The following contains spoilers of Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village Arc Episode 3, "A Sword From Over 300 Years Ago," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
Demon Slayer fans found themselves split on the CGI animation after watching Demon Slayer's Season 3, Episode 3.
In "A Sword From Over 300 Years Ago," the demons have laid siege on the swordsmiths' village, seeking to eradicate the swordsmiths, thus cutting off the Demon Slayers' source of power. In one scene, Mist Hashira Muichiro initially opted against saving Kotetsu after spotting the boy desperately fighting against a fish-like demon. After remembering Tanjiro's words earlier in the episode, Muichiro decides to turn around and protect Kotetsu. In this scene, the fish demon is computer-generated animation. According to Anime Senpai, fans had conflicting reactions to the episode's direction.
Fan Reactions Varied Greatly
Some viewers, such as satimo (@/AbdouSatimo) thought the CGI elements were "worse than i imagined." However, other viewers were quick to quash their complaints and pointed out this was not as bad as some commenters are making it out to be, especially compared to other series that have poorly utilized CGI. A couple of Twitter users wrote the only reason why it looked "bad" was how the CGI felt out of place in a scene composed of 2D animation.
Other fans like Asael (@/Asael_96) thought the criticism against ufotable's use of CGI elements seemed excessive. Many others pointed out the CGI animation was "decent" with one Twitter user (@/mikantique) saying, "it looks actually good, has a typical for Demon Slayer black outlines + the filter is perfectly chosen, fits the scene. im not [a Demon Slayer] fan but this looks much better than 90% of other cgi." A few others pointed out that criticizing a short snippet of the episode when the rest of it had such high animation quality seemed overly and unnecessarily critical.
Demon Slayer Season 3 Premiered Earlier This Month
The first episode of "Swordsmith Village" arc premiered as part of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba world tour, where fans had a chance to watch it before the official premiere date on April 9. The third season follows Tanjiro as he makes his way to the Swordsmiths' Village in the hopes that his swordsmith Hotaru Haganezuka will forge him a new sword, but danger falls upon the swordsmiths and Demon Slayers when two Upper Rank demons track them down.
Demon Slayer's "Swordsmith Village" arc is available on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
Source: Anime Senpai, Twitter