Is Uzui Tengen your favorite Hashira now?

What Makes the Ex-Shinobi an Amazing Character

On the surface, we have been constantly been bombarded with who we think Hashira Uzui Tengen is. His character design is everything a male envys: strong, charismatic, and having an endless supply of fawning women always at your side. Though, if the ‘shinobi’ in ‘ex-shinobi’ doesn’t give it away, being a ninja comes with high stakes and consequences. Here we have a deeper look into Uzui’s character and past.

Being a shinobi isn’t what its all cracked up to be, as Uzui explains that he had 9 brothers and sisters and lost 7 his siblings by the age of 15. His only surviving younger brother, who took after his father, saw his ‘minions’ and wives as ‘expendable’. By explaining how is father and younger brother was, it shows the contrast between how different the flashy ninja that actually love his wives is.

Uzui showed his humbleness in this episode and pretty much reveals that he isn’t as strong as the other hashiras. The people that admire him, he has way more admiration for those around him. There was a nice flashback with Master Kagaya Ubuyashiki, that showed how much the master admired Uzui, rejecting the shinobi values he grew up with. It’s a golden nugget of character development that elevates his likeability and relatability as a character.

Admiration for Uzui’s leadership

Uzui displayed the same great leadership as he “bigged up” the boys against the sibling demons. With that morale boosting speech and music, we all became Tanjiro, when he looked at Uzui with the same admiration for Kyoujurou in the Mugen Train Arc. Along with the charismatic speech, he reveals how to defeat Daki and Gyutaro—by beheading them both at the same time!

One of Uzui’s biggest moments in the series is throwing Tanjiro away before he gets sickled under the chin. I couldn’t help but LMAO’d at this scene here.

Uzui’s abilities

It is revealed that he comes from a “line of shinobi,” that is resistant to poison. Gyutaro notices that he may not be as resistant as he thinks. Then, Gyutaro explains that the beads he uses explodes on slight contact. I wonder how he stashes those explosives though because he uses a lot?

Uzui extends his blade as he almost beheads both Daki and Gyutaro.

Another “Sound Breathing” technique is shown!

What Makes Gyutaro & Daki the Perfect Bad Guy to Fight

Lust and envy. The two perfect sins to go along with the perfect setting that represents the epitome of those sins. An environment where beauty and femininity ranks in the highest regard, the hierarchical nature of those at the bottom feasts on these two sins.

When Sleeping Zenitsu tells Daki on the roof to apologize to the girl she hurt in the earlier episodes, we get the perfect response from Daki and Gyutaro with their voiced layered on top of each other. They are demons that faced horrific trauma and ‘misfortune’ that feel like they must take from those who were more fortunate. This is like Robinhood if he was a demon. A good comparison.. no?

More Gyutaro abilities revealed

Poison. Add Gyutaro’s ability to poison people with his blood as fitting ability for a character that is hell bent on despising those he deem as better than them.

Did the Action Scenes Live Up to the Hype?

2v1 against the Upper Rank 6 demon duo? Sign me up! Here we have Uzui going all out and almost beheading both demons in one action sequence.

After a nice action sequence between Uzui and the duo sibling demons, Tanjiro, Inosuke and Zenitsu show up to the fight! As they show up, the music helps shift the mood into a, “all the good guys are here” mood with a smooth transition into the next phase and best part of the episode. All the stars are aligned for the major characters in this episode and that skin chilling feel of something epic is going to happen begins.

Littered with one good action scene after another. Here we have Tanjiro bringing back his Water Breathing to help protect Uzui’s rear.

The 2nd half of the episode has so many good action sequences that the images don’t do it any justice. This 2nd half is so good to watch, it will be on replay on many people’s feeds this week. If I needed to convince someone to like this show, I would 100% make them watch this episode. It has all the elements to draw in new fans. Absolutely stunning!

The best scene of the episode belongs to..?

None other than Zenitsu! With the arrival of the main cast of characters, Daki launches her obi-sash attack at Uzui and this is where Zenitsu’s most epic animation begins, as he counter-attacks; launching Daki outside of the building.

Holy shit! That was an epic way to start the 2nd half of the episode with Uzui and Tanjiro vs Gyutaro carrying it the rest of the way!

Last Thoughts

This episode aimed to solidify Uzui’s character development. Action, backstory, charismatic speech, undeniable epic moments like throwing Tanjiro out of the way—really solidified how amazing Uzui’s character is. Again, the writer does such a good job presenting enough depth to a character without needing to do long drawn out scenes explaining every little detail.

The 2nd half of the episode might have the best action sequences throughout the series. Multiple breathing techniques, multiple angles & perspective shots, perfect timing of fighting and inner dialogue, etc. This episode really has it all. By far, this is my favorite episode. Uzui has surpassed my fandom of Kyoujuro for sure. It will keep growing as we keep advancing in the arc. What do you guys think?

Anime Vs Manga

Chapter 87 – 89

Honestly, I could have never imagined how well they animated these 3 chapters. Truly beyond expectations.

Random Fact: What the hell is a ‘Tsuguko’?

When Uzui makes his epic speech about the youngins’, he mentions that they are ‘tsuguko’. 継ぐ or ‘tsugu’ means to succeed or inherit. 子 ‘ko’ means child. So together, it means like “successor child” or something similar. Check out the dictionary definition here.