English Dub Review: Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon “The Cat Juan at the Old Temple”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Moroha proudly carries her latest skull to sell to Jyubi, much to the distress of the village people and embarrassment of Towa and Setsuna. Unfortunately, the bounty isn’t quite what she’d been hoping. The corpse dealer also doesn’t have any information about the dream butterfly, but instead sends the three “half demon princesses” off to the northern mountains to see if they can figure out why travelers have been disappearing. Towa pedals the crew to their next location on her bike, with Setsuna perched on the back while Moroha serves as the “lookout” and, in true sibling/cousin manner, manages to be highly annoying. They crash while barely avoiding running over a kid, who tells them her parents ignore her to take care of cats in the village at the base of the mountains. Towa’s initially entranced by the felines, but they soon reveal themselves to be demons that have bewitched the villagers to take care of them. Moroha and Setsuna tell her she needs to develop her demon senses. They continue to the old temple, which is tended to by a monk who’s a dead ringer for an idol from Towa’s time, Julian. The monk, Juan, invites them to stay the night before continuing to the mountain pass. Setsuna and Moroha discuss how to best take on the meowing menaces, and agree to appear to let their guard down to trick the demons into attacking. It works a little too well, and they find themselves facing off against a giant ghost cat with regeneration powers, controlled by Juan, who’s possessed with the cat demon’s spirit. Towa is hesitant to kill the monk, despite Setsuna urging her to “sever her ties” to the peaceful approach lauded in the future to avoid being killed herself. Myoga pops back up to mention Inuyasha was able to spare opponents by absorbing their demon energy, but without the Tessaiga, Moroha waves off that suggestion as impossible. Despite the high likelihood of failure, Towa is determined to stick to her ideals, and will give it all she’s got!

Our take:

Gimme the ghost cats! This episode is a great example of this show really hitting its stride. The blend of humor from Moroha teasing Towa with dumb kid sayings like “you hurt my butt’s feelings!” and the group flying dramatically through the air Team Rocket style after crashing into a tree stands in stark contrast to the Telltale Heart situation they encounter at the old temple. Additionally, pitting Setsuna’s harsh Hobbesian worldview against Towa’s belief in helping others whenever possible is another touch at this series’ exploration of nature vs. nurture while also serving to further differentiate this series from its predecessor.

While sibling squabbling is nothing new in this universe (or real life, for that matter), keeping this tradition, rather than having the descendants of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru carry on their parent’s grudges is a smart choice. Of course, there’s still opportunities for conflict to arise between Moroha and the twins, but for the moment, the main conflict between long lost sisters really gives us a chance to see their separate personalities more thoroughly develop.

Disappointingly (or maybe embarrassingly? I can’t tell if my research skills are slipping or if whoever’s in charge of promoting these things is on vacay or something) I’m still unable to locate the dub’s voice actor for Jyūbei, and unfortunately came up dry for Juan’s voice as well. Bill Rogers is listed as “additional” voices, so…maybe? At least Paul Dobson’s returned to reprise his role as Myoga in this sequel, although out of the characters he’d voiced in the original series, I kind of wish Naraku had been the one to return. That might not have made any sense plot-wise, but I’ve yet to come across an anime series that’s super hung up on being “logical” so we’re probably good.

Overall, this episode has me feeling hopeful that this series will just keep getting better. While I of course share Towa’s initial affection towards the cats (even if they WERE demons, that’s just part of cat ownership y’all!) and as a result, don’t *love* to see a bunch of them get slaughtered, this week’s story had a great blend of action, existentialism, and cat puns about the evil kitties to still make it worth the watch.