Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc

Episode 9

Finally, after literal months of buildup, it seems that we have reached the point in this season of Demon Slayer where things are happening.

Kind of.

Look, we're far past the point of taking even the little wins that we can get for granted, and I'm perfectly willing to give Demon Slayer credit where it is due. If nothing else, I got to watch Muichiro shut Gyokko up, hopefully for good. I'm thankful for that because Gyokko sucks so goddamned much. That isn't just me being a hater either; the entire point of this episode is essentially to drive home how much everyone in the in-universe also can't stand Gyokko, of him being a gross weirdo who is also kind of a pathetic joke. He's the worst villain Demon Slayer has ever produced, and I would go so far as to say that he is the second worst character in the series, period (behind He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, obviously). So yeah, it was pretty satisfying to see Muichiro mess up the nasty little creep.

In the grand scheme of the whole season, however, "Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito" suffers from the same issues of pacing and tone that have plagued this entire season. It cannot help but feel like a disappointment, compared to similar face-offs with the "mini-bosses" from past storylines. For one, this showdown barely qualifies as a "fight" in the traditional sense, and there are hardly any distinguishable action beats in the entire thing. The few special moves and intentional strikes we do see are undercut by the script's interest in emphasizing Muichiro's unstoppable badassery rather than making Gyokko even remotely compelling as a legitimate threat. This is a common trick that shonen battle manga like to pull, but you have to earn the power reversal.

Even Dragonball Z, the king of unnecessarily stretched-out battle arcs, managed to make this work when Future Trunks came down and wasted Robo-Frieza with nary a second thought. The subversion of expectations only worked because the show established Frieza as a worthy threat we could take seriously in the prior season. On the other hand, Gyokko has been an absolute joke from minute one, which undercuts the drama of the damage done to the village. It also makes this battle against Muichiro a pretty lame conclusion to Gyokko's meaningless sound and fury. The episode doesn't make matters any better when it destroys its pacing with even more unnecessary flashback scenes. I swear, it's getting to the point where we're going to need to stage an intervention or something because Demon Slayer's 's addiction to boring and repetitive flashbacks is starting to ruin its ability to stage a decent fight.

The other thread of the episode, which cuts back to Tanjiro and Co.'s battle against Hatred's wooden hydra, fares a bit better. Hatred is a cooler opponent than Gyokko, no matter how you slice it, and there is at least a little more creativity when it comes to the staging of the choreography itself. Tanjiro being swallowed by the beast is also a cool and suspenseful moment (it reminded me of the single most horrifying scene from Jordan Peele's Nope). It also serves to, at long last, give some more screentime to Mitsuri, whose ribbon-blade fighting style is by far the most novel and interesting addition to the Demon Slayer canon that this entire season has to offer.

Of course, these are all just a cliffhanger setting up the real fight that the anime double-super-pinky promises will happen next week, like, for real-real this time. With only two episodes left in the season, I have no choice but to keep believing in Demon Slayer's empty promises because I cannot psychologically or emotionally accept a reality in which the last two-and-a-half months' worth of buildup ends with literally nothing to show for it. Who knows? Maybe I'll be the one eating some sassy-talking crow here when the season comes to an end. At least we don't have to wait much longer to find out either way.

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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village 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.