Inuyasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler (2003)
Inuyasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler is the best one so far. Considering my ratings, make of this what you will. It still doesn’t add anything to the franchise, feels like nothing more than an extended TV episode, and if you don’t see it, you won't bee missing out on anything.
The story begins before the events of the series when Inuyasha's father is slain by a samurai named Takemaru (voiced by Jonathan Holmes). In the aftermath of the battle, a mysterious cursed sword appears. When the So'unga is rediscovered in the present day, Takemaru is resurrected. InuYasha (voiced by Richard Ian Cox) must team up with his cruel brother Sesshomaru (David Kaye) and, with the help of Kagome (Moneca Stori), Sango (Kelly Sheridan), and Miroku (Kirby Morrow) defeat this new menace before he opens the doorway to the underworld.
This movie's plot is more interesting than the previous two's. A demonic sword as the villain is a novel idea. The revelations about the characters' past history bring in new facets of the characters and some nice meaty drama. Now, the brothers who hate each other will have to find a way to team up in order to defeat the opponent who killed their father. Speaking of the So'unga/Takemaru combo, they're a fearsome threat. The blade can corrupt people and resurrect the dead. Wielded by a skilled warrior, it unleashes devastating attacks and brings the downed foes back as part of a growing army of zombies.
While this story introduces new characters that ultimately won't affect the series, they're well integrated in the series' mythology. The existing character dynamics are expanded upon in a satisfying way. Some plot points fans believed buried are brought back in a way that's pretty clever. There are some good ideas here.
The picture's flaws can be divided into two categories. The first are inherent to this franchise, the second are typical of nearly all of these anime-the-movie productions.
In both the show and Swords of an Honorable Ruler it’s obvious the lecherous Miroku’s special ability, the black hole in the palm of his hand is way, wayyyy too powerful a weapon. Any screenwriter must be cursing the manga’s creator because every single time, they have to find a way to prevent him from being able to use it. He should be unbeatable, like someone armed with a flamethrower in caveman times, instead, some new thing hobbles the monk. It leads us to the next problem: too many characters and too many with nothing to do. It’s not enough that we have four main characters, an anti-hero and two villains in the movie, but we have 5 supporting characters whose roles basically consist of comic relief. They never get any new jokes either and it gets tiresome quickly.
The second category of problems I’ve addressed before. End of the day, this story means nothing. The characters don't advance, nothing introduced will stick around, the animation isn’t on a level that you couldn’t get on TV, and the material hasn’t matured either. Plenty of other movies have an impact on the show, wrap up a big storyline, or give you something new. Powerpuff Girls: The Movie introduced us to a story that took place before the show started, Transformers: The Movie killed off and introduced dozens of characters. Star Trek: The Motion Picture had new kinds of visuals and effects that we hadn’t seen before. To pay to see this in theaters is to get swindled.
I'm nostalgic for Inuyasha and have some affection for this movie as well. If you do too and you HAVE to watch at least one of the movies, make it this one. This "recommendation" comes with an asterisk. You must be a big fan of the show beforehand. If you are and you see this one at home for the price of a rental at most, you’ll like it more than not. (English Dub on DVD, April 12, 2015)
