「幻惑の血の香り」 (Genwaku no Chi no Kaori)
“The Smell of Enchanting Blood”

One of the biggest and possibly the only thing that left me disappointed since the beginning of the season was seeing the delicious bowl of ramen clatter to the ground, untouched. So you can bet I let out a sigh of relief when, a week later, the issue has been resolved. I would have carried that with me through to the end as an unresolved plot point. How could we go on not having avenged that bowl of freshly made artisanal-street udon? Seems the writers have a serious soft spot for food, udon, and maybe even fan service.

Alright! Onto the important things. Muzan Kibutsuji is a dark and twisted man. What amazing voice acting from Toshihiko Seiki. The repetitive line “Wrong, wrong, wrong” sent shivers down my spine. You can hear his disdain for human life, which explains his brutal murder of the drunken trio. If he’s resolving all of his problems with murder, the world has got a serious problem. But there’s still something amiss here. He’s the Janus of demons. Which of the two sides of the coin is his true nature? The caring father-husband or the thousand year old demon who responds a little too aggressively to obnoxious drunks? I had questioned his method of turning humans into demons because I hadn’t seen him exchange blood with the victim, however, that’s very clearly resolved here. He uses his blooded pumped demon claws to transfer his ‘virus’ and/or ‘curse’ into his victims. What I hadn’t foreseen though is that a large quantity of his blood disintegrates the human body. This is a nice and unexpected twist. This forces me to consider that he was well aware when he turned Nezuko into a demon. It is looking a lot less like a mistake he made in the heat of the moment and more of a planned event. I’ll get back to this later.

I’m not quite certain how Tamayo’s (Sakamoto Maaya) blood enchants people and her surrounding. And her eyes make me wonder if she can see anything at all. I’m open to having one of you lovely readers help me out here. She’s lived for two hundred years, maybe more, and has learned a great deal about demons but only now, with Tanjirou’s help, can she really make strides forward to finding a cure. I wonder what she’s alluding to when she said she removed the curse from herself, as well as her right hand man Yushiro (Yamashita Daiki).

That aside, Tanjirou is going to have his hands full from now on. As we know, he came to Tokyo in order to fight off a demon. He had a mission and I assume his mission had nothing to do with the impromptu demon Muzan created. Now that Tamayo has requested his help, will he cast aside his role as demon slayer to help her help demons? The two aren’t exactly complimentary jobs. Technically, with Tanji’s feelings about wanting to help all demons, he probably won’t be defeating the new pair outright.

After learning about Muzan’s ability to turn humans to demons, I wonder what about Nezuko made her special. What about the Kamado family made it so Nezuko would learn to satiate or dispel her demon traits and instincts, and what aspect of their heritage allowed Tanji to have such a keen sense of smell? We get only a flash of Muzan’s memory where a man wearing the same earrings as Tanjirou stands above him, about to strike. A demon slayer? Was Tanjirou’s missing father a demon slayer who fell at the hands of Muzan? Or could his father still be alive somewhere as the true puppet master of the Demon Slayers Corps? If he’d defeated Muzan and went into hiding to protect his family, it could explain why the Kamados were targeted in the first place. Perhaps turning Nezuko into a demon was the ultimate price, knowing she’d be hunted for the remainder of her life. I’m just throwing some ideas out there, but I’m sure if we learn more about Tanji’s father, we’ll learn more about his scar, and the ‘legend’ that was referred to by Giyuu back in the first episode.

The show so far has yet to disappoint. I know I sound like a broken record but I can’t find anything that irks me enough to pull away. Not that I’m looking. No series from recent seasons has kept me on my toes and built anticipation as much as this one has. Kimetsu no Yaiba is covered in dark and twisted tones but it knows when to lighten up the mood which usually happens around Tanjirou and Nezuko’s cute quirks. It’s created a balance that never feels out of place and it’s this same tone that reminds us of the delicate balance within Tanji’s pure and honest nature. No matter who he meets, he tries to go in with a clear head. Whether human or demon, Tanjirou sees life as something to be protected. It’s this trait and his loyalty that will probably create strong bonds with characters like Yushiro or even turn his enemies into comrades.

12 Comments

  1. I wonder what she’s alluding to when she said she removed the curse from herself, as well as her right hand man Yushiro.

    I thought she meant the hunger for human flesh. She managed to minimize their human dietary intake to just drinking blood, turning them from ghouls to vampires. 😀

    Magnus Tancred
  2. So after being busy with some rather annoying stuff in my life, I’ve finally caught up with this anime, and I have to say, the relationship between Tanjiro and Nezuko, as well as Tanjiro’s overall personality are my main hooks.

    That being said, while I am aware that at this point, Nezuko’s muzzle sort of adds to her kawaii factor (especially in the after credits scenes) and, in this episode, was even played up for laughs, if Urokodaki already hypnotized her to never hurt humans, couldn’t they just remove it? Because with her sleeping habit and her hypnotism, I’d trust her to stay her hands (and fangs) from humans.

  3. First:

    – How Old is Muzan? With the answer your question about Tanjirou’s father is self answered. It must be some Ancestor and Tanjiro is the current Male successor with the Fighting Power and perhaps also Nezuko. Perhaps these Two has the Power/Chi from this Ancestor. Like in “Naruto” Universe the Blood Ninja Magic

    – Also in the Endings? We see an young Tanjiro watching his Dad dancing like an Priest

    – also the secret about Nezuko and his Bloodline are the fuel of curiosity.. to early burn and the flame gets out. to late and nobody feel the heat of the flame

    Worldwidedepp
  4. https://randomc.net/image/Kimetsu%20no%20Yaiba/Kimetsu%20no%20Yaiba%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2024.jpg

    This part made me laugh, his determination to extol the beauty of his younger sister to a rankS oneecon.

    Note that the former earring wearing individual is packing a red-blade. After the weaponsmith made such a fuss about the likelihood of seeing a red-blade I’m looking forward to findin out more about the different colours of blades and the breathing techniques.

    Also, 1920s(?) animated Tokyo done beautifully

    defunkt_bots
  5. I would have been more surprised if Muzan left the drunks alone, but maybe not being surprised is the surprise here. I don’t know. It sure made for some good entertainment nonetheless.

    sealouse
  6. I’m glad this is two cours, though with ufotable, I’m guessing they’ll be split…

    “I wonder what she’s alluding to when she said she removed the curse from herself, as well as her right hand man Yushiro (Yamashita Daiki).”

    It should become clearer next episode (or maybe the following one). There’s more to Muzan’s curse than just turning a human into a demon. The swamp demon in episode 7 kinda hints at it, especially with his reaction (and flashback) when Tanjiro asks about Muzan.

    alehawk
  7. Muzan use his blood to turn human into demon, so there still some blood of Muzan inside the demon body. The swarm demon in the last episode said that Nezuko get much more blood from Muzan so that mean that the more blood of Muzan a demon have, the stronger it get. It also mean that super powerful demon have a lot of Muzan blood in their body. So that give Tanjirou a reason to pursuit stronger demon. The how Tamayo can turn people to demon, i think since powerful demon have more of Muzan blood in their body, they could give out some to turn a human into a demon. Weaker one probably don’t have much so they can’t do that. The show said that the blood turn people into demon, not Muzan himself.

    Archaon The Everchosen
  8. well things got interesting quickly…
    the archdemon has a human family? acts like caring husband/father?
    (reminds me of Wrath in FMA…)
    not only that, but a benevolent healer demon who maybe have not gone vegan but at least is not killing people to get her food, and is working on cure for the deamoification?
    I am not entirely trustful of her yet, but she seems to be avoiding violence, and solved the plicemen intervention without nay bloodshed, so this is a good sign.
    She apaprently offers vampirism as escape for terminally ill but so far only once managed to succeed, with her apprentice and fanboy no1…
    anyway, Muzan seems to be perfect type of “boss enemy” as he is capable of creating new minions at will and throwing at our relentless hero everytime he gets close to challenging him, and he seems to have some minions already at his disposal, nad possibly more waiting in reserves…

    ewok40k

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