Count this as yet another thing that slipped under my nose but easily saw coming. Shame on me.

Late last week, 2chers caught wind of news that there would be a new ending theme. Fast-forward to a few days ago and it's finally confirmed by Avex.

"The long road ahead" (遠い道の先で Tooi michi no saki de) by Ai Takekawa

While the single comes out on March 3rd, I'm not sure when it'll debut on TV (most likely with 18). At any rate, there continues to be zero sense in Sunrise's placement for new endings. Nevertheless, I gladly welcome it given how terrible Diamond was (full version came out last week).

Source: Ai Takekawa homepage

Thanks to FSC for the tip-off. God knows when I would've figured this out on my own.

Edit: Don't freak out, I've also done a bit of tweaking to the way comments are shown.

I'm not surprised that this slipped by me during Tokyo Tosho's frequent downtime (Jishaku and Nyaa suck as replacements), but I found a ytv RAW for episode 17 that popped up the other day.

The first things you'll notice is that unlike the NTV broadcast, there is no embedded network logo and the preview is included. I'm not exactly surprised by this since I had figured that this was the case when HD preview shots of episode 12 popped after the ytv broadcast of 11. Of course, the preview omission that we are used to does reflect rather poorly on NTV. They seriously couldn't be bothered to spare an extra 30 seconds for the preview.

I've seen other networks do stuff like that to anime. One network will omit the ED or preview while others don't. Case and point can be found this season in the premiere of Ladies vs. Butlers.

At any rate, here's the raw courtesy of Leopard-Raws:
Magnet (recommended) | Torrent

(Kanketsu-hen subs has also posted a sub on their site.)

On an unrelated note, over the next few days to week expect Aniplex publish details (read as: allow a leak) for the 5th Final Act DVD, a move that will probably include the title for episode 20.

Finally, no word on the "It's a Rumic World" OVA RAWs. I'd probably find them in a heartbeat if I could use Perfect Dark or Share, but alas, I can't while I'm on the college network.

(Note: The "It's a Rumic World" DVD comes out later this week. I'll be on the lookout for RAWs for Inuyasha: Black Tessaiga, Ranma 1/2: Nightmare! Incense of Spring Sleep, and Urusei Yatsura: The Obstacle Course Swim Meet.)

Episode 17: Magatsuhi's Evil Will
(曲霊の邪念 Magatsuhi no Janen)

Chapters covered: 512-518

Many people, myself included, have been looking forward to this episode for quite a while. I assume that most of this hype was directed, and rightly so, towards the animated debut from Bakusaiga outside of the opening. This week was another Sakuma-animated episode, however I was far from disappointed as Sunrise did a nice job and put together a fairly decent episode. It followed the manga pretty well and had relatively few deviations.

That is not to say that Sunrise didn't refrain from taking a few liberties at the beginning and during the battle. Unlike last week, such liberties, aside from a few head-slamming gaffes during the battle, were mostly harmless, even Miko Kagome. While one could argue that the little premonition about Magatsuhi gave things away, I don't think it hurt the episode in the slightest. I actually welcome the addition because Naohi was wholly skipped over in the first anime when it was supposed to be mentioned by Miroku in the very very beginning when he explained the four components of the Shikon no Tama. Aside from that, it was only mentioned in the evil book named Inuyasha Manga Profiles (Inuyasha Zusetsutaizan Ougikaiden). With respect to the battle, it felt a bit disjointed at time. A few panels that should've been animated, weren't animated, leaving a rather jerky and back-and-forth (accompanied by Sakuma's notable lack of depicting force) feel.

On a more abstract level, there were a number of powerful glares this week. Magatsuhi gave Kagome a Yu-gi-oh-esque Mind Crush and Sesshoumaru a non-verbal "Go fuck yourself!" to Jaken. I was surprised that episode ended where it did at the end of 518, but alas, time constraints and the contents of next week needed to be considered first. The overall feel of the episode was "energy". It wasn't tense or dramatic, but it had energy generated by the battle, and this is a good thing.

Finally, I can't help but remark on how pleasant and awesome a character Kagome has become by this point in the manga. She gets a lot of flak for a perceived ditzy, scatterbrained, or even bitchy attitude; character flaws that really didn't persist past the first few volumes. The first anime didn't abandon these negative aspects though and this notion of "Kagome is a bitch!" was ingrained in Inuyasha fandom and preserved for the sake of making shit-ton of filler episodes and gratuitous "SIT!" abuse. The manga and Final Act have been very diligent in showing us the true Kagome: the caring and responsible tomboy. *raises flame shield*

Next week will definitely cover chapters 494, 519, and 520. According to Patches' summary, it should also cover 521. Modern day episodes place a huge strain on pacing and I'm glad that they are being grouped together. Accordingly, I will be very angry if Kagome's graduation towards the end is given an entire episode.

Episode 16: Hitomiko's Barrier
瞳子の結界 Hitomiko no kekkai

Chapters covered: 507-511

There was nothing particularly special about this week's episode aside from Satsuki Yukino having a field day voicing Kagome. It followed the manga quite faithfully and preserved the emotional depth of the arc. Kagome's situation and despair were amplified by the animation and background music in a way that the manga barely was able to approach.

However, there were two very glaring ass-pulls by Sunrise. At the beginning of the episode and at the end, Kagome Kagome was referenced. While it's no secret that Rumiko named Kagome after the game, Sunrise referenced it to give Hitomiko a back story she didn't have. Secondly, explaining Kagome's natural abilities as being able to see things behind other things was simply absurd as hell. Did Sunrise just want an excuse to draw Loli Kagome? I remember no such bullshit in the manga.

Anyway, next week is Magatsuhi and Bakusaiga. With any luck, the next few episodes will be anything but episodic.

Inuyasha premieres on early Tuesday mornings in Japan on ytv. When you factor in timezones, this translates to a Monday afternoon afternoon simulcast a few hours later.

In the beginning, premieres occurred with the Sunday morning (Saturday afternoon in the US) broadcast on NTV. Because the NTV broadcast took a 1 week break for the new year, it is a week behind the ytv broadcast. However, not many people receive ytv and accordingly don't cap raws for it. For most anime, this is not a problem. They premiere on 4 or more networks within hours of each other or throughout the week. With only two broadcasters, Inuyasha Final Act is not such a show.

Raws and high definition screenshots for the episode take a few more days and have not appeared before the following Saturday afternoon when the Sunday morning NTV broadcast occurs.

Is this clear to everyone?

BTW, please donate to Haiti relief efforts (you can even use text message to do this!):
http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/ha/earthquake/index.htm

Episode 15: True Heir
(正統なる継承者 Seitounaru keishousha)

Chapters covered: Rest of 499 through 504

Other than retouching a few frames (most visibly with the jyaki-breaking Hiraikotsu) and cutting down scenes by a couple of seconds, practically nothing was changed. Despite being on the shelf for two years, the animation was still top-notch. Quirky non-canon things from the OVA like Toutousai's Moomoo-vision were kept at the expense of giving the previously mentioned cut-down scenes more time. Granted that the entire episode was shrunk by 3 minutes with respect to the OVA, it worked out better than I had been expecting and was faithful to the manga in all of the critical areas. All in all, I've seen this episode enough times in one form or another that I'm sick of it. As such, I have no interest in doing a more in-depth of review.

Next week is Hitomiko. It will cover chapters 507 through 511. Chapter 505 and 506 were the Kitsune Youjutsu exam and was already covered (by Sunrise's definition). I still have Bakusaiga pegged for episode 17.

Now, in other news, Adult Swim ran a bump early this morning about how they decided not to renew rights for Blood+ and Death Note and have picked up three new anime series. The safest assumptions that have been floating around for months have been Soul Eater, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and Inuyasha Final Act. Coupled with another bump that suggested 2 of the properties had February 6th (likely Soul Eater because it already has a mostly completed dub and a February 9th DVD release) and September 25th premieres, a 2010 dub for Final Act seems more likely now.

I must stress (even though commenters will overreact and ignore this) that AS has not announced the titles for any of the three properties.

Source: Anime News Network

Episode 17: Magatsuhi's Evil Will
(曲霊の邪念 Magatsuhi no Janen)

Episode 18: An Important Event in Life
(人生の一大事 Jinsei no Ichidaiji)

Episode 19: Kohaku's Shard
(琥珀の欠片 Kohaku no Kakera)

Source: Magazine scan found on 2ch

Episode 14:  In Pursuit of Naraku
(奈落の追撃 Naraku no Tsuigeki)

Chapters covered: 495 through half of 499

Japan has left me in despair. No ytv streams (still looking). No HD screencaps (seriously 2chan?). No raws (maybe in a few days). I guess Viz is better than nothing.

Anyway, if I could describe this week's episode in two words, they would be "Classic Inuyasha". As I was anticipating, three and a half chapters made for a very old school pace that revolved around a somewhat disjointed story. In many respects, it felt like Sunrise had time to spare and could've easily finished chapter 499 or do what they did with the introduction of Kanna and the Mirror Monster. However, doing that would've presented a rather interesting problem which I will get to in a bit. First, I'd like to point out that chapter 494 was not animated this week because it would've been too out of place. I can only assume that the "The Two Worlds" (ch494) and rest of "The Right Wish" (ch512) will be covered together in episode 17 or later. We also got more remastered animation this week during Kohaku's flashback. The whole chase was a bit silly and looked weird, especially from the perspective of Inuyasha and the gang. But then again, that's how it was in the manga. The Poisonous Youkai-Busting Hiraikotsu looking really great more than made up for that.

Now, next week is the Black Tessaiga story and I am 99% percent sure that it will be mostly unchanged from the OVA (Torrent | DDL) that leaked as a camrip last year save for a few anticipated edits (retouched animation, removal of OVA title sequence, and minor cuts for time constraints). I do worry about how it will all be handled in 21 usable minutes due to commercials, the OP, and the ED. Episode 14 ended as it did because Sunrise needed to slide in Black Tessaiga as-is. I have the cross-checked the scenes shown in the preview with the scenes from the OVA (as grainy as the camrip was) and they match up perfectly. Call Sunrise lazy if you want, but it certainly makes sense to reuse perfectly good animation that's been sitting on the shelf since at least early 2008. However, I do find it hilarious that the episode will air first and that Sunrise wants $160 USD ($215 MSRP) for the Black Tessaiga OVA that comes bundled in the "It's a Rumic World" DVD that comes out on January 27th.

Edit: Yes, the newsletter is acting up and timing out. Sorry about the multiple emails and blame the 110mb hosting.