Review of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

When I first saw the news of a sequel for Inuyasha, both my first manga and anime, I was super excited. In my heart, I knew it would never surpass Inuyasha so when I started watching Yashahime I didn't even try to hold it to the same standard as its predecessor. This series both surprised me and let me down and I will get to things more in-depth shortly. The story of Yashahime is great. When everything sidetracking or embellishing is removed I truly find the main story compelling and deep. It's touching and something I really cared about while watching the series each week.However, the story does stall a lot at first. While most episodes were captivating and interesting they also felt very repetitive at times. I kind of expected that from this sequel, given how Inuyasha as a series was, but it felt rather daunting at first. I wished the series would've opened with a little bit faster story pacing that wasn't so rinse and repeat. However, the ending of the series is what saved those episodes that seemed the same. The ramp-up to a finale was great and I was actually clutching my seat during some of these last episodes.

Was this sequel a little cash grabby and hoping that our nostalgia would push it far? Yes, of course, but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment, for me at least. At times I wished the series would've kept the old series away more but at the same time, I liked seeing old characters too. This brings me to my biggest downside of Yashahime.

The character arcs and developments felt a little off at places. Especially at the start Moroha was greatly done injustice. While I am 100% fine with the focus landing on Sesshomaru's daughters, I was expecting to have more to Moroha than just some easy laughs. I get it, they wanted another comedic character thrown in to get closer to Inuyasha's cast, but I found it kind of inappropriate. Even though she was later given more depth to her, I wish it would've been there from the start so we would've had more time to get attached to her.
Some other characters had some weird pacing in their arcs and development too, but nothing as major as with Moroha. There were even some great characters who I found very interesting, such as Kirinmaru and Riku.

Is Yashahime a masterpiece and something revolutionary? No, it certainly isn't, but it's still very enjoyable. The story, like I said, is great and the animation and sound design is amazing. And even with the odd pacing at times the first season of Yashahime is a good watch that I can recommend.