English Dub Review: Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon “Meifuku, the Meioju”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Things kick off with a mysterious figure destroying a fortress, while a green haired child looks on. After the intro sequence, Jyubei offers Moroha and crew a cool 1,000 mon for slaying the demon responsible for the destruction. The bounty hunter unsuccessfully attempts to convince Towa and Setsuna to join her on the mission. Towa grills Jyubei about information about the dream butterfly, but he says he doesn’t know anything. He suggests putting a bounty on it, conveniently setting the price at 1,000 mon.

Moroha expresses her disappointment in her cousins’ rejection to Takechiyo. But she doesn’t have much time to feel lonely, since the twins catch up with her right after her speech. The newly reunited trio sets off on their task, but quickly discovers Meifuku, the son of Meioju, spying on them. He flees, and the girls head on their way.

Konton, a minion of Kirinmaru, turns out to be slightly more formidable than they expected. Luckily, Meifuku is able to warn them about his Wild Lion and Thunder Lion before it’s too late. Setsuna and Towa take on the lions while Moroha goes after Konton.

Right when the girls seem to be in over their heads, they’re enveloped in a mysterious dark cloud and carried away. When they’ve landed safely, Meifuku reveals he’s the one who saved them. He also explains that Konton is using his father’s shell as armor. He seeks vengence for his father’s death, but believes he’s too young and weak.

Konton catches up with the group for round two of the fight. They’re able to chase him away, with the help of Meifuku’s Dark Lightning Cannon. The younger demon thanks the group for helping him avenge his father, while Konton vows to come after them again.

Our take:

Despite the fact that this series is really clinging to the whole “tsundere Setsuna” angle, this episode is pretty funny.

It’s admittedly lots of slapstick, but Setsuna’s spectacularly deadpan, “Let’s all slay demons, together.” while convincing Moroha to get the gang back together balances things out nicely. Another strong contender for “funniest line of the episode” is Towa politely asking Konton if he’s the demon they’re looking for before facing off.

There’s also an interesting animation touch, with the clouds that descend to rescue our three protagonists featuring a unique sort of texture. It appears to be a watercolor-effect background with moving lines in the foreground. The effect is more similar to the approach that’s used for Bojack Horseman characters than most anime, and particularly other works by Rumiko Takahashi.

The line work on the lions also features more subtle tones, compared to standard black used on other characters. I’m looking forward to seeing how else this show will continue to experiment visually.

The voice acting also seems to really be hitting its stride. Kira Buckland is at her best with dry responses. Particularly when Morgan Berry lobs a feudal era “yo mama” joke at her, only for Buckland to shut it down. Despite Meifuku and Konton’s English voice actors currently being unlisted, their performances are worth a note as well.

Overall, this episode is a much-needed distraction from the real world right now. While it doesn’t have much in the way of story development, things do progress a bit, and hey, there’s always next week for actual plot!