Move Forward!

The thirty-first episode is an all-out fight to save the two hundred passengers trapped on the train Enmu now controls. The freshly awakened slayers coordinate their defense while Tanjiro and Inosuke hunt for the demon's neck bone, the only point where a beheading will stick. Tanjiro repeatedly falls under Enmu's renewed hypnosis and must keep waking himself before the team can land the decisive strike.

Defending the cars

As tentacles erupt to seize the sleeping passengers, Inosuke cuts them with Beast Breathing's Fifth Fang, Crazy Cutting, while Tanjiro retreats inside to gauge how far Enmu has spread. Nezuko grows in size to shield the sleepers but is overwhelmed until Zenitsu wakes and clears a carriage with Thunder Breathing's First Form. Kyojuro joins as well, damaging the train enough to force Enmu to heal, and lays out a plan: he guards the rear cars, Zenitsu and Nezuko hold the front, and he and Inosuke search for the head, which sits near the front of the train.

Finding the neck bone

Inosuke exposes the demon's neck bone, but flesh shields it from Tanjiro's strikes, and Enmu's Eyes of Forced Unconscious Sleep keep pulling Tanjiro into dreams he must die in to escape. Inosuke, protected by his mask from the demon's gaze, slashes the eyes and stops Tanjiro from killing himself needlessly. Working together, the two clear the surrounding flesh, and Tanjiro brings down Hinokami Kagura, Clear Blue Sky, to sever the neck bone and decapitate Enmu. Kyojuro blocks the dying demon's last grab at the passengers, but the severed flesh sends the train hurtling off the rails.

The eyecatchers loosely recreate a chapter cover. The anime extends the closing duel, adding a sequence in which Tanjiro and Inosuke evade the demon's arms, are flung high, and fall while readying their final attacks, whereas the manga keeps them standing on the train. Enmu's last lunge at the passengers, stopped by Kyojuro, is also unique to the adaptation.