English Dub Review: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc “Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka’s Pain”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Kagaya’s Kasugai Crow suddenly appears in front of Tamayo and invites her to the Demon Slayer headquarters—even though she is a demon.  Meanwhile, after receiving a letter from Kagaya at the Butterfly Mansion, Tanjiro pays a visit to Giyu, who is not participating in the Hashira Training.  At first, Tanjiro is rejected by Giyu but patiently continues to try to talk to him.  Giyu, who gives in to Tanjiro’s persistence, begins to share the reason why he won’t participate in the training.

Our Take:

The compilation film, “To the Hashira Training”, gave Demon Slayer fans an early preview of what’s to come for the series.  The double-length season four premiere, “To Defeat Muzan Kibutsuji”, showcased that the Dragon Slayer corps are preparing for their endgame against Muzan, who plots to take Nazuko and steal her immortality.  However, the only Hashira who’s not participating is Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka.  The question we’ve all been wondering since then is why?

This week’s episode gave viewers the answer they were hoping for, in which Giyu was haunted by his guilt during his childhood.  As a child, Giyu trained to become a Hashira with Sabito, the same man who first trained Tanjiro.  However, Sabito was killed by a demon during Final Selection, leaving Giyu to pass despite not slaying a single demon.  Remembering his sister’s words before she died and tolerating Tanjiro’s constant persuasion, Giyu eventually decides to participate in the Hashira Training.

Following my experience watching the previous episode from the compilation film, I was excited to see what direction the show was going regarding this arc.  Of course, this comes from the guy who has not read the manga.  From what I heard, the Hashira Training Arc, which happens to be the series’s final season due to the “Infinity Castle” saga becoming a film trilogy, is more dialogue-driven than the previous seasons.  This is due to the Hashiras training to hone their skills instead of battling the demons like in the first three seasons.  I think as long as this season has something in those sequences that maintains the show’s emotional depth, its pacing won’t bother me as much as others.  

From my experience, Demon Slayer relies on more than just its spectacular animation and thrilling action to generate emotion.  The character-driven moments, both comical and dramatic, also elevate beyond its action-fantasy tropes, along with its superb English voice cast and profound narrative.  Unsurprisingly, “Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka’s Pain” is another example of the show’s success in quality.  If this season is what everyone says it was, it would be interesting to see how I would feel about it.