It’s not easy being Tanjiro, the central character of popular shonen Demon Slayer. Last arc, he thought he’d get a welcome break by visiting the carefree Entertainment District, but within a matter of days he was fighting for his life against high-level demons Daki and Gyutaro. They nearly killed him and all his friends off, but he somehow managed to deliver the finishing blow and behead them. So NOW it’s time to rest, right?
Think again! After performing so badly, the gang feels they need more training — plus, Tanjiro broke his sword in the last battle and needs to forget a new one. Thus begins what was called the Swordsmith Village Arc in the manga and is called the Hashira Training Arc here.
At the aforementioned Swordsmith Village, Tanjiro and his friends will train under the eight Hashira: Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui, Insect Hashira Shinobo Kocho, Mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito, Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji, Serpent Hashira Obanai Iguro, Wind Hashira Sanemi Shinazugawa, Stone Hashira Gyomei Himejama, and Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka. The arc will kick off with a special one-hour premiere episode, with episodes of the traditional length following each week after.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc will be directed by Haruo Sotozaki, the same guy behind all the previous seasons as well as the Mugen Train movie. The same animation director, Akira Matsushima, is also back as well as anime studio Ufotable. One of the reasons this show is popular is because of its feature-quality animation and that’s unlikely to change this season.
Sounds good, so when does it start? Um, we actually don’t know. There are two bits of conflicting information coming out of Crunchyroll right now. Late last month they stated the season would start April 9 — mere hours from now. But the trailer that was just released states the season doesn’t actually premiere until Sunday, May 12. Which statement should we believe? We guess you can just check the Crunchyroll app tomorrow — if Season 3 isn’t there, it’ll be there May 12.
