Key takeaway: youkai puberty don’t waste no time.

Well that was a humdinger of an episode.  A real barnburner, whatever aphorism you like.  If Kimetsu no Yaiba were a chef it wouldn’t be afraid of the spice cabinet, that’s for sure – when it goes big it doesn’t hold back.  There are a lot worse things for battle shounen to be best at than battles – the connective tissue gets a little frayed sometimes, but the big action pieces always deliver.  The drawback of course is that you dull their impact if you go to that well too often, and not having to is what makes the truly great shounen like Hunter X Hunter the icons they are.  Still – credit where it’s due.

If I had one quibble with this altogether excellent fight, it’s one that I have with Kimetsu generally.  That is to say, the demons almost never seem as formidable as they should, given their supposed level.  I get that Tanjirou is special and all but really, if this is a youkai ranked in the top 10 overall in power, what does it say that he can hold his own with her?  This is a bit of a trap with no easy way out, really – your hero has to deal with opponents theoretically too strong for them and not get killed as they fight their way up the shounen ladder.  It’s an issue all battle shounen wrestle with to some degree, but there are examples who do so more effectively than KnY does.

On the other hand, I like the way Gotouge Kayoharu acknowledges the way Tanjirou always has to fight with one hand tied behind his back.  The demons aren’t worried about collateral damage, but even more than his position demands, Tanjirou is obsessed with it.  If the demons were smarter (only a couple have been, really) they’d use that to their advantage more.  Daki took out about half the pleasure quarter almost as an aside after the loudmouthed brothel keeper made a scene over the noise the fight was making.  When Tanjirou is the opponent that’s as effective as a direct blow landed on him.

Clearly, this whole Hinokami Kagura thing is a difference-maker.  That little aside about the forehead mark – Tanjirou’s being post-natal in nature rather than congenital – aside, it would have to be for a grommet like him to have a chance against Warabihime.  Obviously all the choreography was spectacular, that’s a given at this point, but the end is what really matters.  And the most obvious reading is that Tanjirou was about to take Daki out when his body finally collapsed from the strain of wielding Hinokami Kagura.  That makes it dangerously close to a magic bullet power-up, but the jury is still out on that.

The grand finale is obviously a watershed moment Kimetsu has been building towards.  A full-on power-up for Nezuko (one wonders if the boob upgrade was essential) is another game-changer to be sure.  Sort of ironic that in the same week a Sawashiro Miyuki character mega-evolved in the heat of battle, another one got their ass kicked by a character doing the same thing.  Is this mega-Nezu form a permanent thing, or does she go back to normal Gammamon once the adrenaline (or youkai equivalent) wears off?  And what will Screech do when he sees her?  I’d pay good money to see GulusNezuko do to him what she did to Daki…

Lots of good stuff here, to be sure.  I’m interested to know who that fellow Daki saw in Muzan’s memories was (though perhaps that explanation was part of my blackout period with this series).  I don’t know that Daki survives much longer – I mean, if even powered-up Tanjirou can come within an eyelash of ending her surely a hashira can finish the job, especially with Nezuko Mark II on the scene?  More eps like this one (especially with Shimono out on the coffee run) will do a lot towards increasing my Kimetsu buy-in.