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animebw · 4 months

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Short Reflection: Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2

Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is a masterpiece and I kind of hate it.

It's a weird position to be in, I admit. My opinions of the first season of JJK weren't very intense: I liked it a lot, despite my many criticisms, and that was that. Just another mega-popular shonen elevated by a top-tier smorgasboard of action scenes and some truly excellent ass-kicking action girls. It certainly didn't feel like a show that would ever be worth expending as much thought as I've been doing the past couple months over the course of the Shibuya Incident. But somewhere between the first season's release and Jujutsu Kaisen becoming the third-biggest anime on the planet behind Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer, my feelings started curdling, so subtly that I barely even noticed until the second season came out and dragged them up to the surface. I love Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, I hate Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, it's one of the most triumphant and one of the most existentially depressing anime I've ever watched. It is, for better and worse, the most important anime of the 2023. And it's gonna take a very long time for me to fully parse out why.

From the outside, you might be thinking, "Gee, what did this show do to shake your opinions up so violently? It must've really gone in a different direction that completely upended what it's even about." But no. Quite the opposite, in fact; the Shibuya Incident arc that dominates season 2 after a brief flashback story is about as straightforward an arc as you can imagine. It's a single, massive, sprawling brawl across the streets of Shibuya, sorcerers and curses duking it out all over the map with the fate of golden boy Satoru Gojo on the line. It's nothing but fight after fight after fight after fight with increasingly broken superpowers and collateral damage, escalating to absurd degrees and never letting off the gas. Yes, there's a lot of consequential stuff that happens in this arc, but on a moment to moment basis it's as pure an action experience as anime has ever accomplished. No complex political factions, no deep symbolism or themes, just the sheer chaos of watching a city come undone under the collective onslaught of this superhuman war.

And it fucking rules.

The first season of Jujutsu Kaisen was already a marvel in the action department, don't get me wrong. But under the new direction of Shouta Goshozono, who's been responsible for some of the absolute best-directed anime episodes in recent years, that experience has gone absolutely nuclear. Every episode is astonishing in a different way, every fight pulls out some new animation technique that completely changes the timbre of the action, every scene is directed so uniquely and specifically that it's impossible to forget. As good as season 1's action was, it favored consistency over creativity and didn't really get to flex the true insanity that these curses and cursed powers are capable of. But season 2 fully embraces every animator's individual quirks and lets them run absolutely buckwild with it. Yuji's bathroom brawl with Choso is a searing cyberpunk-tinged smackdown. Sukuna's long-awaited return is a kaleidoscopic nightmare that feels pulled straight from a particularly nihilistic episode of Mob Psycho 100. Megumi's big spoileriffic fight paint the streets in surreal chaos reminiscent of early Masaaki Yuasa. And almost every single episode has this level of hyper-specific visual panache put into it. It is, without hyperbole, one of the most jaw-dropping achievements in anime spectacle of all time

And that's just the action scenes! That's not even counting how goddamn amazing this show looks outside of combat now! If you go back and watch season 1, it tended to play things really safe visually when it wasn't kicking up a fight. Conversation scenes and down moments are mostly functional-but-boring collections of shots that get the job done without leaving much of an impression. But with Goshozono at the helm, every single moment, from the most explosive showdowns to the simplest character-building conversations, is infused with life. Off-kilter camera angles imbue every line of dialogue with infinitely more meaning. The editing constantly catches you off guard in the best ways with how it draws your focus through a scene. There's some of the loveliest loosey-goosey comedic chibi animation I've seen in a long time. Every scene is distinct, every scene pops, every scene feels like its own unique entity in this mesmerising arthouse collage of styles and talents crashing together in somehow perfect harmony. I can think of very few shows in recent years that have looked this incredible and this experimental on such a consistent basis.

Which is wild enough on its own, but there's an additional level to this: Jujutsu Kaisen is pulling out all these experimental, ecclectic techniques in a mainstream shonen anime. And that just never happens. Mainstream shonen shooting for broad appeal never play things this risky and outside-the-box with their visual presentation. Sure, most of them look good with all the money pouring into them, but they also look, well, like Jujutsu Kaisen season 1. They're polished and pretty with all the edges sanded off and nary a risk taken, content that being flashy and detailed can make up for a standard visual palette. But JJK season 2 has taken the kind of aesthetic you'd normally see in underground cult classics from offbeat animators too rebellious to fit into the industry machine and translated it to the widest audience imaginable. It's introduced genuine artistry to this playing field, marrying the mainstream and the hipster and making it look like child's play. It's pushed the visual boundaries of mainstream shonen far beyond what they used to be, expanding what the most popular genre of anime can look like on a level I don't think we're fully prepared for. Imagine how many future adaptations will take cues from the course this season has charted. Imagine how creative, how experimental, the future of shonen anime might be thanks to JJK. That's a cause for celebration no matter how you look at it.

And yet.

And yet, there's a question I've been unable to stop thinking about ever since the Shibuya Incident really got underway: if it weren't for the masterpiece production... would I even like this arc?

And unfortunately, I think I know the answer.

Let's be brutally honest for a moment: Jujutsu Kaisen's biggest problem is, has been, and always will be that this show does not know how to goddamn focus. It's constantly introducing and throwing out plot points at seemingly random intervals, changing tracks and abandoning story threads before they're fully realized, even outright contradicting itself on a whim on multiple occasions. Hey, remember those two normal friends Yuji had back in the very first episode who he seemed to have a good relationship with and liked hanging out with? Well, JJK hopes you don't, because they completely vanished after the first episode and Yuji never so much as mentions them again, as if they never existed in the first place. Then it feels like it's setting up a classic shonen power trio with Megumi and Nobara, except then Yuji dies and has to hide his resurrection for another eight episodes so they never really develop as a group dynamic. Plus there was building up Junpei as a new friend-turned-antagonist only for him to get axed right off the bat, though at least that one tried to make some kind of thematic sense so it's not as egregious. But when you take a bird's-eye view of the whole unfolding story, it really becomes apparent how many times Jujutsu Kaisen will stop dead in its tracks, say "actually nevermind," and completely change direction, leaving whatever it was in the middle of developing to wither and die.

And if that was a problem in season 1, then good fucking god does season 2 push it into absurdity. There's a genuinely excellent five-episode prequel arc that finally gives a sense of stakes and thematic weight to one of the show's most central relationships... only to reveal mere episodes later that one of those people is already dead, and all the potential story threads that could've sprung from the seeds planted by Hidden Inventory are stamped out before they've even got a chance to bloom. One of the dead characters from that flashback arc is brought back in absurdly convoluted way and set on a collision course with the character from the present they have the most connection to, setting up a confrontation with real emotional weight for both participants... except then he just dies again without it ever mattering. There's an out-of-nowhere romantic subplot that only starts mattering when one participant is already on the verge of death and only matters to the other when she's mourning his loss despite them never having shared a scene before. Not to mention a major fucking character death that comes so out of nowhere it's genuinely hard to emotionally wrap your head around it and is possibly undone literally minutes later because???

Look, being chaotic and messy doesn't have to be a death knell, especially for shonen. So much of what made Hunter x Hunter work so well is leaning into the sheer messiness of its world and characters, letting them push each other in bizarre, risky directions that a more traditional story structure might not have the guts to pull off. But this doesn't feel like intentional chaos, it feels like Gege Akutani just doesn't know what kind of story they're trying to tell, changing their mind every other episode and undoing whatever plot threads they were starting to set up because they realized they weren't interested in continuing them. And it absolutely murders the emotional throughline of this show. Every potentially interesting, meaningful idea it brings up has a 50/50 chance of being hastily written out of the plot the second the author gets bored, leaving all that investment feeling wasted and pointless. At some point, it becomes hard to emotionally engage with anything the show tries to pull; why bother taking the risk when there's no guarantee it's even going to be paid off, let alone paid off well?

And the longer I sit with that feeling, the more it pricks at a far more frustrating question: why Jujutsu Kaisen? Why was this story, out of all the potential options, the one chosen for a once-in-a-decade animator's wet dream? Why were mostly flat antagonists like Mahito and Sukuna given spectacular enough fight scenes to sell their menace in a way the writing itself barely accomplishes? Why was Miwa and Mechamaru's half-finished sketch of a romantic subplot deserving of enough evocative, wrenching filmmaking to almost manage an emotional response in spite of its utter lack of development? Why spend all this time, effort, and crushing human misery polishing a deeply flawed story to a mirror shine instead of giving an already good story the royal treatment it actually deserves? Why is this worth dragging Mappa's animators through the fires of hell for? I mean, not that any show would be worth the apocalyptically bad working conditions Mappa's corporate masters force on their employees to fatten their own bank accounts- seriously, can we figure out how to unionize the anime industry already?- but with all the horror stories coming out of this mismanaged production, it's hard not to look at the end result and wonder: Really? This is what we've decided to bleed so many people dry for?

Of course, that question's also fairly rhetorical. I know the reason Jujutsu Kaisen gets this kind of treatment when plenty of far more deserving shows have to settle for scraps: because it's a shonen. And shonen will always be favored by the moneymaking powers that be as long as the people making those decisions are traditionalist old men who don't see women and girls as a viable demographic. We're finally coming out of years-long drought for shoujo and josei anime, a stretch of time when almost no works targeted at women and girls were given anything above a shoestring budget and C-tier production schedule, and yet shonen has never once failed to be given all the tools it needs to devour the competition. Trite, treacly mush like Demon Slayer is given enough polish to become an era-defining blockbuster while the possibility of a Yona of the Dawn season 2 becomes an increasingly painful impossibility. And Mappa itself, a studio that first made a name for itself by winning the hearts and wallets of women and queer audiences with Yuri on Ice, has put the sequel film to that cultural phenomenon on indefinite hiatus as it grinds its animators into dust churning out shonen adaptation after shonen adaptation. Because even the biggest smash hit imaginable, the show that made this studio a household name in the first place, doesn't matter if it doesn't cater to the only audience that the industry really seems to care about.

It's all of this I can't help but think about as I watch Jujutsu Kaisen top itself over and over again. In every mind-blowing fight scene, in every stunning display of cinematic brilliance, in every skill and talent the animators pour on screen, I see the countless other, more deserving shows that could've been something special with just a fraction of this support. Just this season alone, we had I'm in Love With the Villainness and Shy, two female-forward anime with far more compelling ideas and stories that could've been genuine hits if they hadn't been flopped out with the most cardboard productions imaginable from studios that just didn't have the time or energy to do them justice. Imagine if just a few of the people pouring their souls into prettying up Supernatural Boys Punch Demons Version 347 were able to offer their talents to those shows instead. Imagine if a beloved shoujo, yuri, or BL manga getting slapped with a bargain-bin production inspired as much outrage as a shonen adaptation having only a small handful of animation cuts below spectacular (Yes, I still remember how stupid the Chainsaw Man anime discourse got). Imagine if this industry favored stories for women even half as much as it valued stories for men. Hell, I'd even be partly satisfied if blockbuster shonen anime just stopped treating their female casts so abysmally. And JJK used to be one of the few to manage that! What the hell happened between that first season and now, Gege? Nobara deserved better, god dammit!

This is the contradiction of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2. It's a masterclass of artistry that raises the bar for animated action everywhere, given to a story that doesn't deserve the honor of bearing it. It's a showcase of the most talented people working in this industry today, all putting their best efforts in to the least interesting project they could be providing their talents to. It's a mediocre franchise elevated to spectacular heights at the cost of potentially reaching even higher with a more worthy source material. It's all this industry's imagination and all its laziness, all its ambition and all its cowardice, rolled into a single shining exemplar of anime's infinite possibility that doubles as a condemnation of its priorities. And I've spent this entire season laughing with glee at at the heights it's reached while I feel my enthusiasm for the overall show slowly bleed away. Never before have I been left so in awe of what this medium is able to accomplish, yet simultaneously so exhausted by its unwillingness to spread that effort evenly.

In the end, Jujutsu Kaisen is both the greatest success and the greatest failure imaginable. As a showcase of animated spectacle from the industry's most talented up-and-comers, it's a landmark achievement that will rightly go down in history. As a continuation of Jujutsu Kaisen, it's a death knell for this story ever being worth more than the sum of its parts. And as a representation of where this industry currently stands, it just leaves me sad, tired, and hollow. It will be a long time before we get a show as singular and staggering as this again. I just hope next time, all this talent and effort goes toward a story that can actually do something meaningful with it. Until then, though, I give JJK Season 2 a score of:

7.5/10

#anime #tabw #the anime binge watcher #jujutsu kaisen #jjk #fall 2023 sr

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medea10 · 1 year

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Okay 2022, Let’s Talk Anime & Games

Hello and welcome to my annual list of things that tickled me this year. Wait, that sounded wrong. Oh well! The anime seasons this year blew the roof off this mother. We got exciting new animes. We got the return of old favorites. We got the most surprising shocks that no one expected to happen. It was one hell of a year. You all know how I roll. Anything I watched or played this year can go on this list, even if it didn’t come out in 2022. So, if an anime or game came out in a year when Betty White was still alive…I’m going to sigh melancholily and allow it. Let’s hit it!

First Fandom of 2022: Demon Slayer - Entertainment Arc

I know this series is totally popular due to the manga, the Mugen Train arc, and all that jazz. But the Entertainment Arc was something to behold. I never thought this season could surpass episode 19 from the first season, but I’m eating crow and giving this all the praise. This season was fabulous in terms of music, animation, character, nearly everything. The mere fact that nearly half of the episodes of the season were dedicated to the major fight against the demons of this arc means we were in for one hell of a showdown. Studio ufotable has done it again in the animation department. Uzui may not have been as popular as Rengoku, but he still got the job done. Now I’m wondering if the next season will top the Entertainment arc.

Favorite Main Character of 2022: Marin Kitagawa from My Dress-Up Darling

I didn’t want to leave this year without giving some sort of praise to the first waifu of 2022. And out of all the “seasonal waifus” to come across in 2022, I really liked Kitagawa the most out of all of them. She was just so wholesome and yet quirky at the same time. I’m sure many people can relate to Gojo by hiding something their passionate about. But imagine his surprise when Kitagawa learns of his love for hina dolls, her reaction was of absolute joy and excitement. Kitagawa did a lot for this shy boy with a unique hobby. She was able to bring Gojo out into a new experience with cosplay. She supported him, aided him, and was just an overall great supportive friend that he's never had before. We need more Kitagawa in our lives. Thank God this series got a second season by popular demand.

Favorite Villain of 2022: Gyuutaro & Daki from Demon Slayer – Entertainment Arc

I know it seems like I’m dick-riding Demon Slayer, but this was a very good season. And one thing Demon Slayer does right is writing bad guys for their series. I was really close to giving this slot to Eren Yeager for obvious genocidal reasons, but I really don’t want to give him anything. Although, he does get most satisfying scene where a person gets their head ripped off award. Back to the sibling demons! You really can’t blame them for their hatred of the people of the Red-Light District. If you were in Gyuutaro’s position, you would want to protect your sister by any means. Yes, that includes turning into a demon if a sexy demon with the voice of Mamoru Miyano tells you to do so. And let’s not forget that they gave Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke a hard-fought battle. They have such a hard time taking out Daki that non-manga readers were shocked to find out this demon fight is a 2-for-1 deal. Because of these two, I was at the edge of my seat the entire rest of this arc.

Favorite Video Game Character of 2022: Arven from Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

If not for this one character, this category would have gone to Mai from the Legends Arceus game. She’s Marley’s ancestor and is mucho helpful, what more can I say? But as for Arven, he changed my first impressions of him almost instantly. At the beginning, you think he’s just an angry senpai with an unhealthy love for sandwiches. But then we learn what he’s really after and go even further with his own backstory. He defies death with titan pokemon just so he can help cure his doggy pokemon. That doggo was his only companion because his parent was never around. So, you can understand how Arven would do anything for that doggo. That alone makes me want to give this boy a medal and a hug. *sniffles* Because his parent won’t do so. And then we get to The Way Home arc of the game and…give this boy a medal, a sandwich, and five more hugs. Because his parent won’t do so…not anymore. *sniffles* So yes, Arven. Best video game character of the year. Give it up!

*twitches*

Whoa, that was weird. I’m sure it’s nothing. Let’s move on.

Favorite Game of 2022: Pokemon Legends Arceus

This year, I was quiet in the gaming department. I only bought three games and two of those were Pokemon related. As much as I loved the story to Scarlet and Violet, I can’t forget about Legends Arceus because the new flavor of the month came along. This was such a fun and interesting story to play along with. I will admit, I wasn’t excited prior to the game’s release, but once I got the hang of the game’s mechanics, this game really took off. Consider this to be the edgier Pokemon game. It has a more serious tone compared to others and the scent of death looms on you. While it's always nice to see new Pokemon games advance as technology does the same. Going back in time to a region that no longer exists with pokemon that are quite possibly extinct and characters that resemble those of current Pokemon games time. It makes me wonder if we’ll get more Pokemon games that focus on the past. People thought a Celebi game would have been perfect, but thanks to the paradox pokemon of Scarlet, I have to wonder if that would have been perfect for a future game project. I digress. This one is my choice.

Favorite Het Couple of 2022: Miyuki Shirogane x Kaguya Shinomiya from Kaguya-sama - Love is War

I was set to give this to My Dress-up Darling for the cuteness, but this third season here pushed this couple to being number one. In the past two seasons, I was watching to see if these two would ever come forward and say what we’re all waiting for them to say. This season, we saw that these two were not only ready, but on a time-crunch to say it. So, for fuck’s sake you two, stop pussy-footing around and get to it. It was clear in past seasons that Miyuki and Kaguya liked the other. It was only this season that not only did they act upon it but actually admitted it either out loud or with a close confidant. I have to keep my mouth shut about the third season finale because of massive spoilers, but it’s because of that moment that’s made me cheer on these two.

Favorite Yuri Couple of 2022: Chisato Nishikigi x Takina Inoue from Lycoris Recoil

I know this isn’t a full set-sail couple like all of the other couples I’m mentioning here. I support this kinda the same way I support ships from Railgun and Index. If you spend an episode with a fascination of another girl’s underwear, I’m going to make the Raildex comparison. Takina, stop being so Misaka Mikoto. Those boxer shorts aren’t doing you much favors. Maybe this is a case where I’m putting more into something that isn’t really there. But the hints are still favorable. I mean, Takina was willing to track down Chisato no matter where she goes. Will they truly get together? Who the hell knows and probably not. But I’m not going to stop thinking about it.

Favorite Yaoi Couple of 2022: Shuumei Sasaki x Yoshikazu Miyano from Sasaki to Miyano

This is the first yaoi anime I’ve watched in a while that didn’t consist of a toxic relationship or a relationship built around lies or anger. This was quite wholesome. It’s like if Bloom Into You was a Yaoi. There was a connection between both boys. Bubbles would fly around them whenever either of them felt a certain emotion around the other. It was that sugar-inducing, but who cares?! I’m glad this series is continuing in film form and that other characters of the series are getting more screentime. I’m more interested to see how far Miyano and Sasaki will go considering Sasaki is inching closer to graduating high school.

Fandom That You Didn’t Expect to Get Into: Ascendance of a Bookworm

Oh look, another Isekai made it onto this category. Isekais have kinda gotten on my skeptical radar on whether or not I’m going to enjoy them. Spoiler alert, I enjoyed this one. Mind you, I’m only halfway into the second season as of writing this entry, but so far this is turning out better than I anticipated. This is the story of a girl starting at 0 to get what she really wants. And that is to read books! Myne is pretty much starting from scratch of wanting to read a book. She worked at a library in her previous life and now she’s reincarnated as this sickly child in a world where books are hard to come by unless you’re of nobility. It’s been fun to see what Myne comes up with when trying to get her hands on the printed word. Modern-Japan world charm in the new world.

Fandom That Made An Unexpected Comeback: Pokemon Journeys

Oh my God, where do I even begin with you? I had an up and down relationship with this series. I got into it heavily in the beginning, fell off when it gave me some unbelievably stupid fillers, scratched my head at some decisions that were made…but then it gave us the Masters 8 tournament. Say what you will about the quarter-final matches, this was the only time the anime was ever going to give us something like this. And without dipping into the spoilers too heavily, I was not disappointed when it came to some of the people Ash fought against. Iris and Diantha on the other hand, I was pretty saddened by those outcomes. This series will always upset me for the mere fact that they really did gloss over a lot the Galar region had to offer in terms of places, people, and pokemon. But this year, I was heavily into the Pokemon Journeys series mostly thanks to Ash entering the Pokemon World Championship. Leon, Cynthia, and Steven are major heavy-hitters and finally seeing most (if not all) of their team in battle was a sight to behold.

*twitches*

I’m resisting the urge to say anything else in this portion. Keep it together, girl.

Fandom That Inspired the Most Crack: Spy x Family

Shit, these memes! They’re everywhere! Anya’s smug face, Mr. Herriman’s elegance, Anya’s smug face, Yor’s sex appeal with lack of cooking appeal, and did I mention Anya’s smug face! This series was a hoot to watch from week to week. Chainsaw Man might be the internet’s new flavor of the month when it comes to memes, but Spy x Family wins it for me this year. Yes, the story is awesome with a spy given a mission to start a family in order to prevent political fallout with a neighboring country. He adopts a child who seems to be a mind-reader and marries a woman who is really an assassin. And none of these characters have exposed themselves as what they really are. Call it a disfunction, but the Forgers are able to make things work. I love everyone here and am enjoying everything that’s going down.

Last Fandom of 2022: Chainsaw Man

Let’s just say that anybody with a penis has screamed this series praises even before it became an actual series. And this fall season has been very testosterone-heavy with the return of Bleach and Mob Psycho, but this series still held its own. And it is my favorite of all of them! Studio Mappa pulled out all of the stops with this series. Chainsaw Man is literally about a man named Denji who can turn into chainsaws. That’s the non-spoiler way of saying what the show is about. The story and animation draw me in week after week. The opening theme is a massive banger. Even all of the ending themes are something not to be skipped. Especially when you learn about the passion put in all 12 ending songs. Everything in this anime has been awesome. I think it’s because I’m still on a high after seeing Makima’s power revealed, but I have high hopes for the rest of this season and possible future.

And that was my 2022. It has been…something…something…Oh, I can’t hold it in any longer. I’ve been super tame with this list and it’s time for me break loose.

I’M GOING TO ULTRA INSTINCT! I’M GOING ULTRA-SKETCHIT! UNLEASH THE SKETCHIT!

Welcome to THE REAL 2022 MEDEA’S FAVORITE THINGS OF THE YEAR!

Best Character of 2022: Tracey Sketchit from Pokemon Journeys

He watched Ash compete in the Masters 8 tournament. THE WHOLE THING! He stood up and cheered his heart out even though we couldn’t hear Tomokazu Seki. Where was Misty and Brock? We only saw those two losers at the end of the tournament. Tracey watched the whole thing. WHILE STANDING! He let Professor Oak and Mrs. Ketchum sit while he stood alongside the pokemon, cheering on Ash to possible victory. Did you see my baby high-five Ash’s older pokemon? Yeah, he did. And that elbow-bump between him and Snorlax! I’m glad they made amends after Snorlax ate Tracey’s apple. I remember. We all remember!

Best Video Game Character of 2022: Tracey Sketchit from Pokemon Puzzle League for the Nintendo 64

I don’t care if this game came out in 2000, I never got to play it until this year. I love puzzles. I love Tracey Sketchit. Ergo, this game is fucking awesome. This gets best video game of the year too. LIVE WITH IT! Look at my baby give words of encouragement when you get a puzzle right. That’s what we need in life. A little Tracey Sketchit cheering you on.

Best Cameo Appearance by a Character We Ain’t Seen in a Minute: Tracey Sketchit from Pokemon Journeys.

Second place goes to Drew and Harley because they were seen too. But Tracey gets top-billing. If you don’t like it, eat a buffet of dicks y’all. I don’t care if I’m insulting a majority of you. Tracey has been shit-on for existing since his debut. I’m going to be praising this boy’s name whether you like it or not.

But seriously Pokemon, thank you for all of these Tracey cameos and giving me one more cameo of Drew and Harley. Seriously, seeing those two again made me flashback to shippier times.

Satisfying Conclusion to 2022: The Republicans Losing the Senate

…I know it’s not Tracey news, but I just feel really good saying that. If you dumbasses wanted the senate so bad, you shouldn’t have run stupid candidates like Blake Masters, Tiffany Smiley, Dr. Oz, and Fumbles McTouchDown. Seriously, what the fuck were you thinking with running Herschel Walker? You people are some dumb sumbitches for even thinking for a second that was a good idea.

Happy 2023 everyone. May God protect Julie Andrews. She’s all we have left.

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peepsibo · 11 months

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demon slayer rant cause i can (manga spoilers)

haven’t really thought about kny since forcing myself to be un-hyperfixated on it once 2021 hit. been casually following it since the mugen train movie came out in theaters due to being busy with life and having read the manga so i know everything to expect (to put this into perspective-- i was finishing up my sophomore year in hs when i first watched the anime and now im about to be a second-year college student) but with this recent season following some of my top characters (genya, muichiro, and mitusri) and knowing my other top characters (giyuu) are about to become important again i can’t help thinking deeply about it (and to reiterate, manga spoilers past ‘read more’ youve been warned)

the reason why i wanted to rant about kny was the handling of the upcoming training arc. it’s a short arc, but incredibly important for character development and set pieces for the last arc. at first, maybe a movie adaption like mugen train but i don’t think that’s a good way to adapt it, for the sole reason that anime onlys will see ‘training arc’ and just chalk it up to filler (which-- it kinda is but shhhhh), so obviously it has to be apart of a season. i however don’t believe it should be it’s own season like how the last two arcs have been adapted just cause it is a shorter arc, i think at tops it should be six episodes with one episode being dedicated to giyuu’s backstory like (like ep 8 of s3) and the sixth episode ending on the ubuyashiki estate exploding and the crows delivering the news of the final battle starting. this is a weird thing to rant on but whatever. this leads me to believe the smartest choice for ufotable is to make s4 the last season altogether and have around the same amount of episodes as s1 and maybe even an extra episode or two just to do the story justice.

another thing i want to ramble about is how i believe zenitsu and obanai were done dirty in the story. every other main character was treated with respect and were able to be taken seriously except these two, with zenitsu just being the “comic relief” and obanai basically being a second thought. like, his backstory was thrown at us out of left field we only spent time with him one-on-one for like a chapter until his backstory. i wish he was treated with more respect (this also might just be the fact one of my closest alters in my system is an obanai fictive because i originally did not like obanai LOL). that’s why near the end of my time in the fandom i literally created an entire arc in my head that i maybe told like one other person that would develop their characters more and be treated seriously (willing to go more in-depth with that arc if asked).

i think lastly what i want to go on about is how i genuinely love the shinazugawa brothers. now while genya is in my top three of kny characters, sanemi isn’t in my top lists but goddamn do i love him, i think i just kinda love every character especially now that i grown up and love obanai more. but the story with the sinazugawa brothers is so beautiful i can’t describe it. if i had to decribe it, i would say they are the perfect foils to tanjiro and nezuko. both are siblings with a demon/demon-adjacent sibling but tanjiro protects nezuko in a different way than how sanemi protects genya, cause sanemi genuinely believes genya should have stayed far away from the demon slayer corps so he wouldn’t lose him, using the guise of hate by pushing him away, but tanjiro wants to keep his sister close to him to protect her. it’s very beautiful and i have more to say about them but i have to wake up early in the morning to begin my summer job lol.

i will just end this whole thing with my ask box is open if anyone wants to discuss kny more or just have any questions for me about the show.

#demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #kny #rambles #kny spoilers

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animechick2015 · 2 years

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Anime I Watched in 2022 Part 1:

1. Belle 3/5

*spoilers ahead*

Ughhh I really wanted to like this one. The songs and ost’s were amazing and the visuals were beautiful. I think the creators focused so much on the music that they lost sight of the plot. I had so many questions at the end of the movie: why did she go to rescue the kids on her own; couldn’t her father or some other adult go with her? Why did they build up a romance between her and Beast for nothing to come of it? Why after the entire movie of her friend not being interested in her, he suddenly showed romantic interest? I really wanted to love this movie like everyone else did but I can’t.

2. Promare 5/5

EPIC. The only word I can use to describe this movie. From the soundtrack, to the visuals, storyline and likable characters,this one will hook you from the opening scene. This one will have you feeling like you’re on an acid trip but it’s a good one, trust me. This is one anime movie I can see myself rewatching many times and never get tired.

3. Banished from the Hero Party 4/5

Such a cute romance. Very likable characters. The plot was interesting and the romance was so adorable; my only criticism is that it felt a bit rushed at the end but overall it was a great series. Doubt we’ll be getting a second season though 🥺

4. The Boy and the Beast 4/5

This movie got a lot of negative reviews and I can’t understand why. It was so interesting and going in blind I didn’t expect certain events to take place. I really enjoyed this one. The artwork, the soundtrack and even the characters were all amazingly done. If you haven’t watched this one give it a chance. Ignore all the bad reviews and go into this with an open mind.

5. Demon Slayer Season 2 10,000/5

Where do I begin with this masterpiece. Uzi Tengen has my heart, ; honestly he’s my second favorite Hashira (Giyu being the first ofc). Can we nominate Inosuke as the MVP of this season? This was a relatively short Arc but my god the studio did such an amazing job that every Sunday I was glued to my screen. Once again the Op and Ed were greatly done. The animation was top tier. The voice acting was superb. This is one of those series that I’ll actually sit down and rewatch with no problems

6. Moriarty the Patriot 4/5

This one has been sitting in my watch list for a while. I don’t know why I never gave it a chance before but I’m glad I did. This was such a nice twist on the Sherlock Holmes world. It was so good that in the beginning I didn’t even realize that the characters were based on the Sherlock novels (yes I missed the first couple minutes of the first episode but don’t worry because I binged it after I was done); this series got me supporting criminals without even realizing it. The writing in this was so good. And the chemistry between Moriarty and Sherlock 😚. My only criticism is that after reading the manga A LOT was left out that really fleshed out the stories and characters. Seriously hoping for another season but from that ending I really doubt we’ll get one.

7. Eight Six 86 5,000,000/5

I really want to kick myself in the behind for this one. I started this late last year and dropped it after the first episode. I really wasn’t feeling it. Maybe because mecha isn’t my favorite genre of anime but I wasn’t hooked so I put it aside and convinced myself that I would continue once the second season had been concluded; I didn’t. But a tiny voice at the back of my mind persuaded me to watch it and boy am I glad I did. The soundtrack was godly. Jesus Christ I don’t think I’d love a soundtrack more than AoT and Gintama but this won me over. The characters were all likable; expect the republicans of San magnolia, they can all rot in hell. It depicts a more realistic take on racism and war that your heart breaks for the soldiers especially knowing that most of them are children. Shin and Lena, two characters that never met face to face had so much chemistry that they could give a lot of Shojo animes a run for their money. I loved this series so much that I went on to read the novels. I might do a more in depth review on those later but seriously everyone needs to give this anime a chance.

8. Ranking of Kings 10,000/5

This is another series I almost ignored but thank goodness good sense prevailed and I gave it a chance. I was one of those who judged it because the artwork looked like classic cartoon drawings but my first indicator of this being a spectacular series was that it was being produced by Wit Studio. The character development in this one was amazing. What I loved about this series is that we couldn’t judge a character from first meeting them. Everyone had their reasons and stories for being the way they were. Boji is not your typical anime protagonist, with many disabilities that made the people of the kingdom judge him harshly, he definitely deserves best boy award and the world. Watching him at the beginning of the series had me crying in the middle of the night. Seriously he deserves everything. And queen Hilling is the MVP of the series; she took the clichéd step mother role and turned it on its back. If you haven’t given this one a try please do, you won’t regret it.

9. Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 2 5/5

There are no words to describe how much I enjoyed this season. Seriously, Mappa outdid themselves. I know a lot of people are upset that we have to wait for Part 3 but I actually prefer that they take their time to animate the ending because there’s still so much to cover. Also can we talk about how amazing the OST’s were this season. Like goddamn!

10. Parasyte: The Maxim 4/5

I really enjoyed this one. I did. Honestly. If you ask me why I feel so cheated with the ending I can’t tell you. I guess I expected a more of an all out war between Migi and the other parasytes but nope. Trust me I get it, the ending was the most reasonable but I still felt like something was missing. Maybe I need to rewatch. But story wise, it was great; the main character was very likable. Seeing him turn from a regular teenager to cold, emotionless and back to his self was enjoyable. Tbh I didn’t really like the female lead but I guess she grew on me in the last episode. Also, the opening and ost’s were giving me an eargasm.

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casliveblog · 6 months

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Custom Toonami Block Week 151 Rundown

Spy X Family: Anya gets an assignment to interview an adult about their job and Yor can’t decide whether to show her child her murder job or her non-murder job so she decides to go with Loid instead. And apparently Loid does legit work at a hospital like I thought he was just blowing off work and being a spy full time because we NEVER see him there but apparently he works in a normal-ass hospital that just has enough spies in it to cover for him when he disappears combined with his ridiculous charisma stat to make him super popular. We also meet the lady that appears in all the NTR drawings thirsting after Loid so guess this is our foreshadowing for whoever she’s supposed to be. Meanwhile Anya finds a secret passage and immediately turns a room full of skeptical doctors into ghost hunters so yeah that’s pretty funny. At the end of the day Loid ends up distressed about Anya’s mental state and Anya makes a weird report that’s half and half between actual facts and spy shit she reads from Loid’s mind but luckily his insane charisma stat smooths it out. The secondary plot is Anya using Yor to get around her atrocious handwriting and make a spy cipher which apparently is real because Scruffyhead manages to decipher it thinking it’s a love note but she oversleeps the meeting time so it doesn’t really go anywhere.

Inuyasha: This one’s a Kohaku episode which is usually a decent sign but Kohaku’s arc has kind of stagnated in the later seasons like a lot of the longform arcs did. Princess Abi’s mom is like ‘hey Naraku’s demons are looking for Not!Kikyo everywhere except this one castle so maybe go check that out’ so yeah Abi’s fed up with Naraku pitting her against all these strong guys like Inuyasha and Kikyo when she just wanted to ransack mook villages and cure her mom so she says fuck Naraku and decides to betray him before he betrays her (which was inevitable let’s be real here) so they go to attack the castle, which just so happens to be where The Baby and Kohaku are staying. I don’t remember WHY Naraku’s doing this, like he seems to have no shortage of ‘just dip in here and no one can find me’ spots, so keeping the baby at a human castle with just Kohaku to guard it seems like a bad idea given it’s all but confirmed to be his heart at this point in the story, like even just having Kanna carry it around is a better option given Kanna’s one of the defensively most powerful characters in the series. But yeah Kohaku’s just kinda chilling, still got amnesia but he vaguely remembers being in a village like this where everyone was like family and that feeling’s only reinforced when Abi’s demon birds start attacking and it becomes like a demon slayer village. Naraku tells Kohaku to go protect the baby and he’s just protecting everyone anyway so of course he’s gonna protect the baby. Abi shows up and fights Inuyasha and Kanna’s just off to the side watching like ‘Well this place is fucked now’ so Naraku goes with the nuclear option and tells Kohaku to murder everyone around him just like he did to his family. So that was a good hiding spot for the baby for like… three days and we did +20 emotional damage to Sango I guess? What was this plan? Why do all of Naraku’s most extensive and convoluted plans seem to be focused on fucking with Sango specifically, like she’s the fourth most dangerous person to him in Inuyasha’s group I guess she just makes an easy target for emotional damage since he already has Kohaku in his pocket and that’s how Naraku gets off.

Yu Yu Hakusho: We interrupt Kuwabara’s studies to bring you Yusuke’s farewell party, they get the whole gang back together at Genkai’s place and she gives a cool speech about how Yusuke’s learned so much but knowledge doesn’t make his choices easier and how he, Hiei and Kurama are all going to Demon World and Kuwabara gets to stay home and study because he doesn’t have a demon sugar daddy, it’s a pretty emotional scene since nobody knows how they’ll be able to get back together or when but as an audience we know it’ll happen at some point so it’s okay. Turns out Spirit World found assassinating Yusuke was too hard so they settled for exiling him to Demon World at the request of each demon king being like ‘hey those three shonen protagonists you got over there, let’s take them off your hands, this isn’t a suggestion’ despite none of them actually posing any threat to humanity for a long time now (though Yusuke’s still upset Raizen might just jack his body whenever he wants). But yeah Yusuke goes to Demon World and has the ‘hey anyone find it ironic that the thing the villains of the past five arcs were trying to do we’re just doing and it’s no biggie?’ line that I’ve always loved. Mild tangent but I fell off with Yu Yu Hakusho towards the end of the Dark Tournament as a kid and only caught sporadic glimpses of Chapter Black and I remember randomly waking up early before school one day and seeing this episode on at like 5am so this is the last Yu Yu Hakusho episode I have any memory of. But yeah Yusuke runs for four days and finds his dad’s house and like a real deadbeat dad the first thing he does his beat his son and tell him he ain’t getting out of his chair so Yusuke blows his chair right off his ass. So yeah next time is Hiei’s big flashback episode so that’ll be fun, feel like this last arc is more of an epilogue to answer anything that hadn’t gotten fleshed out yet and kinda round things off in a conclusive way so that’s always fun.

Jujutsu Kaisen: This whole episode is the fight with Hanami and it’s really pretty cool, we get the abridged version of Todo’s backstory and his power’s revealed which is basically like Law’s Room combined with Hit’s Time Skip except he can only do it to stuff with Cursed Energy so he can’t be like Law and swap with a pebble or some dust or some shit. Still it makes for an absolute shitshow of wrecking Hanami and Yuji gets more of the big black punches off because apparently doing it is like doping and it just kinda makes everything easier, it’s funny because if I understand this right it’s the exact opposite of how his punches worked before, instead of lagging a few seconds behind they’re basically on top of each other at the speed of lightning. But yeah we have a few minutes of a beautifull choreographed three part melee while Todo plays mind games with Hanami and even steals back Maki’s polearm from last time and fucking knocks her eyes out but she gets her flower arm laser beam ready and just in time Gojo breaks down the barrier. That barrier had ONE job and it didn’t fucking do it, his Universe Eyes are to strong I guess. Gojo wrecks coatrack guy and the handholding guy runs away before we get to see a cool Nobara and Mai teamup fight which sucks I wanted to see those two work together and hate each others’ guts all the way. Gojo’s too far away to fuck up Nanami so he just sends negative vibes her way and fucking obliterates her with a dimensional rasengan from another zip code but also they never found the body and she never got to do her ultimate technique so she’s definitely still alive. But yeah now they have a bad guy prisoner and everyone else was defeated or fled but the bad guys got one of the Fingers so that sucks I guess.

Zom 100: So the power has FINALLY gone out in the zombie apocalypse which lines up with Akira’s idea to leave and go see his family anyway so they decide to steal an RV and make a mobile base (which is kinda funny cause they talk about packing light but if they’re just gonna throw everything in an RV anyway what’s the point, also glad to see that big screen tv they risked their lives for got like two episodes of use). So yeah while going RV shopping they run into Shizuka again which is just kinda contrived like I can’t find someone in a convention hall but these two keep running into each other in a whole fucking city but this time we do actually get her to join the party because she doesn’t know how to fucking drive. You’d think that’d be part of her risk analysis list of skills that would be useful but maybe before the apocalypse driving was more risky than public transportation. But yeah there’s a cute little montage of them shopping that re-illustrates Shizuka’s different perspective versus Akira and Kencho’s but also shows she’s not above being suckered by something that matches her tastes, still they end up getting jumped and just going with a middle of the road solid style RV. They end up getting to right outside Akira’s hometown when they run over a parking strip that blows out their tires, set up as a trap by none other than Akira’s old manager. See this is why Walking Dead has big long flashbacks that show why the characters float in and out of each others’ lives and when the group gets split up it’s a huge hassle to try and get everyone back together because you’re not usually just gonna run into characters you know already. However this does make for good dramatics because Akira has a full Puss in Boots 2 panic attack and agrees to the terms of working for two days to pay off the new tires and the medical equipment they need to take care of Kencho after her crashed the motorcycle (shouldn’t an RV already be stocked with a first aid kit? Like yeah maybe they only have one spare tire but Kencho’s the one that puts a ticking clock on this and if they get him alright and hunker in the RV they can tell this guy to go to hell but he probably won’t take no for an answer anyway). So yeah absolutely nobody believes this is really just going to be for two days because this guy has established Neo Capitalism by getting people in debt because ain’t nobody just staying at his truck stop because he’s a good boss or anything. Kencho wonders why they can’t just stand up to him and Shizuka gives him an ‘the axe forgets but the tree remembers’ speech about why Akira has panic attacks whenever he sees the manager, meaning she was probably abused too at some point and now Akira’s back to being a corporate zombie. Man I hope this arc doesn’t drag on too long because it’s really unpleasant, like I get that’s the point and it’s supposed to be uncomfortable but just punch this guy in the face and get back on the road trip and find the hot titty lady from the opening already I’m not here to be dragged back into corporate dread.

Ranking of Kings: So before I get into the episode recap here this part about Bojji and Kage seeing their moms in the afterlife and wanting to join them but knowing they have stuff to do still just kinda gave me a mild existential crisis. Like if everyone ends up on the other side of that river anyway what’s the point? Is there anything wrong with Kage going over there and just being at peace? Well at least the way I see it the point is that the things that happen and the conflicts Bojji and Kage have resolved and are destined to resolve will form the people they become by the time they are ready to cross that river, the situation doesn’t change but they change in response to it, so I guess that’s what life’s all about. But yeah enough of me deciphering the meaning of life from silly show about Mute Prince and his Shadow Friend.

So yeah we pick up back on the river of death and Bojji’s Mom and Miranjo’s mom are sitting there talking to Miranjo about how her plan is only destroying her soul and causing pain for everyone around here. Bojji’s mom’s kind of a boss like she’s not even mad about being assassinated she’s just like ‘Yo mirror girl this plan’s kinda dumb, but it made my son stronger I guess so thanks’ but Miranjo’s determined that she’s come too far to go back now but she’s definitely questioning if making a deal with a demon and forever shredding her soul is worth what she wanted to do. Meanwhile the Big Four have cut Ouken to pieces but he just keeps coming back and everyone’s on the floor slowly dying. Despa tells Kage the Underworld Captain can stop the bleeding but he has to be stealth about it but that falls apart real fucking fast as Ouken stabs the captain and turns on Kage. Before anything else can happen though Daida!Bosse has decided he’s had enough of not being plot relevant and finally gets his ass up, he acts all cagey about being back but ends up healing everyone with Hilling’s spell that Daida inherited which is kinda funny, all the hoopla about how strong Bosse is and how Daida turned to Miranjo because he wasn’t strong enough and it’s Daida’s skill that saves the day. Still Bosse is drained by healing everyone and everyone’s sitting there wondering if they have to fight the winner of him vs Ouken. Daida!Bosse smashes Ouken with basically no effort and the rest of the fight is just him trying to figure out where to put the Ouken goo. So yeah he does the whole ‘turn a rock into diamond with you bare hands’ thing which is like his gimmick but he smashes Ouken into a little ball and sticks him into a rock os he can’t properly reform. Like I don’t know how accurate that is given how fast Ouken seems to be able to reform and how Bosse has to pick up all the armor and all the goo with his bare hands in that time but we kinda wrote ourselves into a corner on this one so I guess it’s fine. Now Bojji’s ready to fight Daida!Bosse for the winner take all of the arc and everyone’s just kind of shitting themselves because the guy just took out the person that was murdering everyone in a few seconds.

Vinland Saga: Canute returns home with Thorkell’s men (also weren’t they English? Don’t they have any compunction about just swapping sides for Thorkell’s battle boner or were they Danish too and just followed him over? I guess at the end of the day they’re just loyal enough to go wherever Thorkell goes) and everyone in the kingdom’s understandably rattled when the prince comes back leading the unit that was trying to kill him. Still their goal is to kill King Sweyn since Canute’s brother is out in the field it’ll mean acting king shit duties will go to Canute. But the king is already onto this and invites Canute back for a friendly father-son chat, just him, Canute and twenty of his most heavily armed guards, you know how parenting a teenager goes. They have a tense talk where the king tells him to basically take the Prince version of the lifetime achievement award and go fuck off or he’ll kill him right here since this isn’t his first oedipal throne stealing and he did the exact same thing to his dad at his age. Canute calls his bluff and Askeladd lays out way it would be a bad idea to murder the guy that handed him London on a silver platter and Sweyn is forced to back down, so for the time being both Canute and the king have to bide their time until there’s a suitable opportunity to justify killing each other. They also run into Ragnar’s brother who seems like way more of a sycophant turncoat than his brother was and speaking of brothers, the sane one of the two brother guys tells Askeladd he’s sorry for his brother doing the whole traitor thing and he’s gonna retire and go take care of his now mentally paralyzed brother. Askeladd agrees, telling him Bjorn’s also dying and Thorfinn will be the only one he has left, giving him a parting gift and telling him never to wield a sword again since he was always too decent a person to be just one of Askeladd’s treacherous bastards.

#ooc #Toonami #Custom Toonami Block #Spy X Family #Inuyasha #Yu Yu Hakusho #Jujutsu Kaisen #Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead #Ranking of Kings #Vinland Saga

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yugiohz · 2 years

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I loveeee the old world bs. new world theme in any type of media like there’s so many ways to implement and represent that but most authors are so lazy 😭 my point is I would’ve made naruto about old world vs new world if I were the mangaka there are so many opportunities as

#I think one piece did a good job don’t kill meeee #I don’t like demon slayer but the manga is kinda going for it #Esp with the time period industrialization and the mythical creatures #but idk it’s boring.....#there even is a train arc like it’s so in your face but it’s not intriguing m

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ladywaifuuwrites · 3 years

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Pillars reacting to their crush who’s small but strong

Request: male pillars reacting to a really strong female pillar whos like super short like 4′10-5′ and they crush on them.

Pairings: Male pillars x fem! reader

Synopsis: Their crush is a strong smol pillar ^_^

Warnings: manga spoiler

a/n: I smiled at your request since I’m small too. Like I’m 5′0. And I’m kinda scared to do face to face classes since the boys at my school will tease me for not getting taller. Hmph. SO HERE YA GO. You’re the first request! Have a nice day whoever u are!

And I am so sorry this is so long! ASJDAOFHHASK. I got carried away in some of those storylines. I hope this makes sense (wrote this when I was hungry).

This would be a headcanon I assume.

I’m sorry if It’s taking me long to answer requests but don’t worry I’ll write those! I’ll probably upload rules for future requests :)

Giyuu Tomioka

yo this guy is tall not kidding

Giyuu is head over heels for you. He’ll want to protect you since you’re the most precious things he’s ever laid eyes on

Sparkles in his eyes whenever he sees you✨

He doesn’t want to lose you so he’s butting in on all of your missions. You get annoyed and you think he’s looking down on you.

You two get into a fight and doesn’t fix it since Giyuu’s communication is bad. It ends up in you walking away.

Nighttime and demons are lurking around in the forest as you take a stroll to clear your mind. Then a demon launches on you but thanks to your quick reflexes you dodge.

It’s a strong demon, close enough to become one of the lower moons. But nothing you can’t handle.

Giyuu senses a demon nearby and he frantically searches for you. *sim dads reaction when the mother goes into labor lmaooooo*

Lights fill up an area of the forest from the techniques you use. In like 2 strikes the demon dies.

He finally finds you as the demon’s ashes blow away. Your hair is dramatically blowing too.

He’s just staring at you then hugs you “I’m sorry. I’m not underestimating you…I just want to protect you.”

Then all good. He’s amazed by how strong you are despite you’re short stature. You’re going to missions together and sometimes he just watches you finish off the demon. Just happy to see that satisfied smile you have when you kill a demon.

Muichiro Tokito

When he first met you at the pillar meeting, he muttered his thoughts, wondering how could someone be that small? You’re in the same age but you’re small.

Shinobu heard him since she was beside him and said “that’s rude to ask someone”. She’s lowkey offended.

Tengen retorts to Muichiro. “You’re small too…??”

Since it’s rude, he kept his mouth shut. You’re the same age as him when you entered the corps. He thinks you’ll grow up anyway.

Surprise surprise you grew up, 2 inches. But still small.

He gets nervous a bit around you since puberty did you good. Won’t admit it though.

Cue swordsmith village arc

He’s having trouble dealing with Gyokko. (I hate his face. It’s weird and ugly.)

Then minutes later, you show up out of nowhere, giving great damage to the demon.

“Are you okay?” you ask him with concern and you two fight off the fish demon.

He’s in awe because you actually took over the fight. Sure you have injuries but those are minor compared to his and you were very careful.

He’s injured so he couldn’t do much but you saved him and the civilians by defeating the demon. That’s when he realized how amazing you are and you earn his respect.

Days pass by and you two along with the other demon slayers are commended by Oyakata-sama.

He thanks you when the both of you are walking together. He’s very grateful for what you did and you two become closer afterwards.

“Ah young love.” Mitsuri sighs blissfully as she watches you two leave the headquarters.

Kyojuro Rengoku

Kyojuro knows you’re small and he knows you’re strong. You’re one of his trainees along with Mitsuri, so you’ve known each other for a long time now.

You rose to the ranks of the pillars with Kyojuro’s guidance. And now you’re looked up to by the whole organization because of your excellent swordsmanship despite your small figure.

So you’re tasked to train 20 slayers ranked below Tsuchinoto. You take them to a clearing in the forest where training equipment are already placed. You train them by remembering what Kyojuro has taught you over the years. And you smile, seeing your past self in the struggling slayers.

You gave them a 10 minute break and after 10 minutes, you do a headcount to see if everyone is in your proximity.

“18,19…?????”

Oh no. A slayer is missing.

So you set off to find the missing one and there you found him.

Hanging upside down from the arms of a large demon. The boy is muttering apologies for straying faraway and is begging for you to save him upon seeing you.

You are annoyed at the fact that he has disobeyed your orders and is now at the hands of danger. But this was no time to be blaming someone for a boy’s life is at stake here.

You jump into the air and you take down the demon pretty easily with one strike of your sword. And you catch the falling boy bridal style with your annoyed face.

You put the boy down but suddenly a demon comes attacking you both. You kill it but more of it comes at you. They are easy to take down but it keeps coming, making you tired if you have to do this all night. It just won’t stop multiplying.

You think you’ve killed almost all of it but then the slayer screams “(L/N)-SAN!!!!!”. A monstrous looking demon bares its claws at you, but before you could react a flash of flames appears right in front of your eyes.

“Kyojuro…” You whisper in relief as he slays the final demon. The bright flames sparkle in your eyes as you’re once again amazed at the man.

Kyojuro looks at you and comes over. “You’re so amazing.” You manage to say.

He smiles and says. “No. You’re the amazing one.”. You always manage to face whatever challenge and it always ends up in you winning. Kyojuro knows how hard you proved others wrong by becoming a strong pillar.

Super proud of you cause you’re strong. He actually watched you battle those before jumping in to save you.

Sanemi Shinazugawa

He doesn’t really care if you’re short or tall

The important things is that you’re useful to the organization

When someone teases you about your height, you end up feeling down and he’s there to beat that someone’s ass.

He doesn’t like to admit it but he’s a softie when it comes to you. You eventually break down his walls and now you can say you’re friends with the scary wind pillar.

You always tease him though and he’s always annoyed. But everyone thinks you’re both dumb since it’s very clear that you two like each other but you still deny it.

There’s this time where Sanemi is visibly struggling fighting demons as you watch him peacefully on a rooftop. He’s glaring at you and asks you “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”.

You just smile at him sweetly😊

Sanemi pretends his heart didn’t do a flip. But his heart stopped when he saw a demon behind you on the rooftop.

He was about to call your name when another blink and the demon’s head was cut off.

He was surprised since it all happened so fast. You go down to the ground, landing safely as you battle demons that the frozen Sanemi left.

It just took you 10 seconds to eliminate those demons and Sanemi’s mouth is left agape as he watched you.

You weren’t normally like this. So why the sudden surge of power?

“Sanemi hun. Close your mouth.” You say to him with a blank face, but before you could go past him, he gripped your wrist tightly and placed your small body in front of him.

He dragged you so easily lol.

He hugged you with your faced buried on his chest.

It was the comforting kind of silence. Sanemi was scared losing you to that demon but deep inside he knows that you’re strong.

Won’t admit that your moves are amazing.

Gyomei Himejima

This man is the strongest in the demon slayer corps and the tallest

Lmaoooo you would be like a mushroom beside him💀🍄

Gyomei actually gets out of tricky situations easily because he’s that strong

You’re a fairly new pillar who earned her spot 3 months ago. You two were assigned on a mission together. A gigantic demon appeared throughout the village that was between the regions you and the stone pillar were assigned in.

Gyomei knows your capabilities so he trusts you in doing a good job, but he can’t help but worry about you.

He doesn’t care if you’re small, he thinks that height isn’t the basis for an excellent demon slayer. But he’s still worried, so he looks for you. I don’t know how he looks but he looks.

Then he sees you fighting off demons very easily. A determined look is seen across your face. Gyomei feels he’s tearing up because he’s so proud of you. Proud boyfriend here somethin.

You were just a weak mizunoto years ago and now you’re a strong pillar who can fight with him side by side.

When you finish off the demons, you look to see Gyomei smiling at you. This were the fruits of the harsh trainings you went through, it made an excellent swordswoman.

Among the pillars, you stand beside Gyomei in rankings. So you’re powerful like wow. O_O

Obanai Iguro

He’s small but have you seen him fight? He’s a demon slayer with remarkable speed and you won’t know he’s attacking you because his moves slithers secretly like a snake.

You’ve always admired Obanai even you’re now both pillars. And that admiration bloomed into something more.

He’s a strong pillar despite his small stature and that’s what you aim for to be like.

You’re trying to show off your moves to him every time you’re in battle together, to show him what you can do. To which he’s just “meh”.

So you give up on trying to show off and just do it for the sake of the people you’re saving.

You really gave up on showing off, but you can’t help it cause your breathing forms are flashy. Obanai doesn’t show it but he loves that display of power you have when you’re fighting.

Poor man doesn’t realize he’s in love with you even though others point it out.

He’s having trouble dividing his attention on protecting the civilians or fighting the demons. Luckily you were near the area so you came to his aid.

You slay the demons with your sharp and precise movements in just a short amount of time.

He’s like 😲 but when you turn he’s back to 😐😷

He’s one of the guys who won’t admit that you’re amazing and won’t admit that he likes you. You force him to confess though.

Tengen Uzui

If Obanai doesn’t admit he likes you, this guy would shout that he likes you

Would openly flirt with you because why not? There’s nothing to be shy about.

Always takes the chance to compliment and flirt with you.

“You’re cute (y/n)” “Thanks” Tengen finds your height cute because the height difference is HUGE.

Another mushroom like moment💀🍄

He knows you’re strong so he likes to train with you. Always ends up letting you win because he just likes it when he’s pinned down by your smaller figure.

When a demon invasion came in your area,, you fight them off while Tengen is called for backup.

He slays the lesser demons easily and found you fighting a stronger demon while protecting some children behind your back.

He smirks and leans against a tree, arms folded while watching you fight off the demon.

You did it so easily making Tengen’s eyebrows rise.

Then you see him and ask him “what are you doing?”.

“watching you.” He finds you hot and sexy when you have that focused look in the middle of a battle. He won’t say it out loud because you might smack him in the face.

Super amazed at the fact that you’re stronger than the other pillars despite your small figure.(he thinks you’re stronger than him but dismisses that because pshhhhhh).

Will throw you over his shoulder at random times. Thinking that his antics will make you fall in love with him.

And it did…

#kny headcanons #kny #demon slayer #giyuu x reader #muichiro x reader #sanemi x reader #kyojuro x reader #obanai x reader #gyomei x reader #tengen x reader #uzui x reader #giyuu tomioka x reader #sanemi shinazugawa x reader #rengoku kyojuro x reader #iguro obanai x reader #gyomei himejima x reader #uzui tengen x reader #muichiro tokito x reader

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simplysimpingsimp · 3 years

Note

HI, I LOVE YOUR STORIES SO MUCH!

Especially with Dad!Zenitsu! I also have a small request if you don't mind! Can I ask for something fluffy with Rengoku?

Like, Rengoku just returned from a mission in the Mugen Train, wounded but alive and Reader just runs around him with medication, bandages, just wanting to help him! And maybe small cute confession? If you don't want to or can't do this, it's alright!YOU ARE WONDERFUL, MWAH

Hi hi Ilumin!! Ahhh you’re so sweet TT I’m so glad to hear that you love my stories, that means so much to me !! Of course you can have this request <3 !! Rengoku means so much to me and this request is what I wish would have happened at the end of the Mugen Train arc T^T but anyway! This is a very sweet request :D as always I’m sorry for any mistakes, I will gladly go back and fix them!! I used fem pronouns for this one but if it’s not to your liking then I will gladly go back and change it 0:! It’s no problem at all :D!! And I’m super sorry for taking a while to get to you TT

🔥—————————————————————🔥

🔥 𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜

🔥 𝚁𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚘𝚔𝚞 𝚡 𝚏𝚎𝚖!𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

🔥 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚜: 𝚜𝚑𝚎/𝚑𝚎𝚛

🔥 ⚠︎︎⚠︎︎⚠︎︎⚠︎︎𝚝𝚠: 𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍⚠︎︎⚠︎︎⚠︎︎⚠︎︎

🔥—————————————————————🔥

Hurriedly she ran to where Rengoku was being taken for his critical injuries to be treated — the butterfly mansion.

She felt no tiredness, neither the burning in her muscles as she ran or the scratches from bushes she cut through to shorten her pathing. Her heavy steps kicked up dirt clouds from the path as she nearly reached the front gate.

Y/n had been out on her own mission away from her usual area around the butterfly mansion as a sort of combat medic where she would treat the injured demon slayers before the kakushi arrived. Bandages and medications were stashed away in her satchel, she was sure he had arrived at the mansion already but she felt that she needed it.

Fearful thoughts raced in her head as she prayed for his safety and that he would be fine by the time she arrived. Tears burned in her eyes as she prayed to any being that he would still be breathing, that it was some sort of sick joke that he was in critical condition.

“Please Kyo, j-just hold on,” she panted out as she reached the gate with tears streaming down her warmed cheeks.

She ran in, as if on cue Tanjiro guiding her to where he was recovering.

Tears rolled down her cheeks in large droplets as she hurriedly approached his beaten form after quickly thanking Tanjiro. Falling to her knees, a sob escaped her lips as she watched his sleeping form. How much pain did he have to endure?

Her hand delicately stroked the yellow hair she adored, as she examined all the bandaged parts of his body. The way his chest would staggardly rise and drop, there was no doubt he was struggling to just breathe.

“K-Kyojuro,” her voice meek and broken as she cried into the bed.

A soft groan filled her ears as she watched him stir, hearing a pained expression and feeling a familiar hand on her head.

“D-Don’t cry N/n, I-I’m fine-e,” his voice weak and low, pain lacing every word he spoke yet there was a gentle smile on his lips.

She continued to cry, shaking her head, “H-How could I n-not cry?!” She sobbed out as her hands gently gripped onto the blanket that covered him.

A pained snicker left him joined by a quiet wince, “Y-You always w-worry too hard, b-but I’ll be f-fine. I a-asked Shinobu i-if she could p-put me under y-your care.”

A light blush tainted her cheeks on top of the blush from her crying, “I tr-trust you’ll t-take care o-of me,” his words resonating in her heart as she vigorously nodded and gently held onto his hand.

“I promise! I promise I’ll get you back and running in no time,” she spoke as she wiped away her tears, a faint smile on her lips.

“That’s my girl,” his voice soft as his eyes fluttered closed and he fell into deep sleep.

᪥᪥

Months passed as she helped him rehabilitate and heal. Every minute of it she loved in the sense that she grew even closer to him, but it always brought her sadness when she would watch him struggle. Yet Y/n admired the way he would push through obstacles and his continue on with his work ethic, hardly did he ever get frustrated with himself as he did his best.

“Good job today, Kyo!” She cheered happily as she brought over his meal and medications, “I’m so proud of the progress you’ve made.”

He smiled brightly at her, now donning an eyepatch on his left eye.

He hummed, “Mm! And it’s all thanks to you! Thank you for the meal,” he almost yelled out as the tray was set on his lap. His voice was endearing and loud as it always was.

She giggled as she heard every ‘umai’ as he ate his meal with a gentle blush on his face.

It made her heart flutter and feel full with love seeing the goofy flame hashira recover at astounding rate.

Just a few months ago, it looked like he would just barely make it and he would become a husk of the man he was. And yet, there he was. The same Kyojuro, as if nothing had happened to him. His smile was still the same, just as bright and charming. His gaze remained the same, despite his eye being hidden by an eyepatch. Everything about him was the same. The determination and devotion to his duty as a demon slayer was admirable yet she wished that he would think of himself every so often.

Recalling an interaction when he took her in for training before sending her off to do her final selection exam, she could hear his loud voice say, “You’ll do great!”

As Y/n remembered that charming smile on his face as she nervously blushed, hesitancy in her gaze as she peered onto the path surrounded by wisteria.

His touch on her shoulders was soft as his smile became gentle, “N/n, you worked so hard to get to where you are. You are as strong as the swordsmen in the upper ranks of the corps, I’ll be waiting for you, okay?”

He gently draped his haori over her shoulders, before patting her head for a final time and encouragingly pushing her onto the path, “You can do it!!”

Y/n blinked her e/c eyes slowly, as she realized…

She was in love with him.

Y/n felt her face warm, realizing she had been staring at him unknowingly before quickly ripping her gaze away from him who was distracted with his meal.

“N/n, are you okay?” He spoke concerned as he reached over to touch her forehead.

She squeaked, “Ah yeah yeah I’m okay! Don’t worry,” her voice sounding panicked but adorable.

He chuckled as he finished his meal, gulping down his medication with tea before carefully setting the tray on the wooden nightstand.

“Kyojuro, could I tell you something?” Her voice soft as she looked down, the blush on her cheeks darkening.

��Mm! Please do,” he looked at her attentively with a soft smile.

“So there’s this person..” her voice trailing.

“Is that so?” He responded curiously.

She nodded, “And I really like him.”

“That’s amazing!” He exchanged with a bright smile, “Who is it? Who is it?” he questioned curiously, “I need to know who to warn to protect you at all costs.”

A furious blush formed on her face as she got close to him before gently flicking his forehead with a soft pout, “It’s you, dummy. Kyo, I-I really like you..No, not just like...I love you! And I’m certain of it.” she looked away from his yellow ringed ruby eyes as her blush became pink, “But I don’t expect you to feel the same,” a saddened smile on her lips, “That day when you lent me your haori, I felt so at peace. Like you were there with me, encouraging me to get through any trial I encountered at the final selection.”

Y/n fiddled with her fingers as she felt her heart nearly burst from embarrassment and worry, “That’s all I wanted to say,” she looked at him with a soft smile as she braced herself for probable rejection.

He looked at her, watching her nervously play with her fingers. Kyojuro laughed, that same hearty laugh that made her heart flutter.

“What makes you think I don’t feel the same,” he spoke lovingly, “I love you too N/n! You’re the reason why I’m still here today. You’re the one that saved me and encouraged me to heal and get better,” he placed his hand over hers, “I realized that I’ve loved you since we met! One night when I had a dream about you!”

He chuckled, “You looked so beautiful in white,” he wiggled his forked eyebrows making her blush return as a dark red.

With a reddened face, she leaned in and gently kissed his cheek. As she was about to pull away, Kyojuro brought her back and kissed her lips lovingly and sweetly.

Fireworks blasted in her as her heart pounded aggressively in her chest as she felt her lips embrace his. Love evident in every crevice of his soft lips as he gently moved along with hers before pulling away, that adorable cheeky smile on his lips as a light pink dusted his cheeks.

“Well I guess that means you’re all mine now,” he spoke proudly with a smile lacing every word, “I love you N/n!” he shouted.

Y/n couldn’t help but giggle at his enthusiasm as she nodded with a gentle smile on her lips, “I love you too, Kyo.”

ᴇɴᴅ

🔥—————————————————————🔥

ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ sᴏ ᴍᴜᴄʜ ғᴏʀ ʀᴇǫᴜᴇsᴛɪɴɢ! ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ

ʏᴏᴜ ғᴏʀ ʀᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ <3 ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ғᴇᴇʟ ғʀᴇᴇ ᴛᴏ sᴇɴᴅ ɪɴ

ʀᴇǫᴜᴇsᴛs/ᴀsᴋs/ɪᴅᴇᴀs/ǫᴜᴇsᴛɪᴏɴs/ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ!! sᴇᴇ

ʏᴀʟʟ sᴏᴏɴ ( ˘ ³˘)♡!!

ᴘᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ʀᴇǫᴜᴇsᴛs: 17

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betawooper · 3 years

Text

rating every demon fight in kny bc i can

non-biased, completely objective rating (more or less) of every significant demon fight in kny based on a number of factors, including:

cleverness of fighting tactics

placement in the story’s timeline

integration of character backstories

cohesive themes between characters

etc

by non-biased and objective i mean i’m not skewing the rating if a death felt fair or whatever

everything past where the anime ended will be under a read more so anime onlys who havent watched mugen train, youre safe lol

oh and i reread the manga like 20+ times (reread the latter arcs at least 40 times, haha hyperfixations am i right?) so be rest assured im not pulling these ratings out of my ass

also ill randomly be bolding certain phrases just to improve readability

anyways let’s gooooo

VS NEZUKO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Nezuko. Tanjirou is fending her off by putting the axe handle in her mouth, keeping her from eating him. End Image Description.]

10/10

i like how realistic it is, because yeah tanjirou would react the way to he did with zero fighting skills against a demon

very clear why tanjirou is fighting nezuko and shows a bit of worldbuilding on how normal people react to their family becoming demons

always nice to see worldbuilding

giyuu is the perfect example of a seasoned demon slayer who’s good at his job, and he juxtaposes tanjirou very well in that aspect

my only complaint is not directly in this fight itself but how nezuko is handled throughout the story as a whole

like bro, it is literally never explained why nezuko is different from demons

could have been easily explained if maybe her family’s ghosts like slapped her hand every time she wanted to eat a person but nope

she’s just built different lol

so yeah youll see future ratings get points docked off bc nezuko unlocks some secret power with no prior explanation other than she angy >:3

VS TEMPLE DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a demon. The demon has a sharp-nailed hand over his neck and there are four text bubbles around him saying “But a wound like this... will heal in no time! See? The bleeding already stopped!” End Image Description.]

10/10

may be more forgettable compared to like rui but still good

tanjirou did exceptionally well in this fight and his ability to think on his feet is once again beautifully illustrated here (trapping this dude’s head against the tree trunk with the axe)

very clever

again, establishes more demon worldbuilding regarding regeneration and still being able to move without their head

and the demons burning in the sunlight thing since nezuko wasn’t able to show that

the ending where tanjirou hesitates to kill the demon also serves to show his sympathetic nature towards demons that will last throughout the entirety of the first 60-ish chapters

we’ll talk about what the hell happens to tanjirou after that

or not, it could honestly be its own post

VS HAND DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a many-handed demon. He has six hands around him, three of them covering his mouth while he chuckles, two of them grabbing his cheeks, and one holding on to the top of his head. There are two text bubbles saying “That’s how many of Urokodaki’s students I have eaten! I’ve decided to kill all of his students!” End Image Description.]

10/10

ooooh probably the first big fight against a demon in the series

oh yeah not doing the two random demons tanjirou one shot in a single blow bc eh

anyways hand demon’s pretty goddamn scary, considering the fact that this is the 5th demon or whatever tanjirou has had to face so far

very nice way to show us how much tanjirou’s innate intuition and all his other random abilities (sense of smell, hard forehead) can come together and help him decapitate this guy

i liked the mini history with urokodaki this dude had and why he had beef with our favorite mentor figure, it establishes that urokodaki was in fact a super good demon slayer and its cool to see that actually shown

i also liked that small moment of compassion tanjirou gave this demon, staying consistent with tanjirou’s established kindness

the demon’s sad tale with killing his own brother very much humanizes him when all the reader has seen up to this point is that this guy is a monster who eats people

sets up the theme of demons just being humans but being victims of circumstance that unfortunately doesn’t hold up as well in arcs past mugen train

VS SWAMP DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou fighting off three horned demons as they appear from below. There is a spiky text bubble saying “Three of them!!!” End Image Description.]

10/10

not my most favorite fight but it still portrays everything alright and im not allowed to let my personal opinions mess with the rating so

i like how tanjirou mentioned the fact that he trained in conditions similar to the bog and explains how he pulled off the whirlpool form

using past experiences to aid him in the present, nice nice

tanjirou and nezuko dont quite work together very well but its yknow the first mission so ill chalk it up to simple inexperience

also the way the muzan curse thingie was hinted at here? fantastic way of showing that little bit of demon worldbuilding

...

oh god, it mentions nezuko being stronger than normal demons

ok its not a problem here per say since i can still suspend my disbelief, but later on it just becomes a glaring problem that gets worse over time

VS SUSAMARU AND YAHABA

[Image Description: Manga panels of Susamaru and Yahaba. The first one is a joyful Susamaru about to throw a temari ball. There is floating text saying “Is she one of Kibutsuji’s minions?!” The second image is an annoyed Yahaba, holding one of his eye-hands to cover himself. There are two text bubbles around him saying “My kimono got all dusty. Tch!” End Image Description.]

9/10

why dont these bitches have a good looking panel together dammit

anyways amazing entrance, the way yahaba used his hand eyes to track down tanjirou is really neat

the synergy yahaba and susamaru have is incredible, its awesome dude, they work extremely well together and it shows

tanjirou actually mixing his water breathing forms together is a god tier move and i absolutely love how he can show off his ability to think on his feet once again

establishing how yushiro’s bda works early on is really well done

establishing tamayo as a fugitive this early on is also super well done

not to get into spoiler territory but both these things pay off

how tamayo ended up defeating susamaru is literally awesome in so many ways

shows off both how smart she is by exploiting the muzan curse

and speaking of the muzan curse, we actually get to see what happens to demons who even say his name, back when it was hinted with the swamp demon

tamayo is amazing dude, and we get some real evidence of the horrible suffering demons go through if they even accidentally attempt to betray muzan :D

...

now heres what keeps this fight from being perfect

nezuko somehow grew stronger against susamaru’s temari

with no explanation

which could have been easily explained if tamayo was like “oh yeah the drug also boosts a demon’s strength temporarily”

but nope

god, i just dont like how gotouge handles nezuko’s power boosts throughout the series bc like i said before

no explanation is given anywhere

this is a huge issue, this isnt a pokemon game, you cant just kill demons and get exp at the end of every battle, level up, get some sweet stat bonuses and move on

(actually if gotouge established that this is how nezuko grew in power, than all my complaints about this would be gone, im not even joking)

anyways i get that nezuko is supposed to be “special” but thats too vague of a descriptor

how the hell is she special? ya gotta be more specific and stick with that explanation or that suspension of disbelief is going to disappear

VS TONGUE DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a four-eyed demon with horns and a long tongue. He is crawling in an awkward position, one foot in front of his tilted head. There are two text bubbles around him saying “Heh, heh! I’ll slurpy slurp your brains out through you ear!” End Image Description.]

10/10

not much to say, showcases zenitsu’s true abilities really well

nicely done

VS HORNED DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of a big, single-horned demon. There are three text bubbles saying “You dodged! You’re awfully lively for a human! It’ll be a treat to carve away your flesh!” End Image Description.]

10/10

would have ignored this fight if not for the fact we havent seen inosuke fight before

it definitely shows how very fast-paced and wild inosuke is

no complaints here lol

VS KYOGAI

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kyogai, a demon with tsuzumi drums attached to his shoulders. There are four text bubbles around him saying “Why?! Why does everyone keep sneaking through my house? It’s so aggravating. It’s my prey! It’s my prey! Found in my territory!” End Image Description.]

10/10

establishes marechi blood pretty early on, once again expanding the worldbuilding of kny which is always cool

interesting terrain where it’s always shifting, tanjirou once again proves his ability to adapt really quickly by altering one of his forms to work with the turning room

(man, i wish the form mixing/form modification thing carried on throughout the rest of the story, but it really didnt which is just a shame)

the injuries tanjirou had prior to this mission actually affecting him was a nice touch

oh yeah, kyogai gives us more worldbuilding (which is always nice) regarding the 12 kizuki, and the aspect of him being cast out due to being weak shows a lot about muzan’s indifference towards his own demons if they arent strong

his backstory being a failed writer once again humanizes kyogai as a former human being and not just a monster

tanjirou shows his sympathy and compassion again by not stepping on his written work and complimenting his bda

well, tbh tanjirou’s actions kinda came out of nowhere but its a very minor thing and not enough to dock a point off, like it didnt affect the outcome of the fight that much if at all

(so if you see future battles where points are docked off for things not logically making sense, its bc whatever nonsensical concepts were integrated into the fight actually turned the tide of the battle and thats a big no-no)

very good fight and if you remember how kinda bad tanjirou was at accurately slicing the swamp demon, you can see that he’s already improved leaps and bounds

im so proud of him

VS MOTHER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and the Mother Spider Demon. There is a light shining down from the top right on to the demon as Tanjirou slices her head off, rain following in his wake. There is floating text saying “Water Breathing: Fifth Form - Blessed Rain After the Drought!” around them. End Image Description.]

10/10

i mean does anyone disagree?

all the demon slayers getting their necks snapped by her threads was pretty horrific, probably more horrifying than anything else we have seen in the entire series if im gonna be honest

the death scene is probably the most beautiful one in the series

it reveals a water breathing form that we havent seen before thats the 5th form

as far as i know, no other breathing style has this merciful sword stroke so it shows a lot about the original water breather and what they might have been like

but enough about them, really the focus is on tanjirou bc this is like the best example by far of how kind and sympathetic he is to demons

dunno what else to say, its perfect

VS SON SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Agatsuma Zenitsu performing Thunder Breathing 1st Form: Sixfold on a spider-like demon. Zenitsu is crashing through the roof of a shed, and a zig-zag path is left behind. There are sound effects all over the panel, saying “Bam!” in large font. End Image Description.]

10/10

chose a picture without a huge spider on it bc i would like to not scare myself half to death

anyways extremely amazing fight, showcases zenitsu’s immense talent and skill, adapting the 1st form of thunder breathing to be a more versatile move

theres a moment where his backstory with kuwajima and kaigaku were revealed and his hidden insecurities are out in the open which is super nice and further develops a character weve only considered as comedic relief until now

the anime made the backstory scenes and the killing scene so much cooler

while there is no thematic connection between zenitsu and the demon, it really isnt necessary to keep this fight interesting

anyways another pretty much perfect fight

VS FATHER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Inosuke slashing at the Father Spider Demon. The demon has blocked Tanjirou’s sword with his arm, and Inosuke is slamming both his blades down on the demon’s other hand. End Image Description.]

10/10

again, not my most favorite fight but it does everything right

i do have to say it was excellent how gotouge hyped up the father spider demon to be the big bad, only just so the plot twist later takes the readers by surprise

nicely done

VS DAUGHTER SPIDER DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kochou Shinobu and the Daughter Spider Demon. Shinobu’s back is seen and her haori looks like a butterfly’s wings keeping her afloat as she holds her stinger blade out to the side. The demon looks surprised as blood gushes from her side, arm, shoulder, chest, neck, and forehead. There is floating text on the panel, saying “Insect Breathing - Butterfly Dance - Caprice!” End Image Description.]

10/10

first time weve seen shinobu and her fighting style

what i love most about this is how much it shows her true character, appearing as a carefree and naive individual so she seems underwhelming

then bam, reveals exactly how dangerous and uncaring she is of demons, listing out the specific ways she would torture the daughter spider demon in grotesque detail

her using poison to take demons by surprise is also super clever and brings back the worldbuilding established way earlier about wisteria being poisonous to demons

amazing integration of that concept

anyways this fight really encapsulates who shinobu is as a character and thats why it gets a perfect score

VS RUI

[Image Description: Manga panel of Rui holding his hand out directly towards the viewer. There are two text bubbles around him, saying “Give me your sister. If you hand her over quietly, I’ll spare your life.” End Image Description.]

8/10

not only is it a super scary fight but there is a deeper conflict between rui and tanjirou, what it means to be family

they are opposites in the sense that while tanjirou believes love is what makes a family, rui’s subconscious desperation for an unbreakable bond drives him to use fear to keep his “family” together

excellent juxtaposition of their values, and this is only further emphasized when rui expresses out loud what he was going to do to nezuko

i also like the symbolism regarding rui’s bda, how he uses threads or the “familial” bonds to cut up his fake family with it if they act out of turn or annoy him

super neat detail

alright what i dont like about this fight is nezuko (again)

mostly her unlocking her bda to turn the tide of the battle bc her mom was like “yo, wake up, your brother is going to be killed”

feels... forced ig

her bda in general is confusing and not consistent

man, i wish i could make a stronger argument for this but i do believe the problem stems from the fact that we dont ever know what nezuko is thinking, and what she thinks of tanjirou specifically

if she even cares for him as a sibling or if shes only going along with what her family is saying to her, things like that which would have been fixed if gotouge actually gave her thoughts some screen time

so the action feels pretty shallow

im also conflicted over tanjirou somehow remembering how dance of the fire god works

on one hand, hes using past information and applying it in the current setting so he doesnt die, which is understandable

but on the other hand, this was a teeny bit random?

i think what could have fixed this is if there was a scene in the beginning of the series where tanjirou was performing it himself, like practicing before he actually had to do it for new years

so that when the rui fight rolls around, it would have felt less like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall

but yeah

overall super good fight, giyuu ending up having to kill rui instead of tanjirou was super good in that tanjirou didnt become a pillar this early in the series and to show how strong giyuu is

there are some odd bits regarding the ultimate “beheading” of rui using nezuko and tanjirous supposed bonds but it doesnt kill the fight entirely so it deserves its pretty high score

***under read more is manga-only fights so beware***

VS ENMU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Enmu holding his hand out directly at the viewer, with a mouth on the back of it. There is floating text to the top right of Enmu that says “Whispers of Forced Unconscious Hypnosis!” End Image Description.]

9/10

id say this fight is definitely overshadowed by the dream stuff prior to this but its pretty good in its own right

enmu fusing with the train was kinda confusing, like when was it established that demons could fuse with objects?

this worldbuilding element doesnt even appear again so yeah thats why it loses a point

how the kmbk gang end up defeating enmu is pretty sweet though, tanjirou using dance of the fire god to sever the neck bone was really nice and shows that him using the breathing style in the rui fight wasnt a one time thing

while kyojuro’s role was smaller in this part, the next part makes up for it so i cant complain

anyways ye, almost perfect score but its pretty good

VS AKAZA (MUGEN TRAIN)

[Image Description: Manga panel of Akaza holding his hand out to the viewer’s left. There is a text bubble saying “Why don’t you become a demon?” End Image Description.]

10/10

this encounter is literally amazing okay?

after the crew kills the big bad, it seems like everything is fine

but plot twist, upper moon 3 appears out of nowhere

this is the first time the reader has seen an upper moon, let alone the 3rd/4th strongest demon in existence and the way gotouge handled this twist is fucking amazing

kyojuro’s death scene really shows just how human even the strongest pillars are against demons with incredible power

its just

amazing

VS OBI DEMON

[Image Description: Manga panels of the obi-like demon. The first image shows the obi hung in the air and strung over each other like decorations, with women-shaped patterns in its folds. The second image is Hashibira Inosuke fighting the Obi demon which now has lips and eyes. There is floating text in that panel saying “Breath of the Beast: Sixth Fang - Jagged Gnaw!!” End Image Description.]

10/10

on to red light district

this fight is admittedly super forgettable and not very interesting at least compared to the main fight with daki and gyutaro

but it wraps up the sub plot of the women and uzui’s wives going missing so it gets a perfect score for not messing that up

oh and it establishes the stretchy neck thing daki has going on which is very good

VS DAKI AND GYUTARO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Daki and Gyutaro. Daki is sitting on Gyutaro’s shoulders. There is a text bubble on the top right that says “The two of us are one, after all.” as well as floating text that reads “The power of the irregular siblings...!? Next issue lead color and the fight reaches its climax!!” End Image Description.]

8/10

love how this battle challenges tanjirou’s sympathy and kindness towards demons, just simply bc daki and gyutaro are horrible people

(too bad nothing came of this, which ill explain in the hantengu portion)

daki and gyutaro are very good villains and kept this fight super interesting from start to finish

uzui acting as a foil to gyutaro is nicely integrated and properly shown with how jealous gyutaro gets over seeing uzui’s perfect form and stature

tanjirou not only mixes forms but mixes breathing styles as well, which is so fucking awesome

(too bad it was only used like once throughout the entire series, its quite unfortunate)

the super high tension right after inosuke gets stabbed and tanjirou wakes up was expertly portrayed and handled, it felt like the kmbk gang and uzui were actually going to lose

super awesome

the tanjirou and gyutaro parallels are expertly portrayed, with how gyutaro taunts tanjirou over failing to protect his little sister, and the more visual thing where tanjirou imagined his own neck underneath his blade, that was super duper nice

the ending is extremely tense and emotionally gripping, gotouge did a really good job with that artistically too

the demon mark acquisition scene was surprisingly not frustrating, considering that it wasnt really explained prior to the battle

i do think it has to do with how it was explained later just exactly how they worked so its not just some random thing gotouge pulled out of their ass

so pretty good

what i dont like is nezuko and her full power demon form

first of all where the fuck did that come from? she just got angry and suddenly shes as powerful as an upper moon

how?

that doesnt make sense???

her extremely quick regeneration makes no sense

her ability to manipulate her blood’s properties makes no sense

and it doesnt even appear again so what was the point of that existing

none of this is even explained later which annoys me

that one part where tanjirou sings a lullaby to her to calm her down was alright ig but nezuko in this fight makes me extremely irritated and frustrated

just ugh

VS HANTENGU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Hantengu opening a shoji door. He is crawling inside, his hand in a gnarled, unnatural position. There is a text bubble saying “Eeeeeeek.” End Image Description.]

1/10

swordsmith village

this fight can go fuck itself /j

no but seriously it has so many problems that it would be shorter to name its redeeming qualities (which ill do later)

first off, the nezuko full power form thing again

i hate it so much with a passion

again, where did her ability to regenerate instantly even come from???? this is never explained, ever

and why did she cut herself on tanjirou’s sword anyway

did she somehow know that it was going to turn red if she burned it?

gotouge what the fuck, there is literally no reason why nezuko would do that and we cant even read her mind to see her thought process

gotouge hates nezuko, i swear

remember when i said uzui is meant to be a foil to gyutaro in the rld fight? its pretty obvious that those two are opposites, it was nicely done

... what the hell does mitsuri’s insecurities about strength have to do with whatever the fuck hantengu has going on (which is basically nothing)?

so no meaningful connection between mitsuri and hantengu

theres no meaningful connection between tanjirou and hantengu other than tanjirou getting pissed off for like the second time

also tanjirou’s thing with being kind and sympathetic to demons was entirely dropped at this point

but instead of it leading up to a corruption arc of some sorts, it just doesnt

like honestly if something actually came of that anger he exhibited in this arc and from red light district from this point forward story-wise, i would have counted this as an amazing writing decision

but it literally doesnt so who cares

(god, i really start to hate what happened to his character after this )

and genya’s revealed motivation also doesnt fit at all with hantengu’s thing, he’s not a foil, not a parallel, nothing, there is nothing

tanjirou being the catharsis for development for mitsuri and muichirou, who he has only talked to like twice

theres definitely a better way to handle those two’s developments without his help

like gotouge, you have a big cast of characters, use them lol

i want to kick hantengu in the face for being boring as fuck (at least his clones have cool looking weapons)

doesnt even have a proper backstory, just a single spread of him being blamed for shit as a human

like... thats it? this is upper moon 4 what the hell

theres no clever form mixing here at all (regarding tanjirou) which probably would have helped with foreshadowing the 13th form for dance of the fire god/sun breathing better

also gotouge established that as tanjirou’s thing and now he doesnt do that stuff anymore which sucks

oh hey remember when tanjirou actually learned how to do zenitsu’s speed boost thing?

if you didnt, i dont blame you bc it literally doesnt appear again, ever

you could argue that he adapted it into his “waltz flash” technique or whatever the fuck that is but the way it was integrated into this fight was like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall

which is just a shame bc its meant to be representative of how tanjirou and zenitsu are good pals but the way it was utilized is forgettable as hell

i absolutely loathe the crimson blade concept as a whole and im mentioning this now bc its going to come into play why future instances where this goddamn thing comes up again causes points to be lost

its inconsistent as fuck ill tell you that

at least some yoriichi stuff appeared here and not shoved into the final battle with everything else

so the yoriichi stuff later didnt come out of absolute nowhere

genya and mitsuri’s unique fighting styles expand the kny worldbuilding just a little more which is always nice

tanjirou got a cool sword out of this which would have been cooler if him and yoriichi had a deeper connection that was actually explored

but we didnt get shit so whatever

other people getting demon marks being revealed here is also okay so that again, the final battle isnt filled with absolutely everyone getting their marks at once

demon marks have their own slew of problems but its not as bad as the fucking crimson sword shit

god i hate the crimson sword shit

...

dude this section needs a tldr, even i cant sit and read through my shit

TL;DR - this fight sucks and crimson swords are bullshit (more on this later)

VS GYOKKO

[Image Description: Manga panel of Tokitou Muichirou and Gyokko. Muichirou is looking to the left while Gyokko is looking to the right, both with their backs to each other. There are mist clouds billowing in the foreground and background, as well as a slash mark going across Gyokko’s neck. End Image Description.]

7/10

this fight suffers from the same lack of cohesive themes through characters like the hantengu battle bc the antagonist is given nothing

but its better

we havent actually seen mui fight before so theres no consistencies that the reader has to keep track of for now

and there arent like 10 characters in the fight so this fight gets a lot of points just for being a lot more coherent

i do like that this fight shows just how good mui is that he can defeat an upper moon by himself

mui’s backstory is neat

gyokko’s bda is very interesting too

... thats pretty much it lol

ye, anyways not the best fight but not the worst fight either

VS KAIGAKU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kaigaku holding the hilt of his blade with one hand. There is two text bubbles around him, saying “...As usual, you’re still shabby. It’s been a while, Zenitsu.” End Image Description.]

9/10

alright on to final battle arc

theres some good fights and then some really sucky ones, but this one was pretty incredible and very emotionally charged

theres a clear reason why zenitsu and kaigaku are battling each other (kai betrayed the corps and inadvertantly caused the only parental figure in zenitsu’s life to die, and zenitsu is rightfully pissed off about that)

the visual yin-yang symbolism is awesome too

zenitsu winning due to using the 7th form he created himself (which i have reason to believe was inspired by tanjirou) was the perfect ending to the fight, really couldnt ask for anything better and is a perfect example of how much of an effect tanjirou has had on zenitsu

the 7th form is what tanjirou’s waltz flash should have been lol

what keeps this fight from being absolutely perfect is lack of development prior to this conflict

(since the final battle arc is basically a culmination of all the hinted developments through the series, im going to actually factor in how much and how well these conflicts were foreshadowed)

anyways if we had actually seen zenitsu, kaigaku, and kuwajima actually interacting with each other and showing how they were essentially a family (not just through flashbacks), it would have made zenitsu placing the responsibility of killing kai onto himself a lot more tragic

but like, apart from brief flashbacks where zenitsu actually met kaigaku off screen and that one thing all the way back in natagumo where both kuwajima and kai were introduced, thats pretty much it in terms of thunder family development

so yeah its underdeveloped for sure

also one random thought, i personally think zenitsu should have gotten his demon mark in this fight, it would have been cool to see

VS AKAZA (INFINITY FORTRESS)

[Image Description: Manga panel of Akaza’s face. There are two text bubbles around him, saying “Okay, let’s get started. It’s time for the feast.” There is also floating text saying “The inspection of the strong has begun...” as well as a simple box on the lower left, denoting its the end of chapter 147. End Image Description.]

6/10

oh god please dont hate me for this

ill list the good things first how about that

this conflict was foreshadowed perfectly in mugen train, you bet the readers were expecting a tanjirou vs akaza battle after the death of kyojuro and gotouge delivered

akaza’s power is shown extremely well with how many close calls tanjirou and giyuu had while fighting him

akaza eventually giving up on his own volition was really nice and fit into the context of the battle very very well, like sure tanjirou and giyuu wouldnt understand why he gave up but us readers do know

akaza is a really good character and a good villain

now notice how im only mentioning akaza and not giyuu or tanjirou in the good aspects

bc those two are eh

no form mixing at all from either tanjirou and giyuu

i know i said form mixing was kind of tanjirou’s thing but you’d think giyuu would have gotten more creative with his moves once akaza said that he was getting predictable

(well he said he “ran out of water breathing forms” but same thing)

so its kinda bland lol

speaking of giyuu, his whole thing with his insecurities of being weak wasnt handled well (it was sort of immediately brushed off in pillar training, and its unclear what part of his character arc he was in)

like sure him announcing that he’s going to protect tanjirou is cool but it feels like he was haphazardly dropped into the tanjirou and akaza conflict

isnt he supposed to be both their foils? that wasnt really explored that well in this fight and theres no deep meaning behind him even being here just analyzing what he did in it

he could have been handled better or even given more focus is what im saying

the anatta state came out of nowhere, im sorry okay? just bc inosuke like barely hinted at not being able to sense grandma hisa bc she had no fighting spirit and tanjurou magically taught his son how to achieve this state doesnt mean it was properly integrated into the fight

if the anatta state was actually explored prior to this battle, i would have given it a pass but it just feels like a cheap and poorly developed trick to get around akaza’s technique development (which is overpowered as fuck might i add)

gotouge should have just given akaza a plausible weakness to his technique development instead, especially since they dont use or even mention the anatta state after this

the transparent world shit makes no sense but ill elaborate on that in the koku battle analysis

oh and this thing doesnt affect the score but why wasnt there a “yoriichi visage overlapping” moment when tanjirou was fighting akaza? hes an upper moon, he should have gotten those visions but he didnt

for some reason

anyways this battle was alright and has good set up but the middle and end parts didnt hold up as well bc random concepts were thrown at us without prior explanation or development

VS DOUMA

[Image Description: Manga panel of Douma licking Shinobu’s butterfly pin. There are two text bubbles around him saying “Anyway, tonight is a good night. Such fine feasts keep showing up one after another.” End Image Description.]

9/10

damn, such an amazing fight

the build up to this was properly foreshadowed

shinobu finally showing her true anger after hiding it for so long is amazing

douma is a super interesting character and fantastic villain

shinobu showing off her true power and determination against douma was sooooo nice

shinobu’s poisonous body plan is so clever and so interesting

if i was to rate the shinobu part of the fight alone, it would have gotten a 10/10 no question

the reason why its knocked down a point is because of the kanao and inosuke part

dont get me wrong, the way kanao is able to hold her own against douma by herself is pretty cool, how shes meant to parallel douma with their similar struggles surrounding human emotions and demonstrate how she has grown as a person, how she regains the ability to cry

that shit is cool, inosuke also getting in touch with his emotions after learning what happened to his mom was super neat as well

however

bc this battle takes place in the final arc with everything else, there wasnt proper build up regarding many things, the kotoha reveal especially

so inosuke feels kinda forced into the kanao shinobu and douma conflict, similar to how giyuu felt forced into the tanjirou and akaza conflict

its quite unfortunate bc if the kotoha stuff was actually explored prior to the confrontation, this “forced” feeling would have disappeared

i know some people have suggested that the douma fight should have just been its own arc, and i very much agree, it would have certainly helped fix this problem regarding inosuke and kotoha

last random thought, i wish shinobu, kanao, and inosuke got their demon marks

VS KOKUSHIBOU

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kokushibou looking directly at the viewer, holding the hilt of his blade as if he’s going to pull it out. There are text boxes around him saying “This... is Upper Moon One... He’s so different compared to the other Upper Moons. He looks so dignified and majestic.” The text boxes are narrated by Tokitou Muichirou. End Image Description.]

5/10

this fight is... mediocre

at least theres a more tangible connection between muichirou and kokushibou

even though that was handled kinda poorly

tbh there really was no point to revealing that mui is koku’s descendant like at all, it just had no significant bearing to the plot of the fight

sanemi’s backstory being here is... okay ig?

idk the whole shinazugawa conflict has fundamental problems that i just cant think of any other place to put it without changing the entirety of canon

the marechi blood concept coming back was nice though

genya is there

him getting his bda was cool and helped turn the tide of the battle in a satisfying way (before kicking the bucket but thats not the focus here)

gyomei is a hollow husk of a character who barely got anything at all

but his fighting style is extremely cool and conveys his immense power very well

oh and him and sanemi are amazing at working together, like better than giyuu and tanjirou, and better than kanao and inosuke

theyre that good yet pretty much nobody acknowledges it which is sad

koku himself is pretty interesting and pretty tragic, very nice villain

but everyone together?

gonna be honest but this is such a random collection of characters, there was basically no foreshadowing that these four were going to go up again kokushibou, they are not that connected very well

i know there was this one post that focused on the theme of family that was common in all 5 characters in the fight but its just not enough

it would have been more cohesive if gotouge emphasized gyomei, mui, sanemi, and genya being like different aspects of yoriichi coming together to kill kokushibou hundreds of years after yoriichi failed to kill him

lmao its not like the 4 of them defeated koku with the power of family or friendship, they just smacked him over and over with a flail, shot him with magical bullets, and stabbed a crimson sword into his abdomen

wouldnt have been too hard to switch over to koku’s pov and go “damn these bitches are like my stupid brother”

...

speaking of crimson swords

i fucking hate the crimson sword concept oh my god can i complain about it now? im gonna complain about it now

unlike demon marks, the crimson blades werent even given any proper conditions, you just hold the stupid thing hard enough and it somehow imbues it with magical properties with no logic behind those properties

what part of crimson swords completely destroys a demon’s body in an instant? even muzan didnt go through that process when he was almost killed by yoriichi so where in the goddamn fuck did it come from

it could be explained bc the sword was left in the same spot for a long time but this tactic doesnt even appear again in a meaningful way (didnt kill muzan when tanjirou and giyuu held the sword together) so what the fuck was the point of having this even exist

its so underdeveloped and confusing and i hate it

the transparent world stuff is also confusing as shit and its pretty much never explained how they work aside from the vague “close your mind” advice, like why did it exist, it did nothing to help the present day demon slayers

its just so... poorly integrated

yeah anyways this is around the same rating as the akaza fight but a little worse bc there wasnt that strong set up beforehand

VS KOKUSHIBOU (SENGOKU ERA)

[Image Description: Manga panel of a bag getting ripped open, pieces of a wooden flute tumbling out. End Image Description.]

10/10

easily 10/10

this fight shows the tragedy of kokushibou giving in to his envy and hatred, when yoriichi cries over seeing his own family commit terrible attrocities against the people he wanted to protect

and yoriichi dies, now carrying the fact that he couldnt even save his own brother from the influence of muzan on his conscious forever

what a sad ending for yoriichi

and after koku angrily slashes apart yoriichi’s corpse, having him find and keep the flute he gave to him when they were kids to the present day gives him a small shred of humanity in the midst of his monstrous anger

VS NAKIME

[Image Description: Manga panels of Nakime. The first one shows a low quality version of her playing her biwa. The second one is a close up of her eye. There are spiky text bubbles saying “It’s Upper Rank... 4!” End Image Description.]

0/10

no nakime backstory

not even a goddamn fight

forgettable

useless

VS MUZAN

[Image Description: Manga panel of Kibutsuji Muzan in his white-haired, mouth-covered form. There are text bubbles around him saying “Not a single one was of use to me. I will crush the demon hunters tonight. I’ll massacre them all right now.” End Image Description.]

1/10

._.

i have many complaints but ill try my best to not make this another hantengu rant section lol

first off, obanai deserved better

im serious, this poor dude was forgotten until pretty much the end when we finally get a backstory out of him

and then he died

what a waste of a potentially amazing character

mitsuri getting taken out early was ehhh

pretty sure someone else made a post about her supposedly being extremely strong but she was nerfed in this battle which i agree with

literally none of the pillars work together very well, like remember how i praised sanemi and gyomei for being super coordinated? lmao that doesnt exist anymore

you could say this is caused by desperation though and you wouldnt be wrong, its just boring to sit through

that causes issues bc this now basically requires the crimson sword and transparent world concepts to be there to spice things up

but in this fight, they do nothing in the long run (except for tanjirou using the crimson sword at the very very end)

youve already heard me talk about why those two things are super shittily integrated and i cant be bothered repeating myself so moving on

kanao, inosuke, and zenitsu

they... exist? they didnt do much tbh, which i guess is the point but like, now its boring again

nezuko could have been used as a potential way to raise the stakes and make things interesting again (like “ah shit, muzan might actually be unkillable if he gets nezuko but its okay bc shes not here- oh fuck shes here this is not good”)

but nothing came of her running off except confirmation that she became human again so whatever

uzui and shinjuro are useless, why werent they at the fight?

like they could have followed nezuko and contributed to the battle even a little but they just didnt and now theres literally no point to them appearing in this arc at all

wasted potential

tanjirou

i wish him going absolutely apeshit had actual substance behind it, like it being a part of his character arc or something

i remember having this one theory that he had a corruption arc (due to dropping his kindness thing towards demons) and i wanted this to be true so badly

but it doesnt exist

not with how the series ended

god

the only thing that saves this fight from being complete trash is tamayo’s poison thing being amazingly executed

and the part where everyone got blasted away, losing limbs and shit, that made things a little more interesting again

but thats it

VS MUZAN (SENGOKU ERA)

[Image Description: Manga panels of Kibutsuji Muzan, Tamayo, and Tsugikuni Yoriichi. The first one has Muzan and Tamayo, while the second one has Yoriichi pulling out his sword. There are text boxes saying “And the moment I met him, I understood that I was born into this world to defeat this man.” End Image Description.]

9/10

finally something good again

while short, that’s just the nature of all of yoriichi’s battles with demons

anyways pretty nice, theres a clear reason why this battle exists (shows the scenario that made the original breather get super close to defeating muzan in detail)

adding tamayo here was a nice touch

my only complaint is that it seemed extremely coincidental that yoriichi somehow developed a breathing style specifically countering muzan’s multiple organs without even knowing prior that he had all those brains and hearts floating around freely in his body

like thats kind of ridiculous, even for yoriichi whos supposed to be “blessed by the gods”

could just be me though

VS TANJIROU

[Image Description: Manga panels of Kamado Tanjirou in his demon form. The first image has his eyes closed. The second image has his eyes opened and the tumor on his face almost completely faded. There are text boxes around him saying “You will destroy the demon hunters in my stead.” End Image Description.]

1/10

hoo boy

ok first off, demon tanjirou lasted for 2 chapters

thats it

2 chapters

so thats already a problem

i am aware its meant to parallel the beginning of the series but also its ridiculous how completely vague and rushed this entire thing was

nezuko doesnt do shit through not just this battle but this entire arc which i already explained so not gonna go into it further

kanao magically having a demon cure on her made very little sense

the scene where tanjirou leaves muzan in purgatory is pretty but if you look at it in the context of everything else, its ambiguous and confusing

(if someone could explain it and see how it connects to the original theme of “demons just being victims of circumstance,” i would love to hear it)

actually you know what makes me so mad about this “fight” as a whole? there was so much potential to do more with this concept

and im not talking about him escaping and nezuko becoming a demon slayer roleswap au (even though its a pretty cool concept)

him becoming a demon could have been a metaphor for his lost kindness and sympathy towards demons halfway through the series

it could have been a punishment for letting his anger towards muzan cloud his judgement

it could have symbolized literally anything about him losing his humanity as he got stronger

but those three things are just scenarios from my head, they dont exist in this series just based off of what weve seen from these two chapters

its disappointing

the only thing keeping this from getting a 0 is the one part where inosuke couldnt chop off tanjirou’s head bc he cared about him too much

that at least shows inosuke had grown as a character

everything else is just meaningless and convoluted garbage and “convoluted” is not what you should be aiming for if this is supposed to be the ending of your series

IN SUMMARY

early kny is very good, later kny is questionable and the ending is just a mess of wasted potential and disappointment

i get why gotouge had to have the transparent world ability, crimson blade ability, and the demon marks appear before they all appeared on yoriichi but theyre all just so underdeveloped and terribly handled in the battles they are used, it makes me want to kick a wall

like lmao, i could literally think of so many ways they could have been properly integrated, hell, im even writing a whole goddamn rewrite using my ideas for these three things (link to that is in my pinned)

just, god

if you want to debate over these ratings, my ask box is open ig? idk

#kny #kimetsu no yaiba #kny meta #demon slayer #my writing #long post

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demonslayedher · 3 years

Note

(Hi!!! First of all, I want to wish you luck on your test!!! You've got this!!! We're all cheering for you!! Sending all of my good vibes and [meager] brain cells your way!!!!) Second of all, I've been wondering about the Mugen Train Arc after rewatching the movie. If Nezuko hadn't, for whatever reason, been there to burn the ropes and the tickets, do you think Rengoku and the Trio would have woken up? Hhhh I know it says something about it in the manga, but I'm just a teensy bit uncertain. ILY!

(Thank you for the extra brain cells, Anon! I've caught them and I shall pack them full of extra trivial nerd stuff! One more month of study to go and then Asks may get turned back on!)

Going back and reviewing it, the manga goes into extensive explanation that Ufotable decided could be left unclarified--for example, the impasse Rengoku finds himself in while choking his intruder as far as he can get without killing her, and that cutting the ropes with Nichirin would had made thd intruders unable to wake up (a risk Enmu didn't explain), and that Inosuke and Zenitsu have unusually strong senses of self in order to manifest in their unconscious spaces, and that Tanjiro's water-self warning, the glimpse of Nezuko's box, and the appearance of his father were all self-generated, a way of desperately trying to put form to something he already subconsciously knows but hasn't quite hit upon (that he needs to hurry and get out of there by breaking the illusion with a violent wake-up call). You already mentioned the tickets too, which was here in this Taisho Secret after chapter 59.

"Nezuko burned Rengoku-san and the others' tickets so the three of them woke up, woot woot!! Sorry for not fitting that in the actual content, my bad!"

(Wani-sensei, you're lying, Zenitsu is still asleep.)

So it seems Nezuko's fire had three effects:

1. Help Tanjiro start to rouse (but this did not cut off his connection to the sick boy, who was still freely prowling around and cracking his way deeper and deeper into Tanjiro's mind even as Tanjiro had enough willpower to leave his family behind, sob... sob, sob)

2. Cut off the link between the intruders and the victims (makes me think that when Nezuko originally went pyro on her thick-headed brother she didn't burn the rope yet, and that was a purposeful effort afterward)

3. Burning the ropes may remove the intruders, but waking up requiring eliminating Enmu's spell by way of burning the tickets (and some amount of willingness to wake up, stop looking for where Dream Nezuko ran off to and wake up, Zenitsu! No wait, don't, stay asleep. Yes, good). On that note, Rengoku might had taken a little longer than Inosuke to come around, and even Inosuke might had still been in a touch of a haze mixing dream and reality (or nevermind, silly me, Boss Inosuke is totally reality).

So if we consider how this would had gone without Nezuko's help, my thought is that it wouldn't had been impossible for this particular, peculiar band of Demon Slayers to find their way out of it. They each had their own subconscious responses to the danger, be it as self-preservation or a sense of duty or a mix of both.

But would it had taken a while? Highly likely. Enmu probably could had eaten a lot of people in the time it'd take them to break out through sheer willpower.

Good job, Nezuko! 200 passengers owe you their lives!

"Mm!"

(Translation: If you don't pat my head I will start fires.)

#somebody do the elmo meme with nezuko plz #also interesting Taisho Secret those pointy tools the intruders carried were made with Enmu's bones and teeth #fuuuun (ﾟ∀ﾟ;;;;) i think #kny fandom theories and meta #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #enmu #kamado nezuko

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linkspooky · 4 years

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Why is shinobu such a great character? I love her, shes my favorite pillar.

I think the single best thing about Shinobu’s character is that she’s a bitch. Wait, wait, no get back here I’m going to explain myself. I think what makes Shinobu great is that she’s THAT BITCH.

There’s a pressure for characters, especially female characters to be written with no real substantial flaws. At best they have job interview flaws, they are clumsy, oblivious, or they’re just too giving towards people. They’re too empathic. They’re too nice and they let people walk all over them, but to no real consequences.

Often characters are written to be likable, rather than to be complex and flawed. They’re written in a way that they will be likably received by an audience. Which is why the rough edges of them tend to get sanded down. I think this is a problem for both male and female characters by the way, that characters are reduced to bland characterizations as opposed to complex ones.

It’s like the difference between Uraraka and Himiko in MHA, a shonen manga that runs within the same magazine. Himiko as a character is far more developed because she is allowed to have flaws and get in the middle of bloody confrontations. Uraraka is a character who could be interesting: a hero motivated by personal greed, a child who feels that they burden they’re parents, someone perceptive and empathic but who always keeps her mouth shut for fear of tripping on other people’s feelings. She has complex flaws, but priority is given on making Uraraka look like a nice girl. Himiko isn’t nice, but she gets to like... do things.

Shinobu has flaws, and she holds onto the ugliest parts of herself, her anger, her desire for violent revenge, and refuses to improve as a person and ultimately dies to those flaws and that’s what makes her so unique and interesting. I’ll go over those underneath the cut.

1. Medicine and Poison

Shinobu’s entire character is written around this dual meaning: basically, medicine is something that both heals and hurts. Most people think of medicine as something that is comforting and nurturing, but too much medicine can become a poison that destroys the body instead. Often many drugs we use for medication are toxic in excessive amounts.

Shinobu is a character who toes the lie between a healer, which is how everyone expects her to act, and a poisoner which is what Shinobu regards herself as. She is someone capable of both. She can heal and nurture others, she can also destroy them with horrible poison. However, her arc in the story shows more and more that she chooses to poison and destroy because she doesn’t see herself as someone capable of healing.

Demons were once human. They are still capable of human feelings. They all have human desires and fell into demonhood for very human reasons.

Tanjiro is someone who ultimately rejects the actions of Demons, but also sympathizes with their humanity. He doesn’t want to kill. He acknowledges that he has to due to circumstances, but no matter what he cannot stop seeing the humanity inside of the demons he is fighting against. Tanjiro is a merciful killer.

Shinobu is introduced right after we see Tanjiro introduced to the idea that demons have feelings and motivations and grapples with that and his own empathy. Shinobu is presented to us as a character without any empathy for demons. She is a merciless killer.

Shinobu wants to repay cruelty with cruelty. She relishes in the chance. She likse feeling more powerful than the demons that victimized her. Tanjiro and Shinobu’s methods of dealing with demons are deliberately contrasted to show how different they are. Shinobu doesn’t see demons as humans, just as things, that need to be punished. She’s not wrong for thinking that demons need to be stopped and killed in order to prevent them from hurting innocent people, but torture is bad yo.

It’s even shown that Tanjiro is much more willing to accept demons who genuinely are repetant for what they did in the past like Tamayo. Whereas, Shinobu does work with Tamayo she mistrusts her and resents her the entire time. Shinobu’s view of the world is black and white, where she is the personal judge, jury and executioner of demons. Yes, that’s how most of the demon slayer pillars are introduced to us, but it’s especially drawn attention to in Shinobu’s case with her introduction, and her comparisons to Tanjiro.

Basically Tanjiro’s stance is I’m not going to belittle those who regret their actions, and see the humanity in demons. Shinobu’s response is I’m going to belittle the HELL out of them.

Shinobu mocks, teases and belittles because she’s someone incapable of being sincere. The main difference between Shinobu and Tanjiro, is that Shinobu’s sister is dead, and Tanjiro isn’t. Tanjiro still sees himself as fighting to protect someone whereas Shinobu only lives to pay back the damage that’s been done on the world.

Shinobu serves a dual role in the series. She’s the one who nurtures and heals everyone on the butterfly estate. She’s also the most remorseless killer of demons who physically enjoys the slaughter. She is medicine, but she is also poison.

Shinobu’s anger is a very poisonous part of her personality, but rather than deal with it, and attempt to be better she’d much rather put on a fake smile and let the poison flow. We’re given a reason why. Ever since her sister died Shinobu felt like everything that’s good about her died with her sister, and now she’s indulging in the worst of herself.

If Tanjiro is someone who fights out of their love for other people, then Shinobu is someone who fights out of hatred. She hangs onto that hatred because she feels like that’s the only real part of herself and she can’t be good like her sister.

There’s a reason that Shinobu is paralleled to Doma and it’s because everything that’s positive about her, her gentle nature, her smiling, her empathy is completely faked. It’s an act that she puts on to be more like her sister while holding her resentments deep in her heart. She could be medicine or poison, and chooses to be poison.

Shinobu could have chosen the path of healing or forgiveness, but she didn’t want to. She chose to die, angry and fighting instead. Her last action is tantamount to suicide. She chooses to die poisoning another, rather than try to live healing herself because she thinks she is incapable of living without her loved ones in her life. It’s not a happy ending, but it’s a powerful writing choice. The choice not to forgive. The choice to stay angry. Shinobu is a character written with powerful emotions behind her, hiding just underneath the surface which is all fake smiles and friendly pleasantries, and that’s what makes her a compelling character.

#Anonymous #metasks #kocho shinobu #shinobu kouchou #kny meta #kimetsu no yaiba #kimetsu no yaiba character analysis #kimetsu no yaiba theory #shinobu meta

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crowgale · 3 years

Text

!!!MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR DOOM ETERNAL TAG2!!!

So I played DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part 2 and it absolutely rocked!

But the one thing is would criticise story wise is the Slayer being interned atop Ingmore's Sanctum.

Call me crazy but I don't think they deserved that. They have part of the Dark Lord's soul so shouldn't have the rest of it been reformed within them? The rite of combat was what annihilated all demons outside of hell- not the death of their primeval. It feels like a slow-burn betrayal by The Father as a build up towards whatever may come next. Be it DOOM 6 or QUAKE 5.

But after everything the Slayer did, they deserved a rest. They deserved to at least live among the people that they saved after Eternal and TAG.

Not as their servent, nor their guide towards becoming something more.

To them, Humanity was worth saving- end of story. Doesn't matter if some of them fall prey to the temptation of Hell, or if they swear loyalty to Divine Aliens. The good in humanity far outweighs the bad.

But I don't think they'd 'bask in devotion' as it were. Not as some divine messianic figure or a God-Empruh of Man.

Where has devotion gotten Humanity? The Argenta? The Immoran's?

Devotion to Idols and Gods and to People gave them the Khan Maykr, it gave them The Father.

It gave them Davoth.

The Slayer walked the path of perpetual torment and eternal glory.

They saved humanity and they will do so again.

As an Eternal Hero, as the Destroyer, as the God-Killer.

As the DOOM Slayer. The Ultimate Paragade of their Civilisation.

But they're not a soldier doing their duty or a merc on a job.

The Slayer is a Warrior-King. They no longer fight to live. They live to fight.

In times of conflict, of war- they lead from the front. As the Ultimate Vanguard. As the First and Last line of defense against annihilation.

In absense of conflict they stand ever vigilant over their people, watching over them. Defending the Weak, so that they may become strong.

And teaching the strong to defend and empower the weak, so that when the armies of Steel and Thunder come; they may never stand alone.

Because Peace, true peace, is found within. Not in the absence of conflict.

And they are so much more than a vessel of eternal fury.

So in the coming years as countless refugees from Immora arrive on Earth seeking a new home, as millions of Argenta leave the liberated Argent D'nur seeking bonds of fellowship across the stars, as humanity reclaims their homewolrd from the clutches of hell; the single most asked question among so many people is this-

"What happened to the Slayer? Where did they go?"

The official answer will be; "You see that green light flying across the sky? That same light the Argenta salute when they see it flying over head? That light that the Immoran's look to with sorrow? That no-fly zone ARC Command has created around a that great fortress in orbit? They're up there. Watching over us"

And that's right, the Slayer is up there. They have no reason to be on Earth. They have far more important things to do.

They totally didn't walk into a New York pizzaria last week and order a Ranch BBQ pizza with pineapple; only to return a day later in the late evening after helping to rebuild the apartment block across the street to order food for everyone working on the construction site.

They didn't walk into a beach bar in Egypt and spend the night sitting in the corner, quietly drinking Bone Vodka with some old Argenta bloke, bearing facial scars and a cataracted eye- didn't embrace him as he quietly wept as the other Argenta in the bar saluted them both and asked to sit with them.

He was apparently a Commander of some sort? No Human knows the story. All the Argenta will say is "He redeemed himself in his valour, we merely asked when he would forgive himself"

They didn't climb Mount Olympus on Mars, accompanying climbers with a host of crimson-armoured warriors to the peak of the mountain, didn't help them build a shrine, didn't set down a horned helmet and entomb a Crucible Sword and Shield upon it- only to vanish before they could start the trek back to base camp; leaving these 'elite warriors of Immora' to walk with these Humans of Earth back home. To their new home.

The UAC, too rich and powerful to ever be destroyed or dissolved, has since failed to evict or indenture the People of Immora. They were commanded to live and find peace on a world much like ancient Jakkad- not submit to the UAC.

They didn't attend a University graduation in the rebuilt ARC Complex, now a memorial site of the battle that turned the tide of the War against hell; celebrating the success of an honoured former Intern.

Rumour has it, Doctor #Redacted# has begun reverse engineering the #Redacted# per the personnel request of #Redacted#. But no one knows the truth.

They didn't pull a child out of the way of an oncoming train in Tokyo, didn't stop a woman from getting raped in Tijuana, didn't help some nomads fix their cars engines in the Afghanistan, didn't walk through the streets of every city in the world tossing what must have been billions in so many different currencies to the poor and homeless.

And they sure as heck didn't appear, unarmoured and furious, to destroy Neo-Nazi Zerstroyers that emerged from beneath the catacombs of Berlin.

You can't prove he stood at the grave of William Joseph Blazkowitz and paid their respects.

You can't prove that was them.

Why would they help rebuild the bonds of fellowship between The Betrayer and The Night Sentinels?

Why would they give the Elite of Immora, the closest and most loyal to the Dark Lord- a world as red as Jakkad, reflected in the colour of their armour- than force the greenry of Earth or the Silver of Argent D'Nur upon them.

Why would they roam the world, seeing justice delivered as it recovers and rebuilds itself.

Surely the DOOM Slayer has many more important things to do than help heal the world- then making sure the world that they saved doesn't become one where kindness is a weakness.

#I don't wanna live in a world where being Kind is considered a weakness #doom #doom eternal #doom slayer #doomguy #doom the ancient gods #the ancient gods #TAGP1 #TAGP2 #the dark lord #Davoth #Immora #Argent D'Nur #Night Sentinels #Earth #Valen the Betrayer #doom intern #The Father #Inspired by Keanu Reeves Quote

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zennezu · 4 years

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Zenitsu/Zennezu meta

(You asked for it anon and I tried my best to deliver!! I hope you will enjoy this and if you like it guys please feel free to share it and spread it I’m tired of seeing my favorite character and favorite ship talked about badly when most of what’s said isn’t true.)

A meta examining Zenitsu/Zennezu and debunking many of the criticisms made against his character and the ship.

There are many arguments against Zenitsu’s character and why he is a bad one, most of these arguments are also used against the ship between him and Nezuko called Zennezu. I want to tackle why these arguments are wrong and why Zenitsu is a really good character and person for Nezuko to be with. Warning: There will be spoilers in this analysis up to the current manga arc so read at your own risk. The three arguments I will be debunking in this analysis are “Zenitsu is a coward” “Zenitsu is a womanizer” and “Zenitsu doesn’t really love Nezuko”

1. Zenitsu is a coward

Zenitsu’s Wikia page states “Zenitsu is a coward; always claiming he doesn't have long to live due to the dangerous job of being a Demon Slayer.” This is not true. Zenitsu does constantly complain about dying but he complains about everything, that’s one of his early characteristics he can be whiny at times. Complaining about dying doesn’t make Zenitsu a coward, even if he refused to fight or slay demons because he was afraid of dying that would not make him one either.

What is often forgotten is that Zenitsu at the start of the manga is a 16 year old young man who just survived the final selection where he saw many of his comrades struck down and killed by demons, some as young as 14. The corps even admit that fewer and fewer slayers are surviving the final selection and that even pillars and their apprentices do not often survive encounters with powerful demons. Zenitsu at the time was the lowest rank in the corps, to put that into perspective all the low level slayers sent to fight Rui were slaughtered and turned into puppets by a demon he created who was much weaker than Rui.

It is not strange for Zenitsu to be scared and worried about dying when it was very likely that was what his fate would be. Zenitsu even explains to Tanjiro his fears and Tanjiro says he understands how Zenitsu feels. Despite this defense what really debunks Zenitsu being a coward is his willingness to go into a dangerous situation. When Tanjiro and Zenitsu get to Kyogai’s mansion the body of a bloody dying person Is thrown out in front of them and of course this makes Zenitsu fearful. Tanjiro notices that Zenitsu is afraid and tells him he can stay outside but seeing Tanjiro’s disdain/pity for his behavior Zenitsu says he will go inside the house.

If Zenitsu was truly a coward he would have stayed inside where it was safer but instead he charged into what he knew was a dangerous situation. This is not the only example of Zenitsu trying to be brave. When Tanjiro exits Kyogai’s house he sees Zenitsu is bloody and bruised, Zenitsu telling him that he protected Nezuko’s box because it was important to Tanjiro. Zenitsu protected a box with a demon inside even though he was afraid of demons from Inosuke, someone he was also afraid of because of how much the box meant to a friend. A coward would not have protected a demon and especially would not have taken a beating to do so.

At the start of the spider mountain arc Zenitsu asks Tanjiro and Inosuke to slow down because he is afraid to which Inosuke berates Zenitsu. Zenitsu replies by saying “...I’m average. I’m normal and you’re abnormal.” This is true. Inosuke loves to fight and Tanjiro puts his fear aside because his goal and hatred is more important. In comparison to them Zenitsu can look like a coward for having a reaction most of the low level slayers including Murata have to fighting demons. But he isn’t a coward, he's just normal.

At the entrance to the mountain a body is once again thrown in front of the boys, Tanjiro and Inosuke charge headfirst into the mountain but Zenitsu stays behind. He wonders if they hate him and why they wouldn’t have tried to convince him to go with them, saying if they had he would have gone with them. He then thinks about Nezuko and remembers that Tanjiro took Nezuko with him, wasting no time charging right into danger because he wanted to protect her. This shows Zenitsu was willing and even may have wanted to go into the mountain but just needed to be encouraged. With the right motivation whether that be from a friend or for the person he loves he’ll forget about his personal wellbeing.

This is where Zenitsu’s character flaw/development comes into play. Zenitsu isn’t a coward. He is a young boy who lacks self confidence and has self esteem/self worth issues. He believes everyone hates him because he could hear that many people did and because of his tough backstory. The only person who believed in him was his master whose expectations he wanted to and tries to live up to. But he still felt he couldn’t be who his master wanted, even so he never gave up because he wants to be better, he wants to be someone people can rely on, someone that can protect others.

After the train arc there is a timeskip for the boys to rest and train and Tanjiro says that “Zen stopped whining even when he had to go on missions alone.” Showing that Zenitsu had grown and became braver/more confident in himself. This is shown when Zenitsu stands up to Uzui a Hashira without fear because of his treatment of Aoi. Even up to the current arc against Kaigaku and Muzan, Zenitsu faces off against both without fear because he has grown.

—

2. Zenitsu is a womanizer/playboy/pervert

This argument is often thrown out against Zen yet it has not a single bit of basis in the manga. When we are first introduced to Zenitsu’s character he is screaming and crying while begging a girl to marry him. Tanjiro stops him from doing this and scolds Zenitsu for his behavior. However when the girl begins hitting Zenitsu Tanjiro rushes to his aid and stops the girl. Once the girl is gone Tanjiro again scolds Zenitsu, looking down on him until Zenitsu tells him his background. Which was being deceived by a much older woman who he thought loved him but actually just saddled him with all her debts and took his money. Once Tanjiro hears this he feels sympathetic for Zenitsu. We can see from this scene beaides crying on the girl and begging her to marry him Zenitsu never does anything weird or inappropriate to the girl and backs off when Tanjiro stops him. He even lets the girl hit him repeatedly doing nothing but trying to block her hits.

Zenitsu’s backstory is important to keep in mind because it shows that he has desired to have someone’s love since he was a very young man (his master saved him at around 14 years old) he was a young boy who had been deceived and constantly talked about by women who he knew hated him. Yet this never makes him act weird or strange with girls if anything it makes him more likely to allow a girl to treat him badly (like letting the girl hit him over and over) because he does not value himself. And his backstory also explains why he wants to marry so badly, Zenitsu has believed that is a way to show love (marriage) since he was young. He’s not being weird or a playboy when he asks for marriage he just wants someone to love him.

The anime changed/added scenes that can paint Zenitsu in a bad light such as him chasing Nezuko (in the manga he only bows and nods), him getting excited when the butterfly girls help him workout/asking a female Kakushi to go for a walk with him (in the manga these two scenes don’t happen at all), asking the girls if they’ll miss him when he goes and the girls saying Zenitsu should respect women more (this scene again never happens in the manga.) Zenitsu does try to appear charming to Aoi by not spilling tea on her instead, grabbing her hand but this is one moment and he never interacts with Aoi like this again. Zenitsu also blushes at Shinobu encouraging him but so does Tanjiro when she gets really close to his face so she just has that effect on the boys.

He makes a throwaway comment about girl’s bodies once and this is used for comedy. It’s fine to dislike this comment but it hardly makes him a pervert especially since he never acts on this despite saying it. Even during full body tag he does not touch Aoi inappropriately. And later on in the manga he gets mad at Uzui for having multiple wives. If he was a pervert or womanizer he would be excited about this not angry at Uzui.

3. Zenitsu doesn’t really love Nezuko

This is the worst argument made against Zenitsu because it completely goes against his character. Here’s how: The first chapter Zenitsu is formally introduced in is chapter 20, the first time he meets Nezuko is chapter 27. His feelings for her are brought up 7 chapters after the reader gets to know him so to say this is forced or just a gag romance that came out of nowhere means you’ve been speed reading. This manga has 200 chapters with zennezu having some kind of moment every few chapters that’s hardly forced if anything there’s more thought into this ship than other popular ships this fandom likes (ObaMitsu which is canon, giyushino, sabigiyu, etc and I’m not hating on these ships but I’m making a point about how many moments zennezu has)

Let’s take a look at these moments and see how they impact Zenitsu’s character and why Zennezu is a good ship with the most manga basis. In the next chapter 28 when Zenitsu learns that Nezuko is Tanjiro’s little sister he begins bowing and nodding to Nezuko and in the next panel he offers her flowers without saying a word. In both scenes he is very calm, not screaming at her or begging her to marry him as we saw with the other girl he asked to marry him.

Later on we see Zenitsu charge into the spider mountain to save Nezuko without a second thought, and as he’s journeying into the mountain he says if this is a bad dream and he wakes up lying on Nezuko’s knees he’ll try even harder, again mentioning her. But one of the most important moments for them in this arc is when he’s lying on the spider brother’s house thinking he’s going to die. He thinks of his master and he thinks of Nezuko apologizing to her for failing. This shows he thinks of Nezuko with the same level of love he has for his master who believed in him when no else did.

If this was truly a gag crush why would he in such a serious moment, when he’s about to face death still think about her a girl he just met, he didn’t think of the other girl he begged to marry him, or the girl who deceived him and saddled him with debts, he didn’t even think of Tanjiro or Inosuke his friends just his master and Nezuko. Later on after spider mountain when the boys are recovering we get a scene (that the anime cut) of Zenitsu talking to Nezuko’s box about their training. Zenitsu tells Nezuko she has a good big brother and how happy he is with his progress in training, the scene ends with Zenitsu saying he will take Nezuko out to see the flowers in response to her scratching the box. Again in this scene Zenitsu is calm, he's not yelling or talking about marriage.

Later on in the train arc we see Zenitsu’s fantasy which is just a dream of him holding hands with Nezuko and making her flowers. That’s it, he could have had anything he wanted but the only thing he fantasized about was holding her hand. This is the first time Zenitsu has ever touched Nezuko and it is a dream. It’s also shown later that a boy isn’t able to sneak into Zenitsu’s mind and kill him because Zenitsu’s subconscious tells the boy that only Nezuko can be in there and then chases him away.

When Tanjiro goes to fight Emmu he leaves Nezuko in the train saying it is safer for her and that she should wake everyone up. She tries to do this but starts getting grabbed by the train car that’s transforming into a demon. Just as she’s in trouble Zenitsu “wakes up” and protects her using the first form and giving us the iconic line “I will protect you Nezuko-Chan” what’s very important about this scene is Nezuko’s expression in response to his action, she understands that Zenitsu protected her. We can see her watching him activate the first form to save her. We even get a panel that’s supposed to have a soft (I would say shoujo) background to show how touched Nezuko is by his action.

After this moment we get two panels of Nezuko and Zenitsu fighting back to back to protect everyone on the train the chapter is titled “Defending 200 people” After the train is blown apart Zenitsu and Nezuko are blasted far away from it, they are both unconscious, and Zenitsu is holding onto Nezuko and two random people from the train showing he was probably trying to protect them before the train broke apart. Later Zenitsu frets over Nezuko’s box making sure she is okay while Tanjiro talks to Rengoku. And Zenitsu even carries her box back to the mansion because Tanjiro is too injured to do so.

Tanjiro would not let Zenitsu carry his sister’s box if he thought Zenitsu had a bad intent for her especially when one of the kakushi could have carried it. So Zenitsu being allowed to carry her shows that Tanjiro trusts him. After a timeskip Tanjiro narrates that they have grown, remarking that Zenitsu goes on missions without complaining. Zenitsu is shown asking for a lock of Nezuko’s hair, some found this creepy but it isn’t at all. Giving or receiving a lock of hair from your lover is a very archaic romantic gesture that is still used in writing to this day. This scene really just shows how old fashioned Zenitsu is when it comes to love(which explains why he really wants to court/marry Nezuko).

Also since it’s Tanjiro narrating we can assume he is asking this to Tanjiro who could have easily told him no if he thought this was creepy or weird. We also see Zenitsu chase after Nezuko’s box as the boys are all running together for training. Again Tanjiro sees Zenitsu doing this and just looks at him awkwardly(?)/in amusement but never at any point tells Zen to stop. We learn later on in a flashback that in swordsmith arc after the fight is over everyone shares a moment laughing together and Zenitsu tickles Nezuko which makes her laugh. The one time Zenitsu does scream and ask Nezuko to marry him (in canon) is after swordsmith arc when he sees her standing in the sunlight with no muzzle on.

She greets him by saying welcome and Zenitsu becomes even more excited grabbing her hands and asking if she’s working hard for him. He then asks her if they can get married promising he’ll feed her expensive food every day. Providing for your wife is a duty that would be expected of a husband this again shows how old fashioned Zenitsu is when it comes to love. When Nezuko says “Welcome back Inosuke” Zenitsu walks away in anger saying he will spit roast him, a joke on Inosuke being a pig. It’s revealed the reason Nezuko said Inosuke’s name is because Inosuke made her practice saying his name for a long time to make sure she got it right. So she was trying to greet Zenitsu but only knew how to say one name: Inosuke.

Now with all the past arcs discussed let’s talk about the zennezu moments in the current arc. When Nezuko is turning back human she has memories of all the times she had with everyone, some good, and some not good. Her memory of Zenitsu is him giving her flowers showing he did take her out to see the flowers at night which makes his comment “Nezuko is beautiful under the moonlight” Make sense. He kept his promise of taking her to see flowers possibly taking her out more than once. Then after the battle when Muzan is “dead” and Zenitsu thinks he is dying again, he asks the Kakushi to tell his wife Nezuko that he loved her and he was brave. Then when demon Tanjiro takes a bite of Nezuko Zenitsu quickly rushes in and tries to pull him off of her crying that Tanjiro is attacking Nezuko and she will die. When he’s blasted away from Nezuko by Tanjiro’s power he continues to violently cry and scream for Nezuko worried she will be killed. After the battle he is seen by Nezuko’s side looking after her brother and weeping with her.

When it’s known that Tanjiro is alright Zenitsu tells Tanjiro “I will spend the rest of my life forcing you to atone for this. And for my wife’s sake too.” (There are several translations of this line but I figured this one is the best so far) Nezuko is surprised and in her mind asks “Wife?” The noise “Hawawa” coming from her. Hawawa is an onomatopoeia used to express surprise or shock like “wow” or “whoa” There are two ways this scene could be viewed 1. What Nezuko is surprised about in this scene is that Zenitsu has a wife because she thinks he is talking to Tanjiro still and not about her. This could be taken as Nezuko being jealous, because she is interested in him and thinks he is married. 2. Based on the sound effect she could be surprised and embarrassed wondering if she is the one being referred to as his wife. Either way she is not creeped out or uncomfortable by his words and even allows him to comfort her with a hug after he makes the comment about a wife.

With all these moments in mind we see that Zenitsu’s love of Nezuko has made him a stronger and better person because he’s finally found someone to love and work hard for that does not hate him, that won’t deceive him, or use him. He changes from his old ways being more reliable and dependable because he wants to marry and take care of her. This is also good for Nezuko because once everything is over she cannot live with her brother forever eventually she’ll have to make her own life and she is used to living a more traditional lifestyle (taking care of children/a house). This is the kind of life Zenitsu wants to live as well and with him now being a reliable man he will be able to take care of her and make her happy forever. Basically Zennezu gives two people who lost everything (Zenitsu and Nezuko) a place to belong to (each other).

Now here’s some bonus material moments they have:

Zenitsu carries Nezuko on his back over a river.

Nezuko lays Zenitsu’s head on her lap.

Zenitsu shows Nezuko, Shinobu’s fishbowl.

Zenitsu calls Gakuen Nezuko a shoujo manga protagonist and says she is beautiful.

Zenitsu is in Gakuen Nezuko’s sketch.

Zenitsu died in a bonus comic because he saw Nezuko in a cute swimsuit. In that same comic he refers to her as his wife and says he was happy they were married.

This is more of a bonus but even Zenitsu’s Japanese and English VA’s know how much he loves Nezuko both trying to cater to Zennezu fans in their spare time.

And I haven’t even touched on the many, many pieces of official merch they have together.

So there’s a few things that can be gathered from this meta:

1. Zenitsu loves Nezuko and only Nezuko! He has never shown attention or affection for any girl after he meets her and consistently talks about and spends time with her throughout almost every arc.

2. Tanjiro is aware of Zenitsu’s intentions and does not mind them. He never stops Zenitsu nor makes him stay away from his sister.

3. Zennezu is not forced or a joke relationship that came outta nowhere. It has been steadily built up with many moments, and growth for the relationship on both sides (Zenitsu’s and Nezuko’s) throughout the course of the manga and has the most amount of moments for any ship in this series.

Tl;Dr: 1. Zenitsu’s wiki needs to be completely rewritten because most of it is inaccurate with the wiki taking one or two moments as his entire characterization. 2. Stop confusing fanon with canon, Zenitsu never does anything creepy or perverted so stop calling him a pervert and saying stuff like he’s trying to “prey on a helpless Nezuko” that’s your hc. 3. Ufotable cut and added many scenes in the anime that would’ve shown how good of a guy Zen really is so please, please read the manga. The anime is great but it really messed over his character. And lastly thank you wani for this wonderful ship and I hope you enjoyed reading this and walked away with a new view on both Zenitsu and the ship zennezu.

(And if you don’t like Zennezu because you ship something else that’s okay we all have preferences but there’s no reason to be hateful or try to make the ship look bad when there’s nothing wrong with it in canon.)

#zenitsu agatsuma #nezuko kamado #zennezu #nezuko x zenitsu #zenitsu x nezuko #agatsuma zenitsu #kamado nezuko #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer #demon slayer spoilers #kny spoilers #kimetsu no yaiba spoilers #whew this was long

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