Missing Nostalgia: Inuyasha Episode 8--Not That Nobunaga

I was wondering when the filler would show up!

I was all ready to make a "Inuyasha did Nobunaga reboots before it was cool" joke, but then this guy wasn't even him

Given how long this series is, I knew that I was going to run into filler eventually. Still, I can’t help but feel disappointed. This episode had an obvious dip in quality compared to everything else leading up to it. It’s a good thing that the previous episodes hooked me so hard, or else I might have skipped this entirely.

First of all the filler characters are, well, forgettable. I guess that only makes sense—they’re characters that will never be seen again, after all—but the whole setup reeked of laziness. Inuyasha and Kagome call Nobunaga an “idjit” at the end of the episode, and that’s all there is to his character. He blunders through the episode, telegraphing his feelings and the “moral” to not use violence to resolve situations.

Although I guess DIY blowtorches are okay

The princess was even less of a character, since she was only around to provide backstory and act as the damsel in distress. However, in a weird twist, the flatness in how the princess was written made Kagome’s character stand out even more. She’s also a character who can technically do nothing, yet more often than not she’s the one saving the day.

In fact, all the east to guess plot points in this episode couldn’t bring Kagome and Inuyasha’s characters down—they’re written well enough to begin with that their part in the episode carried the whole thing. That’s rare to see from filler, which will often demote the characters’ personalities to something one-note in order to match the flat characters created for only one episode. This is done because of the possibility that the well-rounded characters will outshine the flat ones, but in this case it saves the episode.

It also says a lot when the show decides to add a monkey dancing on someone's head in an otherwise serious scene to make sure that the audience is paying attention

This was also the first time I was disappointed with a monster in this show. “Giant frog” just isn’t as unique as “hair demon,” or “spirit of mothers who lost their children to war.” What he was trying to do was pretty creepy, but he had such a ridiculous voice that I couldn’t take him seriously.

After seeing how the show decided to set itself up, I was hoping that its fillers might have a little bit more to them than “random side journey where they pick up a Jewel Shard,” but I guess that was too much to hope for. Oh well.

I’m planning to combine episode posts as I encounter more filler episodes in the future, since I don’t have too much to say about them. I won’t have to do that next time though, so it looks like the show will be introducing one of the other characters from the OP. I’m excited to see the cast grow for real this time!

Even the subtitles didn't care about this episode

Images are from Neon Alley via Hulu.com. Please support official simulcasts.

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