REVIEW: ‘Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon’ Episode 9 – “Meifuku, the Meioju”

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon is back to the monster-of-the-week format this week, letting the show coast without making a whole lot of headway. The show makes another nod to demons from its predecessor: Inuyasha, which while fun, can sometimes hold it back from being its own thing. The series follows twin sisters Towa and Setsuna, who were separated across time at a young age. They are reunited and traverse the feudal era with their cousin, Moroha (Inuyasha and Kagome’s daughter). Now in Yashahime Episode 9, Jyubei the corpse-dealer has another job for Moroha, to the tune of a thousand mon coins.

A commander’s fortress has been destroyed by demons, and he wants them gone. Moroha jumps on the opportunity, but Towa and Setsuna don’t want to go this time. Towa wants to search for The Dream Butterfly. Moroha is genuinely hurt by this, and runs off. Her internal monologue gives more insight into the playful character. Now that we know she was separated from her parents as an infant, it is clear she is lonely. Moroha was excited to have family to spend time with.

This makes the next bit a little uncomfortable. Towa wants to find The Dream Butterfly, and Jyubei plainly tells her that the quickest way to get intel is to put out a bounty. That bounty would have to be around a thousand mon. While comedic, it was a little sad to see Towa and Setsuna tell Moroha they wanted to come with after all, when we know it is for their own means. It isn’t awful, but it felt odd since Towa is such an honest person.

Yashahime Episode 9 introduces viewers to another of The Four Perils: Konton. He is the one who destroyed the fortress. The show is quick to introduce characters that seemed to be billed as big bads, but it is a little hard to follow Yashahime‘s plans anymore. The girls are rescued by Meifuku, a young Meioju whose father was killed by Konton and turned into armor. This is the reference to a demon in the original Inuyasha series, which is clever until the preview for next week shows a similar tactic. Helping him reclaim that armor turns into the main focus of the episode. It would have been nice to see this delved into a little more beyond just the battle. Especially since the three girls could relate to being separated from their fathers, and Moroha was having a private moment about family earlier in the episode.

Compared to last week, the fight is just okay, nothing overly exciting but certainly not underwhelming either. Yashahime is consistent in delivering solid, fun action that equally features all three leading ladies. Because Yashahime Episode 9 is more focused on Meifuku, a lot of the key character moments go to him. This is fine, although he appears to be a one-off character.

All in all, Yashahime Episode 9 is average. It goes back to a monster-of-the-week style, introducing another of The Four Perils. A few odd character moments take away from the really lovely ones. It isn’t a bad episode, but it is relatively forgettable in terms of plot.

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon is streaming now on Crunchyroll and Hulu.