Nine Hashira, One Terrible First Impression
Episode 22 is where the Demon Slayer Corps' top swordsmen finally step on screen, and the scene is not built to make them likeable. Tanjiro wakes up restrained at Corps headquarters after the Mount Natagumo fight, with a row of loudly dressed strangers standing over him. Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui (Katsuyuki Konishi) is disappointed that a slayer traveling with a demon turned out to be such a plain-looking guy. Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku (Satoshi Hino) cheerfully announces that the boy's trial is about to begin. Someone has to tell Tanjiro whose company he is in, and even then he has no idea what a Hashira is.
Japanese anime news site Anime Anime has been running a spoiler-inclusive reaction roundup for every episode of the rebroadcast. Alongside straightforward excitement at seeing the Hashira together, its episode 22 roundup gathered posts saying that Rengoku and Uzui genuinely read as psychopaths on a first watch, that the Hashira make a terrible impression the moment you meet them, and that Himejima had the cruelest thing to say of anyone in the room.
The Trial Nobody Wanted To Hold
Rengoku's opening position is that shielding a demon is a plain violation of Corps rules, that the Hashira can settle it themselves, and that Tanjiro should be beheaded along with the demon. Uzui volunteers to do the beheading himself, and promises a flashier spray of blood than anyone has seen. Stone Hashira Gyomei Himejima (Tomokazu Sugita) weeps over what a wretched child Tanjiro is and says it is a pity he was born at all. Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito (Kengo Kawanishi) is not participating in any of this and wonders out loud what that cloud shape is called.
Serpent Hashira Obanai Iguro (Kenichi Suzumura), needling from a tree branch, complains that Tanjiro is not even restrained and points out that Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka (Takahiro Sakurai) broke the same rule. Insect Hashira Shinobu Kocho (Saori Hayami), who met Tanjiro on Mount Natagumo, waves that away for now and asks Tanjiro to account for traveling with a demon while serving in the Corps. Tanjiro explains how Nezuko was turned, and insists that she has never eaten a human and never will. Iguro's answer is that a relative will always cover for a relative, so nothing Tanjiro says can be trusted. Uzui wants the claim proven in the flashiest possible terms.
The scene tips over when Wind Hashira Sanemi Shinazugawa (Tomokazu Seki) turns up late carrying the box with Nezuko inside. He asks whether Tanjiro can really fight to protect people as a member of the Corps, then draws his blade and drives it into the box. Tanjiro headbutts him and swears he will not forgive anyone who hurts his sister, Hashira or not. In Anime Anime's roundup, Shinazugawa's entrance is the moment that seals his early reputation. Commenters wrote about how dangerous he reads in these first scenes, and one admitted to having suspected he was a spy working for the demons.
Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji (Kana Hanazawa) carries the episode's other running gag. Her inner monologue frets that killing a boy this cute would be too painful to bear. Later she spots Tomioka standing off by himself, and decides that this is adorable. Viewers quoted in the roundup treated her as their delegate in the room, calling the monologue exactly what the audience was thinking. She is also the one who says out loud that Oyakata-sama surely knows about this already, and questions whether the Hashira should be disposing of Tanjiro on their own.
Running underneath all of it is the thing rewatchers know and first-time viewers do not. Several comments in the roundup note that the nine Hashira's behavior in this scene reads completely differently once you know their backstories, and they point to Himejima as the clearest case.
The Series Behind The Rewatch
Koyoharu Gotouge's original manga follows Tanjiro Kamado, a boy whose family is slaughtered by a demon and whose surviving sister Nezuko is turned into one, as he joins the Demon Slayer Corps and throws himself into the fight to make her human again. The Jump Comics edition from publisher Shueisha ran 23 volumes and has passed 220 million copies in circulation.
ufotable has animated the series since Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba premiered in April 2019 with the Tanjiro Kamado, Unwavering Resolve Arc, which is the stretch this rebroadcast is currently replaying. The Hashira Training Arc followed from May 2024, and the story continues in the Infinity Castle theatrical trilogy, whose first chapter, "Akaza Returns," opened in Japan on July 18, 2025.
Looking Ahead
The rebroadcast is a Japanese television run, so there is no international simulcast of it. Anime Anime has posted a roundup for each episode as it airs, with the episode 20 and 21 pieces published on August 23 and August 30, so the broadcast appears to be running week to week. The source does not give a date for the next episode.
International fans who want to follow along can stream the TV series on Crunchyroll, and Disney+ lists the Entertainment District Arc in some regions. The manga is available in English from Viz Media, complete at 23 volumes. On the film side, the official English site announced that Infinity Castle Chapter 1 would arrive on Crunchyroll and digital platforms on July 28, with no word yet on when the second chapter reaches theaters outside Japan.