Following Hakujaden, this picture also begs the question of why the screenwriters couldn't simply mesh what was clearly meant to appeal to children and the actual storyline. These old movies can feel so divided between the gratuitous cuteness and what supposedly matters. I know the moral lesson, whichever it is, can only be absorbed by sticking to the latter, but that takes a lot of potential quality away. Like with Hakujaden, I'd rather spend one hour watching cute animals doing cute stuff than boring main characters fighting over something I don't care about that happens to be constantly discontinued for the sake of pleasing kids,which boils down to one request: make an actual children's movie god damn it! Japanese animators had such attachment to their folklore, but it was only when they started thinking outside the box the problem ceased to be. That could also have been avoided by making Sasuke's journey interesting to begin with, which sadly never happened. It's as boring as you get. The movie is an improvement on its predecessor and far more pleasing to watch given the fact being colored isn't its only concern. Here we also see the first semblance of accurately moving mouths. There really isn't much else to say. At least it's not as bad as Saiyuuki.