Kimetsu no Yaiba: Katanakaji no Sato-hen – 10

「恋柱 甘露寺蜜璃」 (_Kanroji Mitsuri)
“Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji”

We’re nearing the finish line of Kimetsu no Yaiba‘s Swordsmith arc as Mitsuri steps in to fight Hantengu. But as she takes up her sword to take him on, she has to contend with all of the insecurities she had to grow up with before she can get back into the fray.

LEASH CALLED LOVE

Mitsuri’s backstory is a fresh breath of air compared to what’s been going on so far. Whereas there have been more flashy fights and origin stories that mirror one another, Mitsuri follows the beat of her own drum as she has a unique justification for both being a demon slayer and seeking out her own strength.

Where, rather than having a tragic happenstance prevent her from living a normal life, her struggles are far more realistic as she has to contend with how society handles her strengths as a person. Since she was young, she was content with being as physically strong as she was, but when it comes to the detriment of her integration with society, she has much to grapple with.

Being a tough cookie should be enough to earn people’s respect, but through Mitsuri’s backstory, her main adversary winds up being the patriarchal society that tells her that what she’s good at isn’t becoming of a young woman. She wants to be both absurdly strong and profoundly pretty, but both are seen as off putting because, in her town, women shouldn’t be physically tough and aren’t allowed to be colorful if they want to fit in.

Because men only value the kind of elegant stuffy “traditional beauty” that requires women to be modest and uptight, Mitsuri finds that she constantly has to police her own behavior to her own detriment. Where she had to pull her punches because men were intimidated by her strength, and dyed her hair black so

But conformity comes at the cost of expression, and Mitsuri’s most authentic form of expression was her desire to eat trays of sakura mochi, bench press the entire town, and wear flamboyant outfits that cater to the hot pink/lime green motif she carved out for herself. It makes it all the more compelling when she realizes that, in her pursuit for a man who will appreciate her, she’s not happy with what she has to become to get there. Where she has to rob herself of what makes her special just to appease men with little to nothing going for them.

It also makes it interesting to see what helps propel her forward. With Kagaya’s full acceptance of her as she is, she happily uses her strengths to protect others and make friends with people who value what makes her different. She even has a guy who likes her as Iguro tries to get her attention by gifting her the green stockings she wears regularly.

The animation might be stunning, but for all of Mitsuri’s fight sequences, I feel like the show revels in how acrobatic she is, how elastic her sword is, and all of the feats of strength she takes on to get ahead in a fight. Yes, Tanjiro and Genya are equally neat, but I think I kinda tuned out during many of the action sequences until this episode where Mitsuri’s attacks were consistently impressive, flowy, and vibrant. It makes me look forward to the finale as we can expect a larger episode next week.

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