My Thoughts on the “Inuyasha” Movies

Foreword: 

This was originally written and posted on DeviantART on April 16, 2021. This might officially be the oldest journal that I’ve reposted on here from DeviantART. Older than the post about The Weekenders. Don’t quote me on that though. After going through all of my old journals to find anything worth reposting on here, I discovered that I hadn’t actually written any reviews of the Inuyasha series itself, like I didn’t write any reviews of the individual seasons or give my thoughts on the series while I was really watching it. I only started writing about Inuyasha with the movies, then I wrote the character Kikyo and how the writers seemingly refused to let her die at least until Inuyasha: The Final Act (but then, they still brought her back kind of since the Tree of Ages 🌳 uses her image, her likeness to represent itself in Yashahime), and then I wrote about Inuyasha: The Final Act, the show’s final season that finally concluded the series, tying up most of the loose ends, and giving the characters each their own resolutions (they each get their own happy ending, or at least a bittersweet ending). I also wrote about my thoughts on the series overall in that journal. I guess my thinking was that I wouldn’t review Inuyasha until I finished watching the whole thing, including The Final Act. That’s what I usually like to do when I review a series, unless it’s ongoing and doesn’t look like it’ll end any time soon, then I’ll usually wait until I finish watching the whole thing. 

I don’t like it when people review shows season by season or episode by episode, they fail to see the bigger picture and see how it all comes together as one whole. I really don’t don’t like it when people only review the first season and only base their opinion on that one season. Unless it’s a show that only has one season, there’s no excuse for that sort of thing, I’m sorry. You might be missing out on the rest of what that show has to offer, you might be missing on a whole other dimension that was not in that first season you initially reviewed. Maybe, they improved on the things on you complained about and the show got way better, maybe the show completely changed after the first season. 

Or, alternatively, maybe the show got worse after the first season, and the either ruined the things you liked about that first season or got rid of them entirely. You never know unless you actually watch those other seasons after the first season. I wish more people would stay the course and wait to give their opinion on a show until they’ve seen the whole thing instead of watching the first episode or first season and just calling it a day. There’s no way you can be comprehensive if you do it that. That’s why I personally like to watch an entire show from the first season to the last, first episode to the last, before writing my review of it. I’ll be able to form a much more informed and comprehensive opinion on it that way. 

I did write about the four Inuyasha films together (yes, there are four of them) because they’re kind of their own thing separate from the series, like it did call for dedicating an entire journal to them instead of just writing about them in a journal about the series, and they aren’t required viewing despite them being canon to the series. I did rewatch the first three movies sometime last year, when I was reposting my reviews of Yashahime and writing my final one on the second half of Season 2. I did enjoy them the second time as much as I did the first time. I would still say that Swords of an Honorable Ruler is my favorite, like even though I don’t rate or rank movies anymore, I would still say that ranking of the four Inuyasha movies hasn’t changed. Fire on the Mystic Island is still my least favorite, in fact I disliked it so much that I didn’t even bother rewatching it when I was rewatching the other Inuyasha movies. My reasons for not liking it have not changed since I wrote this review, neither have my reasons for liking Swords of an Honorable Ruler. 

I still think that the second movie, Castle Beyond the Looking Glass would’ve been improved if it weren’t a canonical story to the series, and if it were just an elseworld story where the gang succeeded in defeating Naraku, and showing what they would’ve done afterwards. I also think the story would’ve been better if Kaguya wasn’t a demon in disguise and had been the real Moon spirit 🌕, like I always felt like she became way less interesting when they revealed at the end that she wasn’t a celestial being and she had killed the real Moon spirit 🌕. It was no longer a nuanced story about a vengeful Moon spirit 🌕 after being wronged in the past, but was just another demon-of-the week kind of story. And in the end, it was all just a scheme by Naraku to absorb another powerful demon into his body and become even more powerful than he was before. I guess you could say that’s an issue with all of the Inuyasha movies, the fact that they all feel like extended episodes of the series. None of them (even the ones I like) have stories that couldn’t have easily been done in the series itself. They don’t truly feel cinematic. Affections Across Time and Swords of an Honorable Ruler came the closest but didn’t quite get there. 

And of course my one issue with Swords of an Honorable Ruler was the after credit scene where Kagome puts the necklace back on Inuyasha, like yeah I know she had to do that to restore everything back to the status quo but come on, that was cheap. She just put that necklace back on him so that she could control him and punish him whenever he says anything wrong. That was one aspect of Kagome’s character that I always disliked, how she used the Beads of Subjugation to assert power over Inuyasha and make him bend to her will and do what she wants, and punish him if he steps out of the line. 

I mean, Subjugation is in their name, Kagome knew exactly what she was doing. The fact that she kept them on him even after they got married and after they had a kid together makes her look even worse. If Kagome were a man ♂︎ instead of woman ♀︎, we’d all say that she’s abusive and her treatment of Inuyasha wouldn’t be seen as anything less than abuse. But because she’s a woman ♀︎, she’s allowed to get away with it. Inuyasha has a serious case of Stockholm syndrome I tell ya. I know that I’m not the only one who feels that way about Kagome, a lot of fans have felt that way about her over the years. 

That’s why I liked it in The Ghost and Molly McGee when they removed that curse that Scratch had put on himself to be summoned whenever Molly says his name out loud, because Scratch could actually have free will and could go and do whatever he wanted, and wasn’t subject to abuse or invasion of privacy by Molly. And Molly was upset at the fact that she couldn’t just call upon Scratch and make him appear in front of her whenever she wanted, she called it “friendship on demand.” Molly knew what she was doing 😒. So, I’m glad that the show took that power away from her when Inuyasha didn’t take that power away from Kagome. It’s the kind of power that can easily go to someone’s head and can very easily be abused, and in both cases, Kagome in Inuyasha and Molly in The Ghost and Molly McGee, it was abused.

I also wish that Sesshomaru had much bigger role in the movies than he did because he is my favorite Inuyasha character and it’s a shame that he was given such a meniscal role and screen time in the movies. The biggest role and most amount of screen time he had in the movies, was of course Swords of an Honorable Ruler, which is a huge reason why I like it so much. But besides that, Sesshomaru has a very minor role in the other three movies. His role in Fire on the Mystic Island pretty much just amounts to a cameo that’s how little screen time he has in that movie and insignificant he is that movie’s plot, which is a huge reason why I didn’t like that movie. I think that if they had made one more movie where Sesshomaru had a huge role, or if the movie was entirely focused on him, then I think that would’ve balanced things out. As it is, the Inuyasha movies really could’ve used a lot more Sesshomaru than they had. But, I do still enjoy most of them, except Fire on the Mystic Island, that one can go fuck itself as far as I’m concerned. 

Before I get into the news, there are a few things that I want to say. The first thing I want to say is that I finally went to Carl’s Jr. yesterday. I had been craving Carl’s Jr. for a while after I start watching all of those old commercials on YouTube, they always made the burgers 🍔 look really good. So, after we got that sewing equipment and fabric that my grandma got from Bob’s Sewing and Vacuum Center through the Laguna-Acoma Connections program, we decided to get some lunch and chose Carl’s Jr. to curb my craving. But, when we actually ate there, we were both disappointed 😞. Neither of us enjoyed the food, and we didn’t even bother finishing it. So, we just left and got some Whopper Jr.s at Burger King 🍔 instead. And trust me, they tasted way better than the burgers 🍔 we got at Carl’s Jr., like I’m pretty confident in saying Burger King 🍔 is 100% better than Carl’s Jr., like Burger King 🍔 > Carl’s Jr.. 

And that’s a shame because I remember Carl’s Jr. used to be good, I used to actually like their food, but I guess their food just got worse in the years since I ate there last time. Even their menu was all weird, like their menu wasn’t like McDonald’s menu, or Burger King 🍔’s, or any other fast food place I’ve been to, they only had four items on there, and of those four items you could choose whether or not you wanted single, double, triple, or they call big Angus or whatever, I don’t exactly remember. But, it was weird and I didn’t really like it. Eating at Carl’s Jr. yesterday was genuinely one of the most disappointing fast food experiences I’ve had in a long time. I hadn’t been that disappointed since eating at Twister’s, the local fast food chain of which BTW was used as the filming location for Los Pollos Hermanos in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The moment we walked in and walked to the front counter and saw a sign that said that particular location we went to was card only 💳 and they didn’t accept cash 💵, I knew we were off to a bad start 😕. No wonder there are so few Carl’s Jr. locations in Albuquerque, and why the ones that are there are slowly but surely disappearing if this is the quality of food they’re selling. 

I also want to say that I do intend on reviewing both Venom: The Last Dance and Man of Steel this month if I can, if I can get to them in time before the month ends. And if not, then I’ll review them in March. I mean, the Venom movies are already kind of gay love stories ⚣❤️ (unintentionally gay love stories ⚣❤️), so reviewing The Last Dance in the month of February right before Valentine’s Day 💕 would be quite fitting. And I want to review Man of Steel now while it’s still on my mind and before Superman (2025) comes out in July. I do not intend on watching or reviewing Superman (2025), and to show my opposition to it, I will use a Man of Steel wallpaper as the wallpaper for my laptop 💻 and my phone 📱 in the month of May. I also don’t intend on watching The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the trailer to that was came out recently, no way Jose. It does not look particularly good to me, it looks it was made with the same mindset as Superman (2025) and I don’t like that, and as a rule and as principle, I’ve kind of sworn off the MCU entirely. That’s why I won’t see Captain America: Brave New World 🇺🇸, which comes out this month. 

Now onto the news, or I guess what used to be news before I added them to my “things to include in my next post with a foreword” list. Well, it happened, Trump put tariffs on Canada 🇨🇦, Mexico 🇲🇽, and China 🇨🇳, 25% tariffs on Canada 🇨🇦 and Mexico 🇲🇽 and a 10% tariff on China 🇨🇳 for some reason. Why only 10% for China 🇨🇳? We’ll get to that in a moment. Except not really because pretty much the day after Trump announced the tariffs on Canada 🇨🇦 and Mexico 🇲🇽, he immediately paused them for an additional 30 days, meaning within that 30 days, Trump will have to decide whether or not he’ll keep the tariffs or cancel them entirely. Everyone’s hoping he does the latter because if he does implement the tariffs, then food prices in the US 🇺🇸 will go up. It’ll be even harder to afford certain food items, and you may even have to skip out on certain meals or abstain from buying certain items. Egg prices 🥚 are already through the roof across the country. Do you really want avocados 🥑 and jalapeños to be super expensive especially when the Super Bowl is around the corner? 

Now, why did Trump decided to pause the tariffs on Canada 🇨🇦 and Mexico 🇲🇽? Well, it’s because both Trudeau and Sheinbaum both promised to increase border security, with Sheinbaum sending troops to the border and Trudeau passing a $1.3 billion plan 💵 to stop the flow of fentanyl from across the border, even though 0 fentanyl comes from the Canadian border 🇨🇦, and deaths caused by fentanyl overdoses have been decreasing not increasing. Essentially, Trudeau and Sheinbaum tricked Trump into delaying the tariffs by promising him things that they were already going to do anyway regardless of whether he imposed tariffs on their countries or threatened to do so or not. But, just like with the stupid Colombia situation 🇨🇴 from a week or so ago, Trump gets the claim victory on something that wasn’t really a victory for him (it was really more of a humiliation for him), and his supporters for the most part ate it up. Manufacturing political problems so that he can claim victory on them, but they’re artificial victories. Some think he’s just doing this as a distraction to distract from what Elon Musk is doing with DOGE, but I do think this is just incompetence on his part.

I do think he did actually want to put tariffs on Canada 🇨🇦 and Mexico 🇲🇽, and he did genuinely think that it would be good for the economy, but backed down from it when he realized that Trudeau and Sheinbaum weren’t just going to sit back and take it, that they were going to retaliate against him with their own tariffs, and putting tariffs now when Super Bowl weekend is around the corner would just make him look bad, or at least make him look worse than he already does. Of course now, he and his supporters are insisting that he never actually meant to put tariffs on Canada 🇨🇦 and Mexico 🇲🇽 and was just using them as a bargaining chip to get concessions. But by doing so, they’re admitting that tariffs are not actually good and can solve every economic problem the US 🇺🇸 faces, but are actually bad and can be used to threaten other countries.

Do I think he’ll still implement the tariffs? Possibly. He keeps talking about wanting to make Canada 🇨🇦 the 51st state, like he still won’t let that go even though everyone, especially the Canadians 🇨🇦, have made it abundantly clear that’s never going to happen, that they don’t want to be apart of the US 🇺🇸. Annexing Canada 🇨🇦 is clearly something he wants to do. He clearly has imperialist ambitions and wants to expand the US 🇺🇸’s territory, and he’s going to do whatever it takes short of military force to do it. So, he might at least put the tariffs on Canada 🇨🇦 because he wants to economically coerce Canada 🇨🇦 into joining the US 🇺🇸, make their economic situation so bad that they’d have no choice but to become apart of the US 🇺🇸. 

Of course, that won’t work, it’ll make the Canadians 🇨🇦 and us Americans 🇺🇸 suffer for no reason accept for the ambition and vanity of one man ♂︎, but he’s going to try it anyway because he really wants Canada 🇨🇦. Why is he so adamant about annexing Canada 🇨🇦 and not Mexico 🇲🇽? It’s simple really, because Canada 🇨🇦 is a white country whereas Mexico 🇲🇽 is not. Or at least, he sees Canada 🇨🇦 as being more of a white country (despite having non-white minority groups of its own including Native Americans) than Mexico 🇲🇽. In his eyes, Mexico 🇲🇽 is a dirty brown people country, and he doesn’t want more brown people coming into the US 🇺🇸. 

This is also why he doesn’t want to make Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 a state even though Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 would be a much more logical choice to make the 51st state than Canada 🇨🇦, but Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 are not white, they’re brown. I mean, there are light-skinned Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 out there, but you know what I mean, most of them are brown skinned, much more tan than your average white person from Alabama. Trump does in fact endorse that shithead comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” that Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 is a “floating island of garbage 🗑️🏝️.” He genuinely believes that, which is why he platformed Hinchcliffe and let him tell this horrible racist joke, and why he didn’t disavow him or the joke. His campaign team did, but he himself did not, Trump is a-okay with Hinchcliffe and what he said 👌, and does indeed have a low opinion of Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷. 

That’s really what he thinks of Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 and their island 🏝️, he hates them. He doesn’t view them as being any different from any other Latino group, whether they be Mexican 🇲🇽, Colombian 🇨🇴, Venezuelan 🇻🇪, Peruvian 🇵🇪, Guatemalan 🇬🇹, Cuban 🇨🇺, or Panamanian 🇵🇦, whose country of course Trump has also targeted for his imperialist expansion. And yet, millions of Puerto Ricans 🇵🇷 still voted for him anyway 🙄, you’ll all get what you deserve for your stupidity, like whatever happens to you under Trump’s presidency is completely on you 🫵. These people told you who they were and what they really thought of it, and you chose to ignore it and vote for them anyway. 

If you’re Puerto Rican 🇵🇷 and you voted for Trump, voted third party, or didn’t vote at all and you get deported (even if it would be illegal for them to do so given that you’re all American citizens 🇺🇸), I don’t feel sorry for you at all. We told you what he was going to do, he told you what he was going to do, and you didn’t listen. You chose to be willfully ignorant, and voted against your own interests, all because you thought grocery prices were too high and you couldn’t bring yourself to vote for a black woman ♀︎ (a black/Asian mixed raced woman ♀︎) to be president, even though she was the most qualified candidate on the ballot, more qualified than the guy ♂︎ who actually won 😒. I have nothing but contempt for you 😠, you sold your own people out, and you sold the rest of us out. 

I do strongly believe that if he does get his war (not a trade war but a real war) with Mexico 🇲🇽, he will try to annex territory. He’ll just rip a page right out of Putin’s playbook and carve a piece of territory from Mexico 🇲🇽 and claim it as his own, make it American territory 🇺🇸. The most likely target will probably be Baja California since it’s right above the state of California, and already receives a lot of American tourism 🇺🇸 (most Americans 🇺🇸 who visit Mexico 🇲🇽 usually only visit Tijuana and no where else), and it would complete the US 🇺🇸’s westward territory, like it would complete the contiguous United States 🇺🇸. 

Baja California is the most analogous to Crimea in terms of how Americans 🇺🇸 see it. They don’t perhaps view it as historically and spiritually connected to them as Russians 🇷🇺 do to Crimea, but they do like Baja California a lot, and I suspect there are a lot of Americans 🇺🇸 out there who wouldn’t mind if Baja California were annexed and made a US territory 🇺🇸. In fact, they might actually like it, just as a lot of Russians 🇷🇺 (even some Russian liberals 🇷🇺) didn’t mind or even liked it when Crimea was annexed. It gave them nationalistic pride, even if the act of annexing it was illegal under international law, just as annexing Baja California or any piece of Mexican territory 🇲🇽 would. Don’t be surprised either that if he does invade Mexico 🇲🇽, he tries to ethnically cleanse Mexico 🇲🇽 or even commit a genocide there to get rid of the Mexicans 🇲🇽 to make Lebensraum (living space) for Americans 🇺🇸, specifically white Americans 🇺🇸 because Trump is a white supremacist. I mean, he’s already talking about doing ethnic cleansing in Gaza, so I wouldn’t put it past him. 

But, back going to Canada 🇨🇦 for a moment, even if he doesn’t end up implementing the tariffs, the damage has already been done. Millions of Canadians 🇨🇦 have already pledged to boycott every American good 🇺🇸 available in their country and still intend to boycott even though Trump paused the tariffs. Trump crossed a line that should’ve never been crossed, and now millions of Canadians 🇨🇦 no longer trust America 🇺🇸 or even like America 🇺🇸. There was a video that went viral of a hockey game 🏒 where a Canadian team 🇨🇦 was going against an American team 🇺🇸, and when the American national anthem 🇺🇸 was performed or after it was performed, everyone in the audience booed. 

Canadians 🇨🇦 are really upset about what Trump did, and no amount of walking back will fix. I suspect Canadians 🇨🇦 won’t like or trust the United States 🇺🇸 until Trump is out of office, but even then, it’ll still take time to fully repair that relationship. It might be impossible to repair that relationship if Trump ever starts a real war against Canada 🇨🇦, as unlikely as that might seem right now, but that doesn’t mean that it should be ruled out. Don’t assume Trump won’t do it because it’ll be unpopular, he’s already done all kinds of unpopular things in first few weeks in office, and if he feels emboldened enough, if economic coercion doesn’t work, he will do it. Same goes for Mexico 🇲🇽. 

He also hasn’t given up on the Panama Canal 🇵🇦 either, like he still talked about wanting to retake the Panama Canal 🇵🇦 last week, still not ruling out military force since while speaking to the press he said that “something big was coming.” Some people took that to mean he intends on launching an invasion of Panama 🇵🇦 and taking the canal back with force. He even sent newly anointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Panama 🇵🇦 to pressure the Panamanian government 🇵🇦 to stand up to China 🇨🇳 and stop them from controlling the canal. Something that is not happening, that is a lie was entirely made up by Trump and is being reiterated by Rubio in his first week on the job. China 🇨🇳 does not control the canal and never has. 

In fact, for many years, China 🇨🇳 has been trying to undermine the Panama Canal 🇵🇦 and reduce its importance in global trade. The Chinese 🇨🇳 have been working with the Nicaraguans 🇳🇮 to try to build a Nicaragua Canal 🇳🇮 as apart of the Belt & Road Initiative, so that it would compete with and eventually replace the Panama Canal 🇵🇦 as the main shipping route for ships going from the Pacific to the Atlantic or vis versa. But, like a lot of projects that were part of the Belt & Road Initiative, the Nicaragua Canal 🇳🇮 never happened, and was quietly canceled. So, the Chinese 🇨🇳 just stuck with the Panama Canal 🇵🇦. They use it just like the rest of us, but they don’t control it, they never did. 

The Panamanians 🇵🇦 control it and have controlled it since 1999 when the US 🇺🇸 finally relinquished control of it and gave to the Panamanians 🇵🇦. It’s within their territory, it’s on their land, so they should own it and control it. But, Trump doesn’t care. He’ll say any lie he wants to try to justify retaking the Panama Canal 🇵🇦 and make it a US administered territory 🇺🇸 again. It’ll be like Ronald Reagan’s Grenada 🇬🇩 or better yet, George H.W. Bush’s Panama 🇵🇦, a “nice, sweet little war” to get America 🇺🇸 out of its stupor (or put it in a stupor considering that our new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is a confirmed drunk 🥴) and end its abstinence from militarism. Except this time, he’ll be getting territory out of it. That’s how Trump is thinking about this. It was nice to hear that Rubio was immediately met with protests 🪧 the moment he set foot in Panama 🇵🇦. 

But, going back to China 🇨🇳 for a moment, despite pausing the tariffs on Canada 🇨🇦 and Mexico 🇲🇽, Trump still kept the tariffs on China 🇨🇳, China 🇨🇳 is being tariffed as we speak, and China 🇨🇳 has retaliated with tariffs of its own. You know how these things go. But, why did Trump keep the tariffs on China 🇨🇳 and why only 10%? Why not 25% like he promised on the campaign trail? Well, I can’t answer the first question, I think I can answer the second. 

It’s because Trump is not actually anti-China 🇨🇳, he’s not the China hawk 🇨🇳 that he likes to present himself as. He’s actually pro-China 🇨🇳. Think about it. He openly admires Xi Jinping, the dictator of China 🇨🇳, and wants to be like him, he has a secret bank account in China 🇨🇳 that he refuses to talk about, and he has other business ties to China 🇨🇳. So, he’s only implementing tariffs on China 🇨🇳 to appear tough while also being soft on China 🇨🇳 by only doing 10% rather than 25% or 50% like he wanted to do on Mexico 🇲🇽 and Canada 🇨🇦. 

But, as established, tariffs on other countries only hurt the US 🇺🇸 and make things more expensive for us, so is China 🇨🇳 really being hurt by these tariffs? Not really. If anything it’s benefiting China 🇨🇳 by weakening the US 🇺🇸’s trade dominance in certain areas, reducing China 🇨🇳’s dependence on the US 🇺🇸 for certain goods, particularly agricultural ones. So, even if Trump really does hate China 🇨🇳 thinks he’s being tough on China 🇨🇳 by imposing these tariffs, he’s still working in China 🇨🇳’s interests, he’s helping them become more powerful and influential. A YouTuber who I’m subscribed to called Huey Li seems to think that the tariffs on China 🇨🇳 are a good thing though because China 🇨🇳 has too much of a trade surplus, and these tariffs will help reduce it…I guess. I’m not exactly following Huey’s logic there. 

This also implies to Trump and Elon making cuts to USAID 🇺🇸 (United States Agency for International Development 🇺🇸), a government agency that provides humanitarian aid to numerous countries around the globe, including Ukraine 🇺🇦 and Gaza. By making cuts to that agency, they are weakening the US 🇺🇸’s position in the world rather than strengthening it, because in addition to letting millions of people starve and subject to preventable disease, you’re also creating a power vacuum that can easily be filled by countries like China 🇨🇳 and Russia 🇷🇺. You’re also sowing doubt about the US 🇺🇸’s reliability in the minds of the Global South and even in our own allies. So, cutting USAID 🇺🇸 is not good no matter how you slice it. 

Speaking of government agencies Trump wants to make budget cuts to, he announced sometime this week that he wants to make cuts to the Department of Education. During the campaign trail as well as after the election 🗳️, he said that he wanted to dismantle the Department of Education entirely, he wanted to disband it entirely, but now that he’s president I guess he downscaled it to just making cuts since that sounds less scary than disbanding it entirely. But, making cuts to Department of Education is still bad because it means that programs that people rely on to help their kids with their education (especially those with disabilities or those in marginalized groups) won’t receive the proper funding and might even be shut down entirely. This affects me personally because the Laguna-Acoma Connections program that I mentioned earlier is apart of the Department of Education, it gets its funding from the Department of Education, so if Trump makes cuts, then the program maybe negatively affected. 

That’s why I’m hesitant to sign onto the program to begin college enrollment because they may not even have the money 💵 to support me or give all things I need. I might be left in a situation where I’d be totally on my own. I mean, I was already hesitant about going back to college after Trump won re-election, like it just put a damper on everything and made me question whether going back was even worth it or not. If Harris had won, I might’ve felt more confident about going back and attending IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts 🇺🇸), since I would’ve felt like I would’ve been fully supported by the program, but since she lost and Trump won, I don’t feel that way anymore. This man ♂︎ is trying to steal our future I tell ya. I must look for alternatives to going to college, like going to a training program for writing (especially creative writing), maybe find someone to apprentice under, or something. I’ll also have to acquire a new desktop 🖥️ and maybe even a new laptop 💻 a different way, like the money 💵 from my dad’s lawsuit (the one he’s doing with Keller & Keller). 

A news story that I didn’t get the chance to mention last week or the week before was that Trump decided to imprison deported migrants in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, or GITMO as it came to be known as during the War on Terror. Guantánamo Bay is of course the site of a US military base 🇺🇸, being only the only piece of Cuban territory 🇨🇺 that the US 🇺🇸 owns and controls. It gained control of the southern half of Guantánamo Bay after liberating Cuba 🇨🇺 from Spain 🇪🇸 in the Spanish-American War 🇪🇸🇺🇸, it was the one concessions the Cubans 🇨🇺 were forced to make with the Americans 🇺🇸 in exchange for their independence. Like, “let us have this little sliver of territory and you can have your independence.” The US 🇺🇸 says it’s just leasing the land from Cuba 🇨🇺, the agreement they made with the Cubans 🇨🇺 is called the 1903 Lease, and they say that Cuba 🇨🇺 retains “ultimate sovereignty,” but come on, it’s controlled by the US 🇺🇸, it is de facto US territory 🇺🇸. It’s a very similar arrangement that the UK 🇬🇧 has with Spain 🇪🇸 and Gibraltar 🇬🇮, and has with Cyprus 🇨🇾 how they have two little pieces of Cypriot territory 🇨🇾 that they own and use as naval, air, and army bases just like Gibraltar 🇬🇮. 

Needless to say, the Cubans 🇨🇺 have not been happy with this arrangement for a long time, especially ever since they went communist ☭ under Fidel Castro. A lot of Cubans 🇨🇺 have expressed a desire to have all of Guantánamo back. It’s just that they don’t have the ability to take it and probably won’t have the ability to take it back for the foreseeable future, and the US 🇺🇸 sure as hell isn’t going to give it back willingly, especially not under Trump, who’s on a path of territorial expansion. He wants to keep as much territory as he possibly can, and gain territory if he can. 

But, what Guantánamo Bay is best known for is a detention camp called the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, or GITMO or GTMO with no I. It was built in 2002, under George W. Bush, and was built to imprison the various terrorists or suspected terrorists captured by the US 🇺🇸 during the War on Terror. At first, it was used to imprison captured al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, or suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters during the first year of the War in Afghanistan 🇦🇫, but it expanded to include captured insurgents or suspected insurgents from the Iraq War 🇮🇶, and pretty much every other country where the US 🇺🇸 fought the Global War on Terrorism (GTOW). 

There other prisoners that the US 🇺🇸 had built to imprison terrorist suspects and captured enemy combatants, like the CIA black sites that were built and operated in many countries around the world, and of course the US 🇺🇸 used the Abu Ghraib prison built by Saddam Hussein to imprison insurgents or suspected insurgents, but GITMO was by far the most famous one. GITMO was also where the US 🇺🇸 implemented its torture program euphemistically referred to as “enhanced interrogation,” and used it on the various prisoners at the camp. Of course, GITMO was not the only place where the US 🇺🇸 tortured prisoners, the CIA black sites were also used to torture prisoners, and many other countries (including ones you wouldn’t expect like Syria 🇸🇾 and Iran 🇮🇷) were complicit and actively participated in this international system of torture (or “enhanced interrogation” as they called it 🙄), but GITMO was by the far most famous one. 

The “suspected” part is important because a lot of people imprisoned at GITMO were not actually terrorists, but were completely innocent people who were swept in raids conducted by the US military 🇺🇸 or were wrongfully accused of being terrorists. I also use the term “imprison” and “prisoners” because the US 🇺🇸 euphemistically referred to the prisoners held at GITMO as “detainees,” not just because they wanted to soften the blow and not make it sound as bad but also because they didn’t want them to be considered prisoners of war (POWs) and receive any protections from the Geneva Convention. Otherwise, they’d have to treat them more humanely or they’d be violating international law by torturing them for information. So, they just bypassed the Geneva Convention by referring to them as “detainees” and not “prisoners.”

But, it was still a violation of the Geneva Convention, like you don’t get to avoid following the law just because you call your prisoners of war by a different name, that’s not how it works. But, the Bush administration didn’t care, and they were more than willing to violate international law to win the War on Terror, and defeat al-Qaeda, defeat the Taliban, defeat Saddam, defeat the Iraqi insurgents 🇮🇶, and of course capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Two of those they failed at, they failed to defeat al-Qaeda and they failed to defeat the Taliban. They created an international system of torture and forced disappearances, and very few people seemed to notice or actually care, no one who wasn’t already heavily involved and invested in politics. That’s why I refuse to use the Bush administration’s terminology for these prisoners or their system of torture, I won’t call them “detainees,” they are prisoners, and I won’t call it “enhanced interrogation,” it is torture. 

Weakly justified torture too since these so-called “enhanced interrogation” techniques got very little results, like they didn’t yield any intelligence that would be useful to the military, or the CIA, or the NSA, or the FBI, or the DHS, or really anybody within the federal government whose job it is to protect America 🇺🇸 from more terrorist attacks, especially ones on the scale of 9/11 or bigger. The person who was being interrogated (rather, tortured) could easily just lie or tell the interrogator (torturer) what they think they want to hear just to make the pain stop. Human psychology 101, people won’t respond to you or give you useful information if they’re under distress, if you’re subjecting them to excruciating amounts of pain. 

You need to treat them as human beings, talk to them and build trust with them, build a rapport with them, then they’ll tell you what you want to know, you’ll get actual useful intel that will help prevent a terrorist attack or help locate and capture or kill a terrorist leader. But, as it was these “enhanced interrogation” methods largely proved to be completely useless, the “intel” gathered from them was largely worthless. The CIA and the military just got lucky with Osama bin Laden, that was the one time that these torture methods yielded any sort of useful result, and I’m not even completely sure it was due to the torture specifically that the CIA was able to get the information about the courier (Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti) that they then tracked to Abbottabad, Pakistan 🇵🇰. If the torture did help in finding bin Laden’s compound, it was the exception rather than the rule. 

For these reasons, GITMO was highly controversial and was even considered by some to be a concentration camp especially since not everyone imprisoned there was a terrorist or an insurgent. Both Bush and Cheney were considered war criminals for building this place and other places like it around the globe, and using them to torture people and make them disappear 🫥. There have been many calls to shut it down, and even attempts to shut it down during the Obama administration, but Obama’s close GITMO were stopped by the Republicans and even some Democrats, who insisted that GITMO had to remain open to keep these terrorists imprisoned and off the streets so to speak. 

“If a terrorist is in GITMO, they can’t plan any attacks or carry out any attacks” was essentially their argument, and they essentially accused Obama of being pro-terrorism and pro-al-Qaeda among other things. This was also apart of their smear campaign to make Americans 🇺🇸 think Obama was a Muslim ☪️ (even though he’s not, he’s a Christian ✝️) and therefore “not a real American 🇺🇸.” So, GITMO remained open, and holds many prisoners to this day, many of whom never stood trial or have any chance of parole. 

Now, the Trump administration wants to use GITMO to imprison undocumented immigrants that ICE has captured and deported, and essentially use it as a concentration camp. This didn’t get as much media coverage as everything else that I’ve talked about here, but it is an important story and I think more people should know about it because it is pretty disturbing. They want to send deported undocumented immigrants to the same prison used to hold terrorists, and where torture and many human rights abuses are known to occur. And just like how not everyone who was imprisoned at GITMO was a terrorist, not every deportee who will now be shipped off to GITMO is a dangerous criminal. The Trump administration says that they’re just imprisoning the really dangerous criminals, the worst of the worst, but that’s not true. 

A lot of the people that have been arrested and deported by ICE were innocent people just trying to live their lives, support themselves and their families, and weren’t murderers, rapists, and drug dealers. Some of the people deported by ICE were even American citizens 🇺🇸, they were born in the US 🇺🇸, and in one case, they had served in the US military 🇺🇸, they just happened to be Latinos. But ICE deported them anyway, or at least tried to before they faced enough backlash to finally let them go. Even Native Americans have been deported by ICE, Native Americans, can you believe that!? Indigenous people who have lived on this land for thousands of years, who were the first human inhabitants of this land, are being deported as if they were undocumented immigrants. If anyone’s here illegally, it’s every white person who’s descended from Europeans. To us Native Americans, everyone else is an illegal or undocumented immigrant. 

If any of those people are sent to GITMO, then they will suffer and maybe even die. If you get sent to GITMO, you won’t come back. That’s why everyone says being sent to GITMO is pretty much a death sentence, and that’s not taking into account the torture and human rights abuses that take place there. These people will be tortured to death. That’s why Trump wants to send these people there. He knows that if builds actual concentration camps here in the US 🇺🇸, he will receive a lot of scrutiny and even backlash, just like FDR did when he built those internment camps and sent all the Japanese-Americans 🇯🇵🇺🇸 in the country over there. But if he sends them to GITMO, it’ll be out of sight and out of mind, and he’ll get treat them however he pleases, and no one here will care unless they’re already invested in politics and already knows what GITMO is. 

The new Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was asked by reporters if children and pregnant women 🤰 would be exempt from being sent to this place, and she refused to give a clear answer. That pretty much means that children and pregnant women 🤰 will be sent to that place, and will be treated the same as every other prisoner. This is not just a place to imprison dangerous criminals or terrorists, if it was, all the people who did January 6th would be there too instead of back on the streets, no, this is a concentration camp for those that the administration considers “undesirables.” Trump and Noem are competing to see who can commit the most war crimes and crimes against humanity, not that they’ll ever face any consequences for their war crimes or human rights violations. Bush and Cheney haven’t. 

The big news this week is the fact that Trump announced that he wants to occupy Gaza. He wants deport and resettle all of the 2 million Palestinians 🇵🇸 who live in Gaza to countries like Egypt 🇪🇬 and Jordan 🇯🇴, and then have the US 🇺🇸 occupy the Gaza Strip, either as a joint occupation with Israel 🇮🇱 or occupy it completely on its own, and redevelop it and turn it into a tourist destination. He said he wanted to turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Now, Trump already talked about wanting to deport the Palestinians 🇵🇸 from Gaza and resettle them in Egypt 🇪🇬 and Jordan 🇯🇴 a couple of weeks ago back in January, he specifically described it as “cleaning Gaza out,” and he also expressed his desire to resettle it and turn it into beachfront property 🏖️. The part that’s new is him saying that he actually wants the US 🇺🇸 to occupy Gaza. Now, as far as I know, he hasn’t said if the occupation would be temporary until all the Palestinians 🇵🇸 have been cleared out, and the territory would be turned over to the Israelis 🇮🇱, or if the occupation would be permanent and Gaza would just be a US territory 🇺🇸 from then on. 

Either way it’s bad because you’re talking about putting American troops 🇺🇸 in Gaza, since there’s no way you could actually occupy it without the US military 🇺🇸, which would risk the war restarting due to Hamas being inflamed by the US presence 🇺🇸 😤, and you risk the lives of those American troops 🇺🇸 who are occupying the territory as well as risk the lives of the Palestinians 🇵🇸 that you’re trying to relocate by subjecting them to more bombs and gunfights. The Israel-Hamas War 🇮🇱 is not a war that the US 🇺🇸 should be directly involved in with actual American boots 🇺🇸 on the ground, and the situation in Gaza would not be helped by our presence. In fact, our presence there would make things worse, like it would increase the temperature rather than lower it. 

I could see a situation where the US 🇺🇸 is just completely forced out of Gaza by a terrorist attack of Hamas, like Hamas just inflicts such a devastating blow to the US 🇺🇸 that they just decide to up and leave. That’s what happened in Lebanon 🇱🇧 in the 80s, during the Lebanese Civil War 🇱🇧. The US 🇺🇸 was occupying Lebanon 🇱🇧 as part of a UN peacekeeping mission 🇺🇳, but was ultimately forced out by a terrorist attack by Hezbollah. They basically bombed a Marine barracks in Beirut, and that was enough to spook Reagan into pulling troops out of Lebanon 🇱🇧, ending US involvement 🇺🇸 in the Lebanese Civil War 🇱🇧. Except for when they tried to get some hostages back from Hezbollah, and that whole thing became apart of the Iran-Contra affair 🇮🇷🇳🇮, but that’s a whole other story. 

That’s not even mentioning the fact that this idea by Trump is inherently evil and immoral. He’s blatantly advocating ethnic cleansing on a level we have not seen in a long time, probably not since the Second World War, which is pretty everyone was horrified by Trump’s suggestion and no one is on board with it except Israel 🇮🇱. In fact, even Israel 🇮🇱 was caught off guard when Trump made the announcement the other day. Like, Netanyahu was surprised when Trump made that announcement. But, I can assure you that Netanyahu has no real issue with Trump’s proposal, certainly not from a legal or moral standpoint. The Israelis 🇮🇱 have been wanting to clear out Gaza, and fully occupy it with settlements for a long time, in fact, they used the war with Hamas as an opportunity to start implementing this plan. Of course they’d be on board with this, and go along with it if Trump actually went through with it. 

The only disagreement Netanyahu has with Trump is whether it’d be a joint occupation with Israel 🇮🇱 being given full control over it when it’s all said and done, or if it’ll just be a full US occupation 🇺🇸 and the US 🇺🇸 will just annex Gaza. But, the other countries that Trump would need to go along with this for this plan of his to even be feasible are against it and are refusing to cooperate. Egypt 🇪🇬 and Jordan 🇯🇴 do not want Palestinian refugees 🇵🇸 coming in from Gaza, they don’t have the capacity to handle that many refugees, and they see Trump’s plan for what it is: ethnic cleansing. Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 has also opposed the plan, and pretty every other Arab and Gulf state is against it. So, how does Trump expect to pull this off when the Arab states don’t even want to take in the Palestinians 🇵🇸? It won’t work. 

There is one guy ♂︎ who is on board with the idea of the US 🇺🇸 occupying Gaza, and he’s an American lawmaker 🇺🇸, John Fetterman, the US senator 🇺🇸 for Pennsylvania. When Trump announced this plan, John Fetterman was the only Democratic senator to publicly endorse it, earning him much condemnation from his own party and probably his own constituents. He’s always gotten flake for his position on Israel 🇮🇱 and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 🇮🇱🇵🇸. 

Like, while the war in Gaza was still going on (before the ceasefire), he voiced his support for Israel 🇮🇱, even as Israel 🇮🇱 was bombing civilians, and kept calling Hamas a terrorist organization (which they are, but still) and towing the Israeli line 🇮🇱 that Hamas disproportionately uses human shields and therefore the IDF 🇮🇱 is justified targeting civilian infrastructure and bombing apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, mosques, and even churches. All while he kept insisting that he wasn’t anti-Palestine 🇵🇸 and that he cared about the Palestinians 🇵🇸 wanted them to receive aid. But, with this most recent statement, Fetterman is pretty much outing himself as being pro-Israel 🇮🇱, and showing that he never cared about the Palestinians 🇵🇸 at all. He sure doomed his re-election chances with that one, if he is indeed up for re-election next year. 

Of course, all this shows that all the Palestine supporters 🇵🇸 who either voted third party or didn’t vote at all are completely stupid. They’re all morons. You guys could’ve prevented this, you could’ve just been pragmatic and voted for Harris, and because you chose not to, you possibly enabled the complete depopulation of Gaza, and the possible annexation of Gaza by Israel 🇮🇱 or even the US 🇺🇸. And you possibly gotten the US 🇺🇸 involved in a Middle Eastern war that it had no business getting involved in. We were already pushing it by giving the Israelis 🇮🇱 weapons, now we’re actually talking putting American boots 🇺🇸 on the ground, do you understand what that means?

Congratulations, I hope you’re proud of yourselves. I hope you still feel morally superior to us who actually knew better and voted accordingly. Millions of people will suffer and die because of your stupid decision. You have no one to blame but yourselves. The same goes for the so-called anti-war and anti-interventionist crowd, you let yourselves be deceived into believing Trump was anti-war, anti-interventionist, and anti-imperialist when he is clearly none of those things (“America First 🇺🇸” was always a lie, it was always a scam), and by voting third-party, not voting at all, or even voting for him, you have enabled more interventionism, more war, and more imperialism. Good going idiots 🤦‍♂️, the government you elect is the government you deserve. 

Speaking of idiots, there is one last thing I want to talk about. A week ago, I saw a comment on a video talking about Elon Musk seizing control of the Treasury Department, and making cuts to USAID 🇺🇸 and threatening to make cuts to the Department of Education and other government agencies and programs, that said in caps “DENY DEFEND DEPOSE.” That is of course in reference to Luigi Mangione, the rich pretty boy 🤑♂︎ who killed the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. He wrote those words on the cartridge cases of his gun in reference to a book 📖 he read about United Healthcare’s unscrupulous business practices called Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. 

Since then, the words “deny, defend, and depose,” have become a rallying cry for people (especially those on the Left) who oppose the healthcare system in the US 🇺🇸 and openly advocate for left-wing death squads to go around the country and kill every rich person 🤑 (mostly billionaires) they find. Some even put out hit lists other CEOs they wanted targeted after the assassination took place and after Luigi Mangione was arrested. Unless you’re actually going to grab a gun, go out there, and shoot somebody, then please, shut the fuck up. 

It pisses me off to no end when I see people voice support and sympathy for Luigi Mangione, and regurgitating the same line he used, when we all damn well that most of the people saying “Deny, defend, and depose” are not actually willing to commit acts of violence themselves. They’d rather just sit back and let someone else do all the killing on their behalf, and then enjoy the fruits of their labor, enjoy the new world they created. I think people latched onto the Luigi Mangione thing and many people on the Left still view him as a hero because it allows them to escape their boring lives, their boring 9 to 5 jobs, and feel more important than they actually are. Like, you’re not just a boring nobody, you’re not just a bystander, you’re a revolutionary, you’re part of something bigger than yourself. But that’s all it is, escapism. It’s LARPing basically. 

These people will actually organize and mobilize and actually revolt, they just want to pretend and act like they’re revolting when they aren’t. They just making YouTube videos or TikTok videos or they’re leaving comments. They aren’t willing to actually do what it takes to bring about bottom up change or do a violent revolution like they talk about online. They have too much to lose, and even if they don’t, they don’t want to upset the status quo of their own lives and risk going to prison or dying. This is why I loathe these people, and why I will hate it when they praise Luigi Mangione, make him out to be a hero, or leave stupid comments like the one I saw saying “deny, defend, and depose.” Shut up 😠! You’re all fakes, you’re all hypocrites, and you’re all cowards.

 

—

 

(This is the cover art of the Inuyasha Movie Complete Collection Blu-Ray set 💿, which has all four Inuyasha movies on it.) 

 

 

Well, I finally finished watching all four of the Inuyasha movies that have been made. I ordered the 2-disc Blu-Ray set 💿 by Viz Media from Amazon, and it came in several days late. I ordered it on April 2, 2021 and I supposed to get on April 8, 2021, but I didn't get it until this past Monday, April 12, 2021; damn UPS! But, that's not why you're probably reading this, you're reading this to know what my thoughts on the movies actually are, and I will get to that, but since I mentioned the Blu-Ray set 💿 itself, I guess I'll quickly give my thoughts on it. The movies all came on two discs and each of the two discs has two movies on it, and personally I don't really like this.

I would've much preferred if Viz had just done a four disc set with the movies each having their own individual disc, especially since the discs don't have traditional main menus and the main menu are just selection screens for you choose which of the two movies that are on the disc that you want to watch. I would've liked to have a traditional main menu (or top menu I guess) where I can make language or subtitle selections, make scene selections, or choose a special feature, and then play the movie if I so choose. I don't like having to just open the pop-up menu, and make language or subtitle selections or special feature selection like the movie is playing; yes, I know you can pause it, but still, you know what I mean.

The Blu-Ray set 💿 overall is also lacking in special features, the only special features the two discs have are Production Art, English Credits, and Trailers. No making of featurette or documentaries, no deleted scenes, no commentaries, not even any interviews from the cast and crew, nothing. So, the Blu-Ray set 💿 is about as bare-bones as you can get (though it does have more features than that god awful Ghost in the Shell Blu-Ray steelbook 💿 I bought), which might not be a problem for you if you don't care about special features and just want to watch the movies, but for someone like me who does care about special features, it is a bit of an issue. I would've also liked to have subtitles for the movies that actually matched the English dialogue in the English dubs, which is a problem that the series Blu-Ray sets have. But other than those issues, the Blu-Ray set is fine, they get the job done, the picture and sound quality is pretty good as you would expect, and it's very convenient to have all four movies on one Blu-Ray set instead of having to buy all four of them individually.

But, enough about the Blu-Ray, what did I think of the movies themselves? I enjoyed them. I was looking for some more Inuyasha content to watch until the fifth Blu-Ray set for the main series comes out, and these movies gave me my fix. I have a favorite and a least favorite, my favorite by far is the third movie, Swords of an Honorable Ruler, and my least favorite is probably the fourth movie Fire on the Mystic Island; the first two fall in between those.

Now, of course, since these movies are apart of the Inuyasha franchise and were released at the same time the series was going on, you're probably wondering if these are canon or if they're non-canon, and that's a little hard to say. They kind of leave it ambiguous or very vague as to whether these movies are canon to the main series or not, and if so, at which point do they take place within the series's timeline.

None of them are required viewing in case you're wondering. The way the stories are told, and the way they wrap up is in a way in-which the status quo of the series at the time is restored or maintained; and none of the events or characters from the movies are even mentioned in the series itself, even though the movies often mention events and characters from the series, and even base their plots around them. So, you easily go without watching these movies and just dive into the main series, and be none the wiser.

You do kind of have to have watched the series before watching these movies however because you'll already be kind of familiar with the characters and be attached to them. These movies are not really recommended for newcomers to the series for that reason, they're more for hardcore fans who are already invested in the story, the characters, and the universe and want to see more. Though, a couple of them do each give exposition at the beginning that explain who these characters are, and why they're doing what they're doing which is something the series does as well; a little too much in my opinion.

One thing I will say though is that the movies all kind of feel a little too much like extended episodes of the series or perhaps like TV movies since they're all so short; only running an hour long on average. The first and third movie are the closest to feeling cinematic and something that would actually be released in theaters, but even then, they still don't quite get there. The guess, the biggest thing for me for why these movies don't entirely feel cinematic, and something bigger than an average Inuyasha episode is that the villains for most part don't really feel like larger than life threats and just feel like just slightly stronger villains that the Inuyasha and the gang would face in an arc of the series.

This was especially the case with the villains in the fourth movie, Fire on the Mystic Island, the Four War Gods who just feel like slightly more generic versions of the Band of Seven except if they were demons and if there were only four of them; they weren't memorable or interesting at all is what I'm saying. The world they inhabit is interesting, the lore surrounding them and their evil plot is interesting, but the War Gods themselves were not interesting. The same could be really said about Fire on Mystic Island as a whole, the movie was not really that interesting. 

It feels just like an extended episode or a mini-arc of the series, a random side quest or side mission that Inuyasha and his crew stop and go on while they're on their main journey to find and defeat Naraku; and it doesn't really effect the main story other than to give the character new insights, and have them grow a little more from that experience. It's the least cinematic out of all of them, the 88 minute run time alone should tell you that. I'm not saying these movies have to be 2 or 3 hours long anything, but at least come up with something that has a meatier run time more befitting of a theatrical movie like 100 minutes or 110 minutes.

The villain in the second movie, Kaguya was kind of interesting at first. The idea that she was this celestial being from the Moon who wanted to exact revenge against those that wronged her hundreds or thousands of years ago, could grant wishes, and immune to Kagome's spiritual power because she technically is a "pure being" was intriguing. But, then they reveal toward the end that she's not a celestial being at all, and is just a demon pretending to be a celestial being (even implying that she absorbed the real celestial being into her body kind of like Naraku does just to grand herself immortality) which is kind of lame. It takes away everything that kind of made the character intriguing, and just gives you what you expect, especially since they already a similar plot to this in the series with that one Lake Guardian spirit.

Speaking of Naraku though, I didn't expect them to really bring him into any of the movies. Usually, when popular anime series get movies made out of them, they usually leave out the main villain and main story in favor of a one-off villain and a stand alone story. I mean, that's what the Cowboy Bebop movie did, the main villain of that series, Vicious never appeared the movie nor was he even mentioned, and the movie instead of focused entirely on the stand alone villain, Vincent; though they do coincidentally have names that both start with the letter 'v.' But, no, they actually did bring Naraku into the second movie and they do something pretty interesting with him.

They explore the idea of what would happen if Inuyasha and the gang succeeded in killing Naraku? How would they and the other characters who had vested interests in Naraku react? What would they all do afterwards? Even though, I did know right from the get go that Naraku wasn't actually dead, or if he was, then he wasn't going to be dead for long and that he would come back somehow by the end. If he was actually dead for real, they would just be confirming that this movie isn't canon, and that it's just be a what if scenario; which would still be cool, and something that they could've easily done with these movies. 

And wouldn't you know it? I was right, Naraku wasn't dead after all. He just faked his dead in order to give the heroes a false sense of security and victory, and most importantly, to lure out Kaguya (who was waiting for Naraku's death to emerge because she knew how powerful he was and that she probably couldn't defeat him in battle or outrun him forever) so that he could absorb her into his body. Which makes me wonder, what exactly do the heroes have to do in The Final Act to actually kill Naraku for real when the guy can easily just fake his death like that?

But, it is a still fascinating and fun idea with many possibilities, especially Kagura, what would happen to Kagura after Naraku's death? Would her place be? They were kind of doing something interesting with her where immediately after Naraku gets "killed," Kagura immediately becomes the henchmen of Kaguya. They could've explored Kagura's insecurities and had her question her own existence and her purpose. Can she ever actually be free or she is just doomed or destined to always be subservient to somebody else? That's some pretty intriguing stuff right there, but they don't really delve into it that much. 

Kagura just becomes Kaguya's henchmen, and just goes off to retrieve the items she wants her to get so she can activate her spell to freeze time and make herself nearly all powerful. And by the time Naraku reappears, and tries to absorb Kaguya, Kagura's never seen again. We don't even get to see her reaction to finding out Naraku's alive and was never dead, that look and feeling of horror and distress as she realizes that she was never free at all, and still under Naraku's control. perhaps she realizes that the mere fact that she was still alive after his "death" was proof that he was alive and still there all along; suggesting that if Naraku dies for real, then she will die as well since she was created from him, and is apart of him.

But, they do leave some stuff that would've been cool to see out like they don't show Sesshomaru's reaction to Naraku's "death," even though he had a grudge against Naraku, and wanted to get revenge on him for tricking him into doing his dirty work that one time; and for kidnapping Rin, holding her hostage, and threatening her life of course, but he wouldn't you to know that. They show him for a brief few seconds turning to react to Naraku's "death" after he senses it, but then they never show him again after that in any significant way, they don't show him processing Naraku's death and or show what he chooses to do after he's gone for that long stretch of time. 

Perhaps, Sesshomaru already knew that Naraku wasn't actually dead, and he sense him all along or something. He is more perceptive than any of the other characters (even Naraku's own incarnations), and he's always one or two steps ahead of Inuyasha and the gang. They also never show Koga's reaction curiously enough, like Koga's not in any of the four movies even it would totally make sense for him to be there. He's a major character of the series (something I didn't expect him to be when he first appeared) and he too has a grudge against Naraku and seeks revenge; he wants to average his dead wolf clansman after Naraku slaughtered them all in-directly through Kagura.

Swords of an Honorable Ruler probably has the best villain out of all four movies, and the villain in that movie is literally a talking sword. I mean, I guess, that's not entirely true, the sword, So'unga resurrects a human warrior named Takemaru, who had feelings for Inuyasha's mother, Izayoi and became jealous and vengeful when she had a child with Toga; which So'unga uses to make Takemaru want to kill Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, or at the very least, kill the human girls they love the most, Rin and Kagome. But, So'unga is the main antagonistic force of that movie, he's the one that's driving the plot, and he's the one that's posing the challenge to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, and he has a deep personal connection to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru through their father, Toga. 

So'unga was one of Toga's three swords before he gave the Tessaiga to Inuyasha and the Tenseiga to Sesshomaru, and left the three old guys (Myoga, Saya, and Totosai) to figure out what to do with So'unga. Takemaru is really just a puppet or henchmen of So'unga since he resurrects him and uses him a host to interact with the world around him. But, he is still a character in his own right, and he does let go of his hatred and anger before his death after realizing Izayoi actually did care about him, and was just protecting him when she sent him away while she was giving birth to Inuyasha. But then, So'unga creates his own body and fights Inuyasha and Sesshomaru without a human or demon host 1v2, cementing the fact that he is the main villain of the movie; even though, as I said, he's a talking sword.

But, while I am on the topic, I guess I should explain the other reason why Swords of an Honorable Ruler is my favorite of the four Inuyasha movies. I just like the story, how it deals with Inuyasha's backstory, his father, Toga, and his relationship with his older, full demon  brother Sesshomaru. It does make it feel almost like a Shakespearean drama or a Greek tragedy about two brothers who hate each other, who don't understand each other and refuse to get along with each other while also having a fascination with their father. I also like the fights and banter between Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, just seeing them argue with each other and throwing verbal haymakers at each other while they fight physically with their swords. And it is cool to see them, as well as their friends, finally come together to join forces to fight this common enemy who they both share a connection with, even if they don't realize that they are joining forces or refuse to acknowledge that they are. It did truly feel like something cinematic and something that was worthy of being a movie that was released in theaters.

The only thing I didn't like was the epilogue (which all of the movies have) where Kagome puts that sacred bead necklace back on Inuyasha which she uses to control and punish him when he does something bad. Why couldn't she let him keep that necklace off? Doesn't she trust him enough to not have that necklace on to constantly make him sit [like a dog] when he makes her mad? Is she just that much of a control freak? And she tricked it back on him by saying it was "surprise that he would like" and to close his eyes. And judging by The Final Act and Yashahime, it doesn't look like Kagome ever takes the necklace off of Inuyasha even after they've collected all the Shikon Jewel shards and rejoined them into the one big Shikon Jewel (and destroyed it quickly after), defeated Naraku for good, and became parents. Why can't have Inuyasha have true freedom even after all they've been through?

But, enough ranting about Inuyasha's bead necklace, let's get into my thoughts on the villains and story of the first Inuyasha movie, Affections Across Time before I finally wrap this baby up; it's getting pretty long. Affections Across Time is probably my second favorite movie of the four, coming in at a close second to Swords of an Honorable Ruler, and it has the second best villain out of the four. Menomaru is an imposing threat, he's a demon from the "continent" (it's China, Menomaru and his family are from China), and he does pose a more significant challenge to the main heroes than a villain in a typical Inuyasha episode, and he actually kind of wins at first.

I also like that the threat actually reaches the present (Kagome's time) and aren't just limited to the Feudal era, which has been kind of a gripe that I've had with the series and the whole story of Inuyasha. If the events in the Feudal era don't affect the events of the present and vis versa, not even altering the timeline in a negative way, why should we even care? Why should we be invested in any of this if Kagome's world is never affected by any of it and she can always go back there for safety? But in this movie, it does affect her world in a major way, which raises the stakes significantly than the average Inuyasha episode. Also, one of  Menomaru's henchmen, Ruri copies Miroku's Wind Tunnel ability and uses it against him (at least until she gets sucked into it herself at the end due to her not knowing how to control it or knowing its limits), which is pretty cool, making her a more significant threat than the usual one-off villain of the week in the series. The only issue is that Sesshomaru is barely in it, only two scenes, and I wanted to see more of him because he's one of my favorite characters of the show; though the movie did give us the one and only interaction between Sesshomaru and Kikyo in the entire franchise which was cool, even if it was short.

The music is alright. The score is pretty good as always, but the pop songs at the end are just kind of there. They're nothing to write home about, they aren't particularly catchy, and I didn't feel like I needed to listen to them again after hearing them for the first time, which is an issue with the main series as well; with a few expectations of course.

In conclusion, Swords of an Honorable Ruler was my favorite of the four movies, it had the best story, the best villain, and it felt the most cinematic. Fire on the Mystic Island is my least favorite, it was kind of bland and basic, the villains were just lesser versions of the Band of Seven, and it feel like a TV movie. Also, Sesshomaru's barely in it despite being prominent on the poster, he appears in three scenes, and after he kills Kyora, he's out of the movie except for the epilogue. I mean, seriously, if they wanted to really spice things up, they could've at least done a plot twist where it turned out that the half-demon villagers are actually in league with the War Gods, and the whole thing was a trap for our heroes.

I would like to see Inuyasha and the gang get placed in a situation that they are incredibly misinformed about, believing they are doing good and helping people or half-demons in need, only it to turn out they were making the situation worse or they were unwittingly helping the bad guys. I would also like to see them fight a villain or villains that they don't fully understand, where their assumptions and preconceived notions based on past experiences are challenged and rendered inapplicable, and their strengths are all turned into crippling weaknesses. None of these have ever happened in the franchise that I'm aware of. If I were to rank all four Inuyasha movies from worst to best, it would go like this: Fire on the Mystic Island, Castle Beyond the Looking Glass, Affections Across Time, and Swords of an Honorable Ruler.