James Nicoll Reviews

2016’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Volume One is the first tankōbon in Gotouge’s historical-fantasy manga series. Kimetsu no Yaiba was serialized in Shueisha’s shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from February 2016 to May 2020. The English translation of Volume One was released in 2018.

Young Tanjiro Kamado sets off to sell charcoal in town so that his widowed mother and his beloved siblings may enjoy a bountiful New Year feast. Because mid-winter travel is hard, Tanjiro wishes to travel fast; because his siblings are young, Tanjiro travels alone.

By so doing, he leaves most of his family to a horrible death.

Tanjiro returns to find a scene of tragic carnage. The corpses of his family are scattered where they died trying to save each other from a ravenous demon. If only Tanjiro had been home, he could have helped fend off the demon or (more likely) died with his kin.

Younger sister Nezuko has survived. Tanjiro soon discovers that this is a mixed blessing. Those who survive demon attacks are often themselves transformed into demons. Nezuko is such a lamentable case.

Demon hunter Giyū Tomioka happens upon Tanjiro while he is fending off Nezuko. Before Giyū can dispatch Nezuko, Tanjiro intervenes. Tanjiro has an almost supernatural sense of smell. He can tell that the demonized Nezuko did not kill any of her family members. Tanjiro is further convinced that Nezuko can be cured.

Giyū is skeptical. Even if a cure were possible, a cowering peasant like Tanjiro could never convince a demon to cure Nezuko. Best to kill Nezuko. In the scuffle that ensues, Tanjiro impresses the demon hunter with his cunning and resolve, while Nezuko astonishes Giyū by protecting Tanjiro. Perhaps there is hope for Nezuko.

For Tanjiro to succeed, he needs more than cunning and resolve. He needs training. Giyū won’t provide that but he knows someone who will… if Tanjiro can survive the tests that await.

~oOo~

This manga has the same basic issue that King’s Salem’s Lot did. While a very small group of demon hunters can win a fight with a demon, most humans cannot. Those few who survive meeting a demon become demons themselves. How is it that are still who are humans alive and unconverted?

This manga is set during the Taishō era, so early 20^th century. However, the future was as unevenly distributed in the past as it is now. There isn’t much difference between how Tanjiro lives and how a charcoal-selling peasant might have lived centuries earlier. Still, it’s entirely possible that firearms or automobiles will appear in later volumes. It may well be that Japan’s uneven economic development in this era is part of the reason that Tanjiro is so resilient; death is nothing new for his family.

Tanjiro’s sense of smell is nigh-supernatural. His speed must be as well, given that in one scene, when he covertly throws a hatchet at Giyū before hurling himself at the demon hunter, Tanjiro arrives before the hatchet. Or perhaps the author/artist just didn’t think that scene through.

Demon Slayer is a perfectly acceptable manga offering readers acceptable art, clearly defined characters, and violence. However, many manga offer similar packages. There isn’t much in this volume to suggest that the series is any more worth reading than any other supernatural manga series. I suppose the glass half full approach is that it doesn’t seem less worth pursuing than similar manga.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Volume One is available here (Viz), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Bookshop UK), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).