Following up one of my favourite seasons of television ever, Demon Slayer: The Swordsmith Village Arc had big shoes to fill - and with producer Ufotable's promises that this season was going to be something unlike anything anyone had seen before, I was cautiously optimistic that there was a chance that they would deliver.
Unfortunately, this did not happen.
Before I go any further in this review, I'm obligated to point out that whilst this season was most definitely disappointing and far below the standard that the previous Entertainment District Arc had set, it is by no means a bad show. As a part of any other series, the Swordsmith Village Arc would no doubt be considered a modern classic, particularly in terms of production. Sadly, it is a part of Demon Slayer, a series I have come to hold to a certain standard in terms of quality; a standard that this season does not meet.
There are, of course, elements that I liked here; the overall production value - while a little lackluster in comparison to previous seasons, in my opinion - is excellent, newcomers Mitsuri and Genya are incredibly fun, and the lack of Zenitsu and Inosuke as side characters is a refreshing twist, though by the end I did feel myself missing their antics to some extent.
Beyond those positives, the season is... A mess, quite frankly. The other Hashira, Muichiro, is uninteresting, the villains are laughably and insultingly weak, and many of the editing decisions are quite frankly baffling. (Like seriously, what was that scene with Akaza and Kokushibou?)
Out of all of the problems this show suffers from, however, there is one factor which is inarguably the worst of them all: Pacing. Every single problem the Swordsmith Village Arc has is related to its god-awful pacing - the show drags, boring the audince to pieces episode by episode, whilst also being so fast-paced that there is never weight to any of the actions; it's pretty impressive, all things considered, that they managed to screw it up this badly.
The prime example of this relates to both Muichiro and our 'threats' for the season, Gyokko and Hantengu. Both villains, particularly Gyokko, have very cool concepts to begin with (emphasis on 'begin with', I seriously couldn't believe my eyes when I witnessed Gyokko reveal his ultimate power to be... sardines?) and feel menacing throughout early episodes. Hantengu in particular makes short work of Muichiro, who we know is very powerful thanks to his role as a Hashira, and mere moments later he is then trapped by Gyokko - so far, so good. Tanjiro and the gang are then cornered, and the other Hashira Mitsuri is distracted with helping the swordsmiths of the village.
At this point, I was pretty happy with the way things were going - it was a decent setup for what was to come, I thought, and I was excited to watch the next one or two episodes show Muichiro escape while Tanjiro and the others defend themselves until Mitsuri arrive for backup.
The situation I just described ends up being the status quo for the next five episodes out of an eleven episode season.
So by the time we eventually moved past this situation, I was no longer particularly invested in the plot - and any interest I did still have completely disappeared as Muichiro effortlessly cut off Gyokko's head within his first real episode out of his stupid water prison.
Upper Moon Five, defeated by one heavily injured person with - and this part is not me exaggerating, this is spelled out explicitly in the show - little effort at all.
So, Gyokko is dead and so is any notion that the previous season's Gyutarou was of any real threat - but maybe the conflict with Hantengu is more satisfying?
Hantengu spends half of the hour-long season finale chasing three defenceless civilians around as Tanjiro is busy doing other things. We do not even get to see Mitsuri fight his other body in that episode, which, I will point out, is an amazing-looking demon who controls giant dragon heads. Instead, I will remind you, we watch his main body, who looks like a random creepy old man, chase around a few random people.
And then he dies while side characters are making jokes in the background, completely undercutting any sliver of investment I might have had in this climax - if the show treats the defeat of the main villain with no respect, opting to make unfunny jokes over it like it's an MCU movie, then I sure as hell don't care either.
In conclusion, this season disappointed me immensely; and I hope to god that the following seasons do not play out like this one.