Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2016)

[鬼滅の刃]

Volume 4

Author/Artist: Koyoharu Gotouge
Publisher: Jump Comics

Synopsis:
Tanjirou rescues Zenitsu from the boar-headed Demon Slayer trying to attack Nezuko.

Story/Characters:
We start with a brief flashback showing us how Zenitsu got into the situation where we found him in the previous chapter's cliffhanger. Seeing the scene, Tanjirou rushes in and attacks our good buddy Board-head. Tanjirou tells him that it's against the rules of the Corps to draw your blade against a fellow Slayer, so Boar-head simply agrees to fight bare-handed. Tanjirou tries to bring the fight to a quick end, but Boar-head proves to be quite adept and incredibly flexible, though all his bending isn't exactly a good thing when you've got broken bones. Tanjirou then resorts to one of his trademark headbutts to stop the fight, but all it does is cause the boar pelt to fall off to reveal an uncannily pretty face (which Tanjirou hilariously compliments in his unfailing honesty). Boar-head introduces himself as Inosuke Hashibara, but before he can go on the attack again, the headbutt finally takes effect and he passes out. When he comes back around, Tanjirou, Zenitsu and the kids are busy burying the dead. Inosuke is baffled by this and refuses to help until Tanjirou frames his refusal as being due to the pain of his injuries. The hypercompetitive Inosuke immediately vows to outbury all of them. (This will be the first of many instances of Tanjirou expertly handling Inosuke despite all his pride, aggression and general lack of common sense.) A crow then shows up to order them to a Wisteria House to recover. The Wisteria Houses are families who have been saved by the Demon Slayer Corps and have dedicated themselves to supporting the Corps' operations. This gives us some down time to build up the relationship with our main Power Trio. (We also get Zenitsu's introduction to Nezuko and he's going to be simping for her for the rest of the series.)

After some time has passed, the gang is recovered enough to go on their next mission. There are a bunch of lower-level Slayers being sent to hunt oni on Mount Natagumo. When they arrive, they find a wounded Slayer who's immediately yanked back into the woods. Naturally, Zenitsu is reluctant to go in, but Tanjirou and Inosuke go ahead without hesitation, the former out of his unwavering sense of duty and desire to help people and the latter because he wants to fight. Tanjirou thanks Inosuke for being there, which Inosuke doesn't know how to deal with as he finds the concept of kindness confusing (as he only understands the dog eat dog world of the wilds). They find another Slayer who is disheartened to find that the new reinforcements aren't Hashira, the top swordsmen in the Corps. He explains that when his group entered the forest, they started attacking each other, their bodies moving like they were being puppeteered. Between the name of the location and spiders seen about in the forest, it's little surprise that we're dealing with spider-themed oni. Word gets back to HQ and that unfortunate Slayer gets his wish when two of the Hashira (one of them being Tomioka) are ordered to the scene.

We check in on Zenitsu, who's moping at the foot of the mountain. Then he realizes that Tanjirou took his beloved Nezuko along into the battlefield, which gives him the motivation he needs to charge in. Meanwhile, Tanjirou and Inosuke are busy dealing with their puppeteered comrades when one of the oni makes an appearance telling the Slayers to stop disturbing his family. The oni, who we learn is called Rui, then pays a visit to his mother, who is the one puppeteering the Slayers, and threatens to tell Father on her if she doesn't finish things up quickly. Her terror is palpable and she channels that into more brutally twisting the bodies of the captive Slayers to finish off Tanjirou and Inosuke. When that fails, she kills off the Slayers and brings out a stronger puppet, a big headless body that appears to be a spider oni or someone who failed in the transformation. Though formidable, the puppet goes down and Inosuke sends Tanjirou off to go after the oni directly. When Tanjirou catches up to her, rather than put up a fight, she welcomes his blade, prompting him to switch to the Fifth Form, which grants a mostly painless death as a mercy to oni who surrender themselves for their due punishment. In the oni's dying moments, we get a flashback of the family's reign of terror, which was enough for her to choose death. Considering the mercy she was shown and seeing the pity in Tanjirou's eyes, she leaves him with a warning about one of the Kizuki being on the mountain.

Back to Zenitsu, he stumbles upon another member of the family. This one can transform people into spiders with the venom of his minions and Zenitsu has already been bitten. Zenitsu takes this about as well as you'd imagine and as he's freaking out, we get a flashback to his training with his master trying to encourage him amid his incessant whining (and the fateful lightning strike that made him the man he is today). Back in the present, when Zenitsu sees that his hair is starting to fall out and promptly faints. Little does the oni realize that this is a bad thing for him. Zenitsu gets the job done, but even with the oni defeated, he's still got the venom and ticking clock. We then cut back to Tanjirou and Inosuke for the cliffhanger, when "Father" shows up.

Art:
Though brief, the Tanjirou-Inosuke fight is pretty good, mainly because of Inosuke's bendiness. And, yes, making Inosuke the prettiest girl in the series is rather funny. The creep factor gets kicked up a notch for Mt. Natagumo to good effect. Arachnophobes will want to steer clear. From the spidery oni to the puppeteered Slayers to humans-turned-spiders, all set in these dark woods, the imagery is quite effective. I particularly like the design of "Father".

Other:
We get an illustration showing off Inosuke's flexibility, the exhausted kids in the aftermath of the Kyougai fight (with Gotouge telling them to take care), Shinobu (the female Hashira) teasing Tomioka, several illustrations of Zenitsu, a special illustration Gotouge did for the last chapter of KochiKame, a couple 4-koma, an apology from Gotouge for revealing Inosuke's face in one of said 4-koma before it was seen in the series proper, more concept work for the school AU (featuring Inosuke, Kyougai and Hisa-san from the Wisteria House), and some words of thanks from Gotouge.

Conclusion:
We get properly introduced to Inosuke and as he's one of the characters I rather enjoy, that's definitely a point in this volume's favor. Mt. Natagumo combines all the best elements of the series and it works on a lot a levels. I have to be careful not to get ahead of myself, as it only gets better from here. Be sure to add this to your collection.

Rating:
Own It