Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.

Synopsis: Demon Slayer follows Tanjiro Kamado in Taisho-era Japan, a kind-hearted boy who lives with his family in the mountains. Then everything changed when his family was slaughtered by a powerful demon. His sister Nezuko was the sole survivor of the incident, having been transformed into a demon herself. This kicked off the beginning of Tanjiro’s epic quest for vengeance against the demon who killed his family. More importantly, Tanjiro won’t rest until he finds a cure for Nezuko’s demon state.

On June 30, 2020, I started Demon Slayer’s “Entertainment District Arc”—the eighth story arc of the manga series—and finished it on July 2, 2020. This arc centered around Tanjiro, Nezuko, Inosuke, and Zenitsu teaming up with the Sound Pillar Uzui on a mission trip to the Entertainment District, helping Uzui find his missing wives—yes, plural—who were investigating demons being reported in that area.

I found this arc and the Sound Pillar super entertaining—excuse the on-the-nose pun. Uzui was the Pillar who used “flamboyant” frequently in his dialogue, which Inosuke loved. Inosuke and Uzui had eerily similar personalities that Zenitsu found unbelievable throughout this whole arc. The beginning was also a lot of fun with Uzui forcing them all to disguise themselves as girls in order to infiltrate the district’s brothels: Tokito House, Kyogoku House, and Ogimoto House. I loved how they all failed to act like girls.

The main antagonists of the arc were Upper Rank 6 demons Daki and Gyutaro, siblings who shared a body and the title. Again, the fight scenes were incredible. It was refreshing to see teamwork maneuvers from Tanjiro, Inosuke, Zentisu, and Uzui as these demons kept evolving and getting stronger—going off the Frieza “This isn’t even my final form!” anime mentality. I was reading so fast and getting anxious for our heroes, wondering—seriously—how they’d win this battle. Tanjiro’s ability to use Fire of the Dance God more freely was a much-needed thing for this fight.

There were also new developments for both Nezuko and Tanjiro as they both gained certain marks. Nezuko almost gave into her demon side completely in order to save her brother, gaining demon marks in the process. On Tanjiro’s end, he officially gained the Demon Slayer mark—the sign of a strong Demon Slayer.

Daki and Gyutaro had tragic backstories—all demons in this series have tragic backstories that will make you cry for them. They really couldn’t protect their innocence and their transformation into demons proved how far people could fall if put on the wrong course of life. This aspect of the series really does have a strong impact on the story, showing us how demons were once human who were in need of help, which they all found with abusive demon leader Muzan Kibutsuji.

They were also ridiculously strong demons but the weakest in the Twelve Kizuki’s Upper Ranks being only Upper Rank 6. At the conclusion of this arc, we were introduced to the other five Upper Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki similar to how we met the Lower Ranks at the end of the “Rehabilitation Training Arc”.

I love reading Demon Slayer so much! I’m going to keep it reading! You should too!

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