First of all, an admission: This InuYasha series has been hugely trying, though it’s not the series’ fault. Every disc Netflix sends out isn’t just scratched, or cracked, but visibly broken into multiple separate jewel shards. It’s been weeks in between InuYasha viewings (bless my buffer). Which makes resuming the series a grueling chore.
That being said, I am in great awe at how the InuYasha movies have dealt with their central limitation: A big honking “Reset” button at the end of each entry, so they do not interfere with the ongoing TV series. InuYasha the Movie 2: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass resolved this by creating the appearance of narrative change, before rescinding that at its climax. InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords on an Honorable Ruler goes it one step further, and tells a tale which might actually be of some importance. It gets to the meat of certain characters, presents a lasting arc or two, and informs the greater “InuYasha” universe – as I understand it.
Swords of an Honorable Ruler delves into back story, and questions the very nature of InuYasha’s half-human, half-demon existence. It tells of 200 years ago (as a semi-supernatural entity, Inuysha’s only thus far aged into a teenager), how InuYasha’s unnamed father – a pure wolf demon – fell in love with a human woman named Izayoi. We do not see the courtship, which might well be addressed elsewhere in the greater “InuYasha” media enterprise. Rather, Izayoi is pregnant, and already due to birth InuYasha – which greatly upsets her would-be human lover, warlord Takemaru. Like a fantasy movie racist (where half-demons stand in for foreigners), Takemaru is so off-put by this miscegenation, he outright kills Izayoi. Enter the wolf father, who uses his assorted ridiculous powers to bring his love back to life, in time for InuYasha’s birth. She and the child flee, as the wolf kills Takemaru, but at the cost of his own life. That’s a hell of a lot of death right at the start!
That’s a rather engaging opening, and nicely skirts the edges of family entertainment – though Japanese notions of censorship, appropriateness, all that, are so distinct from the West’s, it’s barely worth dwelling upon. (For what it’s worth, in the U.S. the “InuYasha” property is the province of Adult Swim.)
Now, I have to assume certain things about InuYasha’s father, et cetera. Basically, I imagine he isn’t addressed much on the central TV show/manga. Given that, this is a mightily important part of InuYasha’s life – making this a substantive story, without even mentioning the usual Jewel Shard collection tale. Really, I salute the filmmakers for making something that can stand on its own this well.
Of course, intimate familiarity with the lead characters and their variable powers is assumed. The English dub gloms on an opening exposition even more awkwardly than in Affections Touching Across Time, which we need. Knowing the premise and characters isn’t enough, even. We even need to know their RPG stats! But that’s a long ways away. For now, InuYasha is in the present (i.e. 2003) with his preferred miniskirted Japanese schoolgirl (every such hero’s just gotta have one), Kagome. (There’s time travel in these stories, and it rarely plays a major role.)
Meanwhile, over at Kagome’s family’s shrine, an ancient sword has just self-anthropomorphized. It’s been 700 years since the death of InuYasha’s father, we learn, and a protective seal on this sword has been broken.
Okay…the sword is the central concept of Swords of an Honorable Ruler – no surprise, with that title. (Actually, I start to wonder if one of those Crayon Shin-chans I watched is actually a satire of this movie.) In the animistic realm of Japanese mythology, everything can anthropomorphize, and that includes the sword So’unga – the Sword of Hell! Even without a wielder (and freed of its enemy, the equally-anthropomorphized sheath Saya), So’unga is your standard enormous dire threat to the universe. InuYasha alone hopes to stop it – But grasping the weapon instead enslaves InuYasha to So’unha’s will, like a faster-working One Ring. And now, under the violent sway of tempered steel, InuYasha rushes backwards 500 years, to his own time.
And this is the part of the movie that makes sense.
Kagome chases InuYasha back in time and joins up with their usual assortment of allies – Miroku, Sango, Shippo, Myoga – to stop InuYasha’s bloody, uncontrollable rage. For under So’unga’s sway, InuYasha now desires what So’unga desires – to kill ALL LIFE EVER. (No small plans for So’unga!) Now, in the preliminaries, we’re fortunate the only fatalities InuYasha causes are to demon-ogres, which’d be acceptable anyway. It’d be too much for our titular hero to suddenly commit mass genocide, or some such, even as a puppet.
Now…InuYasha has a full-demon older brother, Sesshomaru. Though this is his first appearance in a movie, he is a regularly reoccurring antagonist in the TV series. And while he engages the possessed InuYasha in a heated, pitched swordfight, I struggle to piece together the details of the brothers’ long-standing rivalry. Here are some facts: They each possess a own trademark sword (ignoring So’unga): Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga, if I recall correctly. Respectively, InuYasha’s and Sesshomaru’s, and respectively the Swords of Earth and Heaven. Yowzers! To contrast So’unga’s status as the Sword of Hell.
Post-viewing research reveals this was already known about Tetsusaiga and Tenseiga, while So’unga is a new invention of the movie. While watching it, however, I had no idea which attributes of any sword were new, and which were series writ. There’s a lot to grapple with here, each sword’s unique powers, and how those powers change when wielded by a new warrior. Of course, each new combination yields new deus ex machina opportunities for the writers. I start to get lost.
That as it is, Kagome ceases InuYasha’s possession (rather early, in the overall story), with one of her plot-convenient arrows, able to resolve any conflict when the story dictates it is necessary. And So’unga flies off on its swordly way, taking with it Sesshomaru’s left arm (??!). So’unga seeks a new wielder, with which it may now destroy Tetsusaiga and Tens- er, the half-brothers’ swords. Because they, when combined, may destroy So’unga, which is all that’s keeping it from its lofty goal of omnicide.
So So’unga resurrects Takemaru to be its emissary, because sure, why not, the sword can resurrect the dead now. It’ll be another ten minutes or so until its next power is revealed…
Separately, InuYasha and Sesshomaru set out to obtain So’unga – all for the glory of possessing its power, or destroying its power, or just stopping it, or some such. Buried underneath all this magical confusion, and Saya’s never-ending font of necessary exposition, is a nicely simple arc: To defeat So’unga, the brothers must reconcile and work together. This gives us something to grasp onto, and is why Swords of an Honorable Ruler works as well as it does, even in the light of so much extreme anime craziness, where taking it to 11 is just Step One out of One-Hundred Thirty-Eight.
Has it been ten minutes yet? Okay. So’unga’s next power coming up! Takemaru, operating under only partial self-control (danged sword!), decides to wage war against InuYasha, Sesshomaru, and all people who represent the hateful alignment of demons and humans. Takemaru is a racist son-of-a-bitch. And because he’s downright nutbars to boot, he goes about this in the way most satisfying to So’unga: through wholesale genocide. Yup, no beating around the bush now, with a baddie wielding the blade! Takemaru/So’unga do in an entire feudal army. And it turns out (power time!) anyone slain by So’unga comes back to life – as the living dead. Whoo-oo! Well, that threat’ll keep our heroes quite busy until the needed brotherly reconciliation.
We’re about halfway through Swords of an Honorable Ruler when the climax kicks in, which is very common for anime. These films seem allergic to extraneous storytelling, not when you can fill up the majority of a film with special effects and loud noises and all so much other bells and whistles. Frankly, it plays at times like watching a person play a video game. After a while the sheer quantity of spectacle starts to numb my Western mind. It’s only the occasional grace note, a character moment – and the character roster has now been upped by another half dozen, many of them Sesshomaru’s buddies – which lets us know we’re watching a narrative.
Really, the fight against untold thousands of zombies starts at the level of a Lord of the Rings battle. Astoundingly, the next forty minutes continue to escalate, beyond non-Japanese comprehension. Whenever the story rules as we know them stop yielding craziness, So’unga manifests its latest “every ten minutes” power, resulting in the next cascade of lunacy. Some of the stages of insanity, as best as I can gather: Zombies. Larger zombies. Gigantic ogres. Then swirling vortex-tornado-hurricane-lightning storms. And eventually So’unga even transforms this place into the very center of Hell itself, actively suctioning away the main cast’s souls. Though sheer willpower (akin to pure love in its anime-like strength) keeps ‘em all unsuctioned for a decent while.
And all this while a multi-directional duel takes place between InuYasha, Sesshomaru and So’unga.
Further swordly exposition accompanies all the zaniness. We learn all three swords once belonged to InuYasha’s father – the titular “honorable ruler.” In fact, so honorable was that snarling, rampaging wolf-demon, he alone in all of inhuman history could wield So’unga without succumbing to its corrupting influence. And upon this unnamed demon’s opening scene death, he bequeathed his sheaths. Hence InuYasha and Sesshomaru each have one metaphysical sword. As for So’unga, with all heirs wanting, Saya just decided to hold it at bay for as long as possible – 700s years. And with time travel a possibility, subtract 500 years from that. So’unga’s only been dormant for a mere 200 years. In all the confusing mystical notions, it is this which demands the most exploration somehow – I dunno, time travel makes sense to me, but maybe it’s less understood in the anime milieu.
What is understood, however, is the idea that each sword has its own Special Move – and it really is hard to address this without it sounding like a video game. To wit, between hero, antihero and villain (I sicken of typing out those names), we have the Backlash Wave, Dragon Strike, and Dragon Twister (I think; I may have switched ‘em around). And each new usage combination of results in a different victory – but none of these victories take. And each combatant’s power apparently grows ad nauseum, satisfying dramatic escalation. It’s utterly batshit.
In fact, things get so nutty, it’s totally impossible to take it seriously – and that’s not just because it’s completely beyond my comprehension to begin with. No attack can be performed without its performer first explaining what he’s about to do – the Backlash Wave, e.g., doesn’t work unless first you holler “Backlash Wave!” And to make it more effective, to holler “BACKLASH WAVE!,” and if I could make even bigger caps, I’d do so now to replicate the movie’s effect. So many times does So’unga (now separated even from the re-deadified Takemaru, and therefore somehow more powerful) say something to the effect of “This blow shall kill you ultimately and forever.” No blow ever does, so we start disbelieving So’unga.
But in the end, Sesshomaru and InuYasha learn to work together (rather, only Sesshomaru learns to work together, and just times himself up right with InuYasha). So’unga is destroyed, precisely as we were promised over an hour earlier. It’s over, folks! Go home!
Oy. Swords of an Honorable Ruler is a tiresome movie in its climax, which is a shame, because the underlying idea is solid. Though I’m the wrong guy for these things. Each recap has been an effort on my part to simply grasp what is going on. Niche audience and all that; I think I’ve said that before. So(‘hunga) be it. There is still care and professionalism on display, good animation and thoughtful writing. And the characters remain engaging in their foibles – that includes uncommented-upon moments like Miroku’s oh-so-Japanese obsession with groping. I just hope I don’t have to wait another week and a half for the next one.
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. 4 InuYasha the Movie 4: Fire on the Mystic Island (2004)
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