Demon Slayer Season 4 Episode 5

We’re back for another week of Demon Slayer, and this was certainly the most fast-paced episode we’ve had so far (save for maybe the initial premiere special). Moving on from last week’s instalment, where we focused on a single Hashira training session, today’s episode, where we motored through three, almost felt like too much to handle – but I did enjoy how much ground we covered in a 20-minute timespan.

If the whole, ‘8-episode’ rumour is to be believed (Ufotable, please confirm), then we may have more to look forward to at the end of this season than we initially believed. If you go back to my early reviews of the season, I was fairly convinced that each episode would be stretched out to include one Hashira training session per week – but this episode pretty much blasts that theory out of the water.

So there’s definitely a lot to talk about this week, as well as some speculation for what lies ahead of us in the three short weeks we have left of this arc (again, if the rumours are true). So without further ado, let’s get into this week’s instalment of Demon Slayer – ‘I Even Ate Demons…’!

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The Review

Image by Ufotable

Our episode begins as a direct continuation from last week’s post-credit scene. In fact, the whole post-credits scene plays again, so if you missed it last week, you really have nothing to worry about! We’re in Mitsuri Kanroji’s domain now – if you think that sounded more intimidating than it should, then you mustn’t have witnessed the sort of hellish training Mitsuri has in store for our Demon Slayer corps members.

Sure, she treated the corps to all sorts of delicious delicacies – pancakes, bread, and black tea – but as soon as the actual ‘flexibility training’ began, it became clear why Mitsuri’s session was this far along in the training programme. I will say, the brutal suddenness with which Mitsuri forced that poor guy into the splits was pretty hilarious, but I couldn’t help but feel bad for the trainees. I also couldn’t help but feel bad for myself, as right after this scene, Mitsuri’s training ended! I was pretty disappointed in this – I would’ve loved to see more of her training regime, but I guess after you’ve been forced into the splits once, there’s little more to see. 

So with that, we moved onto Obanai, the Serpent Hashira’s training. As mysterious as this character has been up until now, I want to put out there that it was a positive to see him get some character development. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the nature of his character development kind of makes me wish we’d never gotten it. The dynamic between Mitsuri and Obanai was pretty cute when it was hinted at in that one scene from the Swordsmith Village Arc – the scenes we got in this episode were far from cute, and kind of make me dislike this character even more. He’s like a tsundere, but the nice part is only directed towards Mitsuri, which makes him kind of creepy. Sorry Obanai lovers, I’m not a fan.

Image by Ufotable

What I am a fan of, however, is the interesting concept behind the Serpent Hashira’s training – we seem to be moving into training that actually focuses on a specific element of battle, instead of just…getting hit. The corps members are tied up against poles, and Tanjiro has to swing his bokuto between them, maintaining force, while not injuring them. It’s great to see the corps members actually be put to good use for once (sorry if that’s mean), but isn’t this training only benefitting Tanjiro? I guess that’s probably a wise decision considering he’s likely the only one at this point in the programme who’s really going to be useful in the upcoming battles.

There’s also the possibility that this training is a mind game on Obanai’s part as revenge against Tanjiro for talking to Mitsuri. If that was the case, it would actually be pretty interesting, so I’m making that my head canon. The training continues, and then we get a very cool artistic sequence where Ufotable flexes their animation muscle. I have to say, I respect how Ufotable has been able to weave Demon Slayer’s beloved action sequences into a very simple storyline – big plus for the episode with this scene. Once Tanjiro managed to strike Obanai once (or his sleeve rather), his training session was also over – we’re really moving fast!

We now make our way to Sanemi’s training ground . The Obanai and Sanemi clique allegations from last week carry on – even their training sessions are grouped together! If I can be snide for a moment, the fact that Mitsuri, Obanai, and Sanemi are all being showcased in the one episode really makes that Tengen episode stand out – why did we get a whole 20 minutes of that? Anyway, my grudges against episode 3 aside, it’s not only time for Sanemi’s training. It’s also time for the return of…Zenitsu. I don’t feel like being overly negative today, so let’s just say, I don’t enjoy his scenes. Let’s move on.

Image by Ufotable

I did, however, enjoy the scene where Tanjiro let Sanemi know just how he felt about him – good for you Tanjiro! It was great to see him stand up for himself in this way, because I personally am kind of over the whole ‘acknowledging Tanjiro and Nezuko’ debate. They’ve defeated Upper Moons. You would probably be dead without them. Move on. Then we watch as Sanemi begins his training, and get this? It’s more of the Demon Slayers being smacked around! I genuinely don’t know what the purpose of Sanemi’s training is, so the less said about this the better. Maybe it was for endurance? Let’s go with that.

We then witness the scene that gave this episode its title – Genya tries to speak with his brother, only to be brutally shut down. We saw the flashbacks for the story behind these two, but it’s still pretty difficult to be sympathetic towards Sanemi – maybe that’ll change down the line though. Enraged when Genya admits to eating demons to get stronger, Sanemi lunges at his brother, aiming to ‘ruin him beyond recovery’ – I would be lying if I said I didn’t jump a little when Sanemi came so close to gouging out his eyes. I would also be lying if I said I understood why Sanemi was a Hashira. Sure, power is the main requirement to become a Hashira, but surely personality plays some role – he’s out here threatening to kill pretty much everyone he’s training, which seems counterproductive, and completely oppositional to not only the personalities of the other Hashira, but also the Master. Well, regardless of my thoughts, he is a Hashira – just far from my favourite one.

And then Tanjiro and Sanemi fight each other in the name of Genya’s honour. This was a pretty cool scene – it was interesting to see the two go toe-to-toe without swords or bokutos involved – and if I need to give Sanemi one thing, that ‘spinning bird kick’ move was pretty cool. The fight goes on all day, and at the end of it all, Tanjiro is reprimanded and banned from being near Sanemi – I sure hope Sanemi also got a telling off for, you know, constantly threatening to destroy the people he’s enlisted to protect? Because Tanjiro is now banned from Sanemi’s training (and I guess Zenitsu passed it), we make our way with the two of them to the next training site – the Stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima’s.

We see a scene that shows us where Inosuke is, and also, just how intense Gyomei’s training is about to be – and that’s where the episode ends! As I said, a lot went down this week, and we kind of ploughed through a lot of the remaining Hashira training session – though I did enjoy the more fast-paced approach. Unless Giyu jumps in with a surprise session, the Stone Hashira is our final stop, meaning that unless he takes more than one episode to train the corps, the predicted final two episodes of the season will be covering something other than the training programme…maybe something Muzan related? We’ll have to wait and see. For now though, we wait anxiously for next week’s instalment starring the much anticipated Stone Hashira, titled ‘The Strongest of the Demon Slayer Corps’. Be sure to check back for that review, and thanks for reading!

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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, (nice pun) but rumours are saying we’ve got eight episodes to look forward to this season. Only three weeks to go!

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