Considering Tanjiro is over here, having the fight of his life, you’d have thought this episode might have focused on that more. Not that I’m complaining or anything, but this one ends up jumping around a lot more than I was expecting considering how that last one ended.
This episode does open with Tanjiro’s continue battle with Daki. A battle that paints him as outmatched in the early stages. His all new sword is getting nicks and dulled over the course of the fight. Daki mocks the skills of the sword-smith that made it, but Tanjiro knows better.
He realises it’s him that’s the problem. Thinking back at his first trainer Sakonji Urokodaki and Water Hashira Tomioka, he realises his body simply isn’t suited to the Water Breathing style, and that he’ll never be able to use is as expertly as they do. Which is kind of strange considering how powerful he seemed in the early stages of the series, chopping off demon heads one after another.
I suppose it’s through finally experiencing the Hinokami Kagura that he realises there is something out there in the Sun Breathing Style that truly matches his body and soul… Problem is, Tanj’s body is still too baby to use it for more than a few swings at a time before it overwhelms him and messes him up.
Tanjiro is nothing if not a roiling ball of “do or die” though, and decides to assault the upper demon using his hardly understood style. It helps him turn the fight around slightly, but the backlash from the technique leaves him open to counter strikes. Plus, he’s not good enough using it yet for it to be enough to keep up with Daki’s speed.
I like that Tanjiro’s mind goes to Rengoku throughout the fight, quoting his mantra and fiery determination. Even though their meeting was only brief, I like that Rengoku has taken the position of some kind of hero in the younger slayer’s mind. It’s like I said more than once while I was reviewing the episodes; Rengoku was the best boy to Tanjiro’s good boy. So it only makes sense.
And that’s kind of where we end things with Tanjiro.
Cutting to some time earlier, we go to Uzui, who is darting across rooftops in the darkened part of the district. Though sheer dumb luck he finds Hinatsuru; one of his three wives as he passes by her in a window. She’s wrapped up I sashes like all of Daki’s other victims, the only reason she hasn’t been taken away seemingly because she already poisoned herself as an excuse to leave the house.
Uzui, for all his showboating and ego, he does seem to genuinely seem relieved to find Hinatsuru alive and they do have a tender moment before he orders her away after the antidote he gave her starts working.
Being very Ninja, Uzui is able to dart around and quickly detect the sounds of fighting underground. Finally unsheathing his duel, chained together cleavers and striking the ground with massive force. Which leads us to another flash back that shows us how we got to this point.
Inosuke is back to his usual self, all boared up and running a rampage through one of the houses. Ripping holes in walls and floors, he is on the lookout for the secret passageways that allowed the demon to sneak between the houses even during the day. Pretty quickly he finds a small hole in the ground, one too small for the average person, or so you would think.
Reminding us all what a weird and creepy guy Inosuke is when he’s on tilt, he dislocates his own arms and starts wriggling through the tunnels like some kind of turbo worm. Cackling all the time like a mad man.
The exit of which has him finding himself in the Spider’s lair; a large cavern underneath the entertainment district filled with a spider-web-like construction of floral sashes, all filled with the 2d representations of the people Daki has absorbed for later consumption.
While Daki herself is indisposed elsewhere, she has a minion defending the nest. Initially, I thought this flatworm-looking sash demon was an extension of Daki’s consciousness, but after getting a message from her telepathically, that doesn’t seem to be the case. This is such a weird looking character, most demons we’ve seen have been humanoid up until this point, this thing looks like something from Jojo.
While the battle might not seem like a hard one for Inosuke, he is caught out by the cavern being filled with hostages to keep Inosuke distracted and from fighting effectively. Luckily for him, amongst the captured humans are Makio, Suma and a sleeping (an therefore useful) Zenitsu. I guess my hopes of Zenitsu being something more of a focus in this arc is dwindling fast.
All the gang come together when the ceiling over the cavern caves in and Uzui enters the fray in a very flashy fashion. Once again showing happiness at seeing his other two wives alive and well.
It’s actually through Makio that we get a little insight into their shared history. They’re all from the same Ninja clan, a place where they’re all trained from a young age to put their lives on the line for the sake of their missions. However, Uzui and his three wives find themselves broken away from the clan. Whether this is from choice or some unfortunate event (like a demon attack for example) remains a mystery.
In the flashback though Uzui drills into them that they need to forget the drills they learned as ninja, and prioritise themselves over the mission. That they should love themselves and each other rather than be willing to throw their lives away.
Makio seems to still have a strong sense of duty ingrained into her from youth, while Suma is an adorable crybaby with thighs to die for.
Now the gang’s all here, it only seems like a matter of time before we get the flashy collision between Daki and Uzui. Let’s hope this one goes a bit better than the last time a Hashia fought an Upper Six Demon.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 