Kimetsu no Yaiba – 09

「手毬鬼と矢印鬼」 (Temari Oni to Yajirushi Oni)
“Temari Demon and Arrow Demon”

Well, yet again, I’m a few days behind on the episode review. Apologies to all the Kimetsu no Yaiba fans who were looking forward to reading my rants.

Alright! Onto the good things.

I haven’t read the source material and I’m happy to keep it that way. This episode felt a lot like putting a bag of popcorn in the microwave. We’re about two minutes in and the bag is still popping. There was no time to mourn Yushiro losing his head and there was no time to take in all the information we received. I had a brief moment of horror when he was decapitated: “Why would we get such an interesting character just to have him die five minutes into his screen time?” Well, who knew his head would grow back so quickly and gruesomely? Ew. Either I forgot only demon slayer blades could really destroy a demon or I just haven’t witnessed anything similar in my lifetime of watching anime.

All that aside, I’m a big fan of Muzan’s underlings. They’re much more interesting than the past few demons Tanjirou’s fought and they’re much more powerful. Susamaru with her temari balls working alongside Yahaba with his directional arrows are foes I wouldn’t want to reckon with. They fight in tandem so well it really is difficult to grasp they’d met just minutes before heading into battle. They have such a voracious hunger to kill Tanjirou, I couldn’t blame Tanjirou for chopping Yahaba’s head off.

It looks like Muzan also has a warrant out for Tamayo’s head. We have yet to truly understand her background and her true relationship with Muzan Kibutsuji but I’m sure we’ll discover more as the season progresses. In addition to this new set of information, we learn of Yushiro’s Blood Demon Arts ability which he calls ‘Blindfold Technique’. We also learn of his ability to conceal not only objects but himself, and we discover that Susamaru and Yahaba make up only two of the twelve demons directly (and most closely) related to Muzan by blood. And lastly, we learn of Nezuko’s biggest weakness: her inability to heal as quickly as other demons. This is, I assume, a direct result of her continuing on without intaking any human blood. This issue will be a difficult one to overcome by both Nezuko and Tanjirou. They’ll have to ensure she doesn’t get hurt during battles.

All in all, it was a clever and extremely well animated battle. We learned a little more about Tamayo, a little more about demon’s regenerative abilities, and even a little about the politics surrounding Muzan and his Twelve Demon Moon generals. And it was entertaining to boot! Even in the midst of battle, there are spurts of snark and comedic tones between Tanjirou and Yushiro, a sure sign of their upcoming friendship.

Is anyone concerned about Yushiro’s stalker-like love for Tamayo though? He’s definitely letting out some creepy vibes. I guess it just makes him that much more loyal. He was a little annoying at first but I like it when he breaks his cool. Could it be I’ve finally found my crush for this spring season? I’ll let you know after a few more episodes.