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「寄せ集めの家族」 (Yose Atsume no Kazoku)
“Pretend Family”
No, no, no-no. No. After all that, Rui managed to beat them to the punch and literally saved his own neck? It’s the damnedest thing.
This whole build up demonstrating the strong connection between Tanjirou and Nezuko amounts to…nothing? I understand it’s not about them defeating the Kizuki demon but surviving his attack. Even so, in the moment, when Rui’s supposed corpse loomed over a defeated Tanjirou, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
Until Giyu showed up that is. His level of power is incomparable. Here I was thinking Tanjirou’s Hinokami Kagura ability ranked among the top but Giyu blew me away with his masterful 11th water breathing form. He is an exemplary demon slayer when it comes to using techniques. Unlike Tanjirou, he needs but a split second to move against his enemies. And just like that they meet their doom.
Shinobu is really something too. I underestimated her. I thought she was just a fun loving demon slayer looking to make friends but she’s…twisted and I like it! There’s a small part of her wishing for peace between demons and humans but not without some retribution. Her level of retribution would shoot up the gore tenfold if she got her way with this demon. She clearly gets off on demons ‘paying’ for their sins and she enjoys the taunt. Aside from that, she’s pretty much normal. Just a casual demon slayer who loves alchemy and uses the skills to make up for any lacking strength. I was somewhat baffled as to why she casually pulled out an antidote right when Zenitsu needed it most but it all makes sense now. By the way, if you missed it, the poison coating her thin blade is concocted in the sheath. Pretty cool, huh?
As for the behind-the-trauma backstory, I’m not too sure how that pushed the plot forward. It was a pretty lengthy part of the episode and although well told, I wasn’t necessarily swayed in either Rui’s or his family’s direction. Even if he can’t remember his time as a human, the family ties he created in his past life linger so strongly he yearns for them as a demon. But as we know, demons work alone and the only bond he could create with his fictional family was one of terror. I wasn’t very captivated by the story in all honesty and I thought we could have done without. I did, however, enjoy the sinister morphing scene the demon had to go through to become a family member. Rui sure is hateful, huh.
But now this chapter over, I assume Tanjirou and Nezuko (with the other stooges) will be taken back to the demon slayer main house (or other) in order to rest and heal their wounds. But there’s something amiss here. Giyu probably knows Tanjirou can’t be harbouring a demon, so why would he risk it? Is this where it all goes south?
I’ll have to wait and see.
I’m with you on the first bit being a buzzkill. I get that it’s faithful to the source material, and that the Hinokami scene wasn’t nearly as spectacular in the manga, but it was still a letdown to have Rui just Aizen his way out of the coolest moment in the series so far.
Shinobu made up for it though. Her sword spinning scene? Rather awesome.
Fanart of reversed-role Nezuko and Tanjirou, where she’s the MC and Tanjirou got demonized:
https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=2894483
https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=2894472
It makes for interesting relationship dynamics, esp. if rewritten as a shoujo with shounen action (Love interest(s) for Nezuko, with an overprotective Tanjirou…)
Finally some cool ladies getting in on the action. Shinobu is deliciously twisted. Sure would be cool if Nezuko…idk…had demon powers so she could DO something.
I just loved how Giyu casually dispatched Rui with his water breathing skill literally turned to eleven. (trope!)
And then the treat that was Shinobu. Dance likke butterfly, sting like bumblebee! Considering her pharmacy interests, I wonder if she would get along with Tamayo?
ohhh maybe. She might! Maybe they’ll end up working together…
Hopefully she doesn’t want to slice up Tamayo first though. I wouldn’t be down for that.
Since the anime skip don’t have narration, we don’t know the fact that th Eleven form actually is Giyuu own move. Water Style only have 10 moves, but Giyuu have completely mastered the style to the point created his own move.
Also there a reason why Giyuu can kill Rui so easy, it not really a spoiler since it came from the series databook but still to be sure:
Show Spoiler ▼
Thanks so much for this! The extra insight makes Giyu even more badass than I thought he was.
Okay, that was bull….
Tanjiro’s Hinokami Kagura dance may have come a bit from left field, but it did have some foreshadowing and explanation where it came from.
Rui’s move was a complete asspull. He had said his body was tougher than any thread he could spin, but then he could conveniently slice his own neck with his threads?
Contradiction, much?
I would be fine if Giyuu had to save Tanjirou from something like Rui’s desperation move after getting sliced, like it happened with the arrow demon. But this was hard to swallow.
That’s an anime-only plothole – Rui never said that in the manga (the part about his body being tougher than any thread he could spin), so it’s the fault of the adaption here.
He a demon, if he made his body tougher why can’t he made it softer so that his thread can cut through? Demon in this series already showed that they can change their body.
Yeah, a bit sad Rui survived that attack. Shounen manga doesn’t seem to realize there’s a deep satisfaction to having a sudden power-up and instantly defeating an enemy, that it creates a complete catharsis. Far too often they decide to drag out fights for the sake of fleshing out the villain’s character. At least that’s my interpretation.