Review of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon
In its original manga and anime run, Inuyasha was a huge hit. The original explored the life of someone who was born between two sides and belonged to neither one. It told a love story that ultimately could have been a metaphor for coping with lost love and moving onto someone else, our tendency as humans to try to see someone we loved and lost in the new person. The list of things that the original Inuyasha tale left behind is long and can be enumerated further, but this review is about its sequel: Yashahime. This show is being done by the same studio as theoriginal and the character designs have largely not changed in style. They are in fact pretty consistently keeping with the original. Sunrise also has a decent sized budget for animation work, though a few cuts did have mediocre background characters and the animation did seem to run low on budget towards the end. The visuals are a solid 6/10. Being Sunrise, they also have a tendency to use pretty strong audio, especially for OP and ED themes. The sound is truly solid. Had the show's substance been done better, I would probably have grown attached to the theme songs. The biases of the story and characters aside, the sound earns a solid 7/10.
The issue with Yashahime lies primarily with its storytelling and characterizations.
Yes, in its 167 episode run, the original Inuyasha had fillers. However, it had a good deal of characterization of minor characters at the very least and substantial characterization of its main cast. Here, however, the fillers are the majority of the show with little to no overplot to tie one episode to the next. Only about the first 4-5 episodes had any substance and direction to them with about one significant flashback some 10+ episodes later. There is effectively no progression plotwise until about the last 3 or so episodes.
The main cast is also notably shallow compared to its predecessor. We have Towa, Setsuna and Moroha, a pair of years-separated twins and a half cousin. There isn't any romance between the main characters this time around, which is fine if that were all. However, their bonds are superficial. Little to no screentime is spent showing them bonding or even compatible to bond as friends, let alone as sisters/kin who are willing to risk their lives for each other.
Of the supporting cast, the minor episodic villains are largely of the slapstick comedic variety that communicate little to no meaning worth contemplating upon their defeat. Miroku and Sango's married lives were shown at one point but amount to effectively a form of non-sexual fanservice of their married lives with kids. New members of the cast like Riku are portrayed with little to no history or motivation and often amount to just acting "cool". Sesshoumaru, a much beloved character of the original series is effectively rendered an illogical plot device in the background just to initiate the setup in episode one and provide convenient combat help. Lastly, the villains' only motivation seems to be a shallow form of narcissism combined with a half-baked excuse of self-preservation according to the prophecy of a rock that never talked let alone predicted futures in the original series.
While a sequel has technically been announced and may address some of the blanks and question marks started by this show, it is unlikely that even combined with the coming sequel's answers that this show would live up to its original. As a standalone entry, these 24 episodes certainly fail to. In fact, in two whole ways, the series is more akin to a mediocre fanfiction with the worst pairing possible.
Story: 4/10
Characterization: 2/10