WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 4 of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, "The Gateway to the Past," now streaming on Crunchyroll, Hulu and Funimation.
Episode 4 of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, "The Gateway to the Past", returns our three heroines to the past and introduces a terrifying new threat: a monstrously powerful demon with designs to destroy the world... and Towa, Setsuna and Moroha promptly ignore it.
It seems the Tree of Ages is a lot more complicated than the magic time travel tree it initially appeared to be. After some time spent preparing for their journey back to the past, Moroha reveals that the source of the Tree of Ages' time corridor is in fact our old friend Root Head. He became bonded with its roots, and their combined magic is what created the rift in time. Moroha, typically reckless, leads the three in promising Root Head their three rainbow pearls in return for passage back to the past. Root Head agrees, not knowing that Moroha has no intention of keeping that promise. But there's even more to the tree than Root Head.
After traveling back to the past, the half-demon princesses are confronted by the Spirit of the Tree of Ages -- who resembles Kikyo, the original lost love of Inuyasha. It is this spirit that presents a quest to the half-demons, a quest that will undoubtedly prove deeply important to the series.
The Tree of Ages asks them to slay the demon Beast King -- Kirinmaru. Kirinmaru apparently wants to twist time and swallow the world up into the degenerate age, basically destroying it and returning it to nothingness. He has long been held in check by the other demonic king of beasts -- the Great Dog Demon. Kirinmaru reigned in the east, while the Great Dog Demon held the west. What's more, the great dog demon is Sesshomaru's father. It's at this point that the Tree reveals to Setsuna and Towa that Sesshomaru is their father, though neither of them remembers him in the slightest.
The Tree goes on to reveal that Sesshomaru renounced his inherited status as Great Dog Demon, which led to an imbalance of power and Kirinmaru basically becoming far too powerful. This is why he is now able to pursue his dark agenda, and this is what the Tree of Ages asks our three half-demon heroes to stop. Apparently, time travel is necessary to defeat him, though the Tree does not go into greater detail about this. We're sure to learn more about this in episodes to come.
It's all fairly complicated and quite a lot to take in. This seems to be the case for Setsuna and Towa as well, as they refuse to carry out the Tree of Ages' wishes. Setsuna declares that it's Sesshomaru's problem and he should solve it. The Tree counters that Sesshomaru is part of the problem -- he walks the same path as Kirinmaru and must be stopped at the same time. Now it's Towa's turn for rebuttal, and she states that even if they don't know Sesshomaru, he is their father and to actively try to kill him would be wrong. They out and out refuse the quest, to Moroha's bemusement.
The Tree of Ages turns on them and pits them against Root Head, whom they promptly dispatch with some new moves from Towa. It's an exciting conclusion to an episode that's otherwise quite full of exposition, but with Root Head dead it leaves Towa and the others stranded in the past. The princesses are settling into a pattern of behaving recklessly, and it's getting them in trouble. Yet another problem for the three to solve on their way to restore Setsuna's dreams.
As is becoming typical for Yashahime, there are plenty of mysteries introduced as well. Throughout the conversations of Sesshomaru, he appears to be listening from the shadows. We will see what part he has to play in all this. The episode also ends with a surprising reveal. The Tree of Ages muses to an unknown partner about how strong the half-demon princesses are and how they are perfect for this quest. The camera pans up, and we see who she is speaking to... Kagome! Kagome is sleeping, perhaps under some sort of enchantment. Just what is going on here? Has the Tree captured Kagome? Why is she sleeping? As usual, there are many questions, and we shall simply have to wait for the answers. But one thing is clear -- there's a demon in the east that needs to be dealt with and undoubtedly will be soon enough.
