InuYasha Movie 4: Guren no Houraijima

When people said this movie was just filler and unneeded, I was expecting just another okay Inuyasha movie. I didn't get that. Instead I got what came out as my second favourite Inuyasha movie. I don't like to think of it as filler, as pretty much all the Inuyasha movies are "filler". I really enjoyed this movie. It was way better than the first two and I thought it was a great end to the Inuyasha anime for me, because the second the movie ended, I'd seen everything Inuyasha. It left me pretty satisfied and yet still wanting more Inuyasha movies. The action was amazing,not as good as the third one, but heaps better than the first two. One thing I'm sick and tied of is the soundtrack.. STOP IT! There was one original remix that I noticed (that had the tune from the tv series) but I didn't notice anything different about the soundtrack. I listened to the soundtrack throughout the whole anime series. So why did I need to hear the same damn thing in the movies? I mean come on. We need some originals people. Anyways, I liked this movie and I don't really know what everyone was talking about, this is a FANTASTIC movie. I loved it.

This is the fourth and last of the Inu Yasha movies, taking place towards the end of the first series. Up to now it was sort of a strategy to tribute each new sword technique with a movie but at this point no new moves were introduced and thus the scriptwriter simply invented one just for this filler mission. The scenario is very weak and most unimpressive even for the tv standards. So far they had being fighting top level demons who could take over the world, control time, and even raise hell. Now they deal with… four convicts??? Surely, where is the excitement in that?Four nobody demons that are trapped on an island and just lure other demons in order to eat them and stay alive. Another annoying feature is the little kids in this movie. You would expect token kids begging for the shounen hero to save them in a Naruto or a One Piece film, but in Inu Yasha it just feels stupid. I guess so many years past that by now the franchise had turned to just another silly show about teenagers saving kids. The plot is not something great either. All they do is fighting one demon at a time before the last one fuses with the rest to form a last moment big boss. That’s it, nothing more. The previous movies had the decency to try to deal with some sort of drama or romance from the various themes of the main story. This one here does absolutely NOTHING! You could replace the characters with those from any other shounen show and you wouldn’t even know the difference. Not even the action is something good, since by now Inu Yasha had enough firepower to take on the Devil himself and the enemy demons were just generic bad guys without any backdrop or interesting battle strategies. Not even the setting is good either. It is just a sort of tropical island that appeared on the sea; nothing nightmarish or complicating. In all, this is a completely pointless movie that has no point in existing. I don’t recommend it one bit.

*Spoiler warning!* I was on and off while watching this movie. It took me 3 days to finish because I was getting distracted with other things, but now I've finally finished it! And, here's what I have to say about it! Story/Plot 7/10 - The plot was very consistent. It focused on one goal, but not so much to where the goal is predictable and boring. I will say some fights lasted a little too long, or things got repetitive. But, for being a anime movie made in 2004, it was pretty enjoyable! Art 8/10 - Wow, just wow! This movie came out in 2004, and looks likeeither a studio Ghibli movie, or a anime movie that came out in the early 2010s. Either way, it was really great for the time. It isn't as colorful as the actual anime usually is (Besides at the ending.), but for the setting it's perfect, and very enjoyable to look at! Sound 6/10 - Same as the anime, the voice actors for the new characters fit though! Characters/Personalities 6/10 - All the main characters we usually see, along with side characters in the regular anime were practically the same. But, some of the new characters got on my nerves. To start, Asagi, at the beginning, was actually pretty annoying. I get that she wanted to save her "family" but she didn't have to act the way she did. She did redeem her self later on, but still. Also, Dai and Roku were annoying 99.9% of the movie. Like, at least Asagi kind of had a reason she acted that way, but these two were just ungrateful. They also called Inuyasha basically weak like more then 5 times during the movie, which got super annoying, super fast. They were nice at the end, but like come on, the should've shut there mouth most of the time. Enjoyment/Overall 7/10 - This was a pretty good movie! It had its flaws and ups and downs, but, it was still good for what it was. I may have taken 3 days to finish it, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it! :3

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