WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 1 of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, "Inuyasha: Since Then," now streaming on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Funimation.
The first episode of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, the new spinoff/sequel series to the classic anime Inuyasha, spends most of its time catching us up with old characters while also teasing a fresh state of affairs; raising a whole lot of questions in the process.
Episode 1, "Inuyasha: Since Then" is bookended with one of our new protagonists captured and put in peril. Towa -- who has distinctive white hair with a red streak, a hint at her parentage -- is interrogated by a local lord. She's wearing modern clothing but she has a book from the Reiwa era. The lord and his lackey use all this to deduce that she's from the future, and attempt to get her to reveal information that will help their clan thrive.
We don't get to spend much time with Towa in this episode, but what time we do spend with her speaks volumes. She's very confidant and level headed, and doesn't consider for a moment giving the lord and his servant the information they want. She's aware that making changes to the past will alter her future, and she wants to avoid that at all costs. She's clearly keeping up the Inuyasha tradition of strong female characters, though we still know very little about her as a person, and the anime doesn't confirm her parentage at this point.
Upon pulling out a rusted old bike seat, the lord's servant reveals his knowledge of another girl from the future -- Kagome, familiar to fans as the heroine of the original Inuyasha. He starts telling a story about Kagome, and this is where the bulk of the episode takes place.
We learn that after the events of Inuyasha concluded, Kagome and Inuyasha, along with companions Sango, Miroku and Shippo, are all living relatively quietly. Kagome is training to be a priestess, while Inuyasha and Miroku still seem to be up to some of their demon-hunting ways. Inuyasha's demonic half brother, Sesshomaru, lurks nearby as well, though he doesn't get up to much this episode.
Kagome and the rest are pulled back into action when a demon called Root Head, formerly sealed by Kikyo, the priestess who was reincarnated into Kagome and who she wound up competing with for Inuyasha's affections. Root head doesn't realize that Kikyo and the Shikon Jewel no longer exist, and is causing havoc among the local villages as it rampages around looking for them. All the while, a mysterious four-eyed owl demon also stalks the characters.
What follows is a fairly exciting action sequence where Inuyasha and the rest ultimately make fairly short work of Root Head. As would be imagined, at this point the team operates like a well-oiled machine, and so it isn't difficult to put down the demon. The real question is who or what caused Kikyo's sealing spell to break, allowing the demon out in the first place? This part of the episode also shows a tiny piece of Root Head wiggling away, still able to possibly regenerate.
The lord's servant's story ends here, leaving us uncertain as to what happened to Inuyasha, Kagome and the others. It seems clear that they aren't present in the world at this point. Are they dead, or trapped somewhere? Are they perhaps in the future? Whatever is it, it's clear that something big happened to take them off the board.
The episode concludes with Towa escaping with the help of her companions, Setsuna and Moroha. Setsuna is clearly the most reserved and serious of the trio, chiding Towa for being a handful, while Moroha seems to be a bit more wild and chaotic. Like Towa, their identities aren't clarified. This is teased with the lord's servant asking who they are, only for Moroha to declare that she knows who he is, and to promptly attack him. He is revealed to be the very same four-eyed owl demon as we saw earlier.
"Inuyasha: Since Then" leaves us with many more questions than answers. Who is the four-eyed demon? What happened to Inuyasha and Kagome? Who exactly are our new trio of heroines? The preview for next week's episode features Towa, Setsuna and Moroha a lot more, so we can expect to find out very soon. What is clear is that Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon is off to a promising start. It's an exciting and engaging half-hour of anime and hopefully will serve as a worthy successor to a classic. While it might be a bit confusing to newcomers, there's plenty here for old fans to enjoy.