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Demon Slayer Entertainment District Ep 8
748 Plays4 years ago
Our weekly coverage of Demon Slayer's Entertainment District Arc continues with our regular crew of Andrew, Zuhair and J. Scotty offering their thoughts on Episode 8: Gathering!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:01
Speaker
On another exciting edition of Animation Deliberation, we are back with our weekly Demon Slayer coverage covering episode 8 of the Entertainment District arc, titled Gathering. We're going to get right into that after some ads we have no say over whatsoever.
00:00:19
Speaker
Sing along if you know the words. One, two, three, it's time for animation deliberation. A conversation and a celebration of our favorite action animated series. Yeah. All right, folks, welcome back to animation deliberation, the podcast that takes action animation and cartoons seriously, but not too seriously.
00:00:42
Speaker
I'm your host, Jay Scottie St. Clair, and I am joined by what has become the regular assembly of animation deliberation I've got with me. That dude. I'll let you introduce yourself. I was like, did you really forget my name after all this time? Okay. I am Zuhair. Good to see you. Good to see you. And the one waiting in the wings is me, Andrew Rogers.
00:01:10
Speaker
Good to see you as well. Good to
Listener Feedback and Engagement
00:01:12
Speaker
see you guys. I tried putting the song in, the theme song while you were singing to Demon Slayer. I was like, this actually kind of works. I'm not going to throw them off. I'm going to keep this in mind for next time. That whole... That one? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. If I do the edit pretty quickly, maybe I'll find a way to sneak that in there. We'll see.
00:01:38
Speaker
But as stated at the top of the episode, we are discussing episode eight, gathering. And we don't really have any housekeeping to do. I will say thanks to everybody that submitted feedback to our best of 2021 and anticipating 2022 episode. That ended up being a much longer episode than I anticipated, but it was a heck of a lot of fun to get to involve all the listeners with that.
00:02:02
Speaker
Keep it coming. We definitely want feedback to read on the show, especially as we're covering Demon Slayer. We'll be coming around the feedback as we go.
Episode Opinions: Irritation vs Enjoyment
00:02:12
Speaker
Yeah, we like our music here. We like our music. So I guess at the top of the episode, before we get super spoilery, I will bring back a little segment that we haven't done in a while, but on a scale of yeah, to yeah.
00:02:31
Speaker
Where'd you guys land on this one? Zuhair? Yeah! I'm irritated with this episode. Oh, interesting. Okay. I suspect it's because of where it ended. No. No? I mean, that's a factor, but no. Okay. Okay. Well, we'll get into the nitty gritty details in just a moment here.
Pacing and Dialogue: Action vs Exposition
00:02:53
Speaker
Andrew, where are you landing? I'm definitely very different than Zuhair on this one. I'm going to go.
00:02:59
Speaker
I'm going to go for a yeah. Ooh, yeah. I like the phone startup. I am very jazzed about how this episode went. Zuhair and I briefly talked quick right before we got on. I texted him like, I was so excited. And he was like, I'm not. So we definitely have some differing opinions. But I really like the way this episode went. I will say, I agree with Zuhair. I made about that same noise the minute the episode ended. I made a literal scream of like, no, no, that's not over.
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah, two things. First, for the sake of like consistency with the show, that breath that you took before you hit the note, would we call that feedback breathing? I didn't even think about it that way. I was just also trying not to click the mic too much and hit the pitch I wanted. But hey,
00:03:49
Speaker
I'll allow it. Feedback, breathing, level two.
Character Backstories and Implications
00:03:54
Speaker
First form? Oh yeah, first form. And the second thing is just that I love a good cliffhanger, but I don't know. I felt like we only got five minutes of an episode.
00:04:08
Speaker
I kind of agree with you there. I was a little surprised when the episode was over. Normally I can kind of sense when things are kind of reaching a climax, and this one took me a little bit more by surprise when it ended. It was a little more narrative heavy at the beginning. We got quite a bit of a dialogue between Utsui, I'm still having a hard time with that one, and a guitar that gave a little bit of backstory, but I thought the action was phenomenal in some of the exchanges in between.
00:04:37
Speaker
I probably would have been a little more satisfied if we just got a little bit more in terms of the story, but just makes me that much more excited for next week.
00:04:48
Speaker
Yeah, like, I fully understand that, like, sometimes you have to trade dialogue just so that you can, like, save the animation budget for the really good stuff because the action did look stunning. But it's just, we talked about it last week too, it was unnecessary dialogue, which is what was frustrating me.
Predictions and Character Dynamics
00:05:06
Speaker
Like, I don't think either of the, I'm guessing they're twins, either of the twins really care about his backstory, so it's like the fact that they, like, entertained him by letting him talk so much was frustrating.
00:05:19
Speaker
And the same thing with Tanjiro where it's like, you can say, you can explain what you're doing in very few words. It didn't need the level of description and explanation, like trust the audience a little bit.
00:05:35
Speaker
and make this make this episode shorter overall if you need to but don't kill the consistency and the momentum of like what's coming because you really need to stretch it out that's the part that really frustrates me because it was like we finally got to action and then it was over that was what irritated me more than a cliffhanger itself cliffhangers were great the action was great but 20 minutes of dialogue for three minutes of intrigue was it was just frustrating
00:06:06
Speaker
I can understand where you're coming from, but I did appreciate the backstory that we got for Tengen. It does make me a little concerned for his longevity, especially considering the fact that he got poisoned. What are
Character Strengths and Fight Strategy
00:06:20
Speaker
you guys thinking there? Because he got caught in a lie once already during that fight with claiming that our three heroes were his sukugo, his apprentices.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't know if that was a lie so much as he's just actually kind of become endeared to these boys to the point that he is like, you know what? Maybe I will take you on. I don't really care. Like someone needs to take you under the wing. And I don't believe he has a known to go to go.
00:06:50
Speaker
But, so there's a possibility that that wasn't necessarily a total lie, but I agree it was a little bit of a stretch. I will say, however, I was cussing you out, J. Scottie, when they said that he was poisoned. Just after our conversation last week about, oh, is Uzui's time short for this world similar to Rengoku's of there's going to be a theme of killing off Hashira. The minute they said he was poisoned, I was like, no, no, don't make J. Scottie right. This isn't allowed.
00:07:18
Speaker
And meanwhile, when I saw the poison, I was like, well, he said he was a shinobi, so he probably has like some type of tolerance to it. Yeah, yeah, he does. And he's at one point in time, he said he's like at his best when he's being shackled by the impact of poison. So both times they kind of call it false bravado. But again, I don't really know. I would kind of prefer if it didn't follow such a I don't want to call it formulaic, but
00:07:47
Speaker
kind of a rhythm where you can kind of predict where things are going in that matter. I do hope he makes it out in the end, but you're definitely starting to see the effects physically.
Tanjiro's Rank and Power Dynamics
00:07:56
Speaker
I think Gyatara called them sparkling eyes, but he's definitely got a wild eye look to him now, and his veins are popping.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah, and I will say we have seen him already kind of use an antidote on Hinatsuru, the one wife that was poisoned in some capacity earlier in the season when he first found her. So there is a possibility that he has enough knowledge to make it out.
00:08:21
Speaker
But I will say that false bravado was amazing. I just told you guys I have been watching my hero academia on the side. He was giving me some serious all might vibes of I'm going to do this with a smile to really put my best foot forward and make everyone feel a little bit better about this. So I was really enjoying all of that for sure.
00:08:42
Speaker
And then having the view of Ren Goku next to him as he was smiling was like, oh, that's so beautiful. I was fully tearing up. Like legitimately, I had to wipe my eyes. It was so beautiful to see that smile next to Kyojiro's smile again. It was just so endearing. Well, the comparison to All Might is super fitting, especially when you bring up Spirit Ren Goku showing up because he actually refers to Tanjiro as young Kamado at the very end of the episode. So now I really want
00:09:10
Speaker
Tengen to be like, young Kamado. Anybody that knows all might knows what I'm referencing there. But let's talk a little bit about some of the revelations that came with the backstory. So one of the biggest takeaways for me that we kind of talked about off air
00:09:31
Speaker
is the fact that he mentions two of his fellow Hasheera, the stone Hasheera being an enigma, and then the fog Hasheera, we get the revelation that he became a Hasheera within two months of picking up the sword, which is pretty wild. We haven't got to see this guy in action, but given his calm demeanor, I did not see that coming at all. Yeah, and it is amazing because I can't recall, Jay Scottie, were you here for the episode that we talked about how you actually become a Hasheera?
Tengen's Past and Motivations
00:10:01
Speaker
Oh, is that when you guys were kind of breaking down the rankings that we got a little bit of insight to? Yeah, we were talking a little bit more about that and the fact that you have to go through all 10 rankings and then either kill 50 demons or one 12 Kizuki member to actually get promoted. I don't know how you could actually do that in two months time. Like that is insane to think you could not only move up the ranks that quickly, but then have one of the accolades that gets you that final promotion.
00:10:31
Speaker
Yeah, makes me wonder how long exactly he's been a Hashira, but I don't know if we've been given any insight into that. Apparently, he killed one of the upper Kizuki moments after getting his Demon Slayer mark. Wow. Impressive. Okay, so that also brings up logic.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah, we kind of asked that question of at what point in your training, or not training, in your lineage, do you have to kill a 12 Kizuki? So for all intents and purposes, all Tanjiro has to do is get to the top rank now, because he's already killed a Kizuki member in Enmu during Mugen train.
New Story Elements and Techniques
00:11:11
Speaker
So if it counts as soon as you are a member of the core, then it's in my head, you had to do it at the end. So to know that Tanjiro could already potentially have moved up, or once he gets there, he will move up is kind of intriguing for the show.
00:11:28
Speaker
Yeah, I wonder if Inosuke and Zenitsu will be right alongside him when that happens, or if there'll be a time where he's elevated above them. I know Inosuke would not take that very well, referring to Zenitsu as his minion. I don't know if he wants to willingly be Tanjiro's minion now. No, I mean...
00:11:49
Speaker
I think he actually would be okay with that and it would push him more to be better because it's like the level of respect that he's gotten for Tanjiro and the visual support that he shows for him now like he may not say it actually he may just have dialogue of like alright time for me to get better but like I feel like he'd 100% be fine with Tanjiro ranking above him
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah, we've definitely seen some some growth there in the terms of the respect that he has for Tanjiro. So you could be right there.
Visual Details and Story Significance
00:12:24
Speaker
But getting back to some of the backstory for Tengen, we do get the revelation that he has or he had multiple brothers, seven of which died by the time he was 15. And then I guess he shares a little bit commonality with Ren Goku and the fact that he has a father that as much as Ren Goku
00:12:45
Speaker
modeled himself to be just like his father. You can tell there's a very strained relationship there for Tengen because he's got the one younger brother that survived that is just like his father that treats his wives as disposable objects and he said he didn't want to be anything like that. In the flashback, I got the notion that they squared off at some point in time and that was his falling out with the family.
00:13:09
Speaker
I mean, they said it was out of panic, too, because the Shinobi lineage was dying off. And Dabi even had her dialogue of like, no, like the Shinobi died years ago. Like, what are you talking about? You're just messing with us.
Historical Context and Narrative
00:13:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah. On that note, we did get the revelation that this takes place after the Edo period. And you mentioned that you looked up. We got an exact time period, which is this is taking place. And I want to say it was close to late 1800s to early 1920s.
00:13:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's the Taisho period of Japan, which spans between 1912 and 1926. Okay, so clearly in the 20th century.
00:13:47
Speaker
Yes, because the Edo period ended, I think it's 1867. So there's that gap, and then it gets to the Thai show. So it's got to be somewhere up there. Yeah. But I will say tagging on to that comment you made about the brother. I took note of what you were talking about previously, Jay Scottie, with the eyes in the show being so distinct, that the brothers eyes were very similar to usuis, that they had that red hue to them that kind of
00:14:16
Speaker
went from a dark red out to lighter as the eyes went out. But his had this cross hatching in them that was this really, it almost gave a dead look to him of just he didn't care about anything, the blank eyes. And then it flashed back over to Uzui's eyes. And you could see that he had passion behind them in comparison to what his brother had. So it was just a nice note that I don't know if I would have picked up on as heavily had it not been for your commendation of that previously. So it actually reminded me of the hula clan eyes from Naruto.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's you just more fuel for the fire that we'll have to cover Naruto in some fashion sooner rather than later. That's not like I reference it every week or currently wearing a necklace that refers to it or any of that sort. Yeah.
00:15:01
Speaker
Well, I'm glad to be able to provide any kind of little detail like that because you do it all the time. I didn't bring it up at the time, but that was a great mention about Tengen previously providing some anti-poison remedies to his wife there.
Philosophical Reflections and Motivations
00:15:16
Speaker
I really hope that that comes back. It would be a nice resolution to otherwise kind of harrowing situation we've got on our hands.
00:15:25
Speaker
Yeah, because that actually brings up an interesting question is I think she said Daki poisoned her but we don't know how she did that so there could be some weird possibility that like the brother helped to poison Hinatsuru. Could just be regular poison as well but kind of an interesting truth. Was that the wife that he tortured or was that or that Daki tortured or was that just the wife that she poisoned? I mean I'm sure she's tortured all of them in some fashion.
00:15:55
Speaker
That's true because she had them in the belts for some period of time. Yeah. Yeah. Very true. Very true. Meal prep. I guess my last thing as far as the revelations that we got from the past is when we got that flashback to Tingan with his wives in front of the master, the head of the Demon Slayer core. He was not completely blind.
00:16:21
Speaker
He looked like he wasn't blind at all and his scarring was limited to one part of his forehead. So I'm wondering, was that a result of a battle or does he use some kind of power that he has to sacrifice some of himself? And I don't know if you guys have any similar thoughts or insights. My thought is that he's been sick and that was showing the earlier stages of the disease that's been taking over.
00:16:45
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, I always had some weird confusion about that leader because there was a period I think in season one, we only ever saw him indoors.
00:16:56
Speaker
And I was wondering if that meant he was a demon, like couldn't go out in the sunlight. And I don't know if we had ever seen him in pure sunlight. I know in the Mugen train, there was the scene of him walking through, I think it was the graveyard. And he was kind of in the shadows, kind of in the light, but never fully in the light. So I kind of still had thoughts for that theory. But I did take note that during this flashback, he was fully in the light. But like you said, he wasn't blind yet. He didn't have that full scarring.
00:17:24
Speaker
So I didn't know could it have possibly been he was turned to a demon then couldn't be in the sunlight. That's what made him blind was the process of reverting that or something along those lines because we've known it can be difficult for the demons we saw in season
Symbolism and Character Arcs
00:17:38
Speaker
one. That was just a thought I had way back early on that I never heard anyone talk about. So there's probably a reason that we'd like did see him in the light or something. But.
00:17:49
Speaker
That was one of my early, early thoughts is I know he was indoors during the entire bout of Ken Nezuko stay or not because he was under the shelter of that indoor area while Tanjiro was outside headbutting everyone. I think that's a great theory and it makes me want to go back and rewatch and see if I can pick up on any further details there, but yeah.
00:18:12
Speaker
I'm not sure. Yeah, I know that kind of took a weird turn from your question of what did we think about this injury that he had, but that was one of the ones that I always thought was a little peculiar, that his first introduction, he was in the shade almost the entire time. Yeah. It would give a lot of credence to why he's so willing to give Nezuko that chance. Oh, that kind of reminds me of what my question was.
00:18:32
Speaker
this might be asking too much of you guys, but often Tanjiro talks about the way people smell and it's not limited just to the demons. I mean, the way he described Gyataro's scent this time was, I mean, we talk about maybe too much dialogue there, but I really appreciated that. It was numbing the back of his throat and making him shake and he didn't know if it was
00:18:53
Speaker
fatigue or fear, but then he had that moment where he squared up
Fight Choreography and Viewer Engagement
00:18:57
Speaker
and got ready. But I was wondering if he ever smelled the master or had some sense of his intention through his scent. He obviously trusts them. Trust him.
00:19:07
Speaker
That's a really interesting note. And like I said, that could very well be part of this just being some outlandish theory of mine that they never talk about it. But I do feel like there might have been some dialogue of, he might not have said anything about smell, but it was definitely a, wow, this person seems very powerful and very well respected. I definitely recall something along those lines out of Tanjiro, but I don't know if smell specifically was involved to be on that. Okay. Yeah.
00:19:32
Speaker
From there, I guess we can just kind of talk about the fight as it went down. So we did talk about Tengen referring to our three heroes as his Zukugo, but he is obviously very proud of them with their flashy entrances there. That was so good. Like he was just proud of his kids. Like you figured out how to be flashy. Good job. I like how Ducky actually like recognized Zenitsu right away too. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:20:02
Speaker
And he gives her his little lecture there about the women of the entertainment district where she just kind of doubled downs on the fact that like, hey, I'm not the only one treating women this way. This entire industry does this. So I appreciated that look at it a little bit. Humans are definitely still capable of evil even in this world where demons are so prevalent.
00:20:26
Speaker
Which again, good dialogue, just too much of it. Yeah, I did have the question of, like, what does Zenitsu remember when he wakes up? Because the Zenitsu awake would never have challenged her like this. As much as he tried to do it when he didn't know she was a demon, he would not be all about, like, you need to apologize to those girls. This is unacceptable. Like, I want to know, is he going to wake up and be like, oh, yeah, I did that. Or wait, I did what to who?
00:20:55
Speaker
I don't know if thinking about Moon Knight has brought this up, but like, maybe he has some form of disassociative identity disorder too. Like there is, it's not like the sleeping part is just more of comic relief, but there actually is a split personality that he's switching between.
00:21:12
Speaker
That's a fair comparison. Now I kind of want to hear Zenitsu say, I've got a sleeping disorder. Well, I do feel like when he's asleep, the voice actor does like a little bit of a deeper voice.
Character Motivations and Plot Twists
00:21:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So it could very well be something along those lines that they're kind of toying around with, which is really cool.
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean Goku I mean the the voice actor for Goku does that in English because can't stand Japanese Does that quite a bit where he goes between his goofy? Rolf and a neti voice down to like when he actually means business in the Super Saiyan like it's really day and night between the characters Yeah, I feel bad that I can't think of that voice actors name I know his first name is Sean, but I cannot pull his last name right now That's neither here nor there
00:21:59
Speaker
Speaking of too much dialogue, I did appreciate the fact that while Daki allowed Tengen to give his backstory, she was told to shut up by two different characters. Tengen told her to shut up and not underestimate humans. And then Inosuke came in with, shut up with your shrill voice. And she got beheaded again. Oh man, I love how annoyed the brother was too. It's like, why are you always losing your head?
00:22:28
Speaker
Which did give us the revelation that in order to defeat the two of them, they have to be beheaded at the same time. So. And they had their their kill count of one had 15, the other had seven. It's like, oh, wow, you think it's so easy? Like, you know how many Hashira have tried that already? Yeah, it's again, I didn't realize how many Hashira there were. Like, I thought seven was a big number for Daki to know that there's 15 more on top of that.
Comparisons with Other Anime
00:22:57
Speaker
I kind of agree with what we joked about. How have they not come up with like some buddy system to be like, where did these demons come from? Let's fight them together. Like, how does how to, what would that be? 22. Yeah, 22 people go missing in some regard and you can't backtrack where these demons came from. Plus the three retired ones that we know of. And then Akaza has his kill count.
00:23:26
Speaker
I wonder what Muzan's kill count is. Yeah, I don't even want to imagine how many people have fallen victim to him. Yeah, and there's still another four kizuki we haven't seen. Like how often does he have his stanos I'll do it myself moment. Well, he backs up, he grabs his hat instead of the gauntlet and starts to moonwalk backwards.
00:23:56
Speaker
I guess in terms of flat, I get you there. I'm just imagining him fighting a demon. It was the first place I went, I'm sorry. No, that's great. I guess one other thing that I did
00:24:16
Speaker
that was kind of a flashback is when Zenitsu was kind of telling Daki off and then Gyotaro and Daki kind of joined voices and were talking about how their slights from the past and their mistreatment from the past justified their current actions. There was some imagery of like a burning butterfly and I wondered if that came. We know
00:24:40
Speaker
Daki got burned in the past. We found out when she was fighting Nezuko and Nezuko used her blood art against her. I'm wondering if maybe she went up against a former insect Hashira because we know how closely the butterfly is connected to her in her butterfly manner.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah, there was the burning butterfly, but then also in that flashback where we talked about her
Character Relationships and Theories
00:25:04
Speaker
being burned, there was some ancestor of Tanjiro, I believe. So it could have also been a insect Hashira fighting alongside that ancestor of Tanjiro, and that's why you have
00:25:17
Speaker
the butterfly involved with the fire and suddenly some big fight happened that perhaps she was caught in the crossfire. Like it very well could have been she was a human and they were fighting Muzan or someone else and suddenly this young human girl was caught in the fire in between.
00:25:37
Speaker
If that's not the way it goes, I might be a little disappointed because that would be such a tragic backstory if she was just caught in the crossfire. No pun intended, and that's what resulted in her becoming a demon. That would be pretty wild. Okay, so I was looking up butterfly symbolism, and as you were saying that I read one that in Celtic mythology,
00:26:00
Speaker
It regards butterflies as the symbol of the soul. There's an old Irish saying that goes butterflies are souls of the dead waiting to pass through purgatory. They're thought to be able to cross into other realms and represent transformation creation and rebirth. So what if like the butterfly is her but her catching on fire is a transformation to a demon? Could be I like it.
00:26:23
Speaker
I did like the imagery like before the butterfly of like the cages and like the peep, like the skulls that were like elongated and like burning backgrounds too. Just that imagery was beautiful, daunting, but beautiful. Yeah. The show continues to impress with a level of detail with all of the environments. And we talked about how awesome the action was, but I was just really impressed with the momentum of a lot of the action in this episode.
00:26:52
Speaker
Yeah, I honestly think this might be one of the most beautiful episodes we got. I know there's a lot of great ones out there, but just the way that they choreographed Uzui's fighting against Gyotaro, the way that, unlike Akaza versus Rengoku, where things were so fast we couldn't see them, you got all of these whirling blades, him jumping, leaping, doing splits. There was so much more to see and to try and catch every moment of it was impossible.
00:27:20
Speaker
But they put so much work into every single movement that they were doing.
Technical Appreciation: Animation and Choreography
00:27:26
Speaker
This feels like they took the Mugen train money and put it into like this part of it. There was so many shots that you could tell they had to have worked so hard to do.
00:27:35
Speaker
And one of the things is that we don't see the demons go blade on blade very often. So I didn't realize how unique it was that we were actually listening to the blades like connect with each other and seeing the the sparks fly off of it in the unique color depending on the character that they were really focusing on. So hearing those clashes and the actual like choreography behind the swordsmanship and everything was really cool. That was probably my favorite part about it.
00:27:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great call. I definitely noticed the sparks, but I don't know if I appreciated them the same way you did, especially with the differentiating colors there. That's a great call out. Oh, there's actually some benefit to his chain. I was wondering why his blades were connected and the way that he flung it around and had his inhuman level of grip strength on the tip was like, whoa, that's sick. Yeah, even Gyatara was impressed by that.
00:28:27
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know how you train your fingers to be able to do that. But absolute insanity. Yeah. And we did get the water breathing technique kind of brought back for a defensive purpose this time around. And I thought we got a very shung chi moment where you saw, you know, two fists going against each other. And then one fist decides to become an open palm to like redirect that momentum. I thought that was pretty great. I hated it. You hated it.
00:28:55
Speaker
How long it was because I don't know if it's like
00:29:02
Speaker
It could be because I trained this stuff, and like, when that explanation came in, I was like, oh yeah, that concept makes sense. But then I'm sitting there wondering, I was like, does the general audience really need to know it in this much detail? Like, he could have just said that, like, he needed to flow through and that the water style is more perfect for that compared to what his Hina Kamikagawa was doing, but it was dragged on so much!
00:29:28
Speaker
Zuhair, I really think you just explained it perfectly as to why you and I have different thoughts. Because I love that moment. I was like, Oh, that's so cool. It makes so much sense that you can't have power against power like that. So him figure out the defensive techniques of the water breathing, I was like, Oh, this is really nice to have explained to me like this. So it could very well be something along those lines that you know, that makes total sense to you. Whereas
00:29:53
Speaker
I was I was doing a learning thing in that moment. So maybe I got to enjoy it more. I would hate for that to be part of the reason that you're too smart for it, like, but yeah, that's kind of Yeah, I mean, the visual representation, I think was fine.
Further Analysis and Future Speculations
00:30:09
Speaker
I just I just thought I personally thought it was just explained too much, like,
00:30:16
Speaker
Yeah, and it definitely was a little bit drawn out. But like I said, I was glued to the screen, because I was like, How's this gonna work? What's gonna happen? And then to see him use the water breathing again, was, you know, a nice turn, of course. But on the actually sorry, I'm gonna cut you off. He actually said, like, oh, the water breathing would be perfect for this, as he was doing it, instead of going to the fist bumping, and then like pausing to explain a little bit.
00:30:43
Speaker
And like having that beautiful moment where it was like a blacked out background and you could see him just kind of like working the waves. And just like the flow of the blade and everything like that dialogue could have overlapped that a little bit just to just to keep the momentum going. It's just too much stop and start for me.
00:31:03
Speaker
I'm kind of in the middle between the two of you. I really appreciated the moment. I thought it was pretty beautiful. But there were definitely some moments where I thought that Tanjiro was kind of relegated to more of an expository role. But the moment I think about is when Yutaro was coming at him with the blade and it was just like right below his chin and he's like telling himself like, do something, make your sword do something, bend backwards, do something, do something. And then it has to be Tengen who flings him backwards and he has that
00:31:32
Speaker
admission that he's actually being more of a hindrance than at help right now. Did 10? Was that a surprise to anybody? Did anybody like not see that coming? It took me a couple of seconds to register what actually happened. But I do think that Tengen was the one that got him out of that situation rather than himself. Yeah. Okay, I thought he just back flipped out of the way. So that was a no, he was flung over. So it was like went
00:31:59
Speaker
Okay, that makes a little bit more sense because I was like, how did he know to jump out of the way of Uzui's slash that was coming from behind him? I thought they were like, already kind of in sync. That makes a lot more sense as to why they were talking how he isn't quite in sync with him yet. So he can't really be too good.
Breathing Techniques and Strategies
00:32:16
Speaker
No, he straight up said that he was a hindrance because he had to be saved at that moment.
00:32:21
Speaker
That was pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And Tengen gives him some credit just like noting that shoulder injury that he suffered from Daki, like that was a deep cut. And it's a wonder that he's even moving at this point in time. So we've got to keep that in mind. Yeah, both of their biggest injuries came because they had to save some bystanders. True. Very true.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah, it speaks a lot to their characters. But before we move on, I wanted to circle back to the point we were talking about him using or realizing that he could use the water breathing for defensive and the Hino Kami Kagura for offensive. This kind of brought a little bit more credence in my mind to the as much as we don't like to fan theory too much. I'm just going to keep going on it.
00:33:04
Speaker
Zuhair brought up the idea of him possibly learning the other forms of the elements, having water, fire, air, all the different ones. Perhaps he finds that they each have a different purpose, water being defensive, fire being offensive, wind could be perhaps a range or something along those lines. And suddenly he has this arsenal of forms that he can use. I think that would be a really cool way to do it.
00:33:29
Speaker
Because it would be cool enough to see him use all of them at once It's a whole other thing to know that he could use them in different moments and switch back and forth That would just be both visually amazing and I think really good for the story Yeah, he's gonna learn at least four Flame Sun water and wind I'm calling it right now at least four
00:33:51
Speaker
I'm going to throw a heart in there and he'll be, he will become the captain planet of the demon slayer world. I'm out. That was a great call out and I'm sorry. I took away from it with my cheesy joke, but now I think you're right on the money. That's probably where it's going. And it will be awesome to see when he has multiple elements at his disposal and utilizes them in a fight. I can't wait for that. I wanted to back pedal to something you brought up, uh, Andrew, when we were talking about the butterfly and you
Character Dynamics and Teamwork
00:34:22
Speaker
mentioned how when Daki talked about when she was burned, it looked like an ancestor of Tondro's, possibly alongside an insect, Hashira. It just made me think back on the character of Kanoe, which I think is interesting given that that weapon actually showed up at the end of the episode, but she is the current insect, Hashira's protege.
00:34:44
Speaker
And I've always kind of postulated that that might be Tanjiro's romantic interest. I know, Zuhar, you prefer that they stay friends, which I'd be okay with that as well. But I still, that kind of theorizing, I think, gives some credence to where that relationship is headed. And maybe they will be, Hashira, right alongside each other is,
00:35:04
Speaker
as awful as that would be to think that we might be losing more and more Hashira in order for our current heroes to kind of level up and replace them. We have retired Hashira. That's true. And I don't think there's a limit to how many there can be. I think you just have to rank up and then kill the Kizuki or the 50 demons and then your Hashira. So I don't think there can like only be 10 or anything like that.
00:35:28
Speaker
you know, however many there are, there are. So we hopefully don't have to have too many die for Tanjiro and Inosuke Zenitsu. And I forget the insect Hashira's protege's name, but I think it's Kanoe. Why did I think she was the actual Hashira? I could be getting them confused in my head. But for some reason, I thought Kanoe was the
00:35:54
Speaker
actual insect Hashira. I think she's the one that has a difficult time making a decision and she relied on flipping the coin in order to make her decisions for her, if I'm not mistaken. I think that was Kanoe. Yeah, Shinobu is the Hashira. Okay, there we go. Okay, well, there you go. But yeah.
00:36:14
Speaker
I can't remember what we were talking about. Oh, that there's not a limit. So it could be any of them move up at any point, I believe. I think it's the only one that usually has to wait in any regard would be the suku go. They have to wait for whoever they are protégéng under to move up, at least from the information that I found previously, there was no mention of a limit. They probably just have like one per element.
00:36:38
Speaker
Yeah, I wonder if they'll make more elements as we go along because some of them seem... I mean, there's only five main one and everything else is branched off of that. Yeah, because insect isn't like an element or anything like that. It's more related to earth or wind. Serpent. And at the same time, you have in those cases, beast breathing. I don't believe we have anyone that is beast breathing currently. So you could just kind of move right in there.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah, I guess was in it too would probably what does he thunder thunder or lightning? I think he's thunder because I believe there was a his actual mentor was the previous Thunder how she run? That's right. That's right. But he's already his grandfather was his grandfather. No, I think it's just teacher. Okay. Okay Well any to the way that he took on the belt was pretty cool.
Weapons and Fight Development
00:37:34
Speaker
Cause she saw that, uh, doc, he was about to attack and he was just like, I got this. Just flew her up out of the roof. I was like, Ooh, wait, after one moment in this excessive dialogue episode, the laser behind him as he was flying like that. Yeah. Everybody else was like, what? Oh, wow. He's moving.
00:37:36
Speaker
I
00:37:56
Speaker
Yeah. And it took an osu!ke like a couple of minutes to get back up on the roof to join them. So that just shows how quickly they were flying. Well, he was demanding too. So he was like, you two handle this guy and us two will go handle that one. Yeah, that's true. I will say there was another, and they're just so subtle about this, but since Zuhar has brought it up, again, that trust between Tanjiro and an osu!ke, season one, if he had said, watch your back, uh, you know,
00:38:22
Speaker
an escape probably would have been like, Hey, you watch your own back. Don't worry about me. Whereas Tanjiro said, watch your back. And he's like, thanks, we'll do and then ran off. It was just that like, yeah, he really does trust this person to give him some degree of an order. I love his development over such a short amount of time. Yeah. Likewise. It's great to see how these three very different individuals make such a great team. And a lot of the times they are off doing their own thing. But
00:38:51
Speaker
I mean, it's just such a great trio. I don't know how much more I can say about it, but yeah. So I guess just to kind of close things off here, the episode did end on a cliffhanger. We had Tengen's wife, who we'd mentioned a, actually, was she the one that was poisoned in Etsuru? Or did we say that was maybe one of the others? Okay. So yeah, we did have, we see her kind of like struggling down an alleyway, but then she makes her way to the fight and has basically
00:39:17
Speaker
a launcher that launches these blades, which were referred to as Kanoi. Kunai. Kunai. Kunai. Excuse me. Thank you. No, Joe reference. Okay. Shinobi reference. Shinobi reference. I definitely had that word shoved down my throat.
Upcoming Episodes and Battle Outcomes
00:39:31
Speaker
I'm glad it was the word, not the actual thing, because you wouldn't be able to podcast. I don't think I could talk very well, yeah. Yeah, you can't really regenerate with those around. I mean, there's one hanging off my neck right now.
00:39:44
Speaker
But Gitaro is able to deflect most of them with his his blood demon art creating an arc around himself But Tengen actually takes like one to the cheek a couple to the arm Intentionally because he knows where they're at What you got? I had a theory about that. Okay, so they went out of their way to show where Oozui was getting cut by the sickles and
00:40:09
Speaker
And they showed like where the poison was on the side of his head. I feel like he intentionally took the kunai in those spot to drain the poison from those marks. Because they were all by his slashes and by the poison mark on his head. Not bad, not bad. I was like, Oh, he definitely ate those on purpose. That would be a very flashy way to get out of things.
00:40:30
Speaker
Oh yeah. Very flashy. Yeah. Well, we find out that the Kunai were laced with something, an extract from Wisteria, maybe Wisteria itself. So as much as that has a negative impact on demons and their regenerative abilities, maybe it has some health benefit to humans. We can help, fingers crossed. I mean, if he has explosive bombs that only affect demons, I imagine there's like multipurpose to his tools.
00:40:58
Speaker
Yeah, there is that interesting note, as we're kind of seeing more tools, we joked about there being a demon or a demon slayer with a gun or something like that, like, kind of feels feasible now that they can imbue tools with different powers. Because it actually brings up an interesting point that I didn't even think of until right this moment, we saw the wives when they first fell out of the belts in the underground chamber, they were all wielding kunai.
00:41:26
Speaker
while fighting the belt, I didn't even think that it would have had to be some sort of special material for them to be able to actually fight off the belts. But that kind of actually explains it is there. They have that wisteria extract, but they're able to imbue other tools, besides just as niche arranged swords with these powers.
Cliffhanger Ending and Plot Implications
00:41:46
Speaker
So there is a lot of possibility out there. But it's a really nice thing that they explained that I didn't even have a question of before of how the wives were able to do that.
00:41:55
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I like that reference. But yeah, I again, I like what you bring up about the tools and especially the gun now that we have an established time period. And we know that this is a time period where guns definitely did exist. It's it's I think it's only a matter of time before something like that happens. But
00:42:15
Speaker
We do find we get the whole reveal that they are laced with wisteria, or an wisteria, excuse me, wisteria extract when Gyotaro is not able to regenerate his legs, but he still doesn't seem that worried about it. He seems very gleeful with a big smile on his face as Tanjiro is just kind of like inching towards his neck and then the episode ends.
00:42:39
Speaker
I know we don't like to speculate too much, but do we think that this fight's gonna be over at the beginning of the next episode, or is it just the beginning of worse
Post-Credits Scene Analysis
00:42:49
Speaker
things to come in terms of Gitaro's power level?
00:42:51
Speaker
No, there's a belt that's going to slide in at the last second and save him. Oh, okay. Because you notice that she we didn't talk about the fact that she has one of his eyes. True. And her forehead. So there could be a connection and she's been using the belts to help him out throughout this whole fight anyways, who's to say that that won't slip up or she's going to catch the head because you have to hit both of them at the same time, and just kind of hold on to it until you can put it back together.
00:43:20
Speaker
That's exactly what I was thinking is it could very well be as simple as he does actually get his head chopped by Tanjiro and then just smiles at him while he puts it back on because Zenitsu and Inosuke haven't sliced off Daki's head at this point. So that might be his gleeful look is he knows that they can't get to her at the same time.
00:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, now that we talk about it, that's more than likely the way it's going to go. Like, usually it's my sister's the one that gets beheaded, but it's been a while since I have been. You two did good. Now let's see what actually happens. Like he'll probably give them some commendation with that sarcastic nature of his. You're both so talented. It's just not fair. I want you to die now. That's a little too on the nose. Like that could very well be the exact dialogue.
00:44:12
Speaker
I look at all you friends helping each other out. I hate it so much. Scratching it is like... Maybe that's how they'll win in the end. Just kill him with kindness. He can't take it. He's like the Grinch. God, that'd be such a... His heart grows three sizes that day.
00:44:38
Speaker
Well, we are at about 45 minutes here, so we've doubled the length of the episode that we're talking about ourselves. I guess we should talk about the very end. We talked a little bit after the credits. We had Spirit Ringoku show up for a second during the fight, but then he actually gets to exchange some dialogue with Tengen, where Tengen's like, you know, I could never be like you. And he's like, and I could never be like you. You've got, your swordsmanship is phenomenal.
00:45:06
Speaker
Take care of these. You could use less wives. I love it. Yeah, it was great. Yeah, and you had that mention, like I said before, of it feels like Uzui cares about the kids.
00:45:20
Speaker
the fact that it seems like this flashback of Kyojiro also saying, you know, take care of Kamado, the sleeping one and the one with the boar's head, like he cares about them, he imbued this into him. And I couldn't help but think back to our conversation of who's more powerful Kyojiro or Uzui, the respect that they both held for each other was just such a empowering moment because they seem like polar opposites in terms of like,
00:45:48
Speaker
one flashy with three wives the other you know happy go lucky but still very. To the point and has a calm attitude to him the fact they respected each other and we're still it seems like some degree of friends is so amazing and sweet. It seems like you kinda had.
00:46:08
Speaker
more of like an upper mentor influence to Uzui. Like I'm sure they're strong in their own regards but I feel like Kirojiro is higher up. I have to imagine Kirojiro has like a certain level of respect just given his lineage like his father was the former Flame Hashira and he kind of came up. He probably I guess just has
00:46:33
Speaker
more of a presence within the Demon Slayer core than a former Shinobi would. I would just have to imagine. Not as flashy as the presence though, I will say. At the end of the day, they just want to help people.
00:46:48
Speaker
It's funny that the one on fire is not as flashy as the guy for sound. Yeah. I guess from there, we'll bring things to a close here. Thanks for everyone for joining us with our weekly coverage here. I will open the floor to you gentlemen. What else do you have going on in the world? Zuhair, you guest appeared on another podcast recently.
00:47:12
Speaker
Yeah, one of our sibling podcasts, Star Wars Universe podcast, is doing their weekly coverage of the Book of Boba right now. I got to hop on for episode four. So if you want to hear my thoughts on kind of everything leading up to that and then thoughts of episode four as a whole, check out Star Wars Universe podcast hosted by Matthew Fox. Good stuff. Andrew, anything you want to let the people know about?
00:47:36
Speaker
Um, just keep following us, uh, Instagram animation deliberation podcast. Um, I'm having a lot of fun over there. I got the opportunity to give you guys all a big thank you. If you didn't see it, uh, in the past few days on the story, just for, you know, making that feedback episode possible because you guys writing in is exactly how we did that. And I mean, yeah, stay tuned here to keep hearing my voice. I think it kind of seems like I'm here to stay for a little while.
00:48:02
Speaker
And then I don't think I'm possibly guessing on something else that hasn't been announced yet. So you'll just have to keep listening each week. And when it's finally said what I'm going to be guessing on, I'll be able to tell you then. The intrigue, the intrigue. Oh, that Instagram may or may not happen to have some new art from Jay Scottie. So be sure to check out our new cover art.
00:48:23
Speaker
Yes, he did a phenomenal job. It's kind of amazing that we have someone both talented in terms of voice and in all of these editing skills, both for voices and pictures. I'm kind of amazed that we have such a powerhouse here. Oh, shucks, you flatter, you flatter.
00:48:40
Speaker
For my plug, I mentioned it last week, but I want to mention it again. If you like what we're doing here, please leave us a review. It seems like in the past, it helps if we incentivize the review. So I will say,
00:48:56
Speaker
The first five five-star reviews we get on Apple Podcasts, new reviews, we'll do a little drawing and whoever wins, I will do a commission cartoon for you. If you want to check out my artwork at my Instagram, it's at jscottyforreal, j-s-c-o-t-t-y, number four, r-e-e-l. I like to do a lot of comedy mashups, references to movies and whatnot, but I will make a cartoon, cater to your particular
00:49:23
Speaker
So, the first five five-star reviews we see on Apple Podcast, you'll be entered in a drawing and we'll make that happen. So, get out there and show us some love. That's it for me this week. So, thanks for everybody for tuning in. That's T-O-O-N-I-N. Stay well. Until next time, muscle, muscle, muscle.
00:49:46
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email animationdeliberationpodcast at gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at animationdelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit strandepanda.com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash spchat. Tune in next time and remember, stay well.