Running around in flashy shinobi stealth mode, Tengen Uzui rushes off to find one of his wives and finally runs into Hinatsuru. After a touching scene, the feel of this arc’s 5th episode finally gets the viewer to feel the tension buildup as we can expect something ‘flashy’, to happen.

Warabihime traps Hinatsuru

Hinatsuru caught herself in a bind. She knows who Warabihimi truly is, but Warabihime already caught on to her. Since there was no better options, poisoning herself was the best course of action she could take; in order to get over Warabihime’s surveillance to contact Uzui. With Daki’s power over her sash placed in Hinatsuru’s possession, she had to constantly take the poison… so she WOULDN’T die. Yikes..

An Important Shonen Trope, Self-realization

When Tanjiro realizes that his sword got damaged, it’s the wielder and not the craftsman’s fault. This is a vital point in this shonen’s journey as he understands what his strengths and weaknesses are. There’s nothing more revealing about yourself like being forced into a face-to-face confrontation with your own self-awareness. Some people may never make the adjustments; ahem not me, but our courageous young sword wielder is truthful about himself and his abilities.

Eventually, we get flashbacks of Tanjiro training. For the past 6 months, he was already realizing that the “Hinokami Kagura” is more effective for him than water breathing. He just needed to keep training and saw improvements. This is where it ends for most people in this metaphor. Training, getting marginally better and potentially hitting a ceiling. In anything that we do, that ceiling is something we all have to recognize as real or not. So.. even though it’s easier on the body for Tanjiro to use the water breathing techniques, he’s just not adept enough at doing it. That manifests when you are fighting an upper ranked demon like Daki . With all that said, even with the imperfection, risks, and strain on his body, it’s now or never for the transition to these varied Sun Breathing techniques! Change what you are doing and level up!

Inosuke’s heroism should not go unnoticed

As Inosuke finds out how to fight this sash belt demon, the demon gets a command from Daki to eat the humans and keep the “10 beautiful ones alive.” Inosuke has to make the decision to save the humans and he decides to try to save them. Of course, we don’t know how he would have fared because two of Uzui’s wives show up to help! No complaints here.

Mid-episode, Inosuke low-key shows off an important ability to dislocate his joints in order to burrow underground to find a demon. His contortion-like ability to weave his body like Daki’s sash was more slither-like than beast-like, but who cares reptilians, mammals, we’re all made of stardust. There was some nice animation to show this scene. When something cool happens, you should bet on there being very good animation, as it is perhaps Ufotable and Demon Slayer’s best part of watching the show. Anyways, his body bending abilities and personality is a nice contrast to the other characters available, including the hashiras.

The Trio of Wives Make Their Entrance

Makio, the headstrung, rough and tumble and Suma, the bumbling weak crybaby that thinks she’s weak, but is somehow actually strong. When you’re polygamous, it’s nice to have a variety amirite? Nothing stands out more than immediately hitting the viewer immediately with the over-the-top main characteristic of their personality. Once they joined the fight to help Inosuke,, it felt like the first impressions within that one scene were all positive, the bickering included. Demon Slayer has an incredible way to introduce likeable characters in such a short amount of time.

Once Tengen Uzui makes his grand entrance, we get a flashback of the relationship between them and him. In short, Tengen basically says, “number 1 is to survive and come back to me.” The wives’ reaction is basically, “wow, how can I be useful if I don’t die?” There wasn’t enough in the flashback to pluck out something more in-depth, but their personalities are a welcomed addition to the show. Also, go polygamy!

Daki’s subtle character development

As an over-thinker, most of the time, I tend to think there are deeper meanings to how people act and what they say. In manga and anime, nothing is shown without giving us an insight. When Daki told the sash demon to “save the ten most beautiful,” there is a deeper meaning there. The setting is in a place where beauty and being an oiran is the most valuable.

How she speaks says a lot about Daki’s past. Referring to Tanjiro constantly as ‘ugly’ and others in the same fashion as such. Beyond the ‘flashiness’, it’s still the characters that ultimately drive a good show. Can’t wait for more Daki!

Last thoughts

Hands down the best episode of the arc so far! We get the whole cast of characters we expected to see and it all came in one episode, besides Nezuko.

While quick as his thunder breathing suggests, sleeping Zenitsu gives us his trademark thunder clap technique and Inosuke does Inosuke things. We even got a taste Uzui’s sound technique. The wives are finally here to be apart of the action and waifu bait. The meat of the first act of the season is here and I’m ready to get ‘yopparou’ drunk with the twists and turns!

Anime Vs Manga

The anime covered chapters 77 – 79 and part of 80.