Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen Episode 5

Shadow: I’m still supposed to be on season hiatus, but due to Berry’s computer trouble, I’ll be filling in for Demon Slayer’s coverage until things get sorted out on her end. Kinda like how she took over Fruits Basket while I was dealing with an injury at that time. So guess you guys are stuck with me for the time being lol.

In any case, I am pretty happy to be able to talk about Demon Slayer for a little bit since I’m absolutely loving this new season so far. Though I’m not gonna lie, while the episode was exciting, the pacing of this episode felt a tad strange with a bunch of flashbacks being inserted in between the fighting… which can get a little annoying since it breaks the flow of action. Especially since I feel like they could have addressed some of these things earlier on in the season. Such as with Tanjiro’s training with the hinokami kagura. The insertion of those flashbacks in this episode made me think: Why couldn’t they have showed us this in real time? They could have easily inserted it into the training montage during the first episode or even have just addressed it. The flashback with Tanjiro and one of the little girls at the butterfly estate definitely felt like it was misplaced as it was a somewhat silly interaction placed in between very serious moments in the episode.

The flashback with Tengen’s wives also felt a little out of place. I think it was good character building, but I don’t think it was the right time to have it in the middle of the fight. Or reminisce about it since we haven’t really seen that much of Tengen’s relationship with his wives. Flashbacks can work in these instances, but I feel like they need to match the feeling and mood of the current moment. To which the flashbacks shown in this episode did not, making the pacing feel like a stop and go rather than smooth transitions. Which is unfortunate, but I wouldn’t say they ruined the episode. They just made it feel kinda clunky.

Not to mention it is a pet peeve of mine of having comedy while in the middle of a fight. You can thank fire force for that. I don’t have an issue of having comedy while serious things are happening, but the action has to keep moving and the comedy can’t have everything just stop for the sake of it. At first it was funny with Tengen’s wife freaking out while fending off the demon’s attacks, but when the two wives started comedically fighting with each other and Inosuke just stared at them, that’s when it got on my nerves a little. Hopefully next episode can be smoother sailing.

Tanjiro has honestly come a long way where he is able to hold off Daki on his own. While I don’t think he’s ready to the point where he can beat an upper ranked demon, the fact that he’s holding his own for as long as he is is still an impressive feat. Back in season 1, he could barely fend off Rui. I do hope that he doesn’t end up killing Daki himself since I feel like he would have made too much progress. Not to mention I would love seeing him fight alongside Tengen. Since we were robbed of any chance of him fighting side by side with Rengoku.

Speaking of Rengoku, I nearly teared up when Tanjiro recited Rengoku’s phrase of “set your heart ablaze.” It just shows that despite him showing up so little, he left such a deep impact on everyone, especially Tanjiro. And it was his sacrifice that is propelling Tanjiro to go further beyond to live up to expectations. It also inspired him to make sure this sort of tragedy doesn’t happen to anyone else. Which I feel is a sentiment all of the Hashira share in their own different ways. Rengoku may be gone, but he will never be forgotten… and it hurts every time. Also it may have been because I literally watched the movie two days in a row with two different groups of friends… so Rengoku’s death is way too fresh in my mind right now.

I also want to appreciate the fact that when Tanjiro thought back to the people affected by demons taking away loved ones, despite being a complete insensitive jerk, he still knew and acknowledged the fact that Rengoku’s father was hurting from his son’s death.

I found it interesting that Tanjiro may not be continuing with water breathing anymore as the hinokami kagura dance seems to be a more comfortable fighting style for him. Which is kind of sad from an artistic standpoint since his water breathing techniques were absolutely beautiful and just amazing to watch through out the first season. Not to mention that there are hardly any main characters who have water abilities. But with Rengoku gone, it makes sense narratively that Tanjiro would be pushed to fill in the type gap that was left by him. Especially with how much Rengoku inspired him and the instructor/student relationship they could have had. It makes me think if they’re waiting for Tanjiro to fully embrace Sun breathing before using Rengoku’s sword guard. Since he’s technically still using water breathing techniques and it wouldn’t make sense for him to have a flame designed sword guard if he isn’t using techniques that relates to fire. So he may end up making a transition to just use sun breathing techniques. I kinda hope he continues using both techniques, but after he talked about how water breathing doesn’t come to him as naturally, he may just end up dropping it. Farewell pretty water dragon…

Though with that said, it may be a while before he fully become able to use Sun breathing to its full potential and may have to keep using water breathing to buffer how much repercussions he suffers from Sun breathing’s toll on his body. We’ve already witnessed how tired Tanjiro gets from using the hinokami kagura despite how little he uses it. So seeing just how much it affects him after using several consecutive attacks was actually terrifying to watch when he started hyperventilating and sweating profusely. My mother instincts kicked in just screaming for him to stop since he can’t keep up with it right now. Thankfully he was able to recover and continue holding off Daki until the others arrive. To which, I’m sure they will as shown in the opening with all of them running out towards Daki. I do hope we get to see them all fight together this time.

While Tanjiro does his best to fend off Daki, Inosuke finds the underground system that Daki has been using for hundreds of years to capture and store people she plans to eat. But before that, the fact that Inosuke can dislocate all his limbs was DISGUSTING. Definitely helpful in this situation, but DISGUSTING. Not to mention he was still able to move in such a tight space. Talk about claustrophobia to the max. We knew he was flexible, but I don’t think anyone expected him to just dislocate his arms like that just to fit through a hole. This strange boar man never ceases to surprise me. However, this gross maneuver does allow him to literally worm his way to the “food locker” as the demon so eloquently put it.

I was wondering why the voice back in episode 2 was different from Daki’s voice. We find out that the sash is a separate entity that most likely stems from Daki, but can operate independently while still keeping a telepathic connection. Which just makes Daki all the more dangerous as she has so many different ways to get and keep an eye on people. That’s honestly pretty terrifying. Daki can be houses away and she’d still be able to get you due to this sash thing.

But man, I’ve been liking Inosuke a lot more with each passing episode. Not just because of his development, but I really like his unorthodox way of fighting. It’s just so fun watching him and he really showed just how his animal instincts are put to good use. We also get to see some of his character growth with him putting aside his fight with the sash demon to protect the women that he had cut out. Something he wouldn’t even think about in season 1. However, he put the lives of others ahead of his thrill for battle, actually seeing the bigger picture and even paused to listen to the demon’s threat instead of just continuing to fight.

Thankfully due to his previous slashes, he had freed Tengen’s captured wives and started helping him out by protecting the freed women, allowing Inosuke to continue focusing on his fight. However, not only were they freed, but also Zenitsu who did a grand job at freeing the other captives. I probably got way more excited than I should that Inosuke was actually there to witness Zenitsu’s fighting prowess because I think this was the first time he actually saw it. Since whenever Zenitsu fought previously, he was always off on his own while Tanjiro and Inosuke were off fighting somewhere else. Though Inosuke’s only reaction was that he should probably just stay asleep if he’s able to fight like this lol.  Inosuke please.

And because of Zenitsu’s technique sounding like thunder, Tengen was able to find them. Which felt poetic in a way as Sound breathing stems from Thunder breathing. So it was because of thunder breathing that the sound breathing user was able to find them.

We already know Tengen was a flashy person so of course his entrance had to be as flashy as possible. He certainly came in with a BANG. I’m honestly really excited to see Tengen fight. If he’s anything like Rengoku, he’s going to be an absolute beast. Even from that short moment of him slicing the captives free, that was such a cool flash of animation and I’m sure he has a lot more in store.

I’m definitely enjoying Tengen a lot more than expected. He was definitely one of the more aggressive Hashira who was pretty set on getting rid of Nezuko during the meeting. However, all of the Hashira have their reasons towards their feelings towards demons and hopefully we get to delve into that a little more with Tengen. From these past few episodes, the guy has been shown to care a lot about others. When he revealed that Zenitsu was captured, his veins were shown popping out of his arms. While he didn’t show it in his expression or words, you could tell that this bothered him quite a bit that it was because of his desperation to save his wives that one of the lower ranked demon slayers was taken. Not to mention that in the flashback with his wives, he told them to worry over their own lives and regular citizens over his own. Just with that comment, you can tell that he’d be willing to give his life if it meant saving others… Just like Rengoku.

And man, seeing Tengen care so much for his poisoned wife made me like him even more. There’s just something about husband characters caring so deeply for their wives that makes my heart melt. While Tengen may be brash and a bit of a brute at times, he truly cares about his wives. Even going as far as to tell them to put their lives above all else, contradicting what they were taught as kunoichi. And I appreciate that they aren’t just harem fodder and actually have their own feelings and thoughts and are just doing the best that they can in their given situations. Not to mention that Tengen seems to genuinely care for them and proud of them.

Despite my nitpicks, this was an exciting episode and I can’t wait to see how all of this plays out.