After watching the trailer for this movie a long, long time ago, I was so excited to watch it. The trailer portrayed a fast-paced duel between Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha; it showed an explosion around Inuyasha's neck followed by a scream from Kagome; it also showed many other exciting things in such a short amount of time that made my blood race in anticipation. Well, about a year has passed since that day, and I've finally managed to watch the actual movie. Let me just tell you nay-sayers once and for all that the movie managed to deliver the very same experience that the trailer portrayed.

I'm talking, of course, about the multitude of action sequences to be found in Inuyasha: Sword of World Conquest (the third movie). You can't go ten minutes without someone's arm being chopped off or a demon being sliced in half along the torso. Not only that, but the action scenes are so fast-paced, it's almost like watching the trailer over and over again... which is practically true, because it's the same people fighting each other over and over and over again.

Of course, there's more the movie than seemingly random battles between Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. As a matter of fact, there's a very interesting story to be found, albeit one that's probably the sappiest story ever featured in Inuyasha to this date. It is essentially about Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru's father and how each of them perceive him, all the while fighting off the bad guy... which just happens to be an inanimate object that most people will identify as being a sword. Yeah, that's right - the bad... thing is a sword. Wait, scratch that... it's an EVIL sword! That emphasis on EVIL means even more battles!

What I really liked a lot about the story was how much it develops Inuyasha's parents (though we still don't know who Sesshoumaru's mother was). For example, we learn their names and that Inuyasha's father had THREE swords. There are a lot of other details which seem important, but in the long run don't make any sort of dent in the story or the character development of the main characters which, by the end of the movie, totals zero development whatsoever. Even the second movie managed to fit character development, although it all took place in the last ten or so minutes. Inuyasha: Sword of World Conquest comes so close to furthering the characters and their relationships (sooooooo close!), but in the end also doesn't make any dent in them.

That would definitely have to be the one thing that I disliked the most about this movie. The action, though extremely well animated, did not satisfy my lust for some sort of change in the characters. By the end of the movie, everything is still exactly the same as when it had begun just an hour and a half earlier. If I could, I would continue to describe how static the world is in the movie, but I'm afraid that particular subject of this rant/review is getting a little redundant at this point.

Like the two movies that preceeded it, Inuyasha: Sword of World Conquest borrows the artwork style that is featured in the manga. Though the characters look slightly more child-like than I'm used to, it was great to see some of the old battles (there's a bit of a recap in the movie) updated to the manga style. The animation is also even better than in the first two movies, but that's to be expected considering it was released two years after the last one. The music, unfortunately, isn't really all that memorable, sounding more like lame rehashes of all the old material from the first two movies.

Much like the Dragonball Z movies, in the end, although nothing actually happens in the movie that's important to the storyline or that furthers the characters/relationships in any way whatsoever, Inuyasha fans should still watch the movie simply because it's an Inuyasha movie. If action scenes are your thing, then you'll love the deluge of action that's displayed magnificently in the movie. If not... too bad. You'll probably watch it anyway if you've seen the series.