REVIEW: ‘Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon,’ Episode 29 – “The Girl Named Rion”

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Yashahime) is a fantasy/adventure anime from Sunrise. Having overcome the barrier that encircles Mount Musubi, Towa, Moroha, and Setsuna find themselves face to face with a young woman named Rion. Since they proved themselves through their overcoming of the barrier, Rion offers them the long-sought-after means to defeat Kirinmaru in Yashahime Episode 29.

If there is one thing I could say about Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon‘s narrative in the past, it would be that it has always elicited a straightforward reaction. Like it, love it, or hate it, it simply was what it was. Yashahime Episode 29 gives me a bit more pause as I formulate my thoughts about it. Part of me wants to like this episode for the unexpected progress it makes in its story, as well as how it continues to flesh out some of the show’s key characters. Unfortunately, while I appreciated the result of this episode’s story, how it arrives at some of its conclusions is fairly unfulfilling. It further muddies the waters of its narrative by leaving some questions unanswered, though it gives a distinct impression that some characters who should be aiding our protagonist already have the answers, they just aren’t willing to share. This long-worn narrative device is always annoying to me.

But even with so many plot points being addressed in Yashahime Episode 29, the starring moments belong to character rather than narrative. During this episode, we get a wonderful moment with Towa, as we are reminded of what truly makes the young lady special, and it has nothing to do with her half-demon physiology.

The other stand-out character in this episode is Riku. While he plays an ancillary role in this episode, he nonetheless provides some colorful character to the proceedings.

I suppose, since her name is in the episode title, it would behoove me to mention the show’s newest character, Rion, here. How Yashahime Episode 29 handles Rion is mixed. While her back story succeeds in creating sympathy for the character, what it does with the character’s present gets overly confusing as it presents several rapid-fire changes to the character that makes sense only because, well, magic? Her big final declaration toward her father’s will even comes across as a bit flawed. She is presented as being defiant, but I’m not sure she is being as defiant as the episode wants us to think she is.

The episode’s visual presentation delivers all the story beats and emotions here well. The visuals in Rion’s back story work particularly hard to reinforce the sympathetic feelings the show wants the viewer to harbor toward this new addition to the story.

The only place where the show’s visual presentation fails is in the enemy designs for this episode. While the opponents confronted by our protagonists here are throwaway enemies, I’d still like to see some effort put into their designs. Instead, we see some of the most generic and forgettable enemies since I last fought my way through a low-level JRPG random encounter.

So, when all is said and done, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon Episode 29 delivers a mix of interesting moments for both the characters and story, while still stumbling with some of its delivery. However, with everything that happens in this episode I find myself more curious to see where the story will go than I have been after recent entries.

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon Episode 29 is streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.