Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 33
半妖の夜叉姫 弐の章 09
Hanyou no Yashahime: Sengoku Otogizoushi episode 33

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Takechiyo and Hachiemon take the defeated Moroha to a cave to hide out. Elsewhere, the blind Riku uses Towa’s hand cream on his eye lids and is able to see Towa, but nothing else.

Up north, Setsuna cuts bamboo worries about her lack of mastery of her new weapon. Her fellow youkai exterminators use the bamboo to build fortifications and channels for then the fiery cow youkai known as Engyuu attack. The local deity, Mayonaka, demands return the divine treasure known as the Blessing of the Five Grains. Since this does not happen, Mayonaka summons a herd of Engyuu.

Setsuna lures Engyuu into the “channel” where the other youkai exterminators dispatch them. However, the Engyuu Setsuna killed the day before comes back to life and emerges from its grave. Mayonaka uses this to gain entry. A northern youkai exterminator named Gorou betrays Setsuna and knocks her out. When she comes to, Mayonaka speaks to her, informing her that he was Mahiruma, the former deity of the land.

Mayonaka stops the villagers from attacking Setsuna, whom they feel betrayed them. Because Setsuna is hanyou, he decides to tell her his story. As Mahiruma, he helped the poor village, but a local tax collector took advantage and became leader. His daughter, Oharu, visited Mahiruma’s shrine and prayed. Mahiruma adopted human form and Oharu attempted to get his treasure back, but failed.

Setsuna sees Mayonaka entangled in threads. She witnesses how Oharu and Mahiruma fell in love. She finds the thread is connected to the shrine holding his treasure. When she cuts it, the preserved body of Oharu emerges. Mayonaka becomes Mahiruma again as he realizes Oharu had ultimately secured the treasure for him. The two then vanish, but the village goes back to being poor.

Thoughts/Review:

While we touch bases with Towa and Moroha in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 33, this episode was all for Setsuna.

Tragic Love

I’ve seen/read stories where a deity and a human fall in love. And invariably, it leads to issues. Such was the case in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 33. The deity Mahiruma helped a village. The human girl Oharu attempted to go against her greedy father to help him. Then they fall in love. The writers are very careful dealing with the pair having sex, which is fine. Goro is their hanshin (demigod) son.

What I don’t get, and what seems to be a convenient plot hole I’m not supposed to think about, is how Mahiruma and Oharu didn’t meet up. He was waiting for her by a tree and when she didn’t show up, he left, feeling betrayed, and then turned into Mayonaka. However, Oharu has to be pregnant at this point. And she did go out to find Mahiruma, but he was not there. That just screamed out at me.

Setsuna’s Journey

It is kind of a shame that Goro and Setsuna didn’t get more one-on-one chat time in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 33. In many ways, the two are very similar, having human mothers and supernatural fathers. They both became youkai slayers to protect others. Maybe in a future episode, the two can meet up again.

That aside, I liked how Yukari no Tachikiri had Setsuna actually witness key moments from Oharu and Mahiruma’s time together. In a sense, Setsuna got to experience their deep love. I’m hoping that what Setsuna experienced will help her understand the love between Sesshoumaru and Rin, and thus free her mother from Zero’s curse.

The episode ends with Setsuna sensing something wrong. And it seemed like it may have originated from her naginata, though I can’t be sure about that. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 33 with some final thoughts.

• Yay! With this review, I’m current with Japan. Cool beans!
• I’m bummed that Moroha’s Beniyasha still knocks her out for a day after a short period of usage. After last season, where Moroha went all out as Beniyasha to battle Kirinmaru along side Towa, I thought this was resolved. But I guess the writers needed to put Moroha on the shelf and so we get a “factory reset” on Moroha’s Beniyasha ability.
• I kinda hope the writers advance a Towa x Riku romance. They’ve toyed around with it, but I really want the two to become a couple who work together. And I want Towa to stop being a Mary Sue.

In the end, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon 33 was a pretty good episode, allowing Setsuna to make some advancement on using Yukari no Tachikiri as well as experiencing a deep love between a human and non-human.