Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc – 06 – Fifth Wheel

So Genya didn’t suddenly turn into a mindless demon, he’s just…really jazzed up on rage? So much so that he’s drooling profusely? Genya is also determined to become a Hashira first by defeating an Upper Six. To his, Tanjirou, while being choked by Genya, bucks shounen hero conventions and says “Fine, whatever, become a Hashira! I’ll help you…just don’t slash my little sis!”

When the four emotion demons regenerate and the one with the leaf blows the smell of the hot spring’s sulpher away, Tanjirou can smell a fifth demon, one they’ll have to kill in order to truly defeat the others. As he and Nezuko fight the other four, Genya chases the fifth, who is tiny and quick as a Cactuar…and also strong enoguh that Genya’s blade snaps when he strikes him.

The episode is then paused with one of the bigger demon’s staffs inching closer to the back of Genya’s head, and Genya thinks of his incredibly tragic childhood, when his tiny mother became a demon and killed all of his and his brother’s siblings. When he saw his blood-covered brother standing over the dead corpse of their mom, he accused him of being a murderer.

Then we get a flashback within the flashback, which really is a bit much, to show what we’ve already been told: that after their dad was stabbed, they promised to protect the family. This was evident when they nodded without words before the brother went out to look for their mom, and a rare instance of showing and telling too much.

It’s repetitive storytelling, especially when we consider that our protagonist Tanjirou also had his whole family be killed save one sibling. Add to that some action sequences that aren’t quite as flashy as last weeks, the demons keep regenerating and have grown stale, Okamoto Nobuhiko’s tired shrill yelling shtick, and a complete lack of Mitsuri (and barely any Tokitou), and this was not Demon Slayer’s finest outing.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc – 05 – Pretty In Pink (and Red)

Tokitou and Kotetsu meet up with Kanamori, who has a new sword for the Hashira. He leads them to his work shed, but Tokitou stops him short: something’s amiss. Sure enough, that foreboding pot appears, and out of it spills Upper Moon Five Gyokko.

Meanwhile in the village center, Kanroji Mitsuri finally arrives to make her much-anticipated first appearance in battle. She’s immensely fast, nimble, and strong, and her pink sword is long and flexible like a whip or ribbon, enabling her to quickly carve through the attacking fish monsters.

Mitsuri not only earns style points for her beautiful “Love Breathing”, but also for maintaining a positive, upbeat attitude throughout the battle. She ends up rescuing the village chief Tecchin from the clutches of the fish monster boss, and the old man is in good enough shape to swoon over being held by a beautiful young lady.

Gyokko has a lot of tricks in his pots, including his “artwork”: a grotesque human sculpture composed of five other swordsmiths in their death throes. When he twists a blade, blood spills forth from their faces and limbs. It’s a terrifying display, and Tokitou is sick of it, so he attacks. But for his trouble he gets a face full of poison needles.

Tanjirou comes to in Nezuko’s arms. She woke up before him and is buying time by running, but once Hantengu levels the entire building, she grabs hold of Tanjirou’s sword with her bare hands and doesn’t let go until it’s set aflame by her burning blood and turns red.

Tanjirou’s head scar morphs into a flame pattern—the same one that was on the head of Tsugikuni Yoriichi—and the three Hantengu clones recognize Tsugikuni in Tanjirou’s stance. He puts everything he’s got—and feels the hands of everyone who has helped him get this far on his back—and delivers a Hinokami Kagura strike that takes the form of a fire dragon, beheading all three clones at once.

Tanjirou appears to be in luck, as the fourth clone has also been beheaded by Genya. However, Genya does not look well at all. in fact, he’s looking very demonic, not unlike Nezuko. Will Tanjirou’s next opponent be a fellow slayer? Will Tokitou be able to overcome the poison from Gyokko’s needles? Will we get to see more Mitsuri kicking ass? We’ll surely find out soon.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc – 04 – In Their Feelings

As Tokitou is running past a Kotetsu about to be killed by a mutant fish demon, he remembers Tanjirou’s words about helping people coming back to help you, so he spares a few minutes to take the fish out. Kotetsu rides along as Tokitou heads back to the main battle.

Tanjirou is also isolated by the winged fragment of Hantengu. He gets hit by a sonic attack, but he learns that when he chops the demon up, their individual attacks grow weaker. The demon’s talons are a problem, but Tanjirou is hanging in there.

He’d really like to get back to Nezuko and Genya, who are dealing with the other three fragments of Hantengu: anger, pleasure, and sadness. Genya manages to knock off the Sad one with a combo of his shotgun, sword, and staunch refusal to die; he’s a tough cookie.

And then there’s Nezuko, who kicks the shit out of Pleasure and burns him with her blood. It’s great to see Nezuko actually fighting and doing a pretty good job of it. Her attacks and acrobatics are certainly some of the prettiest of the show, but she suffers a setback when Anger stabs her in the throat and starts hitting her with electricity.

Tanjirou finally uses Joy’s flight ability to his advantage, correctly deducing that the demon must be super light. He skewers him through the face and basically uses him as a glider to get back to the building where Nezuko and Genya are flagging.

Once back in the building, he slices off Joy’s foot and uses it to deflect Anger’s lightning, then slashes Anger’s tongue to buy time to free Nezuko. Anger nearly stabs Tanjirou in the throat, which would have been unpleasant, but Nezuko manages to stop the thrust with her immense strength.

Joy then swoops in and hits them with his big leaf fan thingy, which is essentially a wind and gravity-based attack that disables both Nezuko and Tanjirou. The timing of this is bad, as a huge horde of those mutant fish demons start to invade the village, whose swordsmiths are far better at making weapons than wielding them.

It’s fortunate, then, that Mitsuri was not stationed far from the village, and thanks to her crow, is on her way to spell Tanjirou, Nezuko, Genya, and Tokitou. She comes with a full head of steam and her trademark positive attitude, a ray of sunshine who will surely turn the tide.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc – 03 – What Goes Around Comes Around

Kotetsu believes that Tanjirou is entitled to the mysterious 300-year-old sword that emerges from the defeated mechanical doll. After all, he was the Demon Slayer who defeated the doll, and just so happens to be in need of a sword. Who should emerge from the bush but the surprisingly ticklish Haganezuka Hotaru, who vows to repair the rusty blade, and gives Tanjirou a replacement Nichirin sword to use in the meantime.

Tanjirou, the Best Boy who only wants to be friends with everyone, tries in vain to be friendly with Shinazugawa Genya, who has no interest in interacting socially with Tanjirou in the slightest. He still holds a grudge from when Tanjirou broke his arm, but Tanjirou quite rightfully tells Genya that was his own fault for hitting a girl!

That night, a swordsmith is attacked and consumed by Upper Five Gyokko, who is hiding in an ornate vase. Tanjirou is braiding Nezuko’s hair like Mitsuri’s, which is one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen him do, and ends up dozing off when he’s awakened by Tokitou Muichirou, who is looking for his swordsmith Kanamori.

Just then, Upper Four Hantengu enters the room, and both Tanjirou and Tokitou can sense he is bad news, only a hair too late. Tokitou’s first strike misses, as Hantengu is extremely spry. Tanjirou uses Hinokami Kagura and Nezuko delivers a swift kick to the demon, enabling Tokitou to behead him, but that only causes him to split into two separate, younger demons.

Hantengu’s attack blasts Tokitou several hundred yards away, and it’s only thanks to Nezuko that Tanjirou remains in the vicinity to fight on. When Genya uses his Nichirin gun to behead both demons, Hantengu then splits into four demons, each with their own name and abilities. One of them is a harpy-like demon that separates Tanjirou from Nezuko.

Meanwhile, Tokitou hurries back to the site of the battle, and spots Kotetsu being attacked (and losing to) a lesser demon. At first, Tokitou continues on, deeming Kotetsu a low priority for rescue. But then Tanjirou’s words to Tokitou about how helping others eventually comes around for the better, and he decides to stop and save Kotetsu. Hopefully the detour won’t take too long, as Tanjirou, Nezuko, and Genya are overmatched against the crafty, adaptable Hangetsu.