Demon Slayer season 3 episode 7 review: What makes demons demonic?

In Awful Villain, the latest episode of Demon Slayer’s third season – and possibly the best one so far – we’re presented with a demon that acts as a kind of distorted mirror image of Tanjiro.

At the beginning of the episode, it looks like Awful Villain will be about swordplay and combat. As Tanjiro tries in vain to behead the tiny Hantengu from which the stronger clones emerged, something new, more dangerous and more terrifying appears behind him. At a glance, this new demon – the embodiment of Hatred – seems similar to those that he, Genya and Nezuko have been fighting throughout the last few episodes. It has a similar body type, the symbol of emotions in place of pupils; the same furious voice.

But this one declares that Tanjiro and his fellow demon slayers are the “awful fiends” that give the episode its title, decrying them because they “torment the weak”. What makes this such a powerful moment isn’t just the revelation of a new form in this Upper Rank demon, born through the brutal, bloody absorption of the other forms by Anger as he transforms into something new – something that might be his final form – but because this kind of dialogue could just have easily have come from Tanjiro himself. With an intense stare, spiked hair and unshakeable conviction, Hatred feels like a demonic version of Tanjiro.

Awful Villain shows a fragment of Hatred’s power. When he bangs on a ceremonial drum, wooden dragons emerge from the ground. They can contort into many shapes, growing like branches, or turning in on themselves to create a spherical shield. This is how Hatred protects the tiny, weak Hantnegu – the one that these other demons were spawned from, the one that represents Fear.

The stare of Hatred is so powerful that it freezes both Tanjiro and Genya in place, making them feel slow and weak, draining their power. There’s a real tension to this, and to the power of Upper Rank Demons, for the first time in a while; the uncertainty about what they can do and about how powerful they are.

As Tanjiro and Hatred stare each other down, this changes from an episode about the reveal of a new Demon and into something else: a look at the inner lives of some of these characters. As Hatred continues to express his disdain for the “atrocious” behaviour of Tanjiro, a man who was about to decapitate a tiny creature that could “fit into the palm of your hand”, Tanjiro fires back that Hatred shouldn’t play the victim after “killing and eating scores of people”. But what happens next leaves Tanjiro frozen in his tracks – the idea, espoused by Hatred, that these killings have nothing to do with Tanjiro, because he didn’t know or care about any of the victims.

One of the more slow-burning aspects of the Swordsmith Village arc is the way in which Tanjiro’s selflessness causes the characters around him to change, from the abrasive Genya to the haughty Tokito. It also allows for an interesting difference to emerge between Tanjiro and Hatred, an answer to the question of why these demons are demonic that doesn’t begin and end with their acts of violence. Tanjiro can’t fathom the idea of only caring about something that directly impacts him, asking “For what kind of reason does one person help another? If you can’t understand that, then you’re the fiend.” It’s this moment, rather than the declaration after that Tanjiro will be the one to behead Hatred, that makes the climactic scenes of the episode so tense and so powerful.

Tokito is still trapped in a bubble prison, slowly running out of air. Gyokko remains across from the Hashira, tormenting him as his hopes fade. But Gyokko has other things to do, leaving Tokito to die so that he can attack a small shack, something that Tokito has been trying to defend. Inside, Gyokko is confronted with something that he can’t fathom: a human who doesn’t look at him. Not out of fear, but because Gyokko can’t get his attention, even after lashing him with whips of water. He so giddily and brutally torments humans that it casts Hatred’s comments in stark relief.

This still leaves Tokito, attempting one final attack to break through his prison – an attack that falls short. The Mist Hashira, in what might be his final moments, sees a spirit. A version of Tanjiro, although the things that he says aren’t Tanjiro’s words at all but those of someone else, a figure that isn’t clear to the struggling swordsman yet. The image of Tanjiro talks about selflessness, and about the need to accept help from others. There’s something darkly comic in the fact that, even in what might be his final moments, Tokito still jokes that “that’s the worst thing I could do”.

But it is the act of someone else that saves Tokito at the last moment: the sacrifice of a swordsmith who uses his dying breath after a demon attack to breathe into the bubble prison, giving Tokito the power to cut his way to freedom. It’s in this moment of clarity and understanding what people can give to each other that Tokito remembers who said those words coming from the mouth of Tanjiro: his father, a man who had the same red eyes as the young, selfless demon slayer.

Awful Villain serves as a reminder that, while the battles between demons and swordsmen are visceral and exciting (the few moments of combat in this episode are incredible), the writing in Demon Slayer can extend far beyond fight sequences, as it shows a truly nuanced understanding of its characters.

You can catch Demon Slayer on Crunchyroll. Check out the rest of our Sci-Fi and Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight.

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