Episode 21: Inside Naraku
(奈落の体内へ Naraku no tainai e)

Chapters covered: 530 through half of 534

Shinichi Sakuma earned a very bad reputation for his second rate animation direction for the first Inuyasha anime. To his credit, he's improved for Final Act, but then you have episodes like this week's…

First, the good: This week was pretty panel-for-panel with a few exceptions. There was also budget-breaking use of CG animation for Spider Naraku and it looked very nice

The bad: Important lines regarding Naraku's plans for the future from chapter 530 were omitted.

The ugly: 3 minutes of footage from the original anime. If you look closely, you can see that even a scene from "Owarinae Yume" (Inuyasha OP3) was included. It must take a special level of desperation to do that. Probably makes sense when you waste half of an episode's budget on computer generated animation.

Next week should cover at least through the end of chapter 538. Atsuo Tobe returns to animation direction and from what I see in the preview, we may be in for a treat. At least, I hope so…

On the issue of pacing, things look very stable at an average 4 to 4.5 chapters per episode.

"Wrong for one's age"
(年甲斐もなく Toshigaimonaku)

Another Rumiko one-shot to bring me out of retirement? Perhaps.

But you guys know the routine. Free-to-use high quality raw (thanks Heiji-sama) plus a free-to-use translated script (thanks Patches) equals a maybe as to whether or not I scanlate.

Raw download: http://www.mediafire.com/?qymiyzydajy

Also, if the plot sucks harder than My Sweet Sunday, I won't touch this with a 10 foot pole. All I know about the story is that it revolves around a old man getting involved with a young woman a few decades his junior.

Pro-tip: If I do scanlate, that work would be at the bottom of my list after my college work. Remember how long Unmei no Tori took?

Source: Big Comic Original

These came a lot earlier than I was expected. Nevertheless, I came across these titles the other day in a 2ch thread. No verification though. Hence, I dismissed them until now.

Episode 24: Naraku: A fleeting wish
(奈落 儚き望み Naraku hakanaki nozomi)

Episode 25:  Unfulfilled feelings
(届かぬ想い Todoka nu omoi)

Episode 26: Towards tomorrow
(明日へ Ashita e)

Source: Sony Music Shop

(Yes, I just made a Dallas reference, get over it.)

Episode 20: When the Shikon no Tama is complete
(完成する四魂の玉 Kansei suru shikon no tama)

Chapters covered: Rest of 525 through 529

No complaints this week. Panel-for-panel adaptation of the manga courtesy of Maezawa and Tachibana. The attention to detail was impressive, but the animation itself was quite good save for a few instances of oddly-drawn facial expressions. There was one noticeable instance of artistic license this week and it kind of threw me for a loop. As the jewel was completing, Sunrise made it shatter in a bright, pink flash before recombining completely filled with darkness. Aside from that, no deviations. Because this week was quite faithful, the tone and feelings of the chapters covered were kept and executed very well. No shortage of tears this week.

Next week marks the beginning of the Naraku arc and while this will take us through the end of the manga, Sunrise's pacing for 24, 25, and 26 will make or break the anime.

Usually 2ch beats Sunrise to the punch on revealing monthly titles and summaries, but not this time. First off, I am very glad to learn that the animation duo for episode 13 (Shishinki fight), Tachibana and Maezawa, will be returning for episode 20.

Episode 21: Into Naraku's body
(奈落の体内へ Naraku no tainai he)

Episode 22: Naraku, the trap of darkness
(奈落 闇の罠 Naraku yami no wana)

Episode 23: Naraku, the trap of light
(奈落 光の罠 Naraku hikari no wana)

There you have it folks. From what I can tell through the summaries, episodes 21 through 23 will cover content from 530 up to and including chapter 544.

Source: Sunrise – http://www.sunrise-inc.co.jp/yasya-kanketsu/onair/

Episode is up on Hulu servers and Shonen Sunday, but isn't visible as of the time of this posting:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/125220/inuyasha—the-final-act-kohaku%E2%80%99s-shard#play-all

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

Chapters covered: 392, 521 through half of 525

Very faithful episode save for the first minute or so wasted in the modern era. I did not appreciate how Sunrise had Inuyasha destroy part of the Higurashi house. The use of payphones is probably a jab at how Rumiko couldn't decide whether the series would have 1997 or 2007 technology. Poor Kagome, all of her friends have cell phones though. Edit: Apparently I completely forget about chapter 392, Peaceful Table. My bad. It was very nice to see it animated.

Animation direction was done by Fujimori this week. His work is really nothing special, but you can thank him for when the animation and emotions peaked during Shippou's conversation with Sango. After that, however, everything started to go downhill. The ending of this episode was not handled that well in the manga to begin with, but the whole "Is it too late?" exchange looked terribly cheesy animated.

Next week, Kohaku goes into badass mode and gets his shard sniped. Should make for good times and a lot of emotion if the manga is followed and given proper deference.

Edit: Episode titles for 21-24 should appear on 2ch some time this week.

Also, remember this?

Episode 20: When the Shikon no Tama is complete
(完成する四魂の玉 Kansei suru shikon no tama)

I love consistency and I love Aniplex.

Source: http://www.sonymusicshop.jp/detail.asp?goods=ANSB-9505

(Yes, I made a reference to Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (Idiots and Tests and Summoned Beings), a hilarious high school anime airing this season, get over it.)

Episode 18: Day of days!
(人生の一大事 Jinsei no Ichidaiji)

Chapters covered: 494, 519, 520

Not much covered this week, but it was unavoidable. Let's start with how it was arranged. The first few minutes covered 519, from there until the break was a well-blended backtrack to 494, and then the episode finished with 520. Sunrise had to do things this way and I'm very glad that they did. As I said last week, modern world plots are a good way to waste an episode, the logical solution was to bunch a few of them together. This week was one of those episodes, and it worked out great without damaging the plot. Unfortunately, as a consequence of the episode arrangement, Kagome is made to look like a very deredere (lovestruck) girl in one moment, and complete bitch in the next. There are 3 instances of "OSUWARI!" (Sit boy!) in this episode and the first one during the bedroom scene was added by Sunrise for some stupid reason. Of course, the next two instances are justified since they are in manga, but this episode hearkens back to first series when Kagome was reimagined by Sunrise as someone who mercilessly shout it 10 or more times just for kicks.

Art-wise, this episode was amazing. You may have noticed the great amount of care placed into Kagome's facial expressions and Inuyasha's eyebrows this week. You can thank Rie Nakajima for all of that. On the downside though, there were a lot of flashbacks this week. Half of it was remastered (read as: recycled) animation from the first series while the rest was stuff from 10 minutes earlier. It was consistent and looked rather lazy.

There was a new ending this week by Ai Takekawa called "Tooi michi no saki de" (The long road ahead). It kicks the shit out of "Diamond" in terms of how it sounds. I'd compare it most to "Come" from the first series. Visually though, it seems to lack the focus that the first two endings had. Byakuya and Bakusaiga don't really follow.

Next week will mark the beginning of the battle for Kohaku's shard. I'm not sure how far it will get.

Finally, to those who complain about my lack of proper episode summaries, I say this: I don't summarize, I critique. The "chapters covered" is all the summary you need. If you're visiting this site, there is an expectation that you've already read the manga, the chapters in question, or have already watched the episode. If you want a summary, go bug the guys who run the Random Curiosity blog.