Inuyasha's father, who will henceforth be referred to as Inutaishou,
despite remaining yet unnamed, and Sesshoumaru are standing on a
snow-covered beach, speaking with one another. Inutaishou is bleeding
with has his back to Sesshoumaru. I'm pretty sure Sesshoumaru was not
the one who made his father bleed, but he does seem to be criticizing
his father's choice to storm a castle. Inutaishou, by the way holds all
three swords at this point: Tessaiga, Tenseiga, and Souunga. His father
says something about protecting those you love, transforms into his real
form, and runs into the woods towards the castle. Sesshoumaru does not
follow.

Setsunano Takemaru is a samurai at the castle towards where Inutaishou
is headed. There are multitudes of Samurai, guards and priests there
awaiting Inutaishou's attack. Within the castle is held Izayoi, who
seems to have just given birth to little Inuyasha. Takemaru goes into
the room and talks to her, then kills her.

At this point, out of the forest comes running Inutaishou in his human
form unleashing one Kaze-no-Kizu after another busting down walls and
killing most everyone there. He rushes into the compound and he is met
by Takemaru. Takemaru pulls out his sword and they rush at one another.
Inutaishou takes off Takemaru's arm and rushes into the castle. I forget
how the castle caught fire, but it did. Inutaishou comes into the
burning room and finds Izayoi dead and the crying Inuyasha in her arms.
He pulls out Tenseiga and resurrects her. Takemaru then comes in and
Inutaishou pulls out Souunga; they fight while Izayoi gets away. He
tells Izayoi to run with Inuyasha. She says "Inuyasha? . . ." and his
last words to her are "Sono ko no na wa Inuyasha! (That child's name is
Inuyasha!)" She then runs away. She gets out in time for the burning
building to collapse upon Inutaishou and Takemaru. I'm guessing that
this is how Inutaishou dies.

Way into the future: Inuyasha is walking with Kagome on the road in the
Sengoku Jidai. Not much happens, but I think she's going back home.

500 years into the future: Kagome is playing volley ball in Gym (And
she's hot in those bloomers, by the way. -_^) The EVIL VOLLYBALL FROM
HELL is descending upon her . . . when suddenly Inuyasha comes to the
rescue, snatching that ball out of the air and taking it to her school's
roof to show it who's boss by squeezing it and popping it. (If you
couldn't tell, its just a normal volley ball.) He then waves to Kagome
calling out her name and she just mumbles "Osuwari," and Inuyasha gets
sat atop the school's roof. Later on we find them walking home together
and he's wearing a baseball cap to hide his ears.

Kagome's grandpa is carrying a very familiar sword to the shrine's store
house: Souunga. Souta tries to touch it, but out pops a ghost named
Saya, who tells him not to touch it. The sword flies up into the air and
starts flying about the city. It goes past a bunch of people who are all
wondering about it and it then stops in front of Inuyasha. Saya pops out
and says "Hi," whilst Inuyasha is getting ready to cut the floating
sword down with his own Tessaiga. Saya, I think is trying to tell
Inuyasha to get the sword under control as its trying to unsheathe
itself and eventually does, going strait up, glowing, then falling back
to earth where it sticks into the ground. Suddenly death, destruction
and decay spread out from it, destroying all the buildings, killing
people and everything decays instantly (Think of the scene from Mononoke
Hime, only there's no black blob). Kagome and Inuyasha watch in horror
and Saya explains about the sword. Inuyasha goes up to the sword, grabs
it and gets shocked badly, but eventually picks it up. As soon as the
sword leaves the ground, everything goes completely back to normal.
However, tentacles spread from it and possess Inuyasha's arm. He goes
demonic and starts trying to kill Kagome with it but he is able to hold
himself back long enough to run away. Kagome picks up the scabbard and
talks to Saya.

500 years in the past: Everyone suddenly notices (Sesshoumaru-tachi,
Miroku-tachi, etc . . .) a big pink light burst forth from somewhere a
ways away. Tenseiga is suddenly vibrating and Sesshoumaru goes to
investigate. Obviously, Miroku and Sango go investigate as well.

Inuyasha comes floating out of the well, one arm wrapped in tentacles
and some going into the arm as well, and holding the sword. He's demonic
and runs towards villagers and starts killing or trying to kill anything
and everyone. Miroku and Sango are able to hold him off long enough for
a woman and her baby to escape and eventually he starts gathering energy
and they all run away and escape when he swings the sword around and
around to form one HUGE tornado that rips through the village and
countryside leaving a huge trench behind it before it finally peters
out. Inuyasha finally calms down and goes walking, dragging the sword,
still attached to him along. Some oni pop out of the ground and
unfortunately, we don't get to see the fight, just black then they're
all lying dead on the ground and Inuyasha panting. He continues on.

Miroku waits by the well for Kagome's return. Kagome comes out of the
well and they greet her. She asks what caused all the destruction and
they tell her that it's Inuyasha. They follow the path of destruction
and find the oni, which wake up and fight them. Something they notice is
that the oni keep reforming and it takes Kagome's arrow to destroy one
and Miroku sucking in the other, but the third escapes. Sucking in the
oni did some very bad things to Miroku. As will later be revealed, this
is important.

Inuyasha meets up with Sesshoumaru and they fight. This is one of the
highlights especially when Sesshoumaru pulls Tessaiga out of its
scabbard and does a Kaze-no-Kizu on Inuyasha, despite the intense pain
and burning its causing to Sesshoumaru's own hand. He then drops the
sword and seems almost down for the count at that point, but Inuyasha is
in much worse shape. He gets up and spots Rin and Jaken watching the
battle. He begins heading for Rin to kill her. Kagome comes in just in
time to scream, "OSUWARI!" which only makes him go down slightly and she
screams it again as Sesshoumaru rushes in for the kill, murder in his
eyes (You DON'T mess with Rin!). When she screams it again, he's finally
sat in an explosion of sitting that puts a massive crater in the ground
(I guess the evil sword that possessed him was holding the spring back
too far and when it let go . . . boy did he go down hard.). This, buy
the way, obliterates the sitting necklace.

So Inuyasha finally gets rid of the sword because its been launched into
the air and lost. He gets up and runs away. Sesshoumaru leaves without
Rin or Jaken. Rin and Jaken go with Miroku, Sango, Myouga, Saya and
An'un, nursing Kagome back to consciousness.

Saya explains about the sword to them. Meanwhile, the oni that had
escaped earlier goes and finds the sword, Souunga and somehow finds
Sesshoumaru's severed arm (remember he lost it in the battle with
Inuyasha very early in the series. However, as I had to use the restroom
so very badly at that point, I left the theater for all of a minute and
so I came back to Takemaru resurrecting himself by digging himself out
of his grave and reforming his body back into a human. The oni then
presents the sword and Sesshoumaru's arm. Takemaru puts Sesshoumaru's
arm on his own and then uses it to hold Souunga. Takemaru now becomes a
youkai, or half, whatever it is, as they don't explain, or if they did,
my Japanese listening skills just aren't good enough.

A large army of soldiers are marching home to their castle. They get to
the front gate and when it opens, they find all dead bodies inside.
There in the courtyard is Takemaru holding Souunga who then kills them
all. After killing them all, he holds out the sword that suddenly
manifests a river of blood that covers the entire castle and mountain on
which the castle is built. The blood causes the mountain to transform
into this big evil looking twisted, knotted formation that looks all
EVIL! It also causes the dead men to all come back as zombies and they
get into formation.

Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru meet standing over Takemaru's former grave.
They get into a fight which amounts to "Inuyasha is powerful as fuck but
Sesshoumaru is about twice as powerful." Inuyasha launches a Bakuryuuha
at Sesshoumaru who deflects it with Toukijin and sends it back
flattening Inuyasha in a forest of Bamboo. Sesshoumaru walks away and
Inuyasha is unconscious.

Kagome and the rest all see the big evil army of undead and decide to go
fight it. They spot Inuyasha on the other hill. Inuyasha is gunning for
Takemaru and Sesshoumaru shows up too, being a general badass, using
Toukijin to decimate large portions of the undead army. Sango is quite
the badass here too. However, everyone they kill just reforms and gets
back up again to fight some more. Kagome was particularly impressive
shooting an arrow that didn't hit anyone of them but cause a HUGE
portion of them that it passed through to all just drop dead. I think
they still got back up, but it took them a little longer. In an
extremely cute scene, Jaken is using his staff to burn up many of the
enemies (the staff seems much weaker in this movie than it did in
original series . . .) and behind him is Rin, they're both on An'un and
she is cheering him on "Gambare! Jaken-sama! (Do you're best/Go for it!
Jaken-sama!)"

Takemaru demands that his minions bring him Sesshoumaru's sword
(Tenseiga) and so one of them is able to cut it off of him in battle
while he uses Toukijin and Tenseiga goes flying over to where Rin is.
Rin goes and picks it up. Kagome is there defending her. Rin looks very
cute carrying a sword that is nearly twice her size. A big oni picks up
Rin and Kagome and takes them to the castle.

Kagome screams and Inuyasha instantly starts going towards her.
Sesshoumaru is briefly distracted but could care less until he hears Rin
screaming "Sesshoumaru-samaaa! Save me!" He of course decides to up the
badassedness and runs after her making leaps and bounds. The oni dumps
Kagome and Rin (still carrying Tenseiga) in front of Takemaru. Takemaru
seems to have this bizarre belief that he's looking at Izayoi (Kagome)
then tries to kill Kagome and Rin. Kagome gets knocked across the room
and has trouble standing so Rin stands in front of her holding the
sheathed Tenseiga in front of her telling Takemaru not to touch Kagome.
She looks particularly cute doing this, even if its completely
ineffective. Quite brave, she is.

Takemaru is about to cut Rin down the middle when his sword stops an
inch above her head. We then see that it was Toukijin, held by
Sesshoumaru at Takemaru's side keeping the sword from doing Rin any
harm. They start fighting. Rin is behind him and offers up Tenseiga, but
he tells them to run. Rin puts down Tenseiga and runs with Kagome.

The fight progresses and Sesshoumaru's sword is knocked out of his hand.
He goes for Tenseiga but he gets blocked by the faster moving Takemaru.
Now, ordinarily, Sesshoumaru would have gone for Tenseiga, picked it up,
and cut Takemaru into several small pieces by now, but after all that
fighting with the army of undead, he's pretty winded.

Miroku and the gang are having quite a bit of trouble with the army of
undead and meet up with Inuyasha in the fray. They stay and fight to let
Inuyasha go save Kagome. Finally, at the total risk of his life, Miroku
sucks in the entire undead army.

Kagome and Rin run down some stairs and head down another set when
Kagome screams and runs back up followed by a big oni. Rin show us that
she can be a badass too. Because Kagome's been carrying round all the
beads of the sitting-necklace that Rin had gathered and given back to
her, they had spilled on the floor and Rin started throwing them at the
oni, which caused his head to dissolve. GO RIN! (Heh, if you can't tell
by now, I am the ultimate Rin fan!") Kagome proves to be surprisingly
ineffective at throwing beads at the oni, as they merely bounce off. She
is picked up and about to die when Inuyasha comes up the stairs and
slices the oni in half from the head strait down. Inuyasha is able to
take Kagome and Rin to safety. He goes back to fight.

Meanwhile, Sesshoumaru somehow gets a hold of Tenseiga and uses it to
cut Takemaru in half. Takemaru then falls to the floor dead. Souunga
resurrects Takemaru who gets up and fights more with Sesshoumaru.
Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru are finally able to put him down and he starts
babbling about Izayoi (I'm guessing he was in love with her) and let's
himself dissolve into just bones. However, Sesshoumaru's arm takes
Souunga and transforms into like super swordfighter thingy.

Kagome is able to use Souunga's scabbard to form a barrier to protect
everyone, but runs out after Inuyasha. By this time, Takemaru's power
has opened up a gateway to hell and you can see billions of soldiers
down there all fighting and marching up the walls to overrun Japan.

Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru continue to get in each other's way in fighting
Souunga-Super-Fighter. Kagome yells that they need to fight together
against him, but Sesshoumaru refuses to listen. Inuyasha is sending one
Bakuryuuha after another at Takemaru all of which are deflected by his
own Bakuryuuha-like attack. Finally, after a sweet scene where
Sesshoumaru remembers his father explaining about protecting those you
love then various alternating scenes of Jaken and Rin saying
"Sesshoumaru-sama!" He pulls out Tenseiga and yells (I think I heard
this correctly, but I don't remember so well and I might have heard this
wrong), "Mamoru mono ga NAI YO! (I have NOTHING to protect!)," and then
combines his Tenseiga blast (Didn't know it had one, left unnamed) with
Inuyasha's Bakuryuuha. Combined, they finally break through and kill the
Souunga-Super-Fighter. The sword falls into the pit of hell and
Inutaishou appears to Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha and gives them a nice
little talk.

Everyone goes their separate ways. Credits roll. Then they show Inuyasha
and Kagome enjoying watching the sky, lying in a field. Kagome tells
Inuyasha to close his eyes for a surprise. He does so, the screen goes
black for a second, you hear an odd noise . . . then Inuyasha opens his
eyes to discover the sitting necklace once again around his neck.

The End

NOTES:
While I can read the Inuyasha raw manga pretty much without any aide at
all, save for the occasional kanji look-up, my Japanese listening and
speaking skills are utter shit (I can speak much better than I can hear,
so my Listening skills are REALLY bad) and thus, I picked up only about
35-40% of the movie. My apologies for any lines that I didn't hear
correctly that I included in here. Also, if you're wondering why I am
very vague about the various discussions, that's the reason why, it was
about as vague to me.

So, for all of you people out there that think that Kikyou and Inuyasha
didn't trust one another quite enough . . . shove it, Kagome just
demonstrated about how much she trusts Inuyasha by tricking him to put
the necklace back on him. Sorry, but that scene really just wasn't all
that funny to me and kind of left a bad aftertaste. I think it shouldn't
have been placed in the movie. Either that or they should have found a
better way to put the necklace back on him than have Kagome trick him
into it.

Also, a not about the animation quality: It just seemed a little off to
me. The television series seems to me to have superior animation
quality, and maybe the other movies (I've only seen the first before
this), but the over all quality was just slightly poorer than the
television show. Perhaps they rushed it or had a lower budget. Oh well.

Rin was exceedingly cute in this movie, but isn't she always? We don't
get to see much of Kagome's power in this film, as it centers on
Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. Finally, no Naraku and no Shikon no Tama are
featured at all in this film.
I guess I wasn't being very clear, after all, it was quite early in the
morning for me when I posted it. I wasn't saying that Kikyou and
Inuyasha didn't have trust issues, I was simply pointing out that
everyone that keeps saying that only they had trust issues and not
Kagome and Inuyasha, apparently, according to this movie, Kagome doesn't
trust Inuyasha, otherwise, she never would have done such a thing.
Frankly, the scene pissed me off something fierce. Now, if one chooses
to ignore the scene, then we can all agree that Inuyasha and Kagome
trust one another. If we choose not to ignore the scene, this will
definitely become a point of contention in the every famous "Anime vs.
Manga: Which one if not both are canon?" debate. In the manga, they do,
obviously, in the Anime, Kagome doesn't. Oh well.

> I do believe InuYasha would feel awkward without his rosary. Weird as
it may seem, I think he sees it as an always there, tangible reminder of
and tie to Kagome.

I guess because I'm not Inuyasha, I don't fully . . . hell, I don't
understand this one bit. As a male, I can tell all you females that that
kind of thing is as good a reason as any to break up with another
person. Its one thing to voluntarily put it back on as a surprise to
Kagome and a demonstration of his ultimate trust in her (Not that she
doesn't have a bad habit of abusing it a bit, IMO), its another thing
for her to trick him and put it on him. To be honest, from my
perspective, as a guy, she might as well have tacked on, "by the way,
I've been sleeping with Miroku too."

Lastly, lo I am the ultimate Rin fan . . . I happen to be a rabid Kikyou
fanboy. Granted, I'm not a big fan of Kikyou/Inuyasha pairings, but over
all, I identify very much with Kikyou, and I like her a lot. So forgive
my occasional jibe worming its way in to a thread in her defense. Also,
because of the sheer volume of passionate Kikyou haters out there
(especially on ff.net, and frankly, many of them I think only hate her
because everyone else does), my little jibes can sometimes carry a
slightly bitter tone. My apologies for that. I'm not one to try to
offend, but I'll defend mine when and wherever.

-Rin

Quotes from Fans!

Fantastic summary!

Just one thing though...I think under any other circumatances, Kagome would have left
the rosary off. However, since this never appeared in the manga, they've got to restore
things back to the status quo by the end of the movie.
That means restoring the rosary in some form. Personally,
I think it sounds like a cute scene.

But by the end, you still essentially have the characters at the
same point they currently are in the manga. Nothing except the backhistory behind
Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's parents and Inuyasha's birth have been resolved.
They're the same people with the same issues and pretty much the movie reinforces
elements in the manga that have already been brought up (such as Sesshomaru's devotion to Rin.
That was explored when Kagura kidnapped her and also during the Shinitachi arc).
The movie also serves to give more airtime to Rin, which I like too.
She's such a neat little girl and really has a strong backbone.

Thank you for taking the time to write the summary!
Oh, I can't wait now for next summer and the DVD release so we can get it fansubbed.

- Megs

I think a lot more is being read into the rosary scene than it should be.
Remember at the end of movie #2? During that movie, Inuyasha and Kagome kiss for
the first time in the series - anime, movies and manga - yet
that is also disregarded completely at the end and hasn't been brought up since.
Considering the amount of agony that both parties experienced when Kikyo kissed Inuyasha
in the canon storyline, you would think that a kiss like that - and the circumstances
- would also have a lasting effect. So I think for the animators,
the rosary falls into the same situation as the kiss - necessary plot device
which is disregarded in some comedic way at the end.

Also, something else about the rosary that I think Inuyasha and Kagome both realize - most of
the time, that rosary and Kagome's "osuwari" is what brings Inuyasha back to normal when
he's in full youkai mode. Look at the effect of it in the movie.
Kagome has also used it to keep Inuyasha out of danger (episode 8/early manga chapter when
Inuyasha is about to get pummeled by the toad youkai and she sits him to save him and
then attacks with her fire/hairspray attack). I don't think the decision to put the rosary
back on was made lightly, but of course we don't see that.

From what I get from reading various summaries of the movie, not even Inuyasha is that
upset that Kagome places the rosary back on him. Just surprised. Probably surprised at the
method moreso than anything. Kagome was probably trying to be cute and funny about it and
I think the scene was suppose to be comedic and give people a chuckle to walk away with rather
than the complete seriousness of the movie.

Up until discovering that episodes 137 and now 138 use movie 2 plots and characters, it was
easier to write off the movies as being their own canon, or not exactly aligning with the
exisiting story. However, now the movies are considered part of the anime canon which means
now, according to the anime, Inuyasha and Kagome have kissed and have also removed the rosary
at least once and we now know the full backstory behind Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's father and
Inuyasha's mother. The last I was willing to accept as canon anyhow because I don't think
Takahashi-sensei will get a chance to address it again in the manga. I think that chance
came up when the quest for the last shard occured but it didn't (it hasn't taken place in the
anime yet.). It'd be interesting to see what sort of hand she played in the creation and
storyline of this third movie since she does have a heavier hand in this anime than she did
in Ranma 1/2 or the others.

Megs
*****
mlavey@charter.net
AIM: MegsLeigh
http://www.wishing-blue.net/dreamweaver/

Thanks for the low-down on the third movie. I have heard alot of it, but you did
fill in some of the gaps (i.e., like when Inuyasha's mother is laying there dead and his
father uses the Tenseiga, I hadn't heard whether or not baby Inuyasha was also dead).
A couple of notes. You mention you don't know how the palace was set on fire -
I heard that it was Takemaru after he killed Izayoi (probably to cover up the deed).
Oh, and the father shouldn't have died from this - remember, in the series we find that
he died from the wounds that he received battling...Sheesh, I'm such a blonde -
I can't think of the dragon's name (the one that Inuyasha has to beat in order to lighten
the Tessaiga)... As for Kagome returning the rosary to Inuyasha at the end of the movie.
I'm livid over that. It is SO out of character. I know they had to figure out a way to get
it back on him (after all, he has it in the series), but Kagome has proven time and time
again that she trusts Inuyasha. In the manga, the only time she ever uses it any more is
basically to stop Inuyasha from fighting with Kouga over her (although the filler episodes
really use it far too much). I honestly don't think she would put it back on him.
At least not like that. Personally, I would have made it something that had to be done.
Like, have him be out of control from the sword and it be the ONLY way to get him back
under control. No, Kagome wouldn't put it back on him if he was just sitting their peacefully.
Another option would have been have Kaede return it to him (she is the one who gave it to
him in the first place, remember). Or, have Shippou drop it around his neck while he's not
looking (after all, Shippou gets pounded by Inuyasha and relies on Kagome to keep our
precious hanyou in check so it would be in his best interest). No, this is one of the real
reasons I don't like the movies and fillers. They tend to be a little bit TOO AU...
Yes, Inuyasha and Kikyou had trust issues. Inuyasha and Kagome got over that.
They both have shown over and over that they trust each other. Yes, this part of the
movie sucks... Sucks big time (and I haven't even seen it yet).
I had to deal with the issue of the rosary needing to be put back on Inuyasha in my fanfic
"One Heart". I had him return it himself - as a way of showing his trust for Kagome.
Not sure how Takahashi would deal with it, but I somehow doubt that scene was her doing. -- Urd-chan
***************
http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/inuyasha_hanyou
http://nexus.colum.edu/user/nierodzik/html/fanfic2.htm#urdchan
http://nexus.colum.edu/user/nierodzik/html/fanfic2.htm
http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=285607

Woo, finally, a summary that actually goes into detail about what
happens! Thankies, thankies.

However, you brought up one point that suddenly makes the dad's death
canon. You said he was bleeding BEFORE he went to the castle. This
could have been from the fight with Ryuukossei. He could have been
mortally wounded already at that point and wanted to go bid Izayoi
farewell, then ran into some issues when he got to the castle.

However... why the heck was Inu-papa mauling down soldiers left and
right? Even Inuyasha doesn't kill ordinary humans, no matter how
they rise up against him. Heck, I thought Tessaiga couldn't be used
against humans, period. Ah well.

Also, reading random summaries on Japanese fansites, it sounds like
Inu and Sess actually talked civilly with each other about their dad
sometime around the second fight. I keep seeing the line of
Inu's: "You've got it good, you know. You actually knew Dad's
face... knew what he was like."

Also, I heard there was something amusing about how Rin referred to
Kagome and Inuyasha. Something about how Kagome was "Kagome-sama",
but Inuyasha was just "Inuyasha-san", like he wasn't good enough for
a "sama". And then Jaken says something like "Even 'san' is too good
for you!" At least, that's the impression I'm getting from Japanese
websites.

Anysplat, thank you much for the summary and filling in the gaps in
the plot. However... did Sesshoumaru's arm ever make it back to the
gravesite? Movies always have to reset all the events by the end so
they don't interfere with canon, but whatever befell the arm?