English Dub Review: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba “Tsuzuki Mansion”

Overview (Spoilers Below)
Picking back up from last time, Tanjiro pulls the orange-haired man away from the poor woman. Soon after, the two formally introduced themselves, with the orange-haired man being called Zenitsu.

The two walk together towards the next demon-hiding spot: a wooden home. Once there, they notice two terrified children whose older brother was apparently taken by a demon into the various same house. Tanjiro enters the home, followed by a panicked Zenitsu. The children follow them as well, despite Tanjiro telling them to stay outside with Nezuko’s box.

After a few moments, the gang is split in half, with Tanjiro and the female child ending up in one room, and the others staying where they were initially. A demon with an immense amount of strength pops up nearby the room Tanjiro’s in. He begins to strike, but the demon flips the room upside down. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a swordsman wearing a boar’s head pops in, ready to strike against the demon.

Our Take
Just from the description above, this episode ends up a bit on the wacky side of things. It’s not as strong as the episode’s prior, but it has its merits. Let’s dive deep into the inner-workings of the Tsuzumi Mansion and take a peek.

For starters, the majority of the episode relies on Zenitsu’s panicking for giggles. I wouldn’t say it’s the most amusing set of jokes ever to grace television’s airwaves. However, there is a sort of amusement to behold from it. The episode does come up with creative situations to prolong the core concept, such as Tanjiro’s reverse-psychology on Zenitsu to get him into the mansion. At the same time, if this is all Zenitsu’s character is, the schtick is going to get old pretty quick. A show can only prolong a joke for so long before it inevitably grows tiresome.

Secondly, the inner-workings of the mansion, while limited, were a sight to behold. The scene with the rapidly-changing rooms was breathtaking to me. To see the show run through so many wonderfully illustrated backgrounds at such a rapid pace was amazing to my eyes. I honestly couldn’t believe it when I saw it! That said, there isn’t a lot of action-packed tension here. There’s been so much tension lately that the episode feels kind of lacking without it. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s a nice element to have overall. I am definitely enticed by the main demon though, even with the tiny glimpse we saw of him. With Steve Blum’s voice in tow, this demon already evokes a feeling of you-don’t-wanna-mess-with-them! All in all, this crazy mansion has some interesting twists and turns, and I’m all for hopping along for the journey.

To continue, the introduction of the boar’s head-wearing swordsman was an oddity at its finest. The character literally seems to pop right out of thin air! As soon as he’s there, he’s gone again, only to reemerge at the very end. His personality definitely seems wacky, sort of like a crossbreed between Looney Tunes and shonen protagonists. It’ll certainly be interesting to see what’s all coming up for this mysterious animal-wearing fellow.

Overall, while not quite like the previous few installments, this is still a fairly great output. It does the task of introducing new characters with charm and wit. Additionally, it features beautiful artistic moments that make this series shine above the rest. With the battle just revving up, I’m definitely excited to see what’ll happen next week.