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 It's the end of Inu Yasha. But then again, it's not. After 167 episodes, this set sees the end of the first series based on the long-running manga - but it leaves the story incomplete, waiting for Inu Yasha: The Final Act (a 26-episode sequel series) to finish the story. So yeah, don't be expecting Naraku to get his comeuppance just yet...
As ever these days, you'll find the full episode summaries and screenshots on pages 2+ of the review. With this being the last set in the series, you would expect that - after all the messing around we've been through to get the gang properly on Naraku's trail - we'd finally be getting down to the serious business of killing the Big Bad. After all, it's clear now where he's going - the afterlife, where the final shard of the Shikon no Tama is waiting for someone to collect it - and with a growing band of people trying to kill him (Inu Yasha and the gang, Sesshomaru, Kagura, and a few other familiar faces added to the list over the course of the set), there are only so many places a power-hungry demon can hide, or people he can avoid.
And up to a point, action is what we get. There are two set-piece confrontations with Naraku in these episodes, one in the afterlife and another in the closing feature-length episode. But what we don't get, no surprise at all, is any sense of closure or success - Naraku has planned in detail for these confrontations and has made himself damn near immortal, through what is either clever trickery or complete bull (depending on how well your suspension of disbelief is working), so that - no matter how they may try or how powered-up Inuyasha gets - even being reduced to itty-bitty pieces just means a short interlude for Naraku while he, quite literally, pulls himself back together. There's one memorable scene were Naraku: is hit by Inuyasha's new, powered-up, sure-kill attack, the Adamant Barrage; is then struck by a similarly-powerful attack from Sesshomaru (Tenseiga conveniently is a killing sword in the afterlife, doubly so if you're not meant to be there in the first place); and, just to tidy things up, is then struck by one of Kikyo's holy arrows, which should in theory purify any evil from targets it strikes. And yet he lives to fight another day. Uh, okay....
So that's one failing: the unbearable urge to shout at the screen, "Oh, ffs, just die already!!". For the second failing, the clue's in that last paragraph as well: Kikyo. Now, I'm aware that my old pet hate of "the dead should stay dead" perhaps isn't relevant with her, as she was always dead as far as this series was concerned, but a lot of emotional manipulation was put into her apparent "proper" death scene not that long ago, in story terms. But colour me entirely unsurprised when she turns up once again, with a new body created by her new attendant shikigamis, and ready to be the cause of much new angst between Kagome and Inuyasha. I was never much of a fan of Kikyo anyway, but her return really did annoy me - it's not pointless, as she certainly plays a role in these final episodes, but it just smacks too much of "reset button" for my liking.
Far more interesting this time around, though, are Kagura and Kohaku. Kagura's disloyalty to Naraku is well-known - she's been looking for a way to do away with him for quite some time, and her efforts are if anything redoubled here. She's identified Sesshomaru as the best option for having her master killed, and keeps supplying him with a constant stream of useful information to help the big guy in his search for Naraku. But new to her little conspiracy is Kohaku, who regains his memories of Sango and his life pre-Naraku over the course of the set and begins to turn his own attention to trying to find a way to gain his freedom. His story is made particularly interesting by the way he goes about it - he's fully aware that Naraku is permanently suspicious of his minion, keeping a constant watch on them, and so forces himself to continue to act as normal as possible so as not to clue Naraku into what's going on - even though that means, in places, having to attack Sango while knowing full well who she is and wanting to reach out and be with her again. This is probably where the set got the most emotion out of me (there's one episode that essentially devoted to Kohaku's dilemma, which is one of the best in the set), and it's a shame that the matter isn't resolved before the series ends.
Add in a few filler episodes and you get a set that, while it has its epic moments, probably isn't as epic as it really should be. This is the thrilling conclusion of a long-running series, after all (four years in broadcast terms, as the show reminds us at the end - the DVD release took even longer), and you expect it to go out with something a little more dramatic than "our story continues..." But that's what we're stuck with, and I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the way it just petered out like that. That said, if you've stuck with Inu Yasha through seasons 1-6, it would probably take season 7 to screw up in some monumental way to persuade you to skip over at this point - in which case rest assured, there's nothing here that bad. Some wasted potential, sure, but the end result is still enjoyable and, under the circumstances, a perfectly acceptable send-off.
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