REVIEW: ‘Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon,’ Episode 23 – “The Three Princesses Strike Back”

Yashahime Episode 23 is the penultimate episode for the series, but the way it gathers all the plot threads is convoluted and a tad confusing. Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon is an anime-original sequel from Sunrise to Rumiko Takahashi’s Inuyasha. The sequel follows the descendants of the original’s main cast. The main focus is on Sesshomaru and Rin’s twin daughters: Towa and Setsuna, who were separated across time at a young age.

In the present, Towa’s homeroom teacher, Osamu Kirin, is observing the comet, which shouldn’t be able to be seen by human eyes. After all this time, jumping to the future is an interesting choice. It is unclear, but a camera cut seems to imply that Kirin and Kirinmaru have a connection or are the same person. Given the similarity in their names it seems like a fair guess. Once again, however, it is another question that is presented with no answer given. This is dangerous for Yashahime Episode 23, as it is the second to last episode of the series (a second season has not been announced as of this writing).

Back in the Feudal era Setsuna, Moroha and Towa have decided to hunt down Zero and settle things. Setsuna is especially gung-ho, which is  bit of a shift for her. It definitely works as her character was shown to be incredibly emotionally affected last week, but once again, this is all happening rather fast. It would have worked much better if this growth was stretched better throughout the entire series. Zero and Riku appear to be waiting for the ladies. Riku’s motivations are still incredibly unclear.

He protects Towa, but also works against her. It can be believe that she challenges his beliefs, but once again the show has not done an apt job of letting the characters develop over the course of two cours. Even now, when Zero and Riku are confronted, they still don’t really explain what their motivations are. It is frustrating, and leads to disjointed battles that should have much more of a high-stakes feel for the viewers than they actually do.

It is likely that Zero resents humans and blames them for the death of The Great Dog Demon, who it is implied she loved. Her confrontation with Sesshomaru’s mother while dancing on the edge of death is intriguing, but once again lacks the stakes due to the vagueness the anime has kept up until now. It is even difficult to feel the tension as Rin’s life hangs in the balance, because Rin’s connection to Zero has barely been explained.

Yashahime Episode 23 is the penultimate episode of an anime that has been frustrating as much as it has been fun. There is so much still unexplained (or not explained well enough) that the major confrontation his hindered. Any high-stakes feel it should have instead feels disjointed as the characters and viewer swing their weapons in confusion at everything happening. Here is hoping the show can salvage the positives it has managed in its finale next week.

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