Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2020)

[鬼滅の刃]

Volume 19

Author/Artist: Koyoharu Gotouge
Publisher: Jump Comics

Synopsis:
Kanao and Inosuke battle Douma.

Story/Characters:
We open with Douma correcting Inosuke that there's no such thing as Heaven or Hell, that these are just fantasies crafted by the weak-minded to bear the injustices of a cold and uncaring universe. Ever the philosopher, Inosuke declares that if there's no Hell, he'll make one. Douma no longer feels he has the leisure to play around with Akaza having been defeated, so he spawns a little ice puppet to occupy Inosuke and Kanao. As he's leaving, he wonders at why Inosuke isn't breathing in any of the ice, but as he observes he realizes that Inosuke's skin must be highly sensitive and he naturally retreats when he senses the chill. He then decides to make a few more ice puppets to go around hunting the other Slayers. Inosuke starts to get desperate as Douma is about to leave, taking more damage than he otherwise would, and Kanao tells him not to rush, to hold out just a bit longer. Douma wonders at this, only to brush it off, but as he starts to open the door, his face begins to melt. He doesn't understand what's happening, but as he falls to his knees, Shinobu's face flashes in his mind. We then have a flashback of Shinobu explaining her strategy to Kanao. Because of Douma's fixation on eating women, a female Hashira would be an irresistible target for him. To that end, she's spent the past year infusing herself with a wisteria-based poison. (The time it's taken is the main reason she gives for not having Kanao do the same, but I'm sure that's not the only thing she was thinking about.) Usually it only takes about 50 milligrams of the poison to kill an oni, but by her estimates, within her body is 700 times the fatal dose. Back in the present, we see those effects as Douma continues to fall apart as the poison is melting his bones. He tries to focus on regenerating while his ice puppet shatters. Back in the flashback, we hear more from Shinobu, how to improve the odds of success, she agreed to cooperate with an oni (Tamayo), and tells Kanao not to lower her guard even if the poison is effective. It'll still be up to her to finish the job. And so Kanao and Inosuke close in to finish off Douma, but as a last-ditch counterattack, Douma creates this giant ice bodhisattva. Kanao's surprised that he still has the strength left for such a big attack, but she can also tell that the quality is deteriorating. Remembering a warning from Shinobu that using this technique could cost her her sight, Kanao unleashes the Final Form of Flower Breathing, which pushes one's vision to its maximum potential, to the point where everything around you seems to move slower, though the pressure causes the blood vessels in the eye to rupture. Douma tries freezing Kanao as she goes for his head, but Inosuke throws his swords to give hers the extra kick it needs to push through.

As the disintegrating mess of Douma's head falls to the ground, he pities himself for having been done in by poison of all things, with the finishing blow delivered by a pair of weaklings who ought to have had no chance against him. He hopes briefly that he might be like Muzan and not die from a simple beheading, but the decay is already proceeding. In his dying moments, however, he feels nothing, not fear nor bitterness nor anything else. He recalls when his mother murdered his philandering father and then committed suicide and all he could think was what a mess they made of the room. Over a hundred years of being an oni and he never once came close to understanding human emotion. On the other side of the veil, Douma finds his head being held up by Shinobu, who is glad to see he's finally dead. He compliments her on the strength of the poison she used and Shinobu grudgingly admits that she couldn't have done it without Tamayo's help. She wanted to do it all by herself, but she can't complain about the results. She knows Muzan is still around, but she's confident her comrades will finish the job. And then something comes over Douma. He thinks he's feeling something for the first time, that he's fallen in love with Shinobu. He asks her if she'll join him in Hell and her answer... is less than polite, but done with the most serene smile you've ever seen. Back in the land of the living, Inosuke exults in his triumph before being overwhelmed by his injuries. He remembers a conversation he had with Tanjirou about his mother. He had no particular attachment as he had no memories of her, and being abandoned, he didn't imagine she cared about him, but Tanjirou says that he's sure Inosuke's mother loved him. The infant memories that lay buried deep down well up to confirm this and Inosuke cries for the mother he never got to truly know. Meanwhile, Kanao—who has been left mostly blinded in one eye—is searching Douma's remains for Shinobu's butterfly hairpin. The one she got from Kanae was broken during the fighting. She apologizes to Shinobu for not crying when Kanae died. The way she was raised, crying was something that got you beaten or worse. Still, nobody blames her back then, and she hopes that now maybe things will be different. She manages to find Shinobu's hairpin and it appears that the spirits of Shinobu and Kanae bid her farewell. She has a vision of the two of them reuniting with their parents in the afterlife and finally, she can cry.

Back to Tanjirou, he comes around when he smells fire. Tomioka is heating up his blade to cauterize any wounds that won't stop bleeding. Tomioka asks Tanjirou about his injuries and reminds him that their fight has only just begun, that Muzan remains the main target. A crow then reports Kanao and Inosuke's defeat of Douma and Tanjirou is thrilled that they're one step closer to Muzan. Meanwhile, Kanroji and Iguro close in on Nakime, who is now the Upper Four. As one of Nakime's powers is to alter the geometry of the Infinity Castle, she lets the castle do the fighting for her and Kanroji gets bounced around a bit by the walls for it. Iguro warns her to be more careful until they get a grasp on Nakime's powers. Kanroji thinks she gets the hang of it, but when she makes a go at Nakime, she gets sent on a little trip to parts unknown. Even the more cautious Iguro is getting the runaround. He concludes that Nakime isn't all that strong herself, but so long as she controls the castle, she's not going to be easy to defeat.

We cut to Tokitou and Himejima, who get separated by the shifting of the castle and Tokitou winds up face-to-face with Kokushibou. Tokitou doesn't like that Kokushibou is a swordsman and wonders if he was a former Slayer. When he tries to draw, his body won't move because of the intense pressure radiating off of the Upper One. Kokushibou asks Tokitou his name and concludes that the name Tsugikuni has died out. He then explains that his name when he was a human was Tsugikuni Michikatsu (as he dates to the Sengoku Period, I'm using the standard practice of writing the name in Japanese order) and that Tokitou is one of his family's descendants. Tokitou thinks that Kokushibou might be the first Breathing user but quells such fears. Kokushibou is impressed that he regains control of himself so quickly and then Tokitou attacks. Although Kokushibou dodges effortlessly, he nevertheless compliments Tokitou's technique, the skill level he's attained in spite of his young age. He expresses satisfaction that even though the bloodline has grown thin, his cells persist these hundreds of years later. Manifesting the Mark, Tokitou denies that anything of him is left. He launches an original attack that takes Kokushibou by surprise. He decides he ought not hold back against such a skilled opponent and counters with his own breathing technique, Moon Breathing, which costs Tokitou an arm. Tokitou is surprised that an oni can use a Breathing technique, but quickly ties off his severed arm and goes back on the offensive. Again, Kokushibou is impressed by Tokitou's strength and resourcefulness, and after deflecting the latest attack and pinning Tokitou on his own sword, he makes him an offer to become an oni. As Kokushibou is the only Upper Kizuki capable of fighting left, he's confident Tokitou will win Muzan's approval. Just to be safe, Kokushibou bandages up Tokitou's arm better than the hasty tourniquet Tokitou made so that he won't bleed out, though he says that if he would die, it would simply be Fate at work. While he's talking Genya's come upon the scene and attempts a sneak attack with his shotgun, only to get his arm cut off. He goes for his sword, only to lose the other arm, then gets cut apart just below the chest. He's not dead yet, though, and Kokushibou is surprised at this, as there was someone else who used a similar oni-eating technique over 300 years ago who died when cut through the torso. Before Kokushibou can finish off Genya, his brother comes in for the rescue. The elder Shinazugawa calls his little brother hopeless for nearly throwing away the life he killed their own mother to save. Cut to a flashback of Tanjirou telling Genya that while he sensed Shinazugawa's anger at Genya, he didn't sense any actual hatred, and that he shouldn't be afraid to tell him what he's been meaning to say. In the present, Shinazugawa tells Genya to go off to the mountains and live to a ripe old age, find himself a wife and have lots of kids to life enough for their lost mother and siblings. Kokushibou notes the nostalgia of seeing two brothers as Slayers, but Shinazugawa snaps at him for carving up his kid brother and goes on the attack. Before, Kokushibou's attacks had been so fast that you never really saw his blade, but Shinazugawa is fast enough to get him in the bind so they can see his creepy sword with its eyelike pattern on the blade. In the exchange that follows, Shinazugawa is able to figure out that Kokushibou's Moon Breathing spawns all these little blades that don't seem to adhere to any physical law and on top of that is the Upper One's incredible speed. Shinazugawa welcomes the challenge, though, and nearly gets in a sneaky shot where he tried to stab up while holding Genya's sword with his foot. Kokushibou is pleased that Shinazugawa is able to keep up as well as he does and remembers a previous Wind Hashira from back in the Sengoku Period and uses a technique that was presumably used to defeat him. Shinazugawa is carved up pretty bad and Kokushibou figures the match is won, but then he finds his pulse rising. It turns out that Shinazugawa has a very rare kind of blood which he likens to catnip for a cat. He realized there was something special about his blood when he fought his mother, how her movements dulled when he started bleeding. Without knowing anything about the Demon Slayer Corps, he hunted oni by himself for some time until he was introduced to the Corps by a Slayer named Masachika Kumeno. The two of them took down the Lower One at the time, but because Masachika died of his wounds, it was Shinazugawa who became a Hashira. He took offense to Ubuyashiki, who he saw as someone who merely lived in safety and comfort while everyone else did the dirty work for him. The other Hashira upbraid him, but Ubuyashiki lets Shinazugawa speak his piece, apologizing for not being able to be a swordsman who can fight alongside his "children". He assures Shinazugawa if the individual Slayers are pawns, then so is he, that his own death would be inconsequential as he already has his replacement prepared. He claims the respect he receives is nothing more than the kindness of the Hashira who support him and that Shinazugawa need not act in kind, and apologizes for summoning him so soon after the death of Masachika. Shinazugawa is surprised the Ubuyashiki knows Masachika's name and Kanae explains that Ubuyashiki remembers all the Slayers who have fought and died. Shinazugawa is stunned, as he doesn't even know all the names of just the people he's fought alongside. He then shares the will Masachika left behind, wishing for a bright future where his loved ones can live full and safe lives. With that thought in mind, back in the present, Shinazugawa tries another sneak attack, this time with Genya's shotgun, but Kokushibou deflects the attack with his sword. As Kokushibou launches his next attack, Shinazugawa is saved by the timely appearance of Himejima.

Himejima tells Shinazugawa to sew up his gut wound while Himejima keeps Kokushibou occupied. Kokushibou evaluates Himejima and marvels at the body honed to the upper limits of mortal possibility, a swordsman the likes of which he hasn't seen in over 300 years. Now, Himejima's weapon is a big spiked ball and chain with an axe on the opposite end and he's able to wield these two ends in such a way that Kokushibou finds himself unable to have enough of an opening to use his breathing technique. As the chain nearly wraps around Kokushibou's neck, he finds that he can't cut it and has to slip away instead. Just as the Nichirintou uses iron bathed in the light of the sun, that same iron was used to make Himejima's weapon and the level of the sun's energy held in the iron surpasses anything Kokushibou has known, a new development by the swordsmiths. Kokushibou can't believe the level of strength, agility and finesse to Himejima's technique and gets his blade broken. However, he's still able to launch an attack that injures Himejima and because the sword is made from his own flesh, he can regenerate it as quickly as any other part of him. Himejima laments that he has to use this technique he was saving for Muzan, but he can't afford to lose her and so he prepares for the attack, manifesting the Mark as he does. And... cliffhanger.

Art:
The finale of the fight with Douma packs a punch with some striking techniques by Douma himself (especially Muhyou Suiren Bosatsu) and both Inosuke and Kanao giving it there all. Then there's Shinobu on the other side of the veil. Don't make yourself that woman's enemy. I also really like the cover of Chapter 164, where a weeping Kanao and Inosuke are helping each other limp away from the scene of the battle. We get a bit of visual comedy with Kanroji getting the run-around from Nakime. (That face she makes when she gets sent through the window...) Tokitou and Shinazugawa have a good showing against Kokushibou, who's a very different sort of opponent as an oni wielder of the swordfighting techniques as the Slayers. Yes, so all around a very strong volume if you're here for the action.

Other:
We get a Taisho Secret about Kanao picking her surname (with Aoi trying to get her to pick "Kanzaki" so she could get a little sister), another about how Shinobu treated all her adoptive sisters equally and was always smiling to them ever since she took over as head of the Kochou family, yet another recounting the story of Kotoha fleeing her home and how Douma killed her abusive husband and mother-in-law when they came after her, a long one about Kanao's reasons for joining the Corps (that Gotouge apologizes for typing rather than hand-writing because he was pressed for time), an illustration of Shinobu and Yushirou not getting along (Shinobu because she hates all oni and Yushirou because he can sense ill will directed at Tamayo), Tokitou's crow desperately seeking help for him, Gotouge explaining an error where the original manuscript said Shinobu's poison was 70 times the lethal dose instead of the corrected value of 700 (with math teacher Shinazugawa-sensei from Kimetsu Academy rushing over to punish him for joking that you don't have to be good at math to get by in life), Kimetsu Academy profiles for the Tokitou Brothers, and Shinazugawa getting chewed out by the other Hashira for how he acted around Ubuyashiki,

Conclusion:
Douma's end is certainly satisfying if you're invested in Shinobu, Kanao or Inosuke's arcs (triply satisfying if you're invested in all three). The opening round pitting Kanroji and Iguro against Nakime is played mostly for comedy as a bit of a breather before going into the much heavier material of the battle against Kokushibou. I don't know about you, but I was looking forward to seeing Kokushibou in action and to dig into his past. We also get to explore Shinazugawa's character a bit more and while I still may not like him that much, I definitely understand him better. (I knew from the moment he was introduced that he was going to be recontextualized later in the story, but I said then that wasn't going to make up for the first impression he made and that held true even after I finished the series, but perhaps some of you out there will have your minds changed about him.) Appropriately, the oni second only to Muzan is going to have a fight second only to the grand finale, so expect quite the banger. It goes without saying that this volume deserves a place in your collection, so be sure to get it.

Rating:
Own It