English Dub Review: Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon “Sesshomaru and Kirinmaru”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After a brief recap showing Setsuna and Towa still trapped in Konton’s magical field, the two break out to take him on. They attempt to get information about Kirinmaru and the Dream Butterfly out of him, but he mocks their ignorance. Ultimately, he faces his defeat.

Moroha faces off against Totetsu and the orange rainbow pearl. When Towa and Setsuna join her, and inform Totetsu he’s officially the last of the Four Perils,  the demon retreats.

The girls run back to Takechiyo and give chase.

Riku collects the blue rainbow pearl from Konton’s headless corpse.

Konton leads the girls to Kirinmaru, who is not pleased to say the least. He blasts his underling out of the sky, then sends him scurrying off with his tail between his legs.

Moroha is initially ready to take down Kirinmaru, but after finding out there’s no bounty on him, quickly loses interest.

Towa attempts to get information from him about the Dream Butterfly. He declines to answer, instead choosing to reveal there’s a prophecy that indicates half-demons will defeat him. He claims to need to investigate this matter “to put his mind at ease.”

Moroha finds his ramblings about half-demons annoying and rushes in. He throws her down with ease. Setsuna and Towa jump in to assist, quickly revealing their powers, but ultimately getting pushed back as well.

Desperate, Moroha pulls out her rouge and goes into full Beniyasha mode, only to fail with this approach as well. With all three girls down, Kirinmaru moves to make his final attack, when a mysterious sword falls out of the sky.

Sesshomaru descends, and Kirinmaru comments that he’s a compassionate parent after all. Kirinmaru and Sesshomaru leave to do battle, while Jaken comments on how big Towa and Setsuna have gotten to the confused twins.

Kirinmaru is impressed by Sesshomaru’s power, but states he doesn’t feel the dog demon’s daughters are a sufficient threat. He agrees to spare their lives, so long as Sesshomaru assists him in achieving his goal.

Our Take:

Hearing David Kaye as Sesshomaru is always a delight, regardless of how sparse his lines actually are.

Unfortunately, my mind has been poisoned by his Cameo performance where someone requested he say, “Inuyasha, you’ve yee’d your last haw” and it’s impossible for me to hear him talk without thinking about this and laughing.

But regardless of my internet-addled brain’s reaction to hearing him, Sesshomaru’s appearance leads to arguably the best action scene from this series so far. His showdown with Kirinmaru brings forth lightening and causes a small tsunami, before Kirinmaru agrees to spare the twins (and Moroha). Also, what a dramatic (if slightly confusing?) way for the twins to finally meet one of their parents.

This episode kind of meanders from Konton insulting Towa and Setsuna to Kirinmaru insulting Towa and Setsuna, while no one explains anything about the Dream Butterfly. I like this show and all, but honestly, this plot point is just dragging on and it feels like the explanation will be super unsatisfying.

The art is also struggling a bit. The action scenes: spectacular! Moroha as Beniyasha even though we just had an episode about how she’s not supposed to rely on the rouge too much: excellent! Setsuna and Towa when they’re just, like, standing around and talking: hmmm.

I know some of the fandom is also griping about Sesshomaru’s redesign, but in my opinion, that’s far from the most irritating thing about his character in this series. For one thing, he basically just looks more like the manga version. For another thing…does…he care about his kids? At all?

I know he’s supposed to be “mysterious” and “aloof” but it seems like a powerful demon like him could at least offer them some guidance on how to properly use their demon powers so they don’t accidentally get themselves killed. But again, I’m sure all of this will be explained away in future episodes. I just hope it’s in a manner that makes sense, because so far logic has not been this show’s strong suite.

Additionally, Riku’s morality is grayer than ever. And there seems to be some indication that the rainbow pearls may be the key to unlocking the demon power for our main trio. Since Kirinmaru stated that as half-demons they “shouldn’t even exist in this world” and the rainbow pearls are supposed to summon “a power that should not exist”, my guess is either that gathering them in one place (as Riku seeks to do) will bestow demon powers on the user/unlock full demonic powers (Shikon jewel style) OR destroy the half-demons entirely.

But until the writers choose to explain the powers of these pearls in full, they basically serve as deus ex machina plot devices. So we’ll see what they have in store for us next time, I suppose!