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R1 DVD Reviews
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Monday, 10 May 2010 00:00 |
 There's one character in Inu Yasha who has yet to be 'star' of an episode that I haven't liked, and that's Inuyasha's big brother, Sesshomaru (it's not just fangirls that appreciate the big fella). So picture my response at finding that this volume starts off with a feature-length special focussing on... Sesshomaru. I love it already...
133/134 - The Woman Who Loved Sesshomaru
The gang have reached the sea, and with no demonic aura or shikon shards in the area that Kagome can sense, it looks like they'll get a chance to enjoy themselves for a while. At a nearby nunnery, though, a princess lies dying, and as she breathes her last, Kagome and the others sense an immense demonic aura gathering around the nunnery. The princess, Sara, died with one last regret - and it seems as though she's not going to go to the afterlife without dealing with it. Nearby, Sesshomaru is continuing his search for Naraku, when Sara emerges from the mists to remind him of the time they last met. Sesshomaru had once saved her family from destruction, and however inadvertently that may have been, his actions led to her developing feelings of love for the big man - and feelings of gratitude, that she now wants to repay by giving Sesshomaru the one thing that she believes he really desires: Inuyasha's death...
135 - The Last Banquet of Miroku's Master
Word has reached the gang of a series of killings at local temples - it appears that someone is targetting the highly-spritual men of the area, for no reason that anyone can yet tell. At least that means Miroku should be safe. Unfortunately, one of the men attacks was Mushin, the monk who raised and trained Miroku. Badly injured in the attack, he's not expected to live for much longer, and Miroku is summoned to see him before he dies. But Mushin seems to be in rather good form for someone who's supposed to be on his way out...
The key to all this is that Sara seems to have misunderstood Sesshomaru in several key ways. For a start, he doesn't remember her as what he did to save her family was simply him getting rid of some people who stood in his ways - the affairs of humans, were never of any concern to the big man until Rin came into his life. To say he wants Inuyasha dead is also over-simplifying the relationship between the brothers - yes, Sesshomaru in intensely jealous that it was Inuyasha who was left control of Tetsusaiga, and he would certainly love to get his hands on the sword, but to say he would kill Inuyasha to get it? Not so sure - he's had plenty of chances to do that, if he wanted to, and Inuyasha is still with it - so you can assume that, despite the occasional bluster, killing Inu Yasha isn't high on his agenda.
Those misunderstandings are what makes the story interesting, though, as it takes Sara a while to figure out that she's rapidly turning into the villain of the piece. For a lot of the story, there's also no apparent connection between the travels of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru - it takes a while for things to come together and the brothers to come together - but it plays out well, with Sara being the sort of villain that you can still feel some sympathy for. She's doing the wrong things, but for emotional reasons that it's hard to criticise her for, and she makes for a good story that has a suitably 'major' feel to it - as you would expect for a double-length episode.
The volume closes out with an episode that features Miroku's old mentor, Mushin, who fears he's about to become victim of a spree of killings amongst holy men. What Inuyasha and the others don't know is that Kagura and her rather creepy ward are behind the killings, for reasons as-yet unclear; they also don't know that Mushin is in no immediate danger, as he presents himself as 'dying' and doesn't explain that he's just afraid of being killed. Hell, you see him for about 5 seconds and you realise that, just like Miroku, he's in no danger of being mistaken for a particularly holy man. It's a fun episode, though, and brings some good humour to the volume after the more serious events of the Sesshomaru story.
So, the best Inu Yasha we've seen since the Band of Seven left the scene, especially if you're as much of a Sesshomaru fan as I am. I'm past the point of recommending individual volumes, but the episodes on this one are both well worth seeing.
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