English Dub Review: Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon “The Hidden Village for Half Demons”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Setsuna heads to a secluded spot in the mountains, with Towa in tow.

When they reach a particular clearing in the forest, Towa inquires what they’re doing out this way. Setsuna begins to explain one of her earliest memories was immediately after the fire.

Through a series of flashbacks, she tells Towa about her childhood in a hidden village with other half demons, protected by Miss Shiori, a half bat demon with barrier creating abilities.

During her time there, the village was attacked by a poisonous moth demon, Gaga Gozen. Since the attack fell during a solar eclipse, Shiori’s powers are weakened as she turns to her fully mortal form.

While the village is aided by Miroku, it’s Setsuna’s powerful demon blood that allows her to awaken her full demon form and slay Gozen with ease.

Miroku hits her with some demon slaying poison and applies a seal on her powers, after witnessing the danger of her full demon form.

Shiori tells Setsuna she’s strong enough to live on her own now. But invites her to come back along with any troubled half demon children she should encounter.

Setsuna tells Towa that’s why she brought her out there, much to Towa’s disdain. Setsuna laughs it off, revealing a rare smile from this normally stoic character.

Our Take:

While this episode provides a fascinating look at Setsuna’s childhood, although of course it’s slightly bittersweet.

It’s great (and rare) to hear Jaken get some lines that aren’t comic relief. His appearance in Setsuna’s flashback highlight the calmer side of Don Brown (that’s Siegel Clyne for my Gundam SEED fans.)

Nicole Bouma also provides a fantastic performance as Shiori that’s distinct from her iconic role as Blossom in Powerpuff Girls without losing her signature calm and sweet approach to strong leader. Her turning mortal due to a solar eclipse rather than on the night of the new moon is kind of playing fast and loose with half demon rules, but that’s pretty par for the course for this show at this point.

It’s not super clear whether or not Sesshomaru was behind guiding Setsuna to this village or if Jaken acted on his own, but overall it provides an interesting enough plot point and look into Setsuna’s childhood as compared to Towa’s experience in the modern world.

I love the concept of this hidden half demon village, but it does seem to clash a bit with Setsuna’s hyper-independence (that was presumably gained as a result of growing up alone, similar to Inuyasha’s chip-on-his-shoulder attitude from suffering as a hanyo) as well as the concept from the original series of half demons being abandoned and persecuted by both humans and demons.

Sure, Fūta and Raita touch on it briefly while discussing the fate of their parents, but was Shiori the first (half) demon to ever exist with powerful enough barrier creating abilities to create a safe haven like this? Or are we supposed to assume they existed during the original series, but Inuyasha was simply unaware of such places (a safe assumption, tbh.)

Sesshomaru, in particular, had such disdain for half demons that his (presumed) role in allowing this village to exist and sending his daughter there speaks volumes to the development his character experienced in the original series, even if it’s rarely touched on in this sequel.

Overall, I enjoyed this episode and think it highlights this series’ exploration and expansion of the demons and half demons in the feudal era.

It admittedly kind of glossed over Setsuna’s whole memory loss situation in order to explore her backstory, but at this point, who really cares about plot holes like that?

It was worth it to see her smile.