite dog demon do on the big screen? As it happens, pretty well.
The core of the movie is the relationship between Kagome and Inuyasha, and while we’d seen the basic conflict before by this point (the two are separated only to have their innate connection bring them together again, and their combined strength is enough to defeat the enemy; any Inuyasha fan could name at least three story arcs in the series which follow this pattern), the movie brings certain new elements to it, and telling the story in a feature-length piece allows a lot more flexibility, since you don’t have to put in a good stopping point every twelve minutes for a commercial break.
All of your other favorite Inuyasha characters are here too. Virtually every character from the first season is in the movie, with the exception of Naraku (although the second movie more than makes up for that), and each character actually plays a role in the plot, instead of just being a cameo. Miroku and Sango have sub-plots of their own, dealing with Menomaru’s henchwomen.
The villain is probably the film’s biggest weakness. Menomaru the moth demon is suitably menacing, having the ability to control others and being almost invulnerable. He also has a connection to Inuyasha’s father which is a nice bit of linkage. Still, he comes off a lot like the monsters-of-the-week that Inuyasha and company have faced over and over again in the series and always defeated.
ATAT also suffers a bit from poor pacing in the first half, with a few too many fights without much else in between. The fights are excellently done, but by forty minutes in, the viewer is over-loaded. I can understand wanting to keep the excitement level up, but in this case, a little less would have been much more. Fortunately, the second half is more evenly organized.
The animation is superb, as expected from this medium, and makes effective use of CGI.
ATAT is definitely a movie for the fans. There is some exposition at the beginning (and an extra on the DVD explaining the story so far), so people who haven’t seen Inuyasha won’t be totally lost, but it’s more enjoyable if you have some familiarity with the series. The movie is set sometime after the second season of the anime.
Oh, and as with all the Inuyasha movies, you’ll want to stick around and watch through to the end of the closing credits.
Great moments: Inuyasha liking instant ramen better than Kagome’s special bento lunch, and Kagome’s reaction.
Extras: Character sketches, trailers, clips from the series.
Summary: Not the best of the Inuyasha movies, but well worth watching if you like the series. Grade: B plus.
Age rating: 13 and up. Violence, but demons are the only ones killed (although a human-looking demon is cut in half). No fan service to speak of
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