Demon Slayer’s not too long ago concluded Hashira Training Arc feels very very similar to a online game – particularly, the components of an RPG the place you go round your camp speaking to each companion hoping they are saying one thing attention-grabbing, realizing that the majority of them will simply spout some generic dialogue then stroll away. This is to not say that downtime earlier than the grand finale is a nasty factor, however Hashira Training Arc is so poorly executed that it made me lengthy for the overly lengthy and meandering combat scenes from Season 3.
An enormous a part of the enchantment of Koyoharu Gotoge’s Demon Slayer comedian was that it’s was a reasonably brief shonen manga with a brisk tempo that prioritized getting straight to the large moments. While Ufotable’s adaptation of Demon Slayer has used animation to show brief and in any other case unremarkable occasions into epic shows of beautiful visuals, it has turn out to be clear that the present is able to little much less. Last season, it was padding the runtime with prolonged combat scenes stuffed with VFX and erratic digicam actions that made it laborious to comply with the motion. This season, with a conclusion on the horizon (consisting of not one, however three function movies), Ufotable stretched out the calm earlier than the storm relatively than confining it to a brief coaching montage at first of their epic motion film.
This is not unhealthy, in concept, as Hashira Training Arc lets the viewers spend extra time with the titular Hashira, the head of the Demon Slayer Corps, earlier than they possible fall like flies throughout the subsequent arc. Except that is not precisely what occurs, as we do not actually study a lot about any Hashira – with two notable exceptions. The episode dedicated to Himejima the Stone Hashira at the least gives a dramatic flashback – even when the present’s use of flashbacks is painfully formulaic and predictable – whereas Giyu’s flashback connects to the primary season in an attention-grabbing means, bringing again one of many present’s earliest tragic characters, Sabito. But nearly all of the season is dedicated to an infinite cycle of coaching montages between Tanjiro and the Hashira, most of whom stay as one-note as their respiratory method. And that is with out even attending to the dumb and pointless mini-quests that Tanjiro embarks upon in an effort to carry the spirits of the Hashira, like difficult Tokito to a paper airplane contest so he’d be nicer to the opposite recruits. Dedicating half an episode to 2 guys folding paper and throwing an airplane within the air must be an indication that you are going too far.
If Demon Slayer really had a big ensemble of fleshed-out characters, this slice-of-life method may be attention-grabbing. One might image a world the place Jujutsu Kaisen ought to have finished one thing comparable between Seasons 1 and a couple of, earlier than all of the supporting forged died. But as a result of the present by no means put in that effort for anybody not named Tanjiro – and if it did, then it instantly killed these characters off – the Hashira Training Arc seems as too little, too late.
It’s particularly painful when the one character who must be getting some consideration and dimension is nowhere to be seen. In the premiere, we study that the Demon Slayer Corps is doing this emergency coaching camp as a result of Nezuko unlocked a particular skill that makes her a goal to each demon on the earth. Yet Nezuko solely reveals up in that episode, and she or he actually will get seven phrases of dialogue in it – most of that are a part of a joke. For 4 seasons, we have been led to consider Nezuko is necessary, but Demon Slayer throws away any likelihood it will get to really present us why, or to make us care about this character. Sure, perhaps that is the way it goes within the manga. But if constancy to the supply materials is what the present strives for, then why did we have to lengthen 11 chapters into virtually 10 hours of tv — 10 minutes of which (to not maintain beating a lifeless horse) had been a paper-airplane contest?
Then there’s the finale, through which we lastly see the present’s huge unhealthy, Muzan Kibutsuji, do one thing for as soon as. It’s not a combat, or one thing really cool. Instead, there’s an prolonged sequence of Muzan “Smooth Criminal”-ing his solution to the home of the Demon Slayer Corps chief, in one of the crucial self-indulgent and pointless scenes to be animated this yr. Sure, it appears to be like spectacular, and it’s a testomony to Ufotable that they’ll flip a scene of a dude strolling painfully slowly into one thing thrilling. But it’s additionally proof of Demon Slayer attempting too laborious to recreate its preliminary success, fulfilling the unreasonable expectation thatevery inconsequential panel from the manga will probably be remodeled into an prolonged show of superior animation. By comparability, the scene within the finale the place Muzan will get blown to hell and slowly regenerates solely to be impaled by a number of blood spears whereas his head explodes shouldn’t be solely grotesque and horrifying, however appears to be like significantly better than the rest this season. And that is the issue with Hashira Training Arc. There are some genuinely good moments, even within the coaching sequences — the whole waterfall coaching with Inosuke virtually drowning is hilarious — however they’re overwhelmed by infinite padding.
