Demon Slayer Season 4 Episode 3

Another week has already passed, and with it comes a new episode of Demon Slayer’s ‘Hashira Training Arc’. Up until now, I’ve really been enjoying how this arc has been progressing, and unlike some other, fairly vocal fans, I’ve remained optimistic about how this season is going to stand as part of the series once Demon Slayer has ended. This week, however, has left me with some…thoughts.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this week’s installment – it’s very rare I ever walk away from an episode of Demon Slayer feeling ‘unsatisfied’. However, this is the first episode of the show in a while that’s given me…mixed feelings – and left me anxious for the near future of the show.

To be clear, I’m not worried about Demon Slayer as a franchise – since the anime exploded onto the scene in 2019, it solidified itself as a mainstay in the greater shonen landscape. In short, it’s not going anywhere popularity-wise. This season, however, is a different story, and the many issues I had with this episode leave me worried that Demon Slayer may see somewhat of a drop in its weekly viewership, and a turn in its fan base towards opting to binge these episodes through after they all release. With all that being said, let’s get into the review!

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The Review

Image by Ufotable

The first half of the episode sees the Hashira Training programme kick off for real – starting out with now retired Hashira, Tengen Uzui. His job is to improve the core stamina of the Demon Slayer corps before passing them on to the next stage of their training. Plot-wise, there’s very little else to talk about here for the first half of the episode – and that’s my first issue.

Training arcs are nothing new, and compared to some other anime out there, this wasn’t a particularly slow-paced training episode (I love Hunter x Hunter, but boy, did they like a training episode). The main problem here is that, unlike some other shows that feature prevalent training arcs, Demon Slayer is a seasonal anime, not a weekly one. If Naruto wanted to train for ten episodes (aka ten weeks), that wouldn’t be as hard to get through, because once that eleventh week came, we’d be back in business – but that’s not the case here. 

I’m completely assuming here, but I’m not expecting a huge climax at the end of this arc – maybe a teaser of things to come, but nothing explosive. That means that we’ve got a fairly slow season on our hands, that looks like it’s going to take on one training session an episode, and once it ends, we have to wait a while for the next part – and that has the potential to really frustrate a fanbase. 

Image by Ufotable

There was some content to enjoy here though, even if I sound a little overly negative. Tanjiro remains an endearing protagonist, and his ability to take the Hashira Training head-on is really helping to lighten the mood here – if this was a whole season of watching every Demon Slayer struggle and suffer endlessly, it may have made for the most depressing episodes of the anime yet.

There was also the inclusion of a pretty exciting, ominous scene – while two Demon Slayers are out on patrol, they hear frightening noises from a nearby alleyway. They don’t investigate (smart), but it turns out to be a small eye belonging to Upper Four, spying on our heroes. Upper Four, of course, was killed during the Swordsmith Village Arc, so presumably, someone in Muzan’s camp has gotten a promotion. This eye was also teased in the opening for this season, appearing menacingly behind a writhing Nezuko – to say I’m waiting anxiously for this plot thread to continue is an understatement. 

We then get a scene of Sanemi and Obanai discussing the events of the first episode, and importantly, their sudden, brief descent into Muzan’s Infinity Castle. Unfortunately, it seems my worst fears may be coming to pass – they’re not going to tell the other Hashira about this, are they? The whole Infinity Castle sequence from episode one was anime original content, not in the manga, so it makes sense that they can’t work it into the story – but it does, nevertheless, severely undercut both of these characters’ wisdom.

The two then discuss how their respective training is going, and Obanai addresses an elephant in the room, one that was already on my mind before he said it himself. The wider Demon Slayer corps is going to be useless in the final fight against Muzan and his remaining Moons, so…why are we doing this? Sure, it’s justified by saying it’s ‘The Master’s Will’ to train them, but I really think there are better things we could be doing.

On a similar note, why is Tanjiro being trained alongside these guys? The same can be said for Zenitsu, Inosuke, and presumably Kanao, but we haven’t actually seen them being trained yet, so I’ll reserve that opinion for now. On a positive note, though, Obanai does hint that we may be in the ‘calm before the storm’, which is the vibe many viewers have been getting from this season so far – at the very least, even if this season drags a bit, we’ve got a storm coming, and knowing Demon Slayer, it’ll be worth the wait.

Image by Ufotable

We then watch Tanjiro having a heart-to-heart conversation with Tengen’s three wives – alongside some flashbacks to the Entertainment District Arc. Honestly, this was another positive of the episode for me. What a season that was – I get chills just glimpsing at the brief flashbacks they showed. We’re not at that level of excitement anymore however, because now, it’s back to Tengen’s training!

Tengen decides to take the Demon Slayers up a mountain, and hit them. That seems to be the essence of the training here at least. It’s up to Tanjiro to protect his comrades from being smacked, which yet again begs the question, why is Tanjiro being trained alongside these people? This scene also made me wonder how much of this training arc is going to involve the trainer just…hitting people. Sure, they’re swordsmen, but based on what we see at the end of this episode, Tengen, Obanai, Muichiro, and Sanemi’s training all just seems to heavily involve hitting the Demon Slayers with sticks. We’ll have to wait to really dive into their training scenes before coming to a conclusion on that, but the thought came to mind.

The episode ends with Tanjiro passing Tengen’s training, as if there was any doubt, and moving on to Muichiro’s training, which will presumably be covered next week – I’m a little worried about the predictability of this. If they follow a ‘one Hashira a week’ scheme, these episodes aren’t going to make for instant, must-watch television. Nonetheless, as a Muichiro fan based on last season, I’m excited to see where his training takes us.

Unfortunately, we got no resolution this week on Shinobu’s cliffhanger from the last episode – hopefully we’ll see it covered soon! On a side note that came to mind when I thought of that scene – where are all the women in these training sessions? We know from season one that there are women in the corps, so it’s strange to see none being trained. 

In conclusion, this week’s episode wasn’t the strongest we’ve seen from Demon Slayer. It was by no means a bad episode, just somewhat underwhelming – and a little worrying for the future of the season honestly. But I will compliment the fact that the anime seems to be showing off these characters in a calmer environment pretty well – it’s an enjoyable cast, I just hope that this formula doesn’t stagnate fast and mean that this season becomes a skip on a rewatch. We’ll have to wait until next week to see! We’ll see you back here then for a review of episode four, ‘To Bring a Smile to One’s Face’!

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Where to Watch Demon Slayer Season 4?

Image by Ufotable

The Hashira Training Arc streams exclusively on Crunchyroll every Sunday. You can also find all of the anime’s prior seasons on Crunchyroll. There’s no exact episode count set in stone yet, but rumours are saying we’ve got eight episodes to look forward to this season.

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