Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 10 “Never Give Up” ~ Out With A Bang [Spoilery Anime Review]

No matter what wonderful things you can say about Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 10 “Never Give Up”, the top things that stick in your mind are the explosions. Especially the final one.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 10 “Never Give Up” is the 10th episode of the Entertainment District Arc (spoilery reviews for episodes #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, and #9 here), which is the latest season of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime series after the Mugen Train Arc, which is itself the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Koyoharu Gotouge. This particular episode features Toshiyuki Shirai as responsible for both directing and storyboarding, so you have him to thank for those marvelous explosions. As always, Haruo Sotozaki remains the overall director of the anime, with Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina also being responsible for the incredible music you hear throughout the episode in between and during the explosions. Ufotable is still the animation studio behind the anime. And lastly, Aniplex of America is still bringing this anime to NA shores.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 10 “Never Give Up” premiered on February 6, 2022. You can watch this anime series on Funimation or Crunchyroll. Normally, I would recommend Crunchyroll to you all if you want to watch for free and don’t mind ads. Curiously though, Crunchyroll has locked their episodes behind a paywall. Funimation is the one offering it for free with ads this time.

Warning: spoilers for Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 10 “Never Give Up” below. If you want to see the conclusion to the fight against Daki and Gyutaro for yourself, stop here, and come back once the explosions have quieted down.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 10 “Never Give Up” ~ Plot Summary

When we last left off on Demon Slayer. Tanjiro was falling off a building after Zenitsu shoved him out of the way of an obi storm attack, and it looked like a TPK was happening for our Demon Slayers. Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 10 “Never Give Up” picks up after that with Tanjiro waking up to a scene straight out of Hell. Everything around him is in ruins and on fire, and his comrades are either trapped in debris or are apparently too dead to care. Then Gyutaro shows up, with Daki watching from above like a crow.

Yeah, it’s not a good situation for Tanjiro to be in. All he can do is grab Nezuko and run, but well, he’s injured, and he’s running from an Upper Rank demon. He doesn’t get very far. However, our boy is actually thinking as he runs. He manages to get in a stab on Gyutaro with a poisoned kunai he’d found (and disguised his picking it up, no less), inflicting a debuff on Gyutaro. Even better, as it turns out, Tengen was actually faking his death by stopping his heart, while also keeping Gyutaro’s poison from further circulating throughout his body. Thus, the 2 of them fight one last tag team battle (Tengen with only one hand, no less), and finally succeeds in cutting off Gyutaro’s head.

A 2-For-1 Fight Scene!

Meanwhile, Zenitsu manages to free himself from the debris, and attacks Daki, simultaneously going for her neck while keeping her as far away from Gyutaro as possible, thus limiting her ability to actually help him. Unfortunately, sheer speed isn’t enough to cut through that obi sash neck. Fortunately, Inosuke returns from the dead for an encore (apparently by shifting his heart at the last moment when Gyutaro stabbed him), adding his chipped swords to the attack. Together, the 2 of them also succeed in cutting Daki’s head off.

The demonic brother and sister duo’s heads actually manage to roll to the same spot and face each other in an oddly poignant scene. All the demon slayers are just spent, and can’t move. Tanjiro is so tired that he can’t even make out what Tengen is shouting about. And that’s when Gyutaro’s headless body just blows up. As it turns out, he somehow rigged his body to blow up if he died, in a “I’m taking you with me” gesture. The episode ends with a massive explosion, sending oddly pretty embers scattering around. All set to some oddly beautiful music no less. So did anyone live through that explosion? Well, that’s what we’ll find out in the next episode of Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 10 “Never Give Up” ~ The Good

This episode of Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc was just jaw-droppingly gorgeous. From the ruined landscape (that’s on fire too, no less) of the district itself, to the firework-like explosions from grenades going off as Tengen and Gyutaro trade blindingly fast attacks, the whole episode was a masterpiece of animation. They somehow managed to actually outdo the battle scenes from Mugen Train Arc in this episode. I can only say “Wow” in response to this.

Then there were the fight scenes themselves, and I do mean it in the plural sense. Yet, it was also a single extended fight scene at the same time. Toshiyuki Shirai did a wonderful job weaving the 2 fight scenes between Tanjiro and Tengen vs. Gyutaro and Zenitsu and Inosuke vs. Daki together. The fight scenes felt fluidly connected and yet were distinct enough to tell them apart easily. It’s another masterpiece here, but in storyboarding.

The animation and fight scenes aren’t the only masterpieces here. The conversations between Tanjiro and Gyutaro are another highlight. They reveal to Tanjiro and us the audience how much Gyutaro is basically a dark archetype of Tanjiro. Even Tanjiro himself notes how he and Nezuko could’ve become like Gyutaro and Daki if they’d taken the wrong path, and vice-versa for Gyutaro. The fact that Gyutaro even offers to turn Tanjiro into a demon to join his sister reveals some interesting facets to Gyutaro, showing him to have a desire for companionship with someone who understands him, even if it’s a warped desire. Koyoharu Gotouge gets the credit here for the marvelous writing.

Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc Ep. 10 “Never Give Up” ~ The Bad

This time, there is nothing I can say that’s bad about this episode of Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc. Even the ending was perfect, even though I suppose you could technically call it a cliffhanger. I view it more as the end of the scene, and the next episode (and by extension the rest of the arc) being the aftermath. You’re free to disagree in the comments section though.

Source: Funimation, Crunchyroll