Demon Slayer Season 4 Episode 2

The new episode of Demon Slayer is here, and this week, we begin to set the plot points laid out in last week’s episode in motion. Where we last left off, our post-credits scene saw Tanjiro gleefully announce that this week’s episode was titled ‘Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka’s Pain’ – if the contrast between Tanjiro’s smile and Giyu’s sadness was a lot for you in that moment, then just wait until we get into this week’s episode!

We don’t get into that dynamic straight away though – first, we see a follow up to the final scene of episode one, where Lady Tamayo makes it clear that she intends to take Ubuyashiki’s messenger crow up on its offer, and plans to travel to his estate to assist Shinobu Kocho in studying Nezuko’s sun resilience. We see Yushiro return to the anime in this scene – his reluctance to accept this plan is nothing new for this character, so there’s not much to say here.

Tamayo does, however, imply that this may be the duo’s ‘final move’. The story of Demon Slayer is moving towards its end, whether fans like it or not, and personally, I’m equal parts excited and terrified to see what’s coming in the near future. For now, though, the opening plays, and we get into the meat of the episode – so let’s get into the review!

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The Review

Image by Ufotable

The star of this episode was Giyu Tomioka, as you may have guessed from the title. His involvement in the episode is set up from the first scene, a fairly depressing one where Ubuyashiki writes to Tanjiro that he wants him to make an effort to speak with the easily disheartened Giyu. Ubuyashiki’s impending death is being framed as this season’s climax – it seems almost inevitable that he won’t make it to Demon Slayer’s next season, which is honestly upsetting. 

Tanjiro accepts Ubuyashiki’s task in stride, because of course he does – this is Tanjiro we’re talking about! He’s faced impossible odds and come out on top before, but putting a smile on Giyu’s face may be his greatest challenge yet – but that doesn’t mean he won’t try. And even if it takes him a while to succeed in reaching Giyu’s heart, it doesn’t take long for him to reach ours.

Personally, I found the whole sequence showcasing Tanjiro’s efforts to ‘befriend’ Giyu an absolute joy to watch. Given the situations we’ve seen Tanjiro in in previous arcs, seeing his babified face peek through Giyu’s door is hilariously jarring, simultaneously a complete contrast to his previous behavior, while remaining completely in character for him. If anything, the bulk of this episode’s comedy proves that, when every character isn’t screaming at the top of their lungs, Demon Slayer can be pretty funny – and importantly, we care about these characters enough to watch them live their lives off the battlefield.

Image by Ufotable

Action wasn’t completely absent from this week’s instalment however. We soon find out that Giyu’s permanent melancholy is down to a lack of self-worth – his never ‘passing’ the Final Selection exam. What follows is approximately 10 minutes of pure season one nostalgia – seeing Sabito again felt like a punch to the gut, and returning to the mountain with the wisteria flowers was an amazing moment for those who tuned into the first season as it was released. 

This whole sequence also continues the Demon Slayer trend (and wider, anime in general trend) of tragic backstories – it seems like only Mitsuri Kanroji can know a happy childhood. It turns out that Sabito’s death, which was established in season one, came down to him protecting every single other candidate in that year’s Final Selection – including Giyu himself. So, as it would, his death devastates Giyu, and leaves him feeling as though he should’ve been the one to die.

This whole sequence is conflicting for me. On the one hand, it was a nice tie-in to the events of season one, and gives some context to why Giyu is such a gloomy character. Tanjiro relating the situation to his dynamic with Rengoku was also a clever callback – and likely pulled on the heartstrings of every viewer who’s still not quite over Mugen Train (myself included). On the other hand, I don’t really find myself following Giyu’s development after the events of the Final Selection. He’s shown training to build himself up to Hashira level, obviously motivated by Sabito’s death – but then once he reaches the top of the mountain of the Demon Slayer Corps, he enters the mood we see him in now.

Image by Ufotable

I’m not here to microanalyse exactly how Giyu’s sadness evolved since Sabito’s death – it’s perfectly reasonable that as he grew older, he lost sight of his motivation to carry on Sabito’s will. It just seems strange to me that he would go from being unable to kill a single demon in the Final Selection, to being motivated enough to train to Hashira level, to then suddenly becoming unmotivated and dejected. 

We also learn that Giyu’s sister died hiding him from demons when he was younger. We see nothing of the actual scene itself, and honestly, it felt kind of shoehorned in for exposition purposes, but hey! More context on the mysterious Water Hashira, who’s been present in the show since the first episode, is never a bad thing, even if it could’ve used a little more nuance. 

The ultimate outcome here is that Tanjiro gets through to Giyu, and the latter agrees to take part in the Hashira Training – a victory for our protagonist! There is one other Hashira, however, who isn’t taking part in the Hashira Training. That would be Shinobu Kocho, who’s absence I had assumed was down to her engagement with Nezuko’s condition – but there seems to be more to the story than that.

The episode concludes with Kocho speaking to Kanao, who is absolutely devastated to hear that her master won’t be taking part in the training. It’s great to see Kanao speaking – while it may seem small, it’s honestly a huge step forward for her character development. The episode, of course, leaves us on a cliffhanger – the Insect Hashira is going to tell Kanao about the demon who killed her sister, Kanae Kocho – and importantly, how to kill that demon. I would assume that her sister’s killer is going to be either one of the remaining Upper Moons, or Muzan himself, but my money is on the former. 

We’ll have to wait until next week to find out though, because this is where this week’s episode ends! This was a great episode, the perfect mix of drama, flashback, suspense, and comedy. Sure, it was a little slow, but honestly, it’s looking like that’s just how this season is going to be – if you’re someone who can’t get through the more muted sections of certain anime, it may be best to wait until this whole season is out and binge it. For those of us along for the ride, however, things are looking up for this arc, if they can maintain this level of engagement throughout future episodes.

The new ending, also by Hyde and My First Story, kind of terrified me on my first viewing, so it’ll take some getting used to. Hopefully next week, we’ll get some more information on Kanae’s killer, and maybe even dive right into the Hashira Training itself – if the title is anything to go by, we should be seeing the latter. With that being said, it’s time to wait another long week – we’ll see you here next time for our review of episode three, ‘Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training’ – a descriptive title. See you there!

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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. Regardless, it’s shaping up to be an exciting season!

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