The third season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is 11 episodes long. The first and last episodes are both double lengths. It is set straight after the big battle of the previous season. The remaining Upper Rank demons are summoned by Muzan and this is the first time we have seen all of them together. It is interesting to finally see their designs and personalities. Naturally, the defeat of Daki and Gyutaro had made Muzan angry, which isn’t a surprise given that he wiped out all the Lower Rank demons when even one of them were defeated. It’s good to see the demon’s perspective and what’s happening there before it jumps back to Tanjiro.
Time passes quickly in the series and Tanjiro, thanks to all the severe injuries that he got, takes a while to recover. This season is known as the Swordsmith Village Arc, and it’s named that because Tanjiro needs a new sword after chipping his old one. He travels to the Swordsmith Village, which is inherently important give that it’s the only place where the weapons that can hurt and kill the demons are forged at. Sadly, Zenitsu and Inosuke are not part of this visit so it can feel a bit quiet and lonely as a result with only Tanjiro and Nezuko.
To compensate, Tanjiro joins up with Kanroji, the Love Hashira, and Tokito, the Mist Hashira. We’ve known for a while now that all the Hashira’s are unusual to a degree, and they’re usually unlikeable on first impressions. Kanroji is fine, being your typical upbeat girl, but Tokito is the complete opposite. He has already shown has an indifferent attitude towards most things and he isn’t aware of (or cares about) his surroundings. However, his personality leaves a lot to be desired. You wouldn’t expect him to be snobbish and cruel, but he is. We’ll just have to give him the benefit of the doubt to see if his background once it is revealed, will change the way we see his character.
While the beginning of the first episode was great as it got straight to the point with the appearances of the Upper Rank demons, the pacing slows down after that. Thankfully, by the third episode, it kicks back into gear and Tanjiro is once again finding himself in a terrible situation. This feels even worse than before given that he is facing more than just one capable demon. With that said, Tanjiro’s opponents this time around don’t have abilities that truly make them stand out or wow you. Their unique abilities feel somewhat like other abilities that we have seen in the past.
The anime skips past a lot of the mundane training that Tanjiro does. The downside of that is that it feels that he suddenly gets power ups in the most desperate of moments. This doesn’t detract from the usual excellent animation during the fights with all the sword effects. Yet the season tends to use the gag scenes where characters a drawn in a simpler, almost Chibi style, a lot more frequently. This can make it seem like an attempt to save some money on the animation for this season.
As per usual, Tanjiro meets characters who are resistant or cold to him at first. He will win them over with his enthusiasm and genuineness. Unfortunately, because we have seen this time and time again, it’s familiar and this seems to be a trend for the season. The structure of the season is the same predictable formula as previous seasons. There will be a relatively slow beginning, then the demons will appear, then a Hashira will arrive and do battle. During the battle, the backstories of the Hashira and the demons are told in flashbacks before the demon is finally taken down. It is a simple formula, and it works, but now that we’re at the third season, it really can’t keep repeating this same formula for much longer before it becomes fully stale.
Despite the demons being Upper Rank, they seem to be more easily defeated compared to Daki and Gyutaro from the previous season. Maybe this is a testament to how much stronger Tanjiro got, or a reflection of how strong the Hashira’s in this season are. But then again, if that is the case, then it just makes it seem like the Flame Hashira Kyojuro and the Sound Hashira Tengen from the previous season, were relatively weaker. Nevertheless, this season’s climactic battles don’t hit the same heights with its emotional punches. It falls short of the impact that the second season’s battle had.
Despite Kanroji being the Love Hashira, and you wondering what the Love breathing techniques would be like, they aren’t that unique. Kanroji has one gimmick with the sword that she uses but the slashes and attacks are just like any other breathing techniques, so that was a bit of a letdown. Kanroji didn’t get a big role here either, especially considering how her part of the battle ends. It just felt that there was a fair amount of hype and build up, but ultimately a lot of characters does not have a large role or played out their potential.
The final episode brings back some of the high emotional punches that the anime is known for, but it doesn’t quite reach the same heights. It is still entertaining but because the villains are nowhere near as compelling as previous demons, that’s where the letdown happens. There is a development that hits hard, even though you know that the plot would not allow it, the way that it explained it away, or the lack thereof, did not make much sense. We know that Nezuko is special but the way that she develops her abilities was not handled very well.
Overall, the third season of Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba is good. It doesn’t surpass the second season, but it reveals a lot in regards to the overall plot. We learn about the origins of the demons as well as the goal of Muzan, which is a huge step towards understanding their motives. The internal hierarchy and how the Upper Ranks interacts was enlightening and we can look forward to them having a larger role now that we know what their designs are. The season had a slow beginning but even when the battles happen, the quality is uneven. This is a by-product of how well the previous fights were, so in this season, it is a case of high expectations, but the end product was not able to meet those, at times, unreasonable expectations.