The episode begins with Jaken remembering what happened 14 years earlier. His recollections run for almost 10 minutes, and over the course of that time, most, if not all, of the remaining lingering questions from the first season have been answered. We see Zero approach Rin after Sesshomaru has taken Towa and Setsuna away, and how Zero infects Rin with the silver-scale curse. With this, the thread of fate between the two women is connected… and if Zero dies, then Rin dies. It was Jaken who came up with the plan to put Rin into the Tree of Ages in order to prevent the silver-scale curse from spreading. But Jaken also realizes that if Inuyasha and Kagome find out what happen, they’ll try to kill Zero and inadvertently kill Rin… and this turns out to be the motivation for Sesshomaru seizing Inuyasha’s black and pearl and using it to send Inuyasha and Kagome away. We also see that it’s the spirit of the Tree of Ages who tells Jaken to put the cocoon of the Dream Butterfly onto Setsuna… because if Rin is put into a perpetual state of sleep, the curse will not spread.
Later in the episode, there was one more revelation regarding Riku and the truth behind him and how he came to be. Unfortunately, with this truth, Zero no longer wants to have him by her side. Right near the end of the episode, we see Zero seeing what memories are in each of the rainbow pearls, and becomes quite upset when she realizes that the three pearls that Moroha, Setsuna, and Towa had have layers of their memories. And with Moroha’s pearl, it also includes Izayoi’s memories, since it was in her rouge. Zero was really pissed off, but I thought she got what she deserved.
Now that all that is out of the way, I can focus on our three main characters. They are on their search to find Bokusen-Oh, and as they travel, Setsuna keeps sensing someone following them. She gives the other two an excuse to stay behind and sends them on their way. At first, three demons pop out and attack her, but she is saved by Riku, who is watching from nearby. Setsuna and Riku have an important conversation here, and it ends with Riku giving Setsuna Bokusen-Oh’s true location as a kind of “thank you gift.”
They discover that Bokusen-Oh is a tree spirit, and he tells them the root they’re looking for is from the Tree of Ages, which is located on Mount Musubi… the same mountain Towa has been looking for all this time because of the Dream Butterfly. It looks the storyline of looking for the Dream Butterfly and the story of looking for the root are finally coming together and becoming intertwined. I’ll admit, I was surprised that they found Bokusen-Oh so quickly, because I was sure this was going to be stretched out a little more. So having this development happen relative quickly was a pleasant surprise. And Bokusen-Oh tells them where to find Mount Musubi, but he neglects to tell them about the barrier around it. Setsuna realizes the barrier’s existence when they get there right near the end of the episode.
In the opening credits, there’s been a shot of a character that I’ve never seen before, and I was wondering who she was. We get a glimpse of this new character right at the end of the episode. Hopefully we’ll start learning about her in the next episode.
I was glad to finally have several of the remaining unanswered questions from the first season finally being answered. I kind of wish we could have gotten some of this information a little sooner, though. But with this week’s explanations, all of Sesshomaru’s actions finally make sense.
I noticed in the preview that it looks like Setsuna is going to find Rin in the Tree of Ages. But after this week’s explanations, there’s a real conundrum for rescuing Rin. If Rin leaves the Tree of Ages, the silver-scale curse will spread and she will die. But if they kill Zero, Rin will also die. Unless there’s some weird magic or concept that can save Rin, I don’t see that there can be a happy ending for her.
So far, this second season has been better than I was expecting, but I admit that I had set the bar pretty low when I went into this season. However, while I haven’t been terribly disappointed by any of the episodes yet, my fear is that somehow over the course of the season, the writers will find a way to mess things up again. At this point, I’m still taking this season one episode at a time with my lowered expectations.
Additional posts about Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon:
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