Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 8 [Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui]

It’s here, it’s here, the next Kimetsu no Yaiba arc has arrived! Finally some new content. Sorry this took so long, I’ve had to tear myself away from Final Fantasy 14’s new expansion to get this out. Enough about fantastic RPGs though lets talk demons!

First up the obvious: This is a double feature! And it really didn’t have to be! Now to be fair, had this season started with this episode then I could see the argument. The movie released over a year ago and it’s been awhile, a small refresher to get us back into the mood is warranted. So I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt to Ufotable that they originally planned for that to be the case. But sadly it isn’t. Instead we got the entire movie in TV format, yes I know MAL and Anilist have it as separate entries and its stupid because the first episode is original content, for the first half of the season. So we’re already caught up. We don’t need a lot of this and the episode probably could have been condensed. That said? I did like some of the original content.

I’m of course talking about Tanjiro’s solo adventure! I really liked this little 5 minute solo excursion with Tanjiro and Nezuko as we get to see them just… doing their job. This was a welcome addition to the story. In the original manga Kimetsu no Yaiba just sort of… skips past this in a “4 months pass” sort of way. It really sucks and we don’t get to sit and see how Rengoku’s death affects our leads. On top of this Kimetsu no Yaiba also adds a bit more to the comedy with Haganezuka and the broken sword. These are small things, yeah. And one could argue that they don’t warrant a double header of an episode. But if a double header is what it takes for Ufotable and Director Haruo Sotozaki to fill in the cracks left by the manga, I’ll gladly take it.

As for the actually canon content of the episode, this wasn’t bad. My favorite section, and this should come as no surprise to anyone who read my Season 1 review, was Muzan. His interactions with Akaza, and relationship with his demons at large really, is good. I love how consistently it’s portrayed as this abusive, one way relationship. Every demon we meet is this… murderous monster, killing dozens if not hundreds of people. Yet the moment you put them in the same scene as Muzan they all become victims, regardless of their power level. Do I feel bad for them or think it in any way justifies their actions? Of course not. But I do pity them. I pity that they have been taken advantage of and trapped into this incredibly abusive relationship.

Moving on we come to Rengoku’s dad and I don’t think this really worked. I get what Kimetsu no Yaiba was going for here. They wanted to portray him as being in denial. He loves Rengoku, we can see how deeply he is hurt by Rengoku’s death in the final cutaway scene. But clearly doesn’t approve of Rengoku’s decision to become a Demon Slayer and seems to despise the job entirely. I took that as a resignation of sorts. That its a hopeless job and all those who take up the mantle are destined to one day die, that humans can’t beat the demons. This is why he doesn’t train his son, its why he disparages Rengoku, he doesn’t want his kids to take up the sword. But for me he just came across as an asshole. The balance just wasn’t there for his scene, I’m sorry to say.

Finally moving from a former Hashira to a current, lets talk about Uzui! My god is this man kind of a pig. It’s obviously to early to pass judgement on him, we’ve known him for all of 5 minutes. But his immediate introduction is… concerning. He just shows up, kidnaps some young women without their consent and slaps them on the ass when making a point. Combine that with our knowledge that the upcoming arc is in the entertainment district and he wanted them to most likely act as prostitutes of some kind… Well it doesn’t paint a good picture for Uzui, I’m sorry to say.

So yeah all in this was a fine episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba. It really didn’t need to be a double feature but I’m kind of happy it is because the anime original content stands much taller than the actual “canon” stuff. That said though I am excited to finally be getting some “new” content. We had some sprinkles of it in the Mugen Train TV adaptation, mostly in the first episode, but that isn’t what I mean. I want what Ufotable has spent all this extra air time on. The bright lights and flashy outfits of the entertainment district combined with Ufotables almost disgusting infatuation with post-processing effects. And soon… soon I will get.