Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 4 “To Bring A Smile To One’s Face”: Tokito Time [Review]

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face” stars a certain Mist Hashira as Tanjiro makes his rounds through those Hashira to train. This time, we get to see the many sides of Muichiro Tokito. For good and for…ill?

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face”: Details

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face” is the fourth episode (you can read a review of Ep. 1, Ep. 2, and Ep. 3 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.

Seiji Harada is the director behind Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face”, with Haruo Sotozaki himself 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. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face” features the voices of Natsuki Hanae (Zach Aguilar in English dub) as Tanjiro Kamado and Kengo Kawanishi (Griffin Burns in English dub) as Muichirō Tokitō. Other notable voices in this episode include Tomokazu Seki (Kaiji Tang in English dub) as Sanemi Shinazugawa, Kenichi Suzumura (Erik Scott Kimerer in English dub) as Obanai Iguro, and Kana Hanazawa (Kira Buckland in English dub) as Mitsuri Kanroji.

When and Where to Watch

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face” made its airing and streaming (aka. simulcast) debut on June 2, 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. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face”: Synopsis

Alas, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is an ongoing anime series. In fact, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face” just made its debut 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. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face”: The Good

There’s no question about it. The best part of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face” is definitely the story. Koyoharu Gotouge proves once more that her story is top-notch in this episode. All due to Tanjiro Kamado and his cinnamon bun-ness, of course. His adorable cinnamon bun tendencies even reaches Muichiro Tokito in this episode, thus explaining the title. It may be shocking to fans who watched previous seasons to see Muichiro smile, but it’s not that surprising when you think about it. Muichiro grew pretty close to Tanjiro in the last season, and thus, it makes sense for him to smile like this in response to Tanjiro.

Enhancing this story is the animation. Ufotable prove once more that they’re focusing a lot of their efforts and budget on that sweet animation quality. When you can see characters’ reflections on the shiny metal blades and the shined-up wooden flooring, then you know their animators put a lot of effort into this episode. Not to mention this anime as a whole.

I also can’t help but praise the music in this episode. Once more, the team of Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina prove that they make an excellent team indeed. The music that swells up each time Tanjiro is being an adorable cinnamon bun somehow enhances that adorableness.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hashira Training Arc Ep. 4 “To Bring a Smile to One’s Face”: The Bad

Do you not like action or cuteness? How about a touch of horror in this episode? Well, to be fair, the action in this episode is fairly low-stakes, due to it being a training arc. If you want high intensity action and drama, you might want to check out Kaiju No. 8 and Solo Leveling.

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