Now here is the thing, if you are here for a review of this episode, this ain't it chief, if you are here for me to bash the ending in the manga, this ain't it either.
Also yes, this whole article is full of Manga spoilers so if you haven't read it and don't want it spoiled, then shoo, go away, this article is for us men of culture who discuss Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan at dinner tables.
And if you are angry I put those two on the same level for various reasons, then good, now you will rage share this article and get me views.
So now that you know what kind of article writer I am, let's get to the meat of the matter.
Demon Slayer is now airing its Swordsmith village arc, which for those of you who read the manga (which is all of you, cause those who didn't read it, read the spoiler warning and disappeared like they should and will definitely not rage tweet about how this article spoiled the manga for them... ah who am I kidding I don't get readers.) is the third last arc (or fourth last if you count the infinity castle and the sunrise countdown arc as separate arcs, but I doubt the anime will do that, but let's see) and you know what that means! The dreadful ending is coming up!
Now you see I said all sensible people who haven't read the manga must have left by now, but for those of you who aren't sensible, if you are confused by seeing what looks like a horrible slice of life fanfiction ripoff of demon slayer that somehow emits twilight levels of melodrama in a single panel and my chemical romance level of degeneracy as Nezuko and Kanao seem to be holding hands(yes it seems they are together) while Tanjiro makes an orgasm face, do not worry, the copyright of Demon Slayer hasn't been infringed upon, this is indeed the canonical ending of Demon Slayer.
Now where are my stake knives, don't worry, I only wish to cleanse my eyes by popping them out of the socket.
So what is the problem with this?(other than the obvious) Well let's get some context first, see these aren't exactly, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Kanao, Nezuko and Inosuke, you see this is the far future, long after the defeat of Muzan, hundred or so years I think, the only characters still alive are Yushiro(that's the demon free from Muzan that Tamayo created) and Kiriya Ubuyashiki (that's the son of Kagaya Ubuyashiki and the next master of the Demon Slayers after Kagaya's death), you see he is no Demon, but he was so angry with his family's curse of everyone dying at the age of thirty, he decided to become the oldest man in Japan.
Everyone else is dead, because of how age works, these... are their descendants. Ah yes of course, but.... they are still the same people... probably, because Re-birth.
But hey you know that's alright, that's an unnecessary tacked on bit at the end after the whole thing got over, you can ignore it! Skip the episode if you feel like it.
But unfortunately, this is not where the stupid starts.
See here is the thing, in the very next arc, that is the Hashira Training arc, Nezuko doesn't exist, except maybe sometimes when the other characters come to check in on her and she speaks broken Japanese and misrecognizes Zenitsu for Inosuke.
Yes she speaks now, as she would by the end of the Swordsmith village arc(oh sh*t spoilers) after she learns to conquer the sun, yes, she is a Demon that walks in the sun.
And Muzan, likes that, so he thinks, if he can absorb her, he can finally get rid of his ailment, and truly become immortal, because if you didn't know, he already doesn't die when beheaded, he can regenerate his head, because his brain isn't in his head, he has five brains and seven hearts, that keep switching places to make him impossible to kill.
Also if he conquers the sun, Nichirin swords(that's the special swords that the Demon Slayers use) won't work either, because see, cutting a demon's head doesn't kill them(hold on I'll clear the confusion) what kills them, is beheading them with Nichirin Swords, as the blades of Nichirin swords carry a fraction of the Sun's power, as it is made of materials found on the mountain closest to the sun, so since their neck is their weak spot, hitting them with the fraction of the Sun's power on their neck makes prevents them from regenerating long enough die.
Demons cannot regenerate their true head (I say true head because they can make outside bodies that are not the main bodies and they have heads, but cutting them doesn't make a difference.) if they are severed by anything other than a Nichirin sword, they need to pick it up and reattach it, but when cut with a Nichirin sword, the reattachment doesn't work.
So yeah, Muzan will be unkillable once and if he absorbs Nezuko.
So once the Hashira Training arc is over, and the Slayers are taken into the Infinity Castle the priority(other than killing all the demon moons and then Muzan) is to Make sure he doesn't get to Nezuko, so obviously they keep her under protection and feed her a Demon Cure, wait hang on, wtf? When did they make a cure?
Demon Slayer Swordsmith village covers chapters 98 to 127, and the cure that Tamayo is working on, is no where close to complete. but I guess... over the next 69(nice) chapters the cure is ready and Nezuko is human again, yeah so... the whole thing regarding curing Nezuko, you know the point of the story, it happens over a few chapters(three I think, but I may be wrong, don't quote me.) in a side arc, and how is the cure made? how does it work? well F*ck that, it's just Tanjiro and everyone is fighting and then, Bam! cure exists now, no build up, guess it was finished off screen.
Well unless you count the crow that Tamayo receives, and it is later revealed that she was asked to work with Shinobou Kocho to develop a cure proper, which makes sense since Shinobou seems the most medically adept amongst the slayers, heck our slayers go to her after every outing to... wait wtf? So you're telling me, Shinobou, a woman who hates demons with her whole body, like literally, every single cell in her living body radiates hatred so strong that it will probably make any Demon that dares come within a mile radius of her die the most horrible and painful death possible simply because it exists, not only met, but worked closely with a Demon to develop a cure (amongst other things, but we will get to that, don't you worry) and it all happened off screen, perfect.
Yes, that is Shinobou working with Yushiro in a flashback.
What about the Hashira Training arc my dude, that thing lacked some interesting action so hard that it was practically calling for this side story, and yeah, it probably happened during this arc, as immediately after, these guys were thrust into the infinity fortress/castle and immediately before the cure could not have been complete else they would have given it to Nezuko.
Wait, where were Tamayo and Shinobou meeting? In the middle of the greatest training exercise to kill demons once and for all, where all demon slayers are gathered in a small area, where.... these guys couldn't accept Nezuko, let alone a full fledged true demon like Tamayo.
Remember, Tamayo and Yushiro have drunk Human blood mind you, she is not like Nezuko who has been starving herself for the past two to three years. granted they don't look demonic, and Tanjiro even mentioned they feel and smell different from other Demons, but like, come on! all the Hashira are here! unless they were all in on it, then why wasn't Tanjiro... I mean he is pretty important even though non Hashira, he beheaded Gyutaro, the first Upper moon Demon to die in over a century, he uses the first breath, he is the first marked one since the time of Yoriichi, he is the brother of Nezuko, the demon you are trying to protect, and he helped massively with the cure, he met Tam... you know what, I don't even care.
Now let's talk about the 50 year aging poison, yes I know you read it.
See here's what happens, every time Muzan is about to do something really powerful that should decimate the slayers, Tamayo appears and is like... ah... you see... x happened and now you can't do y...
See if these had been set up before that would have been... better, not fine... see from a narrative perspective you want to see people try harder, and harder, and harder until they can climb the mountain and get to the other side, but... now imagine a mountain has been set up, someone came very close to climbing it once, and the mountain threw him off.
Now imagine the main characters are getting close to climbing it, and you are like, what are the gonna do? and then it is revealed in a flash back that someone just demolished it just because.
Yeah that isn't great... look I get the point the mangaka was making, but come on, at least have the courtesy to show the mountain cutting before hand, set it up innit? I dunno make it a big deal or something, that way they did climb the mountain, in an unorthodox manner.
Okay, I'm being a little unfair, the medicine was a big deal, and it was good the way it was revealed was pretty cool, by Tamayo stabbing her arms through Muzan and revealing he has absorbed it.
But then, reveal everything now, don't wait for the ending fight to reveal the other two million poisons you have in store, or later, when Shinoubu is revealing that she has huge amounts of wisteria poison inside her, just so the demon can absorb her and get poisoned, reveal it then.
Not in the middle of battle.
Look I get the point the Mangaka was making, that Muzan's past caught up to him, and now he is loosing all his abilities that he is so proud of, of course, and don't get me wrong, it is quite poignant that Tamayo is the one to kill him in a sense, at the very least she is the biggest contributor if nothing else.
But like we need to see Muzan put up a proper fight, this man has been alive for thousands of years, and you tell me he never considered this would be possible? I mean the man knew that poisons against demon's were possible, I get that he has grandeur and what not, but here is the thing, that's still an age old cliche.
And it's still in contradiction with how he has been depicted, he is always experimenting, always trying to make himself better, as a matter of fact, he is the first demon to live past beheading, if wisteria poisons were so common place, he would have found a way to circumvent that, no matter how strong, and I don't mean just decompose them before they work out, like really, work around them.
And yeah, he did put up a fight, but then he just died unceremoniously, from the sun, again, I get the mangaka's point, but it is still unsatisfying.
But the stupid hasn't stopped yet, lets actually talk about involuntary Demonification and the whole reason I think the ending sucks.
Can Nezuko turn into a human, here is the problem with this, choice.
Nezuko was made a demon against her choice, and this whole time the Manga has gone on about how choices and consequences are what make you who you are, and how every other demon except Nezuko is going to hell because they chose this.... except... the way that Demonification is first introduced, it seems like accidental or involuntary demon's would be much more common than they are right now.
Giyu said it loud and clear, when demon blood mixes with open wounds, humans become demons, sure, Maybe Muzan could just not accept the ones made this way, except... a Hashira or soon to be Hashira (dunno if he was in the beginning of the series, there was a two year time skip after that) knows about it, so clearly there are a lot of accidental demons and they are a big enough problem for a strong demon slayer to know about them.
So, the whole thing this series has been spouting is non sense? I mean okay, let's be fair that was in the very beginning and maybe the Mangaka didn't think that far, let's just say all the strong ones are the ones who chose to be as such, and even so, after becoming demons accidentally, you don't have to go killing... wait, so upper three is an accidental demon you say?
And it was his demonification that corrupted him, okay, so now it makes sense, being a demon is what makes you bad, and go to hell, its unfair, but what can we... ah of course, Tamayo and Yushiro exist, so Demons can be good, sure they have to drink blood but like what about people that need blood constantly, how are they different? People can donate...
But then again, all good demons, such as Nezuko, Tamayo, Yushiro and the Asakusa man are free of Muzan, so all evil is on him... the other demons... in fact there might be millions who are just accidentally turned and don't want to kill people but lost control and did something reprehensible and now just want to die but can't, they can be helped... Nezukos blood helped the Asakusa man become essentially himself but demon, so.... we should use it to help them right?
Or make a medicine or something from it, or, you know use the cure that exists, nope, killing Muzan killed all the demons...
Okay... see here is the problem with this, real life doesn't work like that, and sure, this story doesn't have to follow real life, but the trope of killing the main baddy stops the conflict is a big one and its false, mess usually remains to clean up, and given the fact that, the Manga has so far treated demons as people who have gone the wrong way, this concept being so far away from how it is in reality, makes it all very jarring, demons should have survive.... WAIT THEY DID?
Ah yes of course Yushiro survived into the present right okay, he is a special case... Tanjiro, what about him? He survived after Muzan died, okay Muzan was awake in him I get it I get it.... see here's the thing, the logic is not what matters here, the main point is the series worked because every time a villain showed up, they had a real world analogue, and so did the structure of the story, it feels like the mangaka wanted to get a tie all loose ends ending and rushed it.
I will say it here and now, if the Manga truly wanted to put it's philosophy forwards, none of what I said matters, the fight against Muzan wasn't satisfying, and that was the issue, and it is a simple fix, no don't worry I won't say the over used make upper one kill Muzan somehow, and make him the final baddy, cause yes, he is much more of a final villain type.
There is something much simpler Make Nezuko fight Muzan, he killed her family in front of her, the human Nezuko died trying to save her family, the demon Nezuko struggled like anything to not become the monster that killed her family.
What's more, Tamayo mentioned once that Nezuko's blood awakened the true consciousness of the Asakusa man (the one who was turned demon as a distraction by Muzan when Tanjiro first confronted him.) and that there must be a reason Nezuko isn't waking her own true self yet, maybe because she knows something more important is coming.
So.... that was a fucking lie? She conquered the sun, okay... and then? What importance did it play? Don't tell me it drew Muzan out, he was going to find Ubuyashiki sooner or later, and this fight was gonna happen sooned or later.... so.... what?
See here is the thing, with every single demon that we know to have broken out of Muzan's control, being just straight up good and willing to live in peace with humans, with Nezuko conquering the sun and becoming super strong on her own accord, and almost becoming as she was as a human, it seemed there was only one logical conclusion, demonification isn't what makes you bad, sure it pushes you that way, but Muzan? that guy is the real issue, in such a case, the Demons need a new ruler, who? Nezuko of course, a demon who can conquer the sun, and truly allow this separate species to stay in harmony with humanity.
And that's not all, being a demon was not Nezuko's choice, so it is very important that turning back, is her choice alone, yes, the slayers are still going to inject her with the cure, if they think this will prevent Muzan from gaining access to a sun conquered demon, but Nezuko in the end, should choose to stay a Demon, for her brother's sake.
I mean think about it mate, Tanjiro went through hell to defend her and keep her alive, but with time, Nezuko started becoming his slaying companion, she knows all her powers, including the demon killing ones, are because she is a demon, so given the choice, of course that's what she will do, imagine if, after the cure, Nezuko willingly consumed more of Muzan's blood and instead of Tamayo weaking him and Tanjiro literally developing the thirteenth form at the eleventh hour, their combined effort is what kills Muzan, and when Muzan tries to absorb her? He burns! he can't do it.
In the end, Muzan's own mistakes caught up to him, and that's why he died.
And while we are on this topic, every other character got to keep their power ups, why should Nezuko be the only one to loose everything? I mean from a story stand point, that is just unfair, and unsatisfying.
Nezuko and Tanjiro should have stayed demons, and together, they could have reformed them,
There is a reason I am writing this now, the anime is about to end the swordsmith village arc, and it is from here that it needs to start making changes if it wants to successfully pull this off, I truly think the Anime should go in that direction.
And I think their incentive here is more than just a satisfying end, this allows them a sequel, instead of whatever the fuck the current time skip ending is, also it can't be just me that finds seeing a Nezuko look alike and a Zenitsu look alike as brother and sister to be weird right?
