Rumiko Takahashi’s “InuYasha” manga ran for over a decade, from 1996 until 2008. For a work by a single person (basically), this is an impressive run, and one of the most successful examples of its medium.
The resulting animated show wasn’t around for quite as long – 2000 through 2004. Even with a full animation staff, it didn’t even cover the entirety of Takahashi’s manga – though there’s some possibility it had caught up to the existing volumes once 2004 rolled around. (At any rate, skip to the bottom for an epilogue.) But this run is nothing to sneeze at, surely not with 167 episodes.
The InuYasha movies, four in total, ran from 2001 through 2004, as an adjunct to the show. Hence, when the show went into hiatus, the movies did likewise – after one final entry: InuYasha the Movie 4: Fire on the Mystic Island.
Now, had the TV series actually concluded in 2004, Fire on the Mystic Island would have the freedom to tell a tale unhindered by manga’s narrative arc. But with the manga continuing on, and the show likely to resume at some stage, Fire on the Mystic Island has no choice but to be another standalone motion picture. And unlike The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass and Swords of an Honorable Ruler, Fire on the Mystic Island makes no effort to seem more important. It’s rather like Affections Touching Across Time; actually, it’s maybe the most pointless InuYasha movie. It’s just an isolated story, without far-reaching consequences, offering little insight into the main characters. And with lame villains.
In fact, far from the universe-threatening threats in the past, all that’s at stake here is an island. Not just that, there are only half a dozen people on the island – indeed, children, which ups the ante in that cheap Temple of Doom sorta way, but the villains here don’t have much ambition except to occasionally kill a child. Hideously evil, sure, but not suitably epic – Though any flick that reduces the general insanity of Swords of an Honorable Ruler isn’t all bad. (Still, Swords is the series’ best movie.)
Here’s how it goes: Horai Island was once a lone bastion in the world where the miscegenated offspring of human/demon unions could live in peace. (You’d think an island of half-demons would inform InuYasha’s own half-demonhood more, but this is too lightweight for even that.) At some point, whole demons (it’s implied they are from China, and are therefore pure evil) descended upon the island, and took it over. Four demons in particular, incongruously calling themselves the Four War Gods, took up Horai residence. Now, like any tropical island, Horai’s inhabitants are expected to make the occasional virgin sacrifice – for the essence of half-demons provides the War Gods with that delicious combo of human and demon you just can’t otherwise get. Hence why they’re here in the first place. Oh, and due to “magic,” the enslaved children cannot escape.
And the children are all around 200 years old. But it’s more fun to draw moe characters, so children they still are.
All of this information doesn’t come at once; it’d be rather an inelegant construction if it were. (So why’d I do it?!) Rather, we learn about Horai over the course of the entire film, in that standard InuYasha way where exposition is divvied up to create the impression of more story than there really is. Besides, it breaks up the fight scenes, which have become rather monotonous now as their formula becomes apparent.
At least no one in InuYasha’s band has any familiarity with Horai, so it’s a journey of exploration for them as well. And why are they about to spend a whole movie freeing this place anyway? Well, while randomly in the vicinity (unrelated to the larger manga arc), InuYasha et al are beset upon by Gora, the island’s kaiju guardian. I’d pegged Gora as an ersatz Godzilla at first, until he is revealed to be a turtle, and actually an ersatz Gamera! Whoo!
Anyway, InuYasha & Co. fight it and beat it – at least, until the climax rolls around, and Gora returns with standard upped powers, as these things go. But they don’t escape battle without loss – InuYasha is quadruple-scarred on the back. This is the mark of the Four War Gods, meaning he can never leave Horai. Never mind he’s not on Horai yet, because he doesn’t learn that until it’s too late, as they first head to the land mass to investigate things all “Scooby Doo” like.
Given my own limited knowledge about Japanese pop culture, or some other personal failing, these InuYashas mostly remind me of video games. Ignoring their RPG fighting system, visually the remind me of “Zelda.” The whole island feels like a condensed version of Hyrule, and that goes as far as the randomly pointy ears on all the extras – I never got the human obsession with pointy ears. There are even puzzle dungeons, and a remarkably irritating water level, and assorted balls-of-power plot coupons. Though, to be honest, a lot of this imagery pervades tons of Japanese entertainment.
But for whatever isn’t “Zelda,” it’s Lord of the Rings – surely, there’s not a huge genre distinction between those two. But the Lord of the Rings similarities this time aren’t simply an artifact of two separate stories each mining ancient myth for their material. Rather, stuff here seems taken specifically from Peter Jackson’s efforts. (Not unlikely, given its 2004 timestamp.) The most glaring connection is when InuYasha, along with a little girl called Ai, plunges into the sacrificial chamber – which resembles the start of The Two Towers, and Gandalf’s struggle with the Balrog. You know, I was asking for these InuYasha movies to calm down a little, but I didn’t realize that’d make ‘em plagiarists.
Anyway, InuYasha survives this unsurvivable fire due to his Possession of Convenience. Something he has helps him out – they always just happen to have some Sacred Undergarment, or some such! Outside the chamber, Kagome and the rest solve one of those “Zelda” puzzles, which frees InuYasha. But at a price [dum dum dum!]. Along out with InuYasha came a Pandora’s Box.
The Four War Gods get their godly hands on said box…and open it. This was their holy scheme all along, for within lie the dread “Zelda”-like balls which shall give them ultimate power. And seeing as we’re at the halfway point, it’s the traditional moment for the climax to start. With exposition now behind us, the rest of the movie is taken up entirely with defeating the Four War Gods.
Good thing they went with four, because none of these guys is individually any stronger than I’d imagine a one-off episode antagonist would be (I really ought to have watched an episode or two at some point, for context). These are the weakest enemies the gang has tangled with in any of the movies. So weak, in fact, the non-InuYashas stand a chance. Everyone divvies up the baddies, and assorted interchangeable sword fights ensue. And when Miroku and Sango can defeat a “god” alone, you’re not dealing with the toughest of opponents.
Oh, and Sesshomaru is here too, suddenly, because there was an extra God sitting around awaiting a whuppin’.
Really, I’m at a loss for things to say. I’ve seen these sorts of battles many times before. At least this time there’s a little…elegance to the proceedings. But with all the lunatic distractions of something like Swords of an Honorable Ruler stripped away, one realizes a few truths. During a fight, everyone pretty much just stands still. They strike the occasional pose, something Japanese animation does well. Otherwise, they just use their swords to hurl projectiles at each other. That’s mostly it. Of course, it satisfies anyone who has a taste for the InuYasha style…I’m not that person, sadly.
Even the climactic solution (Inuytasha and Kagome combine their powers together), we’ve seen before.
Actually, maybe the filmmakers were feeling a little uninspired as well, after a long TV run, to which this is undoubtedly a minor epilogue. It feels mostly like an excuse to spend a little more time with familiar characters. As such, they are forever amusing. Miroku and Sango remain the most entertaining, but I’d be remiss to not once mention InuYasha’s own foibles. He’s a bit of a Han Solo, for one thing, brash and self-dependent, but more reliant upon his friends than he’d like to admit. He even has a catch phrase (“Damn it!”), which becomes funnier and funnier when it’s his go-to response in any dilemma.
But Fire on the Mystic Island was not to be the final filmed hurrah from the “Inuyaha” series. With the manga concluding definitively in 2008, it made sense for Sunrise studios to resume television production. With the original cast and crew, a final 26 episodes were made, posthumously putting the show’s output up to 194.
When mangas like Takahashi’s unquestionably end (not all do this), it makes sense for the media franchise to go with it. Thus “InuYasha” is over, barring more work from Takahashi. And the final season was barely enough of a phenomenon on its own to warrant further movies. Thus Fire on the Mystic Island marks the end of the InuYasha franchise, as far as this blog is concerned. It’s been minor, as these things go, something I fear of most anime franchises. Oh well.
RELATED POSTS
• No. 1 InuYasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time (2001)
• No. 2 InuYasha the Movie 2: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass (2002)
• No. 3 InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler (2003)
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