Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba #16-28

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba #16-28

Originally released in 2016

Written by Koyoharu Gotouge

Art by Koyoharu Gotouge

Picking up where I last left off, Tanjiro has found a demon doctor who has survived for hundreds of years by drinking blood rather than killing humans.  The doctor believes that, if she has enough blood from the head demon Muzan Kibutsuji, or his top henchmen the Twelve Kizuki, then it might be possible to turn demons back into humans, ending Nezuko's curse.

Muzan sends a pair of demons to hunt the two siblings down; they're dispatched with great difficulty, but despite what one of them believes, neither of these demons are part of the Twelve Kizuki.  They're low level henchpeople who were lied to and discarded, showing that even with an organization dedicated to hunting demons existing, Muzan places very little value on the lives of his fellow demons.

Last time I read this, I was hoping that the supporting cast would be expanded on, and that did wind up happening shortly after the point that I stopped.  The next arc properly introduces Zenitsu, a fellow Demon Slayer who (to put it bluntly) seems completely unsuited for this lifestyle.

A skirt-chasing coward, Zenitsu is terrified of seemingly everything, which raises the question of why he became a Demon Slayer in the first place.  With cowardly characters, it can be uplifting to see them overcome their fears, find their courage deep down, and stand up against overwhelmingly strong foes in spite of how doomed they seem to be on paper. (Usopp from One Piece is a great example of this)  When Zenitsu encounters a strong foe, he... gets paralyzed by indecision and falls asleep.

He does turn out to be an extremely talented fighter, but only when he's sleeping; by all appearances, he's completely unaware of this.

Inosuke, a man with a boar mask, is the exact opposite.  He's so eager to fight and improve himself that he'll attack anyone seemingly on instinct, regardless of whose side they're on.  Maybe it's his use of the phrase "rip and tear", but he reminds me a little bit of Doomguy from the video game series DOOM, though with less of a moral compass.

The four of them come together in a house that's being fought over by three demons, each of which wants to use it as a base of operations.  Tanjiro and Zenitsu are also trying to protect a pair of kids who are trying to find their brother in the house, which further complicates the situation for them.

Zenitsu does get a redeeming moment; the box containing Nezuko (that keeps her safe from the sunlight) was left outside, and when Inosuke tries attacking it (presumably sensing the demon within), Zenitsu uses himself as a human shield for no reason other than Tanjiro saying that the contents of the box are important to him.

When Tanjiro steps in to defend Nezuko and Zenitsu, Inosuke fights him instead.  As it turns out, Inosuke's a bit of an idiot (he can't read or write), leading to an entertaining dynamic between the two.

The series definitely seems to be improving with this latest batch of chapters. With Nezuko being virtually mute, she didn't get a ton of characterization, meaning that the first fifteen chapters or so were basically all Tanjiro.  While Nezuko remains mute, the addition of other characters helps to make the writing more interesting and show off different dynamics. (along with how easy-going Tanjiro is most of the time, and how even that nature has its limits)