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This Demon Slayer review contains spoilers.
“And yet, I am still alive”
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has taken its audience on a fascinating journey across its four seasons. Like any good adventure, there are natural highs and lows as a story takes risks, not all of which always pay off.
Demon Slayer’s Hashira Training Arc season has been the most inconsequential and shortest of the series’ seasons. A different adaptation approach may have helped this material shine better and feel more important. That’s not to say that this season hasn’t been enjoyable and this extensive focus on training wouldn’t feel nearly as manipulative if the season were twice as long. This season, while far from filler, almost comes across as a playful way to bide time until Demon Slayer’s final battle.
The Hashira Training Arc lacks the series’ trademark Demon duels that have punctuated past seasons and there’s a lack of urgency that has dragged these episodes down. It will be interesting to see this season’s reputation once Demon Slayer is over and how often people revisit these episodes. However, those who have been let down by Demon Slayer’s Hashira Training Arc season as a whole will still be absolutely blown away by its knockout finale.
“The Hashira Unite” gives fans their largest Muzan Kibutsuji showcase to date and ends the season on the best note possible with a virtuosic display of visuals and violence. It’s absolutely everything that audiences want out of a Demon Slayer episode. The proceedings begin with an infinitely tense meeting between Muzan Kibutsuji and Kagaya Ubuyashiki, as the former achieves a goal that’s plagued him for 1000 years. It really leans into the gravitas of Kibutsuji’s relationship with the Ubuyashiki family and this final meeting receives the proper weight that it deserves.
This tragic encounter takes up nearly half of the finale, which is the perfect melancholy way to kick off the season’s foreboding finish. “The Hashira Unite” stays true to Demon Slayer’s mission statement to mix impossible action sequences with heavy sorrow and methodical, reflective remorse. This interaction concludes with an unprecedented explosion that’s nearly apocalyptic in nature, yet it’s hard to not feel inspired by the time that the dust settles. Ubuyashiki perishes, but he gets exactly what he wants. The Hashira were already incredibly motivated to take out Muzan Kibutsuji, but now they’re united like never before.
“The Hashira Unite” makes a meal out of Ubuyashiki and Kibutsuji’s portentous rendezvous. That being said, Ubuyashiki has been such a thinly-drawn character who Demon Slayer’s audience hasn’t really been able to connect with much throughout the anime’s four seasons. Granted, Ubuyashiki first appears during the final episodes of Demon Slayer’s first season, but he’s only been present in a handful of episodes and has become increasingly absent since Demon Slayer’s third season. This creates an inherent barrier to the relationship’s catharsis that holds it back.
It’s a major event in terms of Demon Slayer lore, yet it could be even more powerful. All this would hit much harder if Ubuyashiki was an active presence throughout the course of the anime. Instead, this millennium-long game of cat-and-mouse merely feels like a flashy way to kick off the finale and remind audiences that Muzan Kibutsuji doesn’t just call the shots with his cabal of Demons, but that he’s also extremely powerful.
This finale is largely about celebrating destructive action between some of the series’ strongest characters. However, it does find some time to dip its toe in some more philosophical ruminations that tease this universe’s karmic consequences, or lack thereof. Ubuyashiki talks about his cursed bloodline trying to endlessly atone for the venom that they unintentionally released into the world, all while Kibutsuji gloats that he’s yet to receive any punishment for the thousands of lives that he’s taken. It’s fascinating, on the eve of such fallout, to indicate that Demon Slayer exists in a godless world where evil can effectively thrive, yet Kibutsuji’s musings still come across as shortsighted.
Muzan Kibutsuji has not had to suffer any demonstrable consequences, but Nezuko and Tanjiro have seemingly been rewarded by divine intervention — most notably during season 3’s finale — to indicate that some higher power may still exist. It’s rich material for Demon Slayer to explore as it heads into its endgame. Plenty of Demon Slayer’s purest characters have been unfairly tortured, yet there’s still a light at the end of the tunnel for those who don’t waver in their beliefs. Ubuyashiki laments his family’s poor fortune, yet he has miraculously lived much longer than expected and staved off the curse’s fatal effects through his extreme hope. Muzan Kibutsuji may yearn to acquire immortality, but if “eternity” is to be loved, remembered, and forgiven, then he’s failed to live a single day of his life.
Kibutsuji may not have suffered in the past, but the last 15 minutes of “The Hashira Unite” are basically an extended torture session where the Hashira beautifully work together and rain endless pain down on Muzan Kibutsuji. It’s extremely satisfying and helps bring many of the season’s themes and teachings together. Kibutsuji is a character who’s always been in control and the one who calls the shots. It means so much to see him get genuinely surprised for once and not know what’s going on. It’s exactly the type of payoff that’s required for a slower, introspective season like this.
Every Hashira contributes in their own way during this extended endurance duel. However, Gyomei Himejima’s vicious beatdown on Kibutsuji is particularly strong. He presents such a dizzying combat style that’s well worth the wait. This synchronized assault is easily the strongest sequence from Demon Slayer’s fourth season, but there’s a strong case to be made that it’s the best material that Demon Slayer has produced, period. There’s still one final arc that Demon Slayer needs to cover, but it will be hard for the series to top the heights of this chaotic showdown. “The Hashira Unite” would have made for an incredibly rewarding series finale if Muzan Kibutsuji perished during this clash.
Demon Slayer is frequently celebrated for its eye-popping animation and “The Hashira Unite” really goes for broke in this regard. Nozomu Abe returns as key animator for the first time this season and is responsible for the finale’s most glorious sequences (including Kibutsuji’s grotesque morphing and regeneration). Ufotable does some of their best work in this finale and it all just creates greater anticipation for the upcoming cinematic Infinity Castle trilogy that’s set to conclude Demon Slayer.
The battle sequences feature the finale’s most impressive visuals, but there are also stunning water color-esque tiger and dragon visuals during the apex of Ubuyashiki’s speech. Even the detailed animation during the melting of snowflakes is remarkable. Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina’s suspenseful and triumphant score once again works overtime here in order to make sure that all these visual spectacles connect. Every element of “The Hashira Unite” feels downright cinematic.
“The Hashira Unite” is a season finale that feels like a prelude to bigger things. Muzan Kibutsuji ultimately escapes and gets the last laugh here, but it’s hard to feel disappointed with such a visually kinetic and emotionally rich Demon Slayer. The decision to not let the audience in on the Demon Slayers’ strategy so that they can be surprised by it, just like Muzan Kibutsuji, is a controversial strategy that may have hurt the rest of the season. However, it definitely helps heighten this finale and maximize its suspense and excitement.
Episodes like “The Hashira Unite” are exactly why people have fallen in love with Demon Slayer and it accomplishes such dynamic heights that make it all the easier to overlook the season’s grander pacing problems and misgivings. This episode is one of 2024’s most satisfying anime accomplishments. It’s become increasingly difficult for Demon Slayer to top the heights of its incredible finales, yet “The Hashira Unite” is a testament to the power of teamwork – both in the Demon Slayer Corps and Ufotable.
It’s going to be an excruciating wait until Tanjiro and the rest of the Hashira finally face off in the Infinity Castle against Muzan Kibutusuji and the rest of his Upper Rank Demon. That being said, Demon Slayer’s cinematic trilogy finale will no doubt end the series on the biggest and most visually expressive note imaginable.
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