Demon Slayer – Season 4 Episode 1 Recap & Review

To Defeat Muzan Kibutsuji

In the initial opening scenes of Demon Slayer Season 4 we meet Wind Hashira, Sanemi Shinazugawa, and Serpent Hashira, Obanai Iguro, on a mission to save disappearing villagers. They stumble upon an old castle where they encounter a demon taking a woman. They follow him inside and fight an unending stream of demons where Shinazugawa exclaims, ‘They just keep appearing one after the other, are you demons or cockroaches?’.

Eventually, the entrance to Infinity Castle opens and the chased demon enters with the two Hashira’s on hot pursuit.  However, the moment that the demon enters one of the room and closes the door, the castle disappears and the Hashira’s find themselves on the floor of an ordinary abandoned castle.

Back at the Butterfly Mansion, Kanao returns from her mission and her sister and teacher, Insect Hashira Shinobu Kocho, relays that the demon slayers at the Swordsmith Village had defeated two high ranking demons and have successfully recovered. She adds that Nezuko is now able to withstand sunlight and Muzan Kibutsuji would soon be coming for her. As she leaves for a Hashira meeting, she entrusts Nezuko’s safety into Kanao’s hands.

Meanwhile, Tanjiro is in a state of recovery after being unconscious for a week after the battle. He does seem in good health and spirits, chomping down food like a bat out of hell. Through Tanjiro, we find that the demon Tamayo is studying the changes in Nezuko’s body and he almost keeps himself from disclosing her identity. The three nurses of the Butterfly Mansion: Naho, Kiyo and Sumi are helping Nezuko learn how to talk.

Meanwhile, all the current Hashiras gather for a meeting with the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps, Kagaya Ubuyashiki, however his wife Amane attends the meeting instead, informing the Hashiras about Kagaya’s declining health. She informs them about mysterious marks, similar to the demonic patterns, that appeared on the swordmen of the First Breathing in the Sengoku period, who are almost able to defeat Muzan Kibutsuji.

It is said that the marks manifest in a single person who’s the catalyst in spreading similar marks onto the others. Back at the Swordsmith Village, the catalyst was Tanjiro but since he doesn’t recall the origin of those marks, she asks Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji and Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito to shed light on the conditions which lead to their manifestation.

Kanroji, being her adorable self, and sharing the same braincell with Tanjiro replies, ‘I felt my body go “bam!”. It went “bam!”, and then “pow!”. My heart was pounding like crazy! And my ears were going “ding”! Then “ripple, ripple, ripple!”’. Rest assured; nobody understood her language!

It’s Tokito who informs the group that he could feel his heartbeat abnormally high and his body temperature at 39 degree Celsius. He informs that to reach that state, one has to possibly survive these drastic bodily changes. Amane informs the group something about the marked ones but the episode doesn’t disclose what it is yet other than the shocked expressions of the Haziras. Soon we learn that the Haziras are to conduct trainings for the big fight but Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka leaves the meeting commenting that he’s different from the rest of the Hashiras.

Zenitsu arrives at the Butterfly Mansion to find that Nezuko welcoming him. Zenitsu being Zenitsu overreacts upon Nezuko’s cuteness and only for his fantasies of marrying her being shattered when Nezuko addresses him as Inosuke. It’s later revealed that Inosuke has been coaching Nezuko to remember his name.

In the meantime, an injured Master Swordsmith Haganezuka arrives to deliver Tanjiro’s beautiful and fully completed sword which has the character for “destroy” written on it while being a deeper shade of black. Haganezuka explains that it’s a common practice to have the engraving ‘Destroy the Demons’ on the Hashira blades. Since Tanjiro is using an old sword of one of the most powerful demon slayers in history, before the convention of engraving came about for Hashiras, it has only the word “Destroy” written on it.

During the Hashira meeting, without Tomioka’s presence of course, the Hashira’s decide to train the entire Demon Slayer Corps since they assume that the demons would soon be coming in large numbers to retrieve Nezuko. They also decide to take help from former Hashiras. And with this, the brutal Hashira trainings begin!

While former Hashira Tengen is responsible for increasing the physical stamina of the demon slayers, Tokito is for rapid movement training, Kanroji for flexibility, Iguro for sword skills, Shinazugawa for infinite slashing training and Stone Hashira Himejima’s muscle amplification training.

Meanwhile, Tanjiro receives a letter from the Master. Amane tends to Ubuyashiki, who is almost at the end of his life. Elsewhere, Ubuyashiki’s crow messenger visits Tamayo and invites her over to the Ubuyashiki Mansion to collaborate with Kocho in order to study Nezuko and defeat Muzan Kibutsuji.

The Episode Review

Episode 1 of Demon Slayer Season 4 began with a bang! It has set the stage for the upcoming war between the demons and their slayers. The plot is getting exciting as the Demon Slayer Corps is leaving no stones unturned in their preparation for battle, even inviting a demon Tamayo to collaborate with them.

This episode of the anime presents its characteristic and iconic humour with scenes such as Kanroji’s onomatopoeic description of her experience at the Swordsmith Village to Inosuke drilling his name into Nezuko’s subconcious – “Inosuke, Inosuke, Inosuke” and Nezuko replying, “Imosuke, Imofuke”.

This episode also have in its arsenal some hilarious and iconic dialogues as always is the case with Demon Slayer! For instance, when Zenitsu exclaims that he could die over Nezuko’s cuteness, Aoi replies, “Sure, feel free to die” and in the intial scenes when Shinazugawa is chasing a demon kidnapping a woman, he yells, “Leave that woman and your head here!”

All in all, the opening episode of this fabulously beautiful and popular series have fans like me all worked up and excited for the next episodes! Do let me know your thoughts on the episode as a fellow Demon Slayer fan!