‘Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc’ Episode 4 Recap & Ending Explained: Does Tanjiro Find Hantengu’s Weakness?

Welcome to the Ending Explained for Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc, Episode 4. This week’s episode is titled “Thank You, Tokito.” This clearly references the events at the end of the previous episode. There, we saw Tokito, the Mist Hashira, helping Kotetsu with what seemed like a big fish demon. Tokito arrived just in time to save the life of the swordsmith apprentice. This occurred just exactly after Tokito and Tanjiro had a conversation when Tanjiro taught Tokito a life lesson. Helping others is always good for you in the long run.

Tokito, who seems to be a person without feelings, decides to help the young Kotetsu, even against his own preferences. One of the main focuses of this arc will be learning more about the Hashiras, and Tokito seems to be the best option to learn from first. Kanroji, the Love Hashira, is also in the village, but she seems to be missing for the time being while Hantengu, the Upper-Rank Demon 4, attacks our heroes. As our heroes face this new and powerful enemy, it seems like they will be pushed to their limits if they want to survive.

The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc, Episode 4. Read at your own risk.

Does Tanjiro Find Hantengu’s Weakness?

This episode begins exactly where the previous one ended. We see ourselves watching Tokito defend young Kotetsu from a huge fish demon. The koi demon fish gets his head cut, but he regenerates instantly. Tokito seems confused momentarily but concludes that its weakness must be somewhere else. The demon has this huge base on the upper side of its body. Tokito cuts it, and he confirms that this is the source of the demon’s energy. As Tokito watches the demon disintegrate, Kotetsu thanks him for saving his life.

Tokito gets ready to leave and go help Tanjiro and the others, but Kotetsu begs him to go with him to save Haganezuka, who has been working nonstop on polishing a new sword for Tanjiro. Kotetsu says that if Haganezuka gets interrupted by the demons, the sword will lose all its value. Tokito then has a flashback where we see him all bloody and with bandages over his head. Oyakata-sama talks to him, and it seems Tokito has lost his memories. This is why he seems soulless, we don’t learn about how he lost his memories, but that will surely come later in the story.

Tokito agrees to help, and they leave for Haganezuka’s. Meanwhile, Tanjiro has been fighting one of the four demons that have split from Hantengu. The four demons all have different abilities. One can use lightning, another can fly, another is quite strong in martial arts, and the last is quite adept with the lance. These four demons are quite powerful, and after seeing them split from each other, Tanjiro doesn’t really know how to act. They will keep splitting if he keeps cutting them, which would be bad news for everyone.

However, Tanjiro’s reflexes make him attack the demon and split his head in half. The demon splits once again into smaller demons. These demons seem to be weaker, actually weak enough that Tanjiro dispatches them with no effort. Tanjiro discovers that while splitting is dangerous, each new demon that splits from another is weaker and weaker. He concludes that if they keep splitting the demon, it will reach a point where it will be so weak that he will not be able to fight back. However, in its current form, the demon is still quite strong.

Can Tanjiro And Nezuko Defeat Hantengu?

While Tanjiro is discovering things about his enemy, Genya and Nezuko are having their own bad times with the rest of the three demons that conform to Hantengu. In the previous episode, Genya got stabbed with a spear, and his state doesn’t seem very good. He tries, though. He uses his shotgun to blow the enemy’s head, but it isn’t enough to cut it off completely from the body, and the demon regenerates. Genya then tries to use his short sword, but the lightning powers of the other demon stop him.

Nezuko is at the time struggling with another of the demons. One with a sort of magic leaf as a weapon can use air pressure to hit people. The demon gets bored with Nezuko, who just grabs him to keep him in place, and then kicks her so hard that his foot comes out of the other side of her body. However, Nezuko is not defeated and uses her fire demon art to momentarily take the demon out of battle. Nezuko then goes to fight the other demons, but it is futile. She is outnumbered.

Tanjiro keeps fighting the bird demon and concludes that if he can fly, it is because he must be very light. Tanjiro concentrates all his strength on one attack that impales the demon. However, Tanjiro is not aiming to cut the demon but to push him back to the hotel where Nezuko is. Tanjiro is confirmed correct in his assumption, and he can drag the demon back to the hotel. He combines forces with his sister there, and they begin fighting the demons as a unit.

The fight is quite brutal, and the siblings try their best. They are still outnumbered, though, and let’s remember that these four demons are basically upper-rank demon. It is not an easy task to defeat them. One of the demons uses his magic leaf to finish Tanjiro and Nezuko. The blow throws them to a lower floor, and the last thing we see from them in this episode is both their eyes white. Which means they are completely unconscious. The episode ends with Kanjori finally appearing and running toward Tanjiro and Nezuko and defeating the upper-rank demon that is throwing the entire village into chaos.