REVIEW: ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc,’ – Episode 4

After the Upper Four demon’s power was revealed, Demon Slayer Season 3 Episode 4 continues the battle between the split personalities of Upper Four and the trio of Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya. Will they be able to overcome this new challenge and protect the people of the Swordsmith Village?

What Demon Slayer Season 3 Episode 4 does best is it makes viewers feel just how dire the situation is. Tanjiro has been split off from Nezuko and Genya and is struggling on his own against one of the split versions of Upper Four. These variants keep healing themselves, making it even harder to find a way to truly defeat them. Tanjiro is clearly outmatched and is left bloody and beaten.

In typical Demon Slayer fashion, he does start to discover how to hit back. After getting slashed repeatedly, losing enough blood to kill most people, Tanjiro manages to start fighting back. For a brief minute, it made me feel like he might come away victorious, but it wouldn’t feel right if things worked out well this quickly. Instead, even with his more patient approach yielding some results, he is still drastically outmatched.

It’s not just Tanjiro that finds himself outmatched either. Genya takes a spear to the chest, and Nezuko is kicked right through hers. Most people would not survive these injuries, but their drive and determination to save the Swordsmith Village and defeat the demons are so strong that they always manage to push through. There is a delicate balance here between surviving overwhelming odds without feeling overpowered. They might find themselves surviving horrific attacks, but that doesn’t mean they have the upper hand.

No, the reason Demon Slayer Season 3 Episode 4 is so impressive is that it manages to show our heroes start to overcome the odds only to be flattened again. The battles here are incredibly brutal, to the point where I audibly gasped several times. Ufotable has done a great job animating the fights in a way that makes them feel like the heroes have a chance despite being brutally beaten into submission.

But there isn’t some happy ending here, that wouldn’t be fitting for how the series usually approaches these types of fights. The heroes may be learning how to fight back more effectively, but Upper Four’s variants are also learning. They adapt to the demon slayer’s approaches and hit back twice as hard. This is not a battle the three of them are going to be able to win on their own, but the village is becoming overrun with demons so help might not make it.

Demon Slayer is at its best when it makes you lean forward in your seat and hold your breath, hoping to see a victory. My heart was pounding with Tanjiro’s, I felt Genya’s devotion to slaying the demons, and Nezuko’s rage was palpable when she used her abilities to try to fight back. At the same time, I felt their dread and fear when none of those were enough to turn the tide.

Demon Slayer Season 3 Episode 4 delivers high-stakes action without ever feeling cheap. It doesn’t rush to a conclusion but instead turns the danger up a few notches and keeps viewers waiting for a resolution without having a clear picture of how it is going to happen.

Demon Slayer Season 3 Episode 4 is streaming on Crunchyroll with new episodes every Sunday.