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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Season 1 Episode 4 Recap – Final Selection
BY Harris
Published 2 years ago
The Thread
Tanjiro reflects on the reason he accomplished his task. In his mind, he sees a thread between his foe and his sword – a thread that he notices through his sense of smell. The thread leads his sword to the enemy’s weak spot, and all he has to do is to hit it with his best effort.
Master Urokodaki approaches to inspect the cut rock. He reveals that he didn’t want him to pass the test as he doesn’t want another child to be killed. He can’t believe what Tanjiro’s achieved and praises his student.
Tanjiro cries as the master hugs him and tells him to do his best. They had a special feast of hot pot to celebrate Tanjiro’s graduation that night.
The Master worries deep inside as Tanjiro will have to face harder challenges from now on. The path ahead will not be easy.
A Demon’s Power
He warns him that a demon’s strength corresponds to how many people they have eaten. The more they eat, the greater the possibility of gaining magical powers. Depending on his sense of smell, he may be able to tell how many humans the demon has eaten. Urokodaki gives Tanjiro a fox mask as a talisman to keep him from danger.
Tanjiro bids farewell to a sleeping Nezuko and promises to come back. He asks the Master to tell Sabito and Makomo his thanks, and the master expresses disbelief at hearing those names.
Final Selection
Tanjiro arrives at the mountain to find many others like him. A pair of twin girls welcomes them to the Demon Slayer Corps’s Final Selection. At the Fujikasane Mountain, there are a lot of captive demons who can’t go outside because of the wisteria blossoms that border the area.
As they go further inward, demons will start to appear. If they survive for seven days inside, they will pass the Final Selection. Tanjiro steps forth, determined.
Night comes, and he scouts the area, planning to survive until daybreak so that he can rest in the morning. He smells a demon close by as he approaches east. Two of them appear to ambush him, but Tanjiro keeps his calm and uses Breath of Water. He senses the thread and slashes them with Fourth Form: Slicing Tide. He cries as his hard work pays off.
His Master lent him a Nichirin Blade that can kill demons. He prays for the demon’s souls after beating them.
Greater Demon
Later, he smells a stronger stench. Another candidate is running away from a demon. Tanjiro senses it, and it’s something larger than usual.
Back at the mountain, Makomo asks Sabito if Tanjiro can beat “him.” They’re both unsure.
At the Final Selection, a gigantic demon is clutching a dead candidate with his many arms. It opens its mouth and eats him. After which, its body and limbs grow stronger.
Tanjiro cuts its arm as it tries to catch another candidate. The demon asks him what year it is. It grows angry as it learns the era has changed and that he’s been trapped here for a long time. It curses the name of Urokodaki, who imprisoned the demon 47 years ago.
The demon has grown too strong, and it has now eaten a total of 50 candidates. He calls Tanjiro the fourteenth student of Urokodaki that he will devour. The last two of them were Sabito and Makomo.
Tanjiro can’t believe it. The demon keeps taunting him, detailing how he killed Makomo. Tanjiro charges in anger and is thrown away. Sabito asks him to breathe better. Tanjiro strengthens his resolve, as he can’t accept anyone else to be eaten.
Tanjiro braces for a slash. He then sees a thread of weakness and cuts it clean.
Our Thoughts:
Here, we have a great escalation of enemy strength, and the stakes are getting higher. The anime doesn’t shy away from giving our MC very gruesome monsters that contrast with his gentle heart. I rate this 3.8/5
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