![Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak And First Light”: She Can Speak! [Anime Review]](https://thathashtagshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Demon-Slayerr-Cover-Image.jpg)
The season finale of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc is finally upon us in the form of Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light”. And boy, is it quite the finale. Not the least because a main character we’ve been waiting to hear for several arcs now can finally speak. Longtime fans of the series will know who I’m talking about, whether they’re fans of the anime or diehard fans of the manga.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light”: Details
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light” is the latest and final episode (you can read reviews for Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, Ep. 6, Ep. 7, Ep. 8, Ep. 9, and Ep. 10 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.
The star team of Ken Nakazawa, Seiji Harada, Takashi Suhara, and Jun’ichi Minamino collectively directed Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light”, with Haruo Sotozaki himself and the aforementioned Suhara doing the storyboard. As for the anime series in general: 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: fans of the anime from season 1 might recognize “Kamado Nezuko no Uta” (竈門襧豆子のうた, “Nezuko Kamado’s Song”) by Go Shiina featuring Nami Nakagawa. It’s very heavily featured in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light”, and you’ll see why. It’s also why neither of the usual opening and ending theme music plays in this episode.
Voice Cast
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light” features 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, Kana Hanazawa (Kira Buckland in English dub) as Mitsuri Kanroji, and Kengo Kawanishi (Griffin Burns in English dub) as Muichirō Tokitō. Other notable voices for this episode include Ayumu Murase (Jeannie Tirado in English dub) as Kotetsu, Daisuke Namikawa (Robbie Daymond in English dub) as Hotaru Haganezuka, and Eiji Takemoto (Kyle Hebert in English dub) as Kozo Kanamori. On the villain’s side, we have Toshio Furukawa (Christopher Corey Smith in English dub) as the voice of Hantengu and Toshihiko Seki (Greg Chun) as Muzan Kibutsuji.
Where to Watch
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light” premiered on June 18, 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. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light” below. If you want to hear her speak for yourself, then stop here and come back once you’ve finished recovering from the assault of the heartwarming feels.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light”: Plot Summary
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light” picks up directly where we last left off in the previous episode, albeit with a very slight recap. Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya are still madly trying to decapitate tiny Hantengu, with Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji just as madly buying time for them by doing battle with Zohakuten and his wooden dragons. Working together, they actually manage to cut apart the mobile chunk of wood little Hantengu was hiding in. Unfortunately, little Hantengu is absurdly quick and agile, allowing him to flee once more. Even worse, Tanjiro’s foot injury was causing him to lag behind. On top of all of that, Nezuko and Genya are still unable to catch up with little Hantengu.
Tanjiro manages to solve this problem by mimicking Zenitsu, of all people. He manages to replicate Zenitsu’s Thunder Breathing technique based on memories of Zenitsu talking about his technique with him and uses it to catch up to and slice into little Hantengu’s neck. Unfortunately, this just awakens a new personality: Urami (“Resentment”), who apparently resents anyone who doesn’t show him sympathy. No matter what he does, no less. Fortunately, everyone working together results in Urami being beheaded. With the sun finally rising, it seems like the end of that nightmare. Or is it?
The Sun: For Good and for Ill
Unfortunately, the headless body of Hantengu is still moving and is now trying to chase down a group of surviving swordsmiths to devour, with the sun definitely not burning him fast enough to kill him before he reaches them. Even worse, the sun is most definitely burning Nezuko, with Tanjiro having to shield her from the sun’s rays. The problem here for Tanjiro is twofold: he can’t leave Nezuko uncovered, or she dies, but if he doesn’t go after Hantengu, the innocent civilians die. Tanjiro is being forced to make a pretty sadistic choice here, and it’s driving him into indecision. Fortunately(?), Nezuko makes that decision for him by kicking him off and then silently insists that he go after Hantengu.
A heartbroken Tanjiro proceeds to do exactly that, and just as Hantengu reaches the swordsmiths to boot. He finally discovers little Hantengu hiding inside where his heart is and slices his little head off at long last. We even see Hantengu’s flashbacks to his old life, which shows that he has been running away from his crimes his entire life. Only now, it’s all caught up to him at last.
It doesn’t mean much to Tanjiro, who’s sacrificed his sister to do that. Nezuko shows up in front of him, completely immune to the sun’s rays and seemingly having full control over her bloodlust at long last. The result is a happy celebration by everyone present, culminating in Tanjiro and Nezuko getting a merry sendoff from all the grateful swordsmiths.
Big Bad Plans in the Works as Intended?
Unfortunately, the big bad Muzan Kibutsuji is ecstatic about this. As it turns out, his constant Demon creations were to create as many random mutations as possible, hoping one of them might be beneficial. You could say that immunity to sunlight (the Demons’ only weakness) is indeed beneficial. Thus, Muzan now switches his goal from trying to recreate the Blue Spider Lily medicine that turned him into a Demon in the first place (as he shows in his flashback) to now trying to capture Nezuko so that he can devour her to get her immunity to sunlight. How will he do that? Well, maybe we’ll find out in the next arc of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light”: The Good
The best dark fantasy stories for me are those with amazingly happy endings. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light” definitely counts as one of those. It’s not even a somewhat bittersweet ending the way the Entertainment District Arc was. It’s a genuine full-on happy ending for all the good guys. Not a single one of the main characters died, and we even see Nezuko finally get to speak and see the sun without dying. It’s one of the happiest endings I’ve seen for any dark fantasy story, and I’m loving it.
The only fly in this ointment is what Muzan’s plans will be now that he thinks he has a way to beat the sun. He’ll have to launch some kind of all-out assault on the Demon Slayer Corps to capture Nezuko or wait until she’s on a mission with Tanjiro and co. to ambush her. Also, who knows how his subordinates will react if they ever learn his plans? Imagine all the chaos that might result if the Upper Rank Demons go “Screw it” and try to take Nezuko for themselves to devour? That’s all in the future, though. For now, there is only happiness.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light”: The Bad
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc Ep. 11 “A Connected Bond: Daybreak and First Light” is basically the perfect cherry on top of this delicious sundae of a season. Why do you think I’ve been praising this season to the stars for every one of my reviews? Perhaps you might not like happy endings? I’m sorry, but I don’t think this anime series is for you.
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