I have to ask, and I mean this with love and compassion, but why in the ever-loving-hell did the longest arc of “Demon Slayer” have to feature nightmare spiders? Why did you do this to me Gotouge? Whyyyyyyyyyyy?!
Oh, and spoilers ahead.
Cover by Koyoharu GotougeWritten and Illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge
Translated by John Werry
English Adaptation by Stan!
Lettered by John Hunt
At Mt. Natagumo, Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke battle a terrible family of spider demons. Taking on such powerful enemies demands all the skill and luck Tanjiro has as he and his companions fight to rescue Nezuko from the spiders’ web. The battle is drawing in other Demon Slayers but not all of them will leave Mt. Natagumo alive — or in one piece!
OK, I say that the spiders are the longest arc of “Demon Slayer,” but that just means that it lasted more than a volume (chapters 28-43), which is wild for a weekly Shonen series, especially one in the pages of Jump. I must sound like a broken record but I think I get an excuse to gush about how awesome it is to have a pace like this after spending all of Volumes 3 & 4 talking about the best boi, Zenitsu. I mean, I could do that again but so much happened in these volumes that I can’t justify it.
The NOPE FUCK NOPE Spider Arc – and yes, that’s the official designation – is centered around family. Obviously this means that in the movie version, Vin Diesel will play the “father” spider. He’s already got experience in both having almost no lines AND high octane action scenes. Boom. You can pay me now Hollywood.
Where was I again? Right, family and its centrality to the Spiders. As we know by now, the strong familial bond is core to Tanjiro and Nezuko’s relationship, each drawing power from it in different ways. Nezuko channels her mom in her moment of need while Tanjiro draws from the memory of his father, who tragically died before the series started of “shonen-parent-itis.” It seems that this is also true for the Spiders but that bond is twisted and warped. It is a family in name only, cobbled together from demons who are forced to conform to the unit by the “little brother,” some more unwilling than others, and some with more agency than others. The whole thing is a perfect example, and solidification, of what “Demon Slayer” posits these demons are motivated by – the life they lived prior to this one – as well as how that gets twisted by Kibutsuji’s blood.
All the demons we’ve seen killed by Tanjiro, or nearly killed as the case is with “little brother” Rui, have had backstories which inform their motivations as demons, twisted as some of them may be. We never really learn the deal with the father, nor do we really learn what the “older sister” was after, but we do learn what drove Rui and it was because he was trying to recreate the family he (and his parents) tore apart. He was cruel not because he’s a demon, though that is a factor, but instead because he forgot why he wanted a family and was thus driven by the artifice of it, by an impossible, perfect ideal, rather than the creation of the strong bonds that underlie a true relationship.
That is why he is a spider. His threads have the ability to connect and lead and protect but instead he used them to cut and kill and control. The metaphoric powers of Rui’s power, and the fight between Tanjiro & Nezuko and him, are endless so I won’t try to do any reading beyond the surface…also so I can have time to talk about the rest, like how Rui being the leader rather than the “father” with a giant spider head was a great reversal of expectation.
This actually brings up one of the problems with the condensed nature of these early arcs. It’s easy to lose information between chapters because Gotouge, despite the clarity of action on the page, important details are either left under explained (the curse from last time) or left out entirely as we have to keep moving forward and don’t have time to really sit with characters or ideas. Moreover, the same-face problem I had in the first chapter has reappeared with these spider-demons. It’s not that they’re drawn as the same, there is a clear difference between the “mother” and “older sister” demon in design elements, it’s that those elements are similar enough that it’s easy to think one is the other and thus be rendered confused. I thought that the “older sister” was the “mother” at one point in volume 4 and so I assumed the scene was a flashback to right before her demise rather than a parallel scene, as that had not been uncommon.
Continued belowThe same happens with Shinobu and Kanao in volume 6. I won’t dwell much longer on it but they are drawn so similarly, with the major difference being the pattern on their robes, that at one point I thought that she had, between panels, escaped the headlock she was in, jumped into the trees, then fought Nezuko, and was then RECAPTURED off-panel. It’s a problem for a story that’s moving at this pace, as the subtle details can get lost in the shuffle without larger details to emphasize them.
It was especially a problem because I thought Shinobu WAS Kanao for the longest time, i.e. the one who was part of the current class of “didn’t die on the mountain” rather than one of the highest ranking demon slayers. Why I thought this despite having a scene in volume four of Shinobu and Gyu (the demon slayer from the first chapter) being assigned to this case is beyond me. Maybe that says something about me more than the series. This doesn’t exactly get better during the best training arc ever that is volume 6 but by then we’re starting to establish Kanao as a full person relative to Shinobu since, you know, we’re actually getting to spend time with the two of them.
And what a time we do spend. After Shinobu & Kanao try to murder Nezuko while Tanjiro just kinda lies there after getting his ass handed to him by Rui, Gotouge introduces us to the Soul Society Captains I mean the Konoha Council Members I MEAN the nine members of the Hashira and they debate whether or not Nezuko should live. It’s great. Do I remember anyone’s names? No, but I do know them when I see them and the debate they all have is enlightening within the world of “Demon Slayer.” It’s also another great place for Nezuko & Tanjiro to shine as a pair and to really drill home just how unusual this situation is as well as to seed potential conflicts in the future.
Resentment and dogma do not go away easily or quickly and now Tanjiro knows this. He sees that not only does he have a long way to go physically – him, Zenitsu, & Inouske all do after just barely holding on against the spider families, showing just how outclassed they are & just how far ahead Kibutsuji is – but also mentally. He has to be prepared for allies of his to not readily accept his view of the world and to fight on anyway. Up until now, the people he has convinced were already predisposed to be sympathetic for whatever reason and that’s going to be changing. These are the best kinds of set-backs for characters, providing them ample space to grow while not making the antagonists seem outlandishly overpowered.
Plus it gives us an excuse for, again, the best fucking training arc I’ve seen in a long while. I was cracking up on nearly every page – the swordmakers’ gag was PURE. COMEDY. GOLD. – and I loved seeing how Gotouge was able to transition from comedy to serious, emotional developments in just a page or two. I entered these two volumes knowing next to nothing about Shinobu and I leave them with a complex understanding of how she thinks, how she acts, and WHY she is thinking and acting this way. Her sadism in chapter 41 is brought into relief via the loss of her sister and revealed to not be motivated by pleasure, as her joyous demeanor may have implied, but instead by anger & dedication to her sister. It is a conflict, much like her actions and her mood & speech, and it is an excellent use of a new character.
Next time, volumes 7 & 8. Do I know what will happen? Not in the slightest! I suspect the crew is gonna face another member of the Kizuki and we’ll get to see Kanao in action fully. Maybe Nezuko will get to take an even more prominent role. Gimme those good good kicks!
