Kimetsu no Yaiba: Katanakaji no Sato-hen Episode 1 [First Impressions]

Shadow’s Impressions:

Berry has given me her blessings to cover this season, so looks like you’re all stuck with me for this coverage, heh. Similarly to the second season first episode, this episode takes place directly after what transpired from the previous arc while also being a special 40 minute special. After the excitement and hype of what happened in the finale of the second season, we have cool down episode that also sets up what is to come for the Swordsmith Village Arc. And judging from that banger of an opening, things are going to GO DOWN.

I heard a lot of people were bummed that the last episode didn’t show the Upper Demon meeting, but considering how things went down, I’m glad they didn’t. I feel like if they did shove this part into the last episode of last season, I feel like it would have been too much. Especially since I feel like they wanted to end the season on a hopeful and relieved note. We get to meet all of the Upper Moons and boy… I feel like they are what was to be expected from what we’ve seen of demons so far. They all stick out in different ways and while I do really like some of their designs, ironically, I think the two demons that they will be focusing on this season had to be my least favorite designs out of the remaining ones. My brain cannot even process Gyokko with all the different parts of his body in the wrong places on his face besides his nose. And then Hantengu just looked like the generic portrayal of a demon with red eyes, horns, fangs with pale/gray skin.

We only got a brief scene with Doma in the last episode and we now get to formally meet him and… I’m honestly not sure what to think of him yet. On the surface, he’s one of those playfully deadly characters, similarly to Mahito in Jujutsu Kaisen. He’s almost like that annoying kid who likes to poke and prod others for fun to try and get a reaction out of them. I typically don’t really like these type of villain characters, but I think it’s too early to truly judge him since he has to be rank 2 for a reason. Though I already don’t like him for certain reasons. Especially when he claims that no matter how hard Akaza tries, he would never be able to defeat him. To which, knowing what I know about these characters, I did find it funny how little tolerance Akaza has for Doma. While it may not be the main reason why he doesn’t like him, but it is a funny detail considering their characters. If you know, you know.

Speaking of Akaza, as terrible as it was to watch Rengoku die by this guy’s hands, I still really like Akaza… for reasons I can’t fully disclose. But he probably has one of the best designs out of the Upper Moon and I’m just a sucker for characters whose fighting style consists of hand to hand combat. He’s probably one of my favorite antagonists in this series so far and knowing what I know, makes him even better. I don’t condone what he does, but it does add a lot to him as a character. While it won’t be covered in this season, I am excited to when his backstory does inevitably get animated.

I feel like not that much happened during this meeting besides Muzan being fed up with how things have been progressing lately. I think the only thing that this meeting did was basically indicate to us who the enemies this season will be and introducing the rest of the Upper Moons all the while hinting things about them. The animation and camera movements in the Infinity Castle is as great as ever and it’s always really cool watching it. Though I do think they went a little overboard with the abundance of special effects during the meeting since it felt like every other moment it would just flash across the screen. It got to a point where I just couldn’t take it seriously and was like: okay, you need to chill.

Dude, I was SHOCKED that Tanjiro was out for TWO FREAKING MONTHS. Considering how beat up he got from the Entertainment District Arc, it’s honestly no wonder. I just wasn’t expecting him to be out for that long. And while I love Demon Slayer, I do admit that the pacing and comedy can be a bit weird at times. Especially with how serious the situation was with the Upper Demon meeting and then switching to everyone screaming in Tanjiro’s room. Though I do admit I did laugh at Aoi frantically running into the room caught up in the sheets she was hanging after hearing that Tanjiro woke up and how Inosuke was just hanging on the ceiling above him waiting for him to wake up. Talk about emotional whiplash, but I feel like it’s to be expected at this point. Though still not as bad as what I experienced from watching Fire Force.

Anyways, after finding out that Haganezuka hadn’t sent him a new sword after he had chipped it during the battle with Daki, all the while having sent him a letter cursing him for damaged his sword. Leaving Tanjiro no choice but to travel to the Swordsmith village since he is swordless. But because the village is incredibly important to the Demon Slayer corp, it’s no surprise they want to keep it tightly hidden. Even going as far as to have Tanjiro wear earplugs, nose plugs and be blindfolded to ensure he doesn’t know how to get there. However, The fact that they went out of their way to tell us all of these precautions to ensure it’s location is a secret and that this is literally called the “Swordsmith Village Arc,” makes it abundantly clear that the demons are going to find this village. Especially with how Gyokko said that he had some important information, I feel like he was able to find some information regarding where the village is. I fear for this village and the inhabitants especially with the sheer amount of damage that Daki and Gyutaro did to the Entertainment District. Basically just straight up leveling it and there were A LOT of casualties. So I’m worried over how many people we’re going to lose at this Swordsmith village and if the Demon Slayer Corp will be able to handle the possible loss. Especially with the big win they recently had with taking down the rank 6 demon. There are going to be consequences no doubt.

Another concerning thing is the fact that Haganezuka has gone missing and the villagers are still searching for him. Despite him being incredibly crazy when it comes to the swords that he makes, I do hope he’s alright and that the next time we see he’s still alive. You never know with this series.

I do find it interesting how they’ve chosen to start the arc with Tanjiro being completely defenseless. He still hasn’t finished healing, he’s not fully up to slaying demons yet and he doesn’t have a sword. It’ll be interesting how things progress from this point onwards since Zenitsu and Inosuke don’t seem to have much focus this arc. Which is honestly surprisingly with how close the three have gotten. However, it’s a nice change of pace and allows us to focus on other characters. Which is probably why this arc will be focusing on two Hashiras instead of one, effectively filling in for Inosuke and Zenitsu’s absence. Not only that, but it looks like we’ll finally be getting some focus on Genya.

While Genya had a pretty bad first impression in the first season, effectively labeling himself as Demon Slayer Bakugo due to sharing the same voice actor, I am eager to see what’s going on with him since there seems to be a lot of mysteries revolving around him. Like, how the heck did he get so big in such a short amount of time? When did he start training under Himejima? And why is he yanking out his teeth??? Besides that, we do learn that he’s the younger brother of Sanemi, who probably took the cake of terrible first impressions… which honestly makes a lot of sense with these two being related lol. Though it also seems as if the two don’t have a good relationship (which is honestly not even that surprising either) since Mitsuri commented that Sanemi has claimed he has no brother. While it seems as if he’s still a violent jerk, I am curious to delve into his character a bit more and find out what’s been happening with him since becoming a demon slayer. Not to mention the fact that the opening revealed his weapon is strangely a gun rather than a sword. But goodness, Tanjiro’s reaction to Genya telling him to die upon greeting him was to just jump into the hot springs naked with him just made me die. I honestly can’t wait to see what kind of bond Tanjiro and Genya forge since it is honestly hilarious how aggressively polite and nice Tanjiro can be while also being stubborn about it. If it’s anything like Tanjiro and Inosuke’s bond, I’m all for it.

Another character standout from this episode was Mitsuri and… she is certainly a lot in more ways than one. So far, she’s literally like 100% or nothing when it comes to her and it can definitely be quite overwhelming due to the energy she’s exuding a lot of the time. However, I did like the more calm moments with her, especially when she seemed to bond pretty fast with Nezuko which was extremely adorable. It’s like Nezuko could already sense she was a good person and instantly took a liking to her. Most likely adopting her as her older sister with how attached she got to her lol. And considering how many siblings Mitsuri grew up with, it’s not surprising how well she was able to get along with Nezuko. That side of her is really endearing so far since I’m always a sucker for family oriented characters. And I do think it is worth noting that she by far is the nicest out of the Hashira’s right off the back. Though it does strike me as odd is that she only joined the Demon Slayer Corp to find a man. Which I mean, sure, if that’s what she wants, fine, but compared to the other Hashira’s reasons for joining, hers sounds a bit… odd for a lack of a better word. Hopefully there’s more to her than that since that would leave her quite shallow. Though it does show a little bit of hindsight in that despite how seemingly flimsy her reasons for becoming a demon slayer is, the fact she became a Hashira is a testament to her strength. With what she had to tell Tanjiro in the hallway about being a demon slayer, she does hold a lot of insight on the matter while also being encouraging. And judging from the opening, there are definitely more things to learn about her. So I’m definitely excited to learn more about her as a character.

But oh my gosh, when Tanjiro rushed over and pulled her robe more securely over her chest, I was like: WHAT A GENTLEMAN. Though I think the whisper to the ear was too much for this teenage boy as even he ended up getting a nose bleed over it. XD I love the little detail of him lifting the food tray above him so he doesn’t bleed on it lol.

The episode ends with Tanjiro finding Muichiro arguing with a little kid from the Swordsmith village over something (who I immediately noticed was voiced by Hinata from Haikyuu lol). But the biggest thing that happened was seeing a guy with long red hair and Hanafuda earrings that looked similar to both the Upper 1 rank demon and the mysterious swordsman we’ve seen in Muzan’s flashbacks. I didn’t talk about him when I was talking about the Upper ranked demons, but Kokushibo is definitely one to watch out for considering the eerie similarities between him and the mysterious demon slayer that a lot of people thought to be Tanjiro’s dad. But he is TERRIFYING both physically and in terms of his abilities that we only see very briefly. His six eyes on his face makes him hard to look at. However, with how this was all set up, I can imagine how confused anime-only’s would be with the amount of fragmented information we got this episode on the topic of the long, red-headed swordsman. It’s honestly really hard for me to talk about it because I know the whole situation regarding it. But considering the upper demon ranks hasn’t changed for over a hundred years, I think it’s safe to say that Tanjiro’s dad isn’t the upper rank demon or the mysterious swordsman given the time frame of everything. Especially when Tanjiro thinks back to him, he doesn’t question if it’s his dad or not and refers to him as someone he’s seen before. So I’m curious to how far they’ll go into this little mystery this season considering they focused a lot on it this episode.

While I have heard this arc isn’t as good as the Entertainment District, I am eager to see how things play out especially with Zenitsu and Inosuke being mostly absent this season judging from them not even appearing in the opening and them being out on separate faraway missions. There were a lot of sibling talks in this episode which definitely feels like they are hinting towards SOMETHING in more ways than one. Am I aware of that something? Yes. So I won’t be touching upon it lol. But man, the new opening is a BANGER. Literally had to replay it nonstop because I got obsessed with it. At first I wasn’t too sure, but the more I listened to it, the more I’m like: Ooh.. I like this. I also noticed that… they showed quite a bit of things that could be regarded as spoilers so I wonder if anime-onlys caught it or what they think about it. Otherwise, I’m so down for this arc and I can’t wait to drag you along with me.

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