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The first episode of the new arc is set directly after the death of the Flame Hashira, Rengoku Kyojuurou, spirits are low. This episode is a double-length episode, so it covers noticeably more content than most other episodes. In this one, Tanjiro has the unfortunate but honorable duty of delivering Rengoku’s final message to his family. He has a good conversation with Senjuro, Rengoku’s younger brother, but things go awry when Tanjiro gets into an argument with Kyojuro’s father, the former Flame Hashira! When the dust settles, Senjuro eventually imparts his brother’s final message to their dad in an emotional intro to the new arc, and entrusts Tanjiro with the continuation of his brother’s legacy, relinquishing an age-old history of Flame Hashira in his family. Senjuro tries to help Tanjiro understand more about the lineage of Flame Hashira in his family, but the record was found ripped apart most likely by Rengoku Shinjuro.
Four months after Rengoku’s death, the gang spends their time training and completing missions, which has greatly improved their abilities. One day after completing a mission, Tanjiro heads back to the Butterfly Mansion to find two of Kocho Shinobu’s attendants, Aoi and Naho, are being kidnapped! The Sound Hashira Uzui Tengen is a brash, abrasive, and probably chauvinistic man with a penchant for being… unreasonable. Uzui “needs” young girls for an important mission in the sultry world of the Entertainment District! However, Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu all decide to go in the girls’ stead, but not without having to go the extra mile to diffuse the situation.
Tengen reveals that he, a former ninja, is married to three kunoichi (ninja who is female) who have infiltrated various brothels in the area to investigate a series of suicides and disappearances that they suspect to be a result of demonic activity. However, Tengen hasn’t heard from any of his wives in a while when they had been extremely communicative before, so he plans to get Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke to glam up and investigate the brothels from the inside.
The setup for their inclusion in Tengen’s mission is rather… strange. It’s impactful in that we are just as confused and grossed out by Tengen’s actions as Tanjiro was in that moment, and Tengen’s “playful” slap of Kanae’s bum felt like something out of much older Shounen titles.
Perhaps there was supposed to be humor about that entire situation, but it failed to really produce a humorous, quirky, and outrageous Hashira introduction like what we had with Rengoku. Tengen is loud and obnoxious, which is an interesting contrast to his former life as a ninja. This is something he had in common with Rengoku, but there was something purer about Rengoku’s loud, flashy personality.
The Entertainment District is, in the words of Tengen, a place that “shines brightly at night.” Courtesans working at the various brothels in the area are women who, through various circumstances, find themselves working in exchange for food, shelter, and clothing. At his home in the Entertainment District, Tengen tells the three young demon slayers that he has three wives who are missing in action. Suma was an Oiran at Tokito House, while Makio infiltrated Ogimoto House and Hinatsuru went to Kyogoku House. He plans to use Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke to infiltrate the three different brothels to find out what happened because he couldn’t find any traces of them when he tried going in as a patron.
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