Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito”: Feel The Misty Burn! [Anime Review]

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito” reveals that the titular Hashira is quite the burn artist. It’s also pretty fitting, considering who he’s fighting against. After all, Gyokko considers himself to be an artist. Thus, someone who’s capable of burning his “art” hard is the perfect opponent for him.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito”: Details

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito” is the latest episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, and Ep. 8 here) of this latest season (after the previous Entertainment District Arc season) 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 latest season of the anime.

Akihiko Usa is the director of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito”, with Yō Miura doing the storyboard. As for the anime series in general: Haruo Sotozaki remains the director, with Akifumi Fujio, Masanori Miyake, and Yūma Takahashi producing. Ufotable still 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 as a whole.

Voice Cast

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito” mostly features the voice of Kengo Kawanishi (Griffin Burns in English dub) as Muichirō Tokitō, but this episode does also feature the voices of Natsuki Hanae (Zach Aguilar in English dub) as Tanjiro Kamado, Akari Kitō (Abby Trott in English dub) as Nezuko Kamado, Nobuhiko Okamoto (Zeno Robinson in English dub) as Genya Shinazugawa, and Kana Hanazawa (Kira Buckland in English dub) as Mitsuri Kanroji. The other notable voice actor for this episode is Ayumu Murase (Jeannie Tirado in English dub) as Kotetsu. On the villains’ side, we have Kohsuke Toriumi (Brent Mukai in English dub) as Gyokko.

Where to Watch

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito” premiered on June 4, 2023. You can watch this episode and all previous episodes of this season only on Crunchyroll at the moment.

Warning: spoilers for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito” below. If you want to watch Muichirō make some sick burns for yourself, stop here and come back once Gyokko has applied some Demon cream for that burn.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito”: Plot Summary

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito” picks up directly where we last left off in the previous episode. Muichirō has just gotten a burst of second wind due to regaining his horrendously traumatic memories. This second wind allows him to finally fight on a much more equal footing with Gyokko. In fact, it’s so equal that Gyokko has to reveal his true form: which is some kind of merman thing who can turn anything he touches into fresh fish. Apparently, this Upper Rank Demon really likes fish.

Fortunately, Gyokko also has an ego the size of Jupiter (both the planet and the Roman version of the Greek god). Muichirō is able to pretty easily make Gyokko lose his temper by just strategically insulting him and his art. It seem Gyokko is the kind of artist who can’t handle criticism. Gyokko’s lack of composure makes him overextend, falling to Muichirō’s blade and Mist Breathing magic.

Unfortunately, Muichirō took a lot more damage than he let on. He barely even has the strength to stand after that, and then he just collapses anyways, so he’s of no help to Tanjiro and co. whatsoever right now. At least he managed to save all the swordsmiths in his area though, including Kotetsu. The tsuba guard Tanjiro gave him for safekeeping turned out to have protected his solar plexus, so all was well. At least for that sector. Where Tanjiro and co. are is another story entirely.

And Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Tanjiro and Co.

Tanjiro and co. turn out to be having some serious trouble with all the Hantengus combined into Zohakuten. Even though his hydra turned out to be wood rather than stone, like I’d thought in the previous review, it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. Those wooden and constantly regenerating dragon heads firing sonic booms and lightning proves to be more than a match for Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya. So much so that Hantengu ironically is practically the leader of this attack instead of Gyokko. Tanjiro is overwhelmed and swallowed by one of the dragon heads, who tries to crush him to death. Tanjiro has no room to swing his sword in that wooden gullet, and Nezuko and Genya are too busy fighting off the other heads to rescue him, so it’s succeeding in that pretty well.

Fortunately, it’s Mitsuri to the rescue with her Love Breathing and urumi whip-sword. She slices apart the dragon’s head and rescues Tanjiro, and after making sure he’s okay, heads off to battle with Zohakuten. Will she prevail? Well, that’s what we’ll presumably find out in the next episode of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito”: The Good

The best part of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito” wasn’t Muichirō’s action sequences. To clarify, though, that doesn’t mean they’re not great. Ufotable as usual did a marvelous job choreographing Muichirō’s actions and abilities during that fight. Gyokko didn’t fare too badly himself either. His fish-flavored attacks were both interesting and flamboyantly grotesque. Quite fitting for his personality, really.

But really, what trumps even that in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito” was Muichirō’s sick burns. With a combination of nonchalant dismissal and outright mockery, Muichirō managed to completely take advantage of Gyokko’s overinflated ego to his advantage. Both hero and villain even trade Princess Bride-style “I’m not fighting seriously” bantering with each other. It’s clever wordplay like this combined with the action comedy that makes this anime series as a whole great.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito”: The Bad

If you don’t like either action or comedy, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 9 “Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito” is probably not for you. The promise of more action and comedy to come might even ruin it for you if you didn’t like this episode. Maybe another anime in an entirely different genre fits you better? It’s worth a shot.