Inuyasha Kanketsuhen Episode 04 – Counterproliferation Efforts

Kind of a slow episode this time, though the continuing theme seems to be that the characters’ world is becoming awash in youkai sword technology lately. Sesshomaru conducts more testing of the Tenseiga while Inuyasha and his team attempt to track down the source of the youki-absorbing blade they found and broke last episode. That searching is the main focus of this episode, but we also have the introduction of another agent of Naraku, Byakuya.

Seriously, it’s like it’s becoming a course in arms proliferation. Naraku has maintained the edge in conventional weapons and in numbers, and to counter this lately several parties have embarked on research and development of their own new systems. Goryoumaru obtained his new armor shell as part of the short-lived coup. Sesshomaru continues to conduct weapons tests with weaponized Tenseiga, a dual-use technology that has been converted to an offensive weapon. Kouga has obtained the Goraishi from the burial grounds of his ancestors, making him a much stronger force than before. And Inuyasha has begun tracking down the rogue state of this scenario after he finds a youki-absorbing blade in the hands of a very minor actor.

After consulting with Totosai and tracking the source of the blade to a village, Inuyasha, Kagome and their compatriots find it under attack by a youkai. As it attacks it smashes a building to reveal the blacksmith that forged the Dakki. The youkai itself has a youki-absorbing shield that drains the force of Tessaiga, but Inuyasha intentionally overloads it and destroys the youkai. Though after this is done the blacksmith, Toushuu, uses the new Dakki to absorb the power of the slain youkai which perfects the sword. We find out that the Dakki in the previous episode was just an incomplete prototype stolen from Toushuu, and that his real ambition was to obtain power via a complete Dakki. With this he begins to attack Inuyasha to claim the Tessaiga’s power and we get a real sword fight since Inuyasha’s youki attacks would just be instantly absorbed by the Dakki. The Tessaiga begins to chip under attack and youki-energy drain and eventually reverts to its plain katana form, but not before making a chip in the Dakki. Inuyasha sees this chance, and even with a drained weapon he manages to keep chipping away at the crack, breaking the Dakki and releasing its energy back to the Tessaiga. Toushuu is killed in the process, his arm fused to the broken blade, and Tessaiga even absorbs the scaled form of the Dakki.

Elsewhere Kouga encounters a youkai that has slain a group of his fellows and the survivor that it blackmailed into helping. Once he find the enemy he makes short work of it, but an unknown individual is standing there and diverts Kouga by putting the hostage onto a moth youkai. This eventually leads Kouga and the kid to Goryoumaru, who had just consumed the moth. Midoriko’s soul is having its weighing effect on his Shikon shards, but luckily for him Inuyasha and his group arrive. The two cooperate, and Kagome and Inuyasha hit hard at the spot where Sesshomaru wounded Goryoumaru, forcing him to retreat. Though when Inuyasha tries to use the new Tessaiga form, the blade quickly heats up and then explodes, sending him flying back and harming him in the process. Afterwards Byakuya reveals himself, saying he was merely an observer without identifying his affiliation. After departing he reports to Naraku, who is interested by this new development with the Tessaiga.

Crusader’s Song of Sango and Other Observations

Sadly Sango didn’t have much to do this episode as she sat on the sidelines with most of the cast as Inuyasha and Kouga start bickering again. It’s funny how both Sponge Bob-no-pants and Captain Yin relied on armor to carry the day, there has never been a point in warfare where armor trumped everything, apparently they did not get that memo and relied on fixed defenses instead of sophisticated ECM packages coupled with high mobility, with fancy foot work. Naraku leads his Youkai Soviet but even with this conscript army it is not match the Lord of the West, or Sango and her band of merry morons plus Kagome and Kirara. Ah well the arms race continues but I am hoping for the Upgrade Complete to sound off so things start moving again. I wonder if Byakuya’s sword is merely for show if not he’s going to need a few upgrades.

Executive Otaku’s Screencap Commentary, References, and Bad Puns

Weapons tests with the new weaponized Tenseiga continue at Sesshomaru’s undisclosed location.

Apparently the Maido Zangetsuha attack will increase in size to a full moon disk gateway to the underworld as Sesshomaru masters the attack.

The North Korea of this scenario.

Much like Kim Jong-Il, Toushuu was quite willing to take advantage of the death of his benefactor if it meant he would acquire new weapons technology.

See, the sponsor youkai even had Soviet red eyes.

The blackmailed kid returns for his brother. Some observer this guy is.

Kouga to the rescue, and Goraishi in action.

Boy this hostage situation is really bugging me. *rimshot*

It can drain all that energy, but yet the steel itself cracked. Typical North Korean engineering.

Funny how both Dakki ended up breaking. They seem to have a fundamental design flaw.

It’s just as dangerous to use as to be on the receiving end. Definitely Communist engineering at work here.

But mated to the appropriate delivery system and there may be potential in the basic technology of it.

Oh Goryoumaru, please don’t give the fanfiction writers any more ammunition with your tentacle attacks.

Luckily for the kid Sango and Kirara made a daring extraction.

You can tell the game designers are getting lazy when they just give the boss lots of HP instead of cool attacks.

Always good to have a designated marksman in your squad.

Hit in the same spot as Sesshomaru’s strike. Feel the pain and remember what you got for mocking Kagura’s death!

Working so well together.

But in the end they are still like Patton and Montgomery.

There is potential if the force of the Dakki explosion can be harnessed, but as it is the energy release is uncontrollable.

*yawn* I hope he either quickly becomes more interesting or dies because his first impression was very underwhelming.

Because observers never actually intervene.