Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc

Episode 4

Given the ominous and exciting cliffhanger that ended last week's episode, which saw Zenitsu getting nabbed by Daki's spooky fabric tendrils, I was expecting “Tonight” to turn up the heat and properly kick off the hunt for the demoness' victims. That…technically happens, I guess, in the final five minutes of the episode. Everything that happens before that, though? It's straight-up goofy, y'all. Like, I'm talking “Goofy with a capital “Gawrsh!”, a veritable cavalcade of shenanigans, a festival of fools. Et cetera.

Is this a bad thing? I guess that depends. I can imagine that a whole lot of demographics were just tickled pink by the whole affair, including (but not limited to):

1. People who love it when Tanjiro makes goofy faces

2. People who love it when Inosuke also makes goofy faces and/or screams a lot

3. People who are interested in random, overlong breakdowns of the Demon Slayer Corps' ranking system

4. People who are interested in the random, hitherto unknown ways that Demon Slayers can summon a ranking tattoo on their hands

5. People who enjoy episodes in which Zenitsu does not appear at all, and his imminent death is treated with the same level of urgency as when you're hanging out with your friends at the mall and lose track of them for a few minutes, but, like, it's not a big deal

6. People who like it when sexy demon murder queens threaten to mangle various body parts with their razor sharp teeth

7. And, finally, people who felt like the one thing that Demon Slayer was missing was a team of freakishly buff, anthropomorphic mice that dress in Uzui's flashy accoutrement and deliver swords to people

All of those things make up a vast majority of the story in “Tonight”, and if you are on board with any of them, you'll likely have an okay time with the episode. As for myself, I am totally on board for Points 2, 5, and 6, while I am actively irritated by points 3 and 4. As for point 7…well, I'm going to need to get a little more drunk before I can fully reconcile with the unholy reality of the Muscle Mice. Oh, I almost forgot—Nezuko makes her first appearance of the entire arc, for a grand total of maybe ten seconds of screen time! She's still in her box, naturally, and Tanjiro tells her to stay put while he fights Daki one-on-one. I guess that makes “Tonight” a success for Demographic #8: People who like it when Nezuoko is just present enough to make sure we remember she exists, while still never getting the opportunity to grow as a character, or to make any meaningful contributions to the development of the story.

I am not a member of that demographic, by the by.

Once the nearly twenty-minute run of pure, unadulterated Mess-Arounds are done with, though, we finally get to our first real fight of the Entertainment District Arc, or at least, the beginning of the first real fight of the Entertainment District Arc. And you know what? It's pretty good! Some of the CG is pretty iffy, specifically when it is used to animate Daki's tendrils or mesh the 2D character models with the backgrounds of their 3D settings, but that's par for the course these days. It looks good enough, in any case, and ufotable's typically excellent shot composition and choreography is more than enough to make things work.

Still, I reckon that anyone looking for a wealth of plot development, or even a moderately consistent tone, will be disappointed by “Tonight”. I was a little disappointed, too, though I've found myself having a lot more patience for Demon Slayer's dumbass antics lately, if only because I find Dumb, Fun Demon Slayer to be significantly more entertaining than Super Serious and Mopey Demon Slayer. Am I taking any of what is happening remotely seriously? Hell no. Did you see those goddamned Muscle Mice? That said, if I crack open a cold drink and let the goofy malarkey just sort of wash over me for twenty minutes at a time, episodes like “Tonight” are…fine. They're just fine.

We'd better get some more action to chew on next week, though. Watching a pair of borderline incompetent dorks flail around and just barely stumble upon the crumbs of their own story for weeks on end can only get Demon Slayer so far.

Rating:

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

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.