Great moment? Try great moments! Only roughly half of Episode 12 of InuYasha: The Final Act, “Sango’s Feelings, Miroku’s Resolve,” involves the drink, but there are three very distinct causes for toasting! First, there is a quasi-lecherous drunken sage who deals in poisons based on alcohol. Second, there’s the fact that said sage gets InuYasha hammered, the depiction of InuYasha during that period of inebriation, and Kagome’s strangely accustomed air of tolerance towards such behavior. Third? Oh, boy. Are you ready? Thirdly, this episode exposes Mario and Luigi for the drunkards they are. Where’s a wino to begin? Let’s start with The Master of Potions.
This demon lives by a waterfall of alcohol. Ahem, perhaps you didn’t hear me. I said A WATERFALL OF ALCOHOL (Internet screaming always helps). This perpetual supply, which provides the base ingredient for his potions, is hard not to imagine as spewing forth from a knocked over bottle of the purest sake, especially as the sage only shares his concoctions with those to whom he takes a fancy. Need drinkin’ buddies much? Of course he does; he lives alone in a forest! Upon being literally poured out of a huge jug, the drunkard spares no time in justifying his groping of Sango’s thigh to “test her strength” in order to determine whether or not she’s capable of pacifying her own demons (so to speak). He then makes himself useful to Miroku by proffering him some high-proof alcohol as novocaine for the soul flesh, and gets an arguably (aesthetically) teenage half-demon named InuYasha smashed.
Because everyone at the party is soberly ignoring His Drunkeness in favor of worrying over their friend and travelling companion, the sage dunks InuYasha in a jug full of the stuff that grants him sight beyond sight (namely visions of Sango’s struggle). After a flushed InuYasha relays the status of Sango’s fight, Kagome flatly interjects, “Say, why don’t you come out?” Cut away and back again, and InuYasha’s arguin’ with Kagome about how drunk he’s not. At what becomes the end of the argument, InuYasha asks Kagome why there’s two of her … right before the drunken sage dunks InuYasha in yet another jug of alcohol! There is, I suppose, a reason jug rhymes with chug. After emerging from an entirely different jug than that in which he was dunked, InuYasha crawls out and faces THREE Kagomes, all of which issue an apathetic resignation of “Right. Yeah, yeah” to his refutation of inebriation.
Wait. What was that? InuYasha descends into one cylindrical object and comes out of another? Does this warped sense of perspective ring a bell with anyone else? Are Italians notorious winos? Of course it does! Of course they are! And there’s the rub! For in that steep of vin, what dreams may come when InuYasha shuffles off his sober coil but thrice what he desires most: Kagome, Kagome, Kagome! And all three of them do not berate him for his overindulgence but rather placate his inebriated state with disappointment wrapped in positive reinforcement! This is why Mario and Luigi duck into the first available pipe: there’s drink to be drank, which consequently explains the misdirection by which the princess is always in another castle!
Of course even after being blitzed into bliss, InuYasha has the presence of heart to help out his buddy Miroku by offering sound advice andkeeping his lips sealed about what was shared in their conversation. You think I’m gonna betray what was said? THINK AGAIN! Watch the series and find out for yourself! I promise there are a lot of laughs to be had during this episode if you do.
On the first Friday of every month (or occasionally on the hazy, hung-over Saturday directly following), Ani-Gamers blogger Ink tackles an anime, manga, or video game through the theme of alcohol in our column “Drunken Otaku.” Look out for “Beer Googles” (reviews), “Great Drinkers” (character profiles), “Drinkin’ Buddies” (interviews), and “Great Moments in Drinking” (more or less). To read previous entries, click here.