“Jakotsumaru of the Red Bone Palace”
What They Say:
Set in feudal Japan, half-demon twins Towa and Setsuna are separated from each other during a forest fire. While desperately searching for her younger sister, Towa wanders into a mysterious tunnel that sends her into present-day Japan, where she is found by Kagome Higurashi’s brother, Sota, and his family. Ten years later, the tunnel that connects the two eras had reopened, allowing Towa to be reunited with Setsuna, who is now a demon slayer working for Kohaku. But to Towa’s shock, Setsuna appears to have lost all memories of her older sister.
Content (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the three half demons arrive in the feudal era, they are greeted by the demon slayers and Kaede, even as Towa begins to regret her decision as she realizes that by slaying of the Root Demon, she may not be able to her return home the future. However as the girls adjust to their new situation, there is someone else who is observing their actions, the four-eyed owl demon Yotsume reports to one of Four Perils Kyuki, who is bothered that someone as carefree as Moroha was the one who had slain her compatriot Tokotsu, even as she relishes to allow his son Jakotsumaru to continue gathering bones in order to raise his father for their revenge. But as the sisters consult Kohaku about the elusive Dream Butterfly, he has little luck consulting prior journals in gleaning its location, aside from an obscure reference of it perhaps living on Mount Musubi. And yet as Towa is excited to scout the area for this clue, Setsuna is less enthusiastic for this hunt and asks her leader if there are any slaying bounties, callously reiterating if her sister wants to waste time with this meaningless task, to do it on her own.
However their argument is interrupted when villagers bring in some disturbing corpses – the limp bodies of bandits who have had their bones removed, with one of bystanders commenting that this is the tenth corpse found recently in this condition, and the demon who did the deed looked like a beautiful boy. After asking the demon slayers if they can take care of this problem, Setsuna confirms that the creature only appears at night near the river, with Towa enthusiastically excited to be able to do something with her sister, even as the younger sibling begins to argue about not knowing this stranger. But as the twins rush of to their stakeout upon Kirara, Moroha is busy selling her bounties for Mistress Three-Eyes and Hitokon to the Corpse Dealer Jyubei, even as he harshly reminds the half demon of his responsibility for shouldering her debt. And yet as the girl complains about the small reward for slaying such supposedly difficult creatures, it then when she recalls how much the body of Tokotsu sold for, with the harsh man telling her it would have been worth more if the head was still intact, reprimanding Moroha that the payment was only a deposit and without a complete corpse, she would have to return the money. It is then when Jyubei calls his young tanuki assistant Takechiyo to keep an eye on the girl as she finishes the job, speculating his son Jakotsumaru would be gathering bones to revive his father, with now being the best time to complete the hunt before Tokotsu becomes too powerful to handle.
In Summary:
While it is humorous how the threesome gets along now in the feudal era, it’s disappointing that Setsuna still does not trust Towa, harshly brushing off her sister even as the elder tries her best in forging a new bond between siblings. However the most confounding problem is the introduction of too many new names to keep track of, and while Japanese speakers may be able to interpret the meaning behind each unique demon, Western audiences will have a harder time since we are unable to make a connection to every villain, no matter how important they may proven to be in the overarching narrative. Although there is a brief speculation as to who they may be, the explanation does little to clarify the muddled mess as to how they relate to each other and the overall scheme of how they are important to the interaction with the demon princesses, thus leaving the audience with lingering confusion by the episode’s conclusion.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
