Now I did not do an article on the first episode of this arc considering I already did an article on the to the Hashira Training arc movie, I did consider adding in more screenshots, but then time also should permit.
The Hashira Training Arc in the Manga was about a third the size of the swordsmith village arc and even so that gave the Anime only ten episodes that too barely.
Don't get me wrong, the Swordsmith Village arc is one of the best adaptations from Manga to screen, even the "bad" episodes were essentially bad because they included more slow action as Tanjiro measured his opponent. But one has to say, there was some new content they had to make just for the Anime to make it longer.
The Hashira Training Arc is once again one of the most important chapters in the Demon Slayer Mythos as it outlines the sort of final push before the finale so to speak for the Demon Slayer, but it doesn't have that many Chapters, again it was a third of the size of the previous arc.
But then there is a very popular criticism of Demon Slayer especially towards the end of the manga series, and that is that it lacks much development and is sort of rushed.
Many of the Hashira especially did not get as much development as one would have hoped, for example, Sanemi and Obanai only got developed during their final battle, and the whole love for his younger brother thing was only teased earlier when Sanemi went for Genya's head because he ate Demons, which actually turned out to be his way of protecting his brother from the tragedy of the Demon Slayer corps.
And many Hashira such as Rengoku and Mitsuri got separate chapters to develop them further.
The only way I could see them pulling off an entire season with the Hashira Training Arc is if they developed each Hashira in an episode, bringing forward some of the later arcs and tying in some of the side comics into the narrative, because that proper development is what will make us care that much more when the final arc comes around.
And also that will put aside one of the greatest problems I have with the finale, i.e. how Shinobu someone who absolutely loathes demons worked with Tamayo, a demon and it was just, glossed over... But it seems it won't be this time around. And we are obviously getting some anime only content, espescially the coming episode as that will likely focus upon Shinobu's backstory and reintroduce Douma before he is killed in the infinity castle arc.
And more importantly we will get to see Rengoku again, as the side chapters of his first mission and the battle against the then lower moon two will be translated on screen, I mean come on, they have to right.
It's Rengoku.
And we will get to learn the backstory of Mitsuri's booba uniform... And yes, that does have a very peculiar backstory. Trust me guys it's interesting.
But this episode however, focuses on the water Hashira, and finally gives us the backstory to Sabito, the ghost who trained Tanjiro to break the stone.
That being that due to him the entire selection of Demon slayers survived that years final selection except him as he died to the hand demon.
So in Giyu's eyes he never passed final selection as that year he simply passed out and awoke again when the selection was over.
The episode has a unique emphasis on his past Trauma and how it gets him into a negative mindset that makes him feel unworthy as a Hashira.
The next episode it seems will focus on Shinobu and her elder sister's death. But that begs the question, will we get to see the Shinobu and Giyu comic brought to life in the Anime?
