I'm caught up with Demon slayer season 3, and so far it pales in comparison to the previous 2 seasons and the movie. I don't blame the studio entirely, as they already had poor source material to work with considering how plain the manga is. The villains in this arc especially feel cheap and considerably unimpressive in comparison to Gyutaro, even when they are supposedly ranked higher. Although the fight between Gyutaro and Uzui in the manga was incomparable to what the studio animated last season, the studio included a much longer and MUCH more impressive fight sequence which left me wondering why this wasn't done throughout this season yet. So far, the fights have been completely loyal to the manga which is not a good thing in this case because of how boring they are. Especially after seeing how Muichiro and gyukko's fight concluded, I can't help but compare it to the high tension, risk, and a sense of sacrifice there was in previous fights like Akaza vs Rengoku, and Gyutaro vs Uzui. So far the fights just felt bland and there was no sense of risk at all, which is bad for Demon slayer considering the fights are it's one redeeming feature.
However, this episode was by far the best of this season. The backstory, voice acting, and animation was just perfect for this episode. It's confusing to me how it isn't rated much higher. I hope at least the last episode matches the level of the last season's finale, as it would redeem most of what this season was missing.