The third episode of “Kimetsu no Yaiba,” aka “Demon Slayer” season 3, is out, and it is probably an intermediate or breather episode before jumping into the epic action that we will witness in the upcoming episodes. Additionally, this episode shows us the actual powers of Hantengu and raises the stakes for our beloved Demon Slayers.
Spoilers Ahead
What Is Hotaru Up To?
In the previous episode, we saw that while training with Yoriichi type zero, Tanjiro and Kotetsu found a sword’s hilt coming out of the sparring doll. The sword seems old and rusty, and Kotetsu asks Tanjiro to take it. However, both of them are unware of the value of the sword, as it belongs to a legendary swordsman from the past, but telling his name will function as a direct spoiler, so I’d avoid that. Anyway, Kotetsu is adamant about his statement, and he wants Tanjiro to have the sword because, one, he earned it, and two, he came to the swordsmith village looking for a sword.
When Tanjiro pulls out the rusted blade, they feel somewhat discouraged as the sword is too old to be wielded. Both of them break into tears, but an extremely muscular Hotaru emerges from the woods. He mentions that he is there to help and practically snatches the sword out of their hands. Suddenly, Kozo appears behind Haganezuka and tickles his sides, making him temporarily stiff and defenseless. Additionally, he tells the kids about how Hotaru had been secretly training to improve his forging skills in order to make an invincible sword for Tanjiro. Contrary to popular opinion, Tanjiro’s frequent requests for new swords actually made Hotaru happy, despite losing many of his previous clients. Hearing that Tanjiro shares his admiration for Hotaru’s resolve, the weird swordsmith finally regains his consciousness. He declares that he will work hard to fix the old, rusty sword. This shows Hotaru’s commitment to his craft and his unyielding resolve, which he upholds all the time despite being criticized by his customers for his hard-nosed attitude and eccentric character.
The following day, Tanjiro tries to befriend Genya by discussing the progress of Hotaru’s restoration process, but the brat gets angry at his friendliness. And when he shouts at Tanjiro, he sees that the tooth Genya pulled out a few days ago has reappeared. But Tanjiro kept Genya’s broken tooth to himself on that day, and when Tanjiro pulled it out and showed it to him, Shinazugawa got disgusted and kicked Tanjiro out of the room. This foreshadows his regenerating and transformative powers, which will come in handy while fighting with the demons pretty soon. But later that night, a swordsmith gets engulfed by an earthen pot, and it reveals the Upper-Rank Five Gyokko, who comments on the poor taste of the hardworking swordsmith class. Meanwhile, the Upper-Rank Four Hantengu invade the house where Tanjiro is resting. The two Kizukis are here to put an end to the Demon Slayers’ weapon supply line by killing the entire village of swordsmiths.
Is Kozo Really Dead?
Muichiro is looking for Kozo, who is appointed as his new swordsmith, and to learn about his whereabouts, the teen Hashira wakes Tanjiro up. Upon learning everything, he decides to help Muichiro, but the emotionless Hashira is surprised by his selfless behavior. When he asks for the reason, Tanjiro simply tells him that it is in his nature, and he believes that by helping others, he would gain some positive impact in return. Muichiro is even more confused by his reply, as it has a strong sense of familiarity, but he is unable to remember it. This confusion is a reference to the physical and mental trauma that he received previously, which turned the teenager into an emotionless demon-killing machine. We will talk about it when it appears on the show.
In the meantime, Nezuko wakes up from her slumber, and Muichiro can’t help but praise her uniqueness, and he wonders where he has seen her before. But suddenly the demon slayers sense a presence behind them, and they find a crawling Hantengu creeping into their home. Without wasting any time, Muichiro quickly arms himself and uses his fourth form of mist breathing called Shifting Flow Slash, but the upper-ranking demon dodges it and hangs from the ceiling. The demon starts to cry in agony and begs the demon slayers for his life.
Can Tanjiro, Muichiro, and Nezuko defeat the two upper-rankings?
Tanjiro motivates himself to attack the Upper Rank with his Hinokami Kagura: Thrust of Sunflower, and when he tries to dodge it, he gets attacked by Nezuko in her awakened form, and before he could defend himself, Muichiro successfully beheads him. But this reminds Tanjiro of Daki and Gyutaro, and he previously remembers that some of the upper ranks usually don’t die with just a slash in their nape; it is way trickier than a normal demon, so he asks Muichiro not to lose his guard. The head and the body transform into two separate demons, Karaku and Sekido. Muichiro tries to attack Karaku the demon with a fan, whose name literally translates to charred by overheating, thus the fan is his weapon to enrage his heat. And when he throws a blow of air like this toward Muichiro, he flies out of the building. And as Tanjiro goes to attack Seikido, whose name translates to ‘doorway,’ the demon slayer and Nezuko hold off from the rubble and save themselves from flying away.
Seeing this, Seikido tries to use his staff on the kid and hits him with a powerful thunderbolt-like attack, but Genya comes to their rescue, holding the demon at gunpoint. Genya shoots at the demons with his Nichirin gun, and Tanjiro tells him that his efforts are futile against their powers as they genuinely want to be beheaded so they can keep splitting and increase their powers exponentially.
Tanjiro tries to analyze Hantengu’s fighting style, but he gets interrupted by a bird-like demon named Urogi, who captures him and separates him from the rest of the group. While being captured, he stops Nezuko from following him and asks her to assist Genya. Listening to his selfless speeches, the demon attacks him with sonic blasts and severely injures Tanjiro, who comes crashing down from a significant height, but before that, Tanjiro managed to sever one of his legs. However, after coming down, he gets attacked by Aizetsu, another part of Hantengu that is about to attack him by keeping him in a stable position.
Muichiro rushes to the cottage to fight the demons, but when he sees Kotetsu fighting a fish demon, one of the minions of the upper ranks, At first, he decides to ignore him as he is not his immediate priority, but when he remembers Tanjiro’s words, he is compelled to help the little boy. He cuts the arms of the demon, releasing Kotetsu, and takes a stance to protect the little swordsmith brat.
Differences From The Manga
The episode adapts manga chapters 105, 106, and 107, and there are no major visible changes in the episode except in a few scenes where we get to see a personal moment of Genya with his sword promising his brother that he will have to do something, but we will only get to see this in the later half of this season. This scene in particular was not included in the adapted chapters. The rest of the episode is a faithful and beautiful adaptation of the manga chapters.