After thirty-eight episodes of the Inuyasha spin-off series Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, the show is finally giving fans of the original series something they have wanted—an InuKag (Kagome/Inuyasha) family reunion.
Spoilers for Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon
Sunrise’s spin-off of Rumiko Takahashi’s popular manga series Inuyasha has been quite a mess. From the choice that Rin grew up to be the wife of Sesshomaru, the very poor plotting, and the fact that most of the main cast from the original series was missing for very plot device reasons, many elements made it hard to get into.
Yashahime’s story is that the twin half-demon daughters of Sesshomaru and Rin, Towa and Setsuna, were separated from each other. Towa was sent in time to the modern era where she was raised by Kagome’s family (Kagome is the co-protagonist of Inuyasha). Ten years after that, Setsuna and Moroha, the fourteen-year-old daughter of Kagome and Inuyasha, also end up in modern times. They all reunite, realize they are related, and then go back to the Feudal era because of plot reasons.
Inuyasha and Kagome are trapped in a pearl for more plot reasons, Rin is stuck in a tree for yet more plot reasons, Sango and Miroku haven’t aged a day, and somehow Kaede is still alive.
As a fan of the original series (I am literally laying next to a Sesshomaru pillow), Yashahime was very disappointing on a purely narrative level. Still, I kept watching to see if, in the end, something would come that was worth it. That did eventually emerge, in the form of small moments involving the young female characters and their moms.
In the most recent episode of Yashahime, we finally get Moroha reunited in part with her parents, and it put a huge smile on my face because her character is the best, and I’m not even a fan of the InuKag relationship. If you want to watch for yourself, the series is available on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
The next episode preview has already shown Moroha and Inuyasha hugging, which warms my heart, and Rin is finally out of that tree and standing on her two feet. Love that for her.
When the actual episode aired I watched it and I found myself just so happy to finally see these characters get to be together. To interact. To be a family. That is the point of these babies-ever-after spinoffs isn’t it? To get us in the feels with family? Yet Yashahime felt like keeping these units apart for 14-years in-universe was a good choice.
I’ll never understand it.
In all honesty, the mishandling of Yashahime is depressing to see. They made mistakes from the very beginning and even the most problematic choices they made, the Sesshomaru/Rin relationship could have been handled better if they gave Rin autonomy rather than just putting her away. Why not have her be the one helping the girls and put Sesshomaru in the tree?
One of the highlights was seeing Rin, out and active in the plot telling the villain she would fight him because she’d never let him hurt her children. That is what fans wanted this whole time and whenever they do something like that it shows that they were always capable of this—they just didn’t see it as important.
I keep watching for these small samplings of family moments, but I do hope that the series ends soon because it is among one of the weakest of anime spin-off sequels. The sooner everyone can just make their own new headcanon, the better.
Until then, they better give Rin something to and put some respect on Kagome’s name. She’s too powerful to just have spent this series trapped in a pearl.
(image: Sunrise)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Published: Jan 17, 2022 09:40 am