Kimetsu no Yaiba: Hashira Geiko-hen Episode 5

Not gonna lie, the pacing of this episode was pretty bad. Compared to the past couple episodes, we got three Hashira trainings in one episode. Considering the title of this episode, I expected it to purely focus on Sanemi and Genya’s relationship. But that only made up barely half the episode. Also the fact that they keep giving Mitsuri the least amount of screen time in favor of the guys continues to feel so disrespectful since she’s such a fun character. Though it was hilarious seeing what her training entailed and Tanjiro continued to just be happy to be there… until he wasn’t lol. It is what it is, I guess, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. Especially coming off of episodes where it focused on one Hashira each episode. So it felt as if we just brushed over Mitsuri, Obanai and Sanemi. Making them all feel rather surface level compared to how they expanded a little upon Tengen and Muichiro. Which is unfortunate because we barely know the other Hashira and it would have been nice to see more of them and that they’re more than what we’ve seen of them so far.

I was hoping to get more out of Obanai when Tanjiro went to train with him and see more of their dynamic. And while we did get that, we only got the bare minimum. Which is unfortunate, because I feel like the first couple episodes of this season gave me more than what was on the surface with him compared to this episode. He felt so one note about being jealous that Tanjiro was on good terms with Mitsuri and being petty over what happened during their first interaction. And while I do see what Obanai was doing by giving Tanjiro a giant hurdle to jump over with his training (which felt a little unhinged not gonna lie), it also kind of rubbed me the wrong way that he was seemingly ONLY training Tanjiro rather than everyone that was assigned to him. I’m a bit disappointed that the only thing we really got from him in the episode that he’s still a jerk towards Tanjiro and that his fighting style is really fun to watch, though we already knew that from the first episode of this season. Sad to see that his relationship with Tanjiro didn’t really change through out the training. But despite the apparent dislike towards him, Tanjiro was still able to learn from Obanai and seemed to quickly get the hang of being more accurate and confident with his strikes. So I suppose despite his brutal methods, Obanai still ended up being a fairly good teacher in that regard.

And then there’s Sanemi… Sanemi, Sanemi, Sanemi…. As much as I like him, I can’t defend him in this instance. He was just AWFUL this episode. He went way over the line with his pettiness and hostility where they essentially put a restraining order between him and Tanjiro. I know where his hostility with Genya is coming from, but I can’t defend it because the guy was literally about to poke his eyes out to prevent him from continuing on in the Demon Slayers corp. If you already disliked Sanemi, this episode ain’t doing him any favors. It was clear that he had a personal vendetta against Tanjiro and I don’t think there is any justification to beat anyone someone down to how bruised, swollen and blistered Tanjiro ended up being during his training. So much that I couldn’t look at Tanjiro without wincing at how gross he looked. I was hoping to see what became of their relationship during the training since when Tanjiro first joined, he gave Sanemi so much positive sass, it was hilarious. However, it was clear he made himself public enemy number one to Sanemi and gave him absolutely zero favors from their already terrible relationship. Though I am a bit miffed that it seems like Sanemi wasn’t punished for being unnecessarily violent and threatening. Unless the shot of him walking through the hall all solemn-like was after he had a harsh talking to by the higher ups. I can only hope he was reprimanded for his actions too.

Speaking of terrible relationship, what do I even say about Sanemi’s relationship with Genya? Considering Sanemi’s attitude, we knew their reunion was going to be anything but amicable. I did feel really bad for Genya in this moment because we know the struggles he’s been going through trying to atone for his mistake towards his brother but was only faced with cold rejection. We don’t know what’s going on through Sanemi’s head at this time, but from what we got from their shared backstory, Sanemi is most likely still grieving in his own brutish way. Possibly similar to Muichiro’s twin brother by lashing out at everyone. Clearly the guy isn’t okay, but that doesn’t make his actions okay. Especially since he tries to essentially poke Genya’s eyes out after he told him he ate demons to be able to fight despite not being able to learn breathing techniques. Honestly, this whole thing is very similar to Riku and Tenn’s argument in the second season of Idolish7 where Tenn tries to get Riku to stop being an idol. It’s basically the same thing here where Sanemi is trying to get Genya to step down from being a Demon Slayer except with violence and threats. I’ll leave it at that for now since I know too much of what is going on. Though I did feel like the brothers’ confrontation came out of nowhere and happened too suddenly. I know Genya was desperately trying to get to Sanemi to apologize for blaming him for their mother’s death, but I feel like we could have had some better build up to this moment.

Not a bad episode, but not good either. Definitely the weakest episode so far as it felt like a lot of things were crammed into this episode. I felt like a lot of the things brought up could have been their own episode so they could dig a little deeper into the characters and have a more steady build up rather than just having things happen so fast. Sadly, I do know that this is around the time where things start getting rushed because of the mangaka’s family health issues so things aren’t going to be as smooth as I would like them to be. In any case, looks like we’ll be meeting up with the final Hashira and the fact he is meditating in FIRE is so freaking metal. Wonder what training under him will entail.