MORE SPIDERS NOOOOO!! 😱

I’m actually in the middle of starting the anime episodes for this manga volume, but I wanted to take note of a difference I already spotted.

At the beginning of the manga, it’s a continuation of the end of volume 4 with Tanjiro and Inosuke fighting the Papa Spider. But in the beginning of the anime (starting in episode 18), we see Tomioka and Shinobu seeing the dead Demon Slayers on the mountain, and talking about them and getting along during this particular mission.

And then they split up.

THEN we get back to the Papa Spider fight, and it goes exactly as the manga goes. It’s funny though when Tanjiro does the water wheel to land, he says he stuck the landing, but he literally hits his head on a tree 😭 I guess they were right about his head being strong in the previous volume.

The anime goes along with the manga pretty consistently, except there’s an added part to Inosuke’s flashbacks that we don’t get in the volume — the woman holding who we assume is a baby Inosuke, tells him that “at least he can survive”, then says something inaudible.

There’s also one more moment with Zenitsu after being found by Shinobu, and she makes the comment about seeing all your memories right before dying in order to find a way of escaping death through them. In the manga, that statement isn’t stated by anyone, but said after Tanjiro thinks he’s about to die during his fight.

So we’re starting to see more deviances as the anime episodes go on, but I think they’re still creative ways to incorporate what’s being shown in the manga. I like how we see more of what’s going on with Zenitsu in the anime because in volume 5, we only see the one scene of Shinobu finding him on top of the house as he’s breathing slowly to stop the poison from spreading quickly.

The fight with the “baby spider” aka Rui, who’s the one that’s actually part of the Twelve Kizuki, is so good! His desire to have the bond that Tanjiro and Nezuko have fuel his rage and desire to kill Tanjiro, but we all know that’s NOT GONNA HAPPENNNN.

WAHHHH BUT THE END OF EPISODE 19 THOUGH!!!!

First of all, in this episode, Tanjiro’s dad is finally revealed, and he looks just like an older version of Tanjiro! A memory of his dad doing their family kagura dance allows Tanjiro to learn a new fighting move/style, and it’s so epic to see it in the anime!

WE ALSO GET THE FIRST GLIMPSE AT NEZUKO’S BLOOD DEMON ART: EXPLODING BLOOD!!! 🩸 This is TOO exciting because all this time, we know Nezuko is strong and can heal pretty quickly, but we have yet to see her blood demon art, and IT’S HERE! I’ll be eager to see more of her power later on in the manga and episodes!

This, plus hearing him say that the bond between him and Nezuko could never be broken is enough to bring tears to my eyes! 🥹 The episode ended with different pictures of a young Tanjiro with his dad, then with a little Nezuko, then a FULL KAMADO FAMILY PHOTO WITH HIS DAD INCLUDED. I forgot how many of them there were, WOW. And we haven’t seen Tanjiro with a ponytail in a while, but we get a picture of him and Nezuko before the demon killed his family, then one of them as they are now, with Nezuko as a demon.

This was the first time I watched an episode all the way to the end (i.e. past the credits) so I also got to see the little mini cartoon of Tanjiro and Nezuko discussing the memory of their father that helped him in the fight, as well as his family secret about them eating toasted rice crackers after a particular festival! I clearly need to skip to the very end of the episodes more often.

Pause. Is this my longest Demon Slayer blog post?! I should do them like this from now on; watch and pause then refer back to the manga instead of just reading and watching in a rush.

Episode 20 delves deeper into Rui’s pretend family. The manga briefly uses the voice of his “elder sister” to describe how the family came to be, but the anime goes into the actual horrors of her personal story (they show how he changed her look to look more like him and EWW). It also shows another “sister” of Rui trying to convince the one we’re familiar with to run away with her. That…didn’t end well. BECAUSE THE NEW SISTER TOLD RUI THE PLAN. JUST RATTED THE OTHER SISTER OUT. I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT. THEY DIDN’T SHOW THAT IN THE MANGA!!!! THEY TRYNA BE ALL THEATRICAL AND DRAMATIC AND GOT ME SAD FOE THESE DEMONS.

Anyways…

We learn how Shinobu fights (with poison, not strength), and she ends up killing the last “sister” of Rui. I must say, I’ve always been curious about Shinobu since she’s the one with the butterfly kimono! 🦋 I’ve seen so many people cosplay as her so…you know I’m going to have to do it too at some point!

Finally, Tanjiro is saved (because he thought he defeated Rui, but he didn’t) by Tomioka and his ELEVENTH FORM (the manga goes into it more than the anime episode). We then see Rui’s tragic backstory, and his grieving as he dies. Of course, we know Tanjiro is grieving with him, and respects Rui’s remains. Tomioka, however, disagrees…until he notices Nezuko under Tanjiro, and is shocked. That part wasn’t very clear in the manga; I thought he was saying “You–!” to Tanjiro like “You have the audacity to tell me how to feel about demons?!” But he was really talking about Nezuko.

I had to stop in the middle of episode 21 because that’s where volume 5 ended. Plus my iPad was about to die, so perfect timing! The volume ends with Shinobu saying no one likes Tomioka which is CRAZY because what does she mean?! We’ll find out on Volume 6, I guess.

Thank you for reading, luvvies! This one was definitely longer, and had more depth. I’ll be sure to do the rest of my posts like this moving forward!

Mishy 🦋☁️