Sword of the Demon Hunter

Episode 21

As noted in social media posts and by commenters on these reviews, the new episode of Sword of the Demon Hunter has been released to HIDIVE in what's plainly the “wrong” version, with numerous incomplete shots – some examples are given here, with comparisons to the finished shots available on other platforms. That issue may hopefully have been rectified by HIDIVE by the time you read this. My other issues with the episodes won't have been…

Just when I'd got my hopes up! What seemed to be shaping into a juicy conflict promptly turns into a soggy, feeble squib. At least Tsuchiura gets a little more Red Hulk action before he's dispatched. I'm more annoyed with the treatment of his master, the samurai lord Hatakayama, who makes no efforts to secure his home, and instead… gives up and lets Jinya kill him.

There's a bit of talk first, where Jinya quietly psychoanalyses the lord and declares he's had a death wish all along. All Hatakayama's provocations were face-saving; what he wanted was for Jinya to kill him and spare him the burden of shoring up the doomed shogunate. It would be one thing if we got that analysis at the end of a terrific last fight, a blaze of glory. Instead, it's like the end of a staid drawing-room mystery where the detective kindly lets the criminal end his own life, and it's just not good enough.

Hatakayama was set up at length in Episode 15 as a wily mastermind determined to defend the shogun. Having him meekly agree that he wanted to lose is short-changing the viewer. You welched on your villainy, Hatakayama, and it's not cool.

As for the earlier showdown with Tsuchiura, it would have needed at least half an episode of more backstory to get us to engage. As it was, I was just puzzling over the unclear details – was Tsuchiura a demon before he was skewered by his attackers? Or just an unusually big man? Was his killing of his girlfriend an accident, a revenge, or a bit of both? Ambiguous storytelling is fine, but the story needs us to care first.

The suggestion that demons' powers come from impossible desires is interesting enough, and ties in thematically with Hatakayama's conduct, but it feels hokey for Jinya to use it as a suddenly-revealed kill move on Tsuchiura. It's consistent – Jinya's weakness as a demon is why he triumphs at the end – but it makes for stilted action. The scene where Ofu talked Jinya into self-acceptance last week was far more effective, and made pretty much the same point.

Episode 19 suggested Jinya was effectively banished from Edo, having been seen by a crowd as a demon, and it felt like a tragic turning point. Now that's deflated as he casually comes back to the old restaurant for a last farewell with Ofu – again, it diminishes their previous talk in the temple, Oh, and Jinya can take his daughter with him now, so that's another dramatic obstacle undone with barely an effort. It's all such a diminuendo, as if the series is actively trying to discourage viewers from carrying on with it.

The post-credits epilogue shows us a grown-up Natsu from the first cour, who's both forgiven Jinya for her father's death and accepted his demon nature. In the meantime, she's also married Zenji, her former servant. It's “satisfying” in a shallow sense, but it's still about the least interesting way the show could have dealt with this loose-end character.

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Sword of the Demon Hunter is currently streaming on HIDIVE.