Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 16
半妖の夜叉姫 16
Hanyou no Yashahime episode 16

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Moroha, Setsuna, and Towa encounter an older, female wolf youkai on a giant rock ledge. As they ready themselves for combat, Moroha decides to let them know some of her past. Three years prior, the woman, Yawaragi, was her master and trainer. She promised to give Moroha the youkai sword Kurikaramaru, if Moroha can survive the final test. She has to survive battling in the Kodoku, where lots of youkai fight until only one is left.

Moroha overcomes the temptation to use her rouge and manages to win and escape. However, she discovers Yawaragi isn’t waiting for her. Instead, Yawaragi is gambling with Jyuubei in a desperate attempt to gain funds to remove the cursed Armor of the Iron-rat off her. Yawaragi sells Moroha to Jyuubei. However, Jyuubei requests she honor her promise to give Moroha the youkai sword.

In the present, Moroha is surprised her former master still wears the cursed armor. Yawaragi reveals that she found the rat youkai village, where the armor had been made, but they’d all been slaughtered by Konton. Further, Konton held the key to unlock the cursed armor. Konton wants Yawaragi to kill Moroha in exchange for the key.

Moroha engages Yawaragi in a fight. During the fight, Yawaragi recalls how Moroha used the rouge to defeat a band of youkai. However, doing so made her edge closer to becoming a mindless monster. While trying to help another youkai get free from the cursed armor, it appeared on Yawaragi and very  slowly began to crush her to death.

Konton shows up, so Yawaragi attempts to use him as a shield. He gets free and is attacked by Setsuna and Towa, but gets away. Moroha ends up killing her old master. They bury her and Moroha departs a wiser young woman.

Thoughts/Review:

I have to say, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 16 may be the most poignant and surprising episodes so far.

Moroha Character Story

I’d long been wondering why Moroha was having to work for Jyuubei and pay off some debt. Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 16 gives us the surprising answer to that question. She was sold to Jyuubei by her former master. On the surface, this seems a horrible thing to do. Moroha is an indentured servant to Jyuubei until Yawaragi’s debts are cleared. And since Moroha has had poor luck of late with her bounties, it is taking a while.

However, I suspect that ultimately, Yawaragi selling Moroha to Jyuubei was the best way to protect Moroha. Jyuubei has never come across as evil. (Miroku trusted him, which is a positive endorsement.) And in this episode, Yawaragi didn’t come off as evil either. Indeed, her act of kindness is how she ended up getting cursed in the first place. And her gambling debts were the desperate attempts to raise capital to try to get the cursed armor removed.

Even in their final fight, the master was teaching her former student a lesson. Setsuna picked up on this and thankfully, Moroha eventually picked up on this too.

What was shocking to me was Moroha killing Yawaragi. It is one thing for the girls to slay youkai of the week. But for Moroha to kill the woman who apparently raised and trained her, that was unexpected. My hope is that moving forward, Moroha retains the lessons taught to her in this episode.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 16 ended up being a really nice character episode for Moroha. As such, it may be the best episode of the series to date. I’m just hoping the writers don’t tarnish the episode by forgetting the lessons taught to Moroha here.