Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

Episode 17

“Trap of the Two Perils” is an episode of Yashahime that deserves some credit right off the bat: It actually feels finished, which is more than you can say about “Double-Edged Moroha” from last week, since it takes the bare minimum amount of time to establish the week's plot and stakes. It also doesn't lazily wrap up the fight of the week in only a few minutes, which means the girls have to face a challenge that requires them to do a little bit more than flail wildly about with their sword powers, for once. Finally, the opening scene at last establishes Riku as Kirinmaru's chief lieutenant who has been in cahoots with the bad guys all along, though his ulterior motives still make him a wild card in the grand scheme of things. We've known this for a while now, but Yashahime keeps trying to play off its super obvious plot developments as being more surprising than they are, so now we can at least dispense with the pretenses.

These are all storytelling achievements that fall squarely into the “Bare Minimum of Competence” category, though, so I don't want to give you the impression that Yashahime has become good all of a sudden. “Trap of the Two Perils” is still very much a bad, lazy, and often bewilderingly half-baked episode of television. It just doesn't, you know, actively attempt to drive its audience mad with its fundamental failings. Does that count for something? I'm honestly not quite sure anymore.

Let's start with the production values, this week, because it's a quick and easy critique to get out of the way: They suck. I don't know what it is with episodes that feature Totetsu, but the quality of Yashahime's art gets flushed right down the toilet whenever he shows up. I mean, just look at this shot right here. That's terrible. It isn't like I took a single in-between frame and isolated it out of context or anything, either — the episode is simply janky as hell on all fronts, especially the middle third. Character movements become stiff and awkward, and there's barely any attempt to gracefully edit the action; it all just feels so damned cheap. The visuals kind of pick up once the girls get trapped in Konton's spooky plane of illusion, which Totetsu lured them into, though that might simply be my brain tricking me into thinking “doing something marginally different from every fight we've ever seen before” is the same thing as “improvement” for Yashahime.

The writing gaffes are still wild to behold, too, and there is no better example of this than the bit that comes before the attack on Totetsu, which basically goes like so:

TOWA: Gosh darn it, even though we've forgotten to mention or do anything about it in weeks, we need to find the Dream Butterfly right now so Setsuna can get her dreams back!

SETSUNA: I don't care about dreaming or sleeping. I never have. My inability to dream/sleep has only ever been an advantageous skill that has gotten us out of trouble more than once. Stop bothering me about it.

MOROHA: Hey there, cousins! I know that getting you involved in my bounty hunting gigs has made it literally impossible for me to do my job and earn any money, and that you don't even seem to especially like or care about me, but Riku showed up out of nowhere with vague information about Totetsu. Let's team up and kill him!

TOWA: But Morohaaaaa, I don't care about Kirinmaru, I care about the Dream Butterfly! And yes, I recognize that we've basically been hunting down Kirinmaru and his goons for seventeen episodes now anyways for no discernable reason, but I don't want to anymore! Towa want butterfly!

RIKU: [In the most suspicious manner possible] Wouldn't you know it girls, but I heard another rumor that the Dream Butterfly and Kirinmaru are connected! So, now you can finally have a reason to be involved in the plot you were already following anyways! Just keep doing what you've already been doing, and, I dunno, Kirinmaru will just sort of show up sometime, probably!

TOWA: Well, huh. That's neat! I now officially have a motivation that could have very quickly and easily been established months ago, but I guess the writers just forgot about it, and it probably doesn't matter one way or the other, because you, Riku, are a clearly shifty dude who has already gotten me screwed over with your shenanigans in the past. That said, I'm going to unquestioningly follow your vague advice anyways, because Towa want Dream Butterfly! Come on, Setsuna!

SETSUNA: I do not care about any of this, but sure. Whatever. It isn't like the writers have ever bothered with giving me a reason to do anything before. Why start now? Look, I play the violin. That makes me a real character.

TAKECHIYO: I'm here too! I sure hope none of you viewers out there forgot about me, Takechiyo, the most useless character in Yashahime! Wait, what's that? I'm just going to be used as a glorified bus before getting completely abandoned by the story again? Oh no. Please, no. I just want someone to love me! Oh God, don't put me back in the box, I'll be so useful, I'll even tell you where Shippo is—

RIKU:[Proceeds to shove Takechiyo back into a duffel bag, which nobody else notices because, c'mon, it's Takechiyo]

And there you have it! A word-for-word, completely accurate transcription of the scene. Seventeen weeks of wasted time gone by, and Yashahime is still obviously stalling for time by spending, like, ten minutes on having the girls remind themselves of why they're even wandering around Feudal Japan to begin with, only to have Towa basically say out loud that it's weird how none of the characters have spent all season without any common goal that should be driving the plot forward, a problem that is then immediately swept under the rug when Riku pulls some bullshit excuse out of his ass that the girls all accept sight unseen. The writers literally draw attention to the most glaring flaws in Yashahime's story, and they still somehow completely screw up fixing it. It's almost impressive how inept Yashahime's writing is, even now.

Anyways, Totetsu go smash, the girls get trapped in Konton's illusion/trap/thing, Riku smirks because he's so tricksy and cool, etc. Moroha gets stuck on her own again, because treating her character like a useless joke is the one thing Yashahime has been consistent about, while Towa and Setsuna have to figure out a way to escape the “Gate of Rest”, or whatever it is. This is where my attention was somewhat piqued, because hey, this might be a problem that the twins have to solve with, like, thinking and stuff! That's new! Then I immediately became confused and frustrated when Setsuna tried stabbing herself in the leg to wake herself up from the illusion spell, which…why would she do that? We've already established that she has never dreamt before. What would possibly compel her to think that stabbing herself in the leg would get her out of this situation!? Oh, and it turns out the twins have magical dog powers that let them sniff out the weak spot of the illusion, or something? Maybe this is one of those “Previously on InuYasha” powers that I'm not privy to, but even so, give me a break, Yashahime! Do something interesting! Anything! I'm begging you!

Now that the series is ostensibly about 75% done, I'm running out of the energy it would take to even be disappointed by the Yashahime at this point. If anything, given that Yashahime seems hellbent on being aggressively lame right up until the end, I would rather it go completely off the rails with its terrible ideas. Like that one episode with the rape demon and the cell-phone moralizing? Remember that? At least that was a fun one to make fun of. This? This is just boring. And boring is maybe the worst thing that a bad anime can be.

Rating:

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James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.