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Movie 4: Fire on the Mystic Island
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Inuyasha The Movie 4:
Fire on the Mystic IslandGuren no Hourai-Jima
映画犬夜叉 紅蓮の蓬莱島
Summary:
The film opens in a marsh with firelies flying above a nude female underwater. The woman resembles Kikyo, and soon many young children come to watch her as she sits inside a bubble. Suddenly a gate appears in place of the woman and jagged claw marks scar the backs of all the children except one named Ai. Some time later Ai is wandering on a beach and collapses from exhaustion. On a distant cliffside four figures watch the girl and realize she has escaped. One of them commands the other, Gora, a giant turtle to bring the girl back. As the monster attacks, Sango and Miroku swoop in on Kirara saving the girl. Gora continues to attack from under the sea as Inuyasha, Kagome and Shippo all arrive. When the girl hears Inuyasha's name, she immediately recognizes him, saying that he will save them.
Gora emerges from the ocean as Inuyasha draws his fire. As the battle continues, Miroku unleashes the Wind Tunnel, but Gora is too huge to budge. Even Inuyasha's Wind Scar has no effect on the beast. Kagome notices that there is a small face on the turtle, and after focusing his attack there, he is able to kill the beast. The three remaining figures, Jura, Kyora and Ryura, are still watching, preturbed that Inuyasha has killed their brother. With the danger now gone, Ai happily greets Inuyasha as he tells the others that he has no seen the girl in over fifty years. He tells everyone that he and Kikyo once travelled to the magical Horai Island, where many half-demon children live. They are all bound to the "Four War Gods," who are obviously Ryura and his men. During Inuyasha and Kikyo's travels they encountered the Four War Gods, and Ryura scarred Inuyasha's back with his talons, telling him that he would become his slave. After the brief encounter, Horai Island disappears and Kikyo and Inuyasha return to the mainland.
As Inuyasha finishes telling his tale, his back suddenly burns. Kagome inspects his back, and finds the wounds Ryura inflicted on him long ago have reappeared. That night Inuyasha sees Horai Island appear across the ocean and everyone decides they should investigate. That night at another beachfront village, Kikyo is told by a villager of the island of demons, and decides she too will travel there. Sesshomaru, Jaken and Rin see strange clouds taking shape, and Sesshomaru cryptically says that, "the time has come."
The three remaining War Gods watch as Inuyasha and the others come back to Horai Island during the night. Kyora travels to a village off the island and begins attacking townspeople when Sesshomaru arrives out of the darkness. As he and Sesshomaru prepare to do battle Inuyasha and the others are attacked by a cannon wielding Jura. Miroku and Sango decide to deal with him while Inuyasha confronts Ryura, the leader. Ryura weilds the Wind and Thunder blades, which seem to be more than a match for Tessaiga. Ryura's Dragon Lightning attack manages to stop Inuyasha in his tracks until Kagome steps in. With Inuyasha wounded and proving to be a disappointing opponent Ryura decides to leave.
Sesshomaru's battle is going better than his half-brother's as he exhausts little effort in dealing with Kyora, who vows to face him again on Horai Island. Kyora tells Sesshomaru that he too bears the mark of the Four War Gods, just as Inuyasha does. Sesshomaru remembers an encounter with Kujaku and Saiten, two demons that once worked with his father and attempted to defeat the Four War Gods many years ago. The two were easily killed when Sesshomaru decided not to work with them, only arriving to face Kyora after they died. It was then that Kyora placed the mark on Sesshomaru's back.
Ai leads Inuyasha and the others through a cave and to the heart of the island. The woman in the bubble watches as they travel. Eventually they meet up with the other children who are playing instruments and singing. Ai is happy to see her brothers and sisters are alright, but they are angry to see that she has returned and put herself in danger. The other children are skeptical about Inuyasha's promise to kill the Four War Gods, the same promise he failed to live up to fifty years ago. The children tell them a barrier erected by the Four War Gods prevents them from leaving the island. The oldest child, Asagi hears a distant sound and tells them that the Cauldron of Resonance is calling her. As the children run off, Inuyasha and the others follow. The children tell the others about Lady Kanade, a priestess that lived on the island and was killed by the Four War Gods. Now the children must offer themselves as sacrifices and it seems that it is Asagi's turn to die by jumping into the Cauldron of Reasonance. The children believe that the fireflies that fill the island are the souls of their friends and family memembers that have died on the island.
The War Gods use the Cauldron every fifty years when the island reappears to sacrifice half-demons and absorb their power. It seems the Cauldron was once a tool used for good, but it has become tainted since the arrival of the Four War Gods. Asagi decides to die so that she can buy another fifty years for the other children, but Inuyasha has other ideas. He approaches the giant cauldron as flames erupt from it. The cauldron pulls both Inuyasha and and Asagi inside, its doors closing behind them. Inside is a world of fire and stone, where Inuyasha and Asagi's strength is quickly drained and fed to Ryura and his brothers. It seems that the Four War Gods are not at full power, but mention creating a priestess that will aid them in their mission, the mysterious woman in the bubble.
Using the lyrics of the song the children were singing, they hope a literal interpretation of placing a human and demon's hands together will open the cauldron and free Inuyasha and Asagi. Unfortunately they are wrong and a group of poisonous insects arrive to kill them. Inside the cauldron, Lady Kanade's spirit talks to Inuyasha, surprised that his Robe of the Fire Rat has kept him alive for so long. Kanade tells Inuyasha that the island was once a refuge for half-demon children and their parents until the Four War Gods arrived and ruined their tranquility. She sealed their powers inside the Cauldron of Resonance, but they soon realized that throwing half-demons into it would release their power in small increments every fifty years. Outide Shippo and the other children realize that there are certain panels that must be pushed in order to reopen the cauldron. As the door opens Kanade gives her remaining power to Inuyasha to help him escape. She also gives him a box that contains the remaining power of the Four War Gods. Using his Adamant Barrage, Inuyasha blasts his way out of the cauldron, killing all the poisonous insects in the process.
Ryura and the others sense the box containing their power has been freed and decide to use the priestess they created to retrieve the box for them. Meanwhile Inuyasha attepts to destroy the box, but it seems to be impervious to the Tessaiga. Kagome's bow and arrows are all broken, so she can not try to destroy the box either. Soon the priestess arrives, and Inuyasha initally mistakes her for Kikyo. Inuyasha notices that the Kikyo-like priestess does not have Kikyo's familiar scent of graveyard soil. Her mission accomplished, the woman delievers the box to the Four War Gods. Ryura tells Inuyasha that the woman is a replica of Kikyo created from blood that Gora sucked from her fifty years ago. The woman opens the box, unleashing the full power of the Gods and bringing Gora back to life in the proecess. All of the Gods quickly team against Inuyasha, knocking him from the cliff. They leave the Kikyo duplicate to finish her off, as Miroku and Sango come to join the battle, while Kagome is left behind with Shippo to guard the children.
Jura and Gora fight Sango and Miroku as Kagome gets the children to build a boat to carry them off the island. The woman's resembalance to Kikyo makes it difficult for Inuyasha to battle her, while Sesshomaru arrives on the island and encounters Kyora. Using his Thunder Cannon attack, Jura fores Miroku to unleash his Wind Tunnel. Miroku succeeds in taking the demon s weapon, but provokes him into transforming into a more powerful form. The real Kikyo arrives in time to kill her double, scolding Inuyasha for being unable to kill the creature himself. Meanwhile, Kyora's Birds of Fire and Crimson Fang techniques prove to be nothing more than distractions for Sesshomaru. Using his Dragon Strike, Sesshomaru easily kills Kyora as one of the four marks fades from his back.
Ryura discovers the children with Kagome, and begins to toy with them. He makes it clear that he is planning to kill them all. Over the ocean, Sango and Miroku's are having trouble with Gora and Jura. Miroku decides taht he will attept to make the two Gods take one another out. With some fancy flying from Kirara, Miroku uses his Wind Tunnel to redirect Gora's blasts against Jura. As they strike, Sango's Hiraikotsu cleaves Jura in half.
Elsewhere Ryura has kicked Kagome around, and the children attempt to hold him hold him off until Inuyasha finally arrives. The two quickly begin to battle once again, but Ryura's Dragon Gale defensive barrier protects him from the Wind Scar. Ryura knocks Inuyasha out and the children decide to fight him on their own, but to no avail. Inuyasha climbs to his feet and finishes Ryura off easily, breaking both his swords into pieces as he kills him.
The giant turtle, Gora, continues to shell the island with his blasts until it begins to fall apart. Miroku and Sango distract the great beast long enough for Inuyasha to use the Backlash Wave to finish it off. With all the Gods dead, their souls begin to merge into one being. Inuyasha tells Kagome to help him, but without her bow and arrows there is little she can do. The children try to make one for her while Inuyasha battles against the combined Four War Gods. The fireflies guide one of the children, Shion, to a bow and arrow that he then brings back to Kagome. As Kagome and Inuyasha fight against the powerful demon, the fireflies of the island surround them, erecting a barrier around them long enough for them to use one of Kagome's arrows and the Backlash Wave to destroy the demon. With the Four War Gods now dead, the scars on the children's back disappear and Horai Island begins to vanish. Everyone escapes safely on the raft the children made, as Inuyasha leads them back to the mainland.