Apologies for the lateness of this one, changes to my work patterns have made finding times to write a little more difficult these past few weeks.
The mini-training arc continues, and Tanjrio ruins the sleep schedule of three young girls in order to do it. It’s a good thing they’re falling over one another to help him out. This might be the slowest pace episode of the entire series so far, which mostly deals with telling the backstory of Shinobu’s apprentice; Kanao.
It wasn’t until after the episode was over that I found myself wondering why this episode dedicated so much time to telling the story of this character who, before now, had hardly been featured. I mean, we still don’t really know Inosuke’s backstory yet outside of some quick, hinting flashes.
I guess, in a show where every demon gets a tragic, in depth flashback sequence, I’d make sense for all of our minor characters to get them also. Although Kanao has been inconsequential enough thus far that I’m curious as to why she gets this episode dedicated to her.
The flashback also acts to give us some further insight into Shinobu’s past, as well as seeing the elder sister whose death she is still very hung up on. Younger, angry face Shinobu is pretty cute though to be fair, and seems more like some genuine insight into her real personality.
Her elder sister on the other hand seems like a more genuine example of the personality that present day Shinobu is trying to emulate. Which kind of makes her weird, kind of creepy forced cheerfulness make sense now. It is all an act in the name of her sister, which was revealed in the previous episode.
Anyway, the sisters rescue a young Kanao from a slave trader. Abused to the point where she lost all human emotion, Kanao is almost like a robot, only able to make decisions for herself with the aid of a coin given to her by the elder sister. Today, she is a highly efficient and powerful demon slayer, but that’s come at the cost of her being able even speak to others without creeping them the hell out.
Meanwhile, in the present, Shinobu super obviously manipulates Zenitsu and Inosuke into getting their shit together enough for them to start emulating Tanjrio’s training. Which is pretty funny to be honest. Tanjrio himself, with the help of the three young apprentices, seems to be getting the constant breathing techniques down, even when sleeping.
So much so that he is able to overcome the first two measuring bars laid down before him in the previous episode; destroying the smaller gourd with his lung power, and being able to outdo Kanao in the training exercises finally. Only the super big gourd left to blow before his training arc is complete.
Also, Tanjiro and Inosuke get new blades delivered, pissing off the forge masters in their own special ways, one far more egregiously than the other. Seriously, why does Inosuke need to knock chunks out of his swords like that…
Outside of this, we get Tanjrio starting to try and investigate the fire breathing techniques he subconsciously used in his battle against Rui. We also see Kanao having some kind of feeling towards Tanjrio. It’s difficult to tell if it is a feeling with her though, it could be indigestion… In all seriousness though, I’d imagine her observations of the lad so far will most likely cause her to find some kind of humanity going forward.
I’ll be posting the series finale almost right after this one. I’m pretty behind.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 