The fourth and potentially final TV season of the hit anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba aired its fourth season this summer, adapting and expanding on the “Hashira Training Arc” of Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga. We weren’t able to review this season right when it finished due to work on our massive Kyoto Animation project, but now that we’re between seasons we thought it was time to talk once more about one of our favorite ongoing anime. These episodes adapt a very short slice of the manga, expanding on it in really wonderful ways to give us a final stretch of in-depth character development before the chaos of the Infinity Castle Arc, which will be produced as a film trilogy in the coming years. As always, ufotable’s adaptational choices are really smart and interesting to talk about, and it all builds to a season finale that’s one of the best episodes in the show’s history. 

Enjoy! We’ll be going on a bit of a hiatus for now as we work on SEASON 5 of Japanimation Station, our ‘Grand Tour’ through a variety of anime, which will be premiering later this winter. 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:15

Hashira Training Arc Review Part 1: 0:01:15 – 1:06:24  

Eyecatch Break: 1:06:24 – 1:06:47

Hashira Training Arc Review Part 2: 1:06:47 – 2:19:08

End Theme: 2:19:08 – 2:20:09

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“Welcome to Japanimation Station” – Original Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Thomas Lack and Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku; “Rolled Into One” – Original Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com