“The devastation of the Mugen Train incident still weighs heavily on the members of the Demon Slayer Corps. Despite being given time to recover, life must go on, as the wicked never sleep: a vicious demon is terrorizing the alluring women of the Yoshiwara Entertainment District. The Sound Pillar, Tengen Uzui, and his three wives are on the case. However, when he soon loses contact with his spouses, Tengen fears the worst and enlists the help of Tanjirou Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma, and Inosuke Hashibira to infiltrate the district’s most prominent houses and locate the depraved Upper Rank demon.” – MAL Synopsis
Demon Slayer continues its run as one of the best anime out. Right off the back of the mega-successful Mugen Train movie that smashed all sorts of box office records and a short recap season going through those events. Here we are, basically at the halfway point of the story and everything is bigger and better. Spoiler alert in advance.
The first episode was great. Tanjiro meeting with Rengoku’s family and seeing firsthand his father’s state lent itself to some great moments. Ever since the flashbacks in season one and Tanjiro’s fight against Rui, the mystery of Tanjiro’s fire breathing has been looming over the show. We got a clear-cut answer from Rengoku’s father and it wasn’t what I was expecting. I really like the idea that Sun Breathing was the 1st technique and those who are capable of using it have a large scar on their forehead. Everything else has been derived from that technique. With that being revealed I can understand Rengokus’s father’s plight and jealousy. Feeling as if Tanjiro is looking down on him in some way because he was “chosen.” I really dug their back and forth with Tanjiro revealing how he got his scar from a burn as a child and that he isn’t chosen at all. Their back and forth was great. The highlight of this episode to me was Rengoku’s father’s breakdown at the end when he hears his son’s final words and runs out of booze. No longer able to hide behind his mask. Speaking of Rengoku, it’s amazing to see how much his death impacted everyone. He may not have been the strongest Hashira, but it’s very clear that he was beyond very respected almost seen as the pinnacle of what a Hashira and a Demon Slayer should be and that makes his death all the sadder.
From there, the next few episodes were good. I loved Uzui’s reintroduction and once again his relationship with the trio resembles that of a big brother with a bunch of annoying little brats. Similiar to Rengoku last arc. His and Inosuke’s interactions were easily my favorite. Inosuke was hilarious this season. The crew investing undercover in each of their respective houses was fun for a couple of episodes. A fair share of funny moments between them all, but the best thing about these early episodes is anything involving Daki. Her and Muzan’s conversation, her in her courtesan persona putting on a kind but sinister act. Those were the highlights which bled into her true identity being discovered. The rest of the season turning into a giant battle was not something I was expecting but It was very welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment from when Tanjiro and Daki started fighting, until the very end of episode 11. Talk about high stakes, action-packed fun, full of hype moments.
I couldn’t even begin to list out all the hype moments that happened once the fighting started, the hype train was basically nonstop. Tanjiro & Nezuko powering up, Zenistu just absolutely showing out, hell anything that Uzui did for that matter. I never thought to myself to make this comparison until I saw someone do it in a tweet. Basically, it said Demon Slayer has perfected the Dragon Ball formula. While I don’t want to compare the two, it’s hard for me to deny the hype factor that this show holds. In the modern-day, the only recent anime that I’ve seen that had the ability to be nonstop action-packed hype was the better seasons of Seven Deadly Sins. Even then those don’t hold a candle to this. Multiple points of this season could have been the climax yet it kept going higher and higher and the hype getting building and building. All the way until the beautifully dramatic and destructive ending of episode 10. It is truly a testament not only to the visuals but also to the story. Cause lets be real here, these moments don’t work and would never carry the same weight if the story was bad and we didn’t care about the characters involved.
Tanjiro was amazing this season. During the end of the last arc and the beginning of this one, his uselessness and weakness in the grand scheme of things were really put on display. I love how that was shown, I love how he bounced back from that. Fast forward to his initial fight with Daki. His powerup and the reveal of his true scar, the one that all sun breathers bear, is like my 1b favorite moment from this season. It was amazing to see more of what we got all the back during the MT. Natagumo arc. Seeing him not just go toe to toe with an upper-rank demon but actually overpower her was just chefs kiss. Until his body “gave out” and Nezuko had to save the day. Gave out in quotations because my only gripe with this season is how many damn times Tanjiro mentions he’s at his “limit” yet he keeps getting back up time and time again. It became slightly annoying but I guess the payoff of seeing Nezuko carrying him around in episode 11 was worth it.
Nezuko was easily my MVP of this season. First and foremost I can’t wait to learn what is making Nezuko so strong even when she doesn’t consume humans? Her new berserk form was ridiculously strong and at this point that is the secret I want answered the most. But again and again, her and Tanjiros bond is one of the best aspects of the show and this season particularly played into the whole brother-sister dynamic heavily.
Daki & Gyutaro are a great parallel to Tanjiro and Nezuko. That parallel was played up to its potential perfectly. One pair of siblings was born and raised in the slums to a parent who didn’t want one of them, the other raised in a big loving family. One pair was saved by a Hashira, the other saved by an Upper-Ranked demon. I love how that parallel in particular involved Gyutaro carrying his sister through the snow just like Tanjiro did. I love how Tanjiro recognizes this and acknowledges that Daki and Gyutaro could have easily been him and Nezuko. Their whole flashback was heartbreaking and I somewhat kind of questioned how I feel about the near-death flashbacks for the demons as it feels kind of tropey. This one just hammered home that, yeah, this works. It was a great emotional flashback and I love how the afterlife is portrayed in Demon Slayer and its roots in Buddhism. I get why Tanjiro prays for the demons he kills yet he doesn’t hesitate to do so. He’s freeing their trapped souls so they can repent in hell and be reborn anew. Death and hell isn’t an eternal prison sentence, it’s rehabilitation and I think that’s beautiful. Life is unfair and these two siblings who were dealt a horrible hand at birth in their past lives can now hopefully be born again in better circumstances. Daki not leaving Gyutaros’s side during their death scene was beautiful, in the end, they were brother and sister.
It almost feels like blasphemy to say, but Uzui is my favorite Hashira after all of this. No slight to Rengoku or the others but I just loved Uzuis’s attitude and the way he went about himself. It does upset me that they in a way censored him from saying/referring to himself and his outlook on life as “flamboyant.” Instead of replacing it with, equally as a fitting word but still c’mon, “flashy.” But that’s exactly what he is and what he’s all about. Whereas Rengoku is portrayed and held as this perfect example of a Hashira, of a person. Uzui is more of a flawed version of him who carries sins of his past that he knows he has and will repent for. So he’s gonna live his life as flamboyant as possible until the day he has to. That flashback scene in the graveyard where he and his wives were having a nice time eating and he just blurts out “I’m going to hell.” It was absolutely random and hilarious, but I love how aware of his sins he is. Plus he has three amazing wives who were awesome. The Suma was hilarious in episode 11. It was only fitting for the most flamboyant Hashira with a burdened past to be the one to finally take out an upper-rank demon for the first time in 100 years.
Inosuke & Zenitsu are awesome in different ways this season. Zenitsu was asleep for the majority of this season and that just means awesome stuff is gonna happen. I’ll never get tired of thunder breathing first form, and it continues to be hype as hell to see him push the limits of only the first form of that breathing technique. Inosuke on the other hand might’ve been my favorite character this season. Absolutely downright hilarious. His initial meeting with Uzui and calling himself the King of the mountains and everyone’s reactions had me dying. He was by far the funniest character as well as having some great hype moments.
I wanna see more from Muzan. He’s such an interesting character. The manipulation of the demons mixed with what are basically temper tantrums when they fail is so interesting to me. Also, It dawned on me this season during Daki and Gyo’s flashback. Every demon that has had a flashback so far, they’ve all have had tragic lives. They’ve all been broken people, or better yet children who lived a traumatic life and are now demons. Not all of them had been turned into demons by Muzan himself but there’s definitely a trend here and I’m curious to see if that keeps up and/or if it’s expanded on in the future. Also, not only did an upper-rank demon die, Tanjiro was a pivotal factor in their demise. I can’t wait to see how he reacts to that fact. To top it off Muzan is somehow related to the head of the demon slayer corps? I really am looking forward to the inevitable Muzan backstory.
I’ll start off with the short stuff. The music and voice acting were all amazing as usual. This season’s opening is definitely my favorite over the first seasons. props were props are due, all the voice actors kill it this season, but Daki, in particular, was the standout. Her childish and immature wines really hit the nail on the head, it added a lot to her character.
I’ve watched a lot of really well-animated things in my life. Not all have been anime, some have, I’ve reviewed some of those. In my 21 years of life, I have never seen something as amazingly animated as this. It is of high movie quality. Literally jaw-dropping how fluid and vibrant and just awe-inspiring the animation is. It’s hard to put into words, so imma just putting the Uzui and Gyutaro fight above. It’s amazing.
So yeah, I just made a top 10 list earlier this month and I don’t usually even discuss it outside of that unless I just watched something truly amazing. I just watched something truly amazing. Demon Slayer is on the JoJo’s path to me. Which is, I started out liking it, and each part/season I kept saying “this is great, no way it gets better than this right?” Then it kept getting better and better. To the point where it may be impossible to leave it off of my next top 10. Demon Slayer season 1 was a great time especially upon rewatch. Mugen Train was really good for 3/4ths, then the last act was just stunning. Now here we are at the Entertainment District arc and it somehow got better. A really good, interesting, gripping story with amazing characters. All within the best animation in the world. Demon Slayer is knocking on the door to all-time greatness with the addition of this season.
Demon Slayer: Entertainment Arc – 10/10
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