Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 18
半妖の夜叉姫 18
Hanyou no Yashahime episode 18

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

While Towa and Setsuna break through to where Konton is, Moroha encounters the real Totetsu, who’s also trapped in the ravine. The two fight while outside the barrier, Riku observes the spell slips keeping the trap in place. Meanwhile, Konton mocks Setsuna and Towa for their ignorance. He summons a couple of youkai beasts for them to fight and buy him time. Konton sets up a new spell field and explains a bit about the Rainbow Pearls.

The twins defeat the youkai beasts, so Konton summons the Blue Oni. Konton uses the Blue Rainbow Pearl to transform the Blue Oni into some sort of monster youkai. It attempts to attack Towa, who dodges. As such, it bites Konton’s head off. Setsuna then defeats the youkai, and Konton’s spell trap ends.

The twins reunite with Moroha, who’s still fighting Totetsu. Despite Totetsu having the Orange Rainbow Pearl, the three girls force him to retreat to the sea. As they pursue the youkai, Riku collects the Blue Rainbow Pearl. Meanwhile, Kirinmaru forces Totetsu down and sends him packing. Towa doesn’t want to fight Kirinmaru, but does want the dai-youkai to stop the Dream Butterfly and return Setsuna’s dreams to her.

Kirinmaru refuses, so the girls decide to slay him. However, Kirinmaru uses no techniques or spells as he easily counters the girls and knocks them all out. He questions the prophesy of a hanyou killing him. However, as he goes to kill the girls, Sesshoumaru arrives. The two great youkai battle to a draw. Kirinmaru decides to leave as he no longer views Sesshoumaru’s daughters as a threat. Sesshoumaru leaves with Jaken. The girls eventually come to and head to the Tree of Ages.

Thoughts/Review:

We get another interesting episode in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 18. It would be nice if we could get more of these. That’s not to say there weren’t some problems.

Defeating Konton

If another of the “Four Perils” was going to be defeated, I would have bet on Totetsu. After all, Konton seemed more intelligent. Throughout the series, Konton has seemed like the strongest of the Four Perils and a proper, min-boss. However, it was Konton who was killed in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 18. And I have to say, his defeat was rather weak to me. Calling it anti-climactic is not out of place.

As I mentioned in the previous episode review, I had no problem with Towa and Setsuna breaking free of Konton’s Möbius Loop spell. And even though it smacked a bit of Mary Sue, I even didn’t have a problem with Towa forcing Konton out of hiding while they were still in his spell trap.

The weirdness came when Konton used his Blue Rainbow Pearl to transform the strong Blue Oni into some kind of generic, youkai monster. Even through the Blue Oni was a shikigami creation, Setsuna was not able to defeat it. So why would Konton transform the Blue Oni into a generic youkai monster?

I guess it was supposed to be more powerful, since it bit off Konton’s head. But then Setsuna easily dispatched it. And I guess you could say that because Konton was dead, the youkai monster was weakened and thus Setsuna had no troubles killing it. Regardless, Konton’s death felt cheap to me.

Kirinmaru vs. Sesshoumaru

I suppose if one wanted proof that Sesshoumaru was quietly keeping an eye on his daughters, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 18 proved that. Sure, it is a deus ex machina moment to have Sesshoumaru save Setsuna, Towa, and even Moroha from death. But it is freaking “Sesshoumaru-sama” for crying out loud, and that buys the series a great deal of leeway. 😀

Naturally, the fight had to end in a stalemate. After all, there are a lot more episodes in this season of the series, to say nothing of the new episodes airing even as I try to catch up. While I liked the idea of Sesshoumaru defending his daughters, the fight ending with Kirinmaru going, “Yeah, your weak daughters are no concern” was not what I wanted to see.

Sesshoumaru continues playing things close to the vest. I like to think that he’s actually proud of his daughters, even if they aren’t strong enough to even scratch Kirinmaru. Jaken was certainly proud. That aside, he did leave without even reviving the girls.

Moroha Reset

I think the thing that I’m most displeased with in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 18 is the Moroha reset. What do I mean? Well, in episode 16, one of the lessons Moroha learned was how dangerous using the rouge to become Beniyasha is. However, that was all forgotten as the writers were apparently keen on having Moroha use Inuyasha’s Sankon Tessō and Hijin Kessō basic attacks.

Frankly, I would have preferred that Moroha not have used the rouge at first. I would have been fine if Kirinmaru kinda goaded her by encouraging her to use it to defeat him. And then to back that up, Kirinmaru could have given Moroha more of a beating so that despite knowing the danger, she felt she had no choice.

Instead, we get the standard, boastful Moroha, who has zero memory of having killed her former master. That was deeply disappointing, more so ’cause I like Moroha as a character.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 18 with some final thoughts.

• We finally learn what Riku’s goal is — gather all of the Rainbow Pearls for himself. He has three now. However, he doesn’t seem that strong, which may account for him using Setsuna, Towa, and Moroha for his goals. Plus, those girls account for three more of the pearls, though I don’t know how many there are in total.
• I found it interesting that Zero wasn’t around to at least observe Kirinmaru fighting the girls, then Sesshoumaru.
• When Setsuna was playing her violin outside the Tree of Ages, I was hoping that Rin would react. But that didn’t seem to be the case.

In the end, I did enjoy Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 18, but there were a few issues.