Inuyasha Kanketsu-hen Ep. 11
犬夜叉 完結編 Episode 11 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Inuyasha and company flee to a cave where Miroku erects a barrier with some ofuda. Kanna arrives with the crystal giant along with Byakuya. The crystal giant uses Red Tessaiga to break the barrier, then uses Kongousouha to send massive diamond shards into the cave. Kagome fires a hama-ya into the mirror giant’s neck as Inuyasha transforms into his youkai form and attacks, driving the giant out of the cave. Sensing Tessaiga feed from his youryouku, Inuyasha attacks again and notices that Kanna is taking all the damage.

Kanna switches tactics and has the giant attack with a new attack, whereby Inuyasha finds himself in the center of a shadow-shape while above, an energy attack comes down on him. After two such attacks, Inuyasha counters by having Tessaiga create a barrier, leading to more damage on Kanna’s part. Kagome realizes that Naraku’s plan is to kill both Kanna and Inuyasha as Tessaiga begins to crack from the strain of the second extended attack. Kagome tries to reason with Kanna to save her life.

Kagome distracts Kanna with a hama-ya allowing Inuyasha to get free and attack the mirror giant. Kanna again takes the damage but Inuyasha’s final attack connects with the giant’s sword, restoring the stolen youryouku to Tessaiga and returning Inuyasha to his normal hanyou form. Naraku has one final task for Kanna — a suicide attack. As she and the crystal giant explode, a tiny shard gets into Kagome’s eye and she hears Kanna give her the key to defeating Naraku. Byakuya leaves and Naraku is not pleased that his plan failed. As Inuyasha’s group pay their last respects to Kanna, Kagome vows to carry out Kanna’s final wish to destroy Naraku.

Thoughts/Review:

I laugh when I hear that the purpose of Kanna was always to destroy Tessaiga. Yeah, right. Were that really the case, Tessaiga would have been attacked ages ago by Kanna to be destroyed. Instead, Kanna was all but forgotten in the manga for the longest time, which is why she only showed up now. She only showed up now because Takahashi-sensei had to deconstruct all of Naraku’s detachments and since Kanna is one of them, goodbye Kanna.

I didn’t remember Kanna helping Kagome with information about the Shikon no Tama but looking back at chapter 479, I see that she did. Cool. I did like how Kanna turned out in the end as it gave her death (like Kagura before her) some meaning. I will give Takahashi-sensei that much — she did know how to turn some villains from two-dimensional things to actually having a little bit of depth.

If I recall correctly, all of Naraku’s detachments are now dead save for Byakuya. I’m avoiding looking at my old manga reviews so that I’m not fresh on the story, but I’m trying to remember what’s next and not coming up with anything. I guess that’s proof that Takahashi-sensei, even as she wound down the story, kept putting off the end until the bitter end. *_*