Inuyasha Movie 3: Tenka Hadou no Ken
(2003)

CAST LIST:

Yamaguchi Kappei as my beloved Puppyboy Inuyasha *slobberdrool*
Yukino Satsuki as Higurashi Kagome
Narita Ken as Sesshoumaru

Tsujitani Kouji as Miroku
Yanami Jouji as Toutousai
Kuwashima Houko as Sango
Kimotsuki Kaneta as Saya
Watanabe Kumiko as Shippou
Outsuka Akio as Inu-Papa
Nagashima Yuuichi (the hyper nut! WOOHOO!) as Jaken
Matsumoto Yasunori as Setsuna Takemaru
Noto Mamiko as Rin
Inoue Kikuko as Izayoi
Ogata Kenichi as Myouga
Tachiki Fumihiko as Souunga

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Hundreds of years before the story of Inuyasha we know of Inuyasha began...

Mortally wounded from a battle with Ryukossei, the Lord of the Dogs (Inu no Taisho) and his son, Sesshoumaru, meet for what will be their last time. With his heart set on protecting Izayoi, the woman he loves (something Sesshoumaru appears not to agree with), Inu no Taisho goes to the castle of Setsuna Takemaru. There, he finds Izayoi murdered, after it had been discovered she'd given birth to his half-youkai boy. Takemaru orders the castle to be burned to the ground in order to kill the mononoke (animal spirit). After using the power of Tenseiga to keep Izayoi's soul in This World, Inu no Taisho then sets his sights on confronting Takemaru himself. Holding back Takemaru buys enough time for Izayoi to escape with his son, but neither man makes it from the burning castle.

Izayoi and the newborn make it to safety, and the child is given a name by the request of his father.

Inuyasha.

In present-day Tokyo, Grandpa Higurashi introduces the family to an ominous 700-year-old sword. Written on its scabbard are the words "Murakumo no Tsurugi" (cloud-mass sword). The sword is then revealed to actually named "Souunga," (also meaning "cloud mass sword"). It was sealed long ago, but now it appears that the seal has been broken...

Inuyasha and Kagome, on their way home from school, encounter the now-sentient sword, and its guardian youkai, named Saya. When Inuyasha tries to hold the sword himself, the powerful jyaki surrounding it takes control of his body and begins to transform him into his full-youkai form. Before Kagome or anyone can intervene, Inuyasha runs back to the well, along with the sword...

He returns to the Sengoku Jidai, battling with the sword for control of his own body. A nearby village, however, becomes the first site of attack; under the control of Souunga, Inuyasha begins to tear through the village using the sword's youki attack, "Gokuryuuha." Throughout this, however, Sango, Shippou, and Miroku realize that Inuyasha is still trying to restrain himself from attacking. Following the attack, Inuyasha retreats into the mountains. Kagome and the others regroup and go to find Inuyasha. When they discover him, he's still under control of Souunga, and locked in battle with Sesshoumaru. Desparate to free him from the sword's powers, Kagome uses the osuwari beads to try to call his spirit into submission. It succeeds in releasing him from the sword, but also results in destroying the necklace from around his neck...

Soon after, Souunga's powers seeks out Takemaru humself; using the body of an ogre, the sword finds his soul at the boundary between This World and the Next World. Using Sesshoumaru's arm (which had been lost when Inuyasha had dismembered it in battle) to weild Souunga, he becomes a powerful creature and returns from death. There, he plans to seek out Izayoi's half-youkai child, Inuyasha and those related to the Lord of the Dogs. Using the sword's powers, Takemaru begins to assemble an army of undead...

Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha, now aware of this new threat, go to confront Takemaru at his fortress. All of their companions natrually follow them, as well: Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippou, Jaken, Rin, along with Toutousai and Saya. Things for the brothers don't seem to be working at all against the undead army, however. Takemaru takes Rin and Kagome captive, seeking to destroy them for being like Izayoi and being involved with youkai...

Kagome and the others try to convince Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru that the only possible way for Takemaru and Souunga to be defeated is for them to combine the powers of Tessaiga and Tenseiga. When Souunga itself becomes the enemy, it's a matter of the brothers being able to swallow their pride long enough to work together just this once...

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MOVIE REVIEW (SPOILERS WILL COMMENCE):
June 19, 2004

What can I say. This movie... was more than what I expected in some ways, and less than what I wanted in others. When I say more, I mean in the simple sheer visual impact. There were some scenes that I thought were really mindboggling. And when I say less, I mean that I was hoping to learn more about Inuyasha's past, and possibly more about the relationship he and Sesshoumaru had as children.

For those who were expecting that, don't hold your breath. There's none there. In fact, there's little in the way of really the past in this movie... so in that sense, yeah, I was a tad disappointed. But ah well. What WAS there, I can't say I was disappointed in! :D

So. First things first.

Two words. Well, one word, maybe. Or, one hyphenated word, depending on how you look at it.

INU-PAPA!!

"Omae ni mamoru mono aru ka?"
(Do you have something which you protect?)

He was, hands-down, what made this movie all worth the wait. Those who have seen my gallery know what a fan I have been of Inu-papa, even before seeing this. Most of it comes from my own little vision of what I think Papa was like, and this animated version of him did, more or less, fit how I imagined him to be. He's powerful, he's passionate, and damn, he's awesome! Very Inuyasha-ish in his personality, and the way he just blasts his way into Takemaru's castle. Very like Sesshoumaru in the way he can be very level-headed when the time comes. But when he realized Izayoi was in danger, he reacted the way I see Inuyasha reacting when Kagome is in danger. Not only will he protect someone he loves when he knows it will kill him (as it ended up doing in the movie)... YOU. JUST. DO. NOT. GET. IN. HIS. WAY.

Inu-papa makes things go BOOM! He whips out Tessaiga and goes, "Kaze no KIZUUUUUUUUUU!!!1" and basically levels the front door of the castle.

Just kidding.

First thing he does when he's fighting Takemaru is hack off his arm. Boy that pissed Takemaru off. Takemaru basically had been wanting to exterminate mononoke, so to find that the woman he wanted actually was involved with one of them... well, that's where the conflict begins.

Despite this, however, the real "bad guy" in this movie should really be Souunga, not exactly Takemaru. I tend to think of Takemaru as Lady Eboshi (from Mononoke Hime) in some respects. His dislike of youkai and mononoke (seems like the two terms - demon and animal spirit, respectively - are used a bit interchangably here) in general, and his hatred of the Inu-papa in particular, are what Souunga takes advantage of. As such, he's driven by the desire to take his residual hatred for the youkai and his involvement with the woman he desired, and goes to destroy Inu-papa's boys as well.

Takemaru himself was actually a more interesting character than I originally thought he'd be. While not exactly someone I was all that sympathetic with, he was also someone I didn't quite see as being completely out to "RAAAAAAAAAAH!! DESTROY AND TAKE OVER T3H WORLD!!!!!!!!!!1" Close, but not quite. It was more like, "RAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!1 TAHT DUMB DOG SCREWED ME OVER!!!!! REVERNGEED!!!!!!!!!!11"

...more or less. ^_^;

That reminds me. There was the premise of the three swords, and that whoever possessed the third sword would gain "world conquest." After all, that's what tenka hado no ken literally means. I, um, didn't quite see that in the movie. Tenseiga is the sword of the heavens, Tessaiga is the sword of the world (man). Souunga is the sword of the Hell. So why Souunga's possession would give anyone world conquest doesn't seem all that clear, except maybe for the fact that the sword was, indeed, more powerful than both Tessaiga's and Tenseiga's powers alone. And because it has the power to bring people back to the world of the living and make them into zombified corpses that can withstand being severed in two... that may be it.

I guess.

Speaking of the swords. Toutousai apparently has quite the sense of humor. In leaving the swords to the boys, he leaves Tenseiga for Sesshoumaru pinned to Bokuseno (remember the magnolia tree youkai?) with a sign that says "Sessshoumaru *heart* e" (To: Sesshoumaru, with love). XD I guess with all the intensity of the fighting we needed SOME form of humor. What can I say, I was giggly!

And no, Souunga is not a sword from Papa's dental plan; apparently it's a sword like Toukijin, created with the malice of a disgruntled spirit in it, and only Papa (or someone with stronger yoryouku than Inuyasha, at least) could weild it without the weird berserker effect.

So now to talk a bit about the visual eye-candy. Wow. My eyeballs are suffering from cavities all OVER from how awesome I thought this movie looked. I openly admit that I LOVE the movies' animation (for all three), although I know it's done differently from the anime. I love both designs, but something about the movies does seem more cinematic. The backgrounds... those were nothing short of spectacular. But I've always been a fan of sprawling background art, anyway. So no big surpirse that I was slobbering all over the ones here.

There was one scene in particular that really had me mellowed out; when Miroku and Sango were with Myouga visiting Izayoi's grave. Sango asks if the bunch of lilies at the grave were from Myouga, who replies that they're likely from Inuyasha. Hehe... Inuyasha still brings flowers to his mother's gravesite. I dunno, just thought that was a nice touch. Plus the music was really sweet.

Let's see. When Inuyasha was first possessed by the sword. EVIL SWORD. Then he heads back through the well and kinda explodes out of it on the other side. Shippou is kinda standing there, like, "Oo, nice fireworks, Inuyahsha. What's up with the lights?"

Other scenes that stood out. Inuyasha's first attack on the village. Hehe, WHY DID HE HAVE TO KILL T3h CHICKENS! What did the CHICKENS ever do!?! Just kidding. When Souunga is trying to force Inuyasha to kill the crying child, there's a moment where blood splurts across the mother's face. I seriously didn't know whose blood it was. When the scene flashed back to Inuyasha, he's got his own claws in his arm, and then tries to use his TEETH to rip it off, and then the internal battle has him lliterally throwing himself repeatedly against the wall (which breaks it). I was watching it, thinking, "Holy damn... that was intense."

And then he gokuryuuhas the village. "GOKURYUUHAAAAAAA!!!" God, I love Kappei's voice when he screams out attack names. XD I... HAVE mentioned that before at some point, yesno? Heehee.

The fight scenes were awesome, yes. I like things blowing up and stuff. Heh-heh-heh. The first fight between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru was quite cool. Basically Inuyasha starts badmouthing Sesshoumaru, Sesshoumaru tells him that even with that sword, he still sucks. And then they start fighting. Hehehe. Rin's off to the side, commenting if those two were REALLY brothers. Heehee Sesshoumaru rips Tessaiga from Inuyasha's waist and uses a Kaze no Kizu against him... and then his reaction is, "OW, THAT stupid sword barrier! It SMAAAAAAAARTS!" When Kagome starts screaming at Inuyasha to sit, and the beads and sword are both fighting for control of him, it ends in what HAD to have been the most painful sit ever.

Second battle at Takemaru's grave. The point of that one seemed to be for Sesshoumaru to show off the Souryuuha. There's a lot of Bakuryuuhaing, and Sesshoumaru's, "Watch me take Toukijin and whip this kickass youki attack out of nowhere, that all the canon-purists will scream bloody murder about! BOOYAH!" And then, for the most part, I kinda thought the battle played out like, "Bow to your corner, bow to your partner. Now swing your sword arm round and round, and then slam your brother to the ground! Now left-right-grand once, and then once more, and then leave your brother on the floor!" But yeah, I like battle scenes, so I was havin' fun. ^_^

Oh yeah, I should mention at this point, this movie IS a movie, after all. As such, we can get away with showing more red blood in the movie than in the series. It's not gratuitous or anything, but there are some scenes that seem rather squeemish. Hehe. Like when Takemaru was reviving his army of undead, not to mention the entire Takemaru castle, covered in what looks like molten leftover Jell-O and uncooked barbecue. YUM! Heh-heh. SQUEEEEEEEEEMISHNESS GALORE!!

The battle with the Undeads was pretty fun. Personally I love how Miroku's ofuda were the major source of pwnage here.

So skipping ahead to the final battle against Souunga. Or rather, this armor-spike-looking badguy ogre looking thing that is the embodiment of Souunga and its pissy attitude. Heh-heh. Yep, more ooohs and aaahs and big explosions and blowing stuff up! Basically, for me, I was rooting for the boys to just get their asses in gear and WORK TOGETHER. Hah-hah. Sesshoumaru is actually fighting down and dirty this time. I particularly jumped at a scene where he punched Souunga's blade aside with his fist. Heh-heh. Then there's Inuyasha's constant Bakuryuuha-ing and realizing it isn't working. Well, duh. That would be too easy, wouldn't it? Of course, what seems to be his drive is a desire to protect Kagome. Sesshoumaru is reminded of Inu-papa's words ("Do you have something you protect"), and in the end has a line that, well, can be interpreted in many ways. "Protect, you say? I, Sesshoumaru, protect nothing!" All this as he's thinking back to Jaken and Rin, and in the climactic moment, he lays the uber-smackdown on Souunga with Tenseiga, and the attack combines with Inuyasha's Bakuryuuha, and absolutely PWNS Souunga.

So go figure. Heh-heh. All those who see this may feel different interpretations on why Sesshoumaru says that. There's a lot of things that make Sesshoumaru's character in this movie a little hard to figure. In the end, Inu-papa makes a little visit to his sons, telling them that in order to defeat Souunga, of course his boys had needed to work together. Sesshoumaru's reaction, whether he was ambivalent or just being something of a "I guess I'll think about that one day" reaction, is a little up to interpretation.

 

All in all, what did I think of the movie? Yes, I liked it. I'm actually not sure if I like this or the first movie the most, now... Heh-heh. In the end, I think I'm starting to like all of them pretty much equally, all for different reasons.

Yes, all of these movies did seem to play up to the fans. The first two were for the romantics, and this one was for the Inuyasha/Sesshoumaru brotherly rivalry fans. It was interesting in that this played out so that neither brother would really WIN, so in that sense, it could satisfy fans from either camp. While the brothers WERE set up to fight each other in the movie, this movie doesn't end them battling each other, after all. Honestly, there's nothing in the movie that says either one of the brothers is better than the other. Inu-papa loved them both, and wanted both of them to realize what they're capable of alone, and here, what they're capable of together.

There's always the argument on how much weight to give to the movies because they're "filler." I'm one of those people who doesn't mind filler interpretations in the least. I definiely appreciate this version of the past, and the rivalry between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru.

When the omake CD comes out in August, I'll be sure to add a review on that, as well. ^_^

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TENKA HADOU NO KEN IMAGE GALLERY
EAR TWEAK MAIN || MOVIES MAIN

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