My Final Thoughts on "Yashahime"

 

(These are the Blu-Ray covers 💿 for both parts of Yashahime Season 2.) 

Well guys, I finally did it, I finished Yashahime, at least as far as I know, but I'll get to that later. It's hard to believe I started this journey two years ago. I wasn't even sure if I'd even get this far, if I'd even be able to finish watching the series or not. But, I did, and I'm ready to close this chapter. So, after finishing Yashahime, what did I think of it? I thought it was really good. Sure, it's obviously not as good as Inuyasha, but it is still solid. It was a worthy follow-up.

I said this in the note for the review of Season 1 Part 2, but this was a show that got better over time, with the second half of Season 1 being better than the first half, and the entirety of Season 2 being better than all of Season 1. The writing was better, the individual episode plots were way better, the stakes, were higher, and the characters were way better. Like, at first, I found Towa, the main character of the show, to be a bit annoying at first, and I thought she was the weakest link of the main trio. But, as the show went on, she grew on me, and I started to like her a lot more.

The same goes for Riku. I used to hate Riku in the first season when he was introduced, and I was hoping that he wouldn't be a main character, and if so, I was hoping that he would be a villain so that he would die. But, by the time I got to Season 2, and they started revealing more about his character, I kind of started to like him, and I actually sympathized with him a bit. He's not an evil guy. Even though he was born from the antler of Kirinmaru, and even though he was working with Zero, and doing what she was saying, he wasn't evil. He didn't enjoy doing any of that stuff, and was conflicted about his loyalty to Zero, his love for Towa 😍, and his desire to do the right thing. And by the end of the show, he's fully redeemed himself. Speaking of love ❤️ though, I still don't really like him and Towa as a romantic couple ❤️, I kind of think they work better as friends or as companions fighting alongside each other.

And while, Riku does in fact die, he doesn't stay dead for long. He immediately gets resurrected when Kirinmaru and Rion's kon and haku, which is basically the life-force of all living beings, including humans and demons, restore him back to him, and go inside his heart 🫀. Meaning that Kirinmaru and Rion are now both apart of him. And this all only happened because Kirinmaru and Rion's souls went inside of the sword known as Amatsumikaboshi, which is the two swords, the Zanseiken and the Bakuseiken reunited and joined together into one after Kirinmaru and Rion made peace with each other, and were laid to rest.

It's all very convoluted, and I'm sure if you never watched the show before, and you're reading this, you're probably confused by what you just read, but it was a bit confusing to me too. Honestly, it was just a way for the writers to keep Riku alive because I guess they liked him too much to just kill him off like that, and want him to be with Towa. Personally, I would've been fine with them keeping him dead since that would've meant there were consequences, and not everyone comes back from these world-saving adventures alive. It helped Towa grow as a character not having Riku there anymore to protect to her (and to simp for her), having to deal with the grief of having to let someone go. Bringing him back was a cheat, and felt like it was a get-out-of-jail-free card for the writers to make sure the show had as happy of an ending as possible. No one dies, except for the bad guys. All of the heroes get to survive, and live to fight another day.

Since I brought up Rion for the first time, I should probably explain her character a bit. Basically, she's Kirinmaru's dead daughter. She was killed by a half-demon during combat, and Kirinmaru, being unable to let go of his daughter, brought her back to life by trapping her soul inside of a place called Mount Musubi, and creating an artificial body made out of bone and grave soil for her soul to inhabit. Very similar to how Kikyo was brought back to life in Inuyasha. Of course, she resent her father for putting her through so much pain and trauma, and keeping her soul bound to the mortal plane, and when she's freed from Mount Musubi by Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha, she decides to get revenge on him by ruining his plans of traveling through time to the present day.

Of course, she has a good reason to do that beyond just petty revenge, as if he succeeds in doing that, the fabric of spacetime would be ripped apart. The world would come to end in both time periods, the Feudal era and the Reiwa era. But, she mostly just wants to get back at Kirinmaru for what he did to her, for being such a horrible father to her, and refusing to let her rest in peace. She is a really cool character, and we get to see her growth through Season 2 after she's introduced, and finally come to terms with her father and he did to her, and not only forgiving him, but accepting him as her father. She isn't in Season 1, and is a pure Season 2 character. That's why I never mentioned her until now.

Speaking of which, I did it again 🤦‍♂️. When I watched Season 2 Part 1 on Blu-Ray 💿, I mixed the two discs 💿 up, and I ended up watching Disc 2 💿 before Disc 1 💿, just like I did on Season 1 Part 2. The reason why I did was because Disc 1 💿 was on the right side of the case, while Disc 2 💿 was on the left side, the side that usually has all the papers inside. I watched Disc 2 💿 first, figuring that it was Disc 1 💿 because I thought that they placed the discs 💿 in order from left-to-right where Disc 1 💿 was on the left side and Disc 2 💿 was on the right side. But, it wasn't like that. It was the opposite. So, when I was watching Disc 2 💿, I was all confused. Like, why does Towa have a new sword that turns into a flute? And who is this little girl ♀︎ with red hair, and why are they all talking to her as if they know who she is? And how did Setsuna get brought back to life? Because if you remember, she died at the end of the Season 1 during a battle with Kirinmaru.

I didn't question it because I figured that they did like a time jump thing where a significant amount of time had passed since the events of Season 1, and that this was just the status quo now. Setsuna was alive somehow, and Towa had a new sword. Oh, and Setsuna's naginata has been enhanced, and has a new ability: the ability to see the threads of fate and to cut them, freeing individuals from their burdens or their grievances, the things that are weighing them and preventing them from growing as people or moving on. Setsuna's new ability to see the threads of fate and cut them with her naginata plays into the overall theme of this show, which I'll explain a bit later when I talk about Kirinmaru. But, the presence of Rion, a character who I hadn't seen or heard of before was still confusing to me.

It wasn't until I finished Disc 2 💿, and took it out, and plopped in Disc 1 💿 the next day that I realized that I had put in the wrong disc 💿, and I had watched them out of order. But, by then, it was already too late, and I had no choice then to just watch Disc 1 💿, and catch up with everything I missed. Luckily the Season 2 Part 2 Blu-Ray 💿 corrects this problem, and has the discs 💿 in the right place.

Anyway, that's when I learned how Setsuna was resurrected, how Towa lost all of her demon power, and was knocked unconscious from using the Tensaiga to bring her back. I learned that the little girl ♀︎ was named Rion, and that she was Kirinmaru's daughter, who had died, but was kept from going to the afterlife by her father tethering her soul to the mortal plane, and creating an artificial body for her made out of bone and grave soil.

I also learned how Towa acquired her new sword, the Zanseiken, she got it from Rion, who gave it to her a gift to use against her father, Kirinmaru. Of course, in Part 2 of Season 2, we learn that Kirinmaru had put a curse on the Zanseiken, and had set up Rion to give Towa the sword, so that it would sap away all of her kon, and then he could use her body as vessel to put Rion's soul inside to keep her alive.

This man ♂︎ tricked his own daughter in order to keep her alive. So, it's actually dangerous for Towa to be using that sword, but she stubbornly keeps using that sword anyway, even when everyone around her warns her not to. But, I guess at the end, the curse is lifted, when Kirinmaru and Rion both die, and go inside the reformed Amatsumikaboshi after reconciling with each other, because after Towa uses it, her kon is restored.

I also learned how Setsuna enhanced her naginata, and gained the ability to see the threads of fate, and cut them. Essentially giving her the ability to defeat her opponents without actually killing them. That's they defeat Zero, and resolve that whole issue. We learn in this season that in addition to causing the forest fire 🔥 that separated Towa and Setsuna, Zero also put a curse on their mother, Rin, called the Silver Scale curse, which will cover her entire body with silver fish scales and then kill her. She also tied herself to her with a thread of fate, meaning that their fates were tied together. So, if Zero dies, Rin dies too.

In order to keep the curse from spreading and keep Rin alive, Jaken places Rin in suspended animation, and keeps her frozen in time essentially using a dream butterfly 🦋. Meaning that Jaken was technically the one that placed that dream butterfly 🦋 on Setsuna, and it was all tied to what was happening to her mother. Setsuna lost her ability to sleep and dream 😴💭 so that her mother could survive for another 10 years. Setsuna learns all of this in Season 2, and learns that the only way to defeat Zero, and save her mother's life is to sever the thread of fate that binds Zero and Rin together.

But, even that's not that simple, as in order to cut the thread of fate, and to lift the curse entirely, they must make Zero let go of her regrets and hatred and resentment towards Towa and Setsuna. Because if she doesn't let go of her regrets and her resentments, then cutting the thread of fate that binds her and Rin together won't do anything. It all comes to emotions, and expressing how you feel, and not bottling it up, and keeping all inside to fester and accumulate. And also just letting bygones be bygones. So, they help Zero overcome her negative emotions, and Setsuna cuts the thread of fate, and saves her mom.

But, while Zero does forgive Towa and Setsuna, and apologizes to them for what she did to them, she still ends up dying anyway. Riku stabs her in the chest. I forget the exact reason why he stabbed her. I think was to lift the curse on Rin, but I thought that cutting the thread of fate was what lifted the curse, unless it was just severing the connection between the two, so that Rin wouldn't die if Zero died. Or maybe, it was because if Zero stayed alive any longer, something bad would have happened. I really don't remember what the reason was. But, the point is that Zero's killed, but she goes having made peace with the two half-demons who she hated the most. That's the end of that story arc, and the end of that villain.

Now, all we have left is Kirinmaru and his right-arm incarnation called Osamu Kirin, or Mr. Kirin, Towa's homeroom teacher. When it comes to main villains, Naraku was a pretty tough act to follow. Naraku was just an evil bastard who just liked killing people, and making people suffer as much as possible. He liked tormenting others, and turning people against each other, and making them hate each other, and it was all for his own amusement. He really didn't have any real grander plan than that. He was the ultimate sadistic and nihilistic psychopath with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and no body liked him because how treacherous, sadistic, and demented he was.

He made way more enemies than true allies and friends throughout that series. And he couldn't really be reasoned with or bargained with because even if you did try to reason with him, or bargain with him, there was a good chance he'd just stab you in the back since he was loyal to nobody, and nobody was loyal to him back. Everyone who worked for him, and was on his side was either doing it because they were forced to and were being mind controlled, or they were paid off, or they did it out of fear.

Even his own incarnations hated him, and eventually turned on him because of how cruel and vile of a man he truly was. If that wasn't enough, he was a half-demon, who had the ability to absorb other demons, and make them part of his body, and gain their abilities, and he had these little wasp minions that bled miasma, a deadly demonic poison capable of killing any human who breathes it in. A tough villain for anyone to defeat. And the only way Inuyasha and the gang were able to defeat him, was by purifying him with Kagome's sacred priestess powers. Without Kagome, they would've definitely lost to him.

So, when I first saw Kirinmaru in Season 1, I was pretty underwhelmed, and I thought that he wasn't anywhere near as good of a villain as Naraku was in Inuyasha. But, as the show went, and as we started to learn more about Kirinmaru's character, I started to soften on him to the point that by the end of Season 2, I really liked him, and thought he was a great villain. Part of what makes him a great villain is that he is so different from Naraku. He does have redeeming qualities, he does have some sort of honor, even if it is a bit distorted, he does have at least one person who he genuinely loves and cares about, and he does have a greater goal and aspirations beyond just making everyone suffer and making the world a darker and more unpleasant place.

I mean, he is doing that by his actions, his actions are making the world a darker and more unpleasant place, if he does succeed in his goals, the entire world and universe will be destroyed. But, that isn't his intention to destroy the world or plunge into chaos and darkness with demons running amok. Under different circumstances, he probably would've joined Inuyasha and the gang and their allies in their fight against Naraku, as the two are complete polar opposites, and Kirinmaru probably would've despised Naraku, especially if he tried to lay a hand on his daughter which he probably would considering that this is Naraku we're talking about here. 

That was kind of his thing, kidnapping and holding other people's loved ones hostage, torturing them, and threatening to kill them unless they did what he said, or doing it out of spite, or doing it for his own amusement. Like, Naraku mind-controlled certain characters, and forced their loved ones to fight them to the death, fully knowing that such a thing would be traumatic for anyone, and he just reveled in it. He loved traumatizing people, and making them fight and kill their own loved ones. He was an unabashed and unrepentant sociopath and psychopath. He tried this most notably with Kohaku and Sango, and the only reason it didn't work was because Kohaku was able to break free from his control in the end.

All Kirinmaru wants is to be taken seriously as a powerful warrior equal to or superior to the Great Dog Demon, Tōga, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's father, and basically rule everybody, humans and demons alike since he's the kind of guy who only respects strength, and thinks that the strong should rule over the weak, or at least the people that he preserves to be weak. The reality is that while he is strong physically, he's the weakest and most insecure character in the show emotionally and mentally. Besides Zero of course, those are tied on who's the weakest, most pathetic, and most insecure character in Yashahime.

He says that the reason why he wants to go forward in time to the present time is that he wants to be able to destroy the Grim Comet, an evil comet that will destroy the Earth 🌏, and cover it in demons. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru destroyed it in the first season during a flashback, but Kirinmaru reveals that the one they destroyed was just a fragment, and the big one is coming in the Reiwa era. He wants to be the one to destroy it so that he could become the ruler of all humans and demons. So, he's obsessed with glory and power. And he doesn't care if it ends up destroying everything, or maybe he's so stubborn and naïve that he believes that he can control it, and nothing bad will happen if he goes through with his plan.

By Season 2, it becomes very clear that Kirinmaru has a bit of an inferiority complex, as he feels inadequate, and tries everything he can to prove himself as a great warrior, capable of ruling an entire domain just like Tōga did in his time. But, he was unable to best him in combat, and lost his right arm as a result. A similar experience that befell Sesshomaru as well. But, while Sesshomaru was ultimately humbled and grew as an individual by the experience of being bested in combat, and losing an arm, Kirinmaru's anger, hatred, resentment, and inferiority complex just grows and gets worse. 

To add insult to injury, he also loses his daughter in a battle with a half-demon no less, and then his older sister, Zero tells him a prophecy of how he will killed by half-demons. So, what you get is an angry, hateful, envious, insecure, and paranoid man who's willing to do anything to prove that he's the strongest, that he's the best, and that he deserves to rule over everybody else. Even if it means destroying the entire universe, and ripping apart the spacetime continuum. He's just full of insecurities, and everything he does throughout the series he does out of insecurity.

Even Sesshomaru stops fighting him after awhile because even he can see that Kirinmaru is just this really pathetic guy who's really insecure, who's desperate for external validation, and is so clearly jealous of him and his father, and is unwilling to let go of his daughter and accept her death. A death that he himself indirectly caused. The only reason Rion died was because Kirinmaru brought her to the battlefield, putting her life at risk, so that he engage in self-gratification and make himself feel good.

And she died as a result of her father's own narcissism and recklessness. And Kirinmaru is unwilling to accept that, he's unwilling to accept responsibility for his daughter's death, and is unwilling to accept that she's dead, and instead wants to keep her alive as long as possible instead of letting her rest in peace and go onto the hereafter. Sesshomaru only continues the fight, and beats Kirinmaru's ass in order to put him in his place.

Sesshomaru's reaction to Kirinmaru by the end of Season 2 is basically, "You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity. Farewell 🖖." He's the epitome of someone who thinks he's in control, and who desperately wants to be in control, but isn't, and everything he does makes him lose even more control than he already did. It's self-sabotage, Kirinmaru really is his own worst enemy (in more ways than one), and Sesshomaru has to literally knock some sense into him to finally see that.

And it's only when he does let go of his ego and his pride, and when he does accept his daughter's death that he's able to find peace and reconcile with his daughter, joining her in the afterlife. Only not really since because of the convoluted way that Riku was brought back to life, they're technically inside of him now, and are apart of him. In a way, living on through him, or I guess giving up their own lives so that he could live on, and be with the one he loves, Towa.

But, either way, Kirinmaru finds peace and is able to reconnect with his daughter. There's this whole theme throughout the show about grief, and letting go of the ones we lost and accepting that they're gone, and also about regret, resentment, and insecurity, and needing to let go of those to truly free yourself and live a better life. This theme is most embodied through the threads of fate, and the character arcs of Zero, Kirinmaru, and Rion, the three most broken and damaged characters in the entire series.

None of the main villains of the show (except Mr. Kirin, but we'll get to him in a moment) are defeated with sheer brute force and through violence alone, they're defeated through emotion. They all let go of their grievances and their regrets, and find peace within themselves and others. Basically, they're defeated through therapy rather than swordplay and magic. That's what makes Kirinmaru such a great character and a great villain. I'm so glad that they made him radically different from Naraku. They could've easily have just done a bad guy who was Naraku 2.0, or just brought Naraku back somehow, but they didn't, and I'm grateful for that.

The finally brings me to Mr. Kirin, Kirinmaru's renegade right-arm, and the arguable true villain of Yashahime. Mr. Kirin came into existence after Kirinmaru lost his final fight to Tōga, and got his right arm chopped off by him. He then ordered Riku to dispose of his severed arm, and Riku chose to toss it into the Bone-Eater's Well, the same well that Kagome used to enter the Feudal era in the first place. But, that was a huge mistake because the right arm not only regenerated and grew into its own entity, but also brought the Grim Comet to the Reiwa era because Mr. Kirin was a foreign entity that didn't really belong there in that time period.

At first, we're lead to believe that Mr. Kirin is a good guy, or at the very least has good intentions because he's not only nice to Towa and the other two girls ♀︎, but he's also nice and kind to everyone else, and he talks about how he loves humanity, and how he doesn't want them all to die. But, as soon as Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha deal with the Grim Comet, it becomes apparent that Mr. Kirin is up to no good, and has an agenda of his own that he isn't letting on. Because he then takes the Grim Comet back to the Feudal era, causing something called the Degenerate Age, which is basically like a demon apocalypse. He then tricks Rion into using her Kyūyōkon Root apple 🍏 to reveal the Grim Comet's true form, and grow into the Grim Butterfly 🦋, which he then uses to grant his own wish of wiping out all demons on Earth 🌏.

When it got to this part, I thought that maybe they were going to have Mr. Kirin into an anti-villain, a character who has good intentions, but uses evil means of achieving their goals. But, by the end, he's just a straight-up villain, just completely off his rocker. Any good intention that he may have had has been muddled by hatred and a desire for revenge which pushes him into wanting to commit genocide basically. 

His ultimate goal in doing this is to wipe demons off the face of Earth 🌏, and then rule over all the humans as their supreme ruler because he thinks humans are stupid and ignorant, and need to be guided by a higher power. And he's convinced himself that he's that guy, that he knows what's best for humanity, and the only one that can protect them, not just from demons, but also from themselves. He's paternalistic to an extreme.

Mr. Kirin ends up being way more evil than Kirinmaru himself. That was something I did not see coming when we were first introduced to him back in Season 1. Even when Kirinmaru makes peace with his daughter, Mr. Kirin still terrorizes her, and still tries to make her hate demons and half-demons, by bringing up her death at the hands of a half-demon, and having her reenact it. He's ultimately defeated when Rion overcomes her fears, and embraces her own strength, uses the Zanseiken to destroy Mr. Kirin for good. Another great character and another great villain.

Lastly, it was good to see the old classic characters from Inuyasha again. We see a lot more of them in Season 2 than we ever did in Season 1, because the three girls ♀︎ ultimately succeed in their main goal of reuniting with their parents almost halfway through Season 2. We get a real "bringing the gang back together" moment when Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, and Shippo all reunite and start fighting together as a group again. They all work with Kohaku, Sango and Miroku's kids, and the other Demon Slayers to put the Grim Butterfly 🦋 inside of a barrier to keep it from killing anymore demons, and give Towa, Setsuna, Moroha more time to deal with Mr. Kirin and rescue Rion.

It was great to see Inuyasha and Kagome reunite with Moroha, and see how those act as parents. Especially, Inuyasha, he didn't exactly come as the fatherly type in the original Inuyasha series. But, it turns out, being a father comes pretty naturally to him. He's definitely a more involved parent than Sesshomaru, who opts for a more distant and hands off approach, choosing to mostly stay out of his daughters' lives and letting them fend for themselves. Seeing Inuyasha and Moroha fight together at the end kind of makes me wish that there's another spin-off about just those two, just to see more of their father/daughter dynamic. Inuyasha and Moroha, I can already kind of see it now. But, I would only want it as an OVA, not as a full series.

Speaking of which, after watching Season 2, and finishing the whole Yashahime as it is right now, I can confidently say that we're probably better off without a Season 3. There is no need to continue the series from here. It told a complete story from beginning to end, and everything is pretty much resolved at the end. Where would they even go from here? Would it just be Towa, Moroha, and Setsuna going on adventures together in Feudal Japan 🇯🇵, slaying demons for money 💴? Unless it's like a shorter, more main stand-alone OVA like the Inuyasha and Moroha idea I suggested, I don't want any part of it.

The Yashahime series itself does not need to continue beyond Season 2. It told a complete story and it didn't overstay its welcome, there's something to appreciate about that. And I don't want to ruin by continuing the series past Season 2 because then it'd really be overstaying its welcome. So, yeah, I might be in the minority about this one, but I don't think there should be a Season 3. Maybe, some short OVAs, or ONAs since we're in the age of streaming, or even a movie, but not an actual Season 3. I'm not in favor of that. 

 

(This a wallpaper image for Yashahime.)

 

—

Links to "My Thoughts on Yashahime So Far" and "My Further Thoughts on Yashahime": 

https://jedithescribe.blogspot.com/2024/03/my-thoughts-on-yashahime-so-far.html

 

https://jedithescribe.blogspot.com/2024/04/my-further-thoughts-on-yashahime.html