Okaaay…after watching this episode, I concluded that Kirinmaru is one of the worst selfish fathers I’ve ever seen. His love for his daughter, Rion, was overbearing to the point he won’t even let her go after death. 600 years ago, Rion was killed, and Kirinmaru refused to accept her death that he forcefully bound her soul in the world of living by sealing her in the mountain and then used the Dream Butterfly so he could see her in his dreams, preventing her from resting in peace. Not only that, if somehow her seal was broken, he had set a security measure to make sure Rion will stay bound in her seal. I know that Kirinmaru is a selfish character, but I never thought he’d go as far as disregarding his own daughter’s feeling.
I genuinely felt sorry for Rion. She and her father were close when she was alive, but I have no doubt she was also troubled by his selfishness. Firstly, he always took her with him to all of his battles that he seeked despite knowing the danger with the excuse to show her how difficult living the life they have. Secondly, he wants to explore every part of the world, including the modern time, even if it means destroying the world itself. And now, even in death, she still must deal with her father’s selfishness. Not only that, for 600 years she was trapped, she could only watched her father stepping closer to destroy the world that she loved. For this reason, she’s more than willing to lend a hand to Towa and the others to stop her beloved father, even if it means killing him. Yeah, Kirinmaru had gone too far. It must be a torture to be sealed in the mountain all alone like that. If it’s an ordinary person, I won’t be surprised if they went crazy from solitude.
Towa finally got her new sword, the Zanseiken, which was a pair with Kirinmaru’s Bakuseiken. Like most characters who gained new weapons or power up, Towa easily defeated several demons all by herself with her new sword. And about Towa, I chuckled at the part when she used Riku like a phone to speak with Kirinmaru. When Towa held Riku’s face, I expected that was exactly what she would do. She’s still very dense when it comes to romance, so I figured that it’s still too early for them to kiss or the sort. Poor Riku though, being shouted at like that. lol
Even though Rion has cut her connection with her father, she still maintains a good relationship with Riku while knowing that her father would see and hear through Riku. I’m glad that she doesn’t think badly of Riku, even if he’s a part of Kirinmaru. Riku himself also seemed to be fond of her. I’m curious what kind of relationship they have before her death. Maybe Rion somehow has something to do with Riku gaining emotions? Once again, props to Riku for killing all the demons who targeted Towa and the others. And he didn’t even seem to break a sweat from all the clean up until morning.
And Sesshomaru and Setsuna! I’m so touched when Sesshomaru chose to believe in Setsuna’s growth and cut down the Dream Butterfly. With the butterfly gone, Setsuna was able to regain her ability to sleep, but this came at the cost of Rin’s curse reactivated. However, Sesshomaru never doubted his daughter would be able to master her naginata and sever the ties between Rin and Zero before the time runs out. But I doubt that means Sesshomaru would just stay silent and just leave everything to his daughters and niece. I’m sure he’ll do something to help Rin.
Setsuna was finally able to get her long-awaited sleep. 10 years worth of sleep seemed to catch up to her, so she fell asleep not longer after the Dream Butterfly was destroyed. It won’t be too weird if Setsuna didn’t wake up for a very very long time or often getting sleepy. From the preview of the next episode, most likely Setsuna couldn’t help but fall asleep and as the result got captured by…I forgot her name, if I remembered it right, she was the rich daughter from season 1 in episode 19 or something. Seeing Setsuna being dressed up was refreshing. It’s been a while since I saw her in other clothes. Hisui would finally appear again…I couldn’t be happy because so far all of Hisui’s appearances were at filler episodes that did little to no contribution to the main story, so I won’t expect much for the next episode too.
More’s the pity the source manga never bothered covering Sesshoumaru’s past and/or tribulations, because times like this you wonder what sort of experiences and sights he had that shaped his present-day personality and beliefs. Personally I wouldn’t have minded a Sesshoumaru prequel spinoff, although who knows if Takahashi Rumiko would’ve agreed to it.
Speaking of Hisui returning, I’ve just realized that Shippou’s the only OG cast member that hasn’t appeared at all throughout Yashahime’s run (barring the 1st episode). Given even OG side characters like Kaede and Koga got shown/mentioned at least once, it’s very surprising for Shippou to not debut so far.
Sorry for very long late replying this. I was busy and kept forgetting. I agree that showing Sesshomaru in his younger days would help giving the depth of his character. I’m always curious how Sesshomaru is when he was younger. And yeah, I’m so disappointed that Shippou still hasn’t appeared. I was looking forward to see how he would be growing up. (TT_TT)