Welcome all, to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This episode sees the conclusion of one fight and Kanroji’s appearance in the other. Is either good? Or is it more of last weeks disappointment? Let’s find out!
Starting off with the positive, this week saw a conclusion to the Upper Five fight. And you know what? I’ve decided I liked it. Yeah, it was a tad anti-climactic. And I still don’t think the Mist Breathing is very good for animation, though it makes for some great still shots. But overall I’m content. There were no gimmicks, no tricks or last minute twists. Just a straight up fight with a fully self-realized Tokito finishing the guy off. Considering what’s been going on with Upper Four, that was rather refreshing. I was expecting some kind of “This isn’t my final pot” sort of bullshit. And we even got some growth from Tokito to, some showing of emotion. It’s a bit weird, the kid is still very un-emotive aside from some random rage. But you know what? I’ll take what I can get.
Sadly the same can’t be said for the Upper Five. Again, on one hand this isn’t so bad. No last minute flashbacks shoved into the scene, no overly sappy backstory trying to make us feel bad for a sadistic murderer. Just a very clear cut case of a bad guy getting beat. On the other hand… He’s such a forgettable guy, barely even a character, really only existing to enable Tokito’s growth. Yaiba didn’t do anything with his reason for becoming an artist, why everything he does is based around pots, his focus on Haganezuka. He could literally have been some random nobody for all that Yaiba cared about him. Out of all of the 12 Moons, he’s easily the least important, at least out of the ones that have fought I know some random ones were killed via Muzan. It’s just a little disappointing it all.
Speaking of the other Moons, is anyone else confused by the power scaling of the Hashira? Like… why are Tokito and Kanroji having such an easy time with two supposedly “stronger” demons then Uzui did with Daki and Gyutarou? It can’t be just a numbers thing, as Uzui and co outnumbered them where as the inverse is true this time with the Upper Four. Are these two just that much stronger? To be clear, this isn’t a major issue or anything, it doesn’t impact my enjoyment at all. It’s more of an idle thought as I wonder just how powerful the Hashira are supposed to be that so many are influenced by Rengoku yet they have such an easy time against demons just below the one that defeated him. I get that it’s mostly shounen power scaling, have to make the fights doable somehow. But I couldn’t shake the thought.
Moving on to Kanroji, she shows up to save the day! Hopefully she can give us a bit more climactic of a finish to her fight, and the season, then Tokito gave to his. The Upper Four deserves it after all, having been stretched out so much and ostensibly being stronger then the Upper Five. I hope that her weird whip-sword thing leads to some creative and interesting sequences. At the very least I expect them to be clearer, with less effects covering them up since her sword style isn’t based on any element they can use to… “augment” the scene like Tanjiro’s fire or Tokito’s mist. Combine that with the 3D wood dragons, which still don’t look bad, and Yaiba can probably give us the spectacle we’ve been waiting all season for.
So yeah, all in all I think the episode was… Fine? I think I’m really starting to feel some fatigue from the season if I can be honest. This entire arc feels like it could have been done in 4-5 episodes, yet it’s being stretched out to 12 and it shows. So many unnecessary twists, so many oddly paced and placed flashbacks, so many missed opportunities for the location. It’s like Yaiba is blue-balling us to an extent. After the wild fun that was Season 2, that’s kind of a disappointment. It’s like the show took a step back from where it was, or like this is a filler arc where the author wasn’t sure what they wanted to do with it. A real shame if you ask me. Especially when competing with Gundam Mercury and Vinland Saga in the same season.
lenlo, if you’ve seen my previous remark about essence theory, I believe the reason Tokito had such an easy time against Gyokko is because he also has the essence of someone a lot stronger than he is in his body. The markings that showed on Tokito’s body suggest that his body contains the essence of either the original Mist Breathing user or the strongest Mist Breathing user from the past, whichever is stronger if they aren’t the same person, much like how I proposed that Tanjiro channeled the essence of Yoriichi, the original (and probably strongest) Sun Breathing user, which is why Tanjirou’s scar grew to match Yoriichi’s when Yoriichi was alive.
Given we’ve seen what’s recurring with Gyokko the whole time is that he was barely trying, I believe it’s possible that the Upper Four is also sandbagging. I believe it’s very likely that the Upper Four is stronger than Kanroji in a real fight, but he hasn’t been trying and instead just been commanding the wood dragons rather than fighting for real. The OP showing Tokito throw Tanjiro’s sword suggests that Kanroji will do the heavy lifting in fighting the Upper Four while Tanjiro uses the last of his strength to kill the tiny demon that is the main body.
I believe there’s likely legitimately a good reason why no Upper Moons had been killed in over a hundred years, and that’s most likely because there is a serious power gap between the Upper Moons and the Hashira aside from Gyutaro, whose schtick was poisoning his opponents rather than being far superior as a fighter.