Inuyasha: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass Movie Review

Prior to the thoughts of a lot of experimental filmmakers (and, in this case, anime directors), storytelling has its universal Dos and Don'ts. Like plants need water, stories need at least some attention not to wither and die.

Take for instance context. If you have a very good story, then it can be understood without context. If you have a mediocre story, context is explained. If you have a low-rent spin-off of an established Japanese TV series, you basically just jump right in. Time is money, animators are expensive. Why waste screen time explaining what's going on to people that don't watch your TV show? It's not as if it the attention to quality in a movie couldn't, say, bring in new viewers.

Inuyasha opens so stereotypically that it verges on self-parody. Seeking revenge, heroes attack a man who slowly becomes a large spider demon. After all hope seems lost, in comes the hero of the movie, half-man, half-demon, all cheesy Inuyasha. Too cheap to actually draw a connecting blow, large gusts of wind and lines that sound lifted from Mortal Kombat flash on screen in between credits in Japanese. The hero saves the day and kills the enemy characters we barely knew he had been battling for some time now. Mission accomplished. They can all go home.

But before you can say sayonara they're busy introducing a new evil character and attacking the heroes while they're on vacation. Then the same caliber of cheesy action continues for about three-quarters of the movie, with the occasional attention to a vain attempt at a plot.

The second Inuyasha movie is a non-stop thrill ride aimed at eight year olds that falls short of the target by being overly repetitive and bland. While the previous Inuyasha actually had comic relief, the decent jokes in this Inuyasha can be counted on the fingers of amputee.

Although not completely awful, the animation of the Inuyasha movie is lackluster. The majority of the movie has the framerate and feel of an '80s Saturday morning cartoon. When the thrills and chills try to kick into high gear (and instead stall out) the animation goes up a notch from cheap GGI color-by-numbers that looks like it was made as a sample project for Losers Learn Lightwave.

All in all, Inuyasha is about as polished as a worm-ridden apple given as a gift for a teacher you hate. It is poor product that only exists to make an over-extended and greedy franchise even more cash. Because the action scenes are so over the top, even an anime fan would be hard pressed to find the thrills satisfying. The comedy is on par with Carrot Top.

This Inuyasha is a sight worth skipping. Even if you like the series, you should hate this movie on principle for the number of people it will push away. Inuyasha 2 is a poorly produced product that should have been stopped at the border for being so substandard.

Aka Inu-Yasha - The Movie 2 - The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass; Inuyasha - Kagami no naka no mugenjou.