“For centuries, the Demon Slayer Corps has sacredly kept the location of Swordsmith Village a secret. As the village of the greatest forgers, it provides Demon Slayers with the finest weapons, which allow them to fight night-crawling fiends and ensure the safety of humans. After his sword was chipped and deemed useless, Tanjirou Kamado, along with his precious little sister Nezuko, is escorted to the village to receive a new one.
Meanwhile, the death of an Upper Rank Demon disturbs the idle order in the demon world. As Tanjirou becomes acquainted with Mist Hashira Muichirou Tokitou and Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji, ferocious powers creep from the shadows and threaten to shatter the Demon Slayers’ greatest line of defense.” – MAL Synopsis
– Genres: Action, Supernatural
It makes me upset how boring this arc was not just in general but in relation to the arcs that we’ve gotten before. Like season one was great, then Mugen Train and Entertainment arc are just phenomenal on almost every level. All of that had me thinking Demon slayer could do no wrong.
After a splendid first episode with some more Muzan and upper demon scenes, Tanjiro is off to get his sword fixed at the swordsmith village and almost immediately there are so many head scratching moments. The people of the village are fine, but when Tanjiro goes to find the kid, and he finds this super advanced dummy that we as an audience recognize as not only a “legendary” swordsmen/demon that we saw from last season but it also bears a striking resemblance to Tanjiro’s father. But it’s not like Tanjiro hasn’t also seen most of the same things we have and the fact that he doesn’t make that connection instantly is very jarring.
Almost immediately, the village is attacked by two new upper level demons who have some demon arts. I mainly like Gyokko with his jar abilities, but lord do they not only drag these fights out for the entire season (albeit it’s very short) but they become very uninteresting, very quick. The whole demon slayer shtick of humanizing every demon via backstory and fleshing out newcomers via the same way, well that whole thing only works if the characters are interesting. Uzui and his wives were interesting. Daki and Gyutaro were interesting. The characters introduced here are not at all. Especially the Tokito who has spent almost every scene he’s in beforehand being in a daze and then in this season he’s given so much screen time and backstory which had some moments but overall I couldn’t care less. Which it seems like that was the same sentiment for Mitsuri because her backstory is basically nothing. She has a cool sword though.
Really, the only thing worth note in this season is the climax. It was genuinely impactful and scary for Nezuko. It seemed like she wouldn’t survive. All signs pointed to that being the case, but the fact that she did, and Muzan, has taken note of that. She is what he’s always been looking for, his solution to his quest for immortality and perfection. It’s not enough to fully redeem the season in my eyes, but it is enough for me to be excited about what’s coming next. I will also note that Genya has some really interesting abilities shown here that we haven’t seen before I don’t believe? I really wonder how he gained the ability to gain power from consuming demons.
So yeah, this season really lost me as a singular thing, but I feel like what stuff we did get to progress the story is huge and has me excited for what comes next. The animation and music was still top notch, some of the best of the best, but story wise this arc just falls so flat. I’m hoping it’s way better than this season.
Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc – 6/10
