English Dub Review: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc: “Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui”

Overview: Recovering from the battle on the Mugen train, while Inosuke (Bryce Papenbrook) and Zenitsu (Aleks Le) recover, Tanjiro (Zach Aguilar) makes his way to Rengoku’s (Mark Whitten) family to give his condolences and pass along the flame hashira’s final message. 

Our Take: This hour-long introduction acts as a great bookend to the Mugen Train arc while also acting as a great kickstart to the Entertainment District arc. The fallout of the flame hashira’s death still looms heavy on the hearts of our main trio but also that of Akaza in an entirely different way. Muzan continues to show just how utterly terrifying he is and a dominant opposing force of nature to the other demons he is by his intolerance of Akaza’s mission failure, despite Rengoku’s death. We also get an update on the young well mannered and obedient child he is impersonating for a couple, hinting at his further schemes. Akaza holding an intense grudge against Tanjiro sets up an exhilarating fight between the two that will be a sight to behold especially in how Tanjiro will, undoubtedly, be much stronger by the time they get around to it.  

While Zenitsu and Inosuke grieve over Rengoku’s death, Tanjiro’s treks over to Senjuro and Rengoku’s father to give his condolences which allows for a closer look into the swordsman’s family, while also giving Tanjiro a tad more insight into his technique, Hinokami Kagura. Shinjuro, Rengoku and Senjuro’s father, and his enraged rant has some forced expositional writing but is nonetheless an enthralling and rough display of the bitterness that has set in within him, with one reason being those of Tanjiro’s bloodline, known as Sun-breathers, always being superior to other styles. Sun breathing being the dominant style of breathing to which all others are offshoots, definitely positions Tanjiro to being one of the most powerful moving forward in classic, albeit somewhat predictable, Shonen fashion. However, it also makes one ponder Tanjiro’s father and his past as a whole that has been a point of possible suspicion since he was first introduced with his frail physique and scarring. 

Tanjiro’s admiration for Rengoku and pushback against Shinjuro’s lack of compassion for his son’s death also makes for an emotional confrontation. One that leads into Tanjiro and Sanjuro’s relationship well with their mutual respect and bond with him. It also leaves a lingering plot thread of more about Tanjiro’s sun-breathing with more details still out there that will become crucial later down the line. Shinjuro has been a relatively unlikable character for most of his appearances thus far. However, his remembrance of his son’s overwhelming kindness, even up until his death, and his painful admittance of that loss acts as an effective way of warming us up to him by sympathizing with his unfortunate situation. 

Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke also show how much they’ve developed and independent they have become that’s not flashy but through the simplicity of undertaking missions on their own and training at 110%. In this case all the flashiness goes to that of hashira, Tengen Uzui, making quite the eccentric introduction with his boisterous attitude and dimwitted attempt at taking Naho and Aoi needing two female corp. members for a mission in the Entertainment district. With Tanjiro, Zenitsu (reluctantly, of course) and Inosuke volunteering in their place, they set off for a new adventure that hits the ground running in this excellent debut.