Inuyasha: the Movie 4 (2004)

  I don't typically watch a lot of anime, not because I don't like it but because there's so much out there it's a little overwhelming.  Fortunately, the server Rob left me has a couple of hundred different series on it.  Unfortunately, the only InuYasha was this, the fourth movie so I knew nothing about the characters, back story, or setting.  But I'm going to review this anyway because I can.

So there's this island that only appears about every fifty years.  It used to be full of happy little half-demons and their respective parents, humans and demons that overcame their differences to live in harmony.  But all that changed when the Fire Nation attac--  Sorry, wrong show.

These four demons came to the island and overwhelmed it with force.  They marked all the children with scratches that prevent them from ever leaving and demand a sacrifice every fifty years.  The youngest half-demon, Ai, hasn't been marked yet, so the other children send him (I thought it was a girl based on the character voice, but IMDb says it's a boy so that's what I'm going to go with.) out into the world to get help.  Ai immediately runs into InuYasha and his merry band of a couple who ride a flying raccoon-kitty with viper fangs, a school girl with a bow and arrows, some sort of fox(?) demon who turns into a pink balloon, and the title character himself in his signature red pajamas.  They agree to help, mostly because InuYasha got marked by the bad demons the last time they showed up and wants revenge.

There was also some other dude named Sesshoumaru and his little party but I have no idea who they are and they don't really contribute to the main plot.

It might have added to the experience if I had known who the hell all these people were and why they were following some dude with kitty ears wearing MC Hammer pajamas but it wasn't necessary to follow the movie.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's probably more rewarding to see movies 1-3 at least before this one, but I don't know.  It's anime.  They might not have anything to do with one another and you'd have to watch 600 episodes of the TV show plus read all the manga before it makes true sense.  I'm just kind of winging it here.