InuYasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time

InuYasha the Movie: Affections Across Time (映画犬夜叉　時代を越える想い) is a 2001 anime film directed by Toshiya Shinohara and written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa. It is the first of four films released in the InuYasha movie series.

With characters more closely resembling the original manga rather than the series, Affections Touching Across Time used Hideyuki Motohashi, who had previously worked on character designs for Fushigi Yūgi, A-ko the Versus, and Ceres: Celestial Legend. The film was released in Japan on December 15, 2001, and in the United States on September 7, 2004. The movie was released in Japan between episodes 54 and 55.

Plot Summary
InuYasha's father defeated a powerful Chinese moth yōkai named "Hyōga" 200 years ago. Now a Shikon Jewel fragment has freed "Menōmaru", Hyōga's son. He seeks revenge for his father's destruction and to free the power of his father sealed away with him. Menōmaru and his minions "Hari" and "Ruri" begin battling with InuYasha. Sango and Miroku have their hands full dealing with the duo, Ruri having copied Miroku's Wind Tunnel and Hari having stolen Sango's faithful companion, Kirara. Menōmaru curses Kagome so she turns against InuYasha.

When Menōmaru is finally able to access the power of his predecessors, sealed away by InuYasha's father, he becomes the new Hyōga and exponentially more powerful as each generation gains the power of all the preceding generations. Hyōga soon begins to change the essence of time and space as he's absorbing the souls of countless people in order to fully merge himself with his family's power. This causes the mind control that he put on Kagome to awaken and injure Kaede and search for InuYasha. As he's crossing a bridge, InuYasha thinks he sees Kikyo but instead it's Kagome who is wearing clothes similar to Kikyo's. InuYasha greets her on the bridge while Kagome is trying to tell him to run, but unfortunately can't be heard. Then walks over to InuYasha and puts her head on his shoulder. He embraces her after which Kagome says "InuYasha... get away.", warning him of her attack. He looks in amazement but is then stabbed by magical "claws" that come from Kagome's hands; afterwards, he realizes what Menōmaru has done. He then is chased by the controlled Kagome to the tree that he was sealed to. Regaining control of herself for a moment, Kagome tells InuYasha to run. After hearing that from everyone, InuYasha gets angry saying that he won't run and leave Kagome alone. It is with that Kagome loses control and shoots InuYasha to the tree (similar to what happen between him and Kikyo fifty years earlier) Kagome manages to break free of this control and cries out in pain to InuYasha and runs over to him, holding him in her arms. Kikyo then comes along saying how ironic it was for that to happen. Then she begins to tell Kagome that this happened because Kagome didn't belong in this era that she needs to take the Jewel Shard and go to her own time. Kikyo then forces Kagome down the Bone Eater's Well to remove her once and for all since through Menomaru's manipulation of time she thought that Kagome would be trapped in the future.

After returning to her own time, Kagome walks out to a snowy Tokyo. When she is walking towards the tree that InuYasha was sealed to and where he sits now, she sees him there, knocked out due to her shooting with an arrow while she was controlled by Menomaru. As she walks towards him, a snow flake floats by and erases the image. It is then that she realizes that without a way back to Feudal Japan, that she can never see InuYasha again and that she collapses and begins to cry. Once she gets back up, she heads over to the tree and places her hand on it. Kagome and InuYasha are then connected to each other through the tree and begin to talk through thoughts. He asks where she is, Kagome tells him that she is in her own time. He replys by saying "You got scared?" Angry at first, Kagome says that wasn't the reason, but then recalls her reaction to Kikyo and admits to being afraid. It is then that Kagome sees InuYasha as if he were awake. She tells him that she feels helpless and since she hurt him that "maybe it's better if I wasn't around at all." With that InuYasha stands up and tells her to stop saying such things. Kagome tells him not to move because he'll open his wounds, but InuYasha walks over to Kagome and embraces her tightly (thus the name "Affections Touching Across Time") saying that "I need you.... Don't you understand?" Kagome then begins to cry again and lets her head fall into his shoulder saying "Thank you... InuYasha." It then goes back to Kagome standing by herself. She then tries to go back to the well but sees that it has roots coming out of it. She then runs back to the tree and touches it again and tells InuYasha that she can't get back, InuYasha then replies that she can use a sacred arrow. Kagome doesn't have any sacred arrows she thinks, but then realizes where she can get one. She then gets a stick and bow from her grandfather. She jabs the stick into the hole where she injured herself and where InuYasha was pinned to, pulling out a tip of an arrow. Before running back to the Bone Eaters Well, her mother gives Kagome her school uniform. After putting it on, Kagome shoots the arrow into the well just as a reawakened InuYasha is about to slash the roots away. The blast from the arrow causes InuYasha to get burnt and fall back into rubble. She emerges from the well. Myoga tells them that they have to defeat Menomaru before it's too late.

Sesshomaru appears realizing that his father's ancient enemy is fighting with his half brother, but chooses not to interfere. For the first time in the series he has a conversation with Kikyo. Kikyo somehow knew he was InuYasha's older brother, and Sesshomaru knew about her relationship with InuYasha as he told Jaken and Rin that she was nothing, but a dead miko. He leaves warning her that only he will kill InuYasha.

Miroku and Sango manage to defeat Hari and Ruri and join InuYasha, Kagome, and Shippo in a stand against Menomaru. However, he emerges from his cocoon as the new Lord Hyoga, a moth god with far more power than his father ever had. Only with the power of Kagome's sacred arrow and InuYasha's Backlash Wave (Bakuryūha) attack do they manage to find a way to destroy Hyoga for good. After the credits end, Kagome and InuYasha are sitting together in modern Tokyo by the Tree.

Cast and credits

 * Premiere: December 15, 2001
 * Director: Toshiya Shinohara
 * Screenplay: Katsuyuki Sumisawa
 * Music: Kaoru Wada
 * Character Designs: Hideyuki Motohashi & Yoshihito Hishinuma
 * Theme Song: "No More Words"
 * Lyrics by: Ayumi Hamasaki, Composed by: CREA + D-A-I, Arranged by: Naoto Suzuki + tasuku, Performed by Ayumi Hamasaki

Notes: Director Shinohara's previous work includes the Lupin III - Memory of Blaze - Tokyo Crisis TV Special as well as Gundam Wing which he worked on with Sumisawa and Kaoru Wada joins them from the TV show.


 * InuYasha - Kappei Yamaguchi/Richard Ian Cox
 * Kagome Higurashi - Satsuki Yukino/Moneca Stori
 * Shippo - Kumiko Watanabe/Jillian Michaels
 * Miroku - Kōji Tsujitani/Kirby Morrow
 * Sango - Houko Kuwashima/Kelly Sheridan
 * Myōga - Kenichi Ogata/Paul Dobson
 * Kikyo - Noriko Hidaka/Willow Johnson
 * Sesshomaru - Ken Narita/David Kaye
 * Jaken - Yûichi Nagashima/Don Brown
 * Rin - Mamiko Noto/Brenna O'Brien
 * Kaede - Hisako Kyōda/Pam Hyatt
 * Hachi - Toshihiko Nakajima/Terry Klassen
 * Menomaru - Tomokazu Seki/Vincent Gale
 * Ruri - Hekiru Shiina/Venus Terzo
 * Hari - Tomoko Kawakami/Lalainia Lindbjerg
 * Sota Higurashi - Akiko Nakagawa/Saffron Henderson
 * Kagome and Sota's Mother - Asako Dodo/Cathy Weseluck
 * Kagome and Sota's Grandfather - Katsumi Suzuki/French Tickner