Summary
- Bandai Namco is potentially working on a video game tie-in for the Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon anime.
- The company recently filed to secure a trademark for the term "Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree," which has two clear connections to Yashahime.
- The Inuyasha series that spawned Yashahime already has 10 video game spin-offs to its name, but none more recent than 2007.
Bandai Namco is working on a video game tie-in for the Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon anime, some recently surfaced evidence suggests. First released in 2020, Yashahime is a spin-off of the hit shojo anime Inuyasha.
Although its later seasons were met with a mixed reception from fans and critics alike, Yashahime was very much among the highlights of the fall 2020 anime lineup. Produced by Sunrise Inc., nowadays known as Bandai Namco Filmworks, the series follows the adventures of sisters Towa Higurashi and Setsuna after they get separated by time-travel shenanigans.
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Bandai Namco has recently filed to trademark the term Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree. The classification of the January 22 filing, first spotted by Gematsu, corresponds to a typical video game trademark. Although the very term that the Japanese company is trying to secure doesn't outright confirm this to be a Yashahime spin-off, it contains two elements indicative of a connection to the 2020 anime. For one, there's the apparent mention of Towa herself, as there's only one prominent character with that name in Bandai Namco Filmworks' entire anime portfolio.
Secondly, the "sacred tree" mentioned in the trademark is likely a reference to the eponymous place that's an inherent part of the Inuyasha lore. Also known as Goshinboku, Tree of Ages, and the Era Tree, this sentient being was featured in both Inuyasha and Yashahime over the years. In light of those apparent references to Bandai Namco Filmworks' series, it seems plausible that Yashahime will be joining the ever-growing list of anime with video game adaptations.
All Inuyasha Video Game Spin-Offs
|
Game |
Release Date |
Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|
|
Inuyasha: Kagome's Warring States Diary |
November 2, 2001 |
WonderSwan |
|
Inuyasha |
December 27, 2001 |
PS1 |
|
Inuyasha: The Sealed Scroll Picture |
July 27, 2002 |
WonderSwan |
|
Inuyasha: Kagome's Dream Diary |
November 16, 2002 |
WonderSwan |
|
Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale |
December 5, 2002 |
PS1 |
|
Inuyasha: Naraku's Trap! Invitation to the Forest of Illusion |
January 23, 2003 |
GBA |
|
Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask |
March 18, 2004 |
PS2 |
|
Inuyasha: Feudal Combat |
June 16, 2005 |
PS2 |
|
Inuyasha |
June 21, 2005 |
J2ME |
|
Inuyasha: Secret of the Divine Jewel |
January 23, 2007 |
NDS |
And while Bandai Namco's 2020 spin-off series never received a video game tie-in to date, the anime that spawned it has a long track record of such adaptations. Specifically, ten Inuyasha games have been produced to date for everything from the GBA and PS2 to J2ME feature phones and the long-forgotten WonderSwan handheld. Despite that sizable library, the franchise has long been dormant in the gaming space, with its latest release arriving in the form of the Nintendo DS exclusive Inuyasha: Secret of the Divine Jewel, which launched 17 years ago to date.
When exactly Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree might end up hitting the store shelves is unclear, assuming that ever happens, as trademark applications submitted by major publishers like Bandai Namco don't always lead to market releases. Age ratings are a much more reliable indicator that a given product is on the horizon, but as things stand right now, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree hasn't been rated by any of the largest game classification organizations, such as PEGI and ESRB. The timing of this purported spin-off is also peculiar, not least because Yashahime nowadays has a somewhat smaller following than it did back when it first released.