English Dub Review: Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon “Demon Spirit of the Sea”

 

Overview:

Towa learns about a demon that targets women with long, beautiful hair. Meanwhile, Moroha and Setsuna help a nun who isn’t exactly what she seems…

Our Take:

This feels like it wants to be Demon Slayer but isn’t quite THAT good. It is very good though so I think it’s okay. Also to be fair, Inuyasha could have been doing the same thing but as I mentioned I haven’t watched that one yet. What I mean by the Demon Slayer reference is that they humanize and make you sympathize with the demon before it dies.

I honestly expected a better backstory from the demon than we got. Maybe they were trying so hard to not be predictable that they overcorrected cause it was a bit weird. Essentially, this demon loved a human that she rescued and turned into a sea snake to check on him and the man killed her in this form. So she got angry and turned into Medusa and turned all the men to stone. Since she couldn’t go back to how she was she hated women with long, beautiful hair like she used to have.

The demon was voiced by Amber Lee Connors and for what it’s worth did a great job. I could tell it was her right away, and I don’t know about you but if I like the VA I get more invested in the character. I will say that is one thing this show really has going for it, it has some amazing voice talent.

This feels like it might have a “monster of the week” formula to it. Which is both positive and negative. Negative cause that can be kind of boring if the main plot only advances at a snail’s pace. In the positive column is how comfortable it feels. It reminds me of when I first started watching anime after school when I was a kid. When you could just jump in and catch an episode and be fine cause it didn’t have a ton of episodes of lore to catch up on. Definitely still a fun show just this episode was a tiny bit lacking.