A most peculiar episode…
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.
