InuYasha Movie 3: Tenka Hadou no Ken

Following Inu no Taishou's death, his swords Tenseiga and Tessaiga were passed on to his sons, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha respectively. However, there exists one more blade. During a visit to his friend Kagome Higurashi in modern times, Inuyasha encounters Sounga—his father's third sword. Found by one of Kagome's ancestors inside the old well that connects the past to the future, Sounga has been kept for years as a treasured artifact at the Higurashi shrine. Nevertheless, it soon reveals itself to harbor an evil spirit with a terrible urge to kill.

While struggling to subdue its calamitous nature, Inuyasha manages to bring Sounga back to the feudal era where he must confront his brother Sesshoumaru, who has always desired to possess it. But when they lose track of the sword during their fight, the siblings engage in a fervent competition to find it, still unaware of its secret and the legacy that Inu no Taishou has left for them.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

InuYasha Movie 3: Tenka Hadou no Ken premiered between the release of the TV series' episodes 136 and 137. It is the first InuYasha media installment to present details of Inuyasha's birth and his father's death as well as to feature the latter's human form.

In Japan, the DVD became available on August 27, 2004 and included a bonus audio CD with radio drama extracts. The English version was released by Viz Media on September 6, 2005, followed by a special edition on April 18, 2006. The latter included a lenticular card and the original soundtrack.

Shogakukan issued two comic volumes of the film on July 16, 2004 and August 6, 2004, respectively.

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Characters & Voice Actors

Inuyasha

Main

Yamaguchi, Kappei
Japanese

Sesshoumaru

Main

Narita, Ken
Japanese

Higurashi, Kagome

Main

Yukino, Satsuki
Japanese

Takemaru

Main

Matsumoto, Yasunori
Japanese

Sango

Supporting

Kuwashima, Houko
Japanese

Miroku

Supporting

Tsujitani, Kouji
Japanese

Shippou

Supporting

Watanabe, Kumiko
Japanese

Rin

Supporting

Noto, Mamiko
Japanese

Kirara

Supporting

Jaken

Supporting

Cho
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Ueda, Masuo

Producer, Planning

Kitada, Shuuichi

Assistant Producer

Saitou, Tomoyuki

Assistant Producer

Shinohara, Toshiya

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

No opening themes have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding an opening theme here.

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Ending Theme

"Four Seasons" by Namie Amuro

Episode Videos

Episode 1

Reviews

Aug 15, 2022

Justykanna

Recommended

Inu-Yasha is a series that means a ton to me because it was one of the series that really stuck to me during my teen years of watching anime. The movies, unlike those involved in other series, have parts that are meshed in to supplement the story. InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler explores events taken in Inu-Yasha's past, more specifically, when he was born.

Story: InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler starts out with when Izayoi, Inu-Yasha's mother, is in labour with Inu-Yasha. However, as he was born, Takemaru, a warrior that fell in love with ... Izayoi, sets to kill her because she instead fell in love with Inu-Yasha's demon father. Upon arrival, Inu-Yasha's father was able to save Izayoi and the newborn Inu-Yasha, while still wielding the three blades - Tessaiga of Man, Tenseiga of Heaven and So'Unga of Hell. Skip to the present time where So'unga reappears, revives Takemaru from the dead, and uses his vengeance to take over the earth, while also crushing Inu-Yasha and his brother - along with the two other swords that they posses.

The story itself is top notch, especially for a movie with ties to the main series. It suddenly because a family feud, where Inu-Yasha suddenly feels it's his responsibility to seal away the So'Unga, the kind of behaviour you don't fully expect of Inu-Yasha, who has shown bouts of immaturity in the past. After Takemaru and So'Unga hide themselves in a neighbouring castle, it's up to the crew to get to them, in order to make sure that their corruption cannot reach other parts of Japan. Due to the ties that Inu-Yasha has to this sword, he feels he must go there, and that gives the gang real purpose in pursuing the sword. Sesshoumaru eventually gets involved and I liked his connection to the story as well.

The story does have some minor inconsistencies with the main story, though are so minor it ends of being pretty are ignorable. They do a really good job at keeping the pace of the story to a high level, something we didn't see all the time in the main series, but has done well in all four movies. The ending is mostly satisfying, and it was worth a good laugh at what they decided to do with Saya at the end. (9/10)

Characters: Our crew is consistent with the main series, though Shippou plays a relatively minor role compared to that of the main story. Jaken and Totosai, funny enough, end up getting involved with the fights in the middle, due to the powers they posses, and that was a minor touch that I appreciated. Takemaru himself isn't a terribly impressive villain, as he ends up being a pawn of So'Unga, more than anything. I do wish they reached into a few more origin stories about So'Unga because Inu-Yasha father seemed to wield it without much trouble. The sword itself was clearly very strong, and I do love that they gave it it's own attack here too. Saya, the spirit that possessed So'Unga's sheath, was mostly there to lighten the mood, due to how non-committal he was at his job, but he's relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. (9/10)

Art: As with the Inu-Yasha series, animation is a little up and down during the busier scenes. However, it more or less is still decent by today's standards. They actually use some scenes from episodes in the main series, and they are all from different angles, so it was nice to see them re-animate them for this movie, something you don't tend to see in flashbacks. (7/10)

Sound: Music remains a strong part, as Karou Wada keeps music to feel the same as the series - mostly using the same type of tracks. Four Seasons by Namie Amuro is a song I listened to a lot as a teen, and remains a strong ending song. The VO cast also remain strong, with it being recorded in Canada, something that I believe has mostly not happened anymore - which is unfortunate because there's some real talent in my home country. Michael Dobson (Saya), Jonathan Holmes (Takemaru) and Ward Perry (So'Unga) are welcome additions to an already impressive cast. (8/10)

Overall Enjoyment: InuYasha the Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler is best movie among the four, and does a really nice job at connecting to the main story. I really appreciated how they incorporated Inu-Yasha's parents into this movie, and if you end up watching Yashahime, you'll notice they make subtle references to this movie in there too. You do get some weird anime tropes involve in parts of this movie, but it still remains my favourite to date. If you liked the series, then this movie should be on watch your watch list. (9/10)

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Feb 26, 2021

CorsairFrosty

Recommended

*Spoiler warning!*

This movie is spectacular! To start, the art is way better then the show at the time was (this movie takes place right after episode 136, but it's not cannon.) and its very clean, sorta reminds me of the mix of a Naruto movie and a Studio Ghibli movie! There were some points where the art and minor CGI was wack and looked like a ps2 game, but that only happened like once or twice! In my opinion, the Art was beautiful, that's all I got to say about that! Characters were the same as always, but I feel like Inuyasha was somewhat, I ...

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May 10, 2020

Jerbot77

Recommended

After hearing the announcement of the Inuyasha sequel anime Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, I gave this movie which has always been one of my favorite anime films a re-watch and decided to write a short review.

The story of the movie is well written and unlike the other 3 films, provides information that adds to the series as a whole; it gives us insight on who Sesshomaru and Inuyasha's father was by taking us to the beginning of their bitter rivalry. The entire plot easily could have been inserted into the TV series as a cannon arc. There is also a nice variety of settings, plenty ...