Perhaps the most popular anime on Netflix right now, Aniplex’s Season 4 of Demon Slayer, released its seventh episode today. The young demon slayers and Hashiras are stuck fighting two Upper Moons who’ve invaded the Swordsmith Village. In the previous episode, Tanjiro had finally located the main demon that needed to be decapitated to kill Upper Moon Four Hantengu, but this episode brings a way harder challenge for the young slayer. Elsewhere, Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito has been stuck inside the blood demon art of Upper Moon Five, Gyokko, and he’s about to suffocate inside the water prison. Can Tanjiro, Genya, and Nezuko take down Hantengu? Is Tokito able to come back alive from the water prison? Let’s find these answers in the detailed recap of the seventh episode.
Spoilers Ahead
A New Monster
With his determination flared, Tanjiro fires up his sword and finally brings it down on the minuscule Hantengu demon’s neck, but who knew that little insect-like monster would have a neck harder than the stone Tanjiro sliced in Season 1? However, absolute terror freezes Tanjiro’s body as he can sense a presence like he’s never felt, about to strike from the back. Indeed, five dragon heads launch themselves as Tanjiro, and it’s only because Nezuko darts in to save her brother that he escapes being eaten alive. With absolute horror, Tanjiro watches a new demon, the sixth demon, protect tiny Hantengu with its Hydra-like blood demon art and blast the demon slayers for attacking a weak little thing. Genya, who’s been watching the entire thing, freezes in his tracks, unable to deal with the immense pressure of the sixth demon’s voice, just like Tanjiro. He knows how the anger demon Sekido absorbed all three demons to become its ultimate form, the terrifying hatred demon.
Awful Villains
This super demon considers the demon slayers “awful villains” because they kill helpless demons, making Tanjiro forget the fear that’d left him rigid. He reminds this Upper Moon of how many hundreds of humans Hantengu ate and left a bloody nightmare in its wake. It doesn’t matter that it didn’t attack Tanjiro’s family; according to the warm and loving Tanjiro, one shouldn’t look for specifics when it comes to helping people. As Tanjiro prepares his sword for the attack, the hatred demon’s dragon blood demon art rushes toward the young man before the scene changes, leaving us in suspense till the next week.
Tokito’s Prison
We get to see Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito trapped inside Upper Demon Five’s water prison as the remnants of the air in his lungs keep seeping away. Leaving Tokito to drown in the water, Gyokko goes inside the hut the Hashira wanted to protect, only to find a young man polishing a sword with fierce concentration as another swordsmith stands between the two. Gyokko easily downs the swordsmith but can’t get the other swordsmith to stop his work. It’s Haganezuka, and he’s polishing the Nichirin sword Tanjiro found inside the Yoruichi doll, bewildered by the magnificence of the steel and the wonders it can do. Haganezuka’s laser focus frustrates Gyokko, and he repeatedly slices the swordsmith, making him bleed and suffer injuries, but nothing short of a fatal blow can stop him from forging the perfect sword.
Does Tokito Escape The Water Prison?
Outside, with his final breath, Tokito tries a final attempt to thrust through the prison, but he fails. He can see a faint silhouette of Tanjiro asking him not to decide when his life ends and keep going, but Tokito knows Tanjiro never said such things. The silhouette asks Tokito to keep hope alive because help will arrive, but the Hashira isn’t very hopeful because who could be powerful enough to save a Hashira? The one who comes to save Tokito, though, is a little kid, Kotetsu, who is stabbing the prison with a knife, but the demon art won’t break. Kotestsu can’t keep going any further because another of Gyokko’s demon fish attacks the kid and stabs him in the solar plexus. With life leaving his body, Kotetsu breathes air into the water prison at Tokito. The silhouette of Tanjiro changes into a man we’ve never seen before, but he, too, has soft red eyes like the protagonist, and Tokito recognizes the man as his father. With his father’s advice that humans can go to extreme lengths to help others, Tokito unleashes the second form of mist breathing and slashes the water prison to escape out in the open.
The Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito manages to escape the water prison set up by Gyokko because the secret to breaking such a bloody demon art is external help. Tokito didn’t believe that there was anyone powerful enough to help him escape, but he was aided by a little 10-year-old boy because Tokito had saved his life. With the memories of his father’s words floating through his mind, Tokito realized the need to help people and the extent the human body can go to protect fellow humans. If the little kid Kotetsu could realize that with such fatal wounds on his body, couldn’t the Mist Hashira do the same? With the air that Kotestu breathed inside the water prison, Tokito was replenished with new life, helping him slice through his incarceration. He also realized that straight thrusting wouldn’t have effects at times, and one needs to twist their efforts. Tokito proceeded to slice the prison in eight places, slashing through to freedom.
Conclusion
There are no questions about the animation style of Demon Slayer and the beautiful action sequences it can present. However, as an audience, these constant cliffhangers might be a little annoying, especially when you’re so invested in the story. As soon as the action picks up, the episode is brought to an end, making us wait yet another week. Only if Aniplex decided to extend the episodes or include more content in each, the animated series would be winning a lot more hearts than it already has.