Demon Slayer's Hashira Training Arc, Explained (2024)

Demon Slayer, as a whole, is rapidly approaching its long-anticipated endgame. Seasons 1-3 all built up Tanjiro Kamado as a powerful shonen trio who was ready to take on any and all demons in battle, while Season 4 was a little different. That season covered and even expanded upon the manga's Hashira training story arc, with a few notable developments, clear stakes, and mixed results.

Season 4 took place not long after the fall of Gyokko and Hantengu at the swordsmith village, and after Mitsuri and Muichiro awakened their demon slayer marks and Nezuko Kamado became immune to the sun, it was clear to all that a new era was beginning. No longer are Tanjiro and his friends fighting Upper Moons to perpetuate the struggle and scour Japan for a cure for Nezuko's condition. The endgame is close, and that fact was clear all throughout Season 4, with all demon slayers going Plus Ultra for the final battle and Muzan Kibutsuji preparing his own forces for the final battle. Thus, the Hashira training arc was more than a giant training montage, though it wasn't a lot more than that.

What Happened in the Hashira Training Story Arc?

For the sake of training the main characters and setting up the story's endgame phase, a variety of events took place in the Hashira training story arc across the span of eight episodes. To begin with, the demon doctor Tamayo returned to the fore, starting with her acceptance of an invitation to the Ubuyashiki manor despite her demon status. The last Demon Slayer fans saw her, Tamayo was a doctor working in Tokyo in Season 1, content to support the Kamados from the shadows, but now she is ready to help develop new weapons to fight Muzan Kibutsuji and help cure Nezuko at last. By the season's end, the payoff for Tamayo's return was her brief battle against Muzan, showing her full strength for the first time as she helped the Hashira keep Muzan on the defensive and buy time to find a way to finish him off.

The Hashira training arc focused not just on the actions of the Hashira, but also their personal arcs and the personal arcs of the people near them. One example was the Shinazugawa brothers, who still did not get along as of this story arc. Genya tried to convince his older brother Sanemi to respect him as a resourceful fighter, only for Sanemi to attack him, and Tanjiro intervened to prevent disaster. Thus, Tanjiro ended up fighting Sanemi instead, and the two of them became more like enemies than ever. The Shinazugawa brothers have serious unresolved issues that interfered with that season's training, unfortunately enough.

Another notable Hashira arc included Giyu Tomioka, the Water Hashira whom Demon Slayer fans met all the way back in Episode 1, "Cruelty." He recused himself from the Hashira training regimen for reasons he declined to divulge, and he didn't even make any obvious effort to awaken his demon slayer mark, in contrast with his peers. Tanjiro was encouraged to speak with Giyu and work things out with him, leading Tanjiro to pester the Water Hashira until the latter finally gave in and revealed the truth. He had serious imposter syndrome about his Hashira rank, stemming from his guilt and failure in his final selection exam years ago. Sabito had died to ensure Giyu's survival, and Giyu had technically failed the exam, but ended up a Hashira, anyway. Giyu's devastating backstory still weighed heavily on him, to the point he decided to make sure Tanjiro would soon succeed him as a proper Water Hashira.

After training with most of the Hashira, Tanjiro and his friends Inosuke and Zenitsu ended up with Gyomei Himejima's own bizarre training regimen, which called for something new. Instead of swordsmanship, Tanjiro and his friends had to embrace repetitive action tp push round boulders across the ground, and Tanjiro made remarkable progress when his new friend Genya gave him tips as a notable user of repetitive action. Now Tanjiro has another tool in his arsenal aside from Water Breathing and Hinokami Kagura, and he will soon need it as the final battle against Muzan begins. After all, Muzan was the one who confronted the Ubuyashiki family at the end of this arc to finish them off, and once the Ubuyashikis set off explosives to hurt Muzan, the Hashira started closing in. Now is the time for Tanjiro to put all his training to good use as Muzan begins his endgame plan.

How Does the Hashira Training Arc Set Up Future Demon Slayer Movies?

Overall, the Hashira training story arc was one giant setup sequence for what comes next, meaning the Demon Slayer franchise has plenty to work with when the anime's story resumes sometime in the future. By now, fans know for sure that the anime will conclude not with a Season 5, but with some movies, continuing this anime's experimental habit of interweaving movies and episodes to tell this short but sweet story. Three movies will finish the saga of Demon Slayer, and the Hashira arc provides a variety of unresolved plot threads for those movies to latch onto. Some plot threads are action-based, and some are more personal.

The main setup is the final battle against Muzan and the remaining Upper Moons, which is what Demon Slayer fans have been looking forward to the most. This eight-episode season ended with a bang not just because of Kagaya's trap against Muzan, but Muzan's own trap in response. Both parties arrived at that tense meeting prepared, and just when the Hashira closed in on Muzan, the demon king made his move. The distant Nakime, the new Upper Moon 4, used her biwa to summon open doorways under the Hashira and other noteworthy demon slayers, sending them tumbling into Muzan's Infinity Castle, moving the final fight to Muzan's home turf.

The Hashira training arc also set up some emotional stakes as well as physical ones, since Tanjiro is fighting to finally restore Nezuko's humanity and succeed Giyu as the Water Hashira, while this is Genya's and Sanemi's last chance to fight together and get along as brothers. This may also help push the power of friendship in a new direction, with Tanjiro and Muichiro Tokito enjoying a new friendship that may inspire them to fight that much harder side by side against Muzan's most elite minions.

The Hashira Training Arc Left Too Much on the Table

It's true that shonen anime series like Demon Slayer tend to rely on training arcs to boost the power levels and give the heroes new techniques to use against the villains in future battles. Series like Naruto and Bleach indulge heavily in them and may spend many episodes on those arcs, while more recent anime series like Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, and My Hero Academia usually keep their training arcs short and to the point, a trend for the better. Demon Slayer did well with that, but then Season 4 pushed the training arc trope too far. While the Hashira training arc did get plenty done in its runtime, it also left too much unresolved for the movies to handle. Of course, that arc had to leave a fair amount on the table for the upcoming movie trilogy to work with, but it may have overdone it a little.

The Hashira training arc had some payoff, such as Tanjiro successfully learning to use repetitive action to push that boulder and Tanjiro's newfound friendship with Muichiro, but aside from that, it was purely setup with too little payoff. Not even the start of the final battle against Muzan served as a proper payoff for everything that the Hashira training arc set up, and if the final battle is going to dominate the rest of the narrative, there may not be room to resolve the personal plot threads. Or at most, those threads will get just one brief scene each to hurry and conclude them.

For example, Tanjiro and Muichiro might fight side by side in the movies' battles, but they could just as easily not do so, which would make their new friendship feel almost meaningless. Also, there's some serious unresolved tension with the Shinazugawa brothers, but it didn't go very far in the Hashira training arc, and there may not be much time for that in the movies, either. The same can be said about Giyu's mission for Tanjiro to succeed him as the Water Hashira and Obanai Iguro's lingering dislike for Tanjiro, not to mention the beloved Nezuko's own arc as she nears her restoration to human status. All that was half-heartedly set up in the Hashira training arc, perhaps too late for the overall Demon Slayer franchise to resolve. And even if the movies do resolve all that, it still makes the Hashira training arc feel half-complete, giving fans too many unresolved plot threads for the movies to juggle with all the battles that are about to take place.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

TV-MA

Animation

Action

Adventure

Release Date

January 22, 2021

Cast

Natsuki Hanae , Zach Aguilar , Abby Trott , Akari Kitō , Yosh*tsugu Matsuoka

Main Genre

Animation

Seasons

4