I actually finished this volume the day after I posted the blog post about volume 6 because it’s all getting TOO GOOD! I wanted to make sure I had enough time to watch and write simultaneously though, so where did I leave off…?

kanao’s backstory

OH YES! It shows in the middle of the last anime episode I was watching (episode 25) why Kanao is the way she is. Interestingly enough, in the manga, we don’t see it until the end of volume 7. By the way, her story is TRAGIC. Her family was poor and sold her off to be a slave. Like damn, was it really that bad?! 😭 Kanae (Shinobu’s older sister) and Shinobu herself ended up buying her when they saw her one day I guess at the market?

Now, Kanao’s problem? She can’t make decisions for herself. So Kanae gives her a coin to help her make decisions when she’s on her own. Which is crazy because, if you give me the choice to eat or not eat, IMMA EAT REGARDLESS OF WHAT THAT COIN TOSS TELL ME! 😂 but anyways…

That’s why she acts the way she does in the present day around Tanjiro and the others. She doesn’t speak because she needs the coin to tell her to 🫩 BUT it’s insinuated that she has a crush on Tanjiro 👀 which is the first sign of romance that we have seen in this anime.

whoops.

My timing is a little off with the anime versus the manga. Even though Kanao’s story is in the middle of episode 25 but not until the end of volume 7, some of volume 6’s content is still in episode 25.

Like Tanjiro and Inosuke getting new swords. I know Haganezuka was HELLA BITTER about Tanjiro breaking the sword he made for him, because he tried to STAB TANJIRO 😭 And Inosuke purposefully ruining the swords Kanamori made for him so they could be more jagged was the icing on the cake 😂

The rest of Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke’s training from volume 6 is also seen in the episode, showing Tanjiro finally beating Kanao at all the games! 🎉

Then I think we’re getting to the beginning of volume 7 near the end of episode 25, but then it backtracks again to a scene from volume 6 of Muzan Kibutsuji, whom we haven’t seen in several episodes/volumes. He’s imploring the lower 5 Kizuki to basically get it together (he ends up killing most of them).

They also showed another scene in the anime that wasn’t shown in the manga – Tanjiro checking on Nezuko, who’s apparently been sleeping for several days to recover her strength (since she doesn’t eat humans this is the only way she can). He gets encouraged by Nezuko mentally (yes, like, a sibling mind reader) when he wonders if he’ll be able to find a cure for her to become human again.

last episode of season 1!

So bittersweet, but we’re on our way!

Some things that weren’t shown in the manga:

1) The crow giving Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke (imma start calling them my nephews because trying to write out all their names each time is a lot 😂) their next mission on the Mugen Train.

2) Shinobu’s conversation with the Master of the Mansion about sending them on that mission along with Rengoku, the Flame Hashira (which is perfect though because Tanjiro wants to learn more about his fire breathing he’s been accumulating during his fights. Although, apparently there’s a difference between “fire” breathing and “flame” breathing.

3) The nephews breaking the large gourds through total concentration breathing, constant.

4) Tanjiro thanking Tomioka for putting his life on the line for Nezuko.

I can’t lie, I had to stop for several days because I finished the last episode of season 1, and it was TOO MUCH FOR MY HEART TO BEAR. But I’m back and ready to cover the Mugen Train arc (or at least what’s shown in volume 7)!

mugen train & Rengoku: the intro.

I had to look up some info on this arc because apparently, you can either watch it as a season (in episodes) or as a movie (ongoing, no pauses between). The movie sounded intriguing, but apparently it cut out scenes that the episodes showed, so I decided to go the episodic route. But it’s clear that they wanted this arc to be a movie because the first episode of season 2 begins like one, with the credits in the beginning, and the theatrical introduction to Rengoku — him eating noodles with someone who’s thanking him for his work the night before (I think he’s part of the Demon Slayer Corps). We definitely don’t get this scene at all in volume 7, but it’s nice to have it in the anime so we’re shown exactly what the problem is at length, and how Rengoku gets on the Mugen train.

I’m CRYING though because even though Rengoku looks so intense in both the manga and the anime (tbh, his eyes make him look scary, just look…)

…Rengoku is literally just a Hashira foodie. He should be called the Foodie Hashira instead of the Flame Hashira, because his reaction to all food is “TASTY!” and he bought all this little girl’s box lunches before getting on a train that he ends up jumping off of because the Mugen train is being worked on at a building close by.

I love that we’re getting more back story about the Mugen train in the anime because the manga was pretty straightforward with our nephews going to the train, getting on it, meeting Rengoku, and the action beginning. But this allows for us to see exactly how Rengoku’s investigation was going before all that happened.

I mean…as I’m watching this first episode of season 2, NONE of this is in the manga! We’re getting an exclusive behind the scenes of what happened before the nephews got on the Mugen train. It involves a demon named “Slasher”, who is the demon causing 40 people to disappear on the Mugen train. He’s an extremely fast demon, able to almost teleport from one place to the next.

BUT…and you already know what imma say…Rengoku is HARDER BETTER FASTER STRONGER. This demon challenges him to cut his head off before he can slash this old lady, and Rengoku does it as soon as he accepts the challenge. Talkin bout some, “I WIN!” as soon as he did it too! It was so fast, I literally laughed at loud because WHAT 😂 I blinked, and the demon’s head was flying!

AND it turns out, the old lady was someone Rengoku’s dad had saved from a demon 20 years earlier! So, this is how the anime chooses to connect his father being a demon slayer with him being one in the present. The mirrored movements of father and son, from past to present show Rengoku’s practice and dedication to what his father did before.

BUT THEN…we find out the Slasher demon wasn’t the demon on the Mugen train who’d caused the 40 people to disappear (I mean, I knew this because of the manga), so we finally see Rengoku go aboard it. We also see the nephews boarding the train in the last episode of season 1 from a different perspective!

Sheesh, I haven’t even gotten to the actual events of volume 7 so 😮‍💨 I’ll have to make this PART ONE! I’ll be writing part two as soon as this one is posted so, STAY TUNED!

Mishy 🦋☁️✨