Someone’s having themselves a real good time, but I don’t think it’s any of out Demon Slayers. It’s Daki who runs this town and with a bunch of slayers investigating her, it’s only a matter of time before they start to cross paths. The question is, are any of them strong enough to take her down?
The episode opens with Tanjiro closing up his investigation at Tokito House, having found no trace of either Uzui’s wife or any foul play that could explain her disappearance. He overhears the Oiran of the house talking to two young girls with a warm smile on his face. This boy really does just want to be a family man doesn’t he.
Shame his wholesome little vacation is about to come to an abrupt end.
The next day, Tanjiro and Inosuke are having a meeting on a nearby rooftop to discuss their findings, while Inosuke describes, quite badly, the experience he had chasing the demon through the walls the might before. It’s at this point that ninja Uzui shows up in a flash without anybody noticing her was even there.
He announces that Zenitsu has fallen out of contact and in the first bout of seriousness we’ve seen from him apologises to the two other slayers. He seems to have come to the conclusion that they’re likely dealing with an Upper Rank demon and he dismisses them, telling them there is no shame in self preservation.
Obviously, that means very little to Tanjiro and Inosuke who refuse to give up on their friend of the mission. Who start to discuss rank. This is one of those funny writing quirks in Demon Slayer I always kind of find amusing, where Koyoharu Gotouge will randomly start dropping some lore surrounding this world and how it functions out of nowhere. Usually coming from the least likely of characters.
This time it’s Inosuke who puts on his serious voice and starts breaking down the ranking system in the Slayer Corps, to a baffled looking Tanjiro. At least we’re getting some idea of how our main characters stack up within the hierarchy of the corps. They’re Kanoe apparently, the forth from the bottom of the ten ranks within the order. Not including the Hashira.
Of course, their rank doesn’t equate to their actual strength as slayers in a real fight. One Punch Man has taught us that very clearly. Considering that our trio have always been seen to be the strongest slayers in the room with the exception of the Hashira whenever it comes up. I’m guessing they’re probably much more capable than their rank would suggest. Meaning this explanation is probably pretty unnecessary in the grand scheme of things.
Between the two of them, Tanjiro comes to the conclusion that the Demon must be posing as one of the workers within the houses of the district. There’s no other way they could operate for so long without causing a panic otherwise. Additionally, they must have some way of moving between houses without going outside. Maybe using secret passageways or something.
Plus, the lack of any evidence on the scene leads him to believe, hopefully I think, that the victims all still remain alive. Killing while maintaining a cover would be a real hassle.
Cut to… Tonight, the night were things are decidedly going to start kicking off. Tanjiro meets Koinatsu Oiran at his own house to bid farewell and commit himself to solving the disappearances for her. Much to his own shock, the Oiran saw right through his disguise and knew he was a guy right away. Which is a testament to how sweet of a person she is that she assumed he had a good reason outside of being some creep who wanted to spy on a bunch women while getting paid for it.
No sooner does Tanjiro leave this incredibly sweet and defenceless woman alone, then Daki shows up to gobble her up, like two ships passing in the night, they seem blissfully unaware of one another and how close they came to meeting. Not that it matters, Tanjiro’s super sense of smell stops him in his tracks and leads him to walking right into Daki devouring Koinatsu whole.
Not all messy-like, but absorbing her into her sashes for, what I assume to be, later digestion. Like a Venus Fly Trap or something.
Before we see that conflict though, we need to catch up with what Inosuke and Uzui are doing. Inosuke is stressing at Tanjiro’s tardiness and ends up losing patience, launching himself into ceiling and calling for his equipment. Which is brought to him by a collection of super muscular mice… Okay, wow. I can’t say I was either ready or ever expecting this visual, but it’s the one we got and the one I have to deal with.
Honestly, it feels both out of tone for the series and the visual style we’ve had so far. There are talking crows, yeah, but these things look like they fell out of another anime entirely. God, I hope they don’t become a reoccurring thing…
Meanwhile, Uzui has snuck into House Kyogoku to investigate the most recent disappearance of Zenitsu before the trail can get cold. He interrogates the head of the house, holding a kunai to his throat and questioning the man about who he may suspect within the house could be behind these disappearances. Thanks to a prior scene where we sae the man really at wits end at all the people going missing within his house, it doesn’t take much for him to name Warabihime Oiran as the person causing all his grief.
Leading us all back to the confrontation between Daki and Tanjiro. Upon recognising her as the Upper Six Demon from her eyes, Tanjiro freezes up. His las encounter with a demon of this class ended up with his self appointed mentor Rengoku dead, he shows he’s still human by freezing up as she strikes. Luckily, the blow isn’t anywhere near as fatal as any of the strikes of Azaku.
Tanjiro steels himself, getting his nerve back and demanding more of himself. Not content to wait for help, he announces he needs to take her down on his own… A task he’s no doubt going to fail considering we still need to see Uzui fight… and the fact that this arc has only been four episodes long so far.
The pair have a brief, but impressive areal duel where Daki manipulates her sashes in an almost Doctor Octopus-like fashion. Sorry about the comparison, but I have Spider-Man on the mind. Although Tanjiro slicing through them doesn’t seem to bother her a little, as she presses the attack. He’s holding his own for now, but I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface of what this demon is capable of.
Also, I don’t feel like I can end this post without commenting on Daki’s outfit… I mean, it’s eye popping to say the least. In the past, I’ve been critical of shows that lean into fan service when it doesn’t feel necessary. This show though, it never feels like it’s leering at her as fan service. Sure, she’s not wearing much, but the camera and the characters look upon her no different than they did Azaka or Enmu.
Plus, the outfit kind of feels justified considering her role and where the fight is taking place. If she’d been the one to show up at the end of the Mugen Train arc, then I would have raised concerns. It probably is fan service on some level, but it’s not the kind that bothers me even remotely.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 
I loved it when Inosuke started slapping Tanjiro that was funny. I absolutely died of laughter when Inosuke’s head started a fight with the other dude who called him a boar head when they were talking about the rankings.
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I read some comments saying that the ranking thing never comes up again in the manga. It kind of felt a little unnecessary in this style of anime to be honest, as much as I usually do love things being organised into ranks.
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