Demon Slayer's Latest Episode Is Out Of The Box And Bloodier Than Ever

Warning: Spoilers ahead, so if you aren't caught up and happen to care about spoilers, save this article for later.

Episode 6 of "Demon Slayer's" Red-Light District Arc wasted no time getting straight into the action, immediately picking up where the battle between Tanjiro and Daki left off. I'm also delighted to say that Nezuko is finally back, and I cannot stress enough how glorious return of our favorite vegan demon girl was. It's no secret that Nezuko has been criminally underused this season — I mean, she's a naturally powerful demon who has been weirdly sidelined and forced to sit in an ugly backpack for several episodes, when she could have been fighting alongside Tanjiro and the boys this entire time.

In addition to the highly anticipated return of Nezuko, this episode gave us tons of action, a fair bit of gore, and the (further) confirmation of some long-held fan theories, so let's jump right in.

In my last "Demon Slayer" review, I made a point to mention how Nezuko deserves more screen time and would definitely be more useful outside of the box. Six episodes into the Red-Light District Arc, I finally got my wish. Not only does Nezuko finally get more than four seconds of screen time, but she shows up just in time to save an exhausted Tanjiro by quite literally knocking Daki's block off. Seriously, it was so amazing and perfectly timed that my boyfriend and I couldn't help screaming and cheering when the moment came. My throat still hurts from it, but it was worth the celebration — much like Nezuko's triumphant return was well worth the wait.

While I wish she'd been featured more prominently before now, I completely understand having viewers nearly forget about her to strengthen the impact of her finally hopping out of the box and immediately into battle against one of the most powerful demons we've seen in the series so far. We also learn that, despite Nezuko's blood-free diet, she somehow still has rapid regeneration abilities and wields a great deal of power, able to hold her own against Daki even after being sliced in half and repeatedly having her limbs severed throughout their epic encounter. Her raw power is enough to stun Daki, who initially assumed that Nezuko was a weak "bottom-feeder demon."

Still, it's obvious Nezuko doesn't have the fine-tuned fighting skills necessary to completely overtake Daki: The latter is quick to comment on the fact that Nezuko mostly just seems to kick. Just think of how much more powerful Nezuko would be by now if she'd been given time to hone her combat skills and discover her abilities. It's honestly kind of weird how little the demon slayers are willing to use her to their advantage. Surely she's earned their trust by now, and there's an obvious benefit to having a fighter who can equal the demons in strength and ability because she's a demon herself. What kind of organization wouldn't want someone with superhuman strength, rapid healing, and the ability to survive having their appendages chopped off like it's nothing more than a paper cut?

Listen, I enjoy seeing Tanjiro's struggles with self-doubt, not from a place of masochism, but from a place of understanding. He doesn't think he's the most badass guy ever (even though he is), and his desire to become more powerful stems from the selflessness of wanting to protect others rather than from wanting to be the best for the sake of being the best. This season, we've repeatedly watched him struggle to fully acknowledge his own strength and destiny as a sun breather. This is completely understandable given the fact that he's only just learned about the existence of sun breathing and he still knows so little about it beyond that.

He's at his most powerful when he taps into his reverence for the value of human life, so it's no surprise that he's able to enter a nearly godlike state after witnessing Daki carelessly maim and murder dozens of Yoshiwara citizens in the blink of an eye. He unleashes some powerful moves we haven't seen before, causing Daki to falter as he singes some of her magic belts of doom beyond repair, pushing himself beyond the brink of his physical limitations. I just wish he'd give himself a little more credit because he deals with enough without having to take self-inflicted psychological ass beatings in addition to the physical ones he gets from demons.

This episode is the most brutal thing "Demon Slayer" has given us in a while compared to the relative restraint of this arc's other episodes, so we're reminded of what's really at stake. Before now, the murders were more discreet and the battles were far less bloody, but all of that quickly went out of the window when Daki littered the ground with bloodied corpses, leaving horrified people in her wake. It's not just some self-contained war between demons and demon slayers: Innocents are not exempt from getting caught up in the bloodshed, and there was blood in abundance.

I'm a fan of gore when it's done well, and "Demon Slayer" fully leaned into the same type of body horror and visual nightmare territory that scared the absolute s**t out of me in season 1. Remember when Muzan forced that woman's body to explode in season 1, episode 8? It's kinda like that: Horrific, but you can't look away because it's also so well executed. Rather than exploding bodies, we see the aforementioned severing of Nezuko's limbs and Daki giving us more insight to her demonic abilities by showing off how her "worm belt" allows her to easily dislodge her own head from her neck, or how she can grow back half of her head after Nezuko kicks it off like a soccer ball made of blood and bones.

Daki is pretty confident for someone who is consistently bested by people she feels are beneath her. She's already had her underground human refrigerator infiltrated by multiple demon slayers, and she didn't have any sort of contingency plan in place for such a scenario. Now we see that she's still underestimating her opponents even after Tanjiro (who hasn't even kind of achieved his full potential) nearly beheaded her and has managed to hold his own against her far longer than she anticipated. She also didn't anticipate Nezuko reducing the size of her skull by like 57%, but she still feels she's unstoppable.

We get a glimpse of where her arrogance may stem from during her exchange with Tanjiro, when she compares some of the harsher realities of being human — poverty, disease, the fragility of life — to what she feels are the benefits of being a demon. Since all demons were human once, we can assume Daki probably didn't have the best life before she was turned, and her current disposition is not unlike that of a relative nobody who makes it big and now looks down on everyone who is where he used to be, becoming a cruel bigot rather than drawing on past experiences to become more empathetic.

Her idea that demons are superior is also displayed when she says to Nezuko, "We're both demons after all. I won't bully you anymore." She then books Nezuko for one of her special worm belt shibari sessions and says how she'll probably kill her by exposing her to sunlight in the morning. Nezuko declines Daki's offer to explore her weird kink and stands up, already fully healed and whole despite being in several pieces just moments prior. Once again, Daki is shook. She remarks that Nezuko is displaying "upper rank caliber" demonic abilities, meaning she's actually strong as hell. The two start throwing down yet again, and the episode ends there.

We got some bloody good action this episode — literally. In addition to that, we also caught a glimpse of someone who looked a lot like Tanjiro's father facing off against Muzan in a flashback, pretty much confirming the suspicion that Tanjiro has some demon slayers in his family tree — and that Muzan has a history and personal beef with the Kamado family. Interestingly, we see this memory through Daki's eyes, with the cruel she-demon remarking that she must be recalling Muzan's memories rather than her own. This means that taking in Muzan's blood not only grants power, but access to his memories as well, which is something I don't recall the show mentioning before. I'm very interested in seeing how and if this will become important as the series continues.

Another interesting development is that we find out Papa Rengoku is capable of more than tossing back sake and attacking minors. He's capable of introspection and kindness, so while I won't apologize for justifiably calling him a piece of s**t in previous reviews, I will happily acknowledge that he is working on becoming less of a piece of s**t. The few minutes dedicated to his redemption were truly touching, so of course I cried.

Another interesting detail is that we saw three different physical transformations this episode! Tanjiro's rage at Daki was so severe that he began to cry blood while unleashing devastating sun-breathing moves. Daki's hair changed color from black to a white and soft green gradient, with her body becoming noticeably less dainty and much more veiny and muscular (which is still hot, just so we're clear). The most impressive transformation, however, was Nezuko's. She sprouted an entire horn, grew in size, and her body was suddenly covered with sick leafy vine tattoos that made me wanna finally book my next ink session. Whatever is going on there, I love it and cannot wait to see more. They should have let Nezuko come out to play a lot sooner, but the phrase "better late than never" certainly applies here.

Ultimately, this episode was amazing and even managed to top episode 5 (which I also loved). I hope "Demon Slayer" will continue to outdo itself with its perfect mixture of hauntingly beautiful (and beautifully haunting) storytelling, themes, and visuals in the coming episodes of the Red-Light District Arc.