After complaining about having to wait a week for an episode, now it feels like this one just came along before I even knew it. This last really week has just flown by. Shame it ended on a really depressing note for me personally. But I’m not going to get into my personal stuff on here. And I’ll do my best not to let it impact my review of this episode of Demon Slayer.
While Inosuke’s sudden consciousness has been a boon for Tanjiro and his fight against Enmu, things are still looking pretty grim for team Demon Slayer Corps. The entire train is now a demon, filled with pink, sub-par CGI sludge. These gross tendrils are all working their way to towards the sleeping passengers while Tanjiro, Inosuke and Nezuko can do nothing else but fight them off in vein.
It’s like weird, creepy, floating whilst nude Enmu says; all he has to do is wait for them to all tire themselves out and he’s pretty much won.
If not for one more wrinkle. I said it when I first saw the Mugan Train movie and realised that the demon villain was one who put his prey to sleep: amongst Tanjiro’s crew, there is one person you, in theory, absolutely don’t want to put to sleep. And that’s the one guy who is useless in a fight until he literally falls unconscious from fear.
Thus, when Nezuko gets captured by the tentacles on the train, Zenitsu brings that big Psyduck energy and thunders through the train cutting the demon feelers with more speed and precision that any of his two friends could muster. Good thing Nezuko woke Insouke up first I suppose.
In the past, I’ve always thought the visual representation of Zenitsu’s sword form was always the most impressive to behold. He didn’t use it very often, but when he did, whoa nelly; you were in for a treat. It’s a shame that in this movie of all things that his power doesn’t really get the visual attention it usually does.
Then again, if it did, it might take some off the impact off of just how impressive and powerful Rengoku is. Oh yeah, Rengoku is awake now. He orders Tanjiro and Zenitsu to go to the front of the train and kill the demon themselves while he opts to protect the majority of the passenger cars himself. I would have thought it would make more sense for him to kill the demon himself considering how fast and strong he is.
But he’s the Hashira, I guess he knows what he’s talking about.
Inosuke giving off big Bakugo vibes here as well, getting all tsundere when he and Tanjiro get to the train at the front and is saved by the latter from those gross little hands. Even though they know where the spine is, it’s obvious the pair don’t have the power to be able to cut the bone. Before they even get the chance to try though, Enmu Train activates it’s blood art and dozens of eyes appear all over the pink sludge.
I always thought this was a cool method of attack the first time I saw it and a very good way for Enmu to nearly defeat Tanjiro. The eyes put him to sleep over and over again, giving him no time to react and close his eyes before being put to sleep again. Tanjiro has cut his own neck so many times in quick succession within his own dream that he one time the eyes don’t put him to sleep he doesn’t realise it and almost kills himself for real.
It’s only thanks to a brilliantly stupid stroke of luck that he is saved. Because Inosuke wears that big ugly boar mask over his face, Enmu’s eyes don’t know where to look. And suddenly, Inosuke is immune. It’s a pretty great reveal to be fair and lets Inosuke be the hero, the dumbass.
Not to be outdone though, Tanjiro throws himself in front of a stabbing meant for the boar head boy thanks to one of Enmu’s desperate, sleep-deprived slaves. Their time running out, the duo commit themselves to one big final attack. Dynamically running down the attacking tendrils in a fantastically animated sequence that ends with Inosuke exposing the bone and Tanjro tapping into his what little he understands of his father’s fire dancing style.
Severing the spine and killing Enmu in the process. Hey, good on you Tanjiro, you killed your first 12 moon Demon. Given the power jump Tanjiro and the gang got following the Spider forest, it’s really difficult to gauge just how strong Enmu was in comparison to Rui. He obviously wasn’t the sort of demon used to a straight fight.
The resulting shockwave violently derails the train and kills everyone on board.
Seriously, until I see all those passengers clamouring out of that train, I refuse to believe anyone without anime superpowers could survive that crash. I don’t even remember if we don see anyone climbing out from when I saw the movie. I mean, surely everyone probably survived, or else what was the point. Seriously though, that is a horrendously bad crash.
With the train defeated, it means we’re about to get into the part of the arc I most actually wanted to see again after watching the movie the first time. The battle that follows. Not to spoil it, but this is a fight I’ve thought about a lot.
We’ve actually blitzed through this arc pretty fast. And while that week off did feel like a drag, in the grand scheme of things, it has gone very quickly. Plus, we got that super cool first episode that I still adore now. Bring on next week and let’s see a big old anime fight.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 