The InuYasha movie pattern is such: To occur every year as a supplement in the lull between TV show seasons. The show is of greater importance to the “InuYasha” name, so the movies’ continuity is somewhat compromised. Though they exist in the larger context of the show, they cannot influence its ongoing story arc in any way.
This greatly reduces the films’ strive towards epicness, as seen in Affections Touching Across Time. Through guesswork, I imagine fans in Japan were not wholly pleased with the outcome, as watching that movie can be something of a pointless experience. Thus the next years’ InuYasha the Movie 2: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass attempt to resolve presumed complaints, even while it still cannot influence the predestined (by manga) television narrative. Still, The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass has the appearance of importance, which is progress, I guess, even if it still ends with the reset button.
The movie starts with the property’s central conflict: The struggle between half-demon fox-hero InuYasha against the accursed semi-demon Naraku (whom we barely saw in Affections). What follows is a familiar lengthy InuYasha fight sequence, much with the swordplay and wild magical powers, and other such anime standards. But soon Looking Glass does something to truly get your attention.
InuYasha successfully kills Naraku.
Okay, calm down. Yeah, Naraku is the series’ central antagonist, so he surely cannot die this soon into things (I mean the overall series, not just Looking Glass). Besides, it is my understanding his defeat here is mightily anticlimactic. Accepting for now things’ll be back to normal in time for episode 96, let’s treat this as a great “what if.” Yes, “What if our heroes managed to defeat their enemy, even while the MacGuffinish Jewel Shards remain to be discovered?” They’d go their separate ways, is what, as the central drive behind their quest is now gone.
Such a hypothetical does not on its own yield an interesting story. Nope, Looking Glass must still use that old Affections ploy, a one-off villain-of-the-day, as something to sustain audience interest even while it gets to play with character motivations. To that effect, we join up with two of Naraku’s chief minions, Kagura and Kanna – whom I’ve never met before, considering I’m limiting myself to the movies. (There is a lot more in this entry which relies upon familiarity with the rest of “InuYasha,” greatly crippling my comprehension.)
Now, Kagura and Kanna do not wish vengeance for their master’s death –one doesn’t fill out a motion picture with henchwomen when the big bad is already a smoldering corpse. Instead they’re free, and without drive in a way surprisingly similar to our heroes (as we’ll see). But they soon become the unwitting allies of a new big bad, who’s coming right up…
Behold Kaguya, a celestial being who – that’s KaguYa, not KaguRa, making this the single most unintentionally confusing pair of character names I’ve ever come across. And in a movie otherwise populated by characters called Kagome, Kikyo, Kohaku and Kilala (whom I realize is really named Kirara). Perhaps in Japanese these names have greater distinction.
Anyway, behold Kaguya, a celestial being with the assorted powers of mirrors, in a world full of animalistic, totemistic sorcery. She is, ostensibly, the Princess of the Heavens, an immortal ex-human banished to the moon at the end of – as I understand it – a tragic, “Romeo & Juliet”-esque romance. There’s enough evidence in Looking Glass that Kaguya is an actual figure in Japanese folklore, from one of Japan’s oldest literary works. That, or they made her up. If it’s the former, turning this figure of enlightenment into a villain is a potent notion, like making “God” the bad guy in Star Trek V, only not idiotic. And like Star Trek V, it turns out this particular Kaguya is an imposter, yet another demon (this concept is very malleable in the InuYasha world) who’s stolen the celestial powers of the actual Kaguya like some moon-powered vampire.
That Kaguya is an actual mythological figure seems likely, for how the villainess “Kaguya” combines standard anime evil with totally discordant characteristics such as soothing haikus and reverent prayer. Like a children’s rhyme in a horror picture, this contrast makes Kahuya all the eerier, and a more potent baddie than the rather generically Satanic Menomaru of Affections. And Kaguya desires more power (a typical goal), seeks five sacred objects to unlock a sacred castle to – Okay, we’ve all played “Zelda” games, right? Like that. The objects, when placed together in this sacred grotto, even look like video game medallions.
Well, I feel I’ve given the villainess surely enough context for now. It’s time to focus upon Inyasha & Co., to see how they’re getting on in their Narakuless existence…
Kagome, InuYasha’s middle school-aged lady love, is back in contemporary 2002, from whence she hails, struggling to live a normal life – and reading about the historical Kaguya in her literature class. Oh, Kagome shortly returns to InuYasha’s feudal era – she rather prefers it there – as InuYasha is still primarily concerned with discovering the remaining however-many Jewel Shards™. But now a lament rises up, that once the Shards are all found, she’ll have no more reason to visit the past, and InuYasha. Let the emotional undercurrent commence!
So she and InuYasha travel about together, having angsty arguments in a bucolic setting. And young Shippo is there with them, and it’s only now that I realize Shippo is a male. Apologies if I indicated otherwise yesterday.
As for Sango and Miroku, they’ve completely gone their separate ways, which is a particular onus upon horny monk Miroku – and yes, in Japan there’s nothing seemingly unusual about that. He’s back at his convent, receiving new wisdom and chumming around with a raccoon-dog-demon, as we don’t even bat an eye.
Sango, the demon-slaying temptress and apple of Miroku’s eye, resumes a life of wandering, ala Caine in “Kung Fu.” In this capacity, she is the first one to learn about Kaguya’s rise to power, as Sango happens upon her minions attacking a peasant boy. They want his sacred object (not a euphemism). Despite Sango’s interference, the object is obtained nonetheless, because the story cannot progress unless Kaguya eventually amasses all her plot coupons. Still, Sango knows of her, and begins a trek with the wounded boy (named Kohaku) to discover Kaguya’s grotto.
InuYasha learns of Kaguya as he conveniently happens to possess another of the sacred objects – though this “trinket that’s always been there” thing isn’t remotely as awkward as it was in At World’s End.
Later still, InuYasha and Kagome happen upon a traveling warrior named Hojo (a perfect doppelganger for Kagome’s wooer in 2002). Hojo himself is on a trek necessitated by Kaguya’s presence – to discard a Celestial Robe in Mt. Fuji, in what I understand to be the “Lord of the Rings” setup, basically. Because Tolkien was undoubtedly reworking ideas from assorted antiquities, as is “InuYasha.”
As for Miroku, he and the monks are the only ones to take particular notice of the full moon on every single night, like in a bad werewolf movie. Parsing over the scores of prophecies ancestors like to leave lying about in case of future plotlines, Miroku too learns about the ascendant Celestial Princess.
So now all the regulars are off to find and stop Kaguya before she refashions the world as her own. And with things good and underway, Kaguya can complete her object-gathering quest and emerge fully-formed from the mirror into our own world (oh, right, it’s been KaguRa doing all her dirty work up until now).
Kaguya, like seemingly every “InuYasha” villain, is unduly obsessed with InuYasha. Specifically, she wishes to tempt him to his fully demonic side, in that Darth Vader sort of way. To that end, she wounds and kidnaps Kagome, forcing InuYasha to a confrontation in her suddenly-formed lunar castle – as though he weren’t about to do just that! Furthermore, she snatches away Hojo’s robe, seemingly the only thing that can stop her, and with that Hojo’s usefulness to Looking Glass is mostly at an end.
The entire second half of Looking Glass mostly concerns the fantastical war waged between InuYasha’s crew and Kagura – like so much anime, Looking Glass extends its climax to ungodly proportions, and makes it completely insane to boot. The whole thing depends upon the intricate, never -evident rules of supernaturalism which guide this particular universe – rules which might be understandable to those who A) follow anime, B) understand Japanese mythology, and C) play RPGs, but to my ignorant ass, most of it is simply a wild and nutty lightshow. At least it’s filled with admittedly impressive effects animation, but most of what follows rather looks like this:
The first task InuYasha must confront is a miniboss: a multi-headed dragon. As a variation on the Hydra of Greece, victory comes through not attacking the heads. Simple enough, and rather resembles the Watcher in the Water. Yeah, I’m gettin’ a general “Lord of the Rings” vibe from this whole thing, that is, when I’m not getting a totally unrelated Evil Dead vibe – and that one is wholly my fault. Kaguya’s prayers sound like recitations from the Necronomicon, and there’s much talk about “swallowing souls,” and I’m stopping right now.
InuYasha gains access to the castle – for the first of what seems many, many times. Chalk that up to the complexities of assorted mirror worlds, with their totally new magical rules and all.
Kaguya easily bests InuYasha, as she can control time itself (she claims to be extra-temporal). InuYasha is frozen solid – as is the rest of the universe. Well, that was quick. Oddly, however, the rest of the gang is unaffected, because they’re close to Kagome’s anachronistic first aid kit. It’s not clear if the kit negates Kaguya’s powers because it’s of the modern age, or if Kagome blessed it with some of her own magical whatnots, but it matters not, as InuYasha is soon freed of his immobility, and the fight resumes. With the flashing lights! And I am (mostly) done trying to comprehend how all this sorcery operates…at least for this entry.
Oh, and then the castle descends into a mirror world. After a little difficulty, so does everyone else. Using some new “mirror world” spell, Kaguya brings out InuYasha’s demonic side, and – See pic:
Kaguya brings out InuYasha’s demonic side, fulfilling the inner turmoil which has underlain the entire series. Given this is the mirror world, Kaguya assures those magically-ignorant among us that any such change shall be permanent. InuYasha will be 100% demon, like it or not. Of course, this ignores the underlying Ultimate Magic of “InuYasha”: the Power of Love™. Yeah, this happened in Affections too. Kagome professes her love for InuYasha specifically as a half-demon. Like Annie taking the Deadite possession out of Ash in Evil Dead II – I know, I’m randomly fixating upon an unrelated picture! – Kagome uses her sheer force of will to help InuYasha overcome this permanent, irreversible change. So InuYasha is all better, and we’re fine with it.
So the battle continues, escalating with typical lunacy (failed moon-based pun). On occasion, Kaguya operates a gateway like Gozer in Ghostbusters – at least I’m now referencing a different unrelated movie. Then the reset button starts getting pressed…
Naraku lives!
That is, he never truly died. He’s just been hiding…in the body of Kohaku, whom he now starts to physically distort into a heaving, undulating mass of horrid tentacles, forcing me to now needlessly namedrop The Thing. It’s frankly pretty horrifying, though anime maniacs will have seen far, far, faaaaaaaaaaaaar worse…the tip of that particular tentacle is the much gnarlier Akira, which is still pretty tame for Japan, seemingly.
Anyway, Naraku lives. He’d been hiding thus far, simply to draw Kaguya out into our world – so Naraku can then siphon away her powers…including her immortality. This is, in overall series terms, a far direr prospect than whatever evils Kaguya planned.
Well, this resurrection is the start of the reset button. Once Looking Glass is over, Kaguya is gone as though she’d never existed, and Naraku is out and terrorizing the world again – but with no new powers. And the InuYasha squad resumes their Jewel Shard quest, no worse for the wear. A few characters are dead, but those are character we first met in this movie. And while The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass ultimately boils down to nothing, as did Affections Touching Across Time, messing around with Naraku makes it seem substantial. More so, we’ve seen the main characters in context they wouldn’t normally be found in (divorced from their series’ drive), which is perhaps enough to justify it. Nicely done.
RELATED POSTS
• No. 1 InuYasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time (2001)
• No. 3 InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler (2003)
• No. 4 InuYasha the Movie 4: Fire on the Mystic Island (2004)
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