This anime is certainly a feudal fairy tale, you know think like Naruto (wink). It's basically KnY but with good lore and we're the demons (wink) ...No one? ok ill get srs. This is my fav set of newgen female shonen cast since WEP crew, and unlike that anime, Yashahime never jumps the shark. Kagome is great, well written, def an ass kicker, and she wears the pants in her relationship, but frankly she was barely the main character of an anime titled after the name of her boyfriend. Inuyasha was the star of her show and we all know it. Now in Yashihime, Setsuna is bestgurl and Moroha steals the show often, but Towa's story is not being overshadowed by Moroha's. Imo that makes it a lot better to follow her than to follow along Kagome's story. Towa is a tomboy, but she is also the most emotionally sensitive character in her crew. She somehow holds down shonen protag and shojo protag at the same time, a brave leader with a moral compass. She is super inspiring sure, but it's her compassionate moments that make her the heart of the show.
This gen is excelling in making female characters real characters. All three are a set of ass kickers, there is no weak link and they balance each other well. While S1 spent most of its time establishing this newgen cast and going on small adventures with a lot slower pacing, it's finale was very strong and it ended in a way that really opened up S2 to go deep in on it's main story. S2 is a lot faster and the finale was even better. S1 our gurls were engaging in battle most every epi, in S2 our gurls are pushing plot sometimes while the returning cast takes up some of the battlefield time, which is ofc hype af. But the story is not relying on these moments to carry the show, and the gurls are back to fighting and carrying the hype moments soon enough. Rewatched the Moroha/Inuyasha scene maybe 7 times? still gets to me, leave me alone.
But not everyone in the story has parents like Inuyasha and Kagome. While Inuyasha leans a little more into the romance relationships, Yashahime leans more into the family relationships. Themes are split between moving past your parents and becoming independent before you're able to love someone else completely, and also a lot about the strength of family love and the trust of friendship. Some poeple have dads like Inuyasha, some people have dads like Sesshomaru, and then some unlucky people have dads like Kirinmaru. The story does a wonderful job on giving the audiance a character with a relationship that might match their own. Some anime lean hard on one or two particular situations and leave the rest of the audiance to feel like this story is maybe not for them. But Yashahime has a lesson for everyone, even if you ain't got a dad like Inuyasha, no one's feelings are left out or forgotten.
Fun easy watch. I would recommend to any shonen battle lover (ez pickup) or fantasy lovers wanting to watch a longer adventure story with samurai standoff drama, epic battles with high powerlvls, and emotional wholesome moments.
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