#KnY Rewatch

[demonslayedher]

Things that ran through my mind while watching this episode: --Ufotable says "jump" and FujiTV says "how high?" Likewise, they say "we want more run time" and FujiTV says "take it, it's yours." It seems odd that an episode in which the battle is already over would require extra run time, but I think a lot of the magic in of the KnY anime adaptation (particularly since Mugen Ressha) is that Ufotable lets the emotional scenes really open up and take the space they need to, uh... breathe.

--That means giving the voice actors lots of space on the emotional scenes to build up realistic crying and give pauses. Daki's crying always hits me hardest, but Gyutaro's narration and the way he talks to the samurai he kills, also excellent. And then you have Inosuke at the very end of the episode being Not Okay. --Suma, you are a treasure

--Backing up a bit, I love how Ufotable also reads being the panels. Like that "you saved me, Nezuko?" sure as help can mean "you eliminated the last of an Upper Moon's attack with her fire?" why not. And it is such Kimetsu Logic to not tell us Nezuko can eliminate demon poison until after she's saved the night, but it also makes perfect sense.

--After all the sting of losing Rengoku, losing Uzui was dangled in front of us, and the fact that we get to keep him makes this victory over an Upper Moon all the more victorious and sweet. Oyakata-sama's moment of feel on emotion at the end of the episode, a very different state than we've ever seen him, really shows how momentous this is too.

--But also, if he had died there, it truly would have been one of the most horrific deaths of the series, because he'd have done so with the very flamboyant knowledge of having missed his chance to say any last words because his wives were being so themselves. And he is just there just feeling numbness take over his tongue, knowing he lost his chance. I love that look on his face as it hits him that this is really how he's stuck going, and the rocks hitting is still peak comedy.

--I mentioned in the last episode just how fast this whole battle was, and I think this provides very interesting insight about Iguro in a couple ways. First, there is the possibility that a crow went seeking Iguro's help the moment it say a Corp member fighting an Upper Moon (Tanjiro fighting Daki, who could still be mistaken for an Upper Moon at the time), but the crow still needed time to get to wherever Iguro was. Iguro probably started running as soon as he heard, but the battle really was over too fast for him to help. The other possibility is that as soon as Uzui told Tanjiro and Inosuke to leave, he reached out to Iguro for help, which would imply both A) humility and B) perhaps aside from proximity, he chose Iguro as the best choice of a Pillar to help him with this mission, whether based on the merits of Snake Breath or his trust in Iguro. Either way, Iguro already knew Tanjiro was involved--perhaps Uzui mentioned it (in which case, Iguro would had thought Tanjiro left as ordered), or the crow specifically told him, "Kamado Tanjiro is going head to head against an Upper Moon," in which case he of course assumed Tanjiro was already dead.

--This is actually a great moment of characterization for Iguro, who sees no personal value in living except to fight demons, as he does not seem himself deserving of love. That gives him no way to understand how Uzui would dare to prioritize a loving married life.

--Of course, the course of this episode is the Shabana sibling back story, and I think it's one of the demon backstories with layers of irony most seamlessly worked into the events of the plot. Besides the Kamado sibling foil, you've got Gyutaro calling Tanjiro names, Daki telling Zenitsu that only the beautiful have power, Daki getting set on fire by Nezuko, Daki offering to pluck out and eat Tanjiro's left eye and having Gyutaro's left eye on her forehead, snow on the night they became demons and snow on the night of the promise they are strongest together, memories of snow while facing the fires of hell, choosing the darkness over the light, Gyutaro starting with a horrid existence by finding Ume's birth changed all that and his outlook totally improved, and just when he thinks things are going to really get better they get horrifically worse, and he changes his tune to saying that never had anything good in the first place and no matter how many times he's reborn he'll always rue those who had things good for them. Ume was the good change in his fortune. That makes it hurt all the more when he yells at her that his life would had been easier without her, and that this rejection continues into the afterlife when he tries to cut ties for her own sake.

[weebannihilator]

Zenitsu was literally actually dying and Tanjiro was his last thought

[avocodas]

✨سيفٌ أسودٌ لامع✨

[kyunmei]

[theghooligan]

mitsuya hallucinating that koko was mikey during the intense training that taiju gave them to suffer through was wild man

[kalofi]

found out that my bnha interest never actually left it just bided its time then activated randomly this month like a sleeper agent so. here’s these

[2demon2slayer]

mugen train momence

[valartsstuff]

⚠️Blood!⚠️

Left -> right

[zxnin]

Kyojurou Rengoku | Flame Hashira ☆

[oemmio]

small

tiny even

[whackdreamer]

No one.

Absolutely no one.

Amane to the 11 y/old orphan twins she just met.

"Wanna become child soldiers? 👁👄👁"

[demonslayedher]

Things that went through my mind while watching this episode: --The other day, my fellow otaku colleague sent me a screen cap of her dictionary looking up the word "abazure" and I was like, "I know what episode she's on."

--And, after finishing this season, she announced she has a new favorite character. You can all guess where this is going. We gushed about how wonderful Mitsuri is, like, an hour after I wrote some otherwise unprompted Mitsuri gushing. Mitsuri is so worth gushing about. And Ufotable has done her such justice!!

--First off, Love Breath. Just. So good. And they basically handed the ending them to her this season as her own personal theme music. Speaking of sounds! Cat noises on the Love Breath. And you know that part at the beginning of the ending theme when she looks in the mirror and pats her cheeks? You can hear it.

--Speaking of the ending theme, one of the demons she is shown defeating is mostly in shadow, but you can still make out stripes on him similar to Akaza... but more similar to Speedy from the Rengoku Special. Rengoku nod!?!? Also, although they aren't the same character design, in part of Mitsuri's flashback she pictures a mother and son very similar to the pair she saves in the Gaiden. Rengoku nod!?!? --'k but also... the Rengoku Gaiden had Rengoku give her a haori, and that thing got totally obliterated in that attack she took with her face. That attack also tore her uniform in many places, and that is made of material that can at least withstand a normal demon's claws and teeth. Underneath, however, she doesn't even look bruised, which goes to show how strong her constitution really is.

--OKAY BUT ALSO... right after we see her say she'll treasure the socks, Iguro says, "don't bother, if they tear, I'll just give you new ones"? We see that despite how frayed and torn her uniform is, THOSE SOCKS ARE STILL IN TIP-TOP CONDITION.

--Iguro, what are those things even made of?????

--Love?????????

--So for as much as Muichiro gets to show his ease in battle by verbally messing with Gyokko (at least once he has the double whammy of memories+mark), Mitsuri is so physically capable that it totally makes up for her less-than-stealy frame of mind. Our girl can be right in the middle of battling an Upper Moon and be like, "wHaT DiD tHat cHiLd jUsT cALL mE!?!?!?!? Oh wait yeah not a child BUT STILL"

--And I love that Zouhakuten is so ULTRA-SERIOUS that he takes her totally at serious face value as an opponent instead of caring one way or another about her personality, which surely must have thrown other demons off in the past since she's so unlike other Corp Members they might have faced before.

--And then you got Hantengu, running from his responsibilities as the #1 Most Relatable Demon.

--Some other animation moment I loved: NEZUKO'S FACE as she looks at Mitsuri with admiration. I can't get enough of those two. I'd like to think that if Mitsuri and Nezuko met when Nezuko was human, mature elder sister Nezuko would be just as enamored with her. Like, that day Nezuko tells an adult off for hitting a child, say Mitsuri comes to her rescue and also stands up to the guy, but then when Mitsuri is lightheaded with hunger Nezuko uses that chance to treat her to a snack and chat with her, Takeo is probably watching this all go down and feeling very overwhelmed seeing that chatty side of Nezuko, so when Tanjiro comes by he might be like, 'help,' but then Tanjiro probably starts going into fanboy mode right alongside fangirl Nezuko and Takeo would be doubly overwhelmed.

--Also, I loved that Tanjiro (who already finds Mitsuri amazing) is like, "wow, whoever made that sword is amazing," which makes a very nice through-line about Tanjiro's admiration for the swordsmiths. If we look back at that scene in the opening when Kotetsu is showing him the swordsmiths at work, there's such a nice chance in Tanjiro's expression as he feels extra resolve as he appreciates how this is how the swordsmiths fight.

--Another part of the animation I love in this episode: How you can feel the shifty G-forces as Genya struggles to hold on to the twisted trunks of wood, and then all the strength of his jaws as he pulls at the bark. I also love how this is really the only explanation we ever get of his powers, and we're all supposed to be like, "Huh. Okay."

--What I don't love about this episode is that we don't get to see Tanjiro & Nezuko's faces--or Genya's face, for that matter--when he throws the tree. Those were some good faces.

--While I am sad at Ufotable for taking that out, we have to appreciate all blessed new material they gave us for fleshing out Mitsuri's background. We all fell a little in love with Mitsuri's dad, didn't we? Since we've never gotten it in any canon material, I do have to wonder how her parents reacted to her joining the Demon Slayer Corp, and how that even came up in the first place.

--I ate sakura mochi while watching this episode, tee hee hee.

[weebannihilator]

What was all this about.

[avocodas]

Rewatching KNY again (S1E3-4-5) and may I say how amazingly Uroduraki trained Tanjiro from A-Z

Running

Falling and Getting Up

Running with a sword

Wielding a sword

And becoming one with the water

Rewatching these episodes along with acquired understanding of the way of teaching is so refreshing 😂😂 like hell yeah i’d put my students through hell to earn the skills and hammer it to their flesh.

About Sabito, like man

MAAAAN

his choice of words, constant insulting of Tanjiro’s masculinity (even tho it didn’t sting Tanjiro much), along with the sarcasm was a beautiful narrative piece to watch and savor the tone Sabito’s VA performed with.

What if Sabito was Giyuu’s personal trainer back then too😭

[rubylarkspur22]

That feel when you rediscover a movie you absolutely loved(and may have been a component in the realization you were, in fact, not straight), and decided to merge with the current special interest.

[everlastingleuthymia]

Wait I just rewatched Demon Slayer and I just realized on one of the Hashira's introduction that Gyomei said this even though his blind

On the otherhand I just realized why in the hell world is Giyuu carrying a rope ? I just noticed but why does he carry it for ? to tie up demons ? Or something? Or 😰😭