Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon
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tintor2
 Posts: 1866 |
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Setsuna is the closest thing to Sesshomaru in this series but I don't know if this is a good or bad thing to say. Sesshomaru is quite emotionless and while he cared about Rin, he barely showed that care when interacting with others. I guess he kinda had the cool factor when compared with his brother but sometimes I think those flaws Inuyasha had (except the love triangle) made him a more compelling character than Sesshomaru. I'm pretty sure this is why Setsuna is not the lead character and Towa instead comes across as more audience surrogate as well as main character. Poor Moroha barely had two episodes centered around here but I guess they writers made her too much of a comic relief to the point it was hard to care. I mean, Moroha's characterization doesn't involve her real parents at all and is always given the same cases. |
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db999
Posts: 303 |
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I actually stopped watching the show at the beginning of this current season though I have been keeping up with the reviews. I’ve decided though that I want to keep watching so I’m binging from episode 14 on.
Episode 14 was really bad, probably the worst in the show. It makes no sense and so many of the characters are excusing Homura’s awful actions. I actually thought episode 15 was fine, but I do have some problems. Why is Zero reminding Sesshomaru of the comet and Kirinmaru’s goal to kill his daughters, if that’s exactly what she wants? We know from later on that Sesshomaru has some sort of agreement with Kirinmaru but this still doesn’t make much sense. I didn’t hate the scene of Sesshomaru taking the twins as much as others did, mostly because the show does explain that this is part of his plan to protect them, but why don’t any of the others object more. He gets immediately attacked so I guess it was the right call, especially since this separation from Rin is only supposed to be temporary. Jaken does say he’s going to bring Rin into the barrier that hides the twins' demon energy, but Sesshomaru could have explained. There’s also the possibility that Rin knew this would happen from the beginning but if that’s the case the show could have made it much clearer. I actually don’t have any other problems with the episode. Riku’s part and Sesshomaru’s later actions are definitely supposed the be mysteries that the show wants the viewers to have so I don’t have much in the way of complaints with these two actions. But why isn’t this material being told to our main Trio? Honestly, this episode should be episode 16 and episode 15 should be an episode where are the main trio actually get curious about their pasts and search for Riku, maybe after Kaede tells them that he knows more about this info, so he can tell them what happened. Then we wouldn’t need to talk about this next awful episode. Episode 16 I don’t have a problem with the first half of it, other than us not having a frame of reference for the flashbacks, but the second half makes no sense. I mean I get Konton’s plan, but this attempt at getting us to care about the conflict is so bad. We have no reason why we should care about the teacher character, and Moroha doesn’t even seem to like her to it’s just a waste of an episode. The only thing we get out of it is knowing why Moroha is having to bounty hunt. We’re only just hearing about her teacher in this episode and the show expects us to care that she’s dead or understand why Moroha is upset. She never mentioned her before and she’s never mentioned again. This might as well be a filler for all of the impacts it has on the series. Episodes 17 is one of the better episodes from the later half as it was pretty good. It actually furthers the main plot, there aren’t any incredibly stupid, weird moments that take me out of the episode. Unfortunately, episode 18 is really mixed The first half of 18 was a good continuation and I had no complaints until Kirinmaru appears. Our three heroes tell him they don’t really want to fight or kill him, but he fights them anyway just to see if they could actually kill him. If he’s worried they could kill him why to engage. If they did end up being powerful enough to kill him then he gave them a pretty good excuse to try although it turns out they are no match for him. They get thrashed until Towa is able to land a hit and then Sesshomaru shows up saves his daughters and niece. Then he fights Kirinmaru and they seem evenly matched. Kirinmaru then declares the three aren’t strong enough to kill him and decides to let them live. It all just feels so arbitrary. Sure the fight between Kirinmaru and everyone is cool and all, but none of the character motivation for him or Sesshomaru makes any sense. He spends the entire series sending his minions to kill the three main characters, they kill all of them and then they’re not even a match for him and he lets them live. It’s not like the show is always bad. Most of episode 18 works. The defeat of the final two of the 4 perils and the final scene works but the scenes with Kirinmaru and Sesshomaru doesn’t. I don’t want to be constantly complaining, but the show seems incapable anymore of going even 2 episodes before it does something dumb that takes me out of it. Episode 19 might just be the stupidest yet most fun episode of the entire series. It’s working in full sitcom misunderstanding mode this episode, but it’s not meant to be taken seriously. I just turned my brain off and enjoyed it. Even if it didn’t make sense this is the most fun I’ve had watching the series. The only thing I’ll say against it is that this probably should have been in the first half of the show rather than be left for so late in its run Episode 20 might actually be the best episode of the series. It focused on one of the main characters Setsuna, and delved into her backstory, and actually did a lot in developing her as a character and answering questions I’ve been having about the series. If every episode was like this Yashahime would actually be a great series. Episode 21 The opening explained a whole lot of questions I’ve been having about the pearls. It turns out That the rainbow pearls were created when Zero made a wish on the Shikon Jewel to get rid of her grief when Inuyasha's father died. It explained how the jewels came to be and how Towa was able to travel through time. If the jewels have part of the power of the Shikon Jewel that would make sense. I really enjoyed Riku’s manipulation of Towa. They’ve established him as a character who’s been navigating both sides and seeing him finally make his move is a legit payoff that the show has been building to for a long time. He does a good job playing off of Towa’s naivety and manipulating her into trusting him with small lies mixed with the truth. But the final scene is so stupid. Why are doing comedy this late into the series? This episode was almost really good, but they had to end it so stupidly like that. If it had just ended with Towa giving Riku it would be fine but I guess the series must continue to shoot itself in the foot at every oppurtunity |
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Covnam
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"This week, the part of Towa's brain will be played by a sack of bricks"
I think this weeks review summed up my thoughts as well. It's like different people are writing parts of the script and they can't see what the other is working on. Zero's personality does a 180 with the opening in between. Towa has a dream about the dream butterfly disappearing into the tree of ages, then chases it right afterward to watch it disappear into the tree right in front of her and then says that she lost it  Not to mention all that nonsense later on it the episode -_-
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Fluwm
 Posts: 897 |
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It would seem my decision to abandon the show after episode 6 was correct. Shame.
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RR529
Posts: 46 |
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1. I never said that I personally believe the show runners hate Kagome. IIRC, some of InuYasha & Kagome's more touching moments from the original manga were omitted or altered in the anime. I always assumed this was just a misguided attempt to add more of a comedic Ranma/Akane vibe to the anime (misguided because the show is generally more serious than Ranma), though there is a segment of fans (that I'm not a part of) that believe those changes were made out of a dislike for Kagome. I just thought it was kind of ironic that after all that conspiracy theorizing, that InuYasha & Kagome have been sidelined even harder than other supporting characters like Miroku, Sango, & Kohaku (I don't mind the switch in focus to Sesshomaru or his children in principle, but it seems like they really took extra steps to make sure those two in particular aren't that involved). 2. You're wrong about Moroha not originally being intended to show up in the series, though. She was always meant to appear, but as a Hisui level supporting character. It was only after realizing that Towa & Setsuna's personalities didn't play off each other well enough to carry the show that they realized that they needed a third wheel for them to play off of, and upgraded Moroha. This probably explains why she's treated as comic relief so much (she's here for per personality, pretty much), and why her backstory episode was messy (they probably weren't intending to cover it that in depth originally). |
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k0918
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[quote="MetalEmolga7"]
Best part too who? Fan polls show the most popular character is Towa. Also are you going too ignore the whole Kirinmaru is trying to murder the kids and that they were supposed to be hiding part of the plot. Kirinmaru sent demons to murder them the day they were born. Do you think Sesshomaru would be a better parent if he just let them be killed? That and it's obvious that Sesshomaru was the one sending the letters to Setsuna. Who else would give her a mokomoko and know how to teach her how to fight. Do you pay attention to anything that happens in the show.[/quote] There hasn’t been a official poll made by the studio so I have no idea where you got the idea that Towa’s the most popular. There’s been fan run polls or fans posting about Moroha’s merch selling out in store and online compare to the twins. And the fan run polls don’t usually work out due to overzealous fans bot spamming votes for certain characters. Like sure Moroha might have been an afterthought but Rumiko didn’t have trouble coming up with her design compare to the twins what with them going through a couple of redesigns. Hell even Sato confirmed that the animators fight to be able to animate a scene with Moroha due to her popularity with the studio. But what would I know, apparently some of us aren’t paying attention to the show. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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Well, I know for sure if I was a huge fan of Sesshomaru and the SessRin pairing and had been dreaming for 10+ years about seeing my favorite ship finally becoming "canon", nothing would make me happier than a series in which... the pairing i love doesn't exchange more than 5 words in 21+ episodes, one of them is in a comma inside a tree and didn't get to raise her daughters, who don't even know who she is or care about her fate, while the other one is... doing something offscreen and only shows up for like 20 frames total in the whole show, doesn't raise his daughters either and they also don't care about him whatsoever. It's a dream come true! Exactly the romantic happy ending i had dreamed of for my favorite couple! Right?
At this point in the series, it would make narrative sense for Riku to trick Towa into giving him her Silver Pearl. It's the execution of it that makes it so blearingly stupid. First Riku doesn't really attempt to trick her, he kills Totetsu and leaves, it's Towa who for no reason at all decides to give it to him. And Setsuna and Moroha see her and their only reaction is "you sure about that, seems like a bad idea". Setsuna has given Towa way way way harsher scoldings for way way way less horrible blunders but suddenly all she can bring herself to do is raise an eyebrow and shrug. And instead of framing Riku's actions as sinister or deceptive, the moment when Towa gives him the pearl is shown as sweet and cute. Then instead of a grievous realization of her mistake and the dire consequences it might bring, we get a slapstick comedy cliffhanger that feels like it was taken out of a Pokemon Team Rocket fight sequence. It's such a failure of storytelling in every possible sense. |
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pip25
Posts: 158 |
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I binge-watched the series over the course of a week or so up to the current episode, and liked it quite a bit (I do think the original anime is also a lot more enjoyable when you can watch more episodes at a time). Yes, some of cast are stupid - just like in the original series. Yes, some of the episodes are straight-up filler - again, just like in the original anime.
It is possible that people's expectations have changed over the years, or we Inuyasha fans have simply grown older. But if the show wanted to switch up its presentation to accommodate that, it would have been criticized all the same for not staying true to its origins. The one other thing it certainly has going against it is how it messed with the "happy endings" of the original cast, and keeps the reasons for it close to its chest, which can be frustrating. But, as we can already see, it's slowly revealing those mysteries little by little. Why not at the beginning? Because it's one of the things that keeps people coming back week after week, that's why! 
Despite what some of the critics say, I don't think the producers are stupid or incompetent. They made a couple of mistakes, but they also show a good understanding of the original material, and I feel confident that there will be some real payoff in the end, even if it doesn't happen at the end of this season. (I do hope for some kind of finale though.) I do recommend the person in charge of reviewing the show not to pick up the second season though if and when it happens, because reading the reviews made me convinced that there is absolutely nothing the series can do at this point that would make them not hate the whole thing. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5861 Location: Virginia, United States |
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That is not really the issue. It is that most of the characters in this show are souless and hollow inside. That is including the modern human characters in the show too. There is also the fear, that the show will not reflect the true horror of what has happened to Rin and Kagome. The fear that this show will just play it up as just another thing in life. I can already see it in my mind, "I am your mother", "Oh you are, nice to meet you". If it was just certain characters, you could play it off by saying that it is people just being different people, or a result mixed parentage; but even the modern humans in the show are just as hollow. This is what hurts to the quick, with all the other writing/plot garbage jumping into the wound too. The mistake the writer's made initially, was actually using the children of the main show characters. They could have easily used these same characters, without having them be related to the original characters. Especially if the plan was to make the original characters cheap throwaways. |
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pip25
Posts: 158 |
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I think what you describe has always been part of Inuyasha to an extent. The full title of the manga is "Inuyasha, a feudal fairy tale" , and this is no accident. Despite all the talk about fathers, heirlooms and whatnot, the story is a fairy tale, not a drama series; it only bothers with drama when it suits its purposes, and will utterly ignore it otherwise. Just a few random examples: - The "resurrected" Kikyo was initially shown as a horrific undead who uses the souls of people to stay on her feet. Later, when she became more of a protagonist, suddenly no one cared about this anymore - Koga's wolves have gotten many people (including Rin) killed, but all he had to do was to pinky swear not to eat humans again, and he soon became one of the good guys too. - Speaking of "hollow" characterization, Mama Higurashi has to be the undisputed champion of it throughout the franchise. She has exactly one thing to do: smile and be supportive. Even when her daughter plans to fight gigantic demons with zero combat training. With nothing but a bow. In the friggin' feudal era, where life was already dangerous enough even without the youkai. Obviously, I love both this show and Inuyasha despite these odd twists made for the sake of the plot, not because of them. I also think that I haven't noticed these as much twenty years ago as I do now. But it is what it is. So yes, it is entirely possible that the reunion between the twins and their parents will play out exactly as you described. But that, while likely seen as a missed opportunity by some, would not be unheard of, if we look at what came before. |
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db999
Posts: 303 |
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I want to post a few more of my thoughts about the series. Personally, I don’t think this is a bad show, but it does leave a whole lot to be desired. My biggest complaint is that the show almost never rises above being merely competent. There are two or three truly great episodes, but the rest of the show is resting at just above average. I’m going to try and explain why this series overall doesn’t work, by explaining one thing the show actually handles really well, Riku. He’s the only overarching element in this show that works and if the rest of them had been handled as well as Riku is I would have very few complaints. So let's analyze it.
He shows up relatively early in the series like in episode 7, establishes a relationship with Towa, and gets her caught by the humans. In the next episode, the show establishes his relationship with the Bounty Hunter Moroha works for and he takes the rainbow pearl. He’s in that stupid cell phone episode continuing to establish a relationship with the main cast. He narrates and appears in the flashbacks about what happened to the original cast. In episodes 17 and 18 we confirm he’s in league with Kirinmaru, but he clearly has his own agenda. He’s using the 4 perils to collect all of the rainbow pearls for his own purposes. Then in episode 21, he manipulates Towa into giving him the Rainbow Pearl, and it explains that his goal is to get Zero her lost emotions back. In other words, this plot is set up, early on, and continues to show up every few episodes thus reminding the audience about its importance. None of the other overarching elements are handled in this way. We do slowly get drip-fed some information about what happened to the main character's parents, but all of this information is only shown to the audience, and the characters until pretty much the last 2 or 3 episodes have shown no interest in finding this info out. That’s kind of why this show is so infuriating. It wouldn’t be difficult to improve the series, just give our main trio an interest in what happened with their parents. It’s clear the writers are at least aware that the audience wants to know what happened to the original series cast, but if the characters don’t care, then there’s a huge disconnect that just makes the show worse at every turn. It makes the audience, or me at least, frustrated because none of the stuff we care about is what the characters care about. If the characters also cared about these questions and made attempts to discover them the show could be pretty good. It’s not like I hate the show or anything. Most episodes are perfectly serviceable, but it feels like the showrunners have no idea what’ they’re doing half the time. I have no problems with the music, the voice action, or animation. I even like most of the characters and episode to episode the writing is at least decent, but the connective tissue for the overarching plot is just handled so amateurishly. Right now the show is sitting at a 6/10 when it could have easily be an 8/10 especially because most of these issues are incredibly easy to fix. |
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Fluwm
Posts: 897 |
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It's an easy enough hypothesis to check: simply watch the first few episodes of InuYasha again. I've done just that, and it's hard not to see how this "sequel" series is dramatically inferior in every aspect. Takahashi may have had her difficulties with dramatic pacing (hoo boy) but she's such a master of tone and aesthetic that it's hard not to get swept up in the adventure and characters without noting... at least for the first 50 episodes or so. At which point Naraku's bees (as I was quickly reminded) become triggering. |
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1055 |
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I am gonna give something to the show:
If Towa and Riku end up falling in love it's gonna be the most BS romance I have seen since Korra x Mako. And it can very well happen, Towa seems to drop 30 points of IQ whenever he is close to her and the writing is just that awful, the epicness of that asspull would make all of these 24 episodes worth. By the way, I refuse to believe the show can end in 3 episodes, no idea of what's gonna happen, either a movie or another season but it's impossible to: -Kill Koton. -Free Rin. -Kill the butterfly. -Get the pearls from Setsuna and Moroha. -Free Inu and Kagome. -Kill Kirinmaru. -Deal with the Comet (because of course it will return in the future). -Deal with all the emotional baggage. -Where is Shippo? -Fuse the 7 pearls into the Shikon Pearl (because it's gonna happen). This is just what came to mind as I wrote this, there way more crap haven't been deal with and it's impossible to deal with it in 3 episodes. |
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Uchay
Posts: 78 |
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Ya know, this show isn't the greatest.
The bad episodes are really bad, and the better episodes are merely mediocre or okay, because of characterization, pacing and tone issues, but it isn't actively pissing me or anything. At worst, I get a bit bored, because a lot of stuff going on some episodes sure feel pointless for a series that, as far as we know, is going to end very soon. Now, if this fan theory that the Shikon Pearl is coming back is true I'm actually going to get pissed at the show, because that's shitting over and undoing everything the original show did. Over 50 volumes and an actually cathartic ending, all for the sequel to come around more than 10 years later and say "lol no the pearl is back get rekt". They might as well bring Naraku back too while they are at it and tell us he was the one behind this all along smh. |
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pip25
Posts: 158 |
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I also watched a few episodes recently, though mainly not from the beginning of the series, since for me, those parts are less interesting (for me, things start getting good when Kikyo reappears and Sesshoumaru finds Rin). On the other hand, yeah, the bees can be triggering - and also, just how many times did Rin get kidnapped? It boggles the mind.
In terms of tone, the start of the series was indeed very different, perhaps even superior to some. But, well, it didn't last. 
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