Netflix recently added ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba,’ and makes many anime fans wonder if Netflix is expanding their anime collection for more enjoyment or is it just pure luck?
 

BREAKDOWN OF THE SERIES 

Episode 1 

Tanjiro Kamado is a teenage boy who lives happily with his family until one day he arrives home just to find his widowed mother, two younger brothers and a younger sister murdered, except for another younger sister, Nezuko. Nezuko had been turned into a demon. Giyū Tomioka, a demon hunter, arrives and attempts to decapitate Nezuko, but Tanjiro protects her and promises to turn her back into a human. Giyū finally decides to let the siblings go after being impressed by Tanjiro’s quick-wittedness and Nezuko’s strong will to protect her brother despite having been transformed, sending them to see a man named Sakonji Urokodaki on Mt. Sagiri and warning Tanjiro to keep his sister out of the sun. The siblings bury their family members and leave hand-in-hand.
 

Episode 2 

Tanjiro continues to make his way to Mt. Sagiri, carrying Nezuko in a clothed straw basket on his back during the day. On the way they are attacked by another demon which they manage to restrain with their own efforts. Sakonji Urokodaki then appears and orders Tanjiro to kill it, but he hesitates until daybreak, where the sunlight burns the demon to ash. Despite worrying that Tanjiro’s kindness and weak resolve could bring his undoing against the demons, Urokodaki brings him and Nezuko to Mt. Sagiri, where he leaves the sleeping Nezuko in his cabin and brings Tanjiro to the peak of the mountain, ordering him to return by daybreak, as a test to see if he is fit to become a demon hunter. Struggling against booby traps, coupled with the mountain’s thin air, Tanjiro manages to use his keen sense of smell to detect the scent of the traps and evade most of them, allowing him to return just in time. Urokodaki recalls a letter sent by Giyū requesting that he train the siblings and accepts Tanjiro as his disciple. 

Episode 3 

Over the next 6 months, Tanjiro trains with Urokodaki, improving his physical form and learning how to use a special breathing technique Total Concentration, to accelerate his stamina and speed. One day, Urokodaki declares that if Tanjiro can slice a boulder with his sword he will let him enter Final Selection — a survival test administered by the Demon Slayer Corps that will determine who can become a demon hunter. Tanjiro tries for the next 6 months, failing each time, while Nezuko continues to sleep. Worry over Nezuko and his continued failures push Tanjiro to the brink of giving up, until he is confronted by two children with fox masks, Sabito and Makomo. Sabito initially knocks Tanjiro out, reprimanding him for not ingraining Urokodaki’s moves into his body, to help him train by sparring; while Makomo teaches and hones Tanjiro’s skills patiently each time he awakens. Makomo reveals that the two of them are orphans raised by Urokodaki. After another 6 months, Tanjiro’s blade finally reaches Sabito first during a match, slicing his mask into two. The adopted siblings smile and vanish. Tanjiro realises that his sword, which he thought cut through Sabito’s mask, had cleaved the boulder into two.
 

Episode 4 

Two years have passed since Nezuko’s transformation, and Tanjiro leaves for the Final Selection. Before his departure, Urokodaki warns him that a demon’s strength is equivalent to the number of humans it has eaten, gifting him a fox mask with a protection spell. Tanjiro reaches Mt. Fujikasane, where wisteria flowers bloom year-round, creating a prison for demons, and is informed that to pass the test, the applicants must survive there for 7 days. During his first night, Tanjiro makes use of his training to defeat all the demons he encounters, until he and another applicant come face-to-face with a huge, morphed demon made from ghastly hands. The Hand Demon promises to kill him, recognizing Tanjiro as Urokodaki’s student from his fox mask, and gleefully admits to murdering 13 of Urokodaki’s students since he was captured by the man himself, Sabito and Makomo included. Tanjiro attacks him in a rage. Back at the boulder, Sabito and Makomo’s ghosts wonder if Tanjiro can defeat their killer, having failed themselves to slice its neck. Sabito recalls that Tanjiro sliced through the toughest boulder of all of them and chooses to believe. By unleashing an array of attacks, Tanjiro successfully decapitates the Hand Demon.
 

Episode 5 

The demon’s body disintegrates and the souls of Urokodaki’s students he killed depart to the afterlife. As the demon dies, he remembers when he was turned into a demon as a young boy and even after his transformation, had always been longing for a warm hand to hold, specifically that of his older brother’s. Tanjiro smells sadness from its body and holds its hand, causing the demon to cry. For the next week, Tanjiro continues fighting the demons at the mountain, asking them for a method to turn a demon into a human again, though none answer. Tanjiro and three others end up passing the exam, all of whom are assigned the lowest of 10 ranks, Mizunoto, as well as a Kasugai crow to help in communication. They are also given uniforms and allowed to choose the ore from which their personal swords will be made. Tanjiro returns to the cabin and reunites with Nezuko, who has awoken from her year-and-a-half long slumber. Urokodaki deduces that Nezuko is compensating for not eating humans by sleeping to restore her strength. 15 days (about 2 weeks) later, Tanjiro’s sword is delivered by Haganezuka, the swordsmith. As Nichirin Blades change color depending on the wielder, his turns black, a rare color that superstitions make out to be unlucky. Tanjiro’s Kasugai crow proceeds to deliver his first mission: head to a town in the northwest where young girls have been vanishing nightly and kill the demon responsible.
 

Episode 6 

Placing Nezuko in a box he carries on his back, Tanjiro travels with her to the town where young girls are vanishing at night. There he meets Kazumi, whose fiancée Satoko vanished the previous night. Kazumi takes him to where his girlfriend was last seen and Tanjiro begins to track the demon’s scent. Kazumi recalls how he was beaten by Satoko’s father, who did not believe Satoko had simply vanished and assumed he had done something to her, realizing that Tanjiro is a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. Night falls as Tanjiro continues to track the demon. Another young girl is abducted from her bed, which Tanjiro notices, deducing that the demon travels underground in a liquid medium. Tanjiro and Nezuko fight together against the demon, which has morphed into three separate entities and is capable of a “Blood Demon Art” — special spells that demons can use when they gain enough power. Tanjiro recalls Urokodaki informing him of the thousand-year-old progenitor of all demons, as well as the only one who can turn humans into demons: Muzan Kibutsuji.
 

Episode 7 

Tanjiro enters the demons’ swamp to fight two of them, while Nezuko protects Kazumi and the human girl from the other. Although the air is thin and the swamp is dark, his Water Style shows its true power when underwater, allowing him to create a whirlpool that eviscerates the two and return quickly to the surface. The siblings confront the final demon, who has been severely injured, and Tanjiro demands that he tell him about Muzan, causing the demon to become completely terrified, shocking Tanjiro. Nezuko falls asleep after her battle and returns to her box as Tanjiro comforts the devastated Kazumi and returns Satoko’s hair ribbon he found in the swamp. Kazumi is in grief at first, but after realizing that Tanjiro had gone through something similar, apologizes. Tanjiro journeys to Asakusa per his Kasugai crow’s directions, and to his horror, locates Muzan living in disguise as the father of a human family by following his scent. Muzan, recognizing that Tanjiro is from the Demon Slayer Corps, casually slices the neck of a passerby, turning him into a demon.
 

Episode 8 

The newly turned demon goes on a rampage, forcing Tanjiro to subdue him and giving Muzan the opportunity to slip away, although not before he hears Tanjiro vow to find him again. Police arrive and attempt to pull Tanjiro off, but he is helped by a nearby demon, Tamayo, and her companion Yushiro. While she is a demon, Tamayo is also a doctor and hence believes in the sanctity of human life. She gives the siblings refuge in her house, hidden from prying eyes by Yushiro’s Blood Demon Art, and explains how as every demon contains Muzan’s blood, their whereabouts and movements can be tracked by him: should they mention him to anyone, their cells will be destroyed — this is called “the Kibutsuji curse”. Tamayo reveals that after 200 years of relentless research, she has finally managed to undo Kibutsuji’s curse on her and learn the ability to turn humans into demons, although this procedure is only performed on patients that are dying and choose to be turned, Yushiro being one of them. She has also tweaked her and Yushiro’s body so that they can survive on tiny amounts of human blood, purchased as blood transfusions. Tanjiro agrees to work with Tamayo to develop a cure for Nezuko, promising to let her study his sister’s blood and bring blood from powerful demons related closely to Muzan for her research. Meanwhile, Muzan sends two demons, Susamaru with temari balls, and Yahaba with eyes with arrows for pupils on his palms, to find and kill Tanjiro. 

Episode 9 

Susamaru destroys Yushiro’s Blood Demon Art and uses her temari to pummel the house, revealing that she and Yahaba are members of the Twelve Kizuki (Demon Moons), powerful generals that serve directly under Muzan. Tanjiro struggles to dodge all her temari, which swerve in physically impossible directions and are difficult to slash, until Yushiro helps him see the arrows that Yahaba is using to telekinetically control Susamaru’s temari. Although Nezuko attacks Yahaba, the siblings are forced to change opponents, with Yushiro joining in to fight Susamaru using his Blood Demon Art of concealing objects. At first, Yahaba overpowers Tanjiro by altering his trajectory as he tries to get close, and Nezuko’s leg is cut off by a temari. However, Tanjiro recalls his training and despite his fatigue, unleashes a combination of movements to counter the arrows, managing to decapitate Yahaba.
 

Episode 10 

As Yahaba disintegrates, he continues to attack Tanjiro, determined to kill him as he dies, forcing Tanjiro to unleash move after move to lessen the impact, leaving Tanjiro utterly exhausted. Thanks to a healing serum administered by Tamayo, Nezuko rejoins the fight against Susamaru and her strong will sharpens her strength, until she can kick the temari back without getting injured. Tamayo then uses her Blood Demon Art to lower Susamaru’s alertness through the scent of her blood, causing Susamaru to accidentally activate the Kibutsuji curse by saying his name, whereupon she is killed in gruesome fashion. After the battle, Tamayo notes that the two demons were too weak to be members of the Twelve Kizuki, as the members have their number ranks engraved on their eyeballs, but takes some of Susamaru’s blood, nevertheless. As day breaks, Tanjiro returns Susamaru’s temari to her before she disintegrates from the sunlight. Although Urokodaki has cast a spell on Nezuko to make her view humans as family and demons as enemies, Nezuko sees Tamayo and Yushiro as humans to be protected, causing Tamayo to cry out of thankfulness. The siblings soon set off southeast on their next mission, and Tanjiro sees one of those who completed Final Selection with him, Zenitsu Agatsuma, begging a distressed woman to marry him on the street.
 

Episode 11 

Tanjiro separates Zenitsu from the harassed girl, who slaps Zenitsu when he tries to push it. Zenitsu states he is weak and will die on his next job, which is why he had to get married. He tells Tanjiro he did not want to become a Demon Slayer but got into debt with a woman, who gave him to his trainer who made him become one. Tanjiro’s crow directs both boys to a mansion. Zenitsu’s hearing is as sharp as Tanjiro’s smell and he hears two scared kids who tell Tanjiro it is a demon’s house, and the demon took their older brother inside. A man is thrown outside the house and dies moments later, but it is not the siblings’ brother. Tanjiro cajoles a terrified Zenitsu into coming into the house with him, leaving Nezuko (in her box) with the siblings to protect them. Zenitsu overreacts when Tanjiro says he still has broken bones as that means he cannot protect him. The siblings enter the demon’s house behind them as they heard Nezuko scratching and got scared, leaving her behind. The house suddenly rearranges itself, separating the group, stranding the sister, Teruko, with Tanjiro and the brother, Shoichi, with Zenitsu. Shoichi berates Zenitsu for his cowardice. While Zenitsu frantically looks for an exit he opens a door and sees a boar-headed man, who passes them by. The demon of the house approaches Tanjiro and Teruko hides. Tanjiro leaps at the demon, who rants a child with rare blood he found, his prey, has been taken, before flipping the room so they are standing on the wall. His blood art gives him total control of the house when he strikes a tsuzumi drum growing from his body. The boar-headed man unexpectedly leaps into the room, wielding a pair of chipped Nichirin swords.
 

Episode 12 

Inosuke Hashibira, the boar-headed young man, launches reckless attacks against the tsuzumi demon, Kyogai, but cannot compensate for his blood art. When he steps on Teruko after the room shifts and Tanjiro throws him back, Inosuke declares a human’s never thrown him like that and attacks Tanjiro, laughing. He states he chipped his swords so they would shred flesh, instead of neatly slice it like Tanjiro’s. However, the room spins and Inosuke falls out of it. The rooms shift at the sound of a tsuzumi drum, though the demon does not strike his, separating Tanjiro, Inosuke, and the demon. Tanjiro detects a scent that leads him and Teruko to a terrified human boy with a tsuzumi drum. Zenitsu is walking with Shoichi and screams fearfully when Shoichi breaks the silence to tell him he is acting so scared it is scaring him. The scream draws out a second demon that chases them. Zenitsu eventually faints. While asleep, he stands and uses his Thunder Form to kill the demon. He then wakes up with no memory of doing so and thinks Shoichi killed it. Inosuke comes across a third demon but effortlessly kills him with his self-made Beast Form. Kyogai wants to eat his marechi, a human with a rare bloodline who is worth more to a demon nutritionally, hoping to gain enough power to return to being one of the Twelve Moons. Kibutsuji had earlier decided he had reached his limit and stripped him of his number. 

The boy Tanjiro and Teruko find turns out to be Kiyoshi, her kidnapped older brother. He embraces her and tells Tanjiro the three demons fought over who would eat him and one of Kyogai’s drums was torn out in the skirmish. When Kiyoshi hit it, it moved him to another room, and he has been switching rooms anytime he hears someone approach. Realizing Kyogai is coming, Tanjiro tells the siblings to keep switching rooms when someone approaches – he will track them by their scent. They switch rooms after he leaves it to attack Kyogai, who begins flipping the room and using an attack that leaves claw-like gouges on the floor. Tanjiro has learned each drum controls one function (the drum in his right shoulder flips the room to his right and so on), and is able to partially compensate, but cannot get close enough with Kyogai’s claw attack, some of his bones still broken. While he is scared, Tanjiro declares he will never give up. 

Episode 13 

The entire house shifts its orientation suddenly, throwing Zenitsu and Shoichi outside through a second story window. The room Tanjiro is in flips, sending papers from a cabinet flying across the room. When Tanjiro lands, he takes care not to step on them. This causes Kyogai to recall how, as a human, he loved to write but was belittled, his writing discarded, though Tanjiro took care not to step on it. Tanjiro figures out how to take quicker shallow breaths and reinforce the muscles around his leg to compensate and becomes able to smell the claw attack coming. This lets him get close enough to cut off Kyogai’s head, but he tells him his Blood Art was incredible before decapitating him. Before he dies, Kyogai finds himself crying as Tanjiro has recognized his blood art and writing. Using a hollow knife made by Yushiro, Tanjiro collects a blood sample, which is taken by an enchanted cat of Yushiro’s with an invisibility spell before he looks for Kiyoshi and Teruko. He is greeted by a book to the face when he finds them as their drum had vanished and they could not shift anymore, but they apologize. He takes them outside where he finds Inosuke kicking a gravely wounded Zenitsu, who is protecting Nezuko’s box. Inosuke had come out of the house after Zenitsu and tried to destroy the box since he was getting a demonic vibe from Nezuko within. Zenitsu recognizes him as the Fifth survivor of Final Selection, who was there but did not show himself. Zenitsu already knew there was a demon in Tanjiro’s box as he could hear her breathing and heartbeat but trusted Tanjiro had a reason for declaring it was more important than his life and protects it. As Tanjiro sees Inosuke about to stab Zenitsu, he shouts at Inosuke to stop and rushes him.
 

Episode 14 

Tanjiro punches Inosuke so hard he cracks his ribs, sending him sprawling. He tells him Zenitsu will not fight because they are both Demon Corps members and they are not supposed to draw their swords on each other. Inosuke takes that to mean it is all right if they fight bare-handed and proceeds to charge Tanjiro, who promises that is not what he meant. The two fight and when Inosuke does not stop, Tanjiro head-butts him, which makes Inosuke’s boar mask fall off, revealing a very human, though beautiful and girly face. Inosuke collapses from a concussion, though Tanjiro is fine. When Inosuke later wakes up he sees Tanjiro and the others burying the bodies of the humans who were killed. Inosuke does not see the point in it and challenges Tanjiro to a fight. Tanjiro thinks Inosuke will not help with the burial because his wounds hurt him too much, so Inosuke goes to bury corpses, stating he can do more than them. Soon all the bodies are buried. A Kasugai crow appears and tells the group to descend from the mountain and follow him, which they do. The crow spits up a charm to ward off demons for Kiyoshi so he will not be attacked again and the siblings part ways from the Demon Hunters. The three are led to a manor with a wisteria crest and the crow tells them they are to rest inside until their wounds are recovered. The house belonged to a family once rescued by demon hunters, so they tend to demon hunters for free. An old lady gives them food and a change of clothes. Inosuke keeps trying to rile Tanjiro to fight him but he is too relaxed to rise to the bait. A doctor tends their wounds (all three have broken ribs). After they settle for the night, Inosuke tells them he joined the Demon Corps after beating up a Demon Slayer who came to his mountain and hearing about demons and Final Selection, thinking it sounded interesting. Zenitsu then asks why Tanjiro is traveling with a demon. Nezuko scratches at the box, hearing they are talking about her, freaking out Zenitsu. She comes out and Zenitsu is smitten by her beauty. He then thinks Tanjiro was carrying her around because she was pretty, joining the Demon Slayers to have a cute demon girl. He chases Tanjiro around the room, declaring he must be purged. Inosuke states it is too much thinking and falls asleep.
 

Episode 15 

Zenitsu has been told Nezuko is Tanjiro’s sister and develops a crush on her. A Kasugai crow comes after the doctor says they are healed and tells the three to go to Mt. Natagumo. They come in sight of the mountain, though Zenitsu is too scared to go on. Tanjiro smells something and runs to it, Zenitsu forced to follow so he is not left alone. They find a wounded Demon Slayer collapsed on the path, but he is yanked into the trees by threads attached to him. They find another terrified demon slayer, Murata, who tells them ten higher ranked demon slayers, including him, came to the mountain, but they started killing each other. An exhausted Kasugai crow is shown on the lap of the Demon Slayer’s commander, who notes many have been killed and thinks the Twelve Kizuki may be there. He sends two of the Hashiras (the best swordsmen): Tomioka Giyū and Shinobu to the mountain as backup. Meanwhile, Zenitsu still sits on the path, having been left when Tanjiro and Inosuke ran forward. He cajoles himself into going when he realizes Tanjiro took “his Nezuko” into the mountain. At the mountain, the captured Demon Slayers walk out from the trees and start attacking Tanjiro’s group. Tanjiro stops Inosuke from attacking as some are still alive. He smells the threads attached to them and realizes that is how they are being manipulated. Inosuke frees them but a demoness, the Mother of the spider family, sends her spiders to reattach the puppet strings to the Demon Slayers. A white-haired demon boy, Rui, suddenly appears above them, standing on threads, and says Mother will kill them before leaving. To himself, Rui says no one will stop the five of them from living as a happy family. While Tanjiro and Murata keep the controlled Slayers busy, Inosuke uses his Spiritual Awareness to find Mother.
 

Episode 16 

Murata volunteers to hold off the controlled slayers so Tanjiro and Inosuke can go after Mother. The two are intercepted by a female controlled slayer who begs them to summon more help, having been controlled to kill some of her comrades. Rui appears before Mother and tells her she better hurry before he tells Father and she, terrified, begs him not to tell Father. Mother starts manipulating the female slayer’s body so violently the movements break her bones. Another with broken arms and legs begs them to kill him. Tanjiro tackles the female slayer and throws her into the branches, tangling her so she cannot fight and Inosuke follows his lead. As they go to tangle the last one, Mother angrily breaks all their necks. Unable to do anything, the two continue. Zenitsu, meanwhile, wanders around the mountain, calling for Nezuko. A massive headless demon doll with blades for arms suddenly intercepts Insouke and Tanjiro. Inosuke charges and is almost killed until Tanjiro saves him. Working together they hack the massive doll to pieces, and it dissolves. Inosuke throws Tanjiro into the air, sending him hurtling towards Mother. Mother sees him falling from the sky and initially panics but realizes she will be released from Father’s threats if he kills her and lets him strike her down. As thanks for the peace of death, she warns Tanjiro one of the Twelve Moons is on the mountain.
 

Episode 17 

Zenitsu flees from a spider with a human head only to find the nest of the demon that made it, Father’s elder son, whose venom turns humans into spiders. He reveals to Zenitsu he was bitten by one of his spiders during his wandering and will lose his human form in thirty minutes. Zenitsu hides in a tree as other demon-spiders approach him. He remembers his days of training under Jigoro Kuwajima, who paid off his debt if he became his apprentice. He was struck by lightning while hiding from his training in a tree. He thinks to himself he is a pathetic person and wants to stop being such a sniveling coward. When Zenitsu realizes his hair is starting to fall out, he faints. While asleep he starts to attack the elder son. He remembers how he learned only one attack of the Thunder Breath but mastered it so well he perfected it. He remembers being bullied by Kaigaku, another student of Kuwajima, who considered time spent on him a waste. Being an orphan, Zenitsu had no one who dreamed he would make something of himself, no one who had a reason not to abandon him, and everyone did, except Kuwajima. The poison starts to affect Zenitsu, making him cough up blood, but he finishes the attack and, travelling at lightning-fast speeds, corners and slays the elder son. He wakes afterwards but the poison has crippled his ability to move. Though still scared, Zenitsu uses a breathing technique to slow the poison as much as he could. Tanjiro hears Zenitsu’s attack and decides to head to it. Before he and Inosuke part ways they come across the Daughter of the spider family, who flees when Inosuke chases her and calls for Father. Father comes to her aid and the Daughter leaves. Father presses the attack on the two.
 

Episode 18 

Giyū and Shinobu arrive at Mount Natagumo and split up to cover more ground. Tanjiro and Inosuke’s blades barely scratch Father. Tanjiro drops a tree on the demon, cutting it at its base, but Father uses the tree to block Tanjiro’s sword swing and throw him away from the river. The poison has Zenitsu lose the use of his arms and legs when Shinobu suddenly arrives and lands next to him. Tanjiro safely lands and follows screams to the Daughter, who is being tortured by Rui. Tanjiro asks what Rui’s doing, but Rui states it is between him and his “sister,” a family affair, which upsets Tanjiro as that was not what family was. One of the surviving demon slayers arrives, but Rui flings a web he was holding at him and threads cut through the man’s bones and flesh, instantly ripping him to pieces. Tanjiro then fights Rui, frantically blocking his threads with his sword, though he has still suffered numerous minor slashes. Father pursues Inosuke until Inosuke realizes he is acting like Tanjiro and turns and attacks him. Inosuke wedges one sword in Father’s arm and pounds it with the other until the sword cuts through the arm. Wounded, Father flees and Inosuke chases. Father suddenly sheds his skin, becoming larger and more muscular with a new arm, and turns on Inosuke, his speed, strength, and skin density enhanced. Inosuke’s swords snap when he attempts to cut Father’s neck and he is punched away. Father picks up Inosuke, about to crush his skull, and Inosuke uses his position to stab his sword into Father’s neck, though he does not flinch. Giyū rushes over and cuts off Father’s arm, making him drop Inosuke. Father regrows a new arm and charges but Giyū quickly kills him, leaving Inosuke shocked. Tanjiro becomes able to discern the threads’ scent and attempts to cut one to get closer to Rui, only for the thread to cleanly cut through his blade and keep coming at his face.
 

Episode 19 

Tanjiro barely dodges the thread but is left with a deep cut across his face. Inosuke marvels at Giyū’s ability, who so easily killed one of the Twelve Moons, but Giyū says Father was not one of the Twelve Moons, or on their level at all. Inosuke challenges Giyū but Giyū ties him up, saying he was too injured and to stay there. Shinobu compliments Zenitsu on slowing his breathing and the poison’s spread and injects him with an antidote. He sees more Demon Slayers freeing the other people trapped by the elder son, making him smile. Rui launches a web of threads at Tanjiro, but Nezuko jumps out of her box and takes the blow, the threads gravely wounding her. Rui realizes they are siblings and is shocked a demon would protect Tanjiro, even as family, seeing a genuine bond. He decides he wants it more than his pretend sister and cuts off Daughter’s head, saying he would kill her if she did not kill the people on the mountain. The Daughter picks up her head and leaves. Rui tells Tanjiro he is so moved that if he gives him Nezuko, he will let Tanjiro leave alive, though Tanjiro refuses and says he will kill him first. Rui wonders if he can, revealing he is the Twelve Moon member. He uses his threads to pull Nezuko to him and Tanjiro charges. Nezuko slashes Rui’s face with her claws and Tanjiro dodges the threads. Rui leaves Nezuko suspended in midair with threads cutting into her as punishment for her defiance. Nezuko falls asleep to recover from the wounds. Tanjiro uses the Final Form of his Water Style, creating a water dragon, and charges Rui, his swings becoming strong enough to slash the threads. Rui enhances the strength of the threads, turning them red with his Blood Art, making a cage to enclose on Tanjiro. Tanjiro fears he will die and remembers his childhood with his family. His father was a weakened man, but on New Year’s he would dance a kagura dance as a prayer to the God of Fire to ward off harm, as their family worked with fire. Tanjiro wondered how his frail father could dance in the snow and his father told him of a special breathing technique that allowed him to dance forever. Tanjiro uses his father’s kagura dance with his sword, igniting the water dragon into one of fire that can slash the enhanced threads. He comes within striking range, intent on killing Rui despite knowing Rui’s threads will likely kill him in turn. Nezuko is visited by a vision of her mother, who wakes her from her slumber to save her brother. Nezuko uses her blood on the wires suspending her in a Blood Art that makes the blood ignite, burning through the threads. The fire travels down the threads to Rui, severing the ones about to strike Tanjiro, and Tanjiro’s blade lands. Tanjiro vows the bond between he and Nezuko cannot be severed as his blade, with Nezuko’s burning blood on it, cuts off Rui’s head. 

Episode 20 

Tanjiro collapses from his wounds and crawls towards Nezuko, who has fallen and isn’t moving. He smells blood behind him and realizes he normally smells ash when demons were killed by his sword. Rui stands and puts his head back on. He tells Tanjiro he cut his neck with one of his own threads when he realized he would be decapitated by the nichirin sword, which would have killed him. Enraged, he encircles Tanjiro with threads to mince him, only for Giyū to arrive and save him. Giyū congratulates Tanjiro on holding out until he arrived. Rui throws a sheet of threads at Giyū, who uses Water Breathing’s eleventh form (there are only ten officially) to shred them when they reach him. Giyū then beheads him. As the Daughter runs, she remembers when she was being chased by Demon Hunters and saved by Rui, promising to join his family. Rui fed her some of his blood, giving her her current appearance. There were many siblings Rui had shared his blood with and he insisted they pretend to be a family. If they did something Rui did not like he would punish them, sometimes by wounding them, other times stringing them up and letting the sunlight kill them. Thus the numbers decreased to five. The Daughter comes across Murata and ensnares him in a cocoon filled with acid that will liquefy him, only to be knocked to the ground by Shinobu. Shinobu asks her how many people she is killed, saying (smiling all the while) that once she tortures her appropriately for all the people she is killed (gouge out her eyes, rip out her organs, etc.), they can be friends and her sins will be forgiven. The Daughter refuses so Shinobu uses her Insect Breathing to approach and cut her neck with her sword. Shinobu’s sword is sharp only at the tip as she lacks the strength to behead demons. However, Daughter dies seconds later from the wisteria-based poison Shinobu invented and coated her sword with. Shinobu then frees Murata. Tanjiro makes it to Nezuko and drapes himself over her body protectively. As Rui dies, he thinks he made the pretend family because he had no memories of when he was human, and he thought if he could feel a familial bond, his memories would come back. He looks upon Tanjiro and Nezuko, wishing he had what they had.
 

Episode 21 

As Rui dies, he is finally able to remember his human life. He was born with a frail body, rendering him bedridden – until Kibutsuji took pity on him and turned him into a demon, giving him a strong body. His father then tried to kill him while his mother did nothing, so Rui slew them both, thinking they were not his real parents as parents were supposed to protect their children. His mother’s last words were that she was sorry she could not give Rui a strong body, and his father had intended to commit suicide after killing him. He realizes too late it was a genuine bond, which traumatized him. Kibutsuji returned and told him it was his parents’ fault for not accepting him and Rui accepted that rather than the truth. He missed his real parents so much he suppressed the memory of them but was never satisfied with his fake family. Tanjiro regains consciousness as Rui’s body collapses just before reaching him and Nezuko. Overwhelmed by the scent of grief he detected from it, Tanjiro reaches out to Rui. Rui apologizes to his parents as he fades away, his spirit able to reunite with his parents’. Giyū steps on Rui’s clothing after his body dissolves, and Tanjiro pleads with him not to, explaining that he will kill demons without hesitation but believes they are more tragic than terrifying creatures. Giyū suddenly recognizes Tanjiro and Nezuko from their meeting two years ago. Shinobu runs towards them and Tanjiro shields Nezuko with his body as Giyū blocks Shinobu’s blade from striking Nezuko’s neck, surprising her when he takes a defensive stance in front of the siblings. Giyū tells him to take Nezuko and run while he holds off Shinobu, which Tanjiro does. Tanjiro is suddenly kicked to the ground by Kanao Tsuyuri, the girl who completed Final Selection with Tanjiro, one of Shinobu’s clanmates. Tanjiro tells Nezuko to run, only to be knocked unconscious by Kanao, who then tries to kill a fleeing Nezuko. Giyū has pinned Shinobu, who warns him he is acting against Corps rules. Kasugai crows, who had been watching, interrupt everyone by saying Tanjiro and Nezuko were to be taken into custody and brought back to headquarters, so Kanao, Giyū, and Shinobu all sheathe their blades. Inosuke is found, but seethes to himself as he could not do anything to stop a demon, and begins to ponder on the reality of his strength. Zenitsu and the other victims of the elder son, even those now spiders, have been treated by the Kakushis, a cleanup unit of the Corps, and are to be brought to the Butterfly Mansion for further treatment. The sun rises at last. Tanjiro later awakens, tied up, before the Hashiras, the lead swordsmen of the Demon Slayers.
 

Episode 22 

Tanjiro comes face-to-face with the nine most powerful Demon Slayers: Giyū (the Water Pillar), Shinobu (the Insect Pillar), Kyōjuro Rengoku (the Flame Pillar), Tengen Uzui (the Sound Pillar), Mitsuri Kanroji (the Love Pillar), Muichirō Tokitō (the Mist Pillar), Gyōmei Himejima (the Stone Pillar), Obanai Iguro (the Snake Pillar), and Sanemi Shinazugawa (the Wind Pillar). They put Tanjiro on trial due to him having violated Demon Slayer Corps rules by traveling with a demon, even if she is his sister. Tanjiro states she will not eat humans and can fight with the Demon Slayers to protect humans. Sanemi comes outside with Nezuko in her box, calling him deluded and stabs through the box and into Nezuko’s shoulder. Tanjiro charges him and Giyū calls out that the Master will soon be here and to stop, which startles Sanemi, giving Tanjiro an opening to headbutt him and knock him to the ground, impressing the Hashiras. The Master of the Demon Slayers arrives before Sanemi can strike him back and all the Hashiras kneel, Sanemi forcing Tanjiro’s head down. The Master is a blind man with scars across the upper half of his face, accompanied by two white-haired girls. The Master states he has sanctioned the situation with Tanjiro and Nezuko and asks the Hashiras to accept it, but the majority refuse. The Master has one of the girls with him summarize a letter from Urokodaki Sakonji, the former Water Pillar, asking the Master to approve of Tanjiro’s situation as Nezuko has neither lost her human emotions nor harmed a human. If Nezuko ever assaults a human, Urokodaki vows that he, Tanjiro, and Giyū will all commit seppuku (ritual suicide), with Tanjiro shocked at their faith. 

Sanemi states that regardless of how they choose to kill themselves (fire, hanging), it has no guarantee for their safety. Rengoku agrees, stating that if Nezuko kills a human, seppuku will not bring back the human whom she kills. The Master agrees that there is no guarantee Nezuko will not attack humans but points out that there is no certainty that she will attack humans either. Even when starved, she has not harmed one in two years and that there are three people who would vouch for her with their lives, on the basis of which the Master decides to risk it unless the Hashiras can come up with a more convincing argument than she may. He then adds that Tanjiro has met Kibutsuji, shocking them as none of the Hashira have ever seen the reclusive progenitor of the demons. They start demanding he tell them details about Kibutsuji until the Master silences them. The Master also informs them that Kibutusuji has sent pursuers after Tanjiro, perhaps only to silence him and Nezuko, but it is the first time he is revealed himself and the Master does not want to let him escape and asks if the Hashira agree with him now. Sanemi still objects stating that sparing a human like Tanjiro is one thing, but after all which the Demon Slayers have been through and losing countless of their brethren, housing a demon like Nezuko is unacceptable. He cuts open his arm and stabs Nezuko twice more through the box, intending to prove that she cannot be trusted. After tossing the box inside a house out of the sun, he opens it, telling Nezuko to attack him for the human blood she hungers for. An injured Nezuko emerges from the box and turns to him, salivating through her muzzle.
 

Episode 23 

Tanjiro is pinned by Obanai but uses a breathing technique to break the ropes on his wrists and run to Nezuko, Giyū grabs Obanai so he does not interfere any further. Tanjiro stops by the porch and calls out to her, knowing he cannot interfere directly. Nezuko remembers her family and controls her instincts, looking away from Sanemi, shocking him. The Master takes that as proof she can be trusted and Sanemi stops. The Master tells Tanjiro that there are likely others in the Corps who, even after this, cannot accept Nezuko, so the Master tells he and Nezuko to go out and defeat demons and prove themselves and Tanjiro declares the siblings will defeat Kibutsuji, though the Master gently points out he is so ill-equipped he had better start with a Twelve Moon, embarrassing him – though the Hashiras warm up to him some, admiring his spirit. Two Kakushi take Nezuko (again in her box) and Tanjiro to the Kocho mansion. Tanjiro tries to come back to headbutt Sanemi for stabbing Nezuko, one for each time which he stabbed Nezuko, but Muichirō knocks him down with three well-placed pebble strikes to the head informing him that he must not interrupt the master. He is taken away again. 

As he leaves, the Master tells Tanjiro to give Miss Tamayo his regards, making Tanjiro realize he knows there are good demons. At the Butterfly Manor, the Kakushi look for someone to ask permission to enter and find Kanao, a Tsuguko (a swordsman trained by a Hashira). When they ask permission, she smiles but does not speak, confusing them. A Kocho girl interrupts them and escorts them to the infirmary. In it, Zenitsu is whining about the bitter medicine he must take to regrow his limbs, still deformed from the venom. Zenitsu and Tanjiro happily greet each other, and Zenitsu points out Inosuke, silently laying in a bed next to him. Tanjiro is relieved he survived and Inosuke hoarsely says not to worry, his voice damaged from the wounds he was given by Father. He is depressed and apologizes for being so weak. Nezuko is given a room of her own and she only makes it part way out of her box before falling asleep. Tanjiro affirms his promise to turn her into a human. The Hashira, meanwhile, resume their meeting. The demons are in an active phase right now and the Corps needs to recruit new members, and train them, as Mt. Natagumo made it clear the caliber of non-Hashira has plummeted. It is difficult to recruit in this era though as many do not believe demons exist and the more humans there are, the less unified they become. Only those who have lost loved ones to demons or those descendant from demon slayers are joining the Corps. The Master believes Rui’s drastic actions confirm Kibutsuji is nowhere nearby as whenever the progenitor wants to hide something, he creates a diversion somewhere else that cannot be ignored. After everyone leaves, the Master vows they will bring Kibutsuji down without fail. 

Episode 24 

Rengoku leaves on a mission, believing an Upper level Twelve Moon has been located. Murata visits Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu. Tanjiro and Inosuke begin Rehabilitation Training while Zenitsu rests but joins them two weeks later. It includes forcing them into stretches, testing reflexes against Kanao, and playing tag with her and Aoi. While they win against Aoi, none can come close to defeating Kanao. After enough time of this, Zenitsu and Inosuke stop coming to training, not seeing the point as they cannot win. As Tanjiro walks back to bed he is met by triplet Kocho girls who admire how he keeps coming and tells him Kanao uses Total Concentration Breathing – Constant, maintaining that state all day and night, even when sleeping. Right now, he does it only when in battle and it strains his body. The Hashiras and Kanao have mastered it, giving them their edge. He starts to work on mastering it and the triplets tell him Shinobu made Kanao breathe into special gourds so hard they exploded. He also runs around the mansion’s garden and practices his sword drills. A few weeks later, he has noticed he has become stronger. That night while sitting on the mansion’s roof, Shinobu joins him. Shinobu wishes to entrust her dream with Tanjiro – that humans and demons can live peacefully. He detects an angry scent from her and she says her older sister was killed by a demon and her revulsion for demons grows the more she sees the damage they cause. Yet her sister pitied demons and though Shinobu tries, she cannot feel the same. For her sister’s sake, she will find a way to live in peace with demons as she wishes and never stop smiling, for her sister loved her smile. She had become tired of trying, but then Nezuko came, and Shinobu says she can feel at ease with Tanjiro to carry on her sister’s dream.
 

Episode 25 

Tanjiro recruits the Kocho triplets to attack him with carpet beaters if he stops doing Total Concentration Breathing while he sleeps, which they do. Tanjiro recognizes that the longer he keeps his breathing up the great stamina boost he gets. He can now keep up with Kanao and explode a small gourd with his breath. Zenitsu and Inosuke watch, realizing they are being left behind. They ask Shinobu what Tanjiro’s doing and she encourages them by taunting Inosuke for not being strong enough to do it and telling Zenitsu by saying she is his cheerleader. They join Tanjiro in his training. Kanao watches the boys train and flips a coin to determine if she should join them, thinking back to her childhood. They lived in poverty and her father abused and starved her and her siblings to the point she broke. Even when her parents sold her into slavery she felt nothing. A rope was tied around her and waist by her new owner so she did not run off and he walked with her. They were stopped by Shinobu and her older sister, Kanae. Kanao did not speak when Kanae addressed her, not ever having been given a name. Kanae felt sorry for her so the siblings bought/stole Kanao and ran off with her. Kanao was so broken she had no will of her own, not even eating unless she was told. Kanae gave her a coin she could flip to help her decide things, which exasperated Shinobu, though Kanae told her a human soul would open up if given a chance. 

Kanao decides not to join the boys in their training by the coin. The reforged swords of Inosuke and Tanjiro are delivered to the manor, though Haganezuka first chases Tanjiro around with a hatchet since he dared break the sword. The other sword-forger, Kanamori, introduces himself, having made and remade Inosuke’s swords. He is very mild-mannered until Inosuke uses a rock to chip them like his old ones were, and then he says he will kill him and Tanjiro has to hold him back. The next day in training Tanjiro wins against Kanao, proving he is mastered Total Concentration Breathing – Constant. Zenitsu and Inosuke train even harder to catch up to him. Tanjiro is declared physically fit and asks Shinobu about his father’s Hinokami Kagura Dance, which she is never heard of, and his father’s Fire Breathing, which she also does not know. She tells him there is a Flame Breathing, but those who practice it, like Rengoku, are very strict that their art must be called Flame Breathing, never Fire Breathing. She does not know the details and advises he ask Rengoku next time he sees him. Tanjiro visits Nezuko, who has been asleep since their arrival at the manor regaining her stamina. He is a little daunted by everything he must do: help Nezuko, defeat strong demons, and get their blood to Tamayo but he thinks he hears the sleeping Nezuko speaking to him, encouraging him. On a steam train, a demon kills and eats the passengers.
 

Episode 26 

A few months earlier: Following Rui’s death, Kibutsuji summons the remaining five Lower of the Twelve Moons. They enter a massive space warped and controlled by a demoness with a biwa. Kibutsuji has altered his appearance and aura to that of a woman, so they do not instantly recognize him. They kneel once they do when he commands it. Kibutsuji declares he is disbanding the Lower Ranks, deeming them worthless. It has always been the Upper Ranks who have killed Hashiras and remain alive, while the Lower Ranks keep changing members and dying. He sets about killing them for various reasons: Lower Six thinks disrespectful thoughts (Kibutsuji reads his mind, an apparently new ability), Lower Four tries to plea that she is not thinking about fleeing when she sees a Hashira (she refutes what he says), Lower Three attempts to flee in vain (Kibutsuji catches him), and Lower Two says that he can do better if he is given more of Kibutsuji’s blood (which is ordering Kibutsuji). He asks for the final Twelve Moon, Lower One, for his last words. Lower One considers it an honor to die by Kibutsuji’s hands and thanks him for killing him last as he got to witness the agony of the other five. Deeming that the right answer, Kibutsuji infuses Lower One with a large amount of his blood to strengthen him and says that he will give him even more blood if he can kill the Demon Slayer who wears Hanafuda Earrings (Tanjiro). 

Present Day: A Kasugai crow wakes Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke with an assignment – go west to the Mugen (Infinite) Train, where casualties are increasing and slay the demon there. Tanjiro encounters Genya from Final Selection while walking, who has a larger and more muscular form, but Genya goes out of his way to bump into and then ignore him. Tanjiro visits Aoi, thanking her for helping him, but she tells him not to. She claims to have survived the Final Selection by luck, and that she was too cowardly to go into battle, but Tanjiro says it does not matter since she helped them and he will carry her feelings into the battlefield, touching her. He also says goodbye to Kanao, who flips a coin to determine if she should talk to him. When the coin lands right, she tells him goodbye and explains she uses the coin to decide things she has not been ordered to do, since she cannot decide for herself. Tanjiro takes her coin and says if it lands heads she will listen to the voice in her heart and make her own choices and flips it. It lands heads. She asks how he made it do that since she did not see him cheat, but Tanjiro smiles and says it just did and he would have flipped it as many times as he needed for it to land heads if it had not. Just before the boys leave, Tanjiro sees Giyū and thanks him for helping with Nezuko. Not sure how to thank him, Giyū tells him to thank him by doing good work, which Tanjiro promises. The boys make it to the train station but Inosuke mistakes the Mugen Train as a beast and ruler of the land since it is so mighty, though Tanjiro says it may be a guardian spirit. Zenitsu calls them country bumpkins, telling them it is a train. They attract the attention of police and flee, deciding to hide their swords. Their organization is not recognized by the government, which does not even acknowledge that demons exist, so they must keep a low profile. They outrun the police and jump onto the train as it leaves. Tanjiro has brought Nezuko, determined that they will not be separated again. On the train with them are Rengoku and the Lower One of the Twelve Moons. 

ADAPTATIONS AND ORIGIN 

Before it became a well-known anime, ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba’ was a popular manga which was written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge and starred in the 2016’s 11th issue of Shueisha’s shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump on February 15, 2016.
 

The twenty-six-episode anime adaptation was produced by Ufotable and officially aired in Japan from April to September of 2019, with a follow-up film [‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train’] which premiered in October 2020, which soon earned the title of the highest-grossing anime film of all time. 

When it comes to professional opinions, Patrick Frye who writes for Monsters and Critics, wrote that the anime adaptation is “praised [for] the animation quality and flowing battle scenes that integrate digital effects seamlessly” while noting that “some fans have complained about weird story pacing issues thanks to flashbacks and some slow moments, but everyone agrees that once the action picks up, it’s amazing.” 
 

PANDEMIC DELAYS RELEASE  

Recently, fans got an update on the Demon Slayer panel which was meant to share all-new info on the anime’s film with the show’s cast attending the event. Now, it turns out the stars will call into the event to speak with fans briefly about the show, and Anime TV JP says it will be announced that ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train’ is being delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. 

At the moment, fans do not even know when the film was set to debut, but they were told a 2020 release date was planned. This reported delay could push ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train’ to 2021 at worst, but fans are hoping things pitter out in their favor. 

UPCOMING GAME RELEASE 

The series is getting an upcoming video game, ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Hinokami Keppuutan’, which was previously announced for PS4, but the magazine Weekly Jump has now revealed that it will also be coming to the PS5, Xbox One and PC.  

OVERALL THOUGHTS 

The show itself was amazing and presented an incredible plot and animation. The empathy that Tanjiro displays not just for others, but for the demons as well, we do not usually see a lot of empathy in heroes in shounen, but with Tanjiro I see that with him. Although Tanjiro is part of a group killing demons [the Demon Slayers], he still manages to remain empathetic see his targets as more than monsters. Something they surmised might come a bit from his sister [Nezuko] being turned into a demon, that if she can refrain from killing humans to survive, then there might be others like her. And so, in a sense he acts not to kill them, but set them free from this terrible path they ended up on. With beautiful animation, a captivating plot, and amazing fight sequences, I would recommend this series to anyone! 

RATING: 5/5