Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

[neflight86]

Starting in May (so My Hero Academia doesn't feel lonely?)

[Buffalobiian]

S5E1

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-The humor is on point. Inosuke - fucking dead.

-It seems weird that Ubuyashiki Kagaya wasn't going to meet the Hashira. He seemed to find them close enough that he'd see them and not mind how he appeared.

-Tengen living his best life so far. Ufotable gave his wives even more revealing outfits than before.

-The crow's voice at the end gave off villain vibes for sure. I don't blame Tamayo for being on guard. I'd have said the VA was Nakata Jouji, but it turned out to be Hayami Shou.

[neflight86]

He's awful, but Zenitsu remains my favorite part of this show.

Too bad they couldn't drag out why water hashira doesn't want to participate in the training during the double long premier. I expect his "I'm different than you" means he is trying to Kill Muzan and thus wants to keep training solo for the best results?

Tengen's wives certainly did begin to dress for summer.

So is the consensus that the mark (totally forgot about it) comes during/surviving a do-or-die situation? Funny it spreads like a disease of swordsmanship.

[DarthEnderX]

It wasn't made clear in the last arc that neither of the Hashira had ever gone Super Saiyan before. That's important information for the audience to have.


So is the consensus that the mark (totally forgot about it) comes during/surviving a do-or-die situation? Funny it spreads like a disease of swordsmanship.
Ancient book: "The mark will appear on one person. Then on the people around that person."
Lady: "The mark first appeared on Tanjiro, then on the Hashira that were with him."
Every Hashira: "So...we're all going to hang out with Tanjiro...right?"

[MFauli]

Good start.

Ngl, the hashira appear too weak compared to the upper demons.

Is this the final season?

[Buffalobiian]

So is the consensus that the mark (totally forgot about it) comes during/surviving a do-or-die situation? Funny it spreads like a disease of swordsmanship.

Funny that, because while it seems more like a boost from morale, they cut out exactly what the mark does to the swordsman. The honcho woman just mentioned that those who have already awakened "don't have a choice", and to me that sounds like they've in for something bad.

[DarthEnderX]

Is this the final season?If this season is only this arc, then no.


The honcho woman just mentioned that those who have already awakened "don't have a choice", and to me that sounds like they've in for something bad.It's gonna be a "drastically shortened lifespan". That's what ever extreme anime powerups' cost is.


Unless...it turns you into a demon eventually. And that's how Upper 1 ended up a demon.

[Buffalobiian]

It's gonna be a "drastically shortened lifespan". That's what ever extreme anime powerups' cost is.


Unless...it turns you into a demon eventually. And that's how Upper 1 ended up a demon.

Well yeah, those are usually the two options. The demon part is interesting because it implies that you have to become a demon in order to beat one. The "burning up your lifespan because sun breathing" fits the lore.

[DarthEnderX]

3

---

Hmm, did Upper 4 survive somehow? Or did Muzan appoint a new one?

[Buffalobiian]

3

---

Hmm, did Upper 4 survive somehow? Or did Muzan appoint a new one?

I assumed a new one.

Also, all the new training have nothing to do with breathing techniques. They covered flexibility, swordsmanship, strength etc, but none of it is about enhancing your breathing. The skill tree so far has entirely been about breathing techniques. The grunts, despite having survived the selection, all display zero breathing combat techniques.

[MFauli]

I find the training somewhat frustrating, because ... none of them would survive for 1 second against any upper or lower demon :/ What good does intense physically training for a couple weeks? To raise them to a level where they actually can make a difference, different training methods are necessary.

Feels like they're all beimg brought to the slaughter bank.

[shinta|hikari]

Honestly, I don't think they are even the focus here but just tools to make the Hashira stronger. You know, the old "Teaching also gives you learning," idea. Maybe it also fuels their motivation to train even harder, like with the 2 hashiras that wanna duke it out now.

[DarthEnderX]

I find the training somewhat frustrating, because ... none of them would survive for 1 second against any upper or lower demon :/ What good does intense physically training for a couple weeks? To raise them to a level where they actually can make a difference, different training methods are necessary.You know this is only phase 1, right? They're supposed to train under every Hashira.


Honestly, I don't think they are even the focus here but just tools to make the Hashira stronger. You know, the old "Teaching also gives you learning," idea.It's an excuse to make all the Hashira hang out with Tanjiro and unlock their Marks. :p

[neflight86]

Did we get any reasoning as to why the two hashiras want to 'spar'? Is it just another self training thing?

[shinta|hikari]

Just to train themselves by pushing themselves to the edge.

[Buffalobiian]

Hashira Arc E4

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-So did paper airplanes come first, or did airplanes come first? If the former, were they called paper airplanes before airplanes were a thing?

-Kanroji :3. It's nice to have a positive Hashira. I do miss her energy.

[MFauli]

Hashira Arc E4

----------------------------



-So did paper airplanes come first, or did airplanes come first? If the former, were they called paper airplanes before airplanes were a thingy.

EXACTLY what I thought, lol.

Also water hashira is way stronger than I thought before this episode.

The insult crow was cute, too. I'll cry if she's killled. :(

[Buffalobiian]

You mean Mist? Water is Giyu.

If so, yeah. Sound Hashira mentioned Mist and Stone were in different leagues.

[DarthEnderX]

-So did paper airplanes come first, or did airplanes come first?Paper planes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_plane).


If the former, were they called paper airplanes before airplanes were a thing?Paper darts.

[DarthEnderX]

05

---

Burned through a bunch in that episode.

[MFauli]

This felt like an episode that 'had to be done', but didn't need to be seen. Oh well. Until next week.

[Buffalobiian]

This arc is a lot more boring than I expected it to be.

And those grunts who made it up to the Stone Hashira are presumably able to land a blow on Snake and keep up with Wind etc, which feels strange given how lacking in spirit they seem to all be.

[shinta|hikari]

Is that how the training works? All this time I thought only Tanjiro is doing it in sequence, and the others are just assigned to whatever hashira they needed the most or has the capacity to take on more trainees.

[Buffalobiian]

I assumed it was linear because if you can't do physicality then you're not going to make it through the others etc.

That said, it was never specified.

[MFauli]

Is that how the training works? All this time I thought only Tanjiro is doing it in sequence, and the others are just assigned to whatever hashira they needed the most or has the capacity to take on more trainees.

I thought the same, but Buff's posting makes sense, too.

[DarthEnderX]

07

---

Next week is the last episode? WTF kind of season is that?!

I guess this really was just a training arc.

[MFauli]

Not sure we needed the 3 minute-music video of Muzan walking into the temple, lol.

The children of monk guy were hilariously terrible LOL. I mean, I won't say much about it, but it's kinda bs how these children were forcefully written to be so terrible when usually in this anime children are all lovely and nice. But here ... one tells the demon where the rest is and lets him in, the others forsaken the monk, and the surviving little shit makes a false-accusation. It was unintentionally funny.

As for the plot ... I REALLY hope the final part will be a movie. No need to stretch it out any further. Make it one 2 hour insane fighting movie.

[DarthEnderX]

it's kinda bs how these children were forcefully written to be so terrible when usually in this anime children are all lovely and nice.Like the shitty train kids that were gonna kill everyone in their sleep so they could live in a fantasy world?

[MFauli]

Like the shitty train kids that were gonna kill everyone in their sleep so they could live in a fantasy world?

No idea what you mean

[DarthEnderX]

No idea what you meanI...guess go rewatch the train arc? Where that was a thing that happened.

[DarthEnderX]

08

---

Well that was certainly a climax!

Did we just segway directly into the final arc?

[DarthEnderX]

Oh fuck! The next arc is just going to be THREE movies?!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyiZWYMilgk

I wonder if I wait long enough, they'll just turn it into a regular arc, like they did with Mugen Train.

[Buffalobiian]

Maybe, but Heaven's Feel turned out fine.

[MFauli]

Eh :/

While I'm glad the pacing is going up, lots of things I didn't like here:

- why now? Why did Muzan attack the Hashira-master now and not a long time ago? Nezuko has nothing to do with the Hashira, he couldn't have been waiting for such a specific thing to happen.
- Why did monk-hashira stop attacking and let Muzan fully regenerate? Just keep slashing his body so he cannot counterattack.
- how dumb are the Hashira to ALL attack together? Right after monk-Hashira told them that Muzan cannot be killed. Even without the dimension flipping, their group attack would have been more likely to cause confusion among themselves and give Muzan some sort of chance.
- they're all super lucky that Muzan is so nice and made gravity work like a gravity elevator inside his dimension. Imagine if there were all simply falling and ... dying. lulz
- Hashira-leaders speech to Muzan was super dull. If I were Muzan, I wouldn't have been as patient, lol.
- bombing his wife and daughters with himself. I guess Ging is no longer the worst dad in anime.

At least I'm glad the final arc is being made into 3 movies. Although one movie should have been enough.

[DarthEnderX]

You know what would be funny? If Nezuko's sunlight immunity was directly tied to her never eating a human. So even if Muzan DID capture her, he STILL wasn't able to make himself immune.


- why now? Why did Muzan attack the Hashira-master now and not a long time ago?He couldn't find him? The eyeball swarms seems to be a NEW power of lute demon's. And that's how he located everyone.



- Why did monk-hashira stop attacking and let Muzan fully regenerate? Just keep slashing his body so he cannot counterattack.
- how dumb are the Hashira to ALL attack together? Right after monk-Hashira told them that Muzan cannot be killed.So which is it? Do you want them to attack non-stop so he can't regenerate, or not?


At least I'm glad the final arc is being made into 3 movies. Although one movie should have been enough.
Depends how long the arc is. Muzan + 3 Uppers vs.the entire Slayer Corps. is some "4th Ninja War" shit. Imagine trying to do that arc in 1 movie.

[MFauli]

So which is it? Do you want them to attack non-stop so he can't regenerate, or not?

Non-stop.

Instead they went for a single big simultaneous attack, leaving them open to a counter attack, and even if that hadn't happened, they'd get in each others way and they probably would have stopped after their big attack, instead of fighting strategically, letting the others rest while 1 or 2 of them keep smashing in Muzan's body.

It was 100% dumb emotional attacking instead of strategy. Hashira should know better.

[Buffalobiian]

It being an emotional attack is true. It's not coordinated. They haven't been involved in the plan to do so.

The number of effective attackers depends on Muzan's radius of control. If Muzan is a regular human with human reach, then you can probably put three or four humans max around him before they get in each other's way during a simultaneous attack. If his radius of control is larger because of demon powers, then you can move Hashiras around.

A converging attack isn't a bad idea right from the start however, because the first thing that Muzan should want to do is escape (if he did not have a trapdoor planned). If you converge from all over, it makes escape difficult.

This episode got me pretty pumped. I'm happy to see Tamayo as well. She's been the only one so far with a "smart" approach.

[neflight86]

I'll give it time to do so, but if Kimetsu doesn't explain why this power to autotarget/cast trap doors under all demon slayer corps members into the pocket dimension wasn't used previously or to pick off demon hunters this whole time, my eyes will be a rollin' mightily.

That Muzan exchange was slow and not near interesting enough to take 15 minutes.

They've had two bangers of seasons in a row (counting mugen), and now two stinkers; the final movies will determine Kimetsu's legacy; but as they say... "hype is a hell of a drug".

[Buffalobiian]

They never used it because it was supposed to be a hidden palace of refuge. Muzan's goal ultimately was to have immortality. Destroying the demon slayers would help, but ultimately it probably doesn't bother him all that much. Like he says, he's got time.

The Biwa demon also stays in the castle, so if they got a Hashira in there and killed her then that's a huge asset lost to Muzan without much gain. Killing a Hashira or two doesn't mean much to him.


Now. Now that Nezuko is sun-resistant, Muzan has something to play for. Demon Slayers are hiding her, so he's now out to wipe them out in order to get to her. When he had the other demons out and about to infect people + hopefully find/develop into a cure, the castle was mostly empty.

[MFauli]

The Biwa demon also stays in the castle, so if they got a Hashira in there and killed her then that's a huge asset lost to Muzan without much gain. Killing a Hashira or two doesn't mean much to him. .

THat's why he's bringing ALL the demon slayers there now, makes sense /s.

He could just teleported important assets to outside Japan. Just get Biwa to Europe where there's no Hashira.

[DarthEnderX]

Ironically, the one person we DIDN'T see getting teleported to the infinity castle, is Nezuko.


even if that hadn't happened, they'd get in each others waySomehow, I doubt the masters of magical mid-air sword acrobatics are in any danger of bumping into each other.

[Buffalobiian]

THat's why he's bringing ALL the demon slayers there now, makes sense

Because he's got all the demons there.

Once the cure was found, Muzan didn't bother letting demons roam free. They're all in the castle now ready to pounce the demon corps.

And Biwa stays IN the castle. She doesn't just go places.

[neflight86]

They never used it because it was supposed to be a hidden palace of refuge. Muzan's goal ultimately was to have immortality. Destroying the demon slayers would help, but ultimately it probably doesn't bother him all that much. Like he says, he's got time.

If immortality is the only goal, he already has it if he just closes away in the pocket dimension. Obviously he misses the sun and wants to return to the daytime earth, perhaps ruling it too, otherwise his whole 'making subservient demons' thing doesn't make any sense, neither does searching for the 'cure'. Having time means he can wait for this unique group of Hashiras capable of killing uppers to wither/die out while Nezuko becomes alone in the world as she ceases to age. Being able to draw threats anywhere into this dimension means he can choose when and where to engage, effectively, putting his forces to the best use with the least risk. I don't buy that he didn't consider that with his time and his paranoia... even if he sees the Hashira as below him, he has experienced fear of death before from the earring swordsman, so simple ignorance won't cut it for an excuse, either.

Because of all of that, right now, that whole climactic scene is unprecedented and silly if there is no catch or drawback; I don't want to headcannon it because I think it is really lazy/rushed writing as is. I hope the power turns out to be another demon's who had to do prep work or meet a condition for this to happen. Just a pet peeve of mine.

Any yeah, not targeting Nezuko with it is absolutely bonkers.

[DarthEnderX]

Any yeah, not targeting Nezuko with it is absolutely bonkers.I'm assuming it can only target people the eyeballs have located. And the eyeballs still haven't found Nezuko.

[MFauli]

I'm assuming it can only target people the eyeballs have located. And the eyeballs still haven't found Nezuko.

Which, ironically, should have been THE ONE condition to clear before using that technique :D

[Buffalobiian]

If immortality is the only goal, he already has it if he just closes away in the pocket dimension. Obviously he misses the sun and wants to return to the daytime earth, perhaps ruling it too, otherwise his whole 'making subservient demons' thing doesn't make any sense, neither does searching for the 'cure'.

That's conditional immortality. The sun can kill him, and I'm guessing the original breathing technique will also kill him. He's after full immortality.

As for Nezuko, I agree that you can't target what you can't find.

As for not engaging the plan when Nezuko is an unknown, the Demon Corps are hiding her, and it's taken him 1000 years to find the HQ. He'd be mad to not deal some critical damage now.

[DarthEnderX]

I'm curious how many of the remaining villains Tanjiro is going to end up facing off against personally.

He has a personal grudge with #3. #1 is, like, his ancestor or something. And obviously he's going to be the one to face off with the final boss.

That's like, 3 of the 5 important villains. Doesn't leave much for everyone else to be doing...



- bombing his wife and daughters with himself. I guess Ging is no longer the worst dad in anime.I'm not actually sure his daughters got blown up. While his wife was with him as the explosion went off, when it cut back to where the girls were just before the explosion, they were already gone and the ball was just sitting there. So I'm thinking they might have left or been pulled away before the blast.


Which, ironically, should have been THE ONE condition to clear before using that technique :DEh. Like others said, if he wiped out the Slayer Corps. here, he can just hunt down Nezuko at his leisure.

[MFauli]

I'm curious how many of the remaining villains Tanjiro is going to end up facing off against personally.

He has a personal grudge with #3. #1 is, like, his ancestor or something. And obviously he's going to be the one to face off with the final boss.

That's like, 3 of the 5 important villains. Doesn't leave much for everyone else to be doing...

While he does have a connection to all these, I could also see the following happen:

#3 will be tackled by Inosuke and Zenitsu, because they feel guilty about not having been of much help when fire-hashira died.
#1, the ancestor will be fought, but turned by talk-no-jutsu. Then he turns on Muzan and is killed by him.
Muzan is left, who Tanjiro fights, but not all by himself.

I dunno, how many upper demons are left? The other hashira need some activity, too, lol.




I'm not actually sure his daughters got blown up. While his wife was with him as the explosion went off, when it cut back to where the girls were just before the explosion, they were already gone and the ball was just sitting there. So I'm thinking they might have left or been pulled away before the blast.

Maybe, although then the camera saved them, lol.

[DarthEnderX]

I dunno, how many upper demons are left?Of the originals, only 1-3 remain(punchy guy, effeminate guy, Tanjiro's ancestor). With lute girl seemingly having been promoted to 4 after the last arc.

[shinta|hikari]

Based on how fights have gone so far, they won't be 1v1ing most of the enemies. They will probably gang up on them, classic human style.