Hanyou no Yashahime – Sengoku Otogizoushi – 07

「林檎の出会い」 (Ringo no Deai)
“Meeting through an Apple”

For Episode 07 of Yashahime, we finally get some speaking lines from Kirinmaru, the great Daiyokai that rules over the eastern lands and makes some pretty tasty beer. But aside from that, it’s the point of Yashahime where we link back up to the flashforward from Episode 01 where Towa has to contend with demons that have a little too much knowledge of the future.

This episode was significant in showing us the consequences of bringing artifacts from the future into the past. At first, it provides some mild inconveniences for Towa such as needing to discard apple cores so that Japan’s future isn’t affected by an onslaught of apple orchards from the feudal era. But Towa’s in a bit of a pickle the moment where the demonic tea-maker and his assistants procured a history book from 2020 and a bicycle seat. Luckily, the guy that had access to these artifacts was a demon that could be easily killed but had it just been an ordinary Tom, Dick, or Harry that kept onto one of these for future use, I wonder how much it would impact the upbringing Towa experienced with the Higurashi’s.

Speaking of Towa, it was a nice episode to catch up on her personal ambitions and her feelings about reuniting with Setsuna. The beginning recap preps you for some introspection on their end, but when Towa has Setsuna practice on the violin, we get some background on the nostalgia that Towa has for her past life in modern-day Japan.

As it turns out, international superstar and mother-of-the-century Higurashi Moe often played her violin to help Towa calm down and rest after picking fights with her entire neighborhood. There was a cute fantasy sequence where Towa yearned to have the kind of bonding experience with her sister where they can talk about life and curl up with a giant stuffed animal. It might’ve been odd to fantasize about your foster mother playing you and your sister a lullaby at a burger restaurant, but I’ll take what I can get with any scene where Towa isn’t being pushed around by Setsuna.

Although most of Setsuna’s perspective is with her having to fight a massive polar bear with Moroha, we do get more out of Towa when she gets duped into carrying a stolen sword. It might show just how easy it is to trick her, but it gave us more time to see how Towa gets along with acquaintances she just met and how quickly she can familiarize herself a character like Riku who is approachable and appreciative of the things she does for him before he drops stolen items on her lap. The next episode is likely going to involve fighting the tea-maker demon, but hopefully, it continues to give Towa some time to get familiar with the feudal era and make some kind of breakthrough to get Setsuna to open up.