PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*
The second Inu-Yasha movie requires even more insider knowledge than the first one. Both the manga series and the anime series frequently pit the five main heroes against an evil schemer, Naraku, who covets the magical jewel shards and who uses a vast array of evil hench-demons. The opening scenes of CASTLE suggest that the heroes finally manage to vanquish their enemy, though because he's escaped them so often, they're not entirely sure. Insiders know that Naraku has his own long arc in the manga and anime, so it's a good bet that his demise is greatly exaggerated, in order to bring in a new opponent for the heroes.
The new opponent is a heavenly princess named Kaguya, based upon a character from a Japanese classic. Once Naraku seemingly dies, two of his henchwomen come across a mirror in a remote shrine, from which Kaguya rises. The three make common cause to keep looking for the empowering jewel shards.
Kagome returns to modern times for a few days, but Inu-Yasha follows her. His overt motive is to make her hunt for jewel shards in the medieval world, since she can sense them and he cannot. On a personal level, though, he doesn't want to be parted from her, though being an alpha male he doesn't know how to express himself. Though the two of them quarrel once again, Kagome does end up following Inu-Yasha back to the past, though by the time she does so, Sango and Miroku have parted in order to return to their respective villages.
Inu-Yasha, Kagome and Shippo have a run-in with Kaguya and her two new allies, but the three females escape, absconding with the sleeve from Inu-Yasha's magically endowed robe. The three heroes keep going and run across a naive young man, Hojo, who may be the ancestor of one of Kagome's classmates. (Hojo actually encounters the women earlier, when he chances to spy on them bathing in a forest pool, but he escapes detection while the girls pound on Inu-Yasha and Miroku for their supposedly being Peeping Toms.)
While all this is going on, Kaguya are gathering other mystic items as well as Inu-Yasha's sleeve, in order to perform a ritual that will freeze time. Miroku gleans some information that the entity said to have been confined to a mirror may actually be a demon, not a celestial being. Kikyo the undead priestess plays a minor role in the demonic treasure-hunt but does not participate in the main action of the story. And of course, Naraku's not really dead and gone, because his external arc isn't finished yet.
CASTLE is a serviceable story, which like many of the canonical INU-YASHA tales depends on the heroes preventing the villain from getting something necessary to enslave the world. The script tries to shoehorn in a subplot about Inu-Yasha's vaunted ambition to become a "full demon." But the plot-thread unwinds too late in the story to have much dramatic effect, though it's intended to spotlight Kagome's to keep him at status quo because of her feelings for him. Kaguya plays tempter to Inu-Yasha, offering him his supposed heart's desire, but Kagome manages to win him back to the human world.
Despite the legendary character Kaguya supposedly emulates, Kaguya is a lame, make-work villain with no strong identity. As soon as a good villain like Naraku comes on stage, she looks even weaker and less consequential. CASTLE's only strong points are the character beats of the regular protagonists, which are consistently entertaining.
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