Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 01
半妖の夜叉姫 01
Hanyou no Yashahime episode 01

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

A hanyou (half youkai, half human) butch girl named HIGURASHI Towa is held for questioning by a kanrei (deputy shogun) named Ogigayatsu Hiiragai Danjou. Danjou’s aide, Sokyuu, believes Towa is Yashahime, a hanyou princess. He has books from the modern era to back his claim. Further, he produces an old bicycle seat and recounts a rumor of a miko who used the Bone Eater’s Well to travel to a place called Tokyo.

Years past, a girl named Kagome, from the modern world, decided to live in the Feudal Era with her hanyou boyfriend, Inuyasha as a miko. One day she visits her friend and former youkai hunter Sango, who’s washing clothes by the river with her three young children. They chat on the way home about a youkai that Inuyasha and the priest (and Sango’s husband) Miroku, are investigating.

Inuyasha defeats a plant youkai named Ne-no-Kubi . At the nearby tomb, they discover one of Kikyou’s sealing arrows. Meanwhile, Root Head still lives and attacks, coming after Kagome, believing her to be Kikyou. Inuyasha and Miroku return to beat the youkai back. Kagome joins Inuyasha in the fight. Sango and her brother remain at the house to defend the children, including Rin, a girl rescued by the youkai lord Sesshoumaru.

Sango discovers Sesshoumaru is protecting the house, so she joins her husband in the fight against Root Head. After a long fight, they defeat Root Head and Kagome purifies the land. Kagome is glad to stay with Inuyasha.

Years later, Towa rescued from captivity by a bounty hunter girl named Moroha and a youkai hunter named Setsuna. Moroha causes Sokyuu to reveal himself as an owl youkai. The trio decide to nab him for answers. Towa takes the modern world evidence from the samurai lord.

Thoughts/Review:

I have a weakness for Inuyasha. I guess that’s because when I first got into anime, the series aired on Adult Swim. Sadly, the manga ended up dragging on, and the anime adaptation didn’t fare much better. And to make it worse, the sequel anime series abridged too much. Nevertheless, when I got a chance to watch the anime-original sequel Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 01, I jumped on the chance.

Inuyasha: Since Then

One of my more popular blog posts is the “Since Then” epilogue chapter for Inuyasha Takahashi-sensei did for charity after the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011. The creative team at Sunrise decided to use Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 01 as a way of animating this chapter.

As far as the adaptation of the chapter goes, Sunrise was pretty faithful. They did pad some stuff and had Inuyasha use all of his abilities in the fight against Root Head. I suppose that’s understandable, so no quibbles there. And they inserted the youkai owl, Yotsume.

That said, even if Yotsume knew the Since Then story from having witnessed it first hand, he really couldn’t retell the story properly, could he? That aspect of bridging this final Inuyasha tale to the Yashahime series didn’t quite fit for me. But it is a minor issue and quickly forgotten.

Still, it was nice seeing the old gang back together. Miroku having a new seiyuu was a bit jarring, but I mostly got used to it.

New Girls

In addition to adapting the final Inuyasha story, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 01 also introduces us to the three new female characters who will be leading this series. I gather that Takahashi-sensei did the character designs for the girls. As such, I guess making Towa butch allowed Sensei to have that dandy type character she tends to love, only a girl is in that male, butler-esque outfit. Towa’s silver hair would mark her as a child of Sesshoumaru. Not sure about that red bit though.

Setsuna looks a lot like Sango in her youkai hunter outfit, only with that somewhat disdainful look of Sesshoumaru along with the fluff. But she has Rin’s hair. We’ll see if the anime reveals whom the mother of Setsuna and Towa are. But it really does have to be Rin (as an adult, of course).

Finally, there’s Moroha. She’s got the red gear that Inuyasha always wore, combines with Inuyasha’s attitude. But she also is a bow user in addition to a sword user, and looks a lot like Kagome. So she’s only be 1/4 youkai, 3/4 human, whereas Setsuna and Towa would be hanyou. That aside, I do look forward to their adventures.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 01 was an enjoyable episode. It sucks that I’m so busy of late, chapter blogging anything is a luxury and a half. 😅