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I haven't reviewed an anime on this site (I usually do reviews on anime on other sites) before but bro as someone who loved the original series as a child, there are so many issues with this that I have to just leave a review and roast this for all its worth on this site. I don't understand how anyone could see this anime in the score of 7-10. Especially the scores for this show that range in 9 or 10. While I don't think this anime is a full on 1 or 2, and that even a straight 3 is being a bit too ... negative, it definitely is not good. I didn't initially look into this show but the controversy the past few weeks made me go check it out and boy do I regret it. This sequel is absolutely so insulting and disrespectful to the point where it's arguable to say that even Boruto is a better sequel. And that's saying something.

Story:

People usually like to joke that a lot of sequels feel like they're fanfiction-level of writing, but this anime for sure is at the level of fanfiction-level. The story contradicts so much from the original series that you almost question if the writers for the sequel that worked on the original forgot about the plot of Inuyasha when they wrote this sequel. Scenes are poorly handled out or executed poorly in order to just show "the next generation having fun!!!!!!!!!!". Attempts of tension fail because of clear loopholes from the original series and (terrible) attempts to repeat or remake a few storylines from the original that fail because the sequel has plotlines and structures that are heavily not as thought out or coherent as they would be in the original series. I believe that Yashahime should've been a one shot novel because multiple storylines and things in the sequel feel too lacking in ideas and dimensions to be a whole season of a show.

The pacing struggles immensely which is ironic considering how for how slow the pacing it is, it took many episodes for basic things to be revealed or structured. This sequel honestly would've worked better as an OVA or a single movie because 24 episodes were far too much for this show. Or, at the very least, only 12 episodes. I also think that certain issues should of been solved in the series sooner in order to prevent the pacing issue.

The modernization attempts also fall short compare to how the original series introduced the differences between Kagome's modern times and the Sengoku period. In the original series, one of the things I always liked was how the Japanese folklore stories and creatures compared to the modern world differed and had a rather grim theme. Yashahime's modern times and Sengoku period are however even when it tries its best lack memorable and intriguing differences, especially on the yokai elements.

Art:

The art for this series has so many off-model moments that it looks like some scenes were just made by middle-schoolers tracing anime in art class. The characters when the creators attempt to actually try can look good, but even in the best moments some of said best moments feel extremely flawed and amateurish in certain stuff, especially with features of faces being too large or exaggerated for certain heads. I believe the brightness and less mature feel in the art style of this show compared to the original Inuyasha scene also ruined the artistic side of Yashahime. This is something in fact a lot of sequels in anime that attempt to be serious do, and imo that causes a lot of scenes to be taken less seriously because of how flowery in visual tone they are.

Sound: The sounds/music is the only thing that I was approving a lot of in this anime. The music is good and the sounds during certain climax/battle scenes are nice to hear. The voice actors and voice actresses do a good job, and even though some of the next generation children have personalities akin to rocks, their VAS do the best they can.

Characters:

This is honestly the worst part of the series and somehow managed to ruin the characters more than Boruto. The female characters of the original series are reduced to homemakers/mothers of the next generation and the twins and Moroha are half carbon-copies of their parents and half failed attempts of being "two-dimensional". One is a complete cardboard/brick-wall in terms of personality and characterization, one is a hit and miss, and the one that actually is almost tipping around being a three-dimensional character is reduced to comic relief and thus pointless. I love btw that said comic relief is pushed to the side for no reason despite being the daughter of the protagonist and her lover from the original series. Yeah, that makes sense. The male characters of the original are written to be either OOC romantic-inclined or douchebags whose years of character development were thrown in the gutter, and the male characters of the reboot are either copy and paste rip-offs from the original anime's fillers or are just, ESPECIALLY the villains, cliche one-dimensional villains with no purpose or meaningful impact.

Speaking of villains, the villains are also like the Boruto villains in which you can't take 90% of them seriously due to their designs or one-dimensional personalities and because it is so obvious how little they fit in the world. While Inuyasha's villains were always with a good shot out to youkai folklore and their actions and motivations tie in, the villains of Yashahime feel like someone's OC villain for their Mary-Sue fanfiction that the fanfiction writers did not put much effort in because they focused more on their terrible Mary-Sue character.

In fact, most if not all the characters feel like someone's 2005 Mary-Sue Inuyasha fanfiction. I wonder if the creators went on fanfiction.net and got ideas. Some of the new characters for this sequel are lacking crucial parts that makes a character a good character, and they also have parts that seem for Inuyasha either too juvenile or too modernized and not in tune with the era of the original series/future even given the circumstances.

Now, there is one character I'm going to specifically highlight because they were one of the best characters of the 2000s in the original series and the disrespect towards them in this sequel is off the charts.

Sesshomaru's stoic nature and character development in this sequel is absolutely disrespected and regresses all the development and dimensions he possessed in the original. His actions in the sequel are written as if we are looking at an AU early chapter/arcs Sesshomaru where he just straight up stayed almost exactly as the same character and arguably even worse and with terrible "moments" (barely) that show him slightly better. Which is one of the worst character assassinations I've seen in modern times.

I'm not going to go much into the whole you know what main issue with Sesshomaru as that's been debated both by people for and against the ship and in fact most of these reviews seem to focus more on the ship than the actual whole series, but I will say it is completely OOC for Sesshomaru to suddenly have a romance in general, and ruins all the character development he had in the original series as it implies that all his progression with his views towards humans were made out of restrained lust and romantic affection. Sesshomaru is not a character that is inclined to romance and it seems out of character for a platonic relationship he closely had with someone to turn romantic in a few years. It is especially OOC and makes Sesshomaru's character disturbingly predatory and Woody Allen like for him to end up with someone he once raised.

As someone who was a major fan of Sesshomaru, I seriously do not understand how anyone could see it in character for him to be with Rin or suddenly into romance in general. Or see the relationship between Sesshomaru and Rin to be romantic/a step for eventual romance.

Rin and Sesshomaru had a relationship in the original series that was a father and daughter dynamic at most and a guardian and a child dynamic at the least. Even if you say their relationship was not familial, it was at the end of the day one with someone having an orphan in their custody, and Sesshomaru is not a character that would initiate a relationship with someone they once spent time raising. The show was already terrible but Sesshomaru being with Rin was just the final straw. It's honestly sad how Sesshomaru, one of the most badass characters in anime, was ruined in this sequel.

Enjoyment:

At the better parts of this show, I was smiling and feeling nostalgic, and I was hoping for certain characters/plot points to get better developed in the future. At the worse parts of this show, I was wishing that Inuyasha never had a sequel and having 1257823 thoughts about how OOC and contradictory most of the moments in the series are. Unfortunately, as episodes went on, my enjoyment slowly and slowly decreased.

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Overall, I give this a 3.5/4. Maybe the next few episodes will be good, but all I know is I ain't watching it. It's honestly sad to see my childhood burned to the ground. Complete disrespect to the original series. And the fact that so many sequels nowadays makes it even worse.

And for all the people on both sides of this whole SessRin debate only talking about SessRin in this review section, at least attempt to talk about other parts of the series instead of your support/disapproval of the ship. Or go on episode 15/Yashahime discussion threads and give your rants either for/against the ship there and stop giving non-direct obvious subs to reviews that don't agree with your perspective of SessRin.