Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago” Finally gives Tanjiro the new sword he’s been asking for. Only to take it away again for some reasons that are extremely obvious once you see it and think about it. Unfortunately, it’s ill timing for Tanjiro. Especially since this is the episode when the Demons finally make their move and take first blood.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago”: Details

'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc' NA key visual.
Oh, the Demons aren’t just drawing near. They’re already here.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago” is the third episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1 and Ep. 2 here) of season 3 of this dark fantasy martial arts adventure anime series. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Koyoharu Gotouge. Ufotable (Tales of Symphonia: The Animation, Fate/zero, Tales of Zestiria the X) remains the animation studio behind this season of the anime, as they have been for the past 2 seasons.

Ken Nakazawa is the director of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago”, with Hideki Hosokawa doing the storyboard. As for the anime in general: Haruo Sotozaki remains the director, with Akifumi Fujio, Masanori Miyake, and Yūma Takahashi producing. Ufotable claims collective credit for the writing, while Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina together composed the music.

Speaking of music: Man with a Mission with Milet sang both the opening theme song “Kizuna no Kiseki” (English: “Bonds of Miracle”) and the ending theme song “Koi Kogare” (English: “Yearning”) for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago” stars the voices of Natsuki Hanae (Zach Aguilar in English dub) as Tanjiro Kamado and Akari Kitō (Abby Trott in English dub) as Nezuko Kamado. Other notable voices for this episode include Ayumu Murase as Kotetsu, Kengo Kawanishi (Griffin Burns in English dub) as Muichirō Tokitō, and Nobuhiko Okamoto (Zeno Robinson in English dub) as Genya Shinazugawa.

Where to Watch?

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago” premiered on April 23, 2023. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll at the moment.

Warning: spoilers for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago” below. If you want to watch the Demons take first blood for yourself, then stop here and come back once you’ve survived the first strike.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago”: Plot Summary

'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc' Ep. 3 "A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago" screenshot depicting Chibi Nezuko cheering after Tanjiro has finished braiding her hair.
You wish the chibi happiness stays like this, but alas…

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago” picks up right where we left off in the previous episode. In fact, we even get a very brief recap of Tanjiro cutting off the head of Yoriichi Type Zero again, exposing the ancient sword within. Initially, Tanjiro and Kotetsu are overjoyed at the prospect of Tanjiro getting a new sword in an unconventional way. Alas, when Tanjiro pulls out the sword from its scabbard, it turns out: swords that sit there without maintenance for 300 years rust. Surprisingly realistic outcome there.

Fortunately, Hotaru Haganezuka (Tanjiro’s swordsmith) shows up to “leave it to me”. What he means by that is he wants to clean up the rust on the sword for Tanjiro. It will take 3 days to do it, but after that, Tanjiro will finally have a working sword again. Now all they have to do is wait for those 3 days, right? Unfortunately, things get a lot more complicated when the Upper-Rank Demons show up.

Revenge of the Demons

'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc' Ep. 3 "A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago" screenshot depicting Harpy Hantengu carrying Tanjiro off.
Of course this is the season in which we get a flying Demon for the first time.

The creepy jar Demon (Gyokko) begins the attack by ambushing a swordsmith, resulting in the poor guy looking like he went through a juicer. Then a slightly pitiful and cowardly-seeming Demon (Hantengu) shows up to…ambush(?) Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Muichirō. He even seems absurdly weak, with the Mist Hashira cutting off his head in an instant. Unfortunately, in the words of the great Admiral Ackbar: “It’s a trap!”. Hantengu intentionally allowed himself to be beheaded because he’s basically a hydra. Cut off one head, and he splits into more forms that are each more powerful than the original. One of them blasts away the Mist Hashira with a gust of wind, and the other prepares to attack Tanjiro.

However, Genya shows up wielding a sword and a double-barreled pistol firing bullets made of the Demon-slaying sword metal. Alas, he only makes things worse, with the number of Hantengus now up to 3. One of them impales Genya, and another flies off with Tanjiro in a monstrous harpy-like form. Tanjiro yells for Nezuko (now in her grown-up Demon form) to save Genya, before devoting his attention to Harpy Hantengu. The Demon though blasts him with a sonic screech, causing him to fall to the ground far below with what looks like a concussion. This is definitely going to be a tough battle for him.

Meanwhile, Muichirō is trying to get back to the battle ASAP. He then comes across young Kotetsu under attack by a monstrous fish thing. The Mist Hashira at first decides to abandon him, but then remembers Tanjiro’s words about how “helping someone will come around to help you”. Muichirō decides to take this to heart and protect Kotetsu. Will he succeed? Well, we’ll hopefully find that out in the next episode of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago”: The Good

'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc' Ep. 3 "A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago" screenshot depicting Muichirō Tokitō defending Kotetsu.
Muichirō, you were a good guy after all!

As was the case for the previous 2 episodes, the best part of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago” is the story. It makes sense due to the anime being a direct adaptation of Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga. The excellent story is more Gotouge’s work, really.

However, I have to also give a kudos to the animation. Ufotable has always maintained a very high animation quality for this anime, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago” is no exception. Especially during the battle scenes. They always manage to make the most fluid and entertaining battles. In particular, we finally get to see Mist Breathing techniques in action, and it’s as eye candy as it sounds. Props to Hantengu though for being a visually distinct and entertaining boss to fight. Let’s see how many different versions of him Tanjiro and co. will fight next.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago”: The Bad

'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc' Ep. 3 "A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago" screenshot depicting regenerating from the neck down while doing a handstand.
Now this is what I call a graphic regeneration scene.

Nothing I can criticize about Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 3 “A Sword from Over 300 Years Ago”, really. I fully admit to being heavily biased towards this anime due to my fandom over it. However, this is definitely just as perfect an episode as the previous ones. If not better due to us finally getting to see the Demons in action. Don’t believe me? Then why not watch it for yourself and find out?