The highly anticipated new season of Demon Slayer, the Hashira Training Arc, is finally on air, delivering one spectacular episode after another. The narrative of this season is focused on training the demon slayers by the Hashira to prepare for the final battle against Demon Slayer’s final villain, Kibutsuji Muzan. Ufotable is doing justice to Koyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer manga again, but this time by not being completely faithful to it and adding original content that is actually improving the story, contrary to what most “filler” does.

Ufotable is once again going above and beyond in the adaptation of the newest season of Demon Slayer and proving that they can enhance even the finest areas of the series. Fans who have read the manga feared that the Hashira Training Arc was going to be a short one considering the ‘lack’ of content in this particular arc.

But Ufotable has come up with a surprising solution for this arc’s perceived brief content by adding original anime content that fans didn’t know that they wanted until they saw it. Though there were concerns about adding original anime scenes in Demon Slayer‘s newest season, given the history of anime original content often deteriorating quality, Ufotable is redefining its notion.

Demon Slayer‘s Newest Season Redefines the Notion of Anime Original Content

Ufotable enhances the depth of even the smallest scenes.

Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc Episode #3, “Fully Recovered Tanjiro Joins the Hashira Training” was based on only a page and a half from the manga. It means that the rest of the episode was all anime-original scenes by Ufotable and the studio did not stray from its path of producing consistent quality even in this episode, which could be considered a filler. In fact, this episode ended up being an emotional roller coaster ride with Hashira onboard.

In the manga, Tanjiro’s training under Tengen Uzui was covered in a page and a half. But in this episode it was expanded to highlight Tengen’s emotional struggle after retiring and Tanjiro’s advanced skills following his battles with Upper-Rank Demons. In particular, this episode serves as a heartfelt farewell to conclude Uzui’s character arc while the manga had done it very abruptly.

Uzui shows regret for leaving the Hashira regiment, and this is also highlighted when his wives talk about Uzui’s nightmare. While the manga did not feature Tengen’s emotional response at all, Ufotable did its best to conclude the Sound Hashira’s character arc by having him pass the torch to the future generation of Demon Slayer Corps. Though Uzui’s determination to train the next generation was the highlight of this episode, Ufotable saw this chance to expand on other Hashiras as well.

Demon Slayer‘s Newest Season Is All About Anime Original Content

In addition to highlighting Uzui’s emotional struggles, Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc also features the struggles of other Hashiras. For example, there is a surprising original anime flashback that sees Tanjiro and Giyu Tomioka in an eating competition. The Water Hashira seemingly gives up the competition and makes his own decision to join the training regiment, rather than Tanjiro forcing him. Though Tanjiro acted as a catalyst for Giyu to make the right decision, the Water Hashira’s choice was ultimately his own, adding depth and growth to his overall character.

Demon Slayer‘s newest season has, until now, featured many more original anime scenes and improved the arc it is based upon by adding more depth to Hashira. Overall, this was a great way for the Demon Slayer anime to cover a transitional arc from the manga, and it was only possible thanks to Ufotable’s capacity to redefine the meaning of “filler” and original content in anime.