WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 19 of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, "Princess Aiya's Beniyasha Hunting," now streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, Animelab and Hulu.
In "Princess Aiya's Beniyasha Hunting," Yashahime takes another detour from the main story. After the events of last week's episode, it might have made sense to follow up with Sesshomaru and Kirinmaru and to hone in more on the links between this series and Inuyasha. Instead, this self-contained story is a battle royale between the Demon Slayers and Moroha, orchestrated by the daughter of the daimyo from the first episode.
The episode begins with the titular Princess Aiya summoning the Demon Slayers, though Kohaku is notably absent. She requests they perform a mock-battle for her, between them and a group of bounty hunters, and in return promises them positions as mercenaries for her Father. Hisui and the others are excited by this proposition -- but they're a lot less excited to discover one of the bounty hunters they're facing is Moroha.
Setsuna gets involved as the only Demon Slayer who can feasibly handle Moroha. She and Moroha agree that Towa cannot find out about the battle and do their best to keep it a secret from her. What follows are some sitcom-esque antics, as Moroha and Setsuna attempt to duke it out for their own respective reasons, while Towa immediately figures out what's going on and tries to interfere. It all culminates with Towa standing between Setsuna and Moroha as Setsuna threatens her, stating that her goal is more important than any relationship. Towa is deeply upset by this and horrified when Moroha is seemingly killed.
Of course, this all turns out to be a big sham. Yashahime doesn't always give Moroha that much attention, but the show knows better than to kill her off in a "filler" episode. As it turns out, the Demon Slayers and Moroha got together and staged the whole thing, the better to set the Demon Slayers up for their new job, with Takechiyo serving as the body double for a deceased Moroha. They didn't want Towa to know, because they knew she would interfere.
In the end, it all turns out to be for nothing anyway. Kohaku arrives and quickly figures out that Princess Aiya had zero intention of offering the Demon Slayers this tenured position -- she just wanted to toy with Setsuna and Moroha as revenge for them dirtying her Kimono during their escape from her father. Kohaku informs the Demon Slayers that they wasted their time, everybody shares a collective groan and Princess Aiya is left to be chastised by her old man.
There are only six episodes remaining in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, and it seems likely that a second season will be necessary to conclude the story in a satisfactory way. Fans have been frustrated with these seemingly unimportant standalone episodes of Yashahime for a while now, and this episode seems especially likely to pique their ire this close to the end of the series.
Still, there is a takeaway to be had from "Princess Aiya's Beniyasha Hunting" -- Setsuna and Moroha learn just how much Towa cares about them. The seeming fight between Moroha and Setsuna upsets her to no end, and when it's all revealed to have been a trick, she throws her arms around them in a tight hug. Moroha and Setsuna are both visibly shocked at this -- it seems that while they know Towa is a bit of a meddler, they didn't stop to think why. She cares about her sister and her cousin, and now they know it. While this episode could be considered filler, it still provides some worthwhile character development.
