Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc

New Cast on the Block

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc is the 3rd season of the Demon Slayer anime. No, I’m not considering the Mugen Train Arc as an anime season — that’s an anime movie.

But, there’s a big change that comes with the Swordsmith Village Arc. Some characters we’ve come to know and hate love aren’t around anymore. That’s right, Zenitsu and Inosuke don’t appear in this season after the first episode. And, honestly, that might be the best thing about the arc.

Instead, Tanjirou and Nezuko find themselves with some new allies. Both Mitsuri Kanroji and Muichirou Tokitou are around to help this time. That’s right, not one, but two Hashira. And, Genya Shinazugawa is there too. You know, the loud kid with the mohawk who became a demon slayer alongside Tanjirou.

Unfortunately, we didn’t trade Zenitsu and Inosuke for much better new characters. Muichirou doesn’t have a personality for the majority of the arc. Mitsuri is fine. And while Genya could have been cool, he has the same voice actor as Bakugo from My Hero Academia. I can’t help but see him as Bakugo every time he opens his mouth.

Of course, there are some new villains, as well. Since there are two Hashira in this arc, there are also two Upper Six demons. Gyokko is the Upper Five demon and Hantengu is the Upper Four demon. And, they’re not really anything special.

I’m not sure how Gyokko managed to become one of the Upper Six. And while Hantengu is strong, he’s not nearly as strong as we’ve been led to believe Upper Six demons should be. Or, it could be that the demon slayers are that much stronger than before.

Time to Pick Up the Pace

The first season of Demon Slayer was 26 episodes and our heroes defeated zero Upper Six demons. That makes sense, though since it was setting up the story. Then, there was the Mugen Train Arc, which was a movie that also involved defeating zero Upper Six demons.

The first defeat of an Upper Six demon came in the Entertainment District Arc, which was 11 episodes. This arc included the defeat of a single Upper Six demon, even though it was technically two demons. But, the Swordsmith Village Arc picked up the pace.

Like the previous arc, this one was also 11 episodes. However, it covered the defeat of two Upper Six Demons. This arc literally covered twice as much ground as the previous arc. And it looks like the pace is only going to keep speeding up from here.

This increase in pace has led to a few issues. It leaves less time for character and story development. And, to be clear, I’m not saying that the anime’s pacing is what’s increasing. As far as I understand it, this is the pace of the source material. I’m not trying to say this is a poor adaptation.

I’m going to focus on the lack of character development in the next section. But, what about story development? If the pace is increasing, doesn’t that mean the story is developing? Not exactly. We’re speeding through defeating the enemies. But, there’s not actually much story to accompany that.

Most of the plot progression came in the form of flashbacks. That’s how we learned of Tanjirou’s connection to one of the first Sun breathing users. And that’s also how we learned what Muzan Kibutsuji’s goal is. The majority of the present timeline content was fighting the Upper Six demons.

Demon Slayer Backstories

So, character development. There was definitely some. For example, Tanjirou learned some new tricks, like how to imitate Lightning breathing. Also, Nezuko can exist under the sun now. And, of course, Muichirou got his memories (and personality) back.

There’s one character development area in which Demon Slayer consistently fails, though. Demon Slayer backstories are actually terrible. You can’t convince me otherwise. It’s a fact, not an opinion. Almost every single character’s backstory is boring. The only exception is the Muzan Kibutsuji. We got his backstory at the end of this arc.

So, aside from Muzan’s backstory, which character backstories did we get? We got Muichirou’s, Mitsuri’s, Genya’s, and Hantengu’s. And no, I didn’t miss listing Gyokko’s backstory. Despite being an Upper Six demon, we never got a backstory for Gyokko. Daki/Gyuutarou and Hantengu got backstories, though.

Muichirou’s backstory is about as generic as it gets. His parents died in a storm and then a demon killed his twin brother. Muichirou killed the demon and was then taken in by the Demon Slayer Corps with amnesia.

Genya’s backstory is very similar. A demon also killed his family (except his older brother). But, the twist here is that the demon was their mother and it was Genya’s brother who killed her.

Both of those backstories are pretty boring. Of course they became demon slayers after demons killed their families. But, Mitsuri’s backstory is extremely boring. Why did she become a demon slayer? Because none of her potential suitors liked her hair color.

And then we have Hantengu’s backstory. He became a demon after being condemned to death for being a career criminal. It wasn’t a terrible backstory. But, when comparing it to Daki/Gyuutarou’s, it doesn’t stand up. Theirs is better.

Conclusion

Despite my complaints, I still gave Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc a 7/10. It’s good. But, I also don’t care about the plot or characters. It’s good in that it has action with animation that’s nice to look at. That’s the main reason I watch the series.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on your social media of choice — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.