Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well seeing as how we watched a romantic comedy last week it only seems right to watch a masterpiece of anime, Kimetsu no Yaiba. One of the most popular animes in the last decade Kimetsu no Yaiba made a return last year with a third season. With the fourth season around the corner, it only feels right to take a look at the third season. Done once again by Ufotable, the season was a hit like the previous seasons, but how does it rank among them? Let’s find out. This is Kimetsu no Yaiba S3.
Opening and Ending Theme
For the opening, we have one of my favorites from this past year, “Kizuna no Kiseki” by MAN WITH A MISSION x milet. The Vinland Saga alumnus team-up to deliver a great song that combines modern rock with classic Japanese instruments. The voices work great with each other and the song perfectly encapsulates the two hashiras we’re going to meet this season. Even after all these months it’s still a cool song in my opinion that I can listen to from time to time.
The ending is “Koi Kogare” by MAN WITH A MISSION x milet. Okay, this might just be my favorite ending from the series so far. It is cool to see these guys sing the ending as well. The opening feels more like a milet song while the ending feels more like a MAN WITH A MISSION song. Once again the song does a good job complimenting the series and focusing on our two hashiras. It’s a more fast-paced song as well so there’s a lot of energy and excitement in it than the opening.
Episodes 1-4
The season starts in Muzan’s Infinite Castle (no matter how many times I see this place I am always amazed by it) where we meet the remaining five upper moons (the higher the number the more inhuman they become. Hell, one of them is the Pot of Greed from Yu-Gi-Oh). As you would imagine Muzan is pissed and tells them to start getting results or else. We then go to Tanjiro where we find out he’s been in a coma for two months now. Zenitsu and Inosuke also fell into comas but they woke up before him and are back in the field (they are dedicated to the job. Not by choice). As Tanjiro goes through his rehabilitation, he finds out that Haganezuka will not repair his sword anymore (scene here: https://youtu.be/m4Q6fEk1LE0?si=HwF-FdVetDZFLPEw, can’t say I blame him. He’s gone through three swords. You know how much that shit costs? Especially back then). Tanjiro gets special permission to go to the swordsmith village in order to talk to Haganezuka. But the village is hidden in order to keep it safe from demon attacks and he can’t know where it’s located, so he’s forced to wear a blindfold, and cover his ears, as well as his nose. As if that wasn’t crazy enough, a member of the clean-up crew has to carry him and pass him off to another crew member after reaching a certain point (it’s like Yoshi’s Island except without the crying baby). He finally reaches the village where he goes to greet the chief, Tecchin, and finds out that Haganezuka has gone missing (no problem, just lure him out with Tanjiro tied to a tree). The village is hard at work at finding him and if they can’t find him they’ll assign someone else to make Tanjiro’s sword. Tanjiro then goes to relax in the hotsprings where he runs into Mitsuri another hashira who is the master of Love Breathing (curious how that works) and Genya a rather unruly man who gives Katsuki a run for his money (except he lacks Katsuki’s comedic unruliness. Scene here: https://youtu.be/JbzmET50QIw?si=b7octbksKimn_qO8). Mitsuri tells Tanjiro about a secret weapon in the village that’ll make him stronger (scene here: https://youtu.be/Z3EuYylmBG0?si=y6qKlHGX0QiemIUD), so the next day he heads out to look for it where he runs into Muichiro the Mist hashira (again, I’m curious how that works) arguing with some kid blacksmith and behind him is a mysterious samurai who Tanjiro recognizes from his dream.
In episode 2 Tanjiro jumps in to help the kid being harassed by Muichiro only to get knocked out (you should have headbutted him Tanjiro). When Tanjiro comes to he finds out from the kid, Kotetsu, that Muichiro left and with his prized possession, a mechanical doll modeled after a demon slayer from the Sengoku period (they built a fully functional robot during the Sengoku period? What kind of alien technology did you stumble upon?). We find out that Kotetsu’s dad tragically passed away leaving him in charge of the doll. But he’s still young and inexperienced so if the doll were to break down he isn’t sure he’d be able to fix it. We also find out that Muichiro is a descendant of the family who created the Sun Breathing technique which means he’s a prodigy (who lacks tact). However, not even he can do the Sun Breathing technique. After Muichiro gets done training with the doll he takes his leave, but he accidentally destroys one of its six arms (why does it have six arms? Well the slayer its fighting style was based on was so skilled that the only way they could mimic his style was to give the doll six arms. Scene here: https://youtu.be/SKSv2UBlyxc?si=Dfiy4VgznX8ldliM). The doll still functions and Kotestsu makes a decision. He wants Tanjiro to train with this doll to become stronger so that he can kick Muichiro’s ass. Tanjiro begins training with the doll where he’s overpowered by it. As time goes on he starts to be able to see the doll’s attacks and eventually beats it where he finds a sword stuck in the body.
So in episode 3 Tanjiro and Kotestsu pull out the sword only to see it’s rusty (what did you expect? It hasn’t been touched in 300 years. I’m amazed it’s still in one piece). Haganezuka shows up and he is buff (okay, new respect for Haganezuka). He says that he can make the sword good as new but it’ll take him 3 days and 3 nights. During this time, Tanjiro hangs out with Genya since they’re such good friends (scene here: https://youtu.be/Zt–mW9gn4I?si=f_o3bX7XDtAacr8a) but when the night sets in that’s when the demons come out to play. Through unknown means two upper rank demons invade the village to destroy it. The first one is Gyokko (the Pot of Greed demon) and the other is Hantengu a cowardly old demon. Hantengu sets his sights on Tanjiro and Muichiro where they manage to behead him but it doesn’t kill him. Instead, his decapitated body grows a new head and the decapitated head spawns a new body (oh that is bullshit. This is like changing the rules of a game mid-battle). As if that wasn’t bad, these other forms are way more dangerous and stronger than the original Hantengu. Muichiro gets blasted away where he saves Kotetsu from being killed by Gyokko’s monster fish. Back with Tanjiro and Nezuko, they get saved by Genya who uses a gun to blast the head off of one of the demons and then decapitates the other which was a bad move as more bodies spawn (this guy is worse than a hydra). Tanjiro gets carried away by one of the demons leaving Genya and Nezuko to fight where Genya gets stabbed by a spear (scene here: https://youtu.be/Tz5KKXoJFd0?si=F6S_wpXwrcsxFlm0). Also, we get this cute scene that I love (https://youtu.be/EERQa1DnT5c?si=KK8_WC3SoY5LmoDZ).
Episode 4 goes by fast but a lot of action happens in it. After Muichiro rescues Kotetsu we find out that the guy is suffering from amnesia and Kotetsu begs him to save Hagenezuka who has been working tirelessly on that sword they found last episode. He agrees to save him and they rush off (run like the mist Muichiro). Back with Tanjiro, he figures out that each demon represents a different emotion (anger, sadness, joy, and pleasure. You would think pleasure and joy are the same thing but no they’re different) and whenever he cuts them it takes them a little longer to recover. Tanjiro gets stuck fighting Joy who uses its flight ability to his advantage. Nezuko and Genya are having a tough time taking on Pleasure, Anger, and Sadness. Genya shows his toughness by being fatally stabbed yet still getting back up and fighting. Same with Nezuko who gets electrocuted (scene here: https://youtu.be/01CZIvPJQ_A?si=nMsxHvjQCe8c-Mdd). Tanjiro is able to make it back to them and for a brief second it seems like the tables turn in their favor but the demons gain the upper hand with Genya taking another heavy hit and Tanjiro and Nezuko seemingly getting knocked out. Gyokko’s monsters make it into the village (so you didn’t notice the stuff with Hantengu’s clones earlier?) and Mitsuri is on her way to help them.
Episodes 5-8
Oh man the excitement continues in episode 5 as Mitsuri arrives and protects the blacksmiths in the village (scene here: https://youtu.be/CzFkh8YEAcw?si=8E38DDFgrXfGC-i2). She easily takes down all of Gyokko’s monsters using her whip sword (I do like how the female hashiras have the most unorthodox blades of the bunch). Speaking of Gyokko, Muichiro fights him just outside of Hagenzuka’s shack. Despite Muichiro’s best efforts, Gyokko keeps teleporting to different vases (and give him credit, he asks the question everyone’s been asking: where are all these vases coming from?). Back with Tanjiro, Nezuko uses her blood to set his sword on fire and this scares the other demons. Since they were turned into demons by Muzan they telepathically share his fears. Since Muzan fears the demon slayer that almost killed him used a flame sword in the past that fear gets transferred over to them as well (it’s in their blood so to speak). Tanjiro attacks Anger, Pleasure, and Joy and manages to decapitate all three them in one strike (scene here: https://youtu.be/wkizNdwMAnY?si=Tb6KMz1LfRAF4iO6, all right! Tanjiro proves the last arc wasn’t a fluke). This just leaves Sadness who got decapitated by Genya and something is off about him.
In the first half of episode 6 despite decapitating all four demons, they’re still alive which means there’s a fifth demon. Using his nose Tanjiro is able to direct Genya to where the last demon is hiding. When Genya finds the demon we see that it’s a miniature version of Hantengu (so tiny). Genya tries to slash him but his sword breaks in the process (damn it boy! You know how much time and resources go into making those swords?). One of the demons closes in on him and it looks like he’s about to die now that he’s defenseless. In the second half we see Genya’s past where we find out he’s the brother of Sanemi the wind hashira (the bastard who stabbed Nezuko in the first season). He and Sanemi were the oldest of their siblings and were pretty poor. They had an abusive dad who would always beat them up but he got killed by a guy he owed money to. Their mom would always work late into the night to provide for them all. One night, their mom was late to come home so Sanemi went to go look for her. While he was gone Genya and the others were attacked by a demon. All of Genya’s siblings were killed before his eyes (hello childhood trauma) and the demon who killed them was his mom. Sanemi had no choice but to kill his mom by exposing her to sunlight and Genya at the time not knowing what was going on called his brother a murderer (did I mention this episode aired on Mother’s Day?). Genya has always wanted to apologize to his brother but never got the chance because Sanemi became a demon slayer. Genya became one as well in the hopes of becoming a hashira to properly apologize to his brother who he misjudged. Returning to the present, Tanjiro saves Genya and encourages him not to give up (scene here: https://youtu.be/U7t8Qwd7usY?si=XWDPSECxbsTNw8nf). When another demon shows up, Genya uses his body as a shield to protect Tanjiro and tells him to finish the job (scene here: https://youtu.be/cshnS1dFHd8?si=nxTpooAezGbAErcU).
At the start of episode 7 Tanjiro tries to slash Hantengu’s neck only to be stopped with the appearance of another demon (there’s more? How many emotions does this guy have?). This demon represents Hantengu’s Hatred which is a combination of Anger, Joy, Sadness and Pleasure. Out of all the demons so far this one is by far the strongest and considers them the villains in this story (everyone is the hero or victim in their own story). Tanjiro steels his nerves and prepares to fight for his life (scene here: https://youtu.be/LQvIa-wm3QA?si=h6IQ68EOFBsmW2Rh). In the second half, we return to Muichiro who is still trapped in the water. Gyokko enters Hagenezuka’s shed where he’s so focused on crafting his sword that he doesn’t even notice Gyokko enter the shed. Hell, even when Gyokko attacks him his focus isn’t broken (man, I wish I had that level of concentration). Gyokko’s attacks do reveal Hagenezuka’s face (oh my God he’s- (Mira): Handsome!). Gyokko is pissed by Hagenezuka’s focus and could easily kill him but his pride as an artist won’t let him do it until he’s broken his focus. With the help of Kotetsu, Muichiro is able to break out of his water prison and he remembers his dad thanks to Tanjiro because they have the same eyes.
Episode 8 starts by showing us the backstory of Muichiro. He lived with his parents where his dad was a woodcutter and his mom a caretaker. Tragedy would unfortunately strike when his mom died of sickness and his dad died while trying to retrieve the herbs to treat said sickness (all this on the same day). This left Muichiro and his twin brother Yuichiro all alone. If you can believe it Yuichiro was the harsh one while Muichiro was the kind one (how the times change). Yuichiro treated Muichiro harshly as well as anyone who came by (the world was harsh to him so why should he be nice to the world?) including Amane the wife of the master. Amane told them about their ancestry and invited them to become demon slayers which Muichiro was all for, but Yuichiro wasn’t interested and shooed Amane away whenever she came by. One night, a demon attacked the two and Muichiro blacked out after his brother lost his arm. When he regained consciousness he stood over the body of a demon that he had mutilated with an axe (Good God. It’s the nice ones who are the most dangerous). The sun finished off the demon and when Muichiro returned to Yuichiro he was slowly dying. On his last breath (he cursed Zoidberg~) he prayed to Buddha or whatever god was listening asking them to protect his brother and let him live (scene here: https://youtu.be/crgHVIAP1qI?si=eTyK5HvsEmiL3jZI). Muichiro would get saved by Amane and survived but the near-death experience caused him to lose his memories. Muichiro would engross himself in training and become emotionless (however, his hard work would lead him to be the youngest hashira so. . .win?). Returning to the present, Muichiro gets his second wind and fights against Gyokko where he manages to cut his neck slightly (he’s catching up to him).
Episodes 9-11
In the first half of episode 9 Muichiro and Gyokko continue to fight with Muichiro getting under Gyokko’s skin (or in this case vase). Gyokko finally shows his true form which is a which is a Raja Naga (or a merman if you want something more common). In this form, Gyokko is stronger and faster but that’s not enough to protect him from Muichiro who easily decapitates him and then slashes his head into tiny pieces (wow, you really are a prodigy. You made that look so easy. Scene here: https://youtu.be/MnVvDbIspBo?si=FSdhhYFegnHKvKH0). In the second half we return to Tanjiro and the others fighting against a fused version of the emotions (there seems to be a lot of that going on in this arc). They’re outmatched and exhausted but continue to fight. At one point Tanjiro gets his eardrums busted (ohh~ that sounds so painful. Just imagining it sends a shiver down my spine) and almost got crushed by one of the dragonheads. Thankfully, Mitsuri arrives and saves him (saved by the power of love~).
So just like last episode focused mostly on Muichiro, we focus on Mitsuri this episode and learn about her past. As a child Mitsuri wasn’t like the other girls. She was stronger than the boys and could eat like no tomorrow (and still look good). Naturally, boys were turned off by this. Even her abnormal hair color was considered a turn-off for them (okay, I know it’s a different country and time but are these people out of their damn mind? This is the jackpot! In today’s culture, Mitsuri would be a huge catch for anyone. She’s strong, cute, and has a big appetite. What’s not to love about her?). After getting turned down by a potential marriage partner, Mitsuri tried to hide her true self. She pretended to act weak, held back from eating, and even dyed her hair black. While this helped her appear more appealing to guys she quickly realized this wasn’t her and was afraid that she would have to go her whole life with this façade. Thankfully, she didn’t go through with the marriage (to hell with those shallow men). She joined the Demon Slayer Corp., became a hashira, and found people who would accept her for who she really is. Returning to the fight, Mitsuri holds her own against the merged demon until she gets hit hard with a sound attack. Luckily, Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya save her and form a plan to defeat the demon (scene here: https://youtu.be/Y603KUuGJMg?si=V5-gBmrWLWOCzHhM). Tanjiro spotted Hantengu and pursues him with Nezuko and Genya while Mitsuri keeps the merged demon occupied (scene here: https://youtu.be/5e7kYsk2PAg?si=WrnzphGSZ6KNSB8I).
In the final episode we get a special one-hour presentation. We start with Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya chasing after Hantengu but just aren’t fast enough to catch him (he runs fast for a sniveling coward). In order to catch him, Tanjiro combines Sun and Lightning breathing into one (nice! Didn’t know you could combine two breathing techniques) and drives his sword into his tiny neck. When Tanjiro is halfway through, Hantengu hulks up and grows big (oh come on~! You cannot have this many powers). He starts to strangle Tanjiro and the two fall off a cliff where Hantengu loses his arms thanks to Nezuko’s flames and needs to eat humans in order to regenerate. He spots some humans in the distance and runs after them with Tanjiro getting back up as well but without a sword he won’t be much help. Luckily, Muichiro throws him the sword Hagenezuka was working on (without his permission. I can only imagine the struggle they had pulling that sword away from Hagenezuka). With this sword (please don’t break this one. I am 100% confident Hangenezuka will kill you on the spot) Tanjiro manages to decapitate Hantengu (yes! That’s two upper moons. Make that kid a hashira) but his body is still moving (these upper moons are just built differently). It turns out Tanjiro cut off the wrong head. The main head is still on the body and is still going after the blacksmiths. Tanjiro gets ready to save them, but daybreak arrives and Nezuko is out in the open. Tanjiro uses his body as a shield to protect her from the sunlight and now has to make a choice, save the blacksmiths and lose his sister or do the opposite (I mean it’s not a tough choice. Which one has more popularity power?). Tanjiro can’t decide on what to do, so Nezuko makes the choice for him. She kicks him off exposing herself to the sun telling Tanjiro to save the others. With tears in his eyes, Tanjiro does what needs to be done and makes it to Hantengu where he finds the real head and this time he’s not going to miss. As Hantengu’s life flashes before his eyes we see how even as a human he was a cowardly man who refused to take responsibility for his actions and blamed others for his wrongdoings. He stole and murdered numerous people saying that it was the fault of his hands and not himself (don’t hate the person, hate the crime as they say. Personally, I say hate the crime and punish the person). When he was sentenced to death, Muzan appeared before him and turned him into a demon. Hantengu escaped but the lord who sentenced him to death said that he would one day pay for his sins (maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year, but someday he’ll have to atone. Scene here: https://youtu.be/JXxo8_fp42c?si=L9a4_qMzzyaNm5Dc). Back to the present, Tanjiro decapitates Hantengu (for real this time) and his body burns to ashes in the sunlight (scene here: https://youtu.be/Bo9X5VLnIBU?si=M9NjWcpBgC-IJFo9). Tanjiro won but with his sister surely dead how can he be happy? Because she’s not dead. In what I can only describe as a miracle, Nezuko somehow turned back into a human and was able to save herself. She’s still got demon blood within her but can withstand the sunlight (scenes here: https://youtu.be/uXM1hrYYVCU?si=6OeoSpAVFxlAdig1 and https://youtu.be/FeDYK9d4QxE?si=Zf-o11VhqQzJ8UfD). This is big news and Muzan is overjoyed when he senses this because this is what he’s been waiting for. Muzan has been turning others into demons in the hopes of finding what he calls the chosen demon. The one who can withstand the sunlight and not be harmed. Nezuko is that chosen demon and now he wants to devour her in order to gain her resistance to the sun (now some have said this goal is too simple for the main villain but it makes sense. Demons can’t live in the sunlight. Imagine the kind of damage they could do if the sun didn’t stop them. It’s a simple goal but it’s an effective one that if Muzan was able to accomplish could result in a lot of damage). We actually do get to see Muzan’s past where we see he was born during the Heian era (holy shit. Do you think he knew Masakado, Yoshitune and Musashi?) where he had a sickly body and supposedly wouldn’t live to see 21. His doctor would give him medicine which Muzan felt wasn’t working and that his doctor was inept. No longer able to stand it (https://youtu.be/h97kbv4mbsc) he kills his doctor (and surprisingly doesn’t get arrested for it. Must have had pretty lenient laws during the Heian era), but in a cruel twist of fate it turns out the doctor’s medicine was working. Muzan’s body became stronger, healthier, and leaner (as well as more Michael Jackson). The only downsides were he craved human flesh and couldn’t go out into the sun or he would die (are you sure you’re a demon and not a vampire? Because I’m fine with either one). Muzan tried to recreate the doctor’s medicine in the hopes of beating the sun, but he was missing the one main component, the blue spider lily flower. Muzan searched all of Japan and even created other demons to find the lily but came up short each time (this is why hindsight is 20/20). So, he moved on to plan B, finding a body to survive in the sunlight (and this plan worked. Took many years but the long game paid off). Returning to Tanjiro, he gets ready to leave the village and receives a hero’s farewell with everyone in the village thanking him (I do hope they relocate the village).
Final Thoughts
And that was season 3 of Kimestu no Yaiba and. . .it’s still awesome. While I was sad Zenitsu and Inosuke were out of this arc, they managed to find good replacements for Tanjiro to work with and this arc showed off Tanjiro’s growth as a demon slayer. Muichiro and Mitsuri sub-in for Zenitsu and Inosuke and serve as the hashiras this season. These two are good, I do like Uzai more but these two more than earn their place as some of my favorite characters in the series and I like how their personalities are more subtle and grounded. Out of the two, Muichiro got the most time to shine and I did like his story. He’s not mean or rude on purpose, he just doesn’t know how to interact with others. His mind is clouded like a fog he doesn’t know where he’s going or what he’s doing, but his interactions with Tanjiro help him remember who he is and when we get to know the real him you just know that him and Tanjiro are going to be the best of friends. Mitsuri comes late in the arc but her earlier interactions with Nezuko are cute and I did like her swordplay. I think it’s cool that the female characters have the more unique and interesting swords than the others. Some of the other characters that stand out this season are Genya and Kotetsu. It’s nice to see his relation to Sanemi and it was cool to see him using a gun instead of sword to fight demons. I also like how he too has demon powers. While they don’t go into much depth about it (with everything going on I understand) I like how they leave it up to the audience to piece together that he’s got a condition similar to Nezuko just not as bad as hers. Seeing him and Tanjiro work with each other was good and the author expanding on his personality and making him more than just a short-tempered slayer with anger issues was nice and makes me become more invested in him and his interactions with Tanjiro. I did like how Kotetsu wasn’t the annoying brat. Usually, child characters are annoying and get in the way, but he’s one of the better-written child characters I’ve seen in a shonen story. He may not have that many scenes but every scene he has is passable.
The upper moons we see in this arc are decent. While they’re not bad they’re not as good as Gyutaro and Daki in my opinion. Gyokko’s design was cool and he gave Muichiro some trouble, but went down pretty easily. I was also bummed we didn’t get to learn about his backstory. Hantengu was the more interesting of the two and was a very troublesome opponent. His backstory makes you feel no pity for him. He shows us the dangers of constantly playing the victim and never taking responsibility for your actions and accepting the consequences. He’s a cautionary tale that we need to avoid making in our own lives. Learning about Muzan’s past was great and finding out what his ultimate goal was a little predictable but makes sense. I think we all had an idea that he was researching for ways to beat the sun and the fact that Nezuko proved his theory was right makes him an even bigger threat if he manages to get his hands on her. Speaking of Nezuko, seeing her willing to sacrifice herself in order to save others at the end was noble. Really showing just how similar she and Tanjiro are. The reveal of her not only surviving the sunlight but returning to her human form and being able to speak actually brought a tear to my eye. I was so happy for her.
Once again the animation is spectacular to look at here. The use of CGI blended in nicely with the animation and Tanjiro’s Sun Breathing will always be awesome to see. As far as the fights go, they were good. They’re not as intense as last season but visually they look great. The angles, the effects, the closeups, and the way they’re shot. It’s the perfect representation of the manga. In fact, it might be better than the manga.
Final Score
The final score for Demon Slayer S3 is an 8.5/10 with a must-watch stamp of approval. Slightly lower than the last season, but still a great season that continues to elevate this series and become the standard bearer for anime in terms of animation. It’s pretty amazing that the next season is coming out next month. I was expecting it to come out in 2025, but I’m excited to see what happens next in this series. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.