The last time I talked about ‘Demon Slayer‘ was when the ‘Mugen Train‘ movie came out which was a hot second ago. Since then a whole season has come out and finished and unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to review it so this movie event was the perfect chance to talk about the ‘Entertainment District‘ Arc and that incredible Season 3 Premiere! There will of course be lots of spoilers here, so if you haven’t seen all of Season 2 or seen the Season 3 premiere, make sure to watch those and come back here!

spoilers for ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To The Swordsmith Village-‘ are featured in this review.

The thing with Season 2 is that I was too stubborn not to rewatch the ‘Mugen Train‘ arc so I rewatched that arc in episodic form and that took me ages. By the time I finished it, the entire season had finished. In fact, I had to binge the entire ‘Entertainment District‘ arc the day I bought tickets for this movie event. Season 2 is very different from the first Season and the movie and I only say that because it’s the first time I ever felt this franchise lose that unique quality that made it stand out. This arc in particular felt long and there are just some moments that didn’t sit quite right with me. All of this being said, I still very much enjoyed this arc, it’s not bad at all, it’s just different from what I think of ‘Demon Slayer‘ to be.

First off, it is truly insane but the animation just keeps consistently getting better and better. This arc looked fantastic, the night sequences in the village with all of the lights and detailed buildings and costumes looked stunning. It’s such a natural visual progression of everything we’ve seen so far from the show and movie. The structure of the arc itself takes a bit to get used to considering how shorter the previous arcs were. Season 1 consisted of many short arcs and the ‘Mugen Train‘ arc flew by in under two hours. The ‘Entertainment District‘ arc is a whopping 11 episodes and it feels like it. It’s engaging and compelling when needed but I wouldn’t say it flowed as well as any of the other arcs. The only other flaws are mostly having to do with plot armour and how Inosuke should’ve literally died instantly and yet he’s still alive which I’m happy about because come on… it’s Inosuke BUT it admittedly feels redundant in the end. It’s also tricky with how they have to manoeuvre Zenitsu’s capabilities because instead of getting him to mature, they just put him to sleep to be helpful and that made a ton of sense for ‘Mugen Train‘, here, it comes off a bit repetitive even if his scenes were amazing.

Onto the more positive stuff about this arc, I loved seeing Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke disguised as girls and the entire pages of jokes that naturally came out of that concept. They really tore my boy Zenitsu up, it was so tragic yet so funny. I was definitely very sceptical of having another Hashira lead the trio after ‘Mugen Train‘ because Rengoku is one of my favourites and I didn’t know if I would give Tengen the same chance. Having now seen the entire arc, I think that he’s a very charming and very good-looking guy but I wouldn’t say he has the same uniqueness and emotional attachment that Rengoku had, I am glad he survived though and seeing Tanjiro remember Rengoku next to Tengen as if blessing him with luck was a beautiful moment. I also loved the entire parallel of siblings and familial love with Tanjiro and Nezuko and the demons Daki and Gyutaro. I loved how equal this dynamic was, the writers finally allowed Nezuko to shine and fight alongside Tanjiro and it was epic and mighty satisfying. I also love the equality between Tanjiro and Nezuko in the sense that clearly Nezuko is physically stronger because she’s a half-demon but they also consistently keep showcasing Tanjiro’s will and incredible emotional stability and quick-thinking. Getting Gyutaro with that poisonous knife was another incredible moment. The entire fight with Tanjiro, Tengen and Gyutaro was mesmerizing and full of stakes, I loved every second of it.

There is a slight disconnect though between the last two episodes of the arc and the way this movie presents them. I experienced these last two episodes in the cinema with the movie for the first time so it was incredibly confusing to see the packed audience around me start to talk amongst themselves and get shocked about the switching of events in the movie version. It was also fucking hilarious having to sit through every opening and ending credits as if we were literally binging the show at home. I liked it though, it was a unique experience and it was quite funny because the audience would use that time to talk and then get quiet immediately.

This brings us to the actual Season 3 Premiere which was 40 plus minutes, I love how ‘Demon Slayer‘ takes premiere episodes seriously, it seems to be one of the only animes left that does. I love how Tanjiro’s impact and relentless drive to meet his goal has finally had an effect on Muzan as he loses his temper and for the first time, you can actually sense some fear and nervousness in him. I cannot stand Akaza for killing Rengoku but apparently, he’s going to be a major player in this arc so that’s… unfortunate. It was also very surprising that Inosuke and Zenitsu are parting ways for this arc as they are on their individual missions though it will make this season feel less predictable and formulaic so it’s a nice change of pace even if I will miss them. The Love Hashira Mitsuri looks promising, she is the face of this arc so I’m hoping she gets a lot to do. The twist featured in this episode definitely confused me and I’m still not sure at all what it means. I am definitely very intrigued by it and where the season will follow and what it will mean to Tanjiro and the rest of the plot.

Overall, this movie event was definitely fun to watch from my perspective seeing as I hadn’t seen those last two episodes from Season 2. For others, paying full price to watch two episodes you’ve seen with opening and ending credits just to watch a forty-minute premiere is a bit iffy. For what it’s worth, I made a whole night out of it, I went to this great ramen place before with my brother and a friend and the theatre was packed with excited fans. I am definitely excited for Season 3 and I can’t wait to see what the plot develops into moving forward.

‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To The Swordsmith Village-‘ is now streaming on Crunchyroll.