Two months have passed since the Battle of the
Entertainment District. Tanjiro
continues to train and recover from his wounds while his companions embark on
new missions of their own. When
Tanjiro’s usual swordsmith goes missing, Tanjiro and Nezuko are sent to the
hidden Swordsmith Village. Here they
find a hidden sanctuary, old frenemies and two Hashira: Mitsuri Kanroji and Muichirō
Tokitō. But Tanjiro and Nezuko aren’t
the only ones getting ready for their next battle. Muzan Kibutsuji has summoned his remaining
Upper Rank Demons to his fortress. One
of their own has fallen to the Demon Slayers and Muzan will not let this go
unanswered.
Up there with My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon
Slayer has remained one of the most welcome additions to the world of
Anime.
It’s crazy how accessible and
talked about its become since its debut in 2019 and it’s only gotten stronger
in its standing.
So much so since
Ufotable has made a big push in promoting the forthcoming Third Season, aka The
Swordsmith Village Arc, with a special theatrical debut which also includes the
final two episodes of the Entertainment District Arc to pad out the runtime to
feature length.
I was originally
considering posting this as a special FIF during the upcoming Season 8 hiatus
but I got a chance to go see this special presentation in theaters and I’m
excited to share what I saw.
To be
clear, I’ll just be talking about the extended Season Premiere portion.
For some of my thoughts on the end of Season
Two, you can check out this FIF from the end of 2022 here: (
http://gundamanimeblog.blogspot.com/2022/12/t5w383-top-5-thoughts-on-demon-slayer.html).
So, was this worth the near year long wait
it’s been since we last saw Tanjiro and crew?
One thing I’ve come to appreciate about most openings for
new chapters of long running Anime is the risk of not starting things off with
a bang but rather with a calm.
For
example: after the chaotic and confusing finale of Evangelion 3.33: You Can
(Not) Redo, Evangelion 3.0+1.0 kicked things off with Shinji, Asuka and Rei
resting, recuperating and reflecting for the first thirty minutes of the
movie.
Demon Slayer wisely takes the
same approach with Tanjiro, not throwing him right back into the thick of things
but instead letting him rest up and head off on a little side quest with Nezuko
to get his sword touched up a bit.
It
looks like Zenitsu and Inosuke are gonna sit out most, if not the entirety of
this new arc but that’s not a bad thing.
Tanjiro and Nezuko are long overdue for a siblings only outing but they
wont be alone.
Everyone’s been looking
forward to the Hashira that’ll be their mentors this Arc: Mitsuri Kanroji and Muichirō
Tokitō.
We only see Obanai for a brief
moment at the end of the Premiere but I really like Mitsuri’s scenes with
Tanjiro and Nezuko, more so for the latter as its nice to see Nezuko bond with
a girl after so much time around the boys.
There’s also the return of our Vegeta/Bakugo of Demon Slayer, Genya
Shinazugawa and he’s certainly channeling his Bakugo side when the first thing
he says when he sees Tanjiro again is “DIE!!!”.
The first half of this extended episode is actually spent
in the still visually haunting and amazing Infinite Castle, homebase of
Muzan.
Here we get reintroduced to
Akaza, the Upper Rank #3 who killed Rengoku in the Mugen Train Movie, and
introduced to his fellow Upper Ranks.
No
one Demon here is alike as they all range from psychotic to cowardly to calm
but all are clearly very dangerous, some more than others, hence the rank
(yikes Kokushibou looks scary as heck).
And what of the big bad of Demon Slayer?
Oh Muzan is plenty ticked off but somehow it still feels like the gloves
haven’t totally come off as one might expect.
Why not just order his remaining Upper Ranks to go on a killing spree to
send a message to the Demon Slayer Corps?
It’s hard to say what Muzan’s end goal is beyond turn everyone into
Demons and kill whoever stands in his way.
The dynamic between the remaining Upper Ranks is interesting though and
I feel like its gonna be fun watching them try to one up each other either to
appease Muzan or their own ambitions.
I
cant believe I’m saying this but each one of these guys somehow makes Gyutaro
and Daki look like nothing by comparison…and that is a very scary thought.
Demon Slayer is back with a quieter premiere for Tanjiro
and Nezuko but a dark and foreboading one for their enemies as they plan their
next moves.
This show still looks
gorgeous and Studio Ufotable is def using their downtime to make this the best
looking Shonen Anime on the market.
While we might feel the absence of Zenitsu and Inosuke after having them
around for so long, I think Genya and Mitsuri will shake things up quite a bit
for Tanjiro.
Overall, it’ll be good to
continue the season properly when it arrives in April.
Also if you get a chance to see this on the
big screen with the Season Two Finale, do it.
Fights like these are the reason I love Anime to begin with and you’ll
want to throw your fist up in the air and shout F YEAH when you revisit Tanjiro,
Zenitsu, Inosuke and Uzui’s epic victory over Gyutaro and Daki.
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