Another week, the start of another arc in Kimetsu no Yaiba. This week our trio start to grow, we meet some new villains and some old characters make a return. Hope your not afraid of spiders, cause we have whole host to get through. Lets go!
As far as production goes, I think this was one of Yaiba’s weakest weeks. Part of that is just that there wasn’t really any combat. There was some basic sword swinging, but no true fights. So there wasn’t anything for Yaiba to really go all in on. This isn’t to say it was bad, I still enjoy Yaiba’s artstyle. The thick black lines is right up my alley, helps make things pop and make it clear between objects. Yaiba also had some interesting CGI segments. From the first person walking through the mountain to Inosuke’s Beast Breathing. These were both interesting, thought obviously CGI, but Yaiba did a good job here I feel. CGI works well for detailed environments, its just character models that anime still seems to be lagging on. Still, enough about boring production. Lets get onto the actual story.
As for the actual story, I stand by what I said last week. That the new team members work better in a trio than individually. Each of them brought out different sides to each other. However, that doesn’t mean they are perfect. A lot of the comedy/interactions were hit or miss. For instance, this week I found Inosuke to be a lot better, where as Zenitsu had reverted a bit. Going back to whining and womanizing. I understand character development takes time, I am not expecting him to be perfect immediately. However that doesn’t change the fact that his initial character was rather… annoying. Inosuke on the other hand actually seemed like more of a character this week. Showing more personality than “I want to fight”.
For me, Inosuke was the highlight of the episode actually. His interactions with civilization forcing him to learn and confront new things. Such as civility, praise and dare I say it, friendship. Seeing him preen at the old woman or Tanjiro’s praise. Or ask questions about why the old woman was praying, because he doesn’t understand. Even taking jabs at the dead Slayers, laughing that they don’t know Demon Slayers aren’t allowed to fight each other. It paints a very different picture for his backstory than previously thought. I am sure Inosuke is at least a bit of a dick, but he also has absolutely no idea how to interact with society. And I found this a little endearing. At least more so than Zenitsu this week. Now I just need his voice to be a tad less grating and we will be good to go.
Moving on from our lead party, it looks like we will also be seeing the return of Giyu. The Demon Slayer from the start of the series who let Nezuko go. Sending Tanjiro to Urokodaki to train. I like this, this is a reunion I was hoping for but didn’t expect to see this season. I assumed that would happen far later. But getting to have Giyu see Tanjiro’s progress, that the decision he made wasn’t wrong? I just love seeing the consequences of a characters actions earlier in the series and having them react to them. On top of that, it looks like we get a new girl, Shinobu, as well. Someone who shares Tanjiro’s care for the Demons and doesn’t hate/want to kill them all. There’s a chance its all setup and shes actually a psycho. But right now, I am hoping for another loveable character.
Aside from them, it also looks like we are about to meet 5 new demons. The perfect number for our trio/2 new Slayers to fight. 1 for each. A veritable family of spider themed Demons! Ill be honest, this is going to be a little sketchy for me, because of my irrational dislike of spiders. They have far to many legs for my taste. As an enemy design though, I think it could work well. The number of enemies is enough to ensure a longer format arc than what we have gotten until now. The abilities seem to run counter to our various members. Preying on Tanjiro’s kindness and Inosuke’s straight-forwardness. No doubt one will prey on Zenitu;s womanizing, with our two more experienced Slayers coming in to save the day. Regardless, I am looking forward to this arc.
So all in all, how was the episode? Not exactly a high-point for the series, but I wouldn’t call it bad. Yaiba continues to be a very competent Shounen. Not breaking the mold like HunterxHunter often did, nor embracing its tropes to the extreme in the way One Punch Man does. It’s just a very competent, well crafted Shounen with maybe a slight pacing problem. As it burns through arcs like no ones business. Sometimes this works really well, skipping some boring aspects of early training arcs. However other times, like last arc, it leads to rushed villains and rushed plot lines. As a whole I still enjoy it. I think it’s a flawed yet fun series, and I love Shounen. I just hope this and the ending arc give us a solid place to close its first season.
Good observations on inosuke. I liked his character from the go but they really do well in showing how his upbringing impacted his personality. The music was greats in this episode and I think next week will have good animation since shit is about to go down
The music was good, yeah. Music is one of those things that outside of a few select tracks, you generally dont notice when its done well. Cause it augments the scene instead of taking it over. I need to pay more attention to that.
Next week is looking like a good time fight wise though. 5 Demons, 5 Slayers, and a bunch of interesting powers/concepts. I can’t wait. Yaiba has done good with powers and fight choreography so far. So this is another good chance to stretch that muscle.
For Inosuke, and Zenitsu a bit to, I think the issue is Yaiba dialed them up to 11. Like it does a lot of things. Its going to make their growth clear, and it makes them memorable. I am just not sure coming on so strong was necessarily the best choice. But Inosuke is definitely moving up for me with these small character moments. I think Yaiba is doin him well.