Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2017)

[鬼滅の刃]

Volume 9

Author/Artist: Koyoharu Gotouge
Publisher: Jump Comics

Synopsis:
Tanjirou, Zenitsu and Inosuke infiltrate the Yoshiwara red-light district where an oni is said to be lurking.

Story/Characters:
We open with Tengen laying down the law with his new volunteers, declaring himself to be a god, prompting an amusing exchange where Tanjirou in all seriousness asks him what he's the god of and Inosuke declaring him the God of Festivals, a label that will stick for the rest of this arc (for Inosuke, at least). At a Wisteria House, Tengen briefs them on the details of the mission. Tengen sent his wives (yes, wives) to infiltrate Yoshiwara to find an oni lurking there. Zenitsu spergs out over Tengen having three wives (though, technically, due to an ambiguity in the Japanese language, the natural assumption at first was that Tengen was only talking about a single wife and that was enough to set Zenitsu off), which ultimately requires Tengen to knock him out so he can finish with the mission brief. When Inosuke suggests that Tengen's wives are probably dead, he gets knocked out too. We have a brief interlude where the narrator explains what Yoshiwara is and the oiran who are at the top of the pecking order of the, ahem, working girls. Now, there was a reason Tengen originally recruited females. He was wanting people to infiltrate the same locations where he sent his wives, but he's a man who makes the most of what he's got, so our boys are now cross-dressing with horrific makeup as Tengen pawns them off to the shops in question. Naturally, Zenitsu is the last to be taken.

I like that the madam of Ogimotoya saw through the makeup and realized that Inosuke was such a catch. Poor Zenitsu is maligned as an uggo but proves to be a talented shamisen player who vows to become the top oiran in Yoshiwara to get back at Tengen. Meanwhile, because of Tanjirou's facial scarring, he's put to manual labor, which he excels at, and he quickly becomes well-liked by the staff. He's able to leverage this to try to find out what happened to Tengen's wife, who he claims to be his sister (but because he's so honest by nature, trying to lie even for the sake of a mission results in his face contorting to hilarious effect). Because of his deep voice, Inosuke was ordered by Tengen not to speak and so he has to conduct his own investigation in silence. We then cut to one of Tengen's wives, Makio, all wrapped up in a demonic obi and being interrogated about the secret messages she's been sending. Inosuke tries busting into the room, but he narrowly misses the oni. Over at Zenitsu's place, the sound of a girl crying leads him to the room of the oiran Warabihime. One of the serving girls is distraught trying to clean up the place and then Warabihime shows up. Zenitsu realizes that she's not only an oni, but one of the Upper Kizuki. She's got a personality to match her nature, vain, haughty and cruel. She almost tears off the ear of the poor serving girl when Zenitsu intervenes. We get a flashback of the madam confronting her over having a hand in the death of a rival oiran, but she makes the mistake of connecting the dots to a similar oiran to Warabihime from her grandmother's time. Warabihime reveals her true form and then lets the madam get a bit better acquainted with the ground after a good five-story drop. Muzan shows up shortly thereafter to warn her that the Demon Slayer Corps is sending a Hashira her way. Much unlike any other interactions we've seen, he heaps praise on her, but given her eager devotion to him, it's exactly the right tactic to get the most out of her. With her motivation clearly in mind, we cut back to the present when she lashes out at Zenitsu. The proprietor comes in to grovel to get Warabihime to cool her wrath. She proves to have a little bit of savvy to her and changes tack to put an end to the ruckus, playing it off as a momentary fit of pique. Things calm down, but she realizes that Zenitsu was able to take her hit too well to be an ordinary person. She suspects him of being a Slayer but not the Hashira she was warned about.

We cut to Tanjirou and Inosuke reporting to Tengen on their progress and with Zenitsu out of contact, Tengen realizes that things have gone south and tells the two junior Slayers to pull out. Tanjirou realizes that being at the bottom of the ladder, they can't be much help, but Inosuke points out that they've been promoted three grades and shows the mark of their rank that they can manifest (but this will never come up again in the series, so don't worry about it too much). The rank thing doesn't really change anything, as Tanjirou would have gone forward with his effort to save everyone regardless. He then goes to give his regards to the oiran Koinatsu who had helped him out. It's cute how he's surprised that she knew he was a boy all along. Once he says his farewells and departs, it seems like he's come right back, but it's actually Warabihime (who from this point we'll be using her oni name Daki) looking for a meal. Fortunately for Koinatsu, Tanjirou hasn't gotten that far and catches the scent of the oni.

Meanwhile, Inosuke gears up for battle with help of these weird muscle mice that serve Tengen and Tengen himself interrogates the proprietor of Daki's place to find out what happened to Zenitsu and his wife Hinatsuru. As for Daki, her meal is interrupted by Tanjirou and she takes quite a bit of offense to this. Tanjirou takes a hit that was faster and harder than he was expecting, enough for his fear to momentarily paralyze him, but he musters his will to face the enemy. Daki is impressed that he was able to take the hit and decides that at least his eyes would be worth eating. The shoulder strap to Nezuko's box has been torn, so Tanjirou sets the box down and tells Nezuko not to come out unless she finds herself in danger. Now, Daki uses her obi to absorb her prey and also as her primary weapon. When Tanjirou starts to engage her, his first priority is to try to cut off the part that's holding Koinatsu. We then cut to the kirimise (a kind of cheap brothel where the cast-offs get sent), where Tengen finds an ailing Hinatsuru. She had drawn Daki's suspicion and so she took poison to fake being sick as a way to extract herself, but Daki used one of her obi to keep watch over her (an obi that Tengen dealt with). She urges Tengen to leave her and help with fight against Daki that is currently in progress. As he heads out, he catches a sound that catches his attention. There's something underground and he decides it's worth checking out.

Tengen's attack manages to distract Daki for a moment and she demands Tanjirou tell her how many Slayers are in Yoshiwara. Tanjirou refuses, even though Daki offers to spare his life if he cooperates, pointing out that his sword is already taking damage. Tanjirou realizes that his control over Water Breathing is too poor and that he needs to use the Hinokami Kagura, but his body can't take many repeated uses. With the memory of Rengoku to inspire him, he goes on the offensive. At first, Daki isn't too impressed, but then he manages to get behind her. Even then, however, she is too quick for him and pushes him back. He knows that he has to push himself harder and we get a flashback to when he was recuperating post-Mugen Train. One of the nurses was concerned about him running a fever, but he asked her to keep quiet about it (as he was deliberately driving up his body temperature as part of his training). Back to Inosuke, he finds a hole leading underground and using his contortionist abilities, dives right in, wriggling his way down to the nest Daki has built where she stores her prey to consume later. Among those in the spider web of obi are the other two of Tengen's wives and Zenitsu. The disembodied mouth and eyes we saw when Makio was being interrogated is revealed to be the end of the obi, a sort of extension of Daki. Inosuke goes to work cutting the captives free and his interference starts to draw the attention (and annoyance) of Daki herself. Inosuke is able to dodge the obi's attempts to tie him up and then we see kunai pin down parts of it. The newly freed Makio and Suma (the other wife) join the fight, as does the thankfully unconscious Zenitsu (whose sword was brought to him by those muscle mice from earlier). We then get an explosion that reduces a significant part of the obi to tatters. It's Tengen, who apologizes to his wives for being late and invites them to join him in a properly flashy fight.

Art:
As this is a shounen series, we get a mostly PG-rated treatment of Yoshiwara, but there is a fair bit more sex appeal than usual with Daki and Tengen's wives. Our main trio's crossdressing (particularly with Tengen's makeup work) is humorously bad (though without the makeup, Inosuke is one of the prettiest girls in the series). We get some nice intimidating framing of Daki as Warabihime and there's a nice contrast between her usual haughty cruelty and how she acts around Muzan like an infatuated little girl. We also get some good tension with Tanjirou managing the fight with Daki by the skin of his teeth.

Other:
We get illustrations of the madam of Tokitoya flying into a rage when she discovers "Sumiko's" scar, Inosuke stretching in the extra time he has because he has to change clothes so quickly, the madam of Tokitoya getting overwhelmed by Tanjirou's eagerness to work, Koinatsu doting on the younger girls, the girls at Kyougokuya worrying about "Zenko", a woman's hand picking up a rat by the tail, Haganezuka sneezing (because Tanjirou was talking about him, praising his skill when Daki accused him of having a poorly made sword), and Inosuke considering the idea of defeating "the worm" (Daki's obi) by peeing on it (and the narrator begging him not to). We get more Kimetsu Academy characters: art teacher Tengen; shop girls Hinatsuru, Makio and Suma; train otaku Enmu; and the Rengoku family (dad Shinjurou as a depressed kendo dojo master, kid brother Senjurou as a bookworm middle-schooler, and mom Ruka as a calligraphy teacher).

Conclusion:
The infiltration mission is a good setup. We don't really get into the dirty business of Yoshiwara, but that's just fine given the age of the target audience and the fact that it doesn't have that much bearing on the story at hand. Daki is one of the more popular oni in the series and not just for fanservice reasons. We see Tanjirou pushing himself to new levels in a fight that's just getting warmed up. Fans of the series will be more than happy to add this volume to their collection.

Rating:
Own It