Sword of the Demon Hunter

Episode 20

This week's episode is largely set in one place – the ruined temple where Jinya found the baby who becomes his adopted daughter – and yet it advances the story satisfyingly. It's not visually impressive or varied, just a standard dark rainy night of the soul that would work pretty well as a radio drama. (My favorite visual touch isn't in the temple but outside Kyoto when Tsuchiura and Jinya face off for their rematch; Tsuchiura hulks out and his instant-growing horn knocks his straw hat off.) But the episode conveys its main idea well, of a protagonist growing in self-understanding, even as he's resigned to never changing his fundamental nature.

Much of the episode is a heart-to-heart between Jinya and fellow demon Ofu, who persuades her old friend to open up more than ever before, and recognize that what drives him is contradictory and irrational, except as a death drive. (The episode misses a trick, though, by not taking us back to Episode 17, which visualized this idea perfectly, with Jinya laughing exultantly in a pool of his blood.)

But rather than any glib suggestion that Ofu has “solved” Jinya's conflicted nature, she just congratulates him on his humanity. She surprises both him and us by comparing him with her very human father Hyoma, who died last week, reflecting his choices were wrong in any rational sense, yet good still came from them - Ofu herself is the proof.

Step forward the people whom Jinya has saved: Nomari and Miura, who can both look past his demon appearance. Jinya's amazement on seeing them is endearing, but the true heartwarmer is when he finds himself caressing his daughter's hair as he always does. It may be a demon-sized hand now, but it's still the same hand it always was.

The episode also gives time to Tsuchiura, including flashbacks which suggest that he, like Jinya, may have begun life as a human. We learn that he was previously apprenticed to the swordsmith Kameone and his (demon) wife, who've been background presences this season, and that Tsuchiura once loved a (probably) human woman, though the framing suggests it didn't end well.

We'll presumably get more details next week, as Tsuchiura and Jinya continue their rematch in the rain. I hope Tsuchiura makes it out of the next episode alive, and that he's a sumo wrestler or the world's best shelf-stacker today.

Rating:

Sword of the Demon Hunter is currently streaming on HIDIVE.