Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!” is exactly as the title sounds. It’s basically a training episode, but featuring Tanjiro’s cheerful puppy-like exuberance. That, combined with the reappearance of a certain ex-Hashira means that this training episode is far more enjoyable than most other anime’s training time.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!”: Details

He’s an ex-Hashira because he’s not in this key visual.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!” is the third episode (you can read a review of Ep. 1 and Ep. 2 here) of the fourth season of this dark fantasy adventure and martial arts anime series. Said season comes on the heels of the previous season, which was the Swordsmith Village Arc. Meanwhile, said anime series as a whole is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Koyoharu Gotouge. Ufotable (Fate/Zero, God Eater, Tales of Zestiria the X) is the animation studio behind this anime. Crunchyroll is the company licensing this anime for its NA debut.

Takashi Mamekuza is the director behind Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!”, with Yō Miura doing the storyboard. As for the anime as a whole, Haruo Sotozaki is still the director. Ufotable collectively claims credit for the writing. Akifumi Fujio, Masanori Miyake, and Yūma Takahashi are all producing. Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina composed the music you hear in the anime.

Speaking of music: the opening theme song for this season is “Mugen” (夢幻, lit. ’Dream’) by MY FIRST STORY and HYDE. The same band also performs “Tokoshie” (トコシエ, lit. ’Eternity’) as the ending theme music.

Voice Cast

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!” features the voices of Natsuki Hanae (Zach Aguilar in English dub) as Tanjiro Kamado and Katsuyuki Konishi (Ray Chase in English dub) as Tengen Uzui. Other notable voices in this episode include Shizuka Ishigami (Erica Mendez in English dub) as Makio, Nao Tōyama (Emi Lo in English dub) as Suma, and Atsumi Tanezaki (Anairis Quiñones in English dub) as Hinatsuru.

When and Where to Watch

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on May 26, 2024. You can watch this episode only on Crunchyroll at the moment. As for the previous seasons of the anime (including the anime film), you can watch it on Crunchyroll, Hulu, or Netflix.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!”: Synopsis

Alas, Shinobu doesn’t appear in this episode.

Alas, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is an ongoing anime series. In fact, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!” only just premiered two days ago as of this writing. Thus, you will all get the official synopsis from Crunchyroll (that they actually have instead of a blank space) instead of a spoiler-filled plot summary…at least, that’s what I wanted to say. Unfortunately, there is nothing but a blank screen where the episode synopsis should be. Thus, I will just have to give you the synopsis for the anime as a whole, also from Crunchyroll. You can check out that synopsis below:

It is the Taisho Period in Japan. Tanjiro, a kindhearted boy who sells charcoal for a living, finds his family slaughtered by a demon. To make matters worse, his younger sister Nezuko, the sole survivor, has been transformed into a demon herself.

Though devastated by this grim reality, Tanjiro resolves to become a “demon slayer” so that he can turn his sister back into a human, and kill the demon that massacred his family.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!”: The Good

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 "Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!" screenshot showing Tanjiro being the cinnamon bun among his fellow Demon Slayers trainees.
This is basically Tanjiro for the entire episode, and it’s a masterpiece.

As you might expect me to say: the best part of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!” is its story. However, it’s for different reasons than you might think compared to previous episodes, and is especially impressive on top of that. How so, you might ask? Well, mostly because according to Reddit: 80% of this entire episode is either extended scenes from Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga, or original content. When you have an episode that is mostly anime-original content and the story feels so canon that it feels like it could’ve come out of the manga, you know that Ufotable has some amazing writers on their team.

As for why that story is good? That would be entirely because Tanjiro is being one of the most badass adorable main characters in anime history. Something about his personality reminds me of a puppy. However, this puppy is so adorable that he actively inspires everyone around him. For me, I find that kind of personality to be heartwarming and fun to watch. Thus, it cements Tanjiro as being one of the best anime characters period.

The animation only serves to complement that story. Ufotable have prided themselves on maintaining a very high animation quality for this anime, and this episode is no exception. It’s pretty much feature-length anime film levels of quality for the entire episode, making all the fluff and action quite pleasing to the eye.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!”: The Bad

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 "Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!" screenshot showing Tengen facing off with Tanjiro.
He seems like a bad teacher on the surface, but there’s method to his harshness.

Do you not like action or fluff? Because that’s what this entire episode is all about. Thus, if you’re not fond of low-stakes action, then Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 3 “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training!!” might not be for you. If you want some high stakes action, then might I suggest Kaiju No. 8 or Solo Leveling?

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