Welcome to the Tengen arc, wherein we partake in the age-old Shonen tradition of sneaking into the pleasure district dressed as courtesans and we lament the fact that Kyojuro Rengoku is no longer around to be the best, excitable Hashira. I miss him already.
CoverWritten and Illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge
Translated by John Werry
English Adaptation by Stan!
Lettered by John HuntTanjiro and his friends accompany the Hashira Tengen Uzui to an entertainment district where Tengen’s female ninja agents were gathering information on a demon, but suddenly disappeared. In order to investigate, Tanjiro and the others disguise themselves as women to sneak in! As they close in on their target, the demon reaches out for the courtesans of the district!
Because I spent so much time talking about the spiders back when the Hashira were first introduced, I didn’t get to do the gag I had planned where I compared every one of them to a My Hero Academia character. Suffice it to say, I think I’ll do that each time we get a big focus on each of them. We lost Lemillion (Rengoku) last time to the Titan-esque Train demon and were, at the end, introduced to the Can’t Stop Twinkling Hashira known as Tengen Uzui. His whole schtick is that he’s a ninja that has to be the flashiest one around and also has three wives who are also ninjas. We don’t get much from those three throughout the volumes as they’ve, well, disappeared and that’s the whole reason Tengen is trying to kidnap Aoi at the end of volume 8.
Instead, however, he gets stuck with the three stooges after they stop him from being the worst and we embark on a two+ volume arc of mystery, intrigue, and everyone doting on Tanjiro because his can-do attitude is so goddamn endearing. There’s also Inosuke getting fawned over for his face but his pig-headed attitude and propensity for headbutting EVERYTHING gets him into major trouble while Zenitsu really only has one useful skill, playing instruments, and ends up encountering the demon first of everyone and, cause of his other one useful skill of hearing real good, identifies her and for his troubles gets monched by her obi.
Whoops.
While I think I prefer the Mugen Train arc over this one, the greater complexity present in this arc as well as the longer build up marks it as the clear next step for “Demon Slayer’s” growth as a series. We’re introduced to a couple new concepts, like how the Slayers’ ranks can appear on their hands if they clench real good and the dangers of the Hinokami Kagura on the human body, as well as teasing some long-term mysteries surrounding the disappearing of the Sun Breathing techniques, Muzen’s early life, and Nezuko & Tanjiro’s specialness. I really love how Gotouge handles this, actually.
For a while, I thought that Tanjiro’s scar was like his father’s, tying him to the Sun Breathing technique and Kagura dancing. Instead, it seems that his scar was actually from protecting his brother from a falling brazier. I had no idea why Nezuko was inexplicably able to stay cognizant of her brother, other than the power of family, but it seems that Nezuko simply escaped Muzen somehow & was thus cut off from his blood too early or something. Yes, they may have the unyielding determination and optimism of your usual Shonen dutero-protagonists but underneath it, they don’t have the same kind of “in-born” specialness that someone like Naturo has. Instead, their arcs are far more reliant on the people around them as well as growing themselves.
“Demon Slayer” is a team book that utilizes every single person. We’re not biding our time until Tanjiro swoops in like Goku to win the fight; Tanjiro is just as likely, if not more likely, to need back-up and rescuing than any of the other members of his squad. Zenitsu goes out like a chump after four chapters and doesn’t do much fighting until Inosuke is able to rescue him along with Makio & Suma (two of Tengen’s missing wives) from the inside of the Oiran’s sentient obi that’s also part of her.
Continued belowLook. “Demon Slayer” gets weird sometimes and I love it for that.
There’s a reason Tengen is a Hashira and why our intrepid crew, as fired up as they are, remain out-classed for much of the fight. However, they each have their strengths and Gotouge makes sure to have those on display in both the fights and in the investigative lead up. Like, I snarked about Zenitsu earlier but the reason he is the first captured is because he, consequences be damned, confronts the Oiran who is tormenting another girl and the only reason he doesn’t instantly die is because of his wicked sense of hearing. The same for Inosuke. He clocks the tunnels that the Oiran uses to travel to and from her nest and just charges ahead in scene after scene that are both utterly hilarious and super tense.
It’s a miracle this series works between its intense bouts of humor, tension, and drama. I am constantly caught off guard in the best of ways and I usually have no idea how a fight is going to go. More importantly, even when something unexpected happens, it all feels cohesive and coherent. Tanjiro absolutely losing it at the Obi Demon during their fight and getting ready to kill her, full of rage, doesn’t feel incongruous to the compassionate boy we’ve become accustomed to because of the way Gotouge builds it up via the indiscriminate destruction & deaths the demon causes and her flat out rejection of Tanjiro’s question of if she feels remorse. Key in that rejection, and the question, is that she has become so divorced from her human memories that her only motivation now is to remain young and beautiful. As we’ve seen so many times before, the more powerful a demon, the less humanity they seem to have retained.
Nezuko is not exempt from this either! While her power does not come from consuming human blood, it does become greater when she is enraged and in that form, after one of my favorite fights of the arc thus far, her hunger gets the better of her and she tries to attack an innocent woman. When Tanjiro tries to restrain her, she fights him tooth and nail, all semblance of the sister that’s been so protective of him thus far gone. However, once she’s reminded of who she is, where she comes from, and what she’s fighting for (her family,) she breaks down crying. It’s so fucking effective that I have cried every time I re-read that part for reference. Every time.
It’s a testament to Gotouge’s skill as both an artist and a storyteller that these moments are as impactful as they are. The thematic groundwork has to be clear enough that one can identify it but subtle enough to be surprised by the ways it develops while the characters have to be emotive and consistent and their actions have to be born not from contrivance and convenience but instead from their personalities and histories.
Tanjiro is able to fight off the Oiran because he has re-connected with his father’s heritage as a Kagura dancer & learned how it is tied to Sun Breathing but that knowledge comes at a cost. Had he not been connected so strongly to his dead family, as has been demonstrated in multiple previous life-or-death situations with both him and Nezuko, he would have died from that power. Nezuko protects Tanjiro & lets loose because of how fucked up he gets and is only able to be brought back because of a lullaby that reminds her of her dead mom and, thus, her family.
I could go on and on, like how Tanjiro’s bottomless optimism re-interprets Tengen’s harsh words into a kinder version of what he has to do, but then we’d be here for another 1000 words. Suffice it to say, “Demon Slayer” continues to be a rich text thanks to its brisk pace, deep characters, and light exposition. And its always excellent face game. Duh.
Next time, we reach the halfway point with volumes 11 & 12 and maybe we’ll find out what the deal is with the starving demon that appears out of the Oiran.
