A long time back I checked out the Spriggan anime film from the library, on the merits of Katsuhiro Otomo’s involvement in the film in a supervisory position. When I learned that the manga series was getting revisited with a new anime series from David Production on Netflix, I figured this was worth checking out. While the series itself is something of a mixed bat, there is some fun to be had here.

Yashahime was a sequel series to Inuyasha that was somewhat unique by the fact that it was a completely anime-original story, with a new generation of characters, that Rumiko Takahashi was not actively involved in. The first season felt somewhat aimless, though, and going in I had concerns that the second season would be similarly directionless. Thankfully, this is not the case.

We take out the enemy commander, cutting the fight short.

Thankfully, the Gatehouse commander has no sense of self-preservation.

We have one last group of undead to contend with.

We’ve had a moderate array of various historical anime coming out – from Demon Slayer being set in the Taish? period, to the Yashahime series, much as with its source material in Inuyasha, being set at an ambiguous point in the Warring States period. What we haven’t gotten in a while is anything set in the Heian period – enter The Heike Story, an anime series that, basically, tells of the end of the Heian period, adapting the Heike Monogatari, and telling the tragic fall of the Heike through both their own hubris, and the machinations of others.

We try to soften up the boss while contending with his support units.

We have a mini-arc that ended up running headlong into Abattoir’s death.

Our heroes decide to attack some passing knights, and end up recruiting them instead.