Highlights
- Episode 59 of Demon Slayer mainly focuses on intense training montages led by Muichiro.
- The animation during Tanjiro's rapid movement training scenes stands out as visually impressive.
- Fans might find the current season's slow pacing and lack of major developments frustrating as it builds up to future battles.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Demon Slayer episode 59, "To Bring a Smile to One's Face", available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Previously on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Traini, Tanjiro returned to training fully recovered and ready to go. He trains under Tengen in brutal exercises, but he passes them all with flying colors.
Aside from the scenes where Tanjiro catches up with Tengen's wives about how their lives have been since season three, the season continues to mostly revolve around training and exercising. Will this be the episode where some major story development finally starts to take shape?
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More Training Afoot
The latest episode - titled To Bring a Smile to One's Face - revolves around little more than training montages. This time it is Muichiro who is training the cadets who will fight in the war with Muzen, and he is far from impressed with their progress. As he tells one of the students, "If this had been an actual battle you'd have been killed three times by now." If Tengen was frustrated that a disabled slayer like him could beat the younger generation, then Muichiro simply had no patience for the recruits at all.
As far as he's concerned, death is coming, and they need to get their act together if they are to survive the upcoming war. Tanjiro agrees but still feels that Muichiro can be a bit nicer to everyone involved.
Meanwhile, in the B-Plot
The secondary story for the episode revolves around Tanjiro trying to perfect Muichiro's Rapid Movement Training. These are the scenes that are the most impressive to witness, as the animation is as crisp as fans expect from this show and beautiful to look at.
This is in stark contrast with the main storyline, in which Muichiro is basically swatting his students around like flies while belittling them. If one of the students didn't communicate his fears and insecurities with Uzui, then it could be argued that there would be very little going on in the episode in general. Oh, but don't worry too much viewers: Tanjiro and Muichiro also get a chance to spare, so there is at least that.
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Is This Going Anywhere?
Without sounding too sarcastic or depressing, the current season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has mostly been...boring if we're being frank. If Tanjiro isn't recruiting someone for the war then he is training with old characters for the upcoming war. Most of the characters we know and love are scattered in the wind during these training sessions, and they aren't bouncing off each other in the way they have in the past. While there has been one revelation about a character's past that has been worth learning about, the sad reality is that nothing is really happening. This is all set up for a battle we know won't even happen until next season. Will fans have the patience to do this for a 13-episode season?
Look, we are fully aware that the series promised a lot of training. This probably isn't a surprise to readers of the manga, who already knew in advance the story was going to slow down. However, to be a quarter into the season with virtually no real progress in the story is getting to be frustrating.
The epic battles and mysteries that have made the franchise so captivating are virtually nowhere to be found, and most viewers likely don't need 13 episodes to build up one final battle. Training arcs may be common in shounen anime, but they are also pretty boring when they slow the story down, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is so slow at the moment that it makes it hard for the viewers to stay awake.
Demon Slayer
Based on Koyoharu Gotouge's shonen manga, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is an action anime set in Japan during the early 20th century. Seeking revenge for the murder of his family while also looking to save his sister, Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps as they try to eradicate Demons led by Muzan.
