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chaosandstardust · 2 years

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yo that ask talking about Kyoani was weird. Pretty sure the surviving family members would be thinking about other things than reused animation.

Anyway, I don’t blame the animators at all, they’ve gotta deal with ridiculously tight deadlines and possibly lots of overtime. And it’s Japan so I guess it would be possible overtime x 10. It’s not like they’re the ones who set the schedule and making directing decisions.

As someone who’s been in the industry, would it be fair to side-eye the upper management? I mean, I do question the people who okayed certain parts of the script. *cough* Rion/Rin comparison, comparing harassment to phone addiction, etc. *cough*

This is a layered issue. Because I do understand where people are coming from when they critique a show, and I understand why people use the term "lazy". I've used it. Because there are parts of Yashahime that do feel lazy. It feels like it was only thrown in there to fill time or because they had no better ideas.

But, on the flip side, if they were given no time to come up with better ideas, are they lazy, or are they just not given the time or money?

I'm going to use Naruto as an example here because Naruto would hit my list of top 10 series I would vanquish off the face of this earth if given a chance. Mostly due to how much time I've wasted thinking about it. It's extremely badly written. There are too many characters, multiple bloated arcs, the themes are a mess, and has less and less focus the longer the series goes on. But is Kishi really to blame for all of these aspects, or was it his boss who demanded a new chapter a week for the fifteen years and overworked him to the point where the man couldn't even go on his honeymoon until it was over also to blame here?

Now, it's totally fair to critique Kishi for the writing decisions that he made. Especially ones that he didn't seem to care that much about fixing, like his "I can't write female characters" BS and how he seems to be determined that Naruto be right all the damn time. But I also think the guys over at Weekly Shounen Jump are just as much if not more to blame for how the series went. If he had been given more time to develop his ideas, some of which I to this day find very intriguing and have borrowed them for my own work, it may have gone a lot differently. He's outright admitted that he was making stuff up as he went because his bosses demanded more chapters. I don't like him, and I think he has the tendency to take the easy way out when it comes to his arcs, but he's working on such a ridiculous timeline that I can't really blame him for taking the easier route, you know?

I get disliking Sumisawa. I have my issues with the man. He wrote a good chunk of the original Sailor Moon anime and I'm very bitter about how that show handled certain aspects from the manga, like the Usagi/Mamoru relationship. Like, I get it.

He still made the bad decisions, like putting Inukag away for 14 years, making his favouritism of Sesshomaru blatantly obvious, and worst of all, putting SessRin together without considering the broader implications or how fans of the original would feel. He didn't even have the decency to build up to it, and as far as I'm aware, hasn't made any real statement about it. He didn't hire any female writers to write the "girl power" show (after the 'sexism is bad' arc, I've decided my take on if you want to write about women and the patriarchy is you need to hire women to help you). These are all things he did and he should be called out for that.

But that doesn't mean that he hasn't been overworked and that doesn't mean he wasn't given a very small amount of time to write the show. The show was announced in March of 2020, his last credited show before that was in August of 2019. I don't know how fast the production rate is in Japan or how involved he was in that show (it just says he was a 'screenwriter' and that could've mean a variety of things), but he could've been on it right until it aired. He may have been given the green light by then, he may not have. My personal theory is that he probably only found out he was making Yashahime a few months before we found out; I literally said that in my video. Then there's all the pre-production, getting a writing team together, making sure actors are available, hiring new actors, etc, etc. This can take months or even years to do.

Or maybe that's not what happened. Maybe he was given all the resources in the world and told to go wild and he pissed it away by being prideful (D&D are my mortal enemies for doing exactly this). But I sincerely doubt that it was just that. Yashahime is a show that feels extremely low budget and like it wasn't given a lot of time to be written or the care that it needed to flourish. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that a lot of the writers and the animators on this show see it as a simple paycheque for them. Like do you guys think the people who write hallmark movies do it because they're super passionate about Christmas? No, it's a job. And yeah, you can critique them for doing his job badly, but if they're just looking to bring home some money and they're only given a few months to do it, it's probably not going to be great. All but two episodes of season 2 were written by Sumisama. This is absolutely insane to me, depending on how much control he had over the rest of the production. If there is one thing that all people need to realize about writing is that good writing (and good art!) takes time and care. And all evidence points to that they didn't have the luxury for that.

If I had to point to a person to blame for how bad the show is, I would say it's most likely combined effort. There are way too many factors to consider when making a TV show or movie, it's rarely the actions of just one person that makes something not work. There's producer meddling, prideful writers, editors and animators going off script, advertisers wanting their say, how healthy vs unhealthy the work environment was, it's nearly impossible to put the blame on one singular person. Everything about it screams low budget, though, from the blatant plot holes to the bad animation, and low-budget and fast turnaround rarely lead to good filmmaking.

I do side-eye the high-ups at Sunrise. Just like I side-eye any studio who are currently greenlighting reboot after sequel after reboot after sequel (cough cough, Netflix, Disney, cough, cough) for quick cash by sacrificing the original series and movies because they don't have big fandoms to generate the money that a reboot would. It creates an environment where studios feel like they don't have to try because the "dumb fans" will keep watching because it's more of whatever it was they loved. Just look at how many people are still watching Yashahime because they're grateful that it's more Inuyasha, while still complaining about how bad it is. More and more producers are choosing what projects to greenlight based on marketing and IP, rather than good ideas, and it sucks. Why would studios try when they can make money off of shows that are cheaper to make and take less effort and it doesn't matter if it's bad anyway?

(I'm not blaming fans for this, I've long made my peace with this aspect of fandom. But in all honesty, I'm confused watching how people will be so connected to a piece of media that they'll keep going to it even while they think it's bad. I can honestly say I've never been so attached to a piece of media that I would continue to consume it if I wasn't enjoying it anymore, no matter how much I loved the world or the characters.)

There's also just the fact that a lot of reboots and sequels often turn to the fandom for ideas. A lot of remakes of popular shows/movies (like Cinderella, for example) are going out of their way to "fix" pieces of the original media through reboots, whether it's fixing plot holes or adding more diversity. They're looking to please the masses, first and foremost. A lot of Yashahime was probably written from the perspective of "well, they liked it last time, and look how much they're still talking about this thing, they'll like it here".

So, yes, it's totally fair to criticize and side-eye the guys in charge. Just be fair about it, that's all I ask. Calling them lazy for doing a very common thing that happens in the industry because you don't like them just isn't very fair, in my opinion. Most people who watched the show probably didn't notice the re-used animation. I sure didn't.

The asks about the animation and how "lazy" it was did trigger me a bit, TBH. This culture of saying "lol, fuck the people making it" is very uncool and rampant among a lot of fandom spaces, and it especially sucks when it's coming from people who have no idea how it works. I've seen it time and time again, often over the littlest things like a scene being changed slightly in adapting a movie or a ship not becoming canon or even just things that a writer has absolutely no control over (for example, writers will rarely have much to do with marketing and yet I've seen fans of a certain ship harass a writing team over a marketing decision that "baited them" when again, the writers may not even have been aware of what the marketing team were doing).

My best friend who also works in the industry told me about how in a fandom she's in, the showrunners decided to change a scene from the books that was the beginning of the relationship between a pairing. They provided a pretty logical explanation for why it was changed (one actor wasn't available and they couldn't budget for a different day and it wouldn't have made sense story-wise for it to happen in a different location). She's had to explain time and time again to the people who also ship the pairing why that's a perfectly reasonable explanation. But because they were "too stupid to budget for it", obviously the showrunners hate the pairing and hate the original works and were just too prideful and arrogant with their spending. I've seen the screenshots of fans being like "FUCK THESE WRITERS, THEY SUCK" over ONE SCENE. It's extremely tiring.

Right now, there is a big push for film industry workers to get better pay and shorter hours across North America, and it’s slowly growing. Crew members are starting to wake up to the fact that it shouldn’t be like this. We shouldn’t have to work back breaking hours and never see our families and be told that we only get to have a life a few months out of the year.

While most of the fandom spaces are in support of this, there was a significant section which are like "you should be grateful! you're working in an industry that you love! does this mean that my favourite show is going to be pushed back a few months? HOW DARE YOU!" And it's very hard for me, as a person who is both a fan and loves fandom while also loving filmmaking and writing and having friends in this back-breaking industry who I want to support to see comments like that. It feels very personal. I love working as a filmmaker. I love acting, I love writing, I love being on set.

It just brought me back there a bit.

this turned out much longer than expected, LOL. Sorry.

Dunno why I keep apologizing for that because I tell y'all to expect a long answer.

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annebrontesrequiem · 3 years

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Between Yashahime’s Sesshomaru and Gou/Sotsu’s Satoko y’all fuckers should be paying me for subjecting myself to terrible incarnations of beloved characters

#on sotsu ep 7 I’m gonna punt satoko like a football #also yes hny sessh is 110% worse cause his bullshit has real world connotations and issues #I still am so irritated by both of them fuck #drop them off a bridge #preferably far away from one another #unless Satoko is gonna shoot Sessh then it’ll be fine #higurashi #gou critical #anti yashahime #bern speaks #mine

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flowersforone · 2 years

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Today's episode of Yashahime just left me thinking "wtf? Where did any of this come from?" Though watching Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango and their kids fight together was nice. MirSan's twins are are adorbs and way underutilized. I'd rather watch a series with those two and Moroha going on adventures instead of this hot mess.

#Inuyasha #Yashahime #yashahime critical #hny #it felt like most of this ep was one ass-pull after another #also it focused too much on the tanuki for some reason #2/10 would not recommend

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la-hannya · 2 years

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I just wanted to add that basing on what Takahashi very clearly just said recently— that anything and I mean ANYTHING that comes after the manga's end (the end of Inuyasha: Final Act for the anime fans) is non-canon in Takahashi's eyes. That infamous drama cd and this spin-off are what-if scenarios or an alternate timeline. There isn't a direct sequel till Takahashi seemingly writes a sequel herself with her blood & sweat or truly directly oversees it which I doubt she'll ever will. She's seen Shiina's version of the HNY manga but isn't involved in any of the story, he just looks to her for advice or approval in certain things but that's it; same thing for Pedosawa who I'm sure she's pissed with right now. Nothing of the story is her except her characters being used and the design of the 3 main girls (mainly Moroha cause the twins were a request while the before mentioned came naturally).

So if we ever get a new completely different spin-off in the years to come, just know it's non-canon till Takahashi says otherwise and we're free to like it or criticize it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#anti sessrin #anti rinsess #antisessrin #antiyashahime

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boycottyashahime · 4 years

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You're so stupid. JUST DON'T WATCH IT. You and YOU alone are responsible for what media you consume. If you don't like where they are taking the story. JUST DON'T FUCKING WATCH IT. MY GOD. IGNORE IT. Get a life and stop spreading all this negativity, I hate coming on here and seeing your bullshit on my tag.

It happened! I've gotten my first hate ask! I'm so honored!!

I'd like to thank my agent, whose eye for my talent in recognizing and pointing out corporate efforts to rob people of their attention and money is unparalleled.

I'd like to thank my mother, who always encouraged me speak the truth, even when others label it as "negativity" in a desperate attempt to ignore any doubts that my points might dredge up.

I'd like to thank Sunrise for being money-grubbing cowardly worms who exemplify why fans of all media should wake up and stop supporting derivative nonsense before all that ever gets produced are sequels and existing franchises and creativity is sapped out of the industry.

And I'd like to thank the person who sent me my first hate, who probably immediately blocked me after writing it so that they wouldn't have to have their blind corporate bootlicking questioned again, and never have to confront their expectation that the only discourse around Hanyou no Yashahime should be bubbly excitement with NO CRITICISM WHATSOEVER of the circumstances and trends that brought it about. The difficulty with which this individual has to endure the mere existence of contrary expression and simply SEEING a post that disagrees with their thoughtless support for garbage must be immense. The tantrum that they've thrown as a result is possibly the most inspiring I've seen yet.

Thank you all!

#inuyasha #hanyo no yashahime #hanyou no yashahime #hny #i'm indeed posting under these tags again #they don't belong to the querent #they belong to anyone who wants to discuss the show #including people like me #who want to express negative criticism #i have as much right to speak on this subject as you #blocking me is always an option #if you can't handle seeing a bit of shitposting

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zacksfairest · 7 years

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SOOOOO OMY Y UF CKCING H E AR T STOPPPEDD???? MM AA TTHIEWREEW HAA S TH E GOOD S CRU FF!!!!!!!!

#I HAVE NOT STOPPED SHAKING SINCE THE STREAM STARTEDOOO H HNY MG GO DDDD #my dungeon master #critical role tag

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queen-feisty-pants · 2 years

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While the InuKagMor reunion posts flooding my dashboard actually give me joy, I have quite a few criticisms about how the scene was written and quite a few concerns, frankly, about the content that I'll see on this site starting next week.

I honestly hate writing posts like this. HnY isn't canon. I haven't been following it for ages. But, alas, the new content involving my OTP of OTPs has dragged me down a rabbit hole once again.

With all of that having been said, if you still enjoy HnY, I advise that you skip this post. While I genuinely don't intend to insult anyone involved in its production and its fans, I acknowledge that it's still not fun to come across criticism of something you enjoy. I am not open for debate, and any disrespectful behavior in response to this post will immediately earn a block and report. Consider yourselves warned.

Rant & musings under the cut

Kagome's glare and tone of voice when confirming whether the girl standing before her was Moroha made me uncomfortable. I can’t help but feel like they could’ve directed that part differently. On top of that, adding the cliche comedy routine of one person nervously backing away and stuttering in response to someone else seeming angry just seemed out of place. It totally belied the gravity that is expected of a scene like this.

I just know that they'll be relying on running gags from the OG series, and the very notion of it is already making me tired. While I don't mind Inuyasha and Moroha butting heads - Actually, I think it'd be kind of cute, if done properly. - I have a sinking feeling that it'll be overdone, and I wouldn't be surprised if we get some tasteless slapstick comedy out of it. As much as it disgusts me to type this, I wouldn't be surprised if they show their bickering escalating to the point where Inuyasha bonks Moroha in the head for overstepping boundaries - all for the sake of comic effect. And, naturally, it'd be followed by a good old-fashioned osuwari command to tie everything in a neat, little bow. (Before anyone gets on my case for this, I'm well aware that there is no guarantee that this will happen, but the fourth film, which was also a creation of the team behind this series, unfortunately provides precedent for this type of behavior. Also, see my next point.)

While the reunion is heartwarming overall, Inuyasha's behavior thus far strikes me as OOC. His reaction to Moroha's arrival seems to be more similar to the kind of nonchalance, for lack of a better word, he'd display in the OG series. Similarly, the screenshots of him awkwardly blushing because he doesn't know what to say to his own daughter just don't sit right with me. While these kinds of interactions are admittedly more up Kagome's alley, he'd matured significantly by the end of the OG series. When you consider that many years have passed since this point of growth, it doesn't seem consistent with his character arc. I can allow some awkwardness, but it just doesn't make sense for it to manifest in this manner and to this extent.

I still don't see how Inuyasha and Kagome couldn't find a way out of the black pearl for 14 years. It's a horribly contrived disservice to their characters. That's all I have to say and can say about this mess.

Other random thoughts:

If Kagome uses the osuwari command, especially in front of Moroha, I'll fucking riot. It doesn't even have to be in the kind of situation that I mentioned above. No matter what the reason, if they resort to this gag, it'd be tired and inappropriate.

I truly hope we'll get a scene of Inuyasha and Kagome completely obliterating Jyūbei in retaliation for everything he put their daughter through. After this point, my only investment in this series is whether we get a moment like this.

If I'm correct in assuming that Kagome is watching something on a smartphone in the screenshots from next week's episode, then she'd better start asking enough questions to figure out how her family fit into all of this and inquire into their healths. Similarly, it'd only be natural for her to bring up her own adventures as a teenager and begin some sort of discussion about time travel. I'm not expecting much, given the show's track record, but it's the bare minimum. Also, lbr, it'd totally be a missed opportunity for pure comedy gold if they don't find a way to reveal that Moroha maxed out Souta's credit card.

This is kind of an abrupt end, but there's nothing else that comes to mind right now. See you guys later when the next set of spoilers whip me up into another verbal frenzy, I guess? ^^;

#i'm leaving this untagged for various reasons.#at least for the moment.

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lilyginnyblackv2 · 3 years

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Lol, some fans are like, “Stop calling him Loliconmaru!” lol - nope. It is what it is.

#anti-sessrin #antisessrin #anti sessrin #anti-yashahime #anti yashahime #antiyashahime #hny criticism

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voxvulpina · 2 years

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Who is 'asaishinan' actually? Is she just an anti or someone significant. Because I habe seen her name frequently but I don't know who she is 🥲 I may sound dumb

A shipper asking her to be neutral, so she is kinda an important person?

I'm not sure they're an Anti in our sense of the word - we're upset by the grooming and pedo implications in HNY, it seems to me that what bothers Asaishinan is more the fact HNY is unfaithful to RT'work, and also the shoddiness of the plot/animation? They have criticised HNY's depiction of SessRin, though. I remember them saying they don't think the manga supported SessRin and they recently complained that Rin is a mother but looks like she's in her mid-teens, which is enough to make them an Anti in raisin eyes. They're a fairly vocal critic of HNY in general. What's upsetting shippers is that Asaishinan is a Japanese fan, meaning their opinion actually matters to the raisins (unlike ours) and they can't scream "All of Japan loves SessRin!!!" at them.

#anti sessrin #anti yashahime

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chaosandstardust · 2 years

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Unfortunately I have a genuine question about Towa from HnY.

Why would she be calling Rin "mother"? Setsuna too to be honest.

I've read your posts once before on adopted kids/ppl but I can't remember how you'd feel about this.

Towa had parents, an adoptive mom and dad. Is it "wrong" of her to call the 13 year old she's never known "mother" just because she found out somehow (I don't know how, I don't watch this shit) that Rin birthed her?

And Setsuna... Setsuna was raised in caves? Was a drifter??? Idfk. Every post I see on her character she's acting differently than the last. But it still seems ooc for her to be interested in Rin at all, let alone calling her "mother". She didn't give a shit about Towa for the longest, I assume she similarly didn't care about P*domaru. Why the sudden interest in middle school mommy?

I WROTE OUT THIS ENTIRE POST AND THEN FUCKING TUMBLR JUST DECIDED TO DELETE IT THIS TOOK DAYS AND I’M PRETTY SURE THE ORIGINAL POST WAS MUCH MORE CONCISE I’M SORRY

And I unfortunately have a genuine answer, LOL!

My overall opinion on this is that I don’t ever feel it’s necessary to police any adopted child’s relationship with their birth parents. There are way too many different situations that would lead to a child being adopted, and way too many varied experiences to narrow them all down. My own experience with adoption is going to be different from others. If Setsuna and Towa want to refer to Rin as mom, I think that’s great for them.

Before we get into it; I like the Sota-Towa dynamic. I definitely don’t think it’s perfect, but they passed the (very low) bar. They did fine. The only reason I didn’t talk about it in my original video was because I wanted to wait to see what they did with them in season 2.

I’m about to go on a roll here, because I’ve been thinking about this ever since they brought Inukag back, and it was clear that they were just going to brush over and ignore Moroha’s feelings towards her biological parents and simplify it into “they’re my bio parents, so they’re better”. I could yell about the Inukagmor dynamic too, but for now, let’s stick to Towa, Setsuna and Sessrin (SESSRINTOSET?).

The issue with how they approach the SessRin-Towa-Setsuna dynamic is that they’re asking me to be emotionally invested in their relationship without ever doing the work to get me there. This is compounded by the fact that Towa and Setsuna had two very different childhoods and if they were well written, would likely have two very different reactions to meeting their birth parents. They come at this from two opposing angles, and it needed to be dealt with in two different ways. Ironically, they address this in the show that they’re very different, but not when it actually matters.

(WEIRD, DONTCHA THINK? IT’S ALMOST LIKE THIS SHOW LIKES TO PRETEND TO BE DEEP BUT IT’S AS DEEP AS A PUDDLE WHICH HAS ALREADY DRIED UP!)

First off, Towa.

So, like you said. Towa had someone to take care of her. She had people who stepped into the spot that Sesshomaru and Rin and Setsuna weren’t there to fill. She suffered a terrible loss, but she still had somebody. But, and this is a big but; she is in a space where she is not comfortable. The first episode she’s in talks at length about how uncomfortable she is in the modern world. She doesn’t have any friends, and doesn’t care about school. Her family loves her, but they don’t understand her and on some level want her to hide herself.

While I did criticize how well things go for Towa in the feudal era, my critique wasn’t that she was suddenly comfortable, it was that she never struggled and things just kinda work out for her and she always has to be the most powerful one while also being stupid (GIVING THE PEARL TO RIKU WAS VERY STUPID). Her comfort in the feudal era opens up a very interesting problem; which is that suddenly, she’s choosing between her comfort and a family she loves.

Towa isn’t just picking between two houses or even two cities, she’s picking between two different timelines (if they go with making it easy for them to time travel, they didn’t understand the point of Kagome’s sacrifice in the first place i said what i said).

In one, she has a family who she loves and who has loved her for a decade, and in the other, she’s finally comfortable and has found people who understand her and she can fully be herself without much issue. She doesn’t have to hide herself at all in the feudal era. She can totally be herself around Moroha and Setsuna, which she can’t really do that around the Higurashis. Moroha and Setsuna get annoyed with her, sure, but it’s never about who she is as a person, it’s more about how she’s occasionally just really naive and they've never had that luxury to be that. Don’t get me wrong, I have a ton of critiques for Towa’s character and how the three girls operate, but overall, I think that what the show is trying to express is that they finally feel at home with each other (Towa liking being in the feudal era, Moroha expressing never really having friends before, Setsuna not leaving when I don’t think it would be hard for her to do, etc).

So it makes sense for me that she would latch onto any semblance of a parental figure she could find as a way to replace what she would lose if she stayed in the feudal era, which is Sesshomaru and Rin, and would be excited at the prospect of having parents who finally understand her and let her be herself. But she would also feel guilty, because there’s a sense of betraying her adopted family. The modern era has a family that she loves, but she’s not comfortable. The feudal era has a group of friends that she adores, the potential of a family who understands her, and she finally feels at home in her life. That tips the scales. But this would probably lead onto guilt for her, because it feels like she’s abandoning Sota and his wife, whatever her name is. This is why I loved the Sota goodbye scene, because Towa did feel guilty for wanting to go back, but Sota wanted her to be happy first and foremost and he was willing to let her go without any issue.

Setsuna, on the other hand, has had the exact opposite experience; she’s never really had to hide herself, she lives freely out in the open (at least as much as she can as a half demon), but she’s lacked the unconditional love and support that Towa got from the Higurashis. She has had relationships with Shiori and Kaede and maybe even Kohaku, but it’s never really implied they’re all that close or that she depends on them all that much. She’s a very independent person. Towa’s unconditional affection and support are completely foreign to her. On top of that, she doesn’t know what she lost because she doesn’t really know what it’s like to have it in the first place. Having Towa and Moroha in her corner is a strange adjustment.

(god i could’ve loved this little girl gang, i want to love them looking at gifs like this when you can see all their personalities in one image; Moroha goes HIGH FIVE, Towa’s like YEAH, and Setsuna’s going I’M GONNA PRETEND I DON’T LIKE IT)

I have talked about how Setsuna latching onto Rin right away isn’t that bizarre to me. What’s weird is that she doesn’t show any tendency to care that much about her biological family before that happens. She doesn’t care to know Sesshomaru or be impressed by him all that much. She’s very dismissive of Towa until near the end of season 1. Which shows you really have to prove yourself to be worthy of affection in some form from Setsuna’s end. She warms up to Moroha much faster than she does Towa because Moroha understands the world they live in and she doesn’t have to babysit Moroha the way she does Towa (also, Moroha and Setsuna is a seriously underused dynamic in this show, I’ll say it!).

This goes to show that for Setsuna, knowing her biological family isn’t much of a priority for her. Which is totally fine, some people don’t care. In the first season, Towa and Sesshomaru are just two people who she happens to share DNA with. What makes Rin so different?

Convenience. That’s what makes Rin so different. The “Dany kinda forgot about the Iron Fleet” kinda convenience (JUSTICE FOR DANY). It was inconvenient for Setsuna to care about her biological family in the first season, so she didn’t, but now it’s convenient for her, so she’s going to care. It’s that simple. But it’s established in the first season that she needs to have time to warm up to any family figure that she’s suddenly going to have in her life, and her characterization in season one should’ve told us that Rin shouldn’t have been much different. Maybe Rin wouldn’t have had to prove herself as much because of Towa already laying the ground work and like a lot of us she potentially connects having a mother to comfort, but there would likely be a period where Setsuna didn’t want anything to do with her.

So you’ve got two girls who are probably going to have very different reactions and reasons to want to be around their biological parents. Towa would probably attach on too fast while feeling like she’s betraying her adopted parents but be excited at the fact that her mom and dad finally GET her, Setsuna would take her time because she’s never had that experience of having an adult care before and would chafe at the confines of having parents. All three girls would probably have a much easier time connecting with and bonding with each other than they would their parents, let’s be real.

This brings us to Sesshomaru and Rin and what role they would have to play individually for their children. Because fixing this family should’ve been at the root of this season if they really wanted to go the “Sessrin with sesshomaru is more of a egotistical jackass than usual on the side” meal plan.

Now Rin, she’s nothing right now. She’s just kinda... there. I have talked about about how they could’ve fixed so many of the problems with SessRin without changing a single thing from season one if they wanted to, but they didn’t want to fix it so they didn’t. When Rin is let out of the tree, I wish they had shown her and Sesshomaru being actual partners. But I want to push it farther than that.

Right from the beginning, Rin is not a priority for Towa and Setsuna. The show is primarily about their relationship with each other, and the hierarchy after that goes: Moroha, Sesshomaru. Rin isn’t even on the list. They don’t talk about her at all for the entire first season unless prompted to by someone else, and it’s never with each other (Towa has one conversation with Kaede about Rin, and she doesn’t mention this to Setsuna). When they find out they have a father, they don’t ask “who is our mother?” She is never part of the conversation (not that Sesshomaru is ever really a part of the conversation for them either, but at least they’re aware that he exists).

But what if she was part of that dynamic from the beginning? What if she was there in the forest with them and they thought they had lost her? What if Towa not only felt guilt for losing Setsuna, but losing Rin as well? What if their problems came from not only their different worldviews but the loss of their mother?

Imagine if at the end of season one, when Zero dies and Sesshomaru brings her back to life, rather than the fake out of Setsuna dying, they instead have it that Rin comes out of the tree. This means that Sesshomaru would actually have to get Towa’s and Setsuna’s help to deal with Zero ASAP, forcing them to work together. After fixing it near the end of episode 2 of season 2, Rin is reunited with her daughters. After seeing how Sesshomaru has not only hurt her children, but also her brother in law, her sister in law, and their daughter, hasn’t even told Kaede where she is, she doesn’t even want to look at him, much less be his loving, supportive wife (more on that in a second).

The first half of season 2 is mostly just random filler arcs that really go nowhere. Setsuna, Towa, and Moroha aren’t even together for a good chunk of them; they’re in entirely different filler storylines. That time would’ve been better spent bringing Rin into the picture. An entire arc where they work together to bring Inukag back (who should’ve disappeared at the beginning of the story not 14 years earlier and should’ve been captured by Kirinmaru not trapped by Sesshomaru LIKE COME ON). They could’ve connected and built up a relationship. Like just imagine a bunch of episodes where demon hunter Rin and the girls travel together. That could’ve been so fun! In the show, Setsuna goes through her first human night (and not with Towa, with Hisui, of all people, like, come on) and as I was watching it I couldn’t help but be like “OK, what if Rin and Towa were here, and Rin stayed up with them in solidarity.” That would’ve been a great bonding experience for them, and richen her relationship with her daughters.

Plus, when Inukag meet Setsuna and Towa, Setsuna apologizes for what her father had done. But if that had been Rin doing that instead, it would’ve given Rin much more depth and given insight into how she feels about all of this. Now it’s just “Sesshomaru knows best, better listen to him”. Like there are so many moments in season 2 where I was like “OK, what if Rin was present for this conversation”.

Rin has to be two very different things for her individual daughters. For Setsuna, she has to prove herself as someone who can be depended on and let Setsuna work through her abandonment issues. For Towa, she has to give her space to be completely herself and be what Sota/the Higurashis couldn’t be for her. It would also be a chance to let Rin grieve her loss; raising her children. She missed everything. Their first steps, their first words, the chance to show them how to hunt or fight or do anything. She didn’t get to sing them lullabies or tell them stories or help them with their problems. I can’t imagine the pain a mother would go through in that situation. In all honesty, I really do believe that Rin would be such a good mom. She’d be the kind of mom who’d get down with her kids in the dirt and go on adventures with them. Like she’d be such a fun, imaginative mother.

And the worst part is that while she couldn’t be there for them, she had zero control over it, Sesshomaru also wasn’t there for them. Like not even in a “Sesshomaru is an important lord” way. He literally did not know his daughters. At all. When they heard his name for the first time, they had no idea who he was. While I guess you could argue that sending your kids away to be trained was normal for noble families, EVEN THE MOST CONSERVATIVE NOBLE FAMILIES STILL KNEW EACH OTHER AND WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE! SESSHOMARU DIDN’T VISIT SETSUNA ONCE IN A DECADE!

I’ve been pretty forthcoming over the fact that I don’t like Sesshomaru. I used to say I was neutral towards him, but going to watch Yashahime has reminded me of how much I disliked him in the original. And it comes down to this:

Sesshomaru is not a guy who has really been held accountable for what he has done in the past up until now, not really, and if he ever were to have a partner, it would have to be someone who was willing to tell him when he fucked up. While Sesshomaru is definitely out of character in this series, I don’t actually find all of his actions entirely unbelievable. Like his insistence of doing things by himself and doing what he feels he has to do to protect his loved ones, even at the cost of others. And his egomania. And his terrible communication skills. My god, his terrible communication skills. I could absolutely see Sesshomaru struggling to be in a romantic partnership because of this.

Rin should be angry at him. I am angry for her. I wanted her to throw something at him. And it wasn’t just her who was impacted, it was her daughters. It was Inuyasha and Kagome, who lost their daughter. It was her niece, who had to struggle without her parents to love her unconditionally. It was Kaede and Kohaku, who had no idea of what happened to her. Taking the time to establish that grief and anger away from Sesshomaru, to work on the relationship she had with her daughters outside of Sesshomaru, to struggle through the guilt she feels over all of this happening because she was stupid enough to get cursed, would’ve worked a lot better than just throwing them all together at the end and expecting it to just work because biOloGy.

There’s a moment in season 2 of Yashahime where Sesshomaru looks like he’s going to die. Rin’s reaction would’ve been a lot more gut wrenching if they had established how angry she was with him. If they had given me even the smallest glimpse into a healthy relationship as a married couple before all of this happened and given me a reason to care about getting those crazy kids back together. If they had shown me what was was lost when Zero put the curse on Rin and what it was that made them fall in love in the first place. Then maybe I would’ve cared.

Now, Rin has to get her daughters to help her protect him, and that brings them together. Then Sesshomaru is forced to C O M M U N I C A T E with his wife about Kirinmaru. The last part of the season is about Sesshomaru learning about his daughters while taking down Kirinmaru. Them working together. Rather than the random scene we got at the end with him suddenly good with them. The closest thing we get like that in canon is when Sesshomaru distracts Kirinmaru while Moroha, Setsuna, and Towa go inside the pearl. And maybe I’ll make people mad when I say this:

I really want to see Sesshomaru as a father. And not the way he is now, but as going out of his way to attempt to be a dad. His relationship with Rin could be analysed as a father - daughter relationship (if you want) but in the original text it was so vague that it could be construed in a variety of ways. I’ve always seen it as more older brother - younger sister/unwilling guardian - unwanted charge relationship, less about him being a directly parental figure and more about him just letting her hang out. I don’t believe that he doesn’t have power over her, because regardless, he is still an adult and she is a child, but I don’t see him as her father. Even so, there is a certain distance between him and Rin.

For Rin, he never had to work at their relationship. She just listened to him without question for the most part. No temper tantrums. No arguing. Nothing of the sort that suggests “parenting”. With Towa and Setsuna, that distance would have to be significantly smaller. To be a father figure to them, he would actually have to work at it. It won’t work like it did with Rin with a child that he decided to be a father to. He would need to reach out to them, because why would they trust him after all of this? You’re asking them to invest in a man who has never done the same for them (which is a common tactic used to dismiss children whose parents have abandoned them when they say they want nothing to do with them; “they’re your father, you should be the bigger person and reach out”).

Like imagine Sesshomaru actually teaching Setsuna and Towa how to control their powers (at the end of season one they were saying Setsuna had an energy whip and I just wanted ONE SCENE of Sesshomaru telling her she’s using it wrong and she’s like “fuck you, you abandoned me in a forest fire” and Towa going “I’d normally be the peacemaker but she’s right” and Rin just files her nails in the corner). Having him actually have try and establish a relationship with his daughters is what I’m looking for. Being a source of comfort for them and trying to understand them.

This makes Towa’s decision to stay much harder for her because she suddenly has a place where she can be totally herself and Setsuna starts to learn how to depend on having adults who actually give a crap.

ANYWAY THE POINT IS: it doesn’t make sense. Don’t even try. It’s pointless. Could’ve been a really interesting look into adoption and knitting back together a broken family, instead it’s an oversimplified “they’re my biological family so they’re better”. All of the emotional baggage is put onto Rion and Kirinmaru, which is an extremely basic “I love you but I can’t support you” storyline, rather than where it belongs, which is on Towa, Setsuna, Rin, and Sesshomaru. My conclusion is this: it’s not “wrong” for Towa and Setsuna to call Sesshomaru and Rin mother and father. It’s just badly developed.

Like they haven’t even had the “what do I call you” conversation yet, which is probably the closest thing to a universal experience that adopted children have where you have to ask your biological parents or the people who have just decided to let you into their family “hey, what do i call you”.

I normally wouldn’t make a pages long analysis on “this is what they should’ve done” but this series is so boring and not deep in the least that it’s very hard to not come up with “what if” scenarios because of I was dumb enough to make that first video and HERE I AM. I’M WELL AWARE THAT I’M PUTTING WAY MORE THOUGHT INTO THIS THAN SUNRISE EVER EVEN HAD THE CHANCE TO.

(I am trapped. Send help.)

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