Inuyasha was somewhat of an important anime for me. It was one of the first anime that I went out of my way to watch. It was also one of the first anime that I identified as an anime instead of a cartoon. Thus, Inuyasha was among the shows that cemented my status as an anime fan. I was enthralled by the moody, creepy tone of the show. I was amazed by the seemingly limitless world Takahashi and the anime staff had created. I was drawn in by the spectacular action and the exciting adventure. I loved the cast of characters-that-weren't-named-Shippo. And yes, I of course patiently waited for Inuyasha and Kagome to officially become an item. I fondly remember going to my tiny, local library at the time, downloading episodes so I could watch them later on my Acer Aspire One since I didn't have internet at home. All that said, I wouldn't call Inuyasha my favorite series by any stretch. It's certainly not a bad show, but it does drag and it just didn't grip me the same way Ranma 1/2, Code Geass, or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood did. I'm definitely nostalgic towards Inuyasha, but not to the point where I hold it on a pedestal.My history with Inuyasha is important context for my feelings towards Yashahime. In fact, I'd say this is important context for any review of this show, because from what I've seen, practically no one in the western fandom is watching this show as a standalone. Feelings toward Yashahime seem to be extremely tied to one's feelings towards Inuyasha. At the end of the day, it's still its own show, with strengths and weaknesses unconstrained from its predecessor, but the amount of leeway you're willing to give said weaknesses, the amount of weight you're willing to give said strengths, depends on your view (or lack thereof) of Inuyasha.
I liked Inuyasha enough to immediately be on-board with its sequel series, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon when it was announced out of the blue in May of 2020. I was optimistic: after all, I was never one to balk at the mere existence of a sequel. I was just happy to see that Inuyasha would continue in some form and I was excited to watch the next generation of a show that I enjoyed. Making matters better, despite being anime-only, it was stated that original mangaka, Rumiko Takahashi, would be heavily involved in production. This seemed to confirm that, if nothing else, Yashahime would be authentic. To an optimist, this seemed to confirm that Yashahime would be good.
And I have to say that it was good, or, at least, good enough. It's certainly not perfect by any stretch; but neither was Inuyasha. For better and for worse, this feels like a continuation of Inuyasha, warts and all. Fortunately, I didn't find the warts bad enough to ward me away from the show.
Yashahime, taking place over fourteen years since the end of Inuyasha, follows Towa, her demon-hunting twin-sister Setsuna, (both are the daughters of Sesshomaru) and their bounty huning cousin, Moroha (Inuyasha and Kagome's daughter). When they were young, Towa and Setsuna were caught in a forest fire and seperated from one another. Towa soon finds herself sucked into a time portal and teleported centuries into the future where she is found and subsequently adopted by Sota Higurashi. Despite being a half-demon, she's raised in the modern era and told to hide her powers, much to her chagrin. When Towa is fourteen the portal to the past opens once more, reuniting her with her half-sister, who seems to have forgotten her, as well as introducing her to her cousin. When the trio return to the past, they are summoned by the spirit of the Tree of Ages. The spirit requests for them to slay their father as well as the dastardly Demon Lord, Kirinmaru. The three refuse and after they leave, we see Rin trapped in the Tree of Ages. The trio decide to forge their own path, with Towa deciding to search for the Dream Butterfly, which may hold her sister's suppressed memories. As the three journey, they find themselves clashing with Kirinmaru's servants, who wish to destroy the trio, referred to as "half-demon princesses", for their leader.
I loved the main trio, the eponymous yashahime. I liked Towa's kind and gentle nature, which contrasted nicely with her relatives' more cutthroat and/or cold personalities. It's somewhat underutilized, but I enjoyed the fact that she's a temporal fish out of water in both eras, thus making it more apparent why she clings so strongly to Moroha and Setsuna. I also thought it was really cool that Towa is intentionally not traditionally feminine in design nor personality. It's pretty admirable that the show doesn't feel beholden to restrictive ideas of girlhood, though I suppose Takahashi has always been good at this. Moroha is an absolute treat and she quickly became my favorite Inuyasha character. She's cheerful, endearing in her knowledge of demons, cocky, and rowdy, with her boisterous nature contrasting nicely with Towa, who's more lax, and Setsuna, who's more aloof. She really commands a presence that the other two don't, drawing you into her antics. Finally, there's the aloof, no-nonsense Setsuna. While I admittedly found her a bit boring, I can't deny that I enjoyed seeing her dynamic with the others and it was nice seeing her gradually "thaw." While the original cast don't appear too often (a fact I'll get into momentarily), it's always nice when they do. I definitely thought Kirinmaru was a fun antagonist by the end of the show's run even if he seemed a bit bland at first.
I hope I don't sound negative when I say that the main trio carry this anime — how much you like it is really determined by how much you enjoy their personalities and their dynamic with one another. This statement in-and-of-itself isn't really a knock on the show; it's very clear that, more than anything, the show is preoccupied with the girls' relationship. I personally loved them as a group and even if every interaction wasn't phenomenal, seeing the three interact with each other every week quickly became a comforting ritual. I came to see Inuyasha continuation and I stayed to watch these cool demon girls vibe with one another.
I'm pleased to say that the world of Yashahime is as interesting as it was before in Inuyasha. It's expansive, with colorful demons around every corner. We also get to learn more about how the world of demon lords work, thanks to the presence of Kirinmaru and his entourage. Yashahime has essentially the same sense of adventure that I know and love. The show's various moods, at times whimsical, sometimes adventurous, and other times creepy, is thanks in large part to returning composer, Kaoru Wada. All of these aspects serve to make the show feel authentic; stylistically, Inuyasha fans should have no trouble getting into Yashahime.
The fights were also pretty good. 9 times out of 10, they're not phenomenal, but they're animated well enough and always managed to hold my attention. Much like its predecessor, the cast of Yashahime use interesting attacks, some of which return from before. There's nothing quite as iconic as the OG cast’s Iron Reaver Soul Stealer, Wind Scar, Wind Tunnel, or Backslash Wave, but I'm sure that's half because I haven't had to hear them for almost two-hundred episodes and half because I haven't heard the new attacks in English.
And now onto the less good stuff. They're probably more numerous than things I like, and it's a testament to how much I enjoyed the character dynamic that I walked away liking this show overall.
Before I talk about anything, I have to address the elephant in the room that is the parentage of the twins. In this show, Sesshomaru and Rin (or Sesshorin) is canonized as a ship. It might seem like a minor thing but this has broken the show for many people. Some have even called for Takahasi and Sunrise to be boycotted due to this revelation. My thoughts and justification of said thoughts regarding the matter are irrelevant — you'll have an opinion and my words won't convince you otherwise. While I thought the pairing was really the most logical choice, narratively, on the onset, it's certainly not ideal and I have to jump through some hoops to be somewhat comfortable with it.
As for the show itself, it can feel really meandering. Its monster-of-the-week format doesn't do it much favors in terms of being interesting. Yashahime very quickly shuffles into a routine and if you're not one-hundred-percent onboard with this routine, then it will get boring, eventually. Deviations from said routine are sporadic; there aren't really "arcs" that spice things up to look forward to. The plot barely moves forward; during a given episode, it doesn't feel like we're any closer to a goal. Like I said before, how much you like seeing the main trio bounce off of one another will make or break this show for you, because for more episodes than not, that's essentially all you have.
This is a legitimate critique, but what gets me are people somehow acting like Inuyasha didn't have the same issue. If you take off your nostalgia goggles, you'll realize that the the pacing of Inuyasha was absolutely atrocious. In Inuyasha, things could get boring quickly if you weren't a fan of the monster-of-the-week format. Inuyasha has a metric ton of filler that you probably won't notice as an anime-only watcher because it fits in so well with the format of the original manga. Inuyasha takes forever to reach its destination. There's no reason the manga went on for twelve years for a conclusion that readers largely could predict when they first picked up the manga. Inuyasha is the quintessential "it's about the journey rather than the destination" manga, with the character dynamics and development being the main takeaway from the show. If this sounds familiar, you'd be correct: this is Yashahime. If nothing else, Yashahime is on-brand. And it's fine to criticize this show for taking what didn't work about Inuyasha — after all, a sequel should improve upon the predecessor, and Yashahime shows that the Inuyasha format doesn't quite work in the modern age. What annoys me, however, is that people act like these traits aren't in Inuyasha, calling Yashahime an anomaly. Many criticize Yashahime as being ill-defined, which is a bit unfair as Inuyasha took a while for its plot and characters to solidify, yet no one acknowledges it. I can see if this was going to just be one-season, but come on, this is a sequel of Inuyasha, everyone knows it's going to last forever. I have to admit that some of my fondness comes from feeling the need to defend it from the double-standard of many Inuyasha fans…
...but this defense can only go so far. Yashahime certainly has its own, unique problems. For one, I struggled to think of a conclusion for my synopsis, because there's no impetus for a journey. The trio kind of just stumble upon things. While Inuyasha and Yashahime both feel meandering, Yashahime takes the cake for not having a strong, unified goal for the main characters. Setsuna just slays demons as assignments come up and Moroha hunts demons for their bounties. Towa, at the very least, does have the ambitous goal of finding the dream butterfly, but it really doesn't amount to much when she's not actively looking for it. She kind of just tags along with the other two in hopes that she'll just happen to find relevant information. While having them refuse the Tree of Ages’ request did a good job of establishing their characters, it absolutely neutered a solid goal.
With the trio consisting of the children of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, you'd think their family would come into play more. This is unfortunately one of the show's big missteps.
The cast of Inuyasha is criminally underutilized; both as characters and as impetuses for the yashahime's developments. It would be nice to see how Inuyasha, Kagome, Rin, and Sesshomaru work as parents. Unfortunately, all of them save for Sesshomaru are indisposed before the show begins and the trio know next-to-nothing about them. This would be fine...if there weren't characters that could logically inform them about their parents. Miroku, Kaede, Kohaku, and Sango aren't ever too far from Setsuna, yet they don't talk to her about her parents. Hell, despite being good friends with them, they don't seem to inquire about their parents, nor indicate that anything's wrong. Towa lived with the Higurashis, yet she doesn't seem to think anything of Inuyasha and Kagome. Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha themselves don't really seem interested in their pasts, which is extremely unsatisfying to watch. This is where the show's relation to Inuyasha really hurts it — if you watched this show first, you wouldn't be attached to the original cast, thus it wouldn't feel so frustrating to see the characters be so blasé about their family. As is, for most viewers, there's a nasty disconnect between what the characters want and what you want the characters to want. Yashahime creates a bit of a mystery as to what happened to the original cast, but it feels cheap because it would be quick to figure out if anyone cared as much as they should. Besides feeling unrealistic, the lack of interest on the girls' part robs them of yet another potential goal.
The lack of drive from the characters is made all the worse due to the relative lack of stakes. The girls usually can very handily defeat anything that's thrown at them. The characters rarely have to train and in general, nothing feels tense. The pacing certainly doesn't help — most of the time, a conflict is neatly wrapped up in an episode, ensuring that viewers are seldom on the edge of their seat.
By the time you get to the final third, Yashahime starts to feel like it's running on fumes, with the trio the only thing keeping viewers coming back. The showrunners seemed to realize this, as we finally get an episode dedicated to the events with the original cast that led to Yashahime proper. There are also episodes dedicated to Moroha, Setsuna, and the villains' backstories. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed these episodes, they felt a bit too little, too late and I would have enjoyed them more earlier. Additionally, between these more important episodes, there are still episodes that feel extremely inconsequential.
From my laundry list of complaints, it might be hard to fathom my final score (because I know you already scrolled down to see it). You're doubtlessly wondering how in the world can I come out liking this when it ends up being so messy.
As, I said, I really enjoyed the interactions between the three leads. Beyond that, while I'd prefer consistently good quality (or at the very least, having the lull episodes more evenly spread out), the last stretch does make up for a lackluster beginning. I don't dislike the backstory episodes; they just came a bit late for my liking. We finally get two-parter episodes and the last two episodes are really great.
This culminates in a finale that hits all the right notes for me. We see genuine development from both Towa and Setsuna, the trio's relationship is very well executed, the plot actually moves forward, and there's a breath-takingly awesome fight. The episode is also very visceral — I remember seeing Setsuna's wound and saying, "oh damn, that's...gnad," somehow mixing both "bad" and "gnarly." Despite the show's flaws, after seeing that wonderful shot of Sesshomaru giving his sword to his daughter and after seeing the post-episode announcement that there’d be a second season (as I knew it would), I knew I'd be coming back for more; not because I felt obligated to, but because I genuinely wanted more Yashahime. This isn't to say the episode was perfect — the strength of the characters are called into question and the motivations are ill-defined, for one. Unlike with Destiny however, thinking about the ending didn't make it unravel for me. I could think about it a bit, understand its flaws, then realize I still love the episode despite them. I appreciated the spectacle before me. The last episode, and perhaps Yashahime as a whole might be a bit of a "turn your brain off show." And I hate to say that because it sounds disparaging and the last time I said that, I ended up being so very, very wrong, but I think it applies here. There's not much to G-Gundam but I still love that. Whether you like to admit it or not, Inuyasha wasn't the absolute smartest of shows either, but it worked. Yashahime might not be great, but it's pretty fun at times.
Yashahime isn't by any means a masterpiece. I wouldn't even call it great. It's meandering to the point of numbness for most of its run, it underutilizes series veterans, character motivations are seldom used to drive the plot, and its adherence to its monster-of-the-week setup can make it extremely monotonous at times. There are times when Yashahime gets downright bad. Despite all this, I don't think Yashahime deserves all the derision and exhaustion that's lodged at it.
I think a lot of the trouble comes from comparing it to Inuyasha. Part of me wants to say that this show is a better watch if you're not so hung up on the fact that this is a sequel to Inuyasha. I want to say that this show works better on its own and that comparison, ever the thief of joy, is what hurts this show, more than anything. But that's a moot point because, as I stated, it feels like practically everyone who watched this show watched Inuyasha. And why wouldn't they? This is a sequel, after all, so even if it should draw-in new fans, it should also satisfy fans of the original show — comparison is inevitable. Finally, and this is the kicker, I'm not entirely sure that the show would be a better watch without the connection to Inuyasha. I'm sure the show is fine on its own, but its biggest draw is its connection to the previous series, regardless of how satisfying that connection ends up being. I don't know if anyone (at least in the Western sphere) would even watch Yashahime on its own. Beyond that, the trio's relation to previous characters and the desire to see them meet said characters is easy engagement and endearment. Just look at my praises; a lot of them come from the fact that this feels like Inuyasha. That said, as I've spent this review showing, this is a double-edged sword, with the handling of the the returning characters, the trio growing up orphaned, and the SesshoRin situation being just a few points of contention born from its proximity to its predecessor. So, for better and for worse, the show is made and broken by its relation to Inuyasha.
At the end of the day, Yashahime is nothing groundbreaking, neither as a sequel or as a standalone property. The things that work only just offset the many, many things that don't. But what can I say, at the end of the day, this is a show that I enjoyed, despite its flaws. Even if it's not my favorite of shows, like Inuyasha, I can see myself watching this for a long time because of the characters. Yashahime's a hard show to hate, a bit of a hard one to love, but an easy one to like well-enough.
