The final battle is here. Muzan Kibutsuji has been backed into a corner. He’s weakened, his Kizuki have been defeated, though not without numerous casualties on the Demon Slayer Corps’ side, and the sun is almost up. It will be a desperate fight but our intrepid crew will prevail…won’t they?
Cover by Koyoharu GotougeWritten and Illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge
Translated by John Werry
English Adaptation by Stan!
Lettered by John HuntIn an epic confrontation, Tanjiro and his fellow Demon Slayers have fought on through the night, suffering terrible losses against the King of Demons, Muzan Kibutsuji. Dawn is breaking soon, and if they can keep Muzan at bay just a little longer, it will be the end of the centuries-long struggle. But Muzan will stop at nothing to destroy the Demon Slayers and unleash his most terrible powers. And if he can’t defeat them, he may even be able to cause the Demon Slayer Corps to destroy itself from within. All fates and destinies will be decided as the sun begins to rise…
For teen audiences
Of course they prevail. Come on, did you think they’d fail? Did you think this was the “the hero of time disappears” timeline? It should be no surprise that the Corps defeats Kibutsuji and that Tanjiro lives to see the end and reunites with Nezuko. That much was a given. Kibutsuji was dying and on his last legs at the end of Volume 22 thanks to the tireless efforts of the Corps and stand out demon Tamayo, whose taunting of Kibutsuji from beyond the grave gave me LIFE just as her poisons gave him death.
These last few chapters were simply his death throes, those final desperate minutes in a struggle so long, it’s almost impossible to imagine it ending. And yet, end it does, in a brutal and kinda horrific fashion. Kibutsuji, after having leveled up in volume 21 into a horrible tentacle, toothy mouthed creature, which gets slowly more tentacle & toothy as the battle drags on, transforms into his final form in order to escape the sunlight: a big Akira baby. Yeah, that actually happens and it’s kinda amazing.
For one, this transformation serves to indicate that Kibutsuji is truly, nearly defeated, having to essentially regress his form to the earliest stage of life and then literally try to crawl back into the womb of the Earth to protect itself from the harsh light of life. At another level, it lays bare who Kibutsuji’s is at his core. He is a crying infant, desperate to live at all costs yet selfish in all things, uncaring about the destruction he causes when he does not get what he wants. He is fearsome but pitiable and, ultimately, defeated because he could not see past his own selfish desires.
That defeat, however, did not come without cost. Not counting the deaths of Shinobu, Genya, and Tokito (and the minimum hundred regular Corps members,) this final battle ended with the deaths of Tamayo, Goymei Himejima, Obanai Iguro, and Mitsuri Kanroji, and with the near deaths of Inosuke, Zenitsu, Kanao, Sanemi, and OUR BOY TANJIRO. The only named character involved in the actual, physical fight who escaped without life-threatening injuries – so no Ubuyashiki, Yushiro, or Murata – was Giyu. It’s a bloodbath and Gotouge takes full advantage of that to wring every last tear from your eye, be it through the bittersweet confessions of Iguro & Kanroji as they die in each others’ arms, or Himejima refusing medicine because he knows he’s already too far gone, or Sanemi’s father throwing him back to life, preventing him from being reunited with either Genya OR his Mom (by the by, fuck that guy.)
And Gotouge doesn’t let up with the knife-twisting in the four chapters that follow the defeat of Kibutsuji in chapter 200 either. Instead, through tears and a feeling of exhaustive despair, we watch as Tanjiro comes back to life, animated by Kibutusji’s final, twisted desire for revenge. I honestly thought Tanjiro was going to bite the big one at the end of chapter 200. Gotouge has shown time and again that “Demon Slayer” is not afraid to kill off characters at the end of battles that are personally important to them. Tanjrio had pushed himself to the breaking point and beyond and, if there was ever a place he was going to die, it would be here, sacrificing everything to finally rid the world of Kibutsuji.
Continued belowHe returns, however, and while I initially didn’t like this development, upon reflection, I think it was the perfect way to bring things full circle. Narratively, it makes sense that Kibutsuji wouldn’t try one final gamble by injecting Tanjiro with his blood as he was fading. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Plus, if Gotouge wanted Tanjiro to survive this final encounter, him becoming a demon was the only way to do it without it feeling like a cheap reversal. Gotouge, by doing this, reverses the roles of Tanjiro & Nezuko from the first chapter, and allows the now human Nezuko to have an active, and vital, role in this finale. Her presence is invaluable for halting, or at least slowing down, the destruction Demon Tanjiro brings for the same reasons Tanjiro was able to help keep Nezuko connected to her human self: their strong, familial bond.
It isn’t like when Nezuko lost herself during the fight with Daki & Gyutaro, though. Tanjiro was dead. Like, dead dead after a lengthy and exhaustive fight. This means that he is physically, emotionally, and spiritually spent when Kibutsuji injects Tanjiro with his blood and when he comes back to life, the humanity that may have kept him from hurting his comrades, friends, and family is so buried, he cannot access it, despite his deep love of Giyu, Zenitsu, Inosuke, & Kanao. He is only able to access a tiny bit of that humanity and fight, in small ways, becoming a demon thanks to his strongest, longest bond with Nezuko.
What I really love about this last battle is how it contrasts against the lonely fight Tanjiro had against Giyu in that first chapter. There, it was Tanjiro, someone who had never picked up a sword in his life, fighting to save his sister against a dispassionate force who only saw Nezuko as a demon to be killed. Here, it is a found family who care so very deeply about the person they have to take down, trying desperately not to have to kill him, but knowing what will happen if they don’t.
Just as with Giyu realizing there is something different and special about Nezuko’s protection of Tanjiro, Kanao realizes that Tanjiro isn’t too far gone yet and dives in to inject him with a vial of the demon to human cure, one made by Shinobu from the Wisteria flower, whereupon she provides that final push needed to remind him of what he is fighting for. This ends up playing out in Tanjiro’s mindscape as he has a very symbolic conversation with Kibutsuji’s lingering desires while the dead push him free and the living reach down, like the wisteria flowers, to help him up.
And with that, it is over. Tanjiro is alive again, though not without serious injury, and we begin the process of winding the story down. Chapter 204 is entirely dedicated to this aftermath, and in grand “Demon Slayer” tradition, we are treated to the antics of the Corps members at Ubuyashiki’s mansion after Tanjiro heals up. It’s a nice bit of levity after the deadly serious battle with Kibutsuji and Demon Tanjiro. By the chapter’s end, the Corps has been disbanded and Zenitsu & Inosuke move in with Tanjiro & Nezuko at their family’s house while Giyu, Sanemi, and Usui go to live their lives, now unburdened by the responsibility of the Corps.
It’s bittersweet, obviously, but that bittersweetness is the exact tone you want to have. It neither trivializes the hardships and losses these characters have faced nor does it wallow in them, showing that life must invariably go on, with both the good and the bad having to coexist. It provides a denouement that leaves one satisfied but also promises an open future for these characters that one can imagine. But…this isn’t the final chapter of “Demon Slayer.”
Chapter 205 is set in the present day and we follow the descendants of the original “Demon Slayer” cast as they reflect on the stories told to them of their ancestors and interact with other descendants and the reincarnations of Tanjiro’s fallen comrades. It’s a chapter full of fun interactions, Gotouge’s fantastic comedic faces, and some lovely, low-key action. I should note that readers via the Shonen Jump Vault, unfortunately, do not get the full experience, as there were extra pages added to chapters 204 & 205 and they do a lot to help make the ending feel more full and rich.
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It does seem odd to end here, though, rather than on the open possibilities of chapter 204. However, by showing us not only the people who survived living happily, but also those whose lives ended tragically being able to live again, free from the crushing responsibility and pain of their former lives, “Demon Slayer” is fulfilling its promise to us and following up on its own themes and on the dream of Yoriichi.
Yoriichi fought for a better future, for the children and their ability to grow. We are shown a world where the selfless actions of the Hashira and the various Corps members reward them with a new life and one where, one day, even the demons could find the happiness they were denied as humans. That time is not here yet but Kanao & Tanjiro’s Great-Great Grandson Sumihiko hopes it will eventually come, echoing Tanjiro’s own empathy. The world they grow into may not be perfect, and their lives are not without struggles, but the characters we see in modern day Tokyo are happy nonetheless.
By skipping, not to the end of Tanjiro & Nezuko’s lives, but instead to well into their future, we are not denied closure but rather are rewarded with the knowledge that things turn out well, while being provided the opportunity to imagine the details ourselves. It is an immensely satisfying ending that gets better with each revisit and the right follow-up to the end of Nezuko & Tanjiro, et. al.’s story.
Open, optimistic, and with a hint of melancholy, “Demon Slayer” goes out with neither a bang nor a whimper but instead with a tearful laugh and a hopeful smile. I can’t think of a better way of saying goodbye to this series than that.
