English Dub Review: Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon “Farewell Under the Lunar Eclipse”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The episode begins with Riku narrating a story from eighteen years ago.

Hosenki II (voiced by Peter New, of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fame) the Purveyor of Jewels, holds out a black pearl to the pirate. He explains it normally takes 100 years, but thanks to Riku’s rainbow pearl and Lady Isayo’s rouge, he was able to make it in four. When Riku asks what he’s going to do with it, Hosenki II says he’ll be taking it to InuYasha. Riku asks that he give him the rouge as well.

Sango meets with Kagome, telling her to join them to help Rin deliver her twins. Sango warns Kagome not to overexert herself, since she’s also pregnant. When Kin’u and Gyokuto run up to Sango telling her it’s time, Kagome encourages them to go ahead. She promises to catch up later.

Once Kagome’s alone, Riku approaches her with a warning about the Grim Comet. He explains that 500 years ago, The Great Dog Demon and Kirinmaru teamed up to dispel its danger. This responsibility now falls to The Great Dog Demon’s sons. Kagome frantically asks how she can help, and Riku tells her to get Sesshomaru and InuYasha to work together.

Zero (or rather, a puppet she’s controlling) approaches Sesshomaru with a similar, although far more sinister warning. She also mocks Sesshomaru for choosing a human wife.

Sesshomaru joins Rin and their infant daughters. He scoops up the babies and leaves, much to Sango and Kagome’s dismay. Rin says she has faith in him always.

After hiding his daughters in the forest, Sesshomaru joins InuYasha to take on the comet fragment. The two make surprisingly short work of the task.

Zero reminds Kirinmaru of the prophecy of the Shikon Jewel: that he’ll be killed by a being that’s neither demon nor human. She informs him of existence of half demon twins, along with a quarter demon soon to be born to Kagome. He moves to slay them all.

Sesshomaru joins Kirinmaru against his brother, but at the last minute steps in to capture InuYasha and Kagome in the black pearl.

Moroha, sent off by Kagome in the nick of time, is shown being raised by Koga and the Yoro clan.

Our take:

I’ve been excitedly awaiting this episode for a while now. Getting to see InuYasha and Kagome again is always a treat, although personally I could do with less bickering between these two soon-to-be parents.

This episode also marks the first instance of Rin’s adult voice. Brenna O’Brien (fellow fans of The Middle may recognize her as Sue Heck) was also the VA for young Rin in the original series, but manages to appropriately and impressively age up her vocal performance.

Zero gets quite a speech this episode, although the cast member responsible still has yet to be named. Meanwhile, Zach Aguilar (Demon Slayer fans know him as Tanjiro Kamado) pulls double duty as both the narrator of this story and actor within it. Though his character is a man (or rather, demon) of few words, Crispin Freeman is as intimidating as ever in his role as Kirinmaru.

Impressive performances combined with an official explanation on what happened to Moroha’s parents make for an overall decent episode. Where it suffers a bit is simply from trying to do too much at once.

The explanation of the gold and silver Rainbow Pearls as Zero’s tears feels like a strange choice. The red rainbow pearl (presumably) being the result of Kagome shedding a tear before sending her daughter off makes sense, but Zero?

I had to look up why she would cry at all, and the super unsatisfying answer is that…she was in love with Toga. Seems like the “they’re a treasure of the Ka tribe” explanation could have stuck, but whatever. There’s also the mystery of why Sesshomaru appeared to join forces with Kirinmaru. I know he’s all about being the only one who could kill InuYasha, but c’mon, this is the sequel series! I truly thought they were past all that.

There’s also the more general question of “what is Riku’s deal?” This will likely be explored more soon, but I’m impatient!

In the end, it’s nice to have official confirmation that Kagome and InuYasha are still (sort of) alive and (presumably) well. There’s still plenty of episodes left in the season, and I’m looking forward to whatever answers they hold.