Emotional Storytelling is Back with a Vengeance in Demon Slayer Season 4 (2024)

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Demon Slayer episode 62, "Stone Hashira Gyomei Himejima" available to stream on Crunchyroll

For the past several weeks, fans have been mostly critical of the latest season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. While the Training Arc does have its fans, some have found most of the season to be mostly lazy filler that does not need to take up the amount of time that it has.

The entire season has been much slower and more repetitive than some might've expected. After all, how many training montages does a season need? The whole thing was getting to be a little tedious. Do things turn around in this episode?

Stone Hashira Gyomei Himejima

Now that the trainees have gone through water training, the next thing they must do is be able to push heavy boulders around. The question viewers should be asking is; how much boulder pushing is there going to be? Sure, the episode opens up with Tanjiro and Inoske opens with both being able to push the boulders, but is this going to be the whole episode like previous training episodes?

Who is Gyomei Himejima?

Despite his various appearances in the series so far, viewers have not learned much about Gyomei Himejima at this point. Fans do know that he is the Stone Hashira, one of the highest-ranking members of the Demon Slayer Corps, and is known for his immense strength and stoic demeanor. It's also clear that when he met Kagaya Ubuyashiki, the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps, he recognized Gyomei's strength and potential. Gyomei was subsequently recruited into the Corps, where he trained rigorously and quickly rose through the ranks to become the Stone Hashira. All that said, viewers have not heard his full backstory...until now.

Gyomei Himejima Cries for a Reason

Thankfully, Demon Slayer fans won't be watching their main heroes pushing around rocks for 30 minutes. In fact, the main focus of the episode is why viewers see trainer Gyomei Himejima crying so much. It appears the tears that constantly fall down his face aren't a simple reoccurring joke; he has a tragic past that he is still struggling with to this day. In a true heart-to-heart conversation with Tanjiro, it is revealed that the two of them have far more in common than they realized. Gyomei used to be a teacher for his village, where, despite his strength and skills, he preferred to teach young kids the ways of life.

The Tragic Heroics of Gyomei

One night a demon comes and slays most of the children he taught. Enraged, Gyomei fought the demon and beat it to death with strength that even scared him. When the dust settles, only one child survives, but she is so horrified by Gyomei's strength that she calls him a monster and turns her back on him. Gyomei reflects on how this event changed his life and gives him the sorrow that he has carried for many years. In a way, training the new recruits is his way of finally being able to teach those children the way he had always wanted to.

Emotional Storytelling is Back

Some have been critical of the current season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba for essentially wasting viewers' time with training montages that could be shown in a few minutes and a lack of character or story development. This episode completely changes all of that, as one of the teachers gets one of the most heartbreaking backstories this show has seen since the first couple of seasons. How the rest of the characters respond to this story is equally captivating, and it goes to show that even if the story itself can't move forward while the training is going on, it doesn't mean the audience can't get to know the characters any better.

This episode is a great example of how the entire season should have been playing out all along, and it makes the previous episodes all the more frustrating in hindsight. That being said, it's never too late for things to turn around, and the fourth season Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba just turned around in a big way. With the ending of the episode delivering the biggest shock of the season so far, hopefully, this is the start of ending the season on a high note rather than a whimper.

Demon Slayer

Based on Koyoharu Gotouge's shonen manga, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is an action anime set in Japan during the early 20th century. Seeking revenge for the murder of his family while also looking to save his sister, Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps as they try to eradicate Demons led by Muzan.