@TLC:

So now Tanjiro is able to 1v1 the uber final boss who just massacred his peers and superiors?

That's Shounen manga for you.

I would much rather her take a sword for Shin then go out on a stupid metaphysical level like this.

If his plan was to make it feel needlessly drawn out, he's doing a superb job of it.

@Seafarer33:

The feeling's shared. I was hyped as hell when the arc begun ; the food supply chains, the locusts strategy, Kanki sieging a city, even the infiltrators… It was all so full of promise, but instead we got Houken. Bleh.

Same. Houken's random appearances always sucked the air out of the room. And his appearance in the latest arc has really beaten down by waning interest in the series. I'll give it another chapter but if I see another character die to that idiotic character, be it directly or indirectly, I'm out.

Man, I haven't seen a series collapse this hard since Bleach.

@pRopaaNS:

Are there any real world examples of "pathseekers without personality"?

Roombas, the little cleaning robots. That's probably a poor example though, since they have far more personality than Plot Device.

@cryhwks:

God I hope he dies. I never understood why so many people like him? He's nothing more than a plot device, he's barely a character.

His appearance kills my interest in any arc he shows up in.

@auem:

Long ago this sorts of ploy was a interesting part of Kingdom's suspense. After rehashing it for umpteenth times, it now looks simply silly. I feared it for a while, but now pretty sure that Hara is losing the touch.

Agreed. It's getting harder and harder to maintain interest in this series. I don't care about Riboku's machinations anymore. And I sure as Hell don't care about that idiot, Hou Ken, yet again, showing up to kill a key character and then leaving. The series started off really interesting and is now just a slog.

@auem:

I am bit worried…about Kyoukai.

! I though she had a high chance of dying during Chu invasion, but Hara is showing all sorts of premonitions.

! You can't have Shin follow… what's his face's name if something doesn't happen to her apparently. I hope it doesn't turn out that lazy.
! That's why I hate Houken. The dude serves NO purpose other than to randomly show up, kill a person, get slightly injured, and repeat the process a bunch. He's easily the worst character in the series.

! I'm fully expecting those two to have some of devil powers to help them survive.