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Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4 had a lot of expectations to live up to following the previous spectacle, and while it might not have been as flashy, the episode certainly built the standard of animation and storyboarding this season that it was aiming to establish. Plot-wise, the episode was not as radical as the previous ones, as it mostly focused on the action in the ongoing fights.
Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4 was titled Thank You, Tokito. The direction of the episode was a little inconsistent throughout the entire runtime, but it gifted the viewers with some incredible developments and eye-catching fight scenes. While the episode itself was fast-paced, the plot moved slower than the previous one.
Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4 reveals the weakness of Hantengu’s clones
In the previous episode, Haganezuka took the blade Tanjiro had found inside the Yoriichi Type Zero doll, giving him a replacement blade in the meantime. Hantengu finally appeared before Tanjiro and Muichiro, revealing that he could split himself into four core emotions. Muichiro, meanwhile, was blasted away and found Kotetsu being attacked by a Fish Demon.
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Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4: Muichiro helps Kotetsu
Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4 begins with Muichiro Tokito figuring out that the way to get rid of the Goldfish Demons was to shatter the pots on their backs. After he saved Kotetsu, the boy informed Muichiro that Kanamori and Haganezuka, who was immersed in crafting a sword, were both under attack.
Muichiro had a flashback of Kagaya Ubuyashiki telling him to trust that his memory would return to him. Encouraged, The Mist Pillar heeded Kotetsu’s request, picking up the boy and running to search for Haganezuka.
Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4: Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya vs Karaku, Aizetsu, Sekido, and Urogi
Elsewhere, Tanjiro cut Urogi, the Joy Clone, into two and feared that they would further split into more bodies. However, on the next attack, he figured out that after Hantengu had split into four primal emotions, i.e. Anger, Joy, Sadness/Pathos, and Relaxation/Pleasure, they could not split their abilities further and would only get weaker when cut.
Back in the village, Nezuko went head-to-head with Karaku while Genya and Aizetsu tried to kill each other. While Aizetsu’s demon blood kept healing him, the younger Shinazugawa seemed incapable of dying.
Meanwhile, Nezuko overpowered Karaku by using her Blood Demon Art and taking away his leaf, which she used on the demon.
However, Sekido took the opportunity to stab through her neck. Tanjiro, who had stabbed through Urogi and forced him to fly into the building where the others were fighting, intercepted Sekido.
He used Urogi’s claw to repel Sekido’s lightning and managed to defeat him alongside Nezuko, but Karaku reappeared and collapsed the floor on top of them with the help of his wind. Meanwhile, Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji arrived at the village.
Review of Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4
Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4 is action-based, and as such, provides the animators with a broad scope of employing battle-sakuga and expert camera work.
The fight between Karaku and Nezuko, while brief, draws the most attention in the episode. While the battle between Tanjiro and Urogi occupies a greater part of the episode, it falters in its pacing and does feel simultaneously both stretched out and shortened.
Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4 includes an innovative bit of presentation to explain the Four core emotions of the Japanese Lore. This was absent in the manga and is incredibly helpful for non-Japanese viewers.
The voice acting from the four Clones, especially Kaito Ishikawa as Karaku and Soma Saito as Aizetsu, captures the essence of these four emotions incredibly well. Nobuhiko Okamoto also captured everyone's attention with his performance of Genya.
Plot-wise, Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4 is a fast-paced episode that rearranges a few pages of the manga to bring Mitsuri’s entry earlier in the story.
This is, from a subjective point of view, an improvement on the manga timeline as it keeps Mitsuri relevant in the central action while giving everyone some respite from the Clones vs Tanjiro and Co battle.
The two key developments to take away from the episode are the hints about Muichiro’s past and his amnesia, and the revelation of Hantengu’s weakness.
Some fans will inevitably take issue with the animation of the Fish Demons in the last scene of the episode. However, this episode, and all the ones where Gyokko is involved, have a fair bit of gore as well as canon-typical violence and bloodshed.
The animation of the Fish Demons contributes to bringing out Gyokko’s disturbing sense of aesthetics. The art in the animation was beyond polished, and that might make the purple Fish Demons stand out more than usual.
Final thoughts
Overall, Demon Slayer season 3 episode 4 managed to maintain the quality of the animation that the series and Ufotable as a studio are known for. Viewers can expect the plot to move faster in the upcoming episodes, and for the upper Moon 5 Gyokko to enter the battle proper. The next episode is supposed to be titled Bright Red Sword.
