Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – 10 – Just Like Family

Looks like Yahaba is toast, but before he’s destroyed he makes life particularly difficult for Tanjirou, shooting all his arrows at him one after the other and forcing the Demon Slayer to pull off a long chain of moves. By the time Yahaba is gone for good, Tanjirou can neither stand nor hold a sword. And because there’s still one enemy demon still very much standing.

Fortunately for Tanjirou, Nezuko’s leg heals and she re-enters the fray. For a couple of minutes that fray turns into a soccer match, with Nezzy and Susa kicking the ball to each other with increasing ferocity. When Yushirou looks at Tamayo, she insists this is Nezuko’s own strength.

Even so, Tamayo believes Susamaru is still only toying with Nezuko, and it’s only a matter of time before she becomes impatient and goes all-out. In order to preempt that eventuality, Tamayo uses her Blood Demon Art to deaden Susamaru’s senses, then provokes her by calling Kibutsuji Muzan nothing but a petty coward.

While essentially under Tamayo’s spell, Susamaru says her master’s name while defending him, which causes Kibutsuji’s cells within her to tear her apart from the inside out. When there’s nothing left of her but an arm and an eyeball, Tamayo notes that she and her companion weren’t Twelve Kizuki after all, as the real ones have their number emblazoned on their eyes. She also collects some of her blood in hope it will help with her research.

Tanjirou, ever the empathetic lad, comes to Susamaru when he hears her death throes, and makes sure she has her beloved temari ball when the sun comes up, and with it her time. Like him I couldn’t help but feel bad for her, as she was merely a naive child used as a tool for the monstrous Kibutsuji’s whims.

Tanjirou is again reunited with Nezuko, who is once again healed up from Tamayo. While Urokodaki’s hypnosis makes her see all humans as family, Tanjirou is heartened to see she still has a measure of free will, because she’s chosen to see both Tamayo and Yushirou as humans and thus family as well. Tamayo tears up as Nezuko hugs her, and even Yushirou can’t help but blush when she pats his head. Who can blame them? Nezuko is a nigh-unbeatable combo of adorable, caring, and absolutely badass—all without uttering a word.

Tamayo offers to let Tanjirou leave Nezuko with her, as she’ll likely be safer than if she stays with her Demon Slayer brother. Before Tanjirou can respectfully decline, Nezuko does it for him, again making her own choice and taking his hand as a sign she wants them to stick together. They continue on to their next assignment, running into the blond kid from the Final Selection on the way. I see a team-up in the offing…

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – 09 – Balls to the Walls

We learn that Susamaru and Yahaba are two of the Twelve Kizuki (Demon Moons), Muzan’s most trusted generals. When they say they’re going to do something—like bringing their master Tanjirou’s head—they usually get the job done.

But that doesn’t mean Susamaru isn’t going to have a little fun, sprouting four extra arms and pummeling the house and its occupants with her six temari balls. Whenever anyone tries to dodge the balls, they change directions, seemingly breaking the laws of physics. Despite appearing to be toys, one of them decapitates Yushirou, forcing Tamayo to fall back.

Tanjirou can’t slash away the balls and protect the others at once. Once Yushirou’s head grows back, he lends Tanjirou his sight, enabling Tanjirou to see that Yahaba is using his arrows to affect the trajectories of the balls. He adapts his offense and defense, gets in close, and lops off Susamaru’s six arms.

Nezuko, who sees Tamayo and Yushirou as family even though they’re demons, attacks Yahaba in the trees, but when she tries to kick one of Susamaru’s balls, it claims her leg, and unlike Yushirou she doesn’t heal nearly as quickly. Through trial and error and suffering quite a pummeling, Tanjirou eventually learns that dodging, countering, or slicing the arrows is useless; he has to make them work for him. 

By popping off a number of different Water Breathing Forms, he manages to finally crack Yahaba’s code, decapitating him with a new lateral water wheel that contains Yahaba’s own arrows. Of course, as Susamaru quickly grew her arms back and Yushirou grew his head back, Tanjirou’s victory could be short-lived.

These demons are beyond anything he’s fought before; if they fall to a relative novice demon slayer they’re going to seem like pushovers. That’s why I’m glad the battle doesn’t end here. I’m sure there will be more twists and turns before the night is one. Maybe he only needs to hold out until sunrise? But however things shake out, this episode was a showcase for the series’ trademark heart-pumping, inventive, balls-to-the-wall combat animation.

There’s a fair bit of CG, but it’s used well: smoothly integrated so it doesn’t distract from the fighting in the least. It’s truly a delight to watch Tanjirou and Nezuko dance through the air dodging balls and arrows, while Yushirou’s head re-growth is wonderfully gross. I’m not sure how Susamaru’s tube top stays on when her extra arms punch through the sides…but that’s nitpicking.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – 08 – Doctor Tamayo, Medicine Demon

Tanjirou pounces on the man Kibutsuji Muzan transformed into a demon, while urging bystanders to keep pressure on the wife’s shoulder wound. The police arrive, and demand Tanjirou get off the man. When he refuses (for their sake), they whip out the batons.

A woman in the crowd scratches her arm and from her blood a flowery screen of illusion occludes the cops’ vision. Tanjirou locates the source of the magic: the ethereally beautiful woman and her boy attendant…both of whom appear to be demons.

Last week demonstrated that Kibutsuji Muzan can turn humans into demons with one scratch and has no qualms about doing so in public. This week we learn a little more about the man. To his wife and adorable daughter he appears to be the model husband and father, and they’re rich enough to afford a car and fancy western-style clothes.

But when his family isn’t around, he doesn’t hesitate to bear his claws, easily killing a drunk kid and his big brother and then burying his clawed finger into the brain of a poor woman, transforming her into a demon so quickly her body can’t bear it, and turns into a horrific mass of blood and viscera that collapses into red dust.

After making things right with the udon vendor by eating two bowls, Tanjirou encounters the lady’s attendant once more. Things between the two boys don’t start out smoothly, as he calls Nezuko a “hag”—which is just objectively false, by the way—but the attendant was order to fetch him, and he follows his lady’s orders. He leads Tanjirou and Nezuko through an apparent brick wall to reveal a hidden medical clinic.

It is the refuge and laboratory of Tamayo (Sakamoto Maaya), a doctor who was transformed into a demon by Kibutsuji but was able to sufficiently modify her to survive on only a small amount of human blood to survive. Her attendant, Yushirou, whom she turned into a demon, can survive on even less.

Tamayo is excited by Tanjirou and Nezuko’s arrival, because they each have something they can offer one another. Tamayo tells Tanjirou something he desperately needed to hear—it is possible to turn Nezuko back. But the means to do so must be thoroughly researched and tested. To that end, Tamayo asks for permission to study Nezuko’s blood, and also asks that he bring her the blood of demons that were made by Kibutsuji or his creations.

In a beautiful little moment during Tamayo’s proposal, Tanjirou tenderly places his hand on Nezuko’s lovely forehead and she affectionately takes it into her hands. It says all that needs to be said about their bond without words, as do most of their interactions, as she is no longer verbal.

He agrees to the deal, but no sooner is it struck than two demon henchmen Kibutsuji ordered to find and kill Tanjirou (whose earrings reminded him of someone he fought in the past) crash their way through Tamayo’s illusory barrier, ready to fuck shit up.

These two look like tough customers, but as we know well by now, so are Tanjirou and Nezuko…and Yushirou and Tamayo are likely no slouches either. I like the good guys’ odds.