Hanyou no Yashahime: Sengoku Otogizoushi

Hanyou no Yashahime was a mistake. There I said it. I never was a huge fan of Inuyasha but I did like that series, it was a big part of my childhood and I just liked all the variety of characters there! If you miss Inuyasha, don't watch this serier, go and rewatch original one, I promise you, you will have way more fun than watching 24 episodes of Yashahime. Although the main 3 characters aren't exactly terrible, they are not very entertaining either, somehow their interactions aren't enjoyable to watch, they are just plain boring. Something really is lacking. I don't know if it's because it'sonly three girls and there is no male or fun sidekick to just balance them out, it just doesn't work for me. As single characters, I see nothing wrong with Towa, Setsuna and Moroha but as a group, they just don't work right. Tanuki character adds nothing, he's just a rip-off Shippo but less funny. Story is very very boring. Nothing exciting happens, nothing suprises you, it's bland. Now I didn't really like plot in original Inuyasha's series either but it still was way better than whatever they threw in the script of Yashahime. Now you may see that I gave it 1/10. Is it 1/10? No, it's really not. It is at least 4/10 probably but I am biased and I will keep this low score. Main reason is that I find the ship Sesshomaru x Rin turning canon as something very inappropriate. I saw how people defend it that it is a different era and this used to be normal etc. Just because something used to be 'normal', doesn't mean it was supposed to be treated that way. I won't write a whole paragraph of reasons why this ship shouldn't have happened, many people before me has already done that. I don't like it, it ruined this mediocre show for me, I don't regret giving this series 1/10. Go watch better shows, don't waste your time on upcoming sequel.

Let me state some things first: Inuyasha is my favorite anime/manga of all times and I waited for a sequel or at least something new about it for more than 10 years. And honestly? It delivered. Do I really think this show deserves a 10? No. I would say it is an overall solid 8. But damn I enjoyed this show ways more than I ever thought I would. So I'll keep my 10. Now, about Hanyou no Yashahime. It starts giving us a little bit of what happened after Inuyasha with the old cast and then we have our new generation cast to take the show. And I cansay that the entire new cast is pretty enjoyable and we frequently have some nostalgia moments with our old friends showing up once in a while (sometimes personally, sometimes in flashbacks). At the start, the pace is kinda fast on how things are dealed easily but that only adds to our 3 heroines, as they develop upon that. I would say that Moroha is one of the most enjoyable characters of the first half of the anime. From the second half onwards, we get more details of what happened and why a lot of things changed. With that, Sesshoumaru gets more screen time as well. As Moroha is pretty enjoyable, is important to notice that ever since this anime got announced, it was stated that this would be "Sesshoumaru's daughters' story". Every single episode starts talking about "Towa and Setsuna", so it got me surprised on how people would constantly complain that in some moments, the two of them would get more screen time than Moroha. She is part of the main cast, but this is not her show. About Towa and Setsuna. The other two of our new main heroines. Sesshoumaru's twin daughters and the center of this anime's plot. I love Setsuna's design as she is basically a female version of Sesshoumaru. Her more cool character that actually hides a huge dere inside remember very well her father too. The way she learns to trust Towa and even Moroha only adds to her development and she was my favorite character of this entire show. Said that, is Towa who gets more attention for the most of the time. Even though all three are half demon Yashahime (Moroha is actually a fourth of a demon), she is clearly THE main character here. We don't see her change too much like Setsuna, but still she is a lovely character who cares a lot about her friends and specially her sister. Some people complain about she being too naïve or making some stupid decisions, but lets be fair, the old Inuyasha characters had a lot of this derp moments as well. This isn't something new to the series. About the villains. Though the side villains are quite annoying (and honestly, this is another thing that is not new to the series), the main "bad guys" are pretty much likeable. I don't have the same "shit I want this guy dead so hard" feeling I used to have when Naraku was the main villain. Instead, I feel the new characters the same way I felt his creations were in the original manga. They were enemies that needed to be fought, but they still have something likeable about them (damn I cried when Kagura died back then). They are interesting characters and every one of them have and objective in mind and I enjoyed a lot seeing our heroines fighting them during this show. Sesshoumaru showing some times added more intensity and nostalgia to the whole setting. Finally, the plot. This is where things get a bit confusing for some people when it comes to the anime's pace. We usually have some episodes to add development to the main cast and them some episodes to give us a bit more of background of what's going on. These changes made some people feel it was rushed sometimes and super slow other times. In my opinion? Even though it felt a bit fast at the start, it was pretty well balanced overall. For last, I would like to point out that if there is something I didn't liked about this anime, it was episode 19. Would recommend everyone who plans to watch this show to just skip that. I am still trying to understand exactly what were they planning with that, can't even call it a filler. Though, there certainly are people who loved that, so I'll respect everyone's opinion. Said that, everything that comes after that episode is gold and the anime closes perfectly for the incoming next season. If you really enjoyed the old one, you will enjoy this one as well.

So, I finished Yashahime and finally I can say, with an open heart: this was a terrible experience. You know, I'm a huge Inuyasha fan since my 11 years old and when the notice of Yashahime came I was super happy, I put a lot of expectations because I like Sunrise works and the previous series. Well, right now I'm terribly disappointed. Let me explain some points about this (IT CONTAIN SPOILERS): 1. Even the art and sound are pretty good, they're nothing amazing. You can easily enjoy what you see but when it comes to the story and when you think about it deeper...That was a poorly written. The Rainbow Pearls, the Dream Butterfly, it's just too basic, we needed creativity here! 2. The main characters are very boring, specially Towa. They don't have convincible ambitions, most of the episodes don't show us too much about their growth as characters. And the random adventures couldn't put much enjoyment to me. 3. Kirinmaru, Zero, Riku... All the villains and antagonists are pretty boring too. Nothing you can compare with Naraku, Kagura and the others, it's just anything with a "cool" design they can use as a villain. Nothing really exciting. 4. Yashahime let me thinking, we have some big holes in the script. Like Kaede knows Setsuna and Moroha a long ago, right? Kaede knows Miroku and Sango. And everyone knows Inuyasha and Kagome. So how can Moroha doesn't know about them? We have all the daddy issues of Towa and Setsuna with Sesshoumaru, Moroha knows this and NEVER questioned herself about her parents? In 24 episodes it was never mentioned. And, by far, this was so dirty with Inuyasha and his whole family story, when he could be genuinely happy with Kagome and their daughter, he got sealed in a dumb way. Alright, I doubt they can really explain this in another season. 5. And about the old characters/organizations too! Miroku looked so pathetic, we had just some seconds of Sango... Miroku, in the end of Inuyasha, was so happy with Sango and their family. We were robbed again. We got more devil slayers, but no time for them too. Does someone remembers Shippou? A shame, really. I won't even talk about Sesshoumaru and Rin's relationship in this anime, that was so GROSS. I don't really believe or care for scores in anime, I'm just putting 2 in overall because... Yeah, it feels right. Thats was my opinion, probably won't go watch the next season. Sorry for any mistakes, English isn't my native language!

As many fans who watched this show, I grew up watching Inuyasha and loved it so much that my imaginary characters were Inuyasha and the gang. When I heard about it getting a sequel I admit that I was worried that it would be trash...and boy was I right. 1) Yashahime relied a bit too heavily on nostalgia and that's the only ship that kept it sailing, I'll tell you that. We have Moroha who is the daughter of Kagome & Inuyasha, she has a nice balance of their personality and could have been extremely interesting but sadly gets treated as the butt of the joke.We have Seshomaru's twins, Setsuna has the same exact personality as her father, she's aloof, quiet and prefer workings alone. She had potential but was also cast out. Then we have the older twin, Towa, who was raised by Kagome's family in the modern world and for me, she's the biggest problem. She's naive, whines all the time and only knows how to say "Setsuna! Setsuna! Setsuna! Waahhhh" from episode 1-24 her character does not change in the least. The series tries bringing back some of the old cast...and by that I mean Kagome's brother who is now married, with his own family and raised Towa [this is episode 1] we have Kagome's family for like...2 episodes. Then we have Miroku for like 2 episodes but that was weak. We get hints of the other characters like Sesshy but there just isn't enough. There was no character development from the very beginning, unlike Inuyasha where they each had an interesting backstory and they grew. I admit Inuyasha wasn't perfect but for me personally the characters were what made me keep coming back, even the villains grew on me. We had Naraku who used to love Kikyo when he was human before turning evil and we had his offsprings. In Yashamime we are meant to have Kirinmaru and the 4 perils who are so weak that its laughable. Riku starts off interesting and then becomes one dimensional. 2) Storytelling/ Plot: This was the biggest reason for my low score after the characters. The plot well maybe at the beginning is something about finding the dream butterfly for Setsuna but it seems the writer forgot that they set that as the plot, we are also meant to find out what happened to the old cast, why Rin is sleeping or dead in the holy tree where Inuyasha once slept for 50 years. The monsters are weak and get destroyed within 1 episode, the girls all get crazy power without explanation. One moment we are talking about Rin, the next it seems to be forgotten and Towa is going "Setsuna! Setsuna! Setsuna! Wahhhh!!!" After 24 episodes we learn almost nothing at all and go back to the beginning. 3)The art was okay, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't amazing either. Episode 24 was a laugh for me when they decided to go crazy with it. Music is nothing at all like Inuyasha where we had songs like "My Will", "Dear" and so many amazing ones that even now after more than 20 years, I still listen to. There is only so many times I can hear the screech of "We are going higher" before wanting to puke and rip off my ears. The ending song was nothing special, not memorable at all. I wish they had music like Inuyasha which for me personally was one of the places that it had shined. 4) Enjoyment...if you've read this far its probably obvious that I did not enjoy this show. From the first day they released the first episode until today (03/20/2021) when we got the last episode of the first season...I was left disappointed. I kept going back due to nostalgia and because I hoped it would get better but time after time I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth and wishing I knew who the writer was and how to reach out to them so that I could curse them out and teach them how to write. This felt like a little kid trying to write a fanfiction, its like comparing it to the trash of Fifty Shades of w/e. Even Boruto with all of its fault was better and that's saying something. I feel like the writer should get fired and that we should get someone that at least has a plot. What is the reason for having the 3 girls? What is their purpose for existing? What is the reason for their enemies existing? Why are they important? We don't have any of that. Overall my score is 1/10, am I being harsh? Yes, I am. At best I'd give it a 2/10 since Setsuna, Moroha and some of the other characters had potential and the animation was alright but that's all it has. If you are a fan of the original Inuyasha DO NOT WATCH THIS! At best, watch episode 1-2 and stop there, please. But hey, if you are a masochist or want to treat this as a terrible show to watch and learn what NOT to do, give it a go as well.

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Studio

Producers

Themes