Hanyou no Yashahime has finally closed the curtain, ending the story of Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha. For an epilogue, I am satisfied with how they closed the curtain for the three half-demon princesses. The epilogue showed how the girls and their families and friends were faring after the final battle. Just going on with their daily life, peacefully spending your times with your loved ones. Moroha paid her remaining debt with Inuyasha’s help under Kagome’s insistence, Towa and Setsuna received kimono from Sesshomaru given by Rin, recounting how Sesshomaru used to give her high-quality fabrics to be used to make her kimono. Moroha and Inuyasha defeating the demon together as a team sure was a treat. This was something I had long imagined to happen. And seeing both father and daughter being all shy in expressing their affection was something that never bores me! (^_^)
Sesshomaru being Sesshomaru, as always, subtly showed his love for his daughters by presenting them with high-quality fabrics that Rin then used to make new kimono for their daughters, as a reward for both of their hard work in the previous battle. While Towa and Setsuna were happy to be with their family, turned out that they themselves have bits of doubt about their father’s love for them, wondering that they wouldn’t need to go through such harsh experience if he had helped more. This was Rin’s role as a mother came in: She became the bridge between her husband and daughters to make sure there’s no miscommunication or misunderstanding. Rin gave hints to Towa and Setsuna to understand that everything that Sesshomaru did was for their own sake, so that they could become strong enough to protect themselves because they’ll be facing many hardships due to their status as half-demons and Sesshomaru’s daughters. It’s too bad we couldn’t see this family spending time together like Moroha and her family were, but I’m still happy to see them all together at long last in the previous episode.
However, while watching the girls with their families were sweet, seeing the three of them together was still the best. Surprisingly, Moroha’s simple-mindedness and bluntness helped Towa and Setsuna to realize the true meaning of their father’s actions. The two girls had gone through a lot all by themselves, it’s understandable and normal if they’re mad at Sesshomaru for leaving them due to this, especially when Sesshomaru was not the type to openly show his parental love the same way Inuyasha does to Moroha. After usually being the comedic relief and jump head first without much thinking, she’s shown that she can be sharp when needed be, understanding that Sesshomaru’s absence in their struggle was not because he’s neglecting them, but because he believes in them. Besides, he also made sure they’ll be safe when they were children by having Jaken help them if the situation was too dangerous. Watching the three girls being all close was still the best thing to watch. (^w^)
And…RIKU! THANK GOODNESS THAT YOU’RE ACTUALLY ALIVE SOMEHOW! I AM SO HAPPY! TRULY! Glad to know that Rion and Kirinmaru did a good thing as they reached their end to bring back Riku to live by giving him their Kon and Haku. But this makes me wondering, did Riku reborn as a demon? Or something else? Not that it mattered much to me though, as long as Riku is alive, and that’s all that matters to me. This guy deserves it! After everything, he deserves a second chance! (TT_TT)
FINAL IMPRESSION
The second season of Hanyou no Yashahime was an improvement of the first season, not wasting too much time on unnecessary fillers, showing more focus on the plot and main characters. However, it was still suffering from rushed pacing, and this unfortunately happened on episodes that’s supposed to be very important, such as Zero’s death and the final battle. Kirinmaru was a promising villain when I first heard of him, but in the end because the first season was spent on too much time on fillers, his character and development weren’t executed properly, and when there were revelations, it felt more like an instant info dump rather than proper foreshadowing.
Also, I personally found it too bad that the original cast from the original Inuyasha didn’t interact much with Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha, for exception of Kohaku and Kaede. I could understand if it’s Inuyasha and Kagome since they were sucked away to the underworld, but it should be possible for Miroku, Sango, and Shippou to meet them earlier through Kaede. And it doesn’t feel right to me by the fact that Kaede never told Setsuna and even Kohaku about Sesshomaru until the beginning of the series, and so did Koga and his clan, who never mentioned to Moroha about her parents as Moroha didn’t even know her mother’s name until her grandmother told her. No matter how much they wanted to focus on the girls, there’s no need to make them lacking interaction with the original cast. They should take a picture from Boruto, they’re able to properly flesh out the new main characters without being overshadowed by the original cast.
And then, Riku and Hisui. Before, it was shown that Riku didn’t have any emotion. By the time he made his debut, he’s shown to have developed one. However, there’s no explanation as to how he developed his emotion and why he initially believed that he would never kill people that he hates but will kill people that he loves. His romance with Towa was also not shown much, which was unfortunate, as it would’ve been interesting and amusing to watch their love blossoms gradually, step-by-step. This was also said to Hisui. I’m very frustrated that Hisui didn’t appear much. Even if he did, it’s mostly as him being there just for the sake of being there without doing anything intriguing, and when he did had an episode focused on himself in season 1, it was meh. When watching the episode when he met and interacted with Setsuna disguised as Aiya, I had little hope that Hisui will finally get more action, but sadly, that didn’t happen. It was even more frustrating that his obvious crush on Setsuna was revealed in this final episode, instead of being shown much much earlier. They had a lot opportunities in season 1, only to use those opportunities for mere fillers. I was sad and disappointed that this potential was left untouched until the very end.
I have more gripes to say, but it’ll be too much a waste of time, so I’ll just end it here. For a series as a whole, Yashahime has a cast of likeable characters with so much potentials, the rushed pacing and messy focus being the reasons why the progress and development of these characters were not all satisfying. I appreciated the studio for coming up with the idea of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru’s daughters and went through with it, but they really need to fix the writings. The manga, on the other hand, is still ongoing, and so far there were many aspects that I like better than the anime, so I’m following the manga to see how it’ll handle the story and characters.
Farewell, Hanyou no Yashahime. Thank you for your hard work. You shall be remembered.
