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Demon Slayer Season 3 Review

The third season of Demon Slayer premiered in 2023 and it consisted of 11 episodes. It is so far the weakest season of this anime.

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“It’s not about going first“

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It adapts the Swordsmith Village arc from the manga. This arc isn’t the greatest. When all is said and done, it ended up being pretty good, but when compared to the previous seasons, it came off short. My main issue with this season is that by now Demon Slayer has resorted to two things that I dislike most in my anime and those are extensive battles and exposition with flashbacks.

Basically, this entire season can be best described as one overly extended battle sequence that is interspersed with flashbacks that give us origin stories for both new heroes and villains. Those flashbacks were totally unnecessary and overlong for the most part with some solid exceptions with the main villain getting the best flashback by far. The show and its hero constantly showing empathy for these brutal villains was both unbelievable and morally incomprehensible.

As for that overlong action, undoubtedly the battles are still thrilling and at times even genuinely staggering. Some epic moments can be found in the latter stretch of this season for sure. It was still too extended and the demons take way too much time and effort to successfully kill off, but at least those villains were mostly a lot of fun how over-the-top they were.

I missed seeing Zenitsu and Inosuke, who were both sidelined in this season for inexplicable reasons, but at least Tanjiro got a terrific arc and the eventual survival of Nezuko while in the sun was both thrilling and emotionally earned. It will surely signal an important plot point for the rest of the series. The new heroes are mostly just solid with the female Hashira being quite fun and charming.

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Demon Slayer was still superbly animated in this season. The score, soundtrack and voice acting continue to shine as well. My main problem is the off pacing as the season chaotically felt both rushed and overlong at times. It started off very slow, but it ended with a bang as most of these seasons do.