I think the last episode of Demon Slayer that gave me a strong emotional response was episode 19 from the first season. Demon Slayer has had some great moments but episode 19 was the one that really brought out emotions in me that left me on the edge of my seat. THIS episode literally left me shaking by the end, clutching my heart and screaming at certain parts. Episode 19 was more of “the family feels get me, i’m crying my eyes out” while this one was just pure excitement, and some fear. That cliffhanger is killing me.
Now, the episode didn’t exactly start out with a bang. I do think it was annoying that a decent chunk of the episode was filled up with nothing but talking, mainly by Gyutaro talking shit to Tanjiro’s face and saying the same thing over and over. I get it, but I do think that it could have been cut shorter. I did like Nezuko’s scene in the beginning though, with her words snapping her brother back into action.
Speaking of, I do like the parallel that we’ve been getting between Tanjiro/Nezuko and Gyutaro/Daki. And as usual, I love that even in this desperate moment of life or death, Tanjiro can sympathize and acknowledge that he and Nezuko could have also been demons themselves. One wrong turn in their life and they would be the exact same way. The main reason why Nezuko has retained her humanity is because of Tanjiro. If Tanjiro had become a demon as well, I don’t think that humanity for either of them would have been there. That sibling bond, maybe, but they easily could have been like any other demon. Tanjiro’s train of thought was interesting near the end, but also makes me concerned. For some reason I felt like that was some foreshadowing and red flags with him believing someone from the Demon Slayer Corps would be the one to graciously behead him if he were to turn into a demon. I don’t know if I should be concerned but that just rubbed me the wrong way and for some reason that makes me really worried. I know what he’s trying to say but now I’m just concerned about everything. This season has really kept me on edge with its new developments.
Now, what else can I say about this episode other than it was a spectacle. It was a scrumptious feast for the eyes animation wise, but the fight choreography was spectacular. Like I said, the first third of the episode was dragging on too much with a couple good moments here and there. Tanjiro’s ingenuity shows up again with the kunai, it reminded me of the first episode when he sort of did the same strategy on Giyu with the axe. And starting with the kunai and headbutt is when the episode seriously went into high gear. If you looked away from the screen for a split second you would miss out on something. I just cannot believe this show can continue looking so gorgeous with each passing episode, and this one was definitely one of the best. It may have been overkill sometimes, where it sort of reminded me of DBZ with Zenitsu’s Godspeed Thunderclap, but I also like DBZ so that moment was very exciting lol. I can kind of understand when I see people complain about the “asspulls” this episode, what with each character being near death and being like “Not really!” Maybe it’s because I’ve seen a lot of shounen, one of those shounens being Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and that is full of weird “asspulls” and just…stuff that happens and we just accept it because JJBA is just like that. And it’s great! Inosuke moving his organs isn’t the weirdest since we’ve seen his body in the strangest of ways, and Tengen being able to stop his heart and all that probably because of his shinobi training. Also we’ve seen other crazy things. Also, I think it’s just the characters channeling their last bit of adrenaline in desperation to survive and defeat these demons. At least to me that makes a lot of sense. But their bodies have seriously been pushed to the absolute limit and things are looking even worse for our group, especially with that cliffhanger! I’m just so worried!
The fight choreography again was amazing, I love seeing the characters working together. Inosuke and Zenitsu against Daki, Tengen and Tanjiro against Gyutaro. I was always curious how exactly the Sound Breathing technique worked, so I was pretty happy that we got to see how Tengen used his ability by creating Gyutaro’s rhythm of his attacks into a score. That’s a really unique type of style that I find really fascinating and I’d hope to see more of that. Also Tengen is just amazing to still fight like he can with one less hand, he’s just amazing. I legit screamed when Gyutaro stabbed Tanjiro through his mouth, with Tanjiro still fighting on with the blade pierced through him. It’s not the most gruesome thing I’ve seen but still very visceral, especially when Tanjiro had his fingers broken not too long ago and he’s still very much wounded with his fight with Daki. And of course with that stab, I knew it would be all bad with the poison and that ending seriously scared me. And of course the poison wasn’t enough, we had to get one more explosion of Gyutaro’s blood demon art to finish things off.
How the hell am I going to wait for the 45 minute finale next time? Heads up, I’m going to be out of town on vacation so I actually won’t be around to get the finale out on time. But I’ll definitely be sure to get it out as soon as I come back home, so thank you for the patience! I absolutely cannot wait for the finale, as terrified as I am. This season has been great and I’m sad to see it end but let’s do this! Never give up!
