Chapter
18: 十八ノ章 弱点 Juuhachi no sho Jakuten (Journey 18 - Weak Point)
Long ago rion recalls asking her aunt about the light in the distance on the edge of the horizon. Zero explained that is where her father, Kirinmaru, and the great dog demon had gone to battle against the Ghost Comet. Zero explains that the goddess Amaterasu cut away the wickedness inside her sell and cast it out, but every 500 years it returns to earth. Ameterasu placed her guardian dog, Akuru, in charge of watching over the Ghost Comet and having his subordinate, The Tree of Ages, warn the most powerful demons of the comet's impending approach. Akuru eventually became known as "Tokiakurujin" and has watched over the world ever since. Zero explains that as long as Kirinmaru and the great dog demon can work together things will be well in hand. Riku appears and tell Zero he senses something approaching quickly. Suddenly a piece of the comet appears over the castle, plummeting directly towards Zero and Rion. On the battlefield Kirinmaru and the great dog demon hack away at the comet as Sesshomaru watches indifferently. The main core of the comet is to far away in the sky for the great demons to reach, but they leap towards it on plummeting chunks of the comet. When one slips past Sesshomaru smashes it apart bare handed and Kirinmaru leaps down, getting in his face, proclaiming that he knows what Sesshomaru is thinking- "if I kill Kirinmaru I will prove I am even more powerful than my father." Kirinmaru tries to goad Sesshomaru who simply stares indifferently. With the comet repelled Kirinmaru suddenly receives a psychic message from Riku, pleading with him to hurry back to the castle. He tells his master that Rion is not breathing and Zero is badly injured. Kirinmaru flies away and Myoga explains that this was the last time he saw the great demon, that he has kept himself hidden away in his castle ever since. Rikku explains that Rion must have died then and Kirinmaru called her spirit back from the dead in the aftermath of that terrible tragedy. He realizes now that this must have been the plan of the Ghost Comet, to attack the family members of Kirinmaru and the great dog demon to try and ensure they would not unite to stop its next arrival. Riku explains that though Zero survived she blamed herself for Rion's death. As Riku's health worsens Kyubei heads downstairs to search for some medicine that might help him only to discover demons have overrun his home. The creatures flee and Setsuna realizes they will likely attack that night, the night of the new moon when she looses her powers. Towa has no idea what her sister is referring to, but that night she too loses her half-demon powers as well much to her shock. Takechiyo is surprised that the girls are so open about their night of transformation, having heard that most half-demons kept it a closely guarded secret. Moroha explains that she and Setsuna knew about one another's night since they shared it in common and grew up together, and they did not hide it from Sango or Miroku either. However, Setsuna realizes that means that Zero does not know it is their night of transformation either and they might be ablet o use this to their advantage. At Zero's hideout she curses and thrashes Nanahoshi who can no longer sense the half-demon princesses due to their loss of powers. After she has severely beaten him another of Zero's servants steps forward, offering his apologies as the man responsible for the familiars who have lost track of the girls. His name is Mayonaka and he tells Zero that his wife is still trying to hunt the girls down. On a rooftop Mayonaka's wife, a masked woman with a bell, is puzzled over how the half-demons could have disappeared. She knows that Rion and Rikku's armor masks their demonic energies but she cannot figure out how the girls managed to suddenly mask their own. Moroha and Setsuna watch from the shadows as the woman goes off in the opposite direction to continue to her search with her demonic familiars but one of the creatures spots the girls and flees to alert its mistress. Moroha and Setsuna kill the creature before it can escape and the masked woman realizes the girls are killing her familiars when one of her bells shatters. She cannot figure out how the girls are managing to attack while they praise Sango for teaching them how to use the techniques of the demon slayers so they could fight as humans when their powers vanish on the night of the new moon. Elsewhere Kyubei has hidden Moroha, Rion and Riku in a coffin while he prays over it. Should anyone pass by they will simply assume he is holding a prayer for the recently departed. Towa checks her phone to see what time it is and takes a photo of herself, staring at her dark hair and thinking about how many times she wished she could have been a normal girl when she was in the present day. Now she wants anything but to be normal and powerless. Riku stirs and tells Towa she should leave him behind, explaining that after Rion's death Kirinmaru was utterly broken and left the running of things to Zero who had grown emotionally cold and hardened. Then fourteen years ago, Riku was sent to find Inuyasha as he, Kagome and Rin played with their infant children.
Published In:
Shonen Sunday Super 2023 Vol. 4
Yashahime Vol. 5
Publication Date: February 25, 2023
Pages: 48 (black and white)
Anime Adaptation: None
Notes:
In his blog this month Shiina explains that he will try to have more 48 page chapters in the future to move the pace of the story along. He said he had a difficult time squeezing everything he wanted to in, but Rumiko Takahashi told him the story was very interesting, so he feels like he was successful.
He explains that Zero's outfit is anachronistic for the Sengoku era, as it dates from the Nara era.
Regarding Riku, Shiina states, "As in the original anime, Riku seems to have had little emotion for a while after his birth. The initial image that Sumisawa-san had of Riku was 'an artificially created replicant that acquires a soul,' and I think this is a common motif in many of Sumisawa-san's scripts. As a rule, the comicalization is reconstructed by drawing on 'Rumiko Takahashi's works through Takashi Shiina's filter' angle, but I can't leave this out."
Shiina states that he has heard fans are curious about the great Dog Demon's swords, but he does not know if he will have time at the moment to dig into issues with Izayoi. He says he has him use Tessaiga against the comet and made the blade look slender like when Inuyasha first used it in the manga. He also explains that he did not wish for him to use any flashy moves, especially not the Meido Zangetsuha because that would contradict Sesshomaru having not seen it in the original manga. Shiina states he is trying his best to avoid creating continuity errors but if one occurs thing of this as a different space-time.
Shiina goes on to explain that Kirinmaru getting in Sesshomaru's face is supposed to an echo of when Sesshomaru did the same to Inuyasha in Takahashi's original manga. He thinks that Kirinmaru shaking up Sesshomaru is what will lead Sesshomaru to do the same to Inuyasha in the future.
He explains that "Haru" is the name of the wife of Mayonaka. He wanted to base her costume on Yura of the Hair, but his editor said a married woman wouldn't dress that way and Rumiko Takahashi said that since she has no connection with Yura there would be no reason to dress her that way.
Additionally Shiina states for ease that he believes all of the dog demon clan lose their powers on the night of the new moon, including quarter-demon Moroha, who he said he is treating the same as a half-demon with regards to loss of powers during the new moon. Shiina further explains, "The place where they say that 'losing my powers is not necessarily a fatal weakness,' is probably 'My Yashahime,' which is decisively different from the anime version. Not only did it reflect the differences in the background settings, but it is also filled with the feelings that a writer like myself entrusts to those girls. At that moment, I felt like 'these are my characters, my daughters' instead of 'my adopted daughters'."
Next time Shiina explains he will show what happened to Inuyasha and the others, adding if he does not it will be "recollections of recollections of recollectons". He explains he hopes he can get everything in and make his deadline.
Though shown as a large "mountain dog" here, Akuru (阿久留) is spelled the same as the deminutive, mute character from the Yashahime anime. Akuru becomes known as "Tokiakurujin" (刻阿久留神) meaning something akin to "Akuru the Time God". Shiina explains in his blog post that he made these changes with Akuru to connect it to the anime saying only the dog clan could see him (because he is Amaterasu's dog in this version of the story) and to simplify him as the god of time and the master of the Tree of Ages.
Mayonaka (魔夜中)'s name is written with kanji meaning "in the middle of the demon night".
The pyramid of bells that the masked huntress uses is called a "kagura suzu" (神楽鈴). The device is three-tiers of bells with six on the bottom, four in the middle and two on the top. These are used as musical instruments during Shinto rituals by shrine maidens (巫女/miko). The kagura suzu is actually based on the fruit blossoms of the ogatama tree. This is the same tree that Kikyo used in her fight against the shrine rats in chapter 328 and the same type of bells used by Hitomiko in chapter 507.
Table of Contents
A:GS Mikami All Episodes Blu-ray will be released on April 26!
Chapter
19: 十九ノ章 核心 Juukyuu no sho Chigiri (Journey 19 - Heart of the Matter)
Fourteen years ago, Kirinmaru stares at the Windmill of Time while clutching a fragment of the Grim Comet in his hand. He reveals that he plans to use a chunk of the power of the comet to restart the windmill in hopes of regaining all that he lost when the comet previously crashed to Earth. Kirinmaru asks Zero if she knows where Sesshomaru is, for he knows that he will be chosen as the one responsible for repelling the Grim Comet the next time it comes to Earth, and he wants to ensure that no one stops its return. Killing Sesshomaru will not be enough, however, he plans to erase all of the Dog Clan including Inuyasha and their newborn children as well. Overhearing Zero and Kirinmaru's plans, Riku decides to flee the estate and warn Sesshomaru of his master's plan. The reanimated Rion pleads with Riku to take her with him, explaining that she hates what she has become, a soul strapped in a vessel that must live on the souls of others. Journeying together, Riku and Rion find Sesshomaru traveling with the masked spirit of the Tree of Ages. They reveal that they are aware Kirinmaru has fallen under the dark sway of the Grim Comet. Sesshomaru sends them on to warn Inuyasha, Kagome and Rin who are watching over the infants Moroha, Towa and Setsuna. He tells them they must go into hiding in order not to be lured into Kirinmaru's trap. Inuyasha and the others board a flying carriage and say their goodbyes to Kaede on a rainy night, promising they should be gone for only a month at most. The group then travel to Sesshomaru's mother's home where they seek shelter only for her to warn Inuyasha that Sesshomaru will not be able to battle against Kirinmaru and the Grim Comet alone. She opens a portal for Inuyasha to travel to Sesshomaru's side. In truth this is an elaborate plot so that Inuyasha is away when she casts a spell on Rin and Kagome, trapping them. At the sight of the Grim Comet's arrival Sesshomaru unleashes the Bakusaiga to destroy a part of the comet only for a skeletal sniper to fire a magic bullet made of the Grim Comet at him. Inuyasha leaps in to take the shot but the bullet wounds him severely given its magical nature. Sesshomaru realizes that a half-demon like Inuyasha is unlikely to survive the gunshot wound. The same is what awaits Kagome and Rin, as Zero's sadness at the collapse of her family and the death of Sesshomaru's father has caused her sadness to coalese and harden in a manner which will kill Rin and Kagome if they are not placed into suspended animation. Sesshomaru will battle against the Grim Comet for fourteen years, in hopes that his children will be the ones to cut the tangled future that the comet has woven itself into. It is too powerful for him to destroy alone, and with Kirinmaru under the comet's influence and Inuyasha gravely wounded, all he can do is wait for his children to grow powerful enough to aid him. In the present, Myoga finishes recounting the events of the past to Towa before they realize that the capital has been set on fire during the hunt for Moroha and Setsuna.
Published In:
Shonen Sunday Super 2023 Vol. 5
Yashahime Vol. 5
Publication Date: March 25, 2023
Pages: 48 (black and white)
Anime Adaptation: None
Notes:
In his blog this month, Takashi Shiina explained that he had a difficult time with this month's chapter due to February having fewer days and also having to work on his taxes. He felt like he had barely made the chapter but said that Rumiko Takahashi said it was interesting, so he felt better.
Shiina further explains that there is a lot of backstory from the original Yashahime anime that would have been difficult to condense into the manga, therefore he he said he wanted to make clear concepts like "the Grim Comet is bad", "Sesshomaru is caught in the problems of the time" and "Sesshomaru's mother is helping him". He said he explained these broad concepts to Takahashi after the first chapter and she gave him her blessing.
Shiina states that if it were only a story about which person was physically the strongest, that would easily be Sesshomaru, but the story would be too simplistic, instead he wanted to build the story around Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's father's line from the third film where he asked what it was that they would protect. Because Sesshomaru does not naturally have those feelings, his realization that he will have to rely upon his daughters creates a more compelling scenario.
Another aim of Shiina in this chapter, "I was looking forward to drawing 'the relationship between the innocent, young wife Rin and the cool mother of Sesshomaru,' and 'Kagome-chan, who is nervous because of her awkward relationship with Sesshomaru's mother'. Sesshomaru's mother must not be happy with Izayoi-sama in her heart, but she is too proud to show it. Even though Inuyasha doesn't really get it, Kagome-chan's stomach churns when she senses it. (laughs)"
He explains Rin's comments on Sesshomaru's lack of parenting, "The scene where Rin-chan, a new mother, refutes Inuyasha's bad-mouthing of her husband is, as usual, ad-libbed by the characters. I like this scene because it gives us a fun glimpse into her daily life and parenting, but when she says, "Lord Sesshomaru doesn't look good changing diapers, and I won't let him!" (laughs) Well, in the old days, people of high rank would leave most of the practical work of child rearing to nannies and maidservants. Sesshomaru-sama had prepared a luxurious house and servant women with this intention, but Rin-chan somehow thought that it might be fun and lively to be with Kaede-sama, so she decided to do it that way. And when I opened the can of worms, I found that Kagome-chan's modern style and sense of values would reflect this manner.
Shiina explained he wanted to show more of Inuyasha being shot but the page count was already getting too high to fit it in. He said because it is a time loop that Sesshomaru and Inuyasha are trapped in, Inuyasha will save Sesshomaru over and over and he hopes to explore that scene in more detail in a future chapter as well as to perhaps show Sesshomaru's understanding of Inuyasha's innate goodness and willingness to help.
Shiina states that this is roughly the halfway point in the manga and he has explained everyone's motivations and circumstances now.
Table of Contents
A: What did you think of "Lord Sesshomaru Who Leapt Through Time"?
Chapter
20: 二十ノ章 炎上 Nijuu no sho Enjyo (Journey 20 - Going Up in Flames)
The masked-woman, Haru, rampages through Kyoto on the back of a huge fire-spewing bovine as she tries to lure out the half-demon princesses. Suddenly the robe of the fire rat is slung over the maw of the beast, blocking its flames as Setsuna and Moroha leap into battle. Haru quickly realizes that she cannot detect the girls demonic energies and realizes this must be the time of the month when their powers ebb. Shockingly even without her demonic powers Moroha still possesses the spiritual powers inherited from Kagome and is able to use her sacred arrows to easily kill the rampaging beast. With the flame cow dispatched the girls turn their attention to Haru who is then struck with Moroha's next shot. They are shocked to see that Haru is not a demon but a revived corpse. With her dying breath Haru tells them she lived as a demon when she married Mayonaka who then appears to retrieve her skeletal remains. Mayonaka tells them that in order to revive his wife he is dependant upon Kirinmaru, thus he has dedicated himself to serving Zero to gain Kirinmaru's support. Elsewhere Towa is growing frustrated that she is not able to help the others, though Riku and Kyubei try to prevent her from joining the battle while she is still powerless. Outside Nanahoshi has managed to find them and destroys the temple where they were sheltering. They are shocked that Nanahoshi's attack did not kill them, but Riku removes the collected Rainbow Pearls he has collected that erected a barrier around them. Towa is confused and shocked that Riku had more of the stones that are inside of each of the girls. He explains that the two he has are from Sesshomaru and Inuyasha, he had taken them in hopes of keeping the two of them from attracting the attention of Kirinmaru and Zero. As Towa's powers starting to return to her, the rainbow pearls synchronized with her as they had with other members of the dog clan and offered their protection in her moment of panic and fear from Nanahoshi's attack. Towa then begins to absorb Nanahoshi's demonic energy and spreads it to Riku and Rion to heal their wounds. Elsewhere Moroha uses her rouge to jumpstart her powers in the moments before dawn to battle against to Mayonaka, however he knocks her away easily. Thankfully Towa arrives to support her sister and cousin.
Published In:
Shonen Sunday Super 2023 Vol. 6
Yashahime Vol. 5
Publication Date: April 25, 2023
Pages: 48 (black and white)
Anime Adaptation: None
Notes:
In his blog this month, Takashi Shiina congratulates Rumiko Takahashi on winning the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts de France. He adds that this makes her a "knight" and so he must be her "knight's squire". He says he'll be sure to address her as "sir" in their next meetings and that he is Sancho Panza to her Don Quixote.
He goes on to discuss the comparison between Sesshomaru holding Inuyasha in the previous chapter with Towa holding Moroha in this chapter. He goes on to say it has the vibe of Zettai Karen Children, his previous manga and his desire to emphasize familial bonds, jokingly saying that his work on Yashahime might be called "Sengoku Karen Children".
Shiina discusses repurposing Mayonaka and Haru as a way to contrast the relationship of Sesshomaru and Rin and Inuyasha and Kagome, showing the complexities of relationships between humans and demons. He said he had to trim down their back story or the manga would grow too long, but said that by making Haru a revived, reanimated corpse he thought it would bring a grin to readers after seeing the anime's approach to the story. He said nearly the only thing he left the same was Towa going wild and attacking him.
Shiina discusses the need to analyze Towa's powers in the modern era because of his depiction of the red-streak in her hair indicating her encounter in the modern era with a demon. He states that Takahashi explained that there were very few powerful demons in the modern world and thus he had difficulty reconciling why Towa had white hair in the modern world and did not ever have black hair during her time there. He decided that she had to have some ability to store absorbed demonic energy to maintain her power even during times when it should ebb. He explained that Inuyasha did not cease to be a half-demon and become human when he traveled to the modern era. He needed a theory to account for Towa's hair turning black for the first time in the Sengoku period and therefore said that living in the modern world was essentially akin to a "high altitude training" that caused her body to adapt by storing low levels of demonic energy at all times. He says it is "barely convincing but its all I had time to explore in the manga version." Shiina also states he wanted to keep out any characters from Inuyasha (other than Myoga) out of this chapter since he felt they played heavily in the recent prior chapters.
Lastly Shiina addresses some "mistakes" that he made and fan responses to it. The first is that Myoga refers to Kagome with honorifics now. Shiina says that is not a mistake, that when she married Inuyasha then Myoga would see her as his master's wife and refer to her appropriately. He said his editor wanted to correct this in the collected edition but Shiina explained his logic in doing so. The other issue was that Shiina read on a comment on a mail-order book website criticizing the mention of Kohaku's awareness of Kagura's death when he was not present for it as shown in chapter 4. Shiina laughs and says "he must have been watching from a distance" though he adds that there are obviously fans that have been steeped in Inuyasha lore for years and years that are liable to catch these details he overlooks.
The beast that Haru is riding on is called "Engyu" (炎牛) which means "flame cow".
Mayonaka talks about the difficulty of continually reviving his wife from death. This term in Japanese is "hangon" (反魂). This is the same term that was used in Mermaid Saga concerning the reanimation of Natsume.
Table of Contents
A: I'd like to congratulate Takahashi-sensei on receiving the Order of the Chevalier!
Chapter
21: 二十一ノ章 加護 Nijuuichi no sho Kago (Journey 21 - Protection)
Towa saves Moroha and then is able to enfuse her power into her to jumpstart her regaining her own powers as the sun rises. Mayonaka continues to mourn his now dead wife, telling the girls they have no idea what it means to love a mortal. As Mayonaka attacks, Towa is able to absorb his power and channel it into Moroha and Setsuna. The demon then begins to turn his attacks towards Takechiyo, resulting in Riku and Rion having to protect him. At that moment Setsuna notices threads passing through the air and slices one, disrupting Mayonaka's powers. Far away Sesshomaru and Jaken sense something has happened with the half-demon princesses as he realizes they need to embrace their own growing abilities rather than try to emulate his or his father's. With the thread cut, Mayonaka now sees a vision of his late wife, Oharu, and lets go of his anger and pain. Myoga explains that this is Setsuna's "Yukari no Tachikiri" and Rion silently words if it could purify Kirinmaru and Zero. Mayonaka thanks the girls for helping him to see the truth and not mourn the brevity of his time with Oharu, but rather to embrace it. With that he spreads flower blossoms throughout the capital, healing everyone that was wounded in the rampage. In Sesshomaru's mother's domain Shippo becomes worried as flower petals start to fall on the sleeping bodies of Inuyasha, Kagome and Rin. Sesshomaru's mother explains that it is a sign the dream butterfly that borrowed the heart of Setsuna to seal them all in slumber will soon not be needed. Emboldened by Mayonaka's blessing, the group heads to Zero's estate to confront her directly in an attempt to return the rainbow pearls to Zero in an attempt to restore her heart. Zero proves far too powerful as her spider's web begins to entangle everyone. Suddenly the dream butterfly flutters past and from a portal Inuyasha emerges ready to do battle against Zero.
Published In:
Shonen Sunday Super 2023 Vol. 7
Yashahime Vol. 5
Publication Date: May 25, 2023
Pages: 50 (black and white)
Anime Adaptation: None
Notes:
This chapter begins Yashahime's official same-day English publication via Viz. Viz recently launched their online manga subscription service which sees a number of titles (such as Rumiko Takahashi's current series MAO) having their chapters translated and released for free on the same day they are published in Japan.
In this month's issue of Sunday S there is an advertisement for volume 4.
Yukari no Tachikiri (所縁の断切きり) is a name that roughly translates to "connection cutter".
In his blog this month, Shiina explains that this chapter was meant to close out the halfway point of the story. He says one chapter "fell through" though he does not elaborate on this.
He wanted the Towa catching Moroha to contrast with Sesshomaru catching Inuyasha in the prior chapter. He says he imagines Moroha feeling the same was a Inuyasha when Sesshomaru caught him.
Shiina states that Mayonaka's blessing is meant to connect with the "the Blessing of the Five Grains" from Yashahimeepisode 32. "The scene of the snowflakes falling over the city to bless the half-demon princesses was more romantic than I had imagined, and I thought it was a good way to bring about a change in Inuyasha and the others who had been in a coma."
Shiina discusses his vision of Oharu. "Oharu-san is dressed as a twelve-layered matron in order to create a magical midnight change and to make her a part of the midday divinity. In the original story, she was the daughter of a village chief, but here has risen to the rank of a noblewoman in the capital. She was a princess of high rank, but fell in love with a god, died, fell into darkness, and became a demoness in a sexy ninja costume with an ogre's mask on her head. However, the couple were too crazy in love to let someone else die because of their love affair, so they decided to extinguish the fire with flower confetti and treat the burns. Miraculously, there were no casualties, probably."
Furthermore Shiina discusses a scene he had drawn in the rough draft that Rumiko Takahashi nixed. Shiina compares Sesshomaru to a character in his Zettai Karen Children, Kyosuke Hyobu. "Actually, in the rough draft stage, I had drawn a scene in which a mysterious giant demon dog saves a child from the fire, but this was nixed by Takahashi-sensei, who said that even if it was just to pass the time while waiting for his daughters' to do their work, Sesshomaru did not have that much mercy. I had thought that his love for Rin might have made him have some mercy for humans, to the extent that he would often save them on a whim, but it seems that he is not so naïve. Unlike the ever-chill Kyosuke Hyobu, who saves children no matter what they say, the proud demon Lord Sesshomaru is a dark hero of hardcore proportions. He still thinks of humans as nothing more than insects, but he loves and protects Rin and her daughters as much as he can... what's so emo about that, Takahashi-sensei? I'm just a little disappointed that I couldn't come up with a plausible lie that "Since then, there is still a place in Kyoto City's Nishikyo Ward that worships Lord Sesshormaru as a dog god" (laugh)."
He also states that he thought of Sesshomaru's dog form while developing Zero's web-based body, wanting to show her in some transformed state since the anime did not. He said he feels he accomplished this by having her arms and legs becoming the threads of the web.
Finally he states that Inuyasha appearing now after the new moon essentially matches the anime, though he took a different path to arrive at the same place. He adds, "And so, the next issue will be the climax of the first half of the comicalized version of Hanyo no Yashahime, so please look forward to it!"
Table of Contents
A: I'll probably spend the rest of the year in Hyrule, except when I'm working.
