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Volume 1

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Chapters Originally Published in:
Shonen Sunday Super 2021 Vol. 11 - 2022 Vol. 1

Yashahime Vol 1

Chapter 1: 一ノ章 とわ
Ichi no sho Towa
(Journey 1: Towa)
Towa Higurashi is a popular student at an all girls school where many of her classmates obsess over her, going so far as to call her Lady Towa. She struggles to engage with her classmates, and the principal of the school calls her adopted father, Sota Higurashi, to discuss the why she has her hair dyed an unnatural color, a fact that Sota refutes. Towa's adopted sister, Mei, is equally smitten just like Towa's classmates and childishly confesses her feelings and desire to date Towa and even marry her. Another girl comes to confess her feelings for Towa and Mei becomes jealous as Towa playfully flirts with her classmate, asking if she is familiar with her family's shrine. Towa's hair gains a streak of red as she speaks to these girls, but it fades away nearly as quickly. At Higurashi Shrine Towa gives her great-grandpa a back rub while Mei looks at a photograph of Kagome and asks Big Momma (Kagome's mother, Mei and Towa's grandmother) if Kagome had special powers. As Big Momma and great-grandpa think back to Kagome leaving with Inuyasha, Big Momma mentions that Kagome got married and has gone somewhere they cannot go. They also think back to the unusual circumstances that lead Towa to appear there as a child, dressed in clothes that seemed to be from another time. That evening great-grandpa gives Towa a blade from their storehouse. The girls from school arrive and find Towa wearing boy's clothes and excitedly snap pictures of her. It seems Towa's flirtatiousness was all a ruse however, she could tell that her classmate had a demon attached to her. Towa makes short work of the creature with the knife given to her by great-grandpa. Towa makes short work of the creature as Sota happily films the battle. All seems well until the air turns ominous around the shrine and Mistress Centipede emerges from the Goshinboku Tree and begins to battle Towa. The tide of battle turns against Towa when suddenly an arrow strikes Mistress Centipede and Moroha and Setsuna appear and join the fight. Having broken her knife on Mistress Centipede, Setsuna tosses Towa a new blade, one that she instantly seems able to imbue with mystical energy. The battle rages and Towa, Setsuna and Moroha soon find themselves pursuing Mistress Centipede back through the Goshinboku Tree and into the past. After slicing off the demon's head Moroha tells Towa that Setsuna is her sister and this is Towa's first time back in her own time, the Sengoku period, where she has been missing from for ten years.

Published In:
  • Shonen Sunday Super 2021 Vol. 11
  • Yashahime Vol. 1
Publication Date: September 25, 2021
Pages: 3 (full color) 61 (black and white)
Anime Adaptation: Episode 2: The Three Princesses & Episode 3: The Dream Butterfly
Notes:
  • On August 31, 2021 Takashi Shiina wrote on his Twitter, "The first thing I did was look at the character design sheets that Sunrise gave me. The character's various parts and composition is memorized in my hand, and then it is forgotten and drawn as one's own character (laughs). You shouldn't copy it completely, and even if you try, you can't do it the same anyway."
  • Shiina also showed off two backgrounds that his assistants drew, the Bone-Eater Well and the Goshinboku Tree.
  • Shiina wrote a blog post about his approach to the first chapter which can be read here.
  • Shiina discusses one of the changes he made from the anime was that he believed Osamu Kirin seemed to be an English teacher in the anime, but he decided to have him quoting Japanese Waka poetry in the first few pages of the chapter instead.
  • The poem Kirin is quoting is Shin Kokin Wakashuu (New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems/新古今和歌集) by Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家). The poem references building a floating bridge within a dream, and Shiina said he wanted the question to evoke a feeling in readers as if asking if they would like to build a bridge back to the world of Inuyasha.
  • There is also a reference from Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji). The reference is a mention of the final chapter, chapter 54, entitled "Yume no Ukihashi" (夢浮橋), "The Bridge of Dreams."
  • Genji Monogatari was written sometime before 1021 CE making it the oldest novel in the world. Yashahime takes place towards the end of the Sengoku period in the early 1600s.
  • This issue also included an interview with Rumiko Takahashi discussing Inuyasha and Yashahime.

  • Table of Contents
    • A: Please enjoy the comicalized version of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon!

Chapter 2: 二ノ章 戦国の絆 (前編)
Ni no sho Sengoku no kizuno (zenpen)
(Journey Two: The Rift Between Worlds, Part 1)
Upon the arrival of Setsuna and Moroha at the Higurashi shrine in the present day they battled against Mistress Centipede. Just as they are about to pursue her back through time, Sota grabs Moroha's cloak and asks if she knows Inuyasha and Kagome. When she responds that they are her parents Sota screams to his mother that this is Kagome's daughter. Soon the girls are back in the Sengoku period and they go to the village to meet with "Granny Kaede" who is overjoyed to meet Towa for the first time in ages. Moroha explains that it was Kaeda who raised Setsuna and her. A feast is prepared to welcome Towa home and the modern girl hesitates as she tries the food. Kaede comments that Kagome did the same when she arrived in the past. Towa asks if her aunt is in this era and Kaede explains that Towa's aunt, Kagome, married Inuyasha and has lived in the Sengoku era for quite some time along with her mother, Rin. Towa is shocked to hear of her mother and Kaede realizes that Towa remembers nothing of her brief time in the Sengoku era before she was swept away to the future. Setsuna and Moroha explain that neither of them recall how they met and so Towa begs Kaede to tell her about her Aunt Kagome so she can tell Papa Sota and Grandmother Higurashi what happened to her. Kaede explains the history of the two brothers, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, how they battled one another and how Sesshomaru could not understand his father and his half-brother's love for humans. Kaede explains that it was after he met Rin that he began to understand how Inuyasha's love of Kagome made him stronger. Kaede explains that time passed quickly and Rin grew up and spent more and more time with Sesshomaru. Kagome teased Inuyasha that she could use a little romance in her life like what Sesshomaru and Rin. More time passed and soon Rin had Towa and Setsuna after Kagome gave birth to baby Moroha. Towa is shocked to learn that she is a half-demon and recalls her unusual abilities growing up. Moroha and Towa talk about how the children they grew up around teased and bullied them because they were different too. Setsuna explains that though there are good and kind demons like Shippo, she feels alive when she is in battle against powerful demons. Towa agrees that she feels this way too and an unseen voice says this is because they share the blood of his lord, the great dog demon. Looking around Towa is shocked to see the tiny flea demon, Myoga sitting on her hand. Kaede brings the conversation back to what happened the last time she saw Inuyasha and the others. He came to her in the middle of a rainy night to say that he had to leave and Kagome, Moroha, Rin and the twins were all coming with him. He was accompanied by a mysterious figure holding an umbrella and in the sky a covered cart with flaming wheels hovered waiting to take them all away. Inuyasha tells Kaede they will not be gone for longer than a month when the mysterious figure tells them they must go now. Inuyasha tells Kaede that the mystery figure is an old friend of his father's but he can say no more; the less Kaede knows the safer she will be. Inuyasha shouts for Kaede to tell Miroku and Sango what has happened and with that they carriage and Inuyasha are swept away into the stormy night's sky. Kaede tells the girls that something must have gone wrong because she never heard anything for three years. After years have passed, in her lonliness and isolation Kaede finds herself speaking to Kikyo aloud, wishing that she could join her soon and speaking of how hard it is to be alone. Suddenly a miko with her face covered appears and speaks to Kaede in the voice of Kikyo. Kaede can tell this is not a demon or a ghost, but something else and she knows it is not really Kikyo. The priestess announces it is the Tree of Ages embodied in the form of Kikyo. The spirit of the Tree of Ages tells Kaede that two of the children will soon return, but the third will not arrive for another ten years. She goes on to say that when the girls have gotten older they will have to solve the mystery of what happened to their parents and she assures Kaede that this is what Kikyo would have wanted as well. Myoga explains that the Tree of Ages is a spirit that lives within trees that are over a thousand years old and monitors the timeline to correct distortions. It is suggested that because that tree is the one that Inuyasha was pinned to with Kikyo's arrow, the tree took the form of Kikyo when it visited Kaede over a decade ago. Suddenly the girls sense a demon outside and leave to go investigate. Setsuna insists Towa remain behind or risk getting in her way again. As they track the presence Moroha says she can smell five demons which surprises Setsuna who can only smell at least three. Setsuna talks to Moroha about her curse, the butterfly that absorbs her emotions and then Moroha relates some things she did in the present with Kagome's family. She explains how distressed they were when they learned Kagome had been lost for many years. Moroha was stunned to learn this is where Kagome came from and yet she was not there, as she had assumed she had returned to her home in the future. The Higurashis ask her to stay and talk more but Moroha confesses the portal to the past may not remain open long and she hurries away. For a moment Sota stares at the portal thinking about trying to go through, but realizes he is not a child and cannot run away to other worlds, he has a family of his own to look after. He asks Moroha to take care of Towa for him. As Moroha finishes her story about her time with the Higurashi family, she and Setsuna are attacked by three-eyed crows stuffed into the corpses of dead bandits. Back at Kaede's home, she finishes telling Towa of how she found Moroha and Setsuna inside the smoking, burned wreckage of the flying cart she saw them carried away in years earlier. Kaede said it looked as if they had escaped from a war and she wonders aloud if there is war between the demons just as humans war against each other.

Published In:
  • Shonen Sunday Super 2021 Vol. 12
  • Yashahime Vol. 1
Publication Date: October 25, 2021
Pages: 1 (full color) 56 (black and white)
Anime Adaptation: None
Notes:
  • Viz Media, Rumiko Takahashi's longtime English-language publisher, announced on October 9, 2021 via Twitter that they had licensed the Yashahime manga adaptation. They stated that the series would be released in summer 2022. Obviously with a single chapter coming out each month it would be quite some time before enough material was available to make a single volume.
  • Takahashi Shiina's blog is a wealth of information about his working process. On October 3, 2021 he wrote that he had completed the second chapter and discussed the process behind the "comicalize" (what he calls a manga adaptation of an anime, a process that is typically reversed as most anime is instead adapted from manga).
  • Shiina states that the feedback from fans was positive for the first chapter and that he feels the second chapter will be in that same vein. He said the third chapter will then set the tone and direction for the rest of the series. He says he is feeling a bit sensitive about everything so please praise him openly if you enjoy the series.
  • He says that "comicalize" (manga adaptations of anime) were common during his childhood in the days before VCRs and states that manga adaptations of of anime were the "only way to repeatedly immerse yourself in the world of the story of your favorite video content" at the time.
  • He also discusses times when the original author is involved in the "comicalize" adaptation of a series. He mentions Masked Rider, Devilman, Getter Robo and Sailor Moon as examples of such a situation.
  • Shiina then explains how he came to do Yashahime, "A manga artist who has a certain level of fame asked me to do this, then asked the rights-holder to consent. I then draw at my own discretion and the rights-holder checks the work afterwards. So perhaps it is something of a tribute?" Shiina then asks the reader if they would be interested in seeing Kazuhiro Fujita, Gosho Aoyama or Kenjiro Hata do their versions of Yashahime and states he would like to read their versions.
  • Shiina states that doing a series rather than just a short story is unusual but says it is quite similar to PLUTO (Naoki Urasawa's manga that adapted a storyline from Osamu Tezuka's Astroboy and greatly expanded upon it).
  • Takashi Shiina mentions the unusualness of beginning another on-going work so quickly after wrapping up a long-running project. His manga Zettai Karen Children ran from July 2005 - July 2021 (63 collected volumes) and by October he was already publishing Yashahime. He said sometimes things like up in a "strangely perfect way" as the second season of Yashahime's anime adaptation was scheduled to start and he was available since he was between work.
  • Shiina says it is easy to work with Rumiko Takahashi because a number of her staff are still the same from when his wife worked for Takahashi. Shiina's wife is Aya Shimizu and was an assistant to Rumiko Takahashi from Urusei Yatsura until Ranma 1/2.After she married Shiina around 1994 she became his assistant. Shiina goes on to explain that his editor also often speaks with Takahashi, so it is easy to make inquiries when he has questions about things.
  • Shiina says there is about a month between when he finished the first chapter and its publication and that he read over the chapter a dozen times between its publication. He read it so often that it no longer made sense to him and that he is sure he will do that again with the second chapter as well. He then states he is going to immediately begin the third chapter now.

  • Table of Contents
    • A: There is a model of Muromachi period rice on display at the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of History.

Chapter 3: 三ノ章 戦国の絆 (後編)
San no sho Sengoku no kizuno (zenpen)
(Journey Three: The Rift Between Worlds, Part 2)
After years away, the Setsuna and Moroha were found in the wreckage of the wagon they were carried away in. Miroku and Sango ask them where they had been all this time, but the girls cannot explain in a sensible way with Moroha mentioning being surrounded by a number of copies of her mother that were not really her and suggesting they were at a palace somewhere. When Miroku asks where Towa is the girls cry and cannot give a coherent response. Kaede tells Towa all of this but she says she also remembers very little about how she was separated from her sister and cousin as she was in shock when Sota found her. Then comment about a palace jogs part of Towa's memory and she recalls a burning palace and holding someone's hand. The undead soldiers suddenly burst into Kaede's cottage while far away in the forest Moroha and Setsuna do battle against the three-eyed crow. Moroha can smell the other attacks in the distance and she and Setsuna realize they were lured away so that Towa could be attacked without them being present. The corpses attack Kaede, but Towa struggles with the idea of attacking someone, even if they are a corpse. From a nearby tree, Yotsume the four-eyed owl, watches. Towa decides to lead the undead corpses away from Kaede and soon encouters a wall of flames. When she calls out to Kaede, the old priestess realizes that Towa is seeing illusions that are not real. The flames remind Towa of the burning palace where she lived. Suddenly she recalls an attack on the palace after being told that someone breeched the barrier that was keeping them hidden. Duplicates of Rin and Kagome carry the children away as they flee the attack, though when one is decapitated she is revealed as a Nothing Woman who had copied Rin's face. Suddenly an elderly man leaps in to protect them, the watchman, and he faces off against Konton and Homura. Konton sneers that the watchman is merely a servant of Sesshomaru's and the old man removes his disguise revealing he is actually Jaken. As they flee, Towa dropped her beanbag ball and turned to grab it, letting go of Setsuna's hand in that moment. Rin/The Nothing Woman turns to protect Towa as they are surrounded by demons when suddenly the spirit of the Tree of Ages appears and opens a portal. The spirit of the tree beckons Towa to pass through and cross the bridge of time where she will be safe. Towa remembers everything about how she became separated from Moroha and Setsuna in the past when suddenly Yotsume swoops in and attacks her. The four-eyed demon demands she surrender her rainbow pearl to him and promises to kill her quickly. Suddenly a nothing woman appears and attacks Yotsume, wrenching him off of Towa. Enraged, Towa begins to violently attack Yotsume and the corpses. Yotsume momentarily sees Towa as Sesshomaru as she unleashes her untapped power causing him to take flight. When Moroha and Setsuna arrive they find Towa cradling the dying Nothing Woman. As she dies the Nothing Woman gives Towa her beanbag back, revealing that she had never stopped searching for her lost charge. Moroha tells Setsuna to say something to comfort Towa but Setsuna can only awkwardly try to reassure her that everything is all right. Behind her the phantom of the dream butterfly flutters. Suddenly the spirit of the Tree of Ages appears and tells the girls that they must go west and find the source of the time disruption as the shadowy figures of Zero and Kirinmaru loom in the background. The girls decide to follow the Tree of Age's command and find their parents in the process. Returning to Kaede's village Moroha massages the old lady before demanding payment. Setsuna cooks for everyone and Towa uses some seasoning packets that Sota gave her, explaining that her adopted father used to write down facts that he thought might be helpful one day and he used to research seemingly pointless topics as a child. The girls then set off on their quest as they bid farewell to Kaede. Elsewhere Sesshomaru speaks to an unconscious Rin who sleeps inside the Tree of Ages and tells her that the girls are beginning their quest as he wonders what they will accomplish.

Published In:
  • Shonen Sunday Super 2022 Vol. 1
  • Yashahime Vol. 1
Publication Date: November 25, 2021
Pages: 1 (full color) 60 (black and white)
Anime Adaptation: None
Notes:
  • In his blog posted on November 6, 2021, Takashi Shiina stated that he had finished the third chapter and that it would be 61 pages. He said with this chapter there should now be enough content to publish the first volume of his Yashahime adaptation around the beginning of 2022. He goes on to state that because he is used to working on a weekly series the amount of pages per month is roughly the same, though he is anxious for the series to be printed so he can get more feedback.
  • Shiina stated he wanted to limit his particular style somewhat and allow the opening and ending to match with the anime version.
  • He goes on to say he has been working very hard since beginning Yashahime and will slow down a little to have more time for his personal life after this chapter, estimating something along the lines of 50 pages per chapter going forward.
  • Shiina states that there are rumors he'll move the manga towards a lonlier/more isolated place after the conclusion of the second season of the anime. He goes on to state he might lose his own sense of self if he continues to do copyrighted work such as this for years and years so he wants to work as quickly as possible. However he points out it would take him years to adapt even just the first two seasons of the anime at the pace the manga is moving.
  • Finally he jokes that the ending of season two might be something in the vein of of Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon parody he calls "Hanyo no Tenshi Pretty Yashahime" where "Sessho Mask" shows up to help the girls when they have a difficult demon they cannot defeat. He jokingly says he'll talk to Rumiko Takahahsi about it and be scolded for suggesting it.
  • The title page for this chapter is Takashi Shiina's version of Rumiko Takahashi's cover from this issue.
  • Just as the artists in Shonen Sunday do, the artists in Shonen Sunday Super publish holiday cards at this time of the year.
  • In addition to providing the cover for this month's Shonen Sunday Super, Rumiko Takahashi also judged a fan art contest. The winners were:
  • There was also an advertised set of Yashahime prints that could be ordered in this issue as well as a framed version of the cover illustration.
  • Setsuna states that she thinks "miso soup" was around them when she tried to explain things to Miroku and Sango as a child. The pun is difficult to convey in English. She is talking about the watchman (Ometsukeyaku/お目付け役) which sounds like "おみおつけ/omiotsuke" (miso soup).
  • A number of the demons that appear are callbacks to various yokai from early in the original Inuyasha series. Mistress Centipede, the crow demon and the Nothing Woman.
  • Towa drops her cloth stuffed beanbag (お手玉/otedama). These were used for simple games during olden times.
  • Yotsume and the Nothing Woman's interactions revolve around a Japanese superstition that clipping your nails at night (夜爪/yotsume/night nails) sounds similar to cutting away your life (世詰/yotsume/age cutting). In other words if you die prematurely you will not live to see your own parents death (which is the Japanese belief). You can read more about this superstition here.
  • When Moroha asks Kaede to pay her for the massage the coin Kaede gives her is on a "piyo-piyo" background. This is a reference to Rumiko Takahashi's previous series Maison Ikkoku. Kaede also comments that asking for money is 可愛くない (kawaikunai/uncute/not cute). This is possibly a reference to Ranma's frequent insult to his fiancee Akane in Takahashi's Ranma 1/2.
  • In the flashback to Sota writing down semi-useful facts we can see he has a picture of Genma from Ranma 1/2 and a Dappya Man from Urusei Yatsura in his room.
  • In his blog post of November 29, 2021, Takashi Shiina discussed his desire to deviate from the anime which depicted the manner in which Towa and Setsuna spent their early childhood living alone in a forest. He stated he felt that was very "fairytale-like" and he prefered to show a more tragic set of circumstances that would be akin to the way a child during the Sengoku era might have lived.
  • Shiina also stated that yokai would be frightening to humans, but when shown among their own kind they could be friendly and like family, stating he wanted the Unmother to be seen in this fashion as they raised the girls like "android nannies".
  • Regarding the change in Konton's appearance, Shiina said that Rumiko Takahashi had suggested he might want to make the villains more attractive, and so he decided to shave Konton's moustache and give him a more youthful appearance.
  • Shiina stated he badly wanted to show a "cool Jaken" in the prior chapter and said he thought of Jaken's voice actor, Cho, and his performance as Gilboa Sant in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn as the basis for some of the tone of Jaken's speech.
  • Shiina also stated that Towa's ending narration in the pervious chapter should be thought of in a similar fashion to such narration from Inuyasha and Yashahime. He stated, "please imagine "New Era" playing as you read this portion as this is how I imagined it."
  • Regarding Rin's appearance compared to her childhood self, Shiina stated he wanted her to look like an Edo period samurai's wife.
  • Shiina much later mentioned on Twitter an instance of his discussions with Rumiko Takahashi. "Incidentally, I ended the first volume of Yashahime with 'I will surely tell Aunt Kagome and Mr. Inuyasha.' I was so smug about it that Takahashi-sensei asked me, 'Don't you need this?' I was so proud that Takahashi-sensei asked me, 'Don't you need this?' I was like, 'We need it!' I didn't think she was interested in such meta expressions (laugh)."

  • Table of Contents
    • A: A secret of Inuyasha is that the corpse dancing bird had seven children in the mountain (laughs).


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