The Demon Slayer Season 3 release date is on April 9, 2023, the Spring 2023 anime season.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Season 3 Episode 1 will also be a 1-hour special that’s broadcast on Fuji TV while streaming internationally around the world.
A special world tour screening event will also be held in IMAX movie theaters on February 3, 2023. The screenings will start with Entertainment District Arc Episodes 10 and 11 and then dive down into Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc Episode 1.
The first episode will be screened in 418 theaters throughout Japan and IMAX movie theaters in more than 80 countries and regions around the world. The North American premiere will be in Los Angeles on February 18, 2023. The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -To the Swordsmith Village- World Tour movie theater release date in the USA and Canada is on March 3, 2023.
The anime TV series was inevitable considering the worldwide popularity of the TV show. Some anime news leakers were previously claiming that Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc would come out in the second half of 2023 (Summer 2023 or Fall 2023). (See the Demon Slayer Season 3 release date predictions section below for more details.)
More news about the Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc anime has been slowly teased out whenever the respective seiyuus (voice actors) show up for an event. For example, when Producer Yuma Takahashi and voice actors Natsuki Hanae (Tanjiro Kamado) and Katsuyuki Konishi (Tengen Uzui) attended the Machi Asobi event on October 15, 2022, it was confirmed that the Demon Slayer Season 3 trailer would be released on December 10, 2022.
As expected, the Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc trailer revealed more information about the new TV series. (Here’s the YouTube trailer link for certain countries.)
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Previous Demon Slayer events have slowly been trickling out new info. For example, Demon Slayer Festival 2022 – Anime 3rd Anniversary Celebrations was held in mid-April 2022.
The event celebrated the Entertainment District Arc on the first day, while the second day was all about Mugen Train Arc. The Hashira seiyuus and the rest of the Japanese cast performed an exclusive live reading of an original story and a special live dubbing performance. English-only speakers can also enjoy the event since live English subtitles were provided.
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On the first day of the event, a new Demon Slayer Season 3 teaser was released by Aniplex.
Unfortunately, the teaser trailer and the event did not announce the time frame for the Demon Slayer Season 3 release date. Fans were forced to wait until December 10, 2022.
In any case, considering the astounding success of the overall series, it’s no surprise that the anime production committee had Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba: Swordsmith Village Arc renewed for 2023.
(In case you’re wondering, nothing significant was announced during the stage event at Anime Japan 2022 on March 26, 2022.)
Unfortunately, the post-credits of the second season’s finale did not tease anime fans with a Demon Slayer Season 3 preview similar to how they showed the Mugen Train at the end of the first season. Instead, there was a teaser trailer that was released online and it only showed off the character designs from the key visual.
The second season’s finale was definitely a transitional episode rather than a conclusion, but after the characters hugged it out (rather than having a demon meeting) the after-credits simply showed a black screen that declared, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc The End”.
Warning: The following paragraph contains a brief Demon Slayer Season 3 story summary with spoilers.
The Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc anime will have Tanjiro Kamado waking up after two months in a coma. Tanjiro will travel to the swordsmith village in hopes of convincing Hotaru to make him a new sword, but after discovering a secret weapon the young demon slayer will find Upper Moon Five Gyokko and Upper Moon Four Hantengu waiting for him. But it’s not like Tanjiro is facing danger alone since he’ll be joined by two Hashira, the “Love Hashira” Mitsuri Kanroji and the “Mist Hashira” Muichiro Tokito.
The total number of episodes for Demon Slayer Season 3 hasn’t been announced yet. Assuming that the Demon Slayer Season 4: Infinity Castle Arc anime adapts the short, nine-chapter Hashira Training Arc, it’s likely that the third season will be around 10 episodes long.
Then again, the first episode of Demon Slayer Season 3 might be 1-hour long just so they can fit that part into a more standard 12-episode cour.
Aniplex is the anime/music distributor, Shueisha publishes the manga by creator Koyoharu Gotoge, and ufotable is the animation studio. On February 13, 2022, it was confirmed that the main staff is returning for Demon Slayer 3.
Director Haruo Sotozaki (Tales of Symphonia: The Animation) returned for directing the second season, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -Entertainment District-, and now he’ll be coming back again for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba -Swordsmith Village-.
Chief animation director Akira Matsushima is also returning. Lead character designer Akira Matsushima is also coming back for the third season. For the first season, the sub-character designers were Miyuki Sato, Yoko Kajiyama, and Mika Kikuchi.
The music was composed by Yuki Kajiura (Sword Art Online, Fate/Zero, and Madoka Magica) and Go Shiina (Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, and God Eater). Hikaru Kondo is the producer.
The Demon Slayer Season 3 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
The Demon Slayer: Mugen Train OP “Akeboshi” and ED “Homura” were both performed by LiSA. The Demon Slayer Season 2 OP for the Entertainment District Arc, “Scattered Songs (Zankyou Zanka)”, and the ED “Morning Will Come (Asa ga Kuru)” were both performed by Aimer.
The anime’s first season premiered with two cours composed of 26 episodes on April 6, 2019. The Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie’s USA release date was on April 21, 2021.
The Demon Slayer Season 2 release date was on October 10, 2021, the Fall 2021 anime season. The first 7 episodes introduced an original story and re-adapted the Mugen Train arc.
The Demon Slayer Season 2 Episode 4 release date was delayed due to Japanese politics news coverage. Since the Japanese TV broadcasting schedule already had a one-week break built in, the Demon Slayer: Entertainment District arc began with a one-hour special episode on December 5, 2021.
It’s been confirmed that the second season will have two cours. The Entertainment District arc has 11 episodes for a total of 18 episodes.
The second season’s finale, Demon Slayer Season 2 Episode 18 (Entertainment District Arc Episode 11), was released on February 13, 2022.
Demon Slayer Entertainment District Episode 11 was an extended 45-minute broadcast that’s almost double the length of a normal episode. Essentially, the total runtime of the Entertainment District Arc had almost 12 episodes, but the conclusion combined the final two episodes into one.
- Updated December 10, 2022: Demon Slayer Season 3 release date confirmed for April 2023 by trailer PV 1.
- Updated October 14, 2022: Demon Slayer Season 3 trailer release date is confirmed for December 10, 2022.
Updated April 16, 2022: Added Demon Slayer Season 3 teaser trailer.
Updated March 8, 2022: Added Demon Slayer Festival 2022 trailer and info.
Updated February 18, 2022: Added Entertainment District English dub release date.
- Updated February 13, 2022: Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village confirmed! Added Demon Slayer Season 3 trailer and key visual.
- Updated February 12, 2022: Added Demon Slayer Season 3 release date rumor.
- Updated February 7, 2022: S2 finale an extended length episode.
- Updated January 24, 2022: Added Demon Slayer: Mugen Train English dub info.
- Updated December 10, 2021: ufotable tax fraud scandal finally ends with Hikaru Kondo’s sentencing.
This article provides everything that is known about Demon Slayer Season 3 (Kimetsu no Yaiba Season 3 / Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Why the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Season 3 release date is in Spring 2023
As of the last update, Shueisha, Aniplex, Ufotable, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the exact Demon Slayer Season 3 release date. However, the third season was confirmed to be in production on February 13, 2022.
On December 10, 2022, it was announced that the Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village release date would be in April 2023.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
Ufotable is on the anime production committee so they definitely have a financial incentive to adapt the entire manga series. The biggest issue is the availability of Ufotable. As a small animation company, they do have concurrent projects (films and video games) but they usually only have one big project per year.
Ufotable usually announces its projects a year in advance. The Demon Slayer movie was released in October 2020, which was roughly a year after the first season finished. And the second season premiered a year later in Fall 2021.
As for 2022, Studio ufotable has not yet announced any other anime TV projects they are working on. However, they have announced the Witch on the Holy Night movie (Mahoutsukai no Yoru).
In recent times their focus has largely been on Demon Slayer although they also produced the Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel movie series and even an animated music video.
Considering that the animation studio has kept to a fairly regular release schedule these past few years it logically follows that the studio hasn’t experienced any major delays from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused some productions to slip back in their schedule.
Therefore, Anime Geek predicted that the Demon Slayer Season 3: Swordsmith Village TV anime would come out in the second half of 2023 in order to allow for a reasonable production schedule. It turns out this prediction was off by a few months, but we weren’t the only ones getting it wrong.
In addition, anime news leaker Animehype was claiming the same. On February 10, 2022, the anime news leaker claimed that the “latest information on Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba Anime series will be revealed soon” in relation to the February 12th Season 2 finale. When asked if the third season would come out later in 2022, Animehype responded, “No, there will be a 1.5 year break from broadcast,” which means Summer 2023.
Information from this source may also need to be taken with a huge grain of salt since Animehype also previously claimed the Jujutsu Season 2 trailer was about to come out in February 2022 based on a “misinterpreted translation” of Japanese, deleted the tweets, and also (mistakenly?) claimed the Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 release date was in Winter 2023 (JJK Season 2 really is coming out in 2023 in general, though).
Ufotable tax fraud court case finally ends in December 2021
Besides ufotable’s scheduling, there was the slowly brewing tax evasion scandal. Supporters of ufotable were concerned about how this court decision might impact the future of the anime company.
The short version is that the Ufotable president and Demon Slayer producer Hikaru Kondo hid about 30 percent of the income from their Tokyo anime restaurants altered the company’s accounting ledgers to hide about 446 million yen ($4.11 million). This meant they avoided 138 million yen (about $1.25 million USD) in corporate and consumption taxes.
During a hearing at the Tokyo District Court in September 2021, Kondo directly admitted to the crime but claimed that he thought his tax evasion would “not bring trouble to ufotable”. Kondo’s wife is actually the company’s accountant and the court noted that she had shown reluctance in manipulating the tax filing.
In December 2021, the Tokyo District Court determined that Kondo had show “strong intent” to commit tax fraud, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison. While that sounds bad, the sentence was suspended for three years so if he remains on good behavior he will never step foot in a jail cell.
The prosecution stated that ufotable and Kondo hid the income as a safeguard against future downturns in the anime industry. ufotable has apologized for its actions on its website and Kondo said he will shift the company toward more sustainable production levels while staying within legal boundaries.
ufotable has already filed a corrected tax return and paid back the amount owed to the Japanese government. The good news is that the tax fraud scandal shouldn’t have any impact on Demon Slayer Season 3. But ufotable will probably lose its reputation as being Unlimited Budget Works.
Crunchyroll and FUNimation’s Demon Slayer Season 2 English dub release date
Funimation and Crunchyroll are both streaming the Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Arc and Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc. The Demon Slayer Season 2 English dub was released in multiple parts based on the story arcs.
Here is the Demon Slayer dub cast:
- Zach Aguilar as Tanjiro
- Abby Trott as Nezuko
- Aleks Le as Zenitsu
- Bryce Papenbrook as Inosuke
- Mark Whitten as Rengoku
The Demon Slayer: Mugen Train English dub release date was on Friday, January 21, 2022. All seven dubbed episodes were released at the same time on FUNimation and Crunchyroll.
The Demon Slayer: Entertainment District English dub release date was 11 AM EST on Sunday, February 20, 2022. New episodes were streaming weekly Sunday until the dubbed Episode 11 finale released on May 1, 2022.
Presumably, a Demon Slayer Season 3 English dub will be produced in the future.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga’s ending was released in 2020
The story for the anime is based on the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga series by writer and illustrator Koyoharu Gotoge.
VIZ Media has licensed the official English translation of the Demon Slayer manga series. The first three chapters, as well as the three most recent chapters, can be read on the official website for free. The English online release is completely caught up with the Japanese magazine release.
The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga’s ending was released in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine already back in May 2020. Demon Slayer Chapter 205 was the ending of the entire series.
It’ll probably be debated for years whether Demon Slayer’s ending was rushed or not. After all, it seems like the series just began to peak in popularity.
The manga sold over 60 million copies in total in about four years. Then suddenly, it’s all over (except for a side-story prequel about Rengoku).
Why Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc anime probably won’t adapt Hashira Training Arc
The first season of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime series was 26 episodes long, and it ended by adapting through Volume 6: Chapter 51. The Kimetsu no Yaiba movie was a direct sequel about the Mugen Train story arc.
The Demon Slayer movie adapted manga Chapters 52 through 66, which wasn’t the entirety of the story arc. So the second season’s first cour re-adapted the Mugen Train story arc that was covered by the movie!
The 7 episodes added more details, especially the aftermath of the story arc that leads up to the Entertainment District arc. For example, the re-adaptation covered missing details from the Mugen Train arc like Tanjiro visiting Rengoku’s family mansion in manga Chapters 67 through 69.
In addition, the second season offered an expanded version of Mugen Train for the first several episodes that showed Rengoku taking on a mission before boarding the train.
Since Demon Slayer Season 2 re-adapts Mugen Train and then the next Entertainment District story arc, that means the anime adapted manga Chapters 53 through 99 with two anime cours since these story arcs have 47 chapters combined.
A “cour” is a three-month unit of TV broadcasting based on the physical weather seasons. Most anime seasons feature 12 or 13 episodes per cour.
Since Demon Slayer 205 is the end, that leaves 106 chapters to adapt for Demon Slayer Season 3. There are multiple ways anime studio ufotable could finish the anime series.
The Swordsmith Village arc is 28 chapters long and the Hashira Training arc is only 9 chapters. With both combined they were definitely too long for a movie unless the film had two parts, which is why ufotable probably chose to adapt Swordsmith Village as an anime TV series.
Arguably, if the 37 chapters of these two story arcs were combined they would be the perfect length for a single-cour Demon Slayer Season 3 with 12 episodes. The problem is that there is a natural break in the story that occurs at the beginning of manga Chapter 128. What’s more, ending of the Hashira Training Arc directly transitions into the Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Arc with no clean stopping point so it would be better for the first three episodes of Demon Slayer Season 4 to adapt the Hashira Training Arc as its beginning episodes.
The only question is how ufotable should adapt the long Demon Slayer: Final Battle Arc, but that’s a question that the Demon Slayer Season 4 anime will likely answer.
Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc anime TV spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
After Tanjiro wakes up from his coma he realizes he needs a new sword. But cranky swordsmith Hotaru Haganezuka is tired of repeatedly repairing the sword, so Tanjiro decides to travel to the swordsmith village to speak to him directly.
Upon arriving at the swordsmith village, Tanjiro is surprised to find out that Hotaro recently went missing. Although that’s a setback, while visiting the hot springs to heal his body, Tanjiro learns of a secret weapon hidden in the village.
This secret turns out to be a mechanical doll with six arms called Yoriichi Type Zero. Built in the Sengoku period, the doll is over three hundred years and it’s intended to train swordsmen.
During training, Tanjiro accidentally cuts off the doll’s head only to find a 300-year-old sword hidden inside. That’s when Hotaru abruptly shows up and declares that he’ll remove the rust so Tanjiro can have a new sword.
But these peaceful happenings are interrrupted by the arrival of Upper Rank Five Demon Gyokko and Upper Rank Four Hantengu. The two demons plan on destroying the entire swordsmith village!
Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Demon Slayer Season 3 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!