![Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji”: Sakura Hiding Steel [Anime Review]](https://thathashtagshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Demon-Slayer-Cover-Image-1.jpg)
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji” really has the titular Hashira be the star of the show, to no surprise. Who then proceeds to show us just how much steel a sakura (cherry blossom) can hide. Considering that Mitsuri Kanroji is using an urumi sword many times her own body length, that’s a lot of a steel indeed.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji”: Details
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji” is the latest episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, and Ep. 9 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.
Yūji Shimizu is not only the director of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji”, but he also did 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. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji” features the voices of Kana Hanazawa (Kira Buckland in English dub) as Mitsuri Kanroji, Natsuki Hanae (Zach Aguilar in English dub) as Tanjiro Kamado, Akari Kitō (Abby Trott in English dub) as Nezuko Kamado, and Nobuhiko Okamoto (Zeno Robinson in English dub) as Genya Shinazugawa. On the villains’ side, we have Toshio Furukawa and Koichi Yamadera as the voices of Hantengu and Zohakuten respectively, with Christopher Corey Smith voicing both of them for the English dub.
Where to Watch
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji” premiered on June 11, 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. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji” below. If you want to watch just how much steel Mitsuri can hide, then stop here and come back once you’ve watched her pull off the most insane attacks out of her sakura-flavored hair. Trust me, it makes sense in context.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji”: Plot Summary
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji” picks up directly from where we last left off in the previous episode. The Love Hashira: Mitsuri Kanroji, has just shown up to save the day, starting with saving Tanjiro from imminent death by crushing by a wooden dragon. As it turns out, having an urumi sword many times a human’s body length is a great way to fight supersized enemies. So great, in fact, that she handily slices through a mass of those wooden dragons and is soon wrapping her sword around Zohakuten’s neck, ready to behead him.
Unfortunately, she had charged in without getting intel from Tanjiro and co., and thus didn’t realize that Zohakuten isn’t the main body and that beheading him won’t kill him. The result is that Zohakuten blasts her with a wall of sound. It doesn’t kill her, but it’s enough to paralyze her, leaving her helpless before Zohakuten. The shock is so great that it actually shocks Mitsuri into a flashback.
Mitsuri Kanroji: The Least Traumatized Hashira?
Mitsuri Kanroji seems to have had far less of a traumatic backstory than the other Hashira. The worst she got was a dose of discrimination from suitors based on her unusual hair color (yes, that pink and green hair is indeed natural), resulting in her dyeing her hair black to avoid standing out and marrying a suitor at last. She agonizes over erasing her very identity to satisfy her desires and ponders if she’s truly happy. However, at least she’s not grieving her dead family…hopefully. It certainly explains why Mitsuri seems more stable, calm, and (most of all) sane than the other Hashira.
In any case, we don’t get to find out why Mitsuri joined the Demon Slayer Corps exactly. For her flashback is basically interrupted by her awakening to Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya trying to carry her away at flank speed. It doesn’t quite work, but the effort alone demonstrates their affection for Mitsuri to the point that she gets a second wind. She summons new energy that banishes her fatigue, heals her injuries, and lashes out against the wooden dragons.
Her taking care of the dragons allows Tanjiro and co. time and space to hunt the tiny true Hantengu. Which they find and do, trying to lop off Hantengu’s tiny head even as he madly flees. Will they succeed? We’ll find out one way or another in the next episode of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc. This will be the season finale, by the way, so stay tuned for that.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji”: The Good
The highlight of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji” is definitely us finally getting to know the titular Mitsuri Kanroji a bit more. She turns out to be an even more hilariously likable character than she already was when we first met her all the way back when Tanjiro first met the Hashiras. Even her backstory is rather lighthearted, especially when compared to the other Hashiras and their horrendously PTSD-filled backstories. At least, so far it is. Her backstory is a bit incomplete, so we don’t know if her light-hearted backstory turned tragic in the in-between bits. We’ll just have to see what the rest of that backstory is at a later time when Ufotable finally animates it.
That said, Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya are pretty humorous themselves in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji”, despite how serious the situation is. This kind of tonal clash reminds me strongly of Fullmetal Alchemist. The comedy during the serious fight relieves some of the tension to avoid making it too much for the audience. It’s why I love Fullmetal Alchemist, and it’s also why I love Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba as a whole.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji”: The Bad
Are you kidding me? This entire arc is one of the best of the anime, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 10 “Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji” is no exception. If you don’t like action, comedy, or drama; then perhaps this anime isn’t for you. Not sure what you’d be into, to be honest. Maybe a more horror-focused anime like Jujutsu Kaisen?
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