Missing Nostalgia: Inuyasha Episode 4--The Moral Is Teamwork...Or Something

The above screencap is a pretty good summary of the show up to this point.

(A/N: This post contains some disturbing and graphic images. Please read with caution.)

That’s right, this is the first post to get a content warning! The show decided to stop hinting about how dark it could get and went full force. I doubt it will stop there though, but if that fight scene is indicative of where the rest of the show will go, I’m pretty excited!

But first things first—Kagome has to decide that she wants to go back. As I mentioned last time, she doesn’t have a compelling reason to do so right off the bat. Her initial worrying only makes her remember what a jerk Inuyasha was to her, so she decides to forget that it ever happened. Her grandpa also sealed up the well and promises that no monsters will be able to follow her. I mean, what could happen? It’s not like Inuyasha could just show up and demand that she go back—

LMAO

Oh man, I thought I laughed hard when Kaede got half-buried, but this beat that moment easily! To be honest, I was halfway expecting something like “only Kagome can use the well because reincarnation blah blah blah,” but I guess once it’s open, it’s a time travel free-for-all!

Looks like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree

However, Inuyasha messed up and brought some of Yura’s hair with him, and now it’s trying to go through the well. Kagome and Inuyasha manage to stop it by Kagome directing Inuyasha to the piece of hair he needs to cut by reflecting light off of it (which shouldn’t work because it’s invisible, but okay), and now Kagome is worried about her family getting hurt.

Kagome assumes that Yura is after both her and Inuyasha, disregarding the fact that Yura tried to kill her earlier after taking the piece of the Jewel. However, Yura’s real intentions aren’t the point here—the focus is on Kagome making the choice to return, which is what the story needs to move forward.

This also has the side benefit of impressing Inuyasha, at least a little bit. Their main method of communication so far has been hurling insults at each other, so this marks the first time that Inuyasha has noticed that Kagome doesn’t think selfishly.

He ends up giving her his robe (the dub calls it a kimono, but I’m not sure if that’s accurate), claiming that it will give her some extra protection. This is easily the nicest thing he has done in the show’s run so far, even though he tells Kagome not to get worked up over it. Even with the bickering, their relationship has already changed a lot!

Ew

They jump back into the past and find out that Yura has killed most of the warriors in the village. And once again, Kagome reacts in a pretty interesting way. Instead of getting scared by the headless corpses (which would be understandable), she picks up a bow and arrow and resolves to do something to prevent more people from losing their lives. Even knowing that there isn’t much she can do with that weapon, Kagome keeps surprising me with her resolve.

When they reach Yura’s…hairball, they find out that she’d been waiting for them all along. There is some great fight animation from here all the way to the end of the episode. Even with everything going on, Yura didn’t feel like a threat until this direct confrontation.

Also, even though it isn’t spelled out, Yura makes it clear that she doesn’t care about Kagome at all—she just wants Inuyasha’s hair. She also doesn’t need Kagome to find the other pieces of the Jewel either, so technically Kagome came back for no good reason! If Inuyasha had returned alone, then Kagome and her family would’ve been fine.

Word travels fast considering they haven't even started looking for the pieces yet...

However, like it or not, the two of them are connected now, and Kagome is Inuyasha’s best chance at getting through this alive. Even though she came back under a false assumption, Kagome’s desire to help others in need ends up being the tipping point in this situation, even if she’s not that competent.

They're in a deadly situation and they're still bickering. I love it.

Kagome’s stray arrow reveals Yura’s skull stash (ew), prompting her to /light Kagome on fire./ However, this gives Inuyasha an opening to cut off her hand.

You can see why I needed the content warning for this one

AND THE PUNS ARE GETTING WORSE

What follows is a pretty violent fight scene that is still amazing to watch. I guess since this is a battle between two immortals (or Inuyasha is at least semi-immortal, that hasn’t been clarified yet), things that would usually be the end of a fight just ramp up the action here instead.

Meanwhile, Kagome discovers Yura’s weak point offscreen, since Inuyasha’s robe prevented her from burning to death. After another cool fight sequence, Kagome gets ahold of the red skull and destroys it, destroying Yura as well.

*victory music*

Yura was a comb? A demon comb?! What's next, demon hair ties?

There are 160+ episodes left, so you have plenty of time

So in the end, our heroes got the shard of the jewel back and also got a little closer in the process. Hooray for forward story momentum! And now that I’ve seen a little bit more of what this show can do in terms of villains, I’m getting more and more excited about seeing where this goes…but then I remember the episode count and wonder where in the world this storyline will go. But as usual, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see!

Kaede, you should probably dig yourself out

Images from Neon Alley via Hulu.com. Please support the official simulcast.

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