‘Demon Slayer’: When Will the Hashira Training Arc Be Animated?

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotōge, whose publication began on February 15, 2016, in Shūeisha’s weekly Shūkan Shōnen Jump magazine. An anime series adaptation was released on April 6, 2019, and ended on September 28 of that same year. The continuation of the story was adapted into a film titled Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen; it opened on October 16, 2020, in Japan. A second season of the anime began airing in November 2021. A third season aired in 2023 and ended on June 18 of that same year after 11 episodes. Before the premiere of the final (special) episode, it was confirmed that a fourth season, adapting the Hashira Training Arc, is on the way. In this article, we are going to tell you when you can expect it.

The fourth season of Demon Slayer, which will adapt the Hashira Training Arc, has been confirmed. Seeing how the arc consists of only nine chapters, it is most likely going to be a short season unless the authors decide to adapt some additional content from the light novels or add some anime-only material. Be that as it may, early reports suggest that the season is already in production, and seeing how we don’t expect too many episodes here, it could very well be that we are going to see the season within a year, either in late 2023 or in the first half of 2024.

The rest of this article is going to bring you all the known and unknown information related to the upcoming season 4 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, which is set to adapt the Hashira Training Arc. You are going to find out everything we know about the upcoming series, focusing primarily on when it could air and when we could expect it on the screens. Some minor spoilers might be present.

The anime adaptation of the Hashira Training Arc could be out soon

Going back in time, we know that the 27th issue of Shōnen Jump 2018, released on June 4, confirmed that the studio Ufotable is going to produce an anime adaptation of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and at the same time, the opening of a dedicated site was made.

Ufotable is also credited for the scripts of the series, the realization of which was entrusted to Haruo Sotozaki, with Akira Matsushima as character designer, accompanied by Miyuki Sato, Yōko Kajiyama, and Mika Kikuchi, who are the designers of the secondary characters; the series’ soundtrack was composed by Yuki Kajiura and Gō Shiina. Hikaru Kondo was confirmed to be the producer of the series.

It was broadcast for the first time in Japan between April 6 and September 28, 2019, on 20 different TV channels. Four short episodes, titled Kimetsu Gakuen: Valentine-hen, were also produced by Ufotable on the theme of Valentine’s Day; they aired throughout the online event celebrating the animated television series’ two-year anniversary on February 14, 2021, and were then uploaded to Aniplex’s YouTube channel afterward.

During the same event, Aniplex announced the production of a second season by the same production team as the first series.

As soon as the first season’s broadcast ended, the studio announced the production of a film titled Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, which premiered on October 16, 2020. A batch of seven episodes was broadcast on October 10, 2021, taking up the arc already presented in the film Mugen Train.

From December 5, 2021, the story continued with the Entertainment District Arc, adapting volumes 8 to 11 of the manga. The broadcast of the season ended on February 13, 2022. On the same day of the broadcast of the last episode of the second season, Ufotable announced via its official website that the third season was in production. The season adapted the Swordsmith Village arc, which follows the Entertainment District Arc.

A global tour preceded the premiere of the third season with a recap movie that also contained an extended preview of the first episode airing in cinemas around the world. The third season officially premiered on April 9, 2023, with a special episode and continued to air until June 18, 2023. The season contained a total of 11 episodes, with the final one also being an extended special.

Now, fans of the series know that the Swordsmith Village Arc was followed by the small, nine-chapter Hashira Training Arc, which reunited Tanjiro with Zenitsu and Inosuke as the three of them participated in the so-called Hashira Training exercise; this arc will provide us, for the first time, with detailed insight into the remaining Hashira and we are also going to get more focus on Sanemi and his relationship with Genya, something that has been touched upon in the third season of the show.

On the day of the season’s premiere, it was officially confirmed that a fourth season, adapting the Hashira Training Arc would be produced. At this moment, we don’t know when it is going to air, but we’ve seen a lot of new character posters, and according to early rumors, the season is actually already in production. So, when could we actually see it?

Well, based on the fact that the Hashira Training Arc was announced as a whole season, and the arc has only nine chapters and two volumes, we don’t think we’ll have to wait for it too long. Namely, by all means, the season will be very short, with less than ten episodes (five seems reasonable).

So, unless the producers decide to expand the story with some material from the light novels (which would be great) or with some filler or anime-original content, the season will be the shortest and, thus, the easiest to produce.

Considering all that, the fourth season might arrive sooner than we think. It wouldn’t surprise us if it premiered within a year, either in late 2023 as a great Christmas gift or in the first half of 2024, but we’ll have to wait for a confirmation.