(CR) Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc

[monir]

Watching this one episode at a time is a torture.

[belatkuro]

Tomokazu Seki's voice is too deep to pass off for young Sanemi. They could've gotten a different voice actor for the young version. Okamoto did well for young Genya though.

[WingedAccelerator]

I don't think Sanemi's voice was that deep. It was pretty much the teenage Pucci voice. We don't know when the flashback took place in time. Sanemi is 21 in the present, Gen'ya is 16. These 5 years of difference between them should work with their adjusted ages and voices.

Originally Posted by Kanon

No historical figures or political plot either. I haven't read the manga so maybe it could come later. I've been wondering if the government is aware of the existence of demons and secretly backing the Demon Slayer Corps. It would explain why they don't seem to have financial trouble despite supporting hundreds of soldiers.

The government doesn't officially recognize the Demon Killing Corps, but I think this indirectly means the government knows what must be known. It's probably for the better that they won't advertise the existence of demons, the Demon Killing Corps, or openly enter the picture. That's like asking to be terminated on the spot. The same reason why the Swordsmiths' Village shouldn't station a Pillar there. It would just draw attention to the place.

As for the funds, the Demon Killing Corps existed for centuries or so, therefore they could have secured unreal amounts of money already, which they carefully use in the present.

[Kanon]

Now I get why Sanemi couldn't accept that Nezuko was harmless. That would mean accepting he didn't have to kill his mom or that his mom didn't love her children enough to remain sane. Of course we know it's more complicated than that, although what makes Nezuko special is still a mystery.

Hated that cliffhanger, but since they ended the episode right when he was about to cut Upper 4's neck, you just know it's not going to work. Besides, Mitsuri needs to join the fight.

[Mad Pierrot]

They pull that Sonic the Hedgehog movie trope:

"Yes. That's me. You might be wondering how I got here. It all started when"

[Kanon]

One thing I wish they'd fix about this show are the pacing issues that have been present since the first season. It's so slow.

[GDB]

I feel like it wasn't THAT bad until this season. In other seasons, they'd flesh out fights or the like so it didn't feel bad. This episode was the epitome of like... 90s long running anime, but this isn't a long running anime. First like 15 minutes had 3 minutes of actual content.

[belatkuro]

Sugiyama Noriaki and even Yamadera Kouichi. Still with the stellar voice cast even for villains and minor characters. Still plenty of flashbacks to happen with the other Hashiras and even the Upper Moons given that Daki and GyokkoGyuutaro got some flashbacks too so any important characters in their lives will definitely have a good VA to them.

EDIT: Gyuutaro, not Gyokko. Two Upper Moons starting with G's can confuse you.

[frubam]

Originally Posted by Kanon

One thing I wish they'd fix about this show are the pacing issues that have been present since the first season. It's so slow.

Not that I didn't notice it before, but today it particularly bothered me. All the useless talking from the Hate demon about who's to blame, and the heroes getting frozen from the "pressure" bs like it was Bleach or something was f'kng annoying. Also Tanjirou sandbagging again(using Sun form on the emotion demons, but not using it to deal the supposed final blow on main one). Tokito felt drawn out too. Man has been in that water prison for 3 eps like he was Kakashi or something.

I was gonna say "how would blowing air into the prison allow him to escape", since I always thought exhalation of air was mostly CO2, but came to find out that there's still a lot of oxygen in exhaled air. At least he out of there now and has renewed focus.

Also I'd like to take note on how Muzan's comment about allowing their humanity to hinder them from the most efficient actions to get the job done are rearing his head here. Making Haganezuka forget about the sword is prob gonna be impossible and ultimately will be a fooish decision that comes to bite him in the arse later, but I am curious to what methods Gyokko will come up with to deter him(in the short time before Tokito gets to him).

[Estzero1]

This episode always would have been a problem pacingwise, since it couldn't structured differently. The rest should flow better.

[MCAL]

Originally Posted by belatkuro

Sugiyama Noriaki and even Yamadera Kouichi.

Give Kimetsu this. They certainly don't skimp on the seiyuu, that's for damn true.

[Master_Yoma]

What is Hantengu a russian nesting doll every time some kind of trouble happen another one pops up

Well got to see Haganezuka face

[Cloudedmind]

Man, I just love when shows give us a bunch of exposition about something we're literally watching happen on screen.

[WingedAccelerator]

Slow pacing can be saved with good directing, but this was a bad showcase overall.

Outside of few instances in the past seasons, I'm more or less fine with the pacing decisions. But this time, or rather this season, I noticed that the anime unnecessarily makes the characters repeat some of the manga dialogue in short periods of time, so the padding becomes glaringly obvious.

In Episode 3 for example, only once does Tanjirou assume in the manga that simultaneous behading could be the key to defeating the demons. The anime instead make him rush at Sekido with that intention, only to repeat the assumption 45 seconds later.

Or when he wants to go back to Nezuko and Gen'ya. Pretty sure the anime repeated the intention more than once.

Then the scene where Gyokko watches Tokitou struggling for a minute. Anime original. Same with the conversation between Tanjirou and the fused demon, but only the parts after Tanjirou claimed he would be the one to behead the demon.

Easiest solution to a lot of these things would have been to pad the training with the mechanical doll out, or just have 10 episodes instead of 11 if it would flow better.

[Mad Pierrot]

Yeah, the pacing seems to be an obvious attempt from the director and producer to exploit the original manga an to sell all hotcakes. Basically, we have five episodes left neverending fights until the next arc kicks and the cycle starts again with another subtitle

[Estzero1]

Mhm, not sure if reducing the episode count would have helped tbh. While your statements were true, they were not really bothering that much besides this episode, because of its slowness, but what would have been a solution to this. If they had not padded some stuff, they had to end the episode within the flashback, which sounds like a stupid idea to begin with.

[Kanon]

Still slow, but I enjoyed the episode. I thought Yuichiro narrating while Muichiro was fighting was super weird and confusing though, especially since we were seeing things from his POV all of a sudden. I thought there'd be a twist and Yuichiro would actually turn out to be Muichiro but that would make no sense.

[GDB]

Reminder that this series loves to play with the idea that spirits of your loved ones watch over you from the other side until you pass as well. Or sometimes, just random spirits loosely related (the previous Water breath users who died).

[Master_Yoma]

Another back story this time Tokitou and his father died in vain just trying to get herbs in a rain storm

Haganezuka really got that concentration thrown and still working

[belatkuro]

Ono Atsushi for Muichiro's previous swordsmith and even Numakura Manami when I checked ANN for Muichiro's mother. More great casting even for a very minor character who was in deathbed and only said 1 line.

We're seeing some excellent animation again from that brief part vs Gyokko. Next episode should be peak again.

Wonder if the message and title of the episode will get conveyed properly to English viewers since it's hard to convey that from Japanese. 無一郎 is Muichiro where 無 is Mu. Yuichiro said that the Mu of Muichiro stands for the Mu in 無能(munou, incompetence) and 無意味(muimi, meaningless). Then in the end, Yuichiro said it's the Mu in 無限(mugen, infinity), meaning Muichiro has infinite possibilities in him.