Well, that was quite the heap of information.
Kimetsu no Yaiba
Studio(s): ufotable
Genre(s): Action, Historical, Demons, Supernatural, Shounen
All right, I in no way expected that Tanjiro would get to fight the big boss, this early. Especially after the guy set up a distraction for him in the middle of town. The interesting thing. Sure enough, that’s how things went down. Tanjiro went out of his way to pin the newly created demon so he couldn’t cause harm to anyone else, but also went well out of his way to avoid killing the guy… yet. And he was bailed out of that tight situation by a surprising third party. But more on that in a minute.
Let’s talk, for a moment, about alleyways. I’m gonna be honest. I grow increasingly tired of these scenes. They just always, always, always come off as unbelievably lazy and dull, when there are so many other, more interesting ways to do what those scenes always exist for. The only thing these scenes are ever used to do is set up a hero as… well… heroic or a villain as… uh… villainous. And this, while adding just enough dialogue to generate some context for our villain, did exactly that. The guy got bumped into by a trio of drunks and murdered them all, being sure to kill the woman in especially gruesome fashion. You know. To show that he’s truly heinous or some bunk like that. Yes, yes, it shows off one of his abilities. But it just didn’t make the scene any less groan-inducing. What’ll he do next? Kick a puppy and burn an infant?
Far more interesting was the introduction of a new ally in the form of a tame demoness who happens to also be a doctor. She’s basically a vampire. She somehow tweaked her body to only require a bit of blood in order to survive and acquires it by ordering it under the guise of needing it for blood transfusions. Everything surrounding her character is pretty cool. And it also sets up a sort of miniature goal for Tanjiro to pursue in order to achieve his greater one – acquiring blood from high-level demons for her to study.
It’s unfortunate, then, that I have absolutely no expectation that she survives more than another episode or two. Because our big boss just sent to of those very demons to her house to kill Tanjiro. And it seems they have every intention of killing not just him, but everyone in the building, as well. Either way, I’m really interested, especially given their appearance in the OP and the cool powers they seem to have. Also, and I can’t believe I’ve not mentioned this yet, but Nezuko continues to be absolutely adorable. Anyway, this episode stumbled a little, but it still did a good job with the other stuff it was aiming for and set up for what will hopefully be a really exciting follow-up in Episode 9. Super Effective
What about you guys? Did this episode live up to the promise of Episode 8 for you? Are you wanting more? Let me know, down below. And be sure to check out EvilBob’s Weekly Evil recaps, for the season. As always, thanks for reading, folks. Keep up the Awesome!
Take Care,
Voyager
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Nezuko is my biggest fear and hope for this show. She’s an exponentially more compelling character than Tanjiro is. She actually saw her family get slaughtered, is incredibly powerful, and we don’t know her motivations at all yet.
I’m really hoping that whenever Tanjiro gets a cure she refuses it. Nezuko the demon slaying demon is far more compelling than the shounen bloodhound. If Nezuko is cured then 90% of what little characterization she has is immediately rendered moot along with her battle potential unless she conveniently keeps that for some reason.
I’m terrified that the reason she gets muted and shunted aside for literally years (in the story) is because the mangaka has absolutely no idea how to write a female beyond being a kawaii macguffin.
Ideally Nezuko should one day replace the villain as a relatively balanced head of the demons leaving brother and sister as the yin and yang MVPs at the end of the story.
You know I’m gonna have to disagree on the 90% thing. I’m current in the manga and she’s not the only interesting character. Also, Tanjiro is still developing as he’s our entry character you can’t expect so much at the beginning. Trust me he gets way better in the coming arcs specifically when it comes to his fighting style. As far as Nezuko’s motivations it’s implied that she wants to help her brother in episode 1 when she saved him. It’s a shounen it’s not that complicated.
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