Demon Slayer Season 3: The Swordsmith Village Arc [SUB] (2023) Review

 Demon Slayer Season 3: The Swordsmith Village Arc [SUB] (2023) 7/10

[THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!]

Hello and welcome to another anime review. Today, let’s continue with the critically acclaimed series Demon Slayer. Season 3 (dubbed The Swordsmith Village Arc) aired from April 9 - June 18, 2023, with the season clocking in at 11 episodes long. Just like the previous seasons, this season was animated by Ufotable. Swordsmith Village sits in a weird way within the anime community. Although it has generally favorable reviews, the season seems to have the most mixed reviews of the series so far. Season 3 is not a bad season by any means, but I do kinda agree with some of the criticisms. Let’s begin.

After Tanjiro and company’s battle with Daki and Gyutaro, they regroup at the Butterfly Mansion to recover, with Tanjiro falling into a coma due to his injuries. Inosuke and Zenitsu wake up normally and go on their own missions. When Tanjiro wakes up 2 months later, he learns that his swordsmith Haganezuka refuses to reforge his sword. Tanjiro is urged to discuss the matter with him in person at the swordsmith village. Tanjiro and Nezuko travel to the village and learn about the swords they use to combat the demons. While here, the show will give us further development for Tanjiro and Nezuko while also giving some limelight to Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji, Mist Hashira Tokito Muichiro, and fellow Demon Slayer Genya Shinazugawa.

I think my biggest issues with the season lie with the villains. In this season, two Upper Rank demons will attack the village. Gyokko (the slithering one that’s in a jar and loves art) and Hantengu (the demon that utilizes its different emotions). Comparing these two to the previous main villain demons from past seasons, these two aren’t really that interesting. The Spider family from season 1 was interesting, but in hindsight is eh and Enmu from Mugen Train was a dope villain. Daki and Gyutaro are still the best developed main villains so far. The way Daki was developed, the plot twist with her brother popping up, and how that whole thing was wrapped up was very nicely done. Gyokko has very little character to him. He’s just a big baddy with an awesome design. Nothing more. We never learn about his past as opposed to previous demons, which ultimately hinders his impact as a villain. Hantengu was a good villain, but I feel the show didn’t do him justice. I love how his powers work, making him an extraordinary force to deal with. However the show gives us hardly any background on the guy. Apparently he was a thief turned murderer who couldn’t control his urges and blames those urges instead of taking full responsibility.

Another one of my issues is that I feel we have reached a point in the show where we have seen everything that this show has to offer, especially in the battles and combat department. The action here is decent, but it’s all relatively the same thing as what we’ve seen before. Each demon fights differently and has unique powers, but that uniqueness all stems from uniformity. The highlight of the season (combat wise) was Zohakuten’s appearance.

As for the “new” characters that’ll pop up here, I enjoyed them. Mitsuri is a loveable dork and I enjoyed Tokito more than I thought I would. I’m still iffy on Genya though. As for Tanjiro and Nezuko, it was nice to have them be by themselves without Inosuke and Zenitsu. Don’t get me wrong I like them a lot, but you don’t always need them in the picture. We got some very interesting developments with Tanjiro and his heritage and a very surprising moment with Nezuko, which leads me to one of, if not the best part of the season.

So in the final episode, Tanjiro and Nezuko are chasing after Hantengu, needing to kill him before the sun fully rises up. Tanjiro is thrown into a situation that reminded me of InFamous. If you don’t know, InFamous is a game for the PS3 and is my all time favorite game. The game is full of choices and those decisions alter how the plot will progress. In the game, there’s a choice to save either 6 doctors or your girlfriend Trish. You’re on a time limit and this decision pushes the main character Cole to the mental limit. This moment where Tanjiro must decide to either save Nezuko from the sun or go for the finishing kill really reminded me of that moment from InFamous. Honestly I was really hoping Tanjiro would buck up and go for the kill, leaving his sister behind and using her death as fuel to kill Muzan. This did not happen. Nezuko kicks him away and sacrifices herself so that Tanjiro can finish the job, but it turns out that she is still alive. She had a mutation with her demon genes that now allows her to be in the sunlight. At first I thought this was a huge cop out, but then the show uses this to develop Muzan. This moment was such an emotional rollercoaster and I commend the writers for doing this. I still like my idea, but I’m perfectly fine with rolling with this development instead. Overall the writing for this season is good, but definitely not on the same level as Mugen Train and Entertainment District.

The rest of the season is pretty solid as always. Great animation and art direction, great camera work, and great editing. This season uses a lot of 3D animation for all the fish that Gyokko will summon. It is very obvious, but it doesn’t look all that bad. Voice acting is just as solid as previous seasons. Shout out to all the actors, but I do want to mention some of the newer voices. Shout out to Kana Hanazawa (Mitsuri), Kengo Kawanishi (Tokito), Daisuke Namikawa (Haganezuka), Kousuke Toriumi (Gyokko), Toshio Furukawa (Hantengu), Koichi Yamadera (Zohakuten), and Ayumu Murase (Kotetsu).

The music is pretty nice too. I absolutely love the OP. The animation itself is solid, but you can’t go wrong with Man With A Mission. “Kizuna no Kiseki” is a fucking banger and I love those heavy power chords. I really wish more anime in general would use heavy metal like this. The ED song, also done by Man With A Mission alongside Milet, is decent, but I much prefer the OP over this.

Overall, this is a decent season. The story here is progressing organically, which I appreciate, but I do have problems with it. In terms of ranking the seasons, I would say this is on par with Season 1, maybe right below it. I am curious on how this show will continue seeing as certain details are alluding something personal to Tanjiro and Nezuko. Only time will tell. Until my next review, stay safe out there.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.