Inuyasha: The Final Act, Set 2
The ending of Inuyasha finally makes it's way to the US. Naraku, the evil mastermind with long girly hair and the ability to just get more disgusting, gains all the Shikon Jewel shards in this final volume and sets the stage for a final showdown between our dog-eared half-demon hero Inuyasha with the ever late for something school-related Kagome and their assorted allies with a back catalog of problems that would have any therapist foaming at the mouth. Fans of Myoga, the flea and Koga, the wolf demon sorry, they're hardly around for this one.
Inuyasha and the gang just get into trouble from the get go and... Oh, dammit Sesshomaru!
Sesshomaru, Inuyasha's brother, silent jerk, and constant annoyance to Inuyasha once again starts trouble over being the heir to their father. This leads to Inuyasha gaining even more powerful abilities, namely cutting out holes in reality to death itself, yes it's pretty cool. Sesshomaru manages to complain enough and be annoying enough to get a new weapon with green electric lightning. His new blade corrupts anything it touches, so one slash no matter where he cuts you're whole body is ruined. It's like you're body is defiled.
Defiled, Defiled, Defiled. If Inuyasha was still on Adult Swim you being seeing memes of that word right now. This word might be used more than Kagome and Inuyasha repeating each other's names in the series and if you been watching the series for a while that's a big number. Oh, Inuyasha and Kagome shout out each other's names as does every other character more than an average person would in this volume. A staple of the series, shouting out names, it makes me ponder if this anime is designed for young children, but then you have how gross Naraku can get. Naraku loves defiling poor Kohaku's last fragment of the jewel shard embedded in his neck in this volume and it comes off as perverted.
Spoilers
Perverted and freaky only partially explain Naraku in this final arc. His own subordinate is grossed out when as a floating head, Naraku makes a neck tentacle and sticks it into his henchmen's empty eye socket to see how a fight is going in another plane/dimension. Oh, Naraku you make Tetsuo from Akira look pleasant. Naraku brings the gross to a new level by making a huge spider body for himself, so big that Inuyasha and friends fight Naraku inside of it as his face and eyes can come out of the landscape of his insides. Shockingly, when Naraku is taking an all new beating your reminded he doesn't even remember why he's so evil. Then you learn his not even the ultimate baddie it was the... Kikon Jewel this whole time. In the last moments of fighting Naraku you'll be reminded he wanted Kikyo, the priestess who took care of him when he could no longer move as human. He's been so
Memory seems to not be a strong suit of this season as recaps and flashbacks fill up too many scenes. I saw Kagome flung into the air from the first episode way too many times, maybe budget cuts in Japan took place, but it's quite noticeable.
You'll notice some nice upgrades for characters with Sango's boomerang being effective again, it's been a long time and Kagome learns a new archery skill. Though it seems like her skill is forgotten, because she can only see a special mark on enemies for a single episode and then it becomes simplified. She can just shoot magic disappearing arrows.
After a huge battle in Naraku against Naraku with plenty of violence and some of the most dragging emotional problems about relationships with Sango and Miroku we get some alone time with Inuyasha and Kagome. We find out what the evil Kikon Jewel was planning the whole time. The voice of the jewel itself was rather fun to hear as it sounded like an evil Morpheus forcing Kagome to choose what pill to take.
There was some dragging with Sango and Miroku's problems. Moments due drag on, but there are some great battles. Seeing Inuyasha and Sesshomaru really lay into each other and an enemy has your eyes grow big. A beautiful moment when Kagome is just in darkness with the Kikon Jewel is almost spiritual and worthy of being your desktop background.
It's been a wonderful series of adventures with Inuyasha and though I wanted an all explosive ending, you get a much more sincere, loving and spiritual thought for a little bit. I just can't end my review without, Kaaaaaaaaaaagggggggoooooooooooommmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Extras
-Very simple stuff, where's some dubbing out-takes
-My favorite part Kagome yelling out, "Big Brother!" to Sesshomaru, but why does she say that? You'll have to pick it up.
Update: I'll also enjoyed a new villain who can't be cut on this plane of existence, he also appears as just a giant evil face staring down at you and comes out of the back of anyone he posses and defiles.
The Blu-rays were provided by the publisher for review.
