Demon Slayer Season 4 Episode 4 - A Touching Training

This week’s episode of Demon Slayer brought another episode mixed with canon and filler, and, similarly, an episode that I have mixed feelings about. Last week saw Tanjiro’s return to action as he took part in training from the Hashira amongst other Corps members. Unlike others, Tanjiro is notably able to perform the tasks assigned to him during training and generally excels even while being fresh from a hospital bed.

The episode conveyed a relatively straightforward message: the average swordsman within the Corps is unlikely to be helpful against an Upper Rank demon any time soon, but seeing Tanjiro and the Hashira try their best is inspirational such that they’ll do their best anyway. While this episode was pleasant, I felt that it broadly was the same vibe as last week with a couple entertaining, though brief, clashes of swords thrown in.

This somewhat comes with the territory with mixed canon episodes. Episode 4 adapted about three pages of content and added in a bit to enhance Tokito’s character, which was nice. Other than that though, there wasn’t too much of note.

Rare Smiles and Paper Airplanes

If nothing else, this episode did good work showing not only how far Tokito has come in terms of his emotional expression, but also how he now carries multiple parts of himself at once. For those who don’t remember, Tokito had a generally sunny disposition as a child before the death of his twin brother. After that brother’s death, he lost his memories and adopted the cold, selfish personality he sported when he first made his appearance in Demon Slayer. It was only after multiple fights and interactions with Tanjiro that he regained his memories and with them aspects of his personality.

The first half of the episode showcases how seriously he takes his Hashira status, both when training Corps members and when sparring against other Hashira. His interactions with Tanjiro and the second half of the episode show that he has the capacity to be warm and enjoy some fun, something Tanjiro helps him (and the frightened Corps members) realize about him. The paper airplane throwing contests were nice and warm and I enjoyed seeing the happy side of Tokito come out more than usual this episode.

That being said, I feel as though this episode dragged a bit in communicating what is honestly a pretty simple set of messages. Similarly to those at Uzui’s training in last week’s episode, the Corps members here leave off with some perhaps unearned confidence thanks to Tanjiro while he gets to move on to the next training. Considering how short this season of Demon Slayer is, I’m confident the next few training episodes will be a bit different. Hopefully the pace will pick up a bit as well.

©Koyoharu Gotouge/SHUEISHA, Aniplex, ufotale