The Hashira Training Arc lacks the series’ trademark Demon duels that have punctuated past seasons and there’s a lack of urgency that has dragged these episodes down. It will be interesting to see this season’s reputation once Demon Slayer is over and how often people revisit these episodes. However, those who have been let down by Demon Slayer’s Hashira Training Arc season as a whole will still be absolutely blown away by its knockout finale. 

“The Hashira Unite” gives fans their largest Muzan Kibutsuji showcase to date and ends the season on the best note possible with a virtuosic display of visuals and violence. It’s absolutely everything that audiences want out of a Demon Slayer episode. The proceedings begin with an infinitely tense meeting between Muzan Kibutsuji and Kagaya Ubuyashiki, as the former achieves a goal that’s plagued him for 1000 years. It really leans into the gravitas of Kibutsuji’s relationship with the Ubuyashiki family and this final meeting receives the proper weight that it deserves. 

This tragic encounter takes up nearly half of the finale, which is the perfect melancholy way to kick off the season’s foreboding finish. “The Hashira Unite” stays true to Demon Slayer’s mission statement to mix impossible action sequences with heavy sorrow and methodical, reflective remorse. This interaction concludes with an unprecedented explosion that’s nearly apocalyptic in nature, yet it’s hard to not feel inspired by the time that the dust settles. Ubuyashiki perishes, but he gets exactly what he wants. The Hashira were already incredibly motivated to take out Muzan Kibutsuji, but now they’re united like never before. 

“The Hashira Unite” makes a meal out of Ubuyashiki and Kibutsuji’s portentous rendezvous. That being said, Ubuyashiki has been such a thinly-drawn character who Demon Slayer’s audience hasn’t really been able to connect with much throughout the anime’s four seasons. Granted, Ubuyashiki first appears during the final episodes of Demon Slayer’s first season, but he’s only been present in a handful of episodes and has become increasingly absent since Demon Slayer’s third season. This creates an inherent barrier to the relationship’s catharsis that holds it back. 

It’s a major event in terms of Demon Slayer lore, yet it could be even more powerful. All this would hit much harder if Ubuyashiki was an active presence throughout the course of the anime. Instead, this millennium-long game of cat-and-mouse merely feels like a flashy way to kick off the finale and remind audiences that Muzan Kibutsuji doesn’t just call the shots with his cabal of Demons, but that he’s also extremely powerful. 

This finale is largely about celebrating destructive action between some of the series’ strongest characters. However, it does find some time to dip its toe in some more philosophical ruminations that tease this universe’s karmic consequences, or lack thereof. Ubuyashiki talks about his cursed bloodline trying to endlessly atone for the venom that they unintentionally released into the world, all while Kibutsuji gloats that he’s yet to receive any punishment for the thousands of lives that he’s taken. It’s fascinating, on the eve of such fallout, to indicate that Demon Slayer exists in a godless world where evil can effectively thrive, yet Kibutsuji’s musings still come across as shortsighted.