Demon Slayer Episode 4

Demon Slayer Episode 4

Final Selection

Last week I complained about the training montage/two-year time skip making the episode virtually pointless. However, I understand that it did have a point, I just don’t think we really needed three episodes to get there. But, this week we’re finally getting to the good stuff.

After cutting the boulder, Tanjirou is finally being sent off to the Final Selection for demon slayers. However, Sakonji has a few parting words for him first, and these words are pretty important for understanding Sakonji’s character.

First, he explains that he never actually expected Tanjirou to be able to slice the boulder. This wasn’t necessarily because he didn’t believe in Tanjirou, but rather because he didn’t want Tanjirou to end up sharing the same fate as his former students who died during Final Selection.

As we’ll find out later on in the episode Sabito and Makomo from the previous episode are two such former students, as I predicted. However, this brings up an interesting question. If Sabito was also able to cut a similar boulder, but then died during Final Selection, why is that enough for Sakonji to allow Tanjirou to go too?

Won’t Tanjirou simply share Sabito’s fate considering they’re both equally skilled from Sakonji’s perspective? I don’t have a definitive answer for this, but perhaps since Tanjirou has someone to fight for, Nezuka, Sakonji believes he’ll be able to persevere.

And, as a parting gift, Sakonji gives a fox mask to Tanjirou. Not only will the mask supposedly protect him from harm, but it’s also a sign that he’s one of Sakonji’s pupils.

The Test Begins!

As Tanjirou approaches the location of the Final Selection, he walks through a forest of flowers (the name of which I don’t remember and can’t be bothered to check). We later learn that these flowers surround the testing grounds and serve as demon repellent.

The test itself is a simple one. To pass, all the entrants have to do is survive for seven days within the testing area. The catch is that the testing area is full of demons which were caught by professional demon slayers and brought in to be used as part of the test.

So, basically the flowers around the testing area aren’t for keeping demons out, they’re for keeping them in.

The Final Selection Proctors from the anime series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
The Final Selection Proctors

It’ll be interesting to see if there are any other dangers within the testing area, or if the demons are the only think that the entrants need to worry about. Of course, they’ll also have to find their own food and shelter, but that seems like a pretty easy task compared to fighting demons.

Although we haven’t seen this happen yet, my guess is that the surviving entrants will be those who form up into small teams within the testing area. I don’t really think Tanjirou needs to work in a team to survive given his current skill level, but it’s a shounen battle series so it’s bound to happen.

Demons, Demons, and More Demons

Even if the demons are the only things the entrants need to worry about, it seems safe to say that there are a lot of demons within the testing area. Within only a short amount of time, Tanjirou already had to fight two of them at once, and ended fighting and killing three total before the end of the first day (night).

But, even if fighting the demons is possible, it’s still probably not advised, even though the point of this exam is to test who is and isn’t capable of becoming a demon slayer. Since you’re bound to come across a demon you have to fight at some point, it’s better to avoid the fights you can.

To this end, Tanjirou comes up with a simple plan. During the night, he’s constantly on the move towards the East so that the sun rises for him as soon as possible. During the night is when demons are active, so during the day he’ll be able to rest without worry.

The only real issue I see with his plan is if the area is too small, then after a day or two he’ll be at the Easternmost point of the area. Once this happens, his nights will no longer be shorter than his days, because he can’t keep running towards the East.

The only way to counter this would be to run back towards the West so that he can run East again, but that defeats the whole purpose. It’s a good strategy, Tanjirou, and it might end up working because this is an anime, but in reality I don’t see this plan being as effective as it is on paper.

Urokodaki’s Monster

The final demon Tanjirou fights in the episode is a giant mass of limbs. Sakonji mentioned that demons grow stronger based on how many humans they’ve eaten, and this one claims to have eaten over 50, which we can assume is quite a lot.

We’re also told that it’s been captive in this testing area for 47 years, which is an extremely long time considering the demons here are usually slayed after around three at most. Do the test proctors even know a demon of this caliber is lurking within the testing area?

Tanjirou Kamado using his Water Breathing from the anime series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
Tanjirou Kamado using his Water Breathing

Tanjirou first encounters the demon after watching it chasing a fellow entrant, and eating another which appears to have been previously killed. When it’s just about to eat the second human, Tanjirou leaps into action to save him.

Unfortunately, the rescued boy doesn’t stick around to help Tanjirou with the fight, and instead runs away to save himself. I’m interested to see if he survives to the end, and inf so, what he acts like afterwards. Would he thank Tanjirou? Would he act like he didn’t need to be saved in the first place?

And, it turns out that this particular demon was captured by none other than Sakonji Urokodaki. Due to its hatred for Sakonji, the demon has vowed to kill all of his pupils who enter the area. It spots them by their wooden fox masks, and claims to have killed something like 15 of them so far, including Sabito and Makomo.

Obviously Tanjirou ends up slaying the demon, but maybe in the next episode there will be some sort of twist. Perhaps the demon wasn’t finished off completely. If a demon that’s eaten 50+ humans can be defeated by Tanjirou alone, then the demons later on in the series are going to have some insane body counts.

Conclusion

So, what did you think of this week’s episode of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba? I thought it was a great episode, mainly because of the action in it. We didn’t really learn that many new things other than that one particular demon kills all of Sakonji’s pupils, but it was still great.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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