Anime / Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

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"Towa and Setsuna. Between us half-demon twins, two different worlds exist at the same time. Human and demon. Feudal era and present day. Peacefulness and war. Joy and sorrow. Dreams and reality. One moment and eternity. And finally, love and hate. A Feudal Fairytale, Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon. We'll keep moving forward through the hurdles of destiny!"

— Opening Narration

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (Hanyō no Yashahime) is a sequel to Rumiko Takahashi's Inuyasha that first aired on October 3, 2020 on Nippon TV. Like its predecessor, the anime was produced by Sunrise, and in the similar story and production style as Dragon Ball Super, Takahashi is both the story supervisor and outline creator for the series. A manga adaptation is currently in progress, penned by Takashi Shiina, the creator of Ghost Sweeper Mikami and Psychic Squad.

Three and a half years after Naraku's defeat, Inuyasha, Kagome, and their friends live a peaceful life. This is cut short when an old enemy of Kikyo's, the demon Root Head, awakens. Eventually, they defeat the demon and resume their lives for now...

Years later, Inuyasha and Kagome now have a daughter named Moroha, and Sesshomaru now has fraternal twin daughters named Towa and Setsuna. When she was four years old, Towa was separated from her sister, and suddenly gets sent to the present day and is taken in and raised by Kagome's brother Sota Higurashi.

Ten years later, Towa reunites with her sister, but circumstances would strain their relationship. To her shock, Setsuna does not remember her and much of her past. Setsuna has become a demon slayer working for Kohaku and Moroha has become a wandering bounty hunter. Sango and Miroku's son Hisui has also become a demon slayer. After returning to the Feudal Era, she goes on a quest with her sister and cousin against the daiyokai Kirinmaru and his underlings, who seek to reform the Shikon Jewel after its pieces were scattered as the Rainbow Pearls, with some of them in the three girls' possession, which may be related to Towa's identity and Setsuna's lost memories.

The official trailer can be viewed here.

Season two premiered on October 2, 2021.

The English dub of the anime premiered on Toonami on June 26, 2021.

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Yashahime contains examples of:

• Action Mom: Episode 1 shows that Sango hasn't lost any of her combat prowess due to having kids.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: The Tree of Ages uses Kikyo's form as an avatar, her arrow sealing Inuyasha away for 50 years having imprinted it on the tree.
• Always Identical Twins:
  • Averted with Towa and Setsuna, who are clearly fraternal twins. Towa has short silver hair and red eyes while Setsuna has long black hair tied in a Tomboyish Ponytail and purple eyes. The only part of their appearance they have in common is a streak of red hair.
  • Played much straighter with Kinu and Gyokuto, Sango's twin daughters, who look almost exactly alike aside from wearing differently colored kimono.
• Animal-Eared Headband: Moroha ties her hair with a red ribbon that pokes out from the top of her head, evoking the distinct shape of her fathers' ears.
• Anti-Climax: The Grim Comet was set up as a The End of the World as We Know It plot device that occurs every 500 years (a fragment of the Comet breaks off and is pulled in by Earth's gravity each time the Comet gets too close), and it even took the combined powers of Inu no Taisho and Kirinmaru to destroy the first fragment 500 years before. When Kagome, Inuyasha, and Sesshomaru were informed of this, they had to prepare for its arrival. However, Sesshomaru and Inuyasha effortlessly destroy the fragment, and send it to hell via Meido Zangetsuha in just a few seconds, which lead fans to believe that the comet was nothing more than an afterthought just to get to the real part of the story. It begs the question of why the Grim Comet even exists in the first place. The second season reveals that the "comet" Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru destroyed was a small fragment of the real thing, which is still a threat in the modern era, and reaching it is part of Kirinmaru's goal.
• Artistic License – Geography: In Rion's memory of Kirinmaru flying her around the world, one of the places shown is Taj Mahal, despite the fact that it wasn't built until the 17th century.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Root Head kills some bandits who were about to attack a village.
  • Jakotsumaru kills a bandit who recently killed and robbed a traveler, turning him into a walking skeleton. Later corpses are shown, which are also wearing the clothes of bandits.
• Badass Adorable: Moroha, Setsuna and Towa look like three pretty, nice and inconspicuous girls. Perhaps undermined by Setsuna, who is clearly a demon hunter. But in a serious fight they will wipe the floor with any opponent. This is especially true of Towa, the warmheartest and kindest of them, who is perhaps also the most powerful.
  • Futa and Raita also qualify. They may not be as powerful as the other three half-demons, but anyone who thinks they are weak and defenseless will quickly be convinced of the opposite.
• Badass Family: The series focuses on the adventures of Towa, her twin sister Setsuna and their cousin Moroha, who are all equally badass thanks to their dog demon blood and are just as capable in battle. The same applies to Kohaku and his nephew Hisui, who are both demon slayers in their own right.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Towa opts to wear a snazzy white period suit, and she can more than hold her own. She even wears it partially because she finds it easier to fight in than more girly clothes.
• Badass in Distress: The beginning of Episode 1 has Towa being captured by a local lord, and is being interrogated as a result (by choice). Her sister and cousin comes to rescue her when they find her.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The first season ends with Kirinmaru once again defeating the girls, this time around going as far as to kill Setsuna, and walking away. In an unusual way, he also ends up winning over another villain by managing to put a stop to Zero's chaotic plans for the time being by scattering the Rainbow Pearls across the land.
• Bakeneko and Nekomata: The episode with the monk Juan clearly shows vicious cats youkai, which eat humans.
• Barrier Maiden: Episode 20 shows that Shiori uses her special powers to shield an entire village full of half-demons from the outside world so that neither demons nor humans can harm them.
• Bears Are Bad News: Inverted with Fubuki. Although he could make a giant demon doll, he was a very weak youkai and could easily be defeated by Moroha.
• Big Bad: A powerful Beast King by the name of Kirinmaru is set up as the main antagonist of the series.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Besides Kirinmaru as the most obvious threat, Episode 8 reveals that Riku opposes him, wishing to steal the Rainbow Pearls that he and his minions have, and likely the ones belonging to the main trio as well.
• Big Sister Worship: Towa's adopted sister Mei looks up to her (though she initially wishes she was more girly), but after seeing her fight Mistress Three-Eyes with her Laser Blade, and Setsuna and Moroha's badassery, she's over the moon, especially when she learns that Setsuna and Moroha might be her relatives.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The first season ends with Kirinmaru scattering the Rainbow Pearls across the land, which prevents Zero from killing the girls herself, but the girls are forced to confront Kirinmaru a second time and it ends with Setsuna dead and Towa and Moroha defeated while Kirinmaru not only survives but gets away with no lasting harm done to him. However, at the same time, the girls also get a major power boost and Sesshomaru appears to give Towa the Tenseiga, which makes it possible for Setsuna to be resurrected.
  • The second season is also this. Kirinmaru and Osamu Kirin have been defeated, the Grim Comet has been destroyed, and Rin, Kagome, and Inuyasha are back, meaning the families are back together. However, Riku sacrifices himself and Rion decides to die with her father, finding peace, leaving Towa to mourn their loss. In addition, the heroes cannot travel to the Reiwa Era again meaning Towa and Kagome can no longer see the Higurashi family anymore. Subverted when Riku returns in the epilogue with Kirinmaru and Rion giving their leftover kon to grant Riku life again.
• Blessed with Suck:
  • Yawaragi has been given a iron rat armor. Although this armor massively increases her demonic powers, it also decreases in size over time and will one day kill her if she fails to get rid of it.
  • According to Yawaragi, the same is true of the Morohas clamshell. While she can transform into Beniyasha, which makes her a lot stronger, if she does it too often, one day she will transform into a belligerent beast.
• Bloodless Carnage: While the original anime's violence did contain Black Blood, this series has almost no blood at all. In the first episode, two samurai warriors were passing by a village until Root Head decapitates them, with no drop of blood. But in Episode 3, Towa manages to stab Mistress Three-Eyes with her Laser Blade, causing her to bleed. So it's apparent that only demons are the ones to actually bleed.
  • Seemingly averted in later episodes. In episode 13, for example, the remains of a monk that Totetsu has eaten (his vajra and robes) are seen with red blood stains.
• Blow You Away:
  • Setsuna's primary attack, Senpu-jin (Cyclone Burst), summons a cyclone that sucks in opponents.
  • The half-demon Futa has a fan with demonic powers. With the attack Kamaitachi she creates blades from wind.
  • Yawaragi combines this power with her claw attacks.
• Body to Jewel: Episode 15 reveals that both the Rainbow Pearls and the Black Pearls from the original series were made from tears. Specifically, the Black Pearls were made from Inuyasha's mother, Izayoi, from the grief of the death of her husband, The Inu-no-Taisho. The Rainbow Pearls were made from Zero’s tears using the Sacred Jewel after the Inu-no-taisho died.
• Botanical Abomination: Root Head is a root demon whose main body is underground while his weaker heads hunt down humans for their nutrients.
• Bow and Sword in Accord: Moroha inherited her father's swordsmanship and her mother's archery.
• Breaking Old Trends: Towa, and by extension the sequel, acknowledges that her presence in the Feudal Era along with bringing objects from the present can alter history. Compared to Kagome who wasn't bothered by this possibility and casually brought snacks to share with her friends along with revealing information about the future.
• Brought Down to Normal:
  • Towa, as a half-demon, turns fully human like her uncle Inuyasha did during the New Moon, black hair and all. Unusually, this is a new development that didn't occur in modern-day Tokyo. Moroha's only being a quarter-demon prevents this from happening to her, and Setsuna is similarly unaffected, seemingly because of the Dream Butterfly having stolen her dreams and memories.
  • In episode 20, Shiori transforms into a human during a solar eclipse, and is then no longer able to maintain the protective barrier around the half-demon village. Fortunately, Setsuna is nearby when the demons attempt to attack the now unprotected village.
  • Later in season 2, Setsuna has her Dream Butterfly severed, thus causing her to become fully human during the New Moon. In her case, her hair grows down to her feet.
• Bully Hunter: Towa's history of fights got started when she fought with a bully as a younger child.
• Bullying a Dragon: Towa frequently gets into fights with delinquents in the modern day.
• Cain and Abel: A type of demons, who are conjoined, fight each other to the death. The survived twin is the one who lives and gets stronger.
• Call-Back:
  • In Episode 3, Moroha waltzes around the house in her birthday suit after taking a shower. Her father did the same thing when he visited the present era.
  • Upon finding the sleeping Rion in Episode 28, Moroha's first instinct is to wonder if her puppy dog ears are real while reaching out to touch them, echoing her parents first meeting.
• Calling Your Attacks: Happens very frequently just like its predecessor series.
• Cats Are Mean The main trio encounters a village full of ghost cats taking hold of the villagers. After they are defeated, they found out that a cat demon is responsible and they proceed to find and defeat it.
• Central Theme: Family and the lengths one goes through to protect them. While the trio of Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha drive the plot with the twins and their cousin going on their adventures to find a way to reunite with their families, the story also covers Sesshomaru's extreme lengths to protect his family, and yes, this even includes Inuyasha, as well as Kirinmaru's desire to bring his daughter back to life.
• Changed My Jumper: When Towa returns to the past, she continues to wear the modern clothes she acquired in the present day.
• Chekhov's Gun: In Episode 4, Grandpa Higurashi gives Moroha a mummified kappa's foot as a gift, something that she surprisingly appreciates. She uses the foot to hit Root Head's eye with it, which surprisingly puts him in excruciating pain.
• Chekhov's Gunman: During the flashback of Episode 1, a four-eyed owl is seen watching Kagome and Sango talk with each other. At the end of the episode, the servant of the feudal lord is revealed to have been that same owl in disguise. Episode 8 reveals him to be servant of one Kyuki, one of the Four Perils.
• Cliffhanger: The first season ends with Setsuna’s death at the hands of Kirinmaru, and Sesshomaru bestowing Towa his Tenseiga in hopes of reviving the former.
• Comet of Doom: One apparently passes by the Earth every five hundred years, and Kirinmaru and the Great Dog Demon first met when dealing with a fragment of that comet in the past.
• Continuity Nod:
  • A local lord finds the seat of Kagome's bicycle.
  • In Episode 5, Kohaku references the time Sango's Hiraikotsu was weakened by a bone eating demon.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Towa takes over from her uncle, Inuyasha, as the protagonist. While, they both are good-natured at their core Inuyasha hides it far more than Towa who lets everyone know that she cares. The dynamic they share with their siblings differs as well. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru are constantly at odds, while Towa loves Setsuna more than anything.
• Contrived Coincidence: Despite being 19 years old and married at the end of the original anime/manga, while Rin was still a young child, Inuyasha and Kagome apparently didn't conceive Moroha until several years later, in the same year as Rin (apparently even months after her), which struck many fans as this.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: This is how Towa's fight against the gangsters who are holding her family hostage looks like. Only Towa's good-natured personality prevented her from injuring or even killing these gangsters more severely, as Sesshomaru used to do with bandits.
  • Kirinmaru vs the Half-Demon Princesses results in him single-handedly handing them their first defeat with ease.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • The Half-Demon Princesses two fights with Kirinmaru is this: While they are very obviously out of their league, Towa does manage to scratch Kirinmaru in the cheek and Kirinmaru even admits that proved her worth as Toga's granddaughter. In their second fight, Kirinmaru is obviously still dominant, but all three of them have grown and each of them manage to gain on him for a while: Setsuna leaves another cut on Kirinmaru before he kills her, Towa injures him when his back is turned, and Towa and Moroha combined were able to damage Kirinmaru using his full power when they were both in a rage and using full strength as well and though they still lose, they force Kirinmaru on the defensive for some time.
  • Toga vs Kirinmaru the first time. Kirinmaru does manage to hold his own, with how the flashback to their fight shows they have been fighting for some time, but ultimately Toga overpowers Kirinmaru and cuts off both his left antler and hand to end the fight, displaying to the young Kirinmaru that he still needs a lot of training before he can become the strongest.
  • Kirinmaru still puts up a hell of a fight against Sesshomaru even weakened after having battled for so long in their last battle, doing significantly better than anyone else discounting Sounga and Kirinmaru at his prime, managing to keep up with him in swordplay and force him to defend himself seriously from his energy attacks, before his handicaps ultimately start getting the better of him and Sesshomaru begins pushing him back, exacerbated by Sesshomaru using cold and bluntly harsh breakdowns of Kirinmaru's delusions. He ultimately doesn't manage to damage Sesshomaru due to the latter's cunning, but he still manages to put up an excellent struggle, with Sesshomaru using his full power and not instantly overpowering him even after he's been injured.
• Cute Little Fangs: Moroha has teeth like that. Although her demon blood is the thinnest of all three girls, she is the only one who has fangs like this.
• Cute Monster Girl: Moroha, Towa and Setsuna all qualify for it, in descending order for how "monsterous" they are.
  • Futa qualifies too. She is a female half-demon with dark green hair.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: With Mei's affection, Setsuna became a little more open and cheerful during her stay in modern times. However, since she's back with the demon hunters, she's been refrosting.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: This is discussed in-universe. Towa is aware by the standards of modern day Japan meant she would have to play her role as a woman, and thus being more feminine. However, she isn't a bit girly to say the least, and she has no personal interest in being one.
• Dem Bones: Jakotsumaru kills several humans and turns them into walking skeletons. However, these skeletons are red as undead. Towa destroys most of them while Moroha fights Jakotsumaru.
• Deus Exit Machina:
  • Inuyasha, Kagome, and the other main characters of the previous series, especially Sesshomaru, hardly appear and rarely help the girls out which is justified as they are far more experienced, skilled, and in the case of Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and Kagome, powerful, so having them around to help the girls constantly would have made enemies much less threatening.
  • In the second season, while all the main characters of the previous series have returned to help with Kirinmaru, Sesshomaru has to take an attack from Kirinmaru that leaves him incapacitated, effectively meaning the one person who can match Kirinmaru is gone and preventing him from being a Deus ex Machina and defeating Kirinmaru outright along with the others. When he does recover, the situation has shifted so the heroes are facing a new threat, while Sesshomaru is faced with Kirinmaru, preventing him from helping the heroes and giving them a great deal of tension as Sesshomaru handles himself, but the threat the others are facing are still dangerous. By the time he's defeated Kirinmaru, his elder daughter has died but is saved by Kirinmaru and Rion's sacrifice.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Kirinmaru thus far seems to have an uncanny tendency for appearing just when the heroes are about to win. First time, he wakes up after centuries due to Zero and Sesshomaru is forced to seal away Inuyasha and Kagome and have them send Moroha to safety. Then when Totetsu is so close to defeat, Kirinmaru appears and kicks the ass of the girls. Finally, Sesshomaru has appeared before the heroes and seems ready to finally put down Zero.... Then Kirinmaru arrives quite spectacularly and Zero escapes, Kirinmaru beats the girls once again, and this time he ends up killing Setsuna.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Yawaragi dies in the arms of Moroha. She proudly tells her that she has now taught her everything she could teach her.
  • Setsuna dies in Episode 24 in the aftermath of the trio's fight against Kirinmaru, with Towa holding her hand as she passes away.
• Disappeared Dad: Three-fold:
  • Inuyasha isn't involved with Moroha's life some time during the Time Skip. Why exactly he's missing has yet to be seen. A flashback in Episode 8 reveals that Sesshomaru and Kirinmaru apparently attacked him and Kagome when Moroha was an infant, and Sesshomaru sent both him and Kagome to his father's grave to protect them.
  • Sesshomaru came to Kaede's village to pick up his newborn hanyo daughters, and that's the last time anyone saw him. Episode 2 shows that he's staying out of their lives, as the twins were playing together by themselves in a forest. Episode 15 reveals he was doing it because his enemies were after his daughters and Jaken creates a barrier to protect them.
  • Subverted with Miroku, while at first it seems like he's gone Walking the Earth, it turns out that he's only training at a nearby temple for a thousand days (800 of which are over) after realizing how weak he was without his wind tunnel. In addition, Gyokuto visits him quite frequently providing him supplies. It's Hisui who's avoiding him since they don't get along as he believes his father ran away like a coward.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The whole plot of episode 19 turns out to be a revenge scheme by Princess Aiya to have the Demon Slayers kill Moroha because she splashed a small amount of mud on Aiya's robes during the events of episode 1/7.
• Distant Sequel: Yashahime is set long after the conclusion of Inuyasha, and revolves around the daughters of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": The local lord that captures Towa calls her Princess Half-Demon, but she rejects that title, saying she is not a princess.
• Dream Stealer: Setsuna has amnesia regarding her past and is unable to fall asleep, even with drugs because of a butterfly from the dream world that stole her dreams.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Inuyasha still has this problem when he and Miroku were hunting demons together, and local villagers praise Miroku over him.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even though Jakotsumaru was cruel, devious, and merciless, he was still angry that Moroha killed his father. It is implied, however, that someone else killed Tokotsu, and Moroha just happened to be around.
• Fighting a Shadow: Root Head keeps its main body buried deep underground while sending out weaker copies to hunt.
• Final Boss Preview: Towa, Setsuna (who ends up dead), and Morhoha suffer their first major defeat courtesy of their destined enemy Kirinmaru.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Towa's situation. She was accidentally stuck in the modern world until Sota finds and raises her. She quickly adapts to the modern world in her 10 years growing up.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: Moroha can feel demonic energies. In this way, she immediately recognized Setsuna and Towa as half-demons when they first met.
• Foreshadowing: When Kirinmaru reveals his true demonic form for the first time in the season 1 finale, one of his horns is shorter than the other. The second season's third episode would later reveal that it had been cut off by Toga during a battle 6 centuries ago.
• Fragile Speedster: Jakotsumaru was a quick and agile fighter. At the same time, he was also very weak and fragile for a demon (although still stronger than a human), so that Moroha could easily destroy him.
• Friendless Background:
  • Towa doesn't seem to have any close friends. It is implied that she never had the time to make friends because she often had to change schools. And she often had to change schools because she helped innocent people in need.
  • In episode 10, Moroha talks sadly that she's been lonely all her life because she's a quarter-demon. In fact, hanyou are often hated by both humans and youkai. It hurts her feelings when Towa and Setsuna refuse to join her on a bounty hunt because she believed the two girls have already become friends. The episode further shows that Setsuna is not her friend, but just takes advantage of Moroha, whereas Towa likes her a little bit.
  • Unknown to Setsuna. She lives with the demon hunters. It is unclear, however, whether she really sees them as her friends or simply as people with whom she hunts demons together.
    • Later undermined. A flashback shows that she was friends with the two half-demons Futa and Raita.
• Full-Boar Action: Tokotsu was a boar youkai.
• Furry Reminder: The flashback from Episode 2 shows a young Towa and Setsuna getting down on all fours to drink water from a river, similar to dogs drinking from a water bowl.
• Gambit Pileup: As the first season progresses, it soon becomes clear that Kirinmaru, some of the Perils, Zero, Riku, and Sesshomaru all have various plans and agendas they are trying to achieve.
• Game Face:
  • When Setsuna transforms into a full demon, her fangs stand out much more clearly and purple markings on her cheeks similar to her father's appear. She looks significantly different than before, but much less horror than her half-uncle Inuyasha once did.
  • Downplayed with Moroha. When she uses her true demon powers and becomes Beniyasha, only her eyes turn yellow.
• Gender Flip: In Episode 6, based on chapter 394 of the original manga, the nun who sympathized with the Ghost Cat demon is switched to a monk named Juan.
• Genius Loci: In Episode 11, the demon "Drifting Pond" not only inhabits a pond, it becomes the pond, infusing itself entirely into the water. Purifying the water destroys Drifting Pond in the process.
• Gentleman Thief: Riku is introduced as a charming young man after he meets Towa, and clearly mentions being a pirate who never steals from women and children. And that's exactly what he says when Towa gets apprehended by the local lord's men and Yotsume when she is accused of stealing the real Kikujumonji.
• The Gloves Come Off: When a group of delinquents who've been fighting with Towa for some time decide to threaten her family (especially her little sister, Mei), all they succeed in doing is convince her that the situation is too dangerous for her to hold back and instead unleash her full half-demon strength and speed.
• Gratuitous English:
  • Minor character Kirin Osamu, a teacher at Towa's school does this at times and ropes Towa into doing it at one point during class. Justified since he's an English teacher.
  • Another new character, Riku, upon eating some food from the future, specifically an apple given by Towa, refers to it as "Forbidden Fruit" in English, despite the fact that the English language ought to be completely unknown to Japanese people of that period.
• Gratuitous Princess: Although they are not princesses in the traditional sense, the three main characters are referred to as "Yashahime" by several others within the series, which is translated to "Demon Princess" in English.^Note The show's full Japanese title "Hanyō no Yashahime" translates to "Half-Demon Princess". This is likely due to them being the granddaughters of Inu-no-Taisho, who was known to be a powerful daiyokai and was the lord of the western provinces of Japan, there is also a bit of irony to this as Moroha is still called this even though she is only a quarter demon despite being the most dog-like of the trio.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: Unlike the prequel anime, it is completely inverted.
  • Towa grew up in modern times, where almost no one believes in demons anymore, and despite her white hair, she was perceived as a human and treated like one.
  • Setsuna was taken in by the demon hunters and treated like one of them, even though they know she is a half-demon.
  • Moroha mentioned that it wasn't always easy as a quarter-demon, but at least her closest "co-workers", Jubei and Takechiyo (a human and a demon) don't seem to have a problem with her being a shihanyou.
  • Eventually, it turns out to be a big exception with these three girls. Elsewhere, half-demons are still discriminated against by demons and humans. Shiori has founded a village where half-demonic children can grow up safely so that they do not have to experience suffering from demons or humans.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The twins are half-demon from their father Sesshomaru and half-human from their human mother Rin.
• Happy Ending Override: Naraku may be dead and the Shikon Jewel is gone forever, but the new generation along with the old have to contend with demons that still linger, especially those who are still after the Shikon Jewel even long after it's gone. Plus Moroha knows very little of her parents since she's lived alone most of her life, since Sesshomaru sent them to his father's grave to protect them to the point that Kagome and Inuyasha were prevented from raising their daughter; meanwhile Towa and Setsuna were separated when they were only four and grew up without each other or their biological parents.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: This applies to Moroha and Towa, who both prefer to fight with swords.
• Hidden Elf Village: Episode 20 reveals that Shiori has been using the time since we last saw her to use her barrier powers to create a village to protect half-demon children until they're old enough to fend for themselves.
• Hidden Heart of Gold:
  • Sesshomaru as usual is this. Post-Character Development while he appears to go off on his own, he stays behind to protect Sango, her children, and Rin from any incoming attacks from Root Head. While a flashback or vision from Episode 8 shows him seemingly preparing to attack Inuyasha and Kagome along with Kirinmaru, Episode 15 reveals that he actually intended to save the couple using the Black Pearl.
  • Setsuna keeps returning to the village where she grew up as a child to protect it from attacking demons. When Towa asks her to take care of the others, she is embarrassed and she blushes.
• History Repeats:
  • Just like Kagome at the start of the original series, Setsuna and Moroha end up dragged to a different timeline by a centipede Youkai trying to steal the McGuffin in their bodies.
  • Like his father, Sesshomaru knew the imminent danger his half-demon daughters are being put through, and so he devises several contingency plans to ensure they are kept alive, and gifts them Gold and Silver Pearls. Though this time, there's no fire involved and his wife Rin wasn't in any imminent danger prior to giving birth like how his father went out of his way to save his human wife Izayoi and their son Inuyasha.
• Horned Humanoid: Jakotsumaru has two horns on his head. This is visual proof that he is a demon.
• Hostage Situation: After losing a fight with Towa, a group of Japanese Delinquents retaliate by abducting Towa's sister Mei alongside Ms. Higurashi and Grandpa and keeping the rest of the Higurashi tied up. Mei, an elementary school student, notably has a knife pointed at her neck at one point.
• How Is That Even Possible?: Kohaku and Hisui don't know who Moroha is and seem to think that she is a full-blooded Youkai, so they are naturally shocked when they see her using Sacred Arrows which is something that only humans should be able to do.
• How We Got Here: The flashbacks from Episode 1 to Episode 2 to 6 are a series of flashbacks before catching up to the present in Episode 7.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Setsuna is a half-demon who lives with demon hunters and hunts demons.
• Hybrid Power: Moroha has both her father's demonic powers and her mother's spiritual powers. But because she is a quarter demon, her demonic powers are not very pronounced, and she has to artificially reinforce them in battle. This more mixed heritage also has the benefit of preventing her from being Brought Down to Normal periodically like her father was at the New Moon.
• Identical Grandson: Towa suspects that the Identical Stranger situation with the monk Juan and the present-day idol Julian is because the monk is Julian's ancestor, though nothing is proven.
• Identical Stranger: Towa notices the monk Juan looks like her and Mei's favorite male idol Julian.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl:
  • During the second episode, Towa walks around the apartment wearing only underwear.
  • It is much clearer with Moroha. She came out of the shower naked and didn't mind who could see her like that.
• In-Series Nickname: Moroha calls herself "Beniyasha", which means "Crimson Demon".
• Instant Expert: All three heroines demonstrate this feat to varying degrees:
  • Towa after only using her demonic powers for the first time to make Laser Blade, quickly figures out how to do so again at will and just a few days later, upgrades it to a powerful Sword Beam.
  • Setsuna and Moroha quickly accllimate to the modern day. Setsuna manages to become adept with the violin with just a few days of instruction from Sota's wife, while Moroha managed to figure out how to use Sota's credit card to go shopping.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: This is Sesshomaru's thought process. After the twins were born, he is aware that his enemies will come after them and so had them hidden with the Tree of Ages while Jaken creates a barrier to hide their presence. This may also be the reason why Rin is in the tree as she gave birth to his daughters, and he makes it sure that she is safe and secure.
• Karma Houdini: The first season ends up as the first time in the Inuyasha series that the villains gets out of a situation with no major consequences:
  • Kirinmaru manages to defeat the girls once more and this time he kills Setsuna and walks away with no lasting harm done despite the best efforts of Towa and Moroha.
  • Zero gets stopped by Kirinmaru from killing the girls, but she ultimately gets away unscathed and even makes it clear she will be able to find them eventually, meaning his efforts won't keep her at bay forever.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • After Kagome calls out the "osuwari" command, Miroku mentions that the scene feels rather nostalgic, as if he's remembering the times when that command became a Running Gag in Inuyasha.
  • Near the end of episode 15, Riku looks directly to the camera and says "Come on now, don't be hasty. It's in poor taste, you know?" as if he's aware of the audience's impatience to get to the main plot rather than sidetracking it.
• Let's You and Him Fight: In Episode 2, Hisui, Kohaku, and Setsuna meet Moroha and mistake her for the Youkai that has been attacking a local village. She tries to explain that she is hunting the real culprit, but they attack her. Eventually, the real culprit, Mistress Three-Eyes, shows up.
• Lineage Comes from the Father:
  • Inverted with Hisui. He is a demon hunter in his mother's tradition.
  • Played straight with Towa and Setsuna, who got their special powers from their demonic father Sesshomaru. In particular, Towa uses Soryuha, the sword attack Sesshomaru was known for when he had Tōkijin (it should be noted, however, that Towa, despite her biological relationship, considers Sota Higurashi to be her real father for raising her).
  • Zigzagged with Moroha. She is a sword fighter like her father. And she uses the same demon powers as he does, like the Sankon Tesso and the Hijin Kesso. But at the same time she also fights with a bow and arrow and with spiritual powers, like her mother.
  • Kin'u became a Buddhist nun, just as her father Miroku is a Buddhist monk. And like her father, she also has spiritual powers.
• Living Toys: In episode 21 it is implied several times that Riku is a kind of living doll with demonic powers.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Kaede knew that Setsuna was Sesshomaru's daughter, but she never told Hisui or Kohaku until it was necessary. She appears to have not told the twins the identity of their mother, since she was there with Sango and Kagome seeing Rin giving birth to them.
• MacGuffin: The Rainbow Pearls are jewels of great power that the heroes and villains will be fighting each other in order to obtain them. Towa and Setsuna's were in their eyes, while Moroha took hers from a dead demon. Kirinmaru's forces also has several, and Riku apparently has one as an earring. There are a grand total of seven of them.
• Magical Eye: Towa and Setsuna's Rainbow Pearls naturally seem to reside in their left and right eyes, respectively, and seem to be the key to why they can travel between the two eras. Mistress Three-Eyes even wants to obtain all three so she'll have one for each eye.
• Mark of the Supernatural: Towa and Setsuna both have a streak of red hair along their respective silver and black hair, highlighting their half-demon heritage.
• Minor Living Alone:
  • Before they were separated by the forest fire, Towa and Setsuna were just living alone in the forest, without either parent in sight.
  • Moroha is apparently by herself as well, and Hisui and Kohaku don't seem to even realize that she's Inuyasha's daughter.
• Missing Child: Episode 2 shows Towa and Setsuna living alone in a forest. While they were asleep a forest fire starts and while trying to run, the two of them get separated when Towa lets go of Setsuna's hand for a split second before Towa gets sent to the future. By the time they reunite 10 years later, Setsuna has completely changed and doesn't have any memories of her older twin.
• Missing Mom:
  • The twins' mother isn't mentioned. Considering they are a Half-Human Hybrid, their human mother's identity is a mystery for a long time. Her identity is later revealed to be Rin.
  • In Moroha's case, it's stated that Kagome, along with Inuyasha were not present during her early years meaning that something must have happened to them. Episode 8 reveals that Kirinmaru and Sesshomaru apparently attacked them when she was a baby, and they sent Moroha away to protect her. Sesshomaru however sent them to his father's grave to protect them.
  • Sango herself is playing with the trope, she is currently staying at home waiting for her husband's return from training and crafting things for the demon slayers and not active in demon slaying with her Hiraikotsu and Kirara being used respectivly by her son and the other members of her family and allies.
• Mistaken for Murderer: Since Hatchi fled with baby Moroha before Inuyasha and Kagome confronted Kirinmaru and Sesshomaru, he believes them to have been killed by the pair, and tells Moroha this in Episode 31.
• Monster of the Week: Just like its predecessor Inuyasha, Yashahime follows the format wherein the heroes fight and defeat a new antagonist in every episode.
• Monstrous Humanoid: Averted, as all three girls are able to pass as human girls with Setsuna being the most normal-looking one while Towa's only difference from other humans is her silver hair. Moroha does have claws and fangs like her father but it's not obvious at first glance.
• Muggle Foster Parents: Towa was raised by Kagome's younger brother Sota when she ended up in the present. Setsuna was raised and trained to be a demon slayer by Kohaku.
• Mundane Utility: Towa has a lot of trophies in her room that she won in various sports competitions. For a half-demon, it is obviously worth living in the modern age.
• Mystical White Hair: Towa has silver hair similar to her father.
• Nemean Skinning: Moroha kills demons and sells the corpses to people who want to make armor and weapons out of them.
• Noble Womans Laugh: Princess Aiya has a particularly obnoxious one.
• No Man of Woman Born: It's prophesied that Kirinmaru will be felled "by an existence that is neither human nor demon, an entity that will surpass time". At first he thought no such foe existed; but of course, Inuyasha is neither fully human nor fully demon and Kagome has travelled through time on multiple occasions, plus they had a quarter-demon daughter Moroha. This prophecy, of course, can now be used to discribe the main heroines of Yashahime as all of them are neither fully human nor fully demon, and due to Towa being flung through time, she fulfills the latter part of the prophecy as well.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Most of the characters in the anime are drawn in Takahashi's styles especially the main characters but some characters like Riku and Zero stands out surprisingly as they are drawn in a different style by another person which is noticeable with their eyes.
• The Nose Knows: Moroha, Setsuna and Towa all three have a fine sense of smell. This is very common for dog youkai (and dog hanyou). However, Towa can hardly recognize the smell of youkai because she grew up in the modern age and therefore does not know that smell.
• Oblivious to Love: It is implied that Hisui is in love with Setsuna. He ignores other girls, even those who have status like Aiya. Setsuna doesn't seem to notice. On the other hand, Setsuna is rather aloof to him even after working alongside him as a demon hunter for years so it could be that she simply doesn't see him as a romantic prospect.
• Off with His Head!: The demon Root Head is fond of collecting people's heads.
• Oh, Crap!: Towa gives Riku her silver rainbow pearl because she decided she would like him. When Setsuna and Moroha point out that he works for one of the bad guys, that's exactly her face expression.
• Older Than They Look:
  • It is common for demons and half-demons to live for centuries while looking young. Shiori has this longevity too, thanks to her demonic heritage. In contrast to Kirinmaru, Riku, and the others, however, she is still in a human lifespan. She is chronologically close to thirty years old, but outwardly looks like no more than twenty years old.
  • This becomes rather exaggerated to the original Five-Man Band. Inuyasha and Kagome have the excuse of being trapped in the Black Pearl, where it's inverted Year Inside, Hour Outside, but Miroku and Sango have absolutely no excuse that none of them got any more wrinkles. Averted a bit for Miroku who was off training, until he dons his former getup and he magically looks like he didn't age (perhaps because his training was taking a bit of a toll on him). Parodied with Shippo, who shows up looking like a handsome teenager fox that turns out to be a disguise anyway.
  • For her part, Kaede also looks no different than before either.
  • Rin has the excuse of being trapped in the Tree of Ages to stop her deadly illness, but even so, she's slightly shorter than her own daughters and could be easily mistaken as their human sister.
• Once More, with Clarity: Episode 15 finally provides some additional context to the flashback scenes and visions that were only briefly shown in the previous episodes. It was Zero who ordered Homura to burn the forest that Sesshomaru's twins were in. Sesshomaru also didn't actually fight Inuyasha and Kagome head-on, he used the Black Pearl to save them instead.
• One-Gender School: Towa attends St. Gabriel's Academy, an all girls' school.
• One Twin Must Die: Said to be a common theme when it comes to powerful Demons (although one that isn't supported by the original series). They will have twins, said twins will fight to the death, and the surviving one will be raised.
  • Kaede suspects that Setsuna, Sesshomaru's daughter, is seen without her sister because she has already murdered her. Fortunately, she's wrong.
  • It can be seen much more clearly with Kinka and Ginka. They belong to a species of demons that are born as twins and then fight each other until the stronger of them kills and eats the weaker one.
• Orcus on His Throne: In his first in-person appearance in Episode 7, Kirinmaru seems to be completely disinterested in doing anything but hanging out on his ship eating grapes while The Four Perils do the heavy lifting for him. He can't even be bothered to remember Tokotsu's name, even though he gave him the red Rainbow Pearl that Moroha took after Tokotsu was killed. The only reason he even engages the trio is because the last remaining Peril was leading them towards his ship and he got ticked.
• Order Reborn: During Inuyasha, Naraku brought about the end of the Demon Slayers by luring their strongest away for a mission, and then leading a horde of demons to attack their village. For a while, Sango and Kohaku were the only ones left. By now, they are in the process of recovery. Kohaku is The Leader of a new generation of Demon Slayers, which include his nephew, Hisui, while Sango makes demon slayer tools and suits up for battle when needed. They still have a long ways to go before they return to the numbers they had before Naraku's attack, however.
• Parental Abandonment: Although Setsuna apparently discovered her father's identity, Towa had no idea who Sesshomaru was when he was mentioned. Kaede suspects, given what Setsuna said to her when they first met, that he left them as a sort of test to see if they could make it on their own.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Takechiyo seems to fill that role, but Moroha has shadows from it too.
• Prefers Going Barefoot: It wouldn't be an Inuyasha story if it didn't feature plenty of this. Like her father, Moroha goes barefoot. When they were children living alone in the forest, Towa and Setsuna wore beautiful kimonos, but no shoes.
• Proportional Aging: Much to the main trio's shock, Meioju's son has been trying to avenge his father's death for ten years, being fifty, despite looking, and to a degree acting, like a child.
• Puberty Superpower: Rumiko Takahashi explicitly stated in an interview that half-demons age at a human rate during their childhood. It is only when they reach puberty that their demonic longevity begins. However, only their longevity begins in puberty; they already have superhuman physical strength as children.
• Rat Men: Episode 16 shows a clan of demons who look like rats walking upright. They seem to make clothing with magical powers, such as Moroha fire rat robe or the iron rat armor. Sadly, they are murdered by Konton.

• Real-Time Timeskip: Approximately the same amount of time has passed between Inuyasha and Yashahime in real life as it has in-universe.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Towa is hot-headed while Setsuna is stoic, mirroring their uncle and father respectively.
• Refusal of the Call: In Episode 4, the Tree of Ages gives Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha a mission to defeat Kirinmaru, an old enemy of their grandfather, the Great Dog General, as well as Sesshomaru, both at the same time. Setsuna refuses not caring about Sesshomaru and Towa refuses not wanting to kill her father.
• Ret-Canon: This series includes several details from the previously non-canon Inuyasha movie, Swords of an Honorable Ruler.
  • Toga's third sword, So'unga, appears on his person and he even goes to draw it at one point but stops.
  • Inuyasha's mother retains her name Izayoi from the movie.
• Retcon: Season 2 Episode 4 has it to where Moroha was present with Sota and Towa when he showed Towa the pictures of his sister, despite it only being Sota and Towa in the room during that episode.
• The Reveal:
  • Episode 15 resolves several questions and plot holes that were pretty much left hanging before. Aside from the revisited flashbacks mentioned under Once More, with Clarity, this episode reveals that Rin is the mother of Towa and Setsuna, Jaken cast a barrier to protect the twins under the orders of Sesshomaru, it was Riku who ordered Hosenki II to create the Black Pearl and pass it alongside the Rouge to Inuyasha and Kagome, Kirinmaru is prophesized to be slain by "an existence that is either human nor demon, an impossible entity that can surpass time", and Sesshomaru also cut off Joka's arms to obtain the Silver and Gold Rainbow Pearls for his newborn twins, which explains how they were in possession of the pearls since childhood.
  • Episode 20 reveals that, after she was separated from Towa and lost her memories, Setsuna was taken by Jaken to a hidden village of half-demons that Shiori, the half-bat demon from the original series, has kept safe for with her barrier powers. She went to Kaede's village for a time, but returned, only to leave again after her powers went out of control. It also reveals that she got her Naginata from a moth demon she killed that was trying to attack the village when Shiori lost her powers during a solar eclipse, and that it acts as the seal on her Power Limiter.
  • Episode 27 is a big one; we learn that Zero cursed Rin while Sesshomaru and Inuyasha were dealing with the comet, hoping that she could coerce them into revealing the location of the twins. When that failed, Rin was sealed in the Tree of Ages to delay the curse. The Dream Butterfly was given to Setsuna by Jaken, using Sestuna's dreams and memories to keep Zero's curse at bay. Sesshomaru knew that Inuyasha would go after Zero if she continued her actions, so to protect Rin he sent his brother and sister-in-law to his father's grave, keeping them safe from Kirinmaru in the process. Riku was made from a horn severed from Kirinmaru's head, and Kirinmaru can thus see and hear anything that he does.
• Roofhopping: In Episode 2, you see Towa jumping over a school gate. She then jumps and climbs up a building after making sure no one is watching her.
• Running Gag:
  • Kagome's "osuwari!"/"SIT!" command to Inuyasha returns here from the predecessor series.
  • Moroha would usually end up not receiving the bounty reward for the Monster of the Week at the end of the episode, mostly because the bounty's corpse would disintegrate. Whenever this happens, Moroha would complain about it, while Takechiyo would laugh at her bad luck.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Kikyo sealed the demon Root Head rather than destroy it. When he breaks free, he is unaware the Shikon Jewel has been destroyed and mistakes Kagome for Kikyo, seeking revenge.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Played with. Kirinmaru is initially dismissive of the prophecy foretelling his death, but his sister, Zero, takes it much more seriously; though her fixation on the Great Dog Demon's descendants gives another motive. In the end, her actions and those that she urges her brother to take are what drives the titular characters and their family to oppose Kirinmaru.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • In the original anime, the clamshell rouge Inuyasha's mother gave him as a keepsake was destroyed by Naraku after Inuyasha gifted it to Kikyo, but here it's in Moroha's possession and perfectly intact, with no explanation how.
    • This receives a Hand Wave in Episode 15, with Hosenki II claiming to Inuyasha and Kagome that it's recovery was "no easy feat", alongside a brief flashback to "The Tragic Love Song Of Destiny". This flashback, along with a brief glimpse of Ayame during the episode, cements the series as a sequel to the anime continuity specifically.
  • Episode 1 features an adventure of the original cast fighting a demon in the aftermath of Kagome's final return to the Feudal Age. An issue is present, however, in how Rin has the design she held for the majority of Inuyasha as opposed to the design she held in the three year time-skip at the end of The Final Act. Though, this is an error that is carried over from the bonus chapter of the original manga, from which this episode was adapted from.
• Shock and Awe: The half-demon Raita has a mini trident with demonic powers. With the attack Gorogoro he can fire a bolt of lightning with this weapon.
• Shout-Out: Towa's sword breaking but then allowing her to channel her latent power into a Laser Blade is pretty much the same as what happened with Kuwabara in YuYu Hakusho, though he used the broken off tip of his wooden sword rather than the hilt.
• Smug Snake: Gagagozen wants to attack the half-demon village. He thinks he's strong and superior. And then he meets Setsuna.
• Spin-Offspring: The main characters are the children of the main cast of Inuyasha.
• Spoiler Opening: The second opening Burn reveals the identity of Towa and Setsuna's mother right in the first few seconds as scenes of their mother and father together in the previous show are flashed over them, right before doing the same with Moroha and her parents. Uncoincidentally, the episode that premieres next, after the one in which Burn replaces New Era as the opening, casually reveals the identity of the twins' mother.
• Stock Ness Monster: The Mizuchi from Episode 11 was a snake-like demon who lived in a demonic pond.
• Story-Breaker Power: The series seriously dampen Kirinmaru and Sesshomaru's abilities as they are the most powerful demons in existence. In the first season, Sesshomaru is seeking to save Rin while Kirinmaru has no interest in the girls, which is the only reason why the girls survive to the end after Kirinmaru utterly defeats them, even killing albeit temporarily Setsuna. In the second season, they are more active, but still held back for various reasons. Sesshomaru still has to prepare to both save his wife and free Inuyasha and Kagome while Kirinmaru is focused on advancing his goals and needs the girls. At nearly the climax, Sesshomaru is left incapacitated to protect his daughters while Kirinmaru is repeatedly pressured to ensure he doesn't wipe the floor with the heroes. As if acknowledging their status as this, the final conflict of the second season has the two strongest demons fight it out while the heroes are faced with a new but comparatively weaker villain. The ways they finish their respective battles also reflect this; Sesshomaru matches Kirinmaru with strength before defeating him with cunning and conviction while the girls "defeat" their villain with love and sacrifice.
• Strictly Formula: An episode of season one of Yashahime usually goes like this: Moroha receives an offer to slay a demon, she convinces Towa and Setsuna to help her, they slay said demon, but since the demon didn't leave a body behind, Moroha can't collect her bounty.
• Stripped to the Bone:
  • The demon Root Head drains nutrients from people and quickly reduces them to skeletons.
  • This is Kyuki's final fate thanks to Riku.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Towa bears a strong resemblance to her father Sesshomaru with her silver hair. Moroha also looks similar to her father with her mother's hair and eyes.
• Sudden Downer Ending: Episode 13 of season 2 has Towa and Setsuna fully rekindle their sisterly bond, Rin being freed from Zero's silver-scale curse, and Moroha being given a chance to see her parents via the Black Pearl...then Kirinmaru shows up and snatches it from her, and blackmails her into bringing Akuru's pinwheel to him.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Actually averted for the most part, as Grandpa Higurashi, Kaede, and even the cat are still alive 20 years later. However, Kagome's bike appears to have been destroyed to the point only a rusted seat remains of it.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Setsuna asks Miroku to remove her seals so she can transform into a full-fledged demon when she fights Totetsu. However, she gets into a frenzy much less than her half-uncle Inuyasha back then.
  • When Towa sees Setsuna killed, her demonic side awakens and she becomes much more powerful. In her demonic form she has long hair like her father and the symbol of the crescent moon on her forehead. Word of God says that Towa's demonic blood is not sealed. Had she not been focused in her anger on Kirinmaru during the transformation, she would likely have become a danger to Moroha.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Towa may be the most powerful of the trio and capable of killing off enemies that they can't, but at the same time she is also the least experienced and combat-prepared of the girls, having spent most of her life living in the peaceful modern era with any fighting skill she had coming solely from fighting bullies and competitors in sports, which also meant her superhuman abilities also could not develop properly up to her return to the feudal era, while both Setsuna and Moroha have been spending their entire life defending themselves from and killing demons and training to improve and develop their supernatural powers properly. While this allows her to deliver the finishing blow to enemies neither her sister or her cousin can defeat on their own, her inferiority in terms of skill and experience quickly shows itself up until she finally becomes adjusted to fighting demonic enemies, resulting in her being easily susceptible to attacks that Setsuna and Moroha could easily defend themselves against and struggling to keep up with them when working together against enemies, which used to be a source of frustration for Setsuna and Moroha, both of whom having to warn her to keep her guard up. Indeed, when Towa was controlled by a Hitokon and forced to fight Setsuna, she does manage to hold her ground and counter Setsuna's attacks for a decent period of time due to being more powerful (and even that was mostly due to drawing on the silver pearl's power), but is ultimately defeated without dealing any actual damage to Setsuna and left exhausted by the end of it while Setsuna comes out hardly straining herself as Towa was ultimately new to fighting opponents who can actually threaten her while Setsuna has had years of experience fighting such foes.
  • The trio's first fight with Kirinmaru ends up being one big instance of this trope. Not only has Towa, the most powerful of the group, only had a few days to gain experience fighting supernatural enemies, but the other two actually experienced girls also has only had years to develop their abilities, while Kirinmaru is both an extremely powerful demon and a seasoned warrior with centuries worth of experience under his belt. As such, the girls find themselves utterly overwhelmed without a prayer as Kirinmaru effortlessly counters all of their attacks and punishes back with truly powerful attacks and Kirinmaru goes as far as to lecture them on how flawed and unrefined their assault were as he doesn't even need to use any of his special abilities against them the entire time and spends the entire time simply toying with them. It's only due to Sesshomaru's interference that Kirinmaru is unable to deliver the finishing blow on the girls.
    • Likewise, even with Kirinmaru injured in their second fight at the end of the first season, he still proves too much for the girls, even killing Setsuna. Having seen many powerful Daiyokai with tremendous resilience and healing powers, the wound Riku inflicts on Kirinmaru so as to give Towa a chance doesn't do much to hamper him and the girls have also lost the Rainbow Pearls. Having relied on them for so long, their powers haven't manifested properly and combined with their still lacking experience combined to the Beast King, Riku's help doesn't help much apart from making Kirinmaru show off several of his special skills that ends up bowling through their attacks. Furthermore, even when Towa and Moroha activate their full demonic powers, manifesting huge battle avatars doesn't let them win, as they are both extremely enraged and furious over Setsuna's death and were simply throwing their attacks wildly, while Kirinmaru remains calm and uses superior skill in the battle, especially as he is clearly still more powerful than them. As such, Kirinmaru simply dodges their attacks and counters those that did come close and when he finally has enough, he ends up taking the girls down once more.
    • When Setsuna uses the Blood Blade to damage Kirinmaru, breaking his barrier, being it only scracthes Kirinmaru's face, it only makes him angry and tragically ends up killing Setsuna.
    • Not only that, Rainbow Pearls were made by demonic energy and while they can amplify demonic powers, spiritual powers and demonic powers are direct opposite of one another so rather than making Moroha's spiritual powers stronger, it ends up weakening her spiritual powers instead. To make matters worse, she doesn't make use of the spiritual powers her human side gives that much. This leads to her attempts to use spiritual power against Kirinmaru failing miserably, as she hasn't made use of her spiritual powers much before her Rainbow Pearl is taken from her and Kirinmaru even mocks her on how stupid it is to use spiritual powers against a demon as powerful as him when it hasn't been developed properly.
• Taken for Granite: In Episode 12, Nikosen does that to Moroha and Setsuna. But when Towa destroys him, the two girls turn back unscathed.
• Taking You with Me: Yawaragi holds Konton so that Moroha's attack hits him too and destroys them both. But Konton can teleport himself, and thus escapes the attack.
• Tangled Family Tree: The situation of the extended Higurashi family, thanks to Towa getting adopted by her parental half-uncle, she is among other things simultaneously Setsuna's older twin sister and adoptive half-cousin-in-law, Moroha's cousin twice over, being both her half-cousin and adoptive first cousin and technically speaking Towa is in fact her own adoptive half-cousin-in-law.
• Tanuki: One of the new characters is a tanuki demon named Takechiyo, who works for Jyubei and often helps/monitors Moroha on her bounty hunts. Based on his interaction with Moroha in the poster, their relationship will be similar to Shippo and Inuyasha.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill Muggles: Played with. A flashback in episode 20 shows that Setsuna wants to kill some human bandits who are attacking a village. Kaede stops her from doing so, not because she believes killing or killing humans is wrong, but because she did not want Setsuna to experience things like that at a young age.
• Timeline-Altering MacGuffin: Towa gets captured by a local lord who found Kagome's bicycle seat and a history textbook in Towa's possessions and deduces she is from the future. He starts gloating that he can use the textbook to predict the future and be victorious in battle. However, Setsuna and Moroha rescue her and she takes the seat and textbook back.
• Time Skip: The sequel takes place 20 years after the end of Inuyasha.
• Tomboy: None of the three girls is particularly feminine. But Towa stands out because she looks and behaves very boyishly.
• To Serve Man:
  • The water demon from Episode 11 ate everyone and everything that came near the pond. When it was destroyed, a lot of human skeletons were visible.
  • Totesu from Episode 13 ate a monk. It is implied that he has eaten many monks.
  • The moth demon Gagagozen is said to have eaten more than a hundred samurai. And he attacks the hidden village of the half-demons because he intends to eat them up.
• Total Eclipse of the Plot:
  • Towa and Setsuna were born during a lunar eclipse.
  • Shiori becomes human and loses her barrier powers during solar eclipses, which makes a certain amount of sense for a half-bat demon.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The second season's trailer gives away the fact that Setsuna gets brough Back from the Dead.
• Training from Hell: It's eventually revealed that Miroku is undergoing a 1000-day training regiment so he can make up for the loss of the Wind Tunnel's power. He's currently on day 800 or so.
• Uneven Hybrid: While Towa and Setsuna are Half Human Hybrids, Moroha's heritage is more uneven; she's a quarter demon and three quarters human because her father Inuyasha is half-demon and her mother Kagome is human. Despite this she is still called "Princess Half-Demon".
• Upgrade Artifact:
  • The rainbow pearls qualify for this. Every demon (or half-demon) who has one of these pearls becomes considerably more powerful through them.
  • Moroha has a clamshell rouge that amplifies her demonic powers, making her much more powerful for a short time in battle. The disadvantage, however, is that she becomes so exhausted that she has to sleep for a whole day afterwards.
• Useless Without Powers: Towa has to realize that she cannot do anything in the fight against demons if she transforms into a human on the night of the new moon. But when she changes back in the morning, she can save the day.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: The parents of the half-demon Futa were killed by humans. While demons often attack half-demons and their parents in order to kill them, humans tend not to do so. Which makes such incidents all the more gruesome when they do happen.
• Viewers Are Goldfish: Every episode it reminds the viewers of the characters' names and who they are.
• Voodoo Shark: As a sequel to Inuyasha, why Kirinmaru decides to make his move long after his long-time rival and equal Inu no Taisho is long dead. As the ruler of the eastern domain, Kirinmaru right then and there would have made his move after the dog demon had died, and Sesshomaru is the heir to his father's domain. However, Sesshomaru willingly gave up his quest for conquest under his power, and thus the western domain has no heir for control. Though this implies that because Sesshomaru is the heir to the western domain, Kirinmaru cannot make his move unless Sesshomaru gives up his inheritance. Episode 7 shows that while he's making his move, he is seemingly disinterested in it, and Episode 15 shows that he wasn't even awakened until the births of Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha.
• Was Once a Man: The antagonist in Episode 12, Nikosen, was a sage who ended up becoming a demon.
• Wham Shot: At the end of Episode 22: The Grim Comet is approaching modern day Earth.
• What the Hell Are You?: The delinquents ask this when Towa demonstrates supernatural strength and speed while rescuing her family.
• Willfully Weak: Towa displayed this trait at least twice:
  • She had to promise her adoptive father that she would never show her true powers. Whenever she beat up bullies, she always held back in combat so as not to seriously injure them. However, that promise is put to the test when her family is threatened.
  • Even when she is caught and tied up by the soldiers of a nobleman in Episode 7, she hides her real strength. She could have torn her bonds and free herself at any time, but she was actually waiting for Setsuna and Moroha to arrive.
• Work Off the Debt: Moroha's bounty hunting is apparently to pay off some kind of debt that she owes. The debt is actually that of her former mentor from the Wolf Demon Tribe, Yawaragi, who transferred the debt to Moroha so she could keep her own money in hopes of raising enough to pay for the removal of the Cursed Armor she wears.
• World of Action Girls: The three main characters. Towa is shown beating up thugs trying to fight her.
• Wrecked Weapon: When Towa tries to attack the centipede Youkai, Mistress Three-Eyes, her sword breaks in half on contact, much to her shock. She later makes a Laser Blade from the broken hilt.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Kagome states that time moves much slower inside the Black Pearl than in the real world, which is why she and Inuyasha look barely older than their daughter.
• You Can't Kill What's Already Dead: In Episode 6, a monk is possessed by the spirit of a ghost cat, and uses the bodies of travelers that he's killed via his ghost cat minions to create a skeletal giant version of his original body. No matter what Moroha does, she can't kill the thing because it reforms every time she hits it, and only Towa absorbing the ghost cat's demonic energy is enough to stop it.
• Your Mom: Moroha tries this at the twins when they don't want to join her in a bounty hunt in one episode, it didn't work.
  Moroha: Your mom's a human!
  Setsuna: So is yours.

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