Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon | Episode 14: The One Behind the Forest Fire Review

Plot: Moroha, Setsuna and Towa are tasked by Jyubei to help a beautiful village girl named Tamano. When she was 13, she found herself constantly pursued by men who were in awe of her beauty. Everyone wanted to marry her, but she didn’t want to leave the village or her grandparents, so she denied every offer.

One night, she was whisked away by the fiery mountain god, Homura, who was also awed by her beauty, and takes her as his bride. They live together in an odd mansion atop a frigid snowy mountain. The mansion is unaffected by the tundra surrounding it. In fact, it seems like it’s perpetual spring there.

Tamano had no choice but to accept her new role. At first, it didn’t seem to bad because he was surprisingly sweet and caring, but she quickly realized how horrible he was. If a man so much as met her eyes, Homura would burn him alive on the spot. His jealousy was so intense that he eventually started blaming Tamano for seducing men even when she wasn’t doing anything of the sort. To keep her all to himself, he locked her up in a jail cell.

Tamano was able to pick the lock using her hair sticks, and she quickly made her escape down the mountain. However, the snow and cold were too much for her and she collapsed. Luckily, Riku was wandering by and managed to save her. Realizing Riku is now a threat in Homura’s eyes, the girls are tasked by him and Jyubei to hunt down Homura and kill him. His head is worth a mighty bounty, so Moroha gladly heads off to face the challenge with Towa and Setsuna joining her.

They reach the mansion and confront an enraged Homura who has just discovered Tamano is missing. He blasts Moroha away with a huge fire attack, though she’s kept safe by her robe of the fire rat. Towa and Setsuna face off against him next, but he halts the battle when he notices the rainbow pearls in their eyes. He’s shocked that they’re alive because he swore he killed them when they were young.

It turns out that Homura was the one who set the massive forest fire that separated Towa and Setsuna. He did so on the orders of a mysterious demon named Zero. She wanted to kill them, and Sesshomaru appeared to be compliant with the plan.

Hearing this, Towa explodes in rage. They both take on Homura together, with Moroha rejoining in the middle of the battle. Even together, the girls have great difficulty getting their attacks through to Homura whose flames are so intense and massive that they can’t seem to fend them off.

Suddenly, Tamano and Riku arrive on Takechiyo. Tamano wants to take responsibility for Homura and face off against him herself. Seeing Riku by her side and hearing her declarations that she will never, ever be with him again, Homura becomes even angrier and starts setting his entire mansion on fire. She and Riku egg him on so much that he burns himself up and eventually reduces himself to ash.

Tamano heads back to her village to once again live happily with her grandparents, but Moroha is without a bounty once more. As for Towa and Setsuna, Setsuna doesn’t remember the fire so she’s fine. Towa, on the other hand, has to let go of the past now that Homura’s gone.

Breakdown: This series makes me sad. So very sad. And frustrated. Especially when it does shit like this where it fools you into thinking things are getting better and then it just stops being good all of a sudden, farts and leaves.

Here’s a play by play of my experience watching this episode.

– After first few minutes of episode – Hmm, seems like we’re setting up a pretty good episode today. Nice new OP, too.

– Midway point – Yeaaaahhhh, lookin’ good! I like this one-off character’s story. It’s a bit cliché, but I like it. I’m excited!

– Five minutes from the end – Wow, it’s like an entirely different show! It’s well-paced. It’s exciting. Good action. Original and threatening villain. Some good comedic moments too. Didn’t leave Moroha out – they even adorably made her into a snowball. Mentioned her robe of the fire rat, though I’m still confused as to how she has that. An interesting splash of Sesshomaru and Towa and Setsuna’s backstory. We’re making progress in their story. Wow. I guess with a new OP comes a refreshing new level of quality. This is grea–

– After conclusion – Oh fuck you, Yashahime! Does your stupidity know no bounds? Why would you do that? You were doing so well! Why?! At least buy me a drink if you’re going to screw me over again.

Alright, before we get to the nitty-gritty of the mess that is the ending, let me talk about some small things first. Setsuna picked up Towa’s smartphone and freaked out about it, nearly cutting it up and threatening it because she didn’t understand what it was.

Does. This. Series. Ever. Pay. Attention. To. Itself?

I already asked episodes ago why it was that Moroha and Setsuna didn’t seem to be the slightest bit intrigued or weirded out by modern day stuff, especially technology, but here Setsuna is acting like Inuyasha vs. The photo booth from the second movie…..Moroha used an iPod a few episodes ago and no one batted an eye, but a smartphone? DIE VILE DEMON!

And, again, they lived in the modern era for a few days, so considering Towa is, by her own admission, addicted to her smartphone, I sincerely doubt they never saw her use one (Towa brings this up and Moroha says she doesn’t remember………) They must’ve seen Sota, Mei or Moe use one too.

This scene could’ve been pretty funny if they hadn’t already established all of that stuff regarding modern day items near the beginning of the series.

Oh well, at least they explained that Towa doesn’t get any Internet or cell service in this era so she can’t use it anyway, but considering they haven’t established a way for her to generate electricity I have to wonder how it has a full battery after being in the Feudal era for several weeks.

There’s also this stupid comparison they made between Towa’s attachment to her smartphone and Homura’s attachment to Tamano, as well as Towa’s connection to the past or something. It’s silly and not worth thinking about.

We have a new OP and ED now. I like the new OP just fine, but I prefer the previous ED over the new one. Beautiful new visuals for it, though. Absolutely gorgeous.

Onto the more important stuff, the story with Tamano and Homura is actually quite good. It feels like a story that’s been more or less done in this show before, not that it’s all that original anyway, but I was drawn into it. Was a bit squicked out that all of this was over a 13 year old, but I guess I have to remember what era this is taking place it. They never establish if she’s still 13 (they just said she started being hounded by men when she was 13) nor how long she was Homura’s captive.

Homura is a great enemy, for the most part. He has intense fire powers, he’s insane, cold-blooded and he has a pretty good design and color scheme.

I like how they tied him into the overarching plot as being the one who caused the forest fire that separated Towa and Setsuna. The fact that he burned down the entire forest in one fell swoop (how did Setsuna survive that?) was also awesome. Not sure why Sesshomaru was there nor why he consented to this. His actions might have something to do with the trials or whatever Setsuna was talking about, but I’m not sure…..

The battle between the girls and Homura was also awesome. It had actual tension, cool shots, Towa was completely PISSED for a change, Moroha wasn’t left out, in fact she saved the sisters, and it looked like the episode was going to be awesome.

Everything was going great.

I had a smile on my face.

Hope in my heart.

What the hell happened?

That’s all I have to ask.

What the hell happened?

It’s like an entirely new team took over the episode for 95% of the runtime and then the idiots from the rest of the series came back for the last 5%.

Let me get this out of the way, Tamano standing up for herself to someone like Homura? Aces. Awesome. I am unironically saying ‘You go, girl!’

That being said….Homura, the guy who would burn men alive instantly for making eye contact with Tamano, ended up burning himself to ashes because he got dumped too hard. He never tried burning her or Riku or even really Takechiyo. He just had such a temper tantrum at being rejected that his wittle broken heart couldn’t take it and he self-immolated.

This fiery mountain GOD….Not demon – GOD – killed himself….on accident…..because he got so upset over a break-up that he couldn’t control his powers anymore.

Tamano, by the way, isn’t some supernatural being who has otherworldly beauty or charms. She’s not cursed with beauty or anything either. She’s just a pretty girl.

Riku plays this off like this is mirroring Sesshomaru being in love with a human (and even mentions Sesshomaru by name) and that he can’t understand such human feelings……but uh, yeah, it kinda falls flat considering Homura kidnapped Tamano because she was purty and killed anyone who looked at her before locking her up in a jail cell and Sesshomaru legitimately loves Rin (at least I assume. I’m pretty sure most of what he’s doing is for Rin’s sake) because she was kind and loved him despite him being a demon and encouraged her to live her own life away from him until she could make the decision for herself whether she wanted to stay with him or go off on her own. Guess Riku really doesn’t understand if he can’t see that they’re completely opposite circumstances….Ya know…besides the squicky age differences.

Even if their situation did mirror that of Sesshomaru and Rin, it’d still be really stupid to have Homura kill himself on accident with his own powers because he couldn’t stand being dumped.

It’d be a little better if he accidentally killed Tamano (or they tricked him into thinking he did) in a fit of rage and he was so grief-stricken that he accidentally killed himself.

But even then it’d be disappointing because this is the guy who set the fire that separated Towa and Setsuna for around ten years. You’d think they’d let him stick around for a while or at least have Towa kill him. What a ridiculously stupid and lackluster ending for such a seemingly important character.

Top that all off with the still-not-funny-and-still-stupid running joke of Moroha not getting her bounty? Give me a break.

I lost all hope for the next episode during that ending. The next episode is one seemingly focusing entirely on the Inuyasha crew and spilling all the beans on the origins of the girls and where the old characters are now. Yup, after spending 14 episodes spastically running between 10MPH and 120MPH and still somehow managing to go nowhere, we’re about to have an episode where they just say ‘screw it’ and blow their plot load. I’ve been waiting for this since the very first episode, and I just don’t have any faith that it’ll be worth a crap. I also haven’t heard any word of mouth about it, which worries me deeply.

It’s just so frustrating. I can see the potential with this series, but they can’t resist screwing it up at every turn.

Next time, can Inuyasha and pals actually deliver something positive to this story? Or will I continue to get bonus points on my ‘frequent frowner’ card? It’s make it or break it time, Yashahime.

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