Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019)

[鬼滅の刃]

Volume 14

Author/Artist: Koyoharu Gotouge
Publisher: Jump Comics

Synopsis:
Tanjirou goes for the deathblow on Hantengu, but the oni is not yet out of tricks.

Story/Characters:
As Tanjirou is cutting through the neck of the fifth body of Hantengu, he feels a presence behind him but decides to focus on finishing the cut, but the fifth body's neck suddenly becomes harder to cut and, if he wasn't saved by Nezuko, this new challenger would've killed him. Said new challenger reviles Tanjirou for picking on poor, helpless, pure-as-driven-snow mini-Hantengu. At first, Tanjirou thinks this new challenger is a sixth body, but it's actually an upgraded Sekido who absorbed Karaku, Urogi and Aizetsu. New Sekido (who is apparently called Zouhakuten) has this power to his voice that freezes Tanjirou and Genya in their tracks. However, as Zouhakuten rants about these villains persecuting the weak, Tanjirou has zero patience with the hypocrisy of this mass murdering ball of self-pity and vows anew to take his head.

Back to Tokitou, he's unable to break free of the glob of water Gyokko trapped him in and quickly running out of air in his lungs. He has a vision of Tanjirou, only he realizes that words aren't anything Tanjirou told him (further evidence of his memories coming back in bits and pieces). Meanwhile, Gyokko advances on the hut the villagers were protecting. He thinks they were protecting the village chief, but instead its Haganezuka, who's obsessively polishing the Sengoku blade, marvelling over its quality and wondering why the swordsmith didn't leave his name on it. He's so taken with the blade that he totally ignores the Upper Kizuki, something that highly annoys said Upper Kizuki. Even when Gyokko cuts him up, Haganezuka doesn't skip a beat, infuriating Gyokko further. Tokitou continues to hear the words of this figure represented by Tanjirou, which causes him to reevaluate how he's judged his own power. Kotetsu comes to Tokitou's aid, braving Gyokko's fish monsters. He is, of course, woefully ill-equipped for the task and gets wounded, sparking Tokitou's concern for him and this gives him the impetus to find power in himself to break free. Now that image of Tanjirou in Tokitou's head started to change just as he had his awakening and we learn that Tokitou's father had the same color eyes as Tanjirou, which Tokitou was seeing Tanjirou when recalling his father's words. More memories start to come back to him as he's trying to power through the pain of nearly drowning and the poisoned needles. He goes to help Kotetsu, who tells him to protect Haganezuka and the sword instead. At that time, Tokitou thinks about how he was alone at age ten, he quickly corrects himself and remembers his twin brother Yuuichirou. Yuuichirou was more bitter and cynical even at a young age, but Tokitou repeats some of his father's words, which happens to be something Tanjirou said, which further explains why the image of Tanjirou overlaid the memory of his father. After their parents' deaths, the Tokitou Brothers were visited by Ubuyashiki's wife, as they were descendants of swordsmen (presumably an offshoot of the wielders of Sun Breathing), but Yuuichirou was having none of it, seeing reason to die pointlessly as a Slayer, and berating Muichirou for thinking he could do anything. However, one day they're attacked by an oni and Yuuichirou is mortally wounded while Muichirou narrowly killed the oni while being heavily wounded himself. In his dying words, Yuuichirou begs God, Buddha or whoever will listen to spare his brother, the better of the two of them, and turns around an earlier insult—that the the "mu" in Muichirou stands for "muimi" ("meaningless")—and tells him that the "mu" stands for "mugen" ("limitless").

Gyokko continues to be frustrated by Haganezuka, who isn't even fazed by having one of his eyes put out. He thinks to kill Kanamori as a way to get a reaction out of him, only for Tokitou to come to the rescue. Although he wonders how Tokitou got free of the water trap, Gyokko is at least happy to have someone pay attention to him. However, he's disturbed to see Tokitou exhibit the sort of markings Muzan warned him about with Tanjirou, and that his movements are faster now despite being wounded and poisoned. As Gyokko unleashes a tentacle attack that smashes the hut, Kanamori tosses Tokitou his new sword. Haganezuka's work is only briefly interrupted and he promptly gets back to it. Meanwhile, despite being wrapped up in the tentacles, Tokitou cuts his way out and thanks Kanamori for crafting his new sword. He reflects briefly on his previous swordsmith, Tetsuido, who had been concerned for him, but with his newly awakened powers, Tokitou feels he can put those concerns to rest. He manages to get a cut in on Gyokko's next and vows to put an end to their game with the next one. He then proceeds to start laying down some mad smack talk and though Gyokko claims it's just cheap provocation, his vanity causes him to be cheaply provoked. He unleashes his Blood Art, a swarm of fish loaded with poison, but Tokitou cuts through the attack easily and forces Gyokko to molt to avoid losing his head in the follow-up attack. He reveals his true form with a lot of fanfare, only to get a blank stare from Tokitou, provoking him even more. He launches an attack that Tokitou manages to dodge, then goes on about how strong his current form is, only for Tokitou to tell him with a smile that his attacks don't mean anything if they don't connect.

Although Tokitou prior to this point had appeared to be largely emotionless, there was an underlying rage that drove him in his training, a rage against the oni that would only be sated by their extermination. Even with Tokitou showing some signs of emotion now, that rage remains beneath the surface, yet it drives him forward. Gyokko attacks with a different Blood Art, one where his movements are supposed to be too fast and unpredictable to follow, but when he goes in for the kill, he only attacks Tokitou's after-image. Gyokko's all leaves Tokitou unimpressed as he finally takes the oni's head. Gyokko, as you might imagine, doesn't take it well, fulminating against this lowly creature who has the temerity to injure such an exquisite work of art, etc., etc. Tokitou gets impatient and gives Gyokko's head a number of additional cuts to speed his way to Hell. With the victory in hand, Tokitou finally succumbs to the poison within him, but he has Kanamori and Kotetsu to tend to him and we see that Kotetsu is still holding on to Rengoku's tsuba that Tanjirou entrusted to him, triggering a memory in Tokitou of Rengoku encouraging him as a Hashira. This is followed by a vision of his parents and Yuuichirou to further encourage him on a job well done.

We return to Tanjirou vs. Zouhakuten. Zouhakuten's tree dragon thing is giving Tanjirou a run for his money and the unrelenting attacks aren't giving him a chance to recover and go back on the offensive. The dragon has multiple heads that are holding down Nezuko and Genya as well, and just when it looks like Tanjirou is about to be crushed, Kanroji comes in to save the day. Tanjirou tries to inform her of the situation, but as soon as she deposits him on the ground, she goes right back to confront Zouhakuten. Zouhakuten uses some unkind language, that manages to anger her and she rather easily cuts through Zouhakuten's next attack. We get some brief exposition about Kanroji's sword, a difficult to use weapon that makes the most of her speed and flexibility. Zouhakuten tries spawning a bunch of dragon heads to overwhelm her, but she goes in for the kill, only for Tanjirou to warn her that he's not the main body, so taking his head won't do any good. This causes a moment's hesitation which is all the opening Zouhakuten needs for a sonic attack. This manages to knock Kanroji right out, but Zouhakuten is taken aback because the attack was supposed to gib her. This is when he realizes that her muscles are preternaturally tough, tough enough to tank the attack without getting shredded. However, he sees this as an opportunity, as eating such high quality meat will only improve his strength. He swings to bash her skull in and Kanroji has a flashback to two years ago, when a marriage prospect broke things off with her. She has a uniquely dense musculature which means that even with her comparatively slender frame, she's the equivalent of Mr. Universe. She's exhibited her extraordinary strength from childhood and is capable of outeating three sumo wrestlers. Impressive, but not quite the feminine ideal of men of this particular time period. And so she tried to fit in better, dying her hair, cutting back on meals, etc., but even as she had a new prospect within her reach, the weight of her deception, above all the self-deception, was too much for her. And with that thought, she snaps back to awareness just as Tanjirou, Nezuko and Genya have all dove in to save her. They're not just saving her to save her (though at least we know Tanjirou and Nezuko at least definitely would). As a Hashira, she's their best shot at getting through this, so protecting her is their first priority. This gets Kanroji all fired up and she reflects on how Ubuyashiki not only accepted her for who she was but praised her for her unique gifts. She thinks with gratitude on all the people who made her what she is and kept her going all this time. While she keeps Zouhakuten busy, the others look for Hantengu's main body. Kanroji successfully intercepts Zouhakuten's attempts to attack them and that's when Zouhakuten sees that Kanroji is manifesting her own version of the mark. With Zouhakuten unable to interfere, Tanjirou and the others are able to find the knot in the tree where Hantengu is hiding. Genya starts biting into the tree and we get some exposition on his unique ability to temporarily gain an oni's powers after eating part of them. With this boost in power and the flames of Nezuko's Blood Art, Tanjirou is able to use the Hinokami Kagura to cut through the knot... only for Hantengu to not be there. He's skedaddling and Tanjirou shouts at him for running away, but as Hantengu has some hazy memories of his past, he continues to insist that he's a good person, unfairly mistreated by the world. Genya disagrees and punctuates his disagreement by throwing a tree at him. I'd hate to go up against him on the debate team. Anyway, that's our cliffhanger.

Art:
It's interesting seeing the changes come that come over Tokitou, some of it fairly subtle. It's also interesting seeing what Haganezuka looks like under the mask. You get a suitable degree of spectacle as Tokitou demonstrates the greater measure of his power and Kanroji gets to show off a fair bit against Zouhakuten as well. I particularly like the shot of Tanjirou, Nezuko and Genya all tackling Kanroji to save her.

Other:
We see how Kanroji has to fold up her sword to get it back into its sheath, a couple 2019 New Year's illustrations, the young Tokitou Brothers with their mother, Tokitou giving Gyokko the raspberry, Kanamori hiding behind a tree after seeing Tokitou's creepy smile at the end of Chapter 120, baby Haganezuka and the village chief, Kanamori without his mask and his wife, masked Kanamori and his wife, and Kanroji and Nezuko as cats.

Conclusion:
I will admit to not being as invested in Tokitou or the fight with Gyokko, but I can't fault this on any technical level. We get a good fight scene and nicely build up Tokitou's character. However, I find the Hantengu fight more interesting and it's little surprise that I'd be more interested in following Tanjirou and Nezuko, but that's not the focus this volume. Just in terms of personal preference, I might rate this lower, but, as I said, I can't find much objective fault here and so I'm going to say this warrants a place in your collection as much as the other volumes.

Rating:
Own It