English Dub Review: Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon “The Gold and Silver Rainbow Pearls”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

This episode opens with alien-like demons being hatched into a life of violence. Each egg contains two heads, which battle it out while a mysterious larger snake demon looks on.

The girls are out demon hunting again, and this time they find double trouble. It seems like it might be an easy gig for once, since the yokai appears shortly after they arrive.

Ginka and Kinka are conjoined twins that battle each other daily, each one attempting to kill the other and absorb their powers. Towa is distraught at the sibling rivalry. Moroha just wants to get the job done.

But before they can take down the dueling duo, Kinka and Ginka notice Setsuna and Towa’s rainbow pearls. The brothers agree to a temporary truce until they can reclaim their tribe’s treasures.

Some grateful villagers invite the girls to dinner to thank them for scaring off the fighting brothers, who unfortunately return and use this chance to strike. Ginka possesses Towa in order to steal her silver rainbow pearl. Kinka does the same to claim the gold pearl from Setsuna.

The sisters face off, battling fiercely under the control of each demon until Setsuna is able to fend them off with some demon slayer poison powder. Kinka and Ginka leave with the pearls, forcing Towa and Setsuna into pursuit to retrieve them.

Triumphant, the brothers return with their spoils to the leader of their tribe, Joka. The well-endowed snake demon is pleased with their efforts, but not in a way that benefits them, of course. Setsuna and Towa arrive on the scene to witness Joka draining Ginka of his demon energy while Kinka tries in vain to save him.

Despite their struggle bringing up some latent memories and also Kinka’s whole possession a minute ago, they attempt to help. Towa initially volunteers, but Setsuna steps forward instead. Kinka sets her naginata alight, and she slays Joka with little effort.

Kinka retrieves Ginka, and shields him from Joka’s final blow, but it’s too late for both of the brothers. Setsuna refuses to acknowledge her new memories, while Moroha is distraught her bounties have turned to dust.

Our take:

I was hoping this episode would be our chance to finally learn about the rainbow pearls, but unfortunately, not so much. Despite the asides about being “treasures of the Ka tribe” and doubling demon power, no new info. What can ya do?

While it’s light on backstory (as per usual) this episode does at least give a hint of some character development. It’s super weird, of course, but I’ll take what I can get! Watching demons who are apparently born to kill each other isn’t known for reviving repressed memories, but in this case, Setsuna’s revelation is due to exactly that.

It’s not intentionally funny, but her wondering “who saved me from a fire?” when remembering Towa, who’s standing RIGHT NEXT TO HER was worth a dry chuckle, in my opinion. The actual comedy of the episode comes mostly from it’s same sources as always: Moroha and Takechiyo.

There was also a line from Ginka calling Kinka’s voice disgusting that I was hoping would be a joke about them having the same voice actor.

Unfortunately for potential metahumor, the battling twins are voiced by two different, but equally awesome talents. Kinka gets his firey voice from Alistair Abell (aka Lord Djibril in Gundam Seed Destiny) while Michael Adamthwaite (fans of Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu know him as Jay) brings the thunder to lightning wielding Ginka.

But back to story development (or lack thereof.) A decent swath of fans on Twitter are griping about Joka’s offhanded mention of wanting revenge on Sesshomaru, and then dying before tossing us even a crumb of context as to why. Based on a super quick scan of the Wikis, it’s apparently because he cut off her arms. Which then regrew. Demons and their grudges, amirite? I get why folks are unsatisfied, but c’mon now. Surely we’ve all been watching anime long enough to understand a good 90% of plot holes are of the “Hey. Don’t worry about it.” variety. Personally, I was more annoyed that I couldn’t hunt down a VO credit for her smoky vocals! But hopefully I’ll find that little detail soon.

With yet another sibling rivalry storyline added to the mix, I have to think we’ll be seeing more of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru here in the next few episodes. Also, I’m not like, a demon biologist or anything, but yokai always trying to kill their siblings seems like a poor reproductive strategy. Maybe that’s why there’s so few left in the modern day. Just saying!

In the end, this episode seemed well balanced. A little progress, a lot of action, and nothing too cheesy. Well, until Moroha was trying to scrape together what was left of her bounties, but much like the dust in the wind, I’m willing to let that one fly.