Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3 ~ Zeniko’s Final Misadventures, maybe [Spoilery Anime Review]

In Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3, Zenitsu, Zeniko gets the spotlight for once. Too bad it might just be his, I mean, her last spotlight.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3 is the third episode in the Entertainment District Arc: the latest season of the critically acclaimed Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime. Which is itself the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Koyoharu Gotouge. This particular episode features Akihiko Uda as the director, with Takashi Suhara responsible for the storyboard. Haruo Sotozaki is still the overall director of the anime. Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina are still the composers behind the anime’s incredible music. Ufotable is still the animation studio behind the anime as a whole. Lastly, Aniplex of America is responsible for bringing this anime to us here in the US.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3 premiered on December 19, 2021. You can watch it on either Funimation or Crunchyroll. Usually, I’d tell you that Crunchyroll is the place to go to watch anime for free. However, for some bizarre reason, the Entertainment District Arc as a whole is locked behind a paywall on Crunchyroll, and it’s Funimation where you can watch it for free. Seems a bit reversed from normal, but that’s the case.

Warning: spoilers for Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3 below. If you want to see the misadventures of Zeniko for yourself, stop here, and come back once the high-pitched screaming is over.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3 ~ Plot Summary

The plot of Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3 can basically be summarized as “Zenitsu’s Finest (and Possibly Final) Hour”. But before we go into that, we’ll start with what Tanjiro and Inosuke were doing. Tanjiro…didn’t really do all that much in this episode besides demonstrating that he was the finest houseworker in the building. Which fits in perfectly with his personality, really, so it’s fine.

Inosuke did quite a bit more in Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3. Much more. In fact, he almost found one of the Sound Hashira’s missing operatives. Unfortunately, the demon was a lot quicker and could move into the spaces between walls. Even Inosuke’s mad running and parkour skills were no match for this demon.

Speaking of which, the demon in question is now starting to get a lot more characterization in Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3. She’s apparently quite old, and very cruel. She’s constantly changing her name to avoid detection, but always chooses names that end with “-hime“. Warabihime is her current name. And well, she’s such a good killer that she doesn’t even eat all the humans she kills. She only eats the choice humans (i.e. the young and pretty ones), rather like a cat.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for

And now, we come to Zenitsu’s role in this episode. He comes across a young kamuro (apprentice oiran courtesan) who was standing in the middle of a rather hideous mess of a room. As it turns out, that room was Warabihime’s room. She demonstrates her cruelty by yanking on the young girl’s ear so hard that it starts to tear and bleed. Zenitsu, being Zenitsu, tries to get Warabihime to stop. Note that he can tell Warabihime is a demon, and a powerful one on top of that, and he’s scared out of his mind, but he still steps in. Warabihime slaps him so hard it sends him flying through several walls. The house manager only just barley gets Warabihime to stop, and get Zenitsu some medical treatment.

Zenitsu wakes up surrounded by the house’s 3 kamuro, thanking him for the heroics. Only, it seems Zenitsu is no longer Zenitsu. He now apparently thinks he’s Zeniko, and that she’s been dreaming of being a man. What?? Anyways, the kamuro leave Zenitsu, I mean, Zeniko alone for a bit to recoup from their injuries. Zeniko starts to relax, and then bolts of cloth snake down from the ceiling like tentacles to ensnare her. As it turns out, Warabihime meant to cause serious injury to Zenitsu, but noticed that he turned it into a minor injury at the last moment, making her suspicious of him. What will become of Zeniko? Well, we’re just going to have to find out in the next episode of Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3 ~ The Good

I’ll admit, Zenitsu/Zeniko was actually pretty cool in Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3. Nelson Mandela once said: “The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” Zenitsu is the epitome of that quote in this episode. We see moments of this during the Mugen Train Arc, but that was while he was asleep like usual. He’s actually awake here, but still overcomes his fear and cowardly nature to be a hero. That, I believe, is what makes him the hero of this episode.

Plus, that bit in the end where Zenitsu reveals that he actually believes he’s Zeniko. Does this mean that we’re going to see the “true” Zeniko appear in the next episode? There’s something funny about Zenitsu genuinely believing that he’s Zeniko, which could very easily result in some hijinks. I guess we’ll have to wait for Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 4 to find out though.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 3 ~ The Bad

As a devoted fan of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime, I’m a bit of a biased writer, as you might expect. Thus, it’s hard for me to come up with anything really negative about this episode. I guess my biggest complaint is the lack of focus on Tanjiro and Nezuko (especially the latter), but even this is really taking nitpicking to a whole new level. Your mileage may vary, so don’t hesitate to disagree with me on this.

Source: Funimation, Crunchyroll