Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc

Episode 10

I'm sure I must have mentioned Mad Max: Fury Road before in these Demon Slayer reviews, but episodes like “Never Give Up" make the comparison so tempting, so my apologies if any of this feels redundant. It's just that, for my money, Fury Road is far and away the best example of the kind of spectacle-driven storytelling that Demon Slayer is so clearly striving to be, at least when it comes to modern cinematic pop-culture that most folks will easily recognize and understand. Feel free to substitute Fury Road with any number of similar cornerstones: The Raid, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Paddington 2—there are plenty of options to choose from.

The point is, these are all stories that put a huge amount of emphasis on building a precision-engineered machine of pure entertainment, where all of the broad characterization and Big Emotions™ are merely steppingstones to the incredible set-pieces that are the true primary draw of the story. For all of the criticisms I have had (and continue to have) about Demon Slayer's approach to telling its tale, it has long since earned its membership card to this same club of Badass Blockbusters, where the cliché dig of “style over substance” doesn't really apply, because the style is the substance.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Demon Slayer is just as immaculate and insanely effective as the likes of Fury Road. One of the caveats of being a multi-season TV show is all of the hours of build-up it takes for the story to ramp up to its greatest heights, which gives it plenty of times to stumble with meandering filler or misguided detours. Fury Road is, for my money, the single best example of action-driven storytelling of the last twenty years, precisely because it uses every single frame of its 120-minute running time with brutal, masterful efficiency. There is not one wasted second in all of its two hours, which is not something I can say about Demon Slayer, even in series-best outings like this one.

The first half of “Never Give Up” is effective, to be sure. You definitely feel Tanjiro's desperation as Gyutaro mocks him with such cruel capriciousness. Ryota Ohsaka is twisting his vocal cords into knots to communicate the demon's callous and inhuman lust for Tanjiro's suffering, and the weighty animation combines with excellent sound design to make something as benign as Tanjiro getting bonked on the head feel genuinely painful. Still, as I've said before, Tanjiro's personal arc throughout this fight simply hasn't been terribly interesting, and all of the other characters (who spend the first half of this episode as half-dead set dressing) have gotten even less to do. Even here, at the absolute climax of the arc which has revolved around their villainy, Gyutaro and Daki serve as effective villains purely in a mechanical sense. They are scary, and very hard to kill, but I don't care about them as characters. When it comes to thematic depth, you can get every last ounce of meaning that “Never Give Up” has to impart from its title alone. These two Very Evil Demons need to get their heads chopped off, pronto. How are we going to get that done? By never giving up, obviously. Same as every other time.

Remember what I said about style being substance, though? “Never Give Up”, for all of the narrative foibles it has inherited from the inconsistent writing that has plagued Demon Slayer from the very start, also serves as a perfect reminder of how crazy goddamned effective this story can be when it shuts the hell up and lets the visuals take over. I haven't done a comprehensive rewatch of every single episode of the series, mind you, but I have been scouring the old memory banks to see if any other part of ufotable's adaptation could surpass the sheer, awe-inspiring chutzpah of “Never Give Up”. I'm still drawing blanks. I may end up singing a different tune somewhere down the line, but in this moment, as I write this review, “Never Give Up” stands as the single most thrilling and gorgeous episode that Demon Slayer has ever produced.

If I'm being honest, there are still parts of the moment-to-moment writing that leave me feeling a bit befuddled. I have no idea what it means when Uzui deflects Gyutaro's attacks by turning it into a song, for one, and while I am very glad to see that Inosuke is still alive and kicking, it's almost too ridiculous when he explains that he can just move his own internal organs around at will. I'm sure a lot of folks will yell at me for complaining about Nezuko's dream cheerleading, too, but I'm sorry: I have a hard time getting on board with Tanjiro's connection to his family when 95% of every interaction he's had with his siblings, including the one that is still alive, has existed almost entirely in his head.

You know what, though? All of those valid complaints I've been listing this whole review? They barely matter at all, when you're actually watching this climactic action extravaganza unfold. Do I wonder why Zenitsu, of all people, got the honor of finally beheading Daki, despite having barely any development to speak of this season? Sure, but try getting me to give a shit about that when he's using his incredible lightning powers to fuck Daki right the hell up. Am I annoyed by how obvious and literal the show makes the parallel between the demon siblings and the Kamados, as if we couldn't pick up on that ourselves? Yes, sure, but holy shit, did you even see the way that Uzui came in at the last second to jack up Gyutaro!? All of those freaking colors man, they blow my mind! Don't even get me started on the outrageously fluid choreography, and how well storyboarded all of the fighting is so that you never lose track of who is doing what, and where, and how much blood everyone is shedding in the meantime. Every last frame of this episode, from stem to stern, is flawless to behold. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

I don't think I could tell you what kind of theme or overall lesson we've been meant to get out of any of this Entertainment District Arc, outside of “Giving Up is Bad” and “Demons Are Hard to Kill”. You know what I have learned, though? Every single artist and animator working on Demon Slayer deserves a raise, a six-month paid vacation, and a solid retirement plan. Maybe throw in some complimentary trips to the fanciest restaurants in Japan, too. “Never Give Up” is not a perfect episode of television, nor is Demon Slayer a perfect series, but this might just be the perfect distillation of everything that Demon Slayer wants to be. I can't begin to imagine how the show will ever top itself after this.

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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.