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.

I knew something was fishy when the titles for 16 and 17 showed up extremely early in a TV schedule thread on 2ch without an accompanying magazine scan. With the appearance of the actual title for 16 from rock-solid sources, I once again have egg on my face because of my rather low standards for running this site. I hereby retract the titles for 16 and 17 that I previously posted.

Anyway, Aniplex is now four for four on allowing title leaks.

Good going guys. </sarcasm>

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

Sources: JBOOK and Kinokuniya

Edit: It is now increasingly becoming clear to me that ytv will not be giving Final Act a week off anytime soon. This means that the NTV broadcasts will end up a week behind ytv. Because Final Act premieres will now be on Monday (barely Tuesday in Japan), it makes sense that Viz moved their simulcast to match that. Accordingly, I'd like to apologize to Viz for not giving them the benefit of the doubt and praise them for having the foresight as well as insider info to do it ahead of time. If you want to be technical, Viz didn't have a choice since their license certainly would not entitle them to premiere Final Act in the US roughly 48 hours ahead of Japan.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have no idea what this will mean for timely 720p/1080p raws. What is certain is that won't appear before the sub. I don't foresee any problem with finding HD screencaps as the episode airs, but if you know where I can find a LIVE ytv stream online (Yomiuri TV 読売テレビ not that Canadian channel), please tell me. I'm not afraid to use programs like Sopcast or Tvants.

Finally, in case you are wondering, Viz promised in a comment on their Rumic World site that subs would arrive on Monday, January 4th as usual, presumably in the afternoon and within hours of the ytv broadcast.

Episode 13: A Completed Meidou!
完全な冥道 Kanzen na Meidou

Chapters covered: 489 through 494

For the first time in a long time, NTV actually aired Inuyasha Final Act at its scheduled time without moving it back another 30 minutes to finish a soccer game. Of course, by scheduled I mean still 55 minutes later than the original broadcasting slot that the anime was allocated to.

Anyway, this week was another panel-by-panel adaptation and it was damn good. Despite covering 5 chapters worth of content this week, the battle-oriented nature of this episode allowed a leisurely pace of what was both a dialogue and action-heavy story. This pace was quite surprising since Sunrise thoroughly covered the content and even had an extra minute or two for artistic liberties and flashbacks. The end result was exactly as the preview for the episode had promised: crazy-ass CGI meidou spam. With Shishinki launching 10+ meidou balls at once, it was literally a game of dodgeball.

By the way, I can't stress enough how critical it is that you watch this episode in 720p or above when it hits the net. I don't care if it's raw or subbed. The screencaps on 2chan do not do this episode justice and neither does a low quality KeyHole or Hulu stream. Yes folks, the animation this week completely blasts the animation for episode 11 out of the water. The animation directors this week were Hiromi Maezawa and Kayo Tachibana but here's the catch: their past directorial roles are pretty non-existent and most of their past work with Inuyasha has been key animation. This is their first animation direction for Inuyasha and I'm literally shocked at how well they did. Episode 11 looked amazing because Rie Nakajima, a seasoned Inuyasha director with about 30 episodes under her belt, was at the helm and she knows how to manage a budget. This week, I have no explanation.

As I mentioned earlier, this episode was incredibly faithful to the manga. Nothing, to my knowledge, was cut. All of the essential lines were spoken and the battle was choreographed properly. Minor things like Shishinki's bug-eyed assistant (who remains a plothole to this day), Myouga talking to Sesshoumaru and Shishinki and Sesshoumaru's meidou'd arm sleeve were not missed or glossed over. This was quite nice. Also, before you ask: I don't know who voiced Shishinki or his assistant.

One of the more unusual aspects of this episode was how the flashbacks were handled. We got a new glance of Sesshoumaru trying to remove Tessaiga from the Inu no Taishou's grave yet only seconds later we see recycled (and ostensibly remastered) animation from the first series; namely the battle to claim Tessaiga (Inuyasha vs Dog Youkai Sesshoumaru) and the battle where Sesshoumaru uses the dragon arm before receiving a direct hit from the Kaze no Kizu. It was a bit strange to see the mix of old and new, but considering how quick the scenes were and how such trivial things can derail an animation budget, I can see why they weren't reanimated.

In short, Sunrise produces great Final Act episodes when they follow a rather simple formula: 1) Focus on one event or two relatively simultaneous, yet unrelated stories. 2) Don't try cover one story and then cover the next related story in a single episode. 3) Battles are easy to adapt.

Finally, a little housekeeping before I go. I'm well aware of how harsh I was regarding last week's episode and I know that Sunrise has only 26 episodes to finish the series and splitting stories between two or more episodes won't work aside from the final battle. Nevertheless, I hear your concerns. While I call the episodes as I see them with a kanji dictionary and manga on hand, I'll try to tone it down. On unrelated note, I've been messing around with the commenting system. I hope you like it. Also, please forgive me if the newsletter sends you two or more emails for a post. It acts up at times and doesn't always send to every subscriber on the first attempt.

Important edit: According to Syoboi and the NTV website, there will be no NTV (Nippon TV) broadcast of Final Act next Saturday, only the Monday broadcast on ytv (Yomiuri TV) at 12:14 PM EST. I'll keep you guys posted on whether there are any changes to this schedule. I'll probably see the episode when you guys do since ytv streams are almost non-existent and ytv Final Act raws even more so. Whatever happens, Viz's sub should not be delayed because they normally finish it days before the episode airs in Japan.

HD screencaps (click images to magnify, click here for more)

Episode 12: Sango's feelings, Miroku's resolve
珊瑚の想い 弥勒の覚悟 Sango no omoi Miroku no kakugo

Chapters covered: 481 through 488

I came into this episode fully expecting the youdoku story to be cut down considerably and it was. Seven chapters isn't easy to cover in 21 usable minutes. Most of 481 and 482 that didn't get cut was reduced to a few seconds. We got a brief glimpse of Human Inuyasha and I doubt we're going to see him again. The whole fight with the bone stealers took no more than 5 minutes total. The rest of the episode was dedicated to Yakurou Dokusen and a drunk Kappei Yamaguchi.

On the whole, the episode wasn't that great. The atmosphere felt all wrong. The inside of the jar was far too bright. I was expecting something nearly pitch black and ominous. Sango didn't fight the youkai of Hiraikotsu at all and instead they just talked to each for most of the episode. As I watched that, I simply shook my head in disbelief. Sunrise robbed us of Sango showing off sword skills with her underused Taijiyatou. As for Miroku and the poison drinking, it was incredibly understated and boring despite being in line with the manga, mulling over whether you want risk your life for 10 minutes really doesn't make for good television. Animation was good as usual, as for sound, there weren't any decent BGMs this week.

With each new episode, I sympathize with Sunrise somewhat. Because of how disjointed the manga is, it's very hard to divide story lines between two episodes. This week was a perfect example of this.

RAWs for this episode should be floating around within a few hours. There was a nice nostalgic "Inuyasha no Tsubo" advertising the first DVD release.

Next week is the fight with Shishinki.

HD screencaps lazily organized in no particular order (click to magnify) – more can be found here.

Episode 11: Kanna's Gravestone
神無の墓標 (Kanna no bohyou)

Chapters covered: Rest of 476 through the end of 480

Note to self, the episode title continues to piss me off.

This episode reminds of how much Rumiko enjoyed killing her lolis. Rin twice and then Kanna.

At any rate, I really like how everything was handled this week. A few of the manga's subtleties were brought out and expanded upon. For example, not many people will recall that Kanna and the mirror monster hunted down Inuyasha's group in the cave. Such a short event was given a minute or two. Also, with respect to Kanna's concealed rebellious attitude, we didn't see more of that this week further than what was seen in the manga. I have no problem with that since Sunrise had very little to work with in the build-up to the battle. Kanna also was quite the talker, though not in the manner you'd expect. Her speaking role was limited to announcing attacks, questing her freedom, and declaring that the light will defeat Naraku. Animation was spot on again this week. I really don't care much for or notice the differences between animation directors, so I'm really not one to make comments here.

Anyway, next week is Yakurou Dokusen. With the preview delayed until Monday, when the screenshots appear on 2ch, or when ytv updates their page, I really can't make a good judgment call on how Sunrise is going to pull this off in a single episode. The summary suggests that 7 chapters worth of material will be covered. If the Youdoku story gets about 5 minutes and then the rest is devoted to Yakurou Dokusen, I can see it working. But then again, 7 chapters in a single episode won't be pretty.

HD screencaps – mouse-over for captions, click to magnify (if you want more, go here *site is minimally NSFW without Adblock Plus*)

This is going to sting for a lot of people.

Viz announced today that from episode 11 onward, their subtitled stream of Inuyasha Final Act will not be put up until Monday.

I'm not sure how the fansubbers will react to this, but in many respects, it's very similar territory to that of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood which also has an official sub that comes out a few days after airing in Japan.

Press release at the Viz homepage.

Edit: You can watch the episode live on KeyHoleTV today (12/12) at 2:30 PM EST on the Nippon TV channel (日本テレビ) or download a RAW or speedsub on Tokyo Tosho later today. If you watch on KeyHole, the video and audio will frequently fall out of sync. If this happens, simply "Stop VIDEO" and re-enter the Nippon TV channel.

Episode 15: Legitimate Successor
(正統なる継承者 Seitounaru keishousha)

Episode 16: Kagome's Bow
(かごめの弓 Kagome no yumi)

Episode 17: Birth of the Jewel
(玉の誕生 Tama no tanjou)

Sources: 2ch.net (16 and 17) and Sunrise's Inuyasha Final Act website (12 through 15)

Once again, 2ch.net delivers.

Episode 13: Completed Meidou
(完全な冥道 Kanzen na Meidou)

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

Looks like Shishinki will be covered in 13 (maybe spill into 14 too?) and Hiraikotsu 2.0 along with all the other disjointed stuff that followed Shishinki should be in 14. This pace really sets up 15 for Black Tessaiga. Down the road, I can see Hitomiko for 16 and 17 covering Magatsuhi's introduction plus Bakusaiga. But then again, it's far too early to speculate and maybe we should wait for more titles and summaries to come out before we talk conclusively about such things.

Edit: A kind Anonymous on 2ch posted some HD images of the preview for episode 11. I'm not sure if these are from a Kanto broadcaster or the ytv airing, but they sure look nice. Click to magnify.

Episode 10: Flowers drenched in sadness
悲しみに濡れる花 (Kanashimi ni nureru hana)

Chapters covered: Rest of 471 through the beginning of 475

New ending this week by alan. It's called "Diamond" and is basically just a slower version of "Essence of me" (according to sakuraangel on Channel Ai, ats- arranged the song and reserved the right to change the title alan chose). In all likelihood, the single version of "Essence of me" that was talked about was indeed "Diamond" all along.

Confusing, I know. I can tell that my overeager reporting didn't help much to alleviate this confusion. Sorry everyone.

As for the ending visuals themselves, they are very charming and snow oriented. But on the whole, I'm not a fan of the new ending. It's pretty weak compared to "With you" or the endings from first series. I also still can't understand why we're got a new one so quickly.

As for the rest of the episode, it was mostly devoted to Kaou (well-animated villain, but nobody wanted to screenshot him) and very hot-blooded Kagome. This wasn't too exciting though as the beginning and end of the episode took a few minutes to set up for the fight to the death with Kanna next week. What was most interesting is that Sunrise gave Kanna a bit more personality than I was expecting with respect to her grieving over Kagura and hatred of Naraku. The scene of her holding the fan was really a nice touch. I hadn't expected the fight with the Mirror Monster to begin this week, but I'm glad that it did in light of the episode 12 title implying the poison jar trials of Yakurou Dokusen.

HD screencaps (courtesy of 2ch/Futaba) – click to magnify, mouse-over for captions

Aniplex is more loose-lipped about episode titles than I thought. This is the second time that a title has been revealed through a DVD description by an online retailer.

Episode 12: "Sango's feelings, Miroku's resolve"  (Yakurou Dokusen story?)
(珊瑚の想い 弥勒の覚悟 Sango no omoi Miroku no kakugo)

Source: ggking.jp