Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc Episode 6

Genya’s Demon Form

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc Episode 6 is all about Genya. And since I want to discuss Genya (and his brother) this week, let’s get the demon stuff out of the way. There’s, apparently, a fifth demon that makes up Hantengu.

We know Hantengu split into four demons whose names I don’t remember. But, Hantengu’s main body still exists. It’s just very small and it hides. This is the body you need to decapitate in order to kill all of Hantengu’s bodies. The other four are distractions.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s get on to discussing Genya. He’s actually pretty interesting now that we’ve learned a few things about him. And one of those things is that he can turn himself into a demon. But, this transformation only lasts for a limited amount of time.

How exactly Genya came to have this power is unknown. But, we can probably assume he activates it via his chanting. The thing is, someone must have taught him how to do this, right? Could it have been the “good” demons we met back in Season 1? I don’t remember their names, but it doesn’t matter.

Now, another question you may be asking is, why would Genya turn himself into a demon? Well, this actually seems to have a pretty simple answer. He does it because it makes him stronger. You see, as far as Demon Slayers go, Genya is actually weak.

According to Genya, he can’t use any breathing techniques. And as a result, he also has trouble decapitating stronger demons. So, by activating his demon form, he can get a bit of a strength boost. Additionally, this allows him to regenerate his body other than his head, which is neat.

Genya and Sanemi Shinazugawa

Episode 6 also gave us the backstory for both Genya and his older brother, Sanemi. Genya was the second oldest of seven children. After his father died, it was just the kids and their mother. But, everything changed one night.

After their mother didn’t return home, Sanemi went out to look for her. And when he left, he tasked Genya with staying behind to watch their younger siblings. But, later that night a demon broke into their house and killed the five youngest children. Genya only survived because Sanemi showed up to save him.

Sanemi tackled the demon out of the house to give Genya a chance to escape. And when Genya ran to get help for his other siblings, he came across his brother standing over a body. It was the corpse of their mother, and Sanemi was covered in her blood.

Now, to us, it was obvious that their mother was the demon who attacked them. But, at the time, Genya didn’t realize this. He thought that his older brother had killed their mother for some reason. And because of that, he called his brother a murderer — something he now regrets.

At some point after this, Sanemi joined the Demon Slayers Corps and rose to the rank of Hashira. And the reason Genya also joined is that he wants to get a chance to apologize to his brother. It was a pretty good backstory. But, I don’t think it needed to be as long as it was.

Also, it was weird to see how different Genya and Sanemi were in the past. They were both happy, well-behaved children. But now, both of them appear to have severe anger issues. It’s kind of odd how they both changed drastically in the same way.

The Wind Hashira

Unless I’m misremembering, Sanemi Shinazugawa is the Wind Hashira. So, while Genya can’t use any breathing techniques, the same isn’t true for Sanemi. And, we can assume he was taught how to use his breathing technique after the Demon Slayers recruited him.

In the previous arcs, we focused on a single Hashira. At the very start of the series, there was Giyu. Then, we had all that stuff with Shinobu, also in Season 1. After that, the Mugen Train Arc focused on Rengoku. And most recently, the Entertainment District Arc featured Tengen.

When the Swordsmith Village Arc began, I assumed it was going to focus on two Hashira. These are Muichirou and Mitsuri, obviously. But, I’m now starting to think that Sanemi is going to be the third Hashira of this arc. And I don’t think he’s even going to appear in it.

So, what do I mean by that? Well, I’m not expecting Sanemi to get his own arc later on in the series. Instead, this arc is going to serve as his arc even though he’s not present. How does that work? We’re going to get everything we need to know about Sanemi through Genya’s character arc.

By the time we’re done with Genya’s arc within the Swordsmith Village Arc, there won’t be a need for a Sanemi arc. The arcs for each Hashira go into who they are as people and their motivations. We kind of already know that about Sanemi from just this one episode.

The main thing we don’t know about Sanemi is why he “hates” his brother now. But, that seems pretty obvious to me. He doesn’t hate Genya at all. He’s being cold to Genya because he wants Genya to quit being a Demon Slayer so he doesn’t die.

Conclusion

What do you think of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc Episode 6? Who do you think Genya learned to transform into a demon from? Did you like Genya’s backstory? And, are you expecting Sanemi to be a main Hashira in a later arc, or is this it for him? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 7 is available now.