Inuyasha The Movie 4: Fire On the Mystic Island 3/10

The fourth and final (so far) Inuyasha feature film. It was produced after the TV series finale I bet it finishes the story. Right?

Bzzzzzzt! WRONG! This is Inuyasha, where there's one formula and this movie is certainly created with it.

This is the first feature with the TV series character designs, much to my relief, and it was in theatres in late 2004. I hated the changes the animators made to them in the previous movies so that makes me happy. I was also impressed with the overall quality of this movie but after some truly impressive animation, backgrounds, and effects in the first 2/3 of the show, things take a real dive during the final battle. Maybe they had to rush to finish the movie before Xmas or something. The music feels like the stuff in the TV series, meaning I'm sick of it, and the ED theme wasn't anything special. The VA's are OK I suppose but once you've heard one demon you've heard them all. All the original cast are here as well by the way.

If you've seen 4 episodes of the Inuyasha TV series in sequence you've pretty much seen this movie. This review will assume you're familiar with the main characters.

We meet some little kids that are being harassed by four very human-looking demons (the monster-looking ones are never the powerful ones). One of them (the smallest and cutest one natch) escapes the island they're on and surprise, surprise, she's rescued by Inuyasha and Co. It turns out Inuyasha and Kikyo had been to the island 50 years earlier and it's back from disappearland or wherever the hell all the powerful guys go before Inuyasha stumbles upon them. They were attacked and then the island disappeared. Of course Inuyasha wants instant revenge (JUST remembering how much he hates these particular demons) and they all set off to save the rest of the children (except for Inuyasha who just wants revenge, natch again).

They go to the island, meet the rest of the kids, learn that the oldest is keen to sacrifice herself to save the others, she and Inuyasha are sucked into the sacrifice door or whatever, they escape, the demons get back the power sealed behind the sacrifice door, each of the main characters kills one of the four demons, Inuyasha and Kagome defeat the uber-demon with the help of the children, I puke, the end.

For being the final movie this sucked hard. All it was missing was to have the children singing to give Inuyasha the power to beat the uber-demon. There's a bit where the kids go fetch a bow and arrow for Kagome and it made me want to retch. Add to that some awkward cameos by Sesshomaru and undead Kikyo and I'm ready to scream. How many damn times does a fake Kikyo have to show up to screw with Inuyasha? At least Naraku and undead Kikyo KNOW he's got a thing for her. The demons create a Kikyo clone BY COINCIDENCE! FUCK ME!

Give me some character development for Christ's sakes! Other than some nice visuals this movie blows. Not-recommended.