So again, just wow. This episode looked so good. This episode is called “Hinokami”

Hinokami is one of many names for the Shinto god of Fire. Other names are Ho-musubi, Kagu-tsuchi, or in this case Hi-no-kami. Why am I talking about this? We will get to that.

Hinokami was the son of the creator diety Izanami. When he was born he fatally burned Izanami and his father Izanagi cut him into pieces creating many new gods. He is revered as a purificatory agent, but also feared for his destructiveness.

So why is this relevant? Well when we see Tanjiro pushed into a corner he has an important flashback. One that involves a character that has not been talked about yet. His father Tanjuro Kamado. He remembers his childhood when he was curious how his father was able to dance in the cold for so long, especially commenting on how his lungs would freeze. Near the end of the flashback Tanjuro tells his son Tanjiro that it is a special way of breathing that will let him dance forever without exhausting himself.

Tanjiro remembers this after many things happen in the episode. It start with his sword having been broken by the Spider Demons’ threads. The Demon toys with Tanjiro for a while punishing him, but not killing him. Once he finally gets a good attack on Tanjiro Nezuko pops out of the box and takes the hit for him. This panics Tanjiro and he hides briefly with Nezuko. Then the Spider Demon reveals his motivations of wanting a family bond, but one of fear. Afterwards Nezuko is taken hostage by the Demon and then strung up. Tanjiro fights more but to no avail as the Demon beats him easily. The Demon even offer Tanjiro a free hit to which he realizes he can’t cut the demon.

Now is where it gets interesting. Tanjiro, after taking a massive strike into a mountain sees Nezuko struggling in the web, cut, and bleeding even more before passing out. He decides he has to use his final form of Water Breathing, the technique that he learns from Urokodaki Sakonji to be able to fight demons. This particular form allows Tanjiro to gain power and momentum from each strike and rotation eventually letting him have enough power to cut the webs. Once the Demon sees this he decides to up the power of the webs into a red form with his Blood Demon Art. That brings us back to where we started and why the flashback is important.

Tanjiro unleashes the Dance of the Fire God breathing technique. This Technique is uniquely passed down in the Kamado family along with the hanafuda earrings. This is particularly interesting since fire breathing looks to be an opposite of water breathing. Tanjiro references that he must push through the entire ordeal in one go because he will be immobilized once he stops for swapping into the Dance of the Fire God from Water Breathing.