Demon Slayer Vol 1: Cruelty by Koyohara Gotoge

Demon Slayer Vol 1: Cruelty

by Koyohara Gotoge

Koyohara Gotoge was born in Japan on May 5th, 1988. She first gained attention by taking part in the 2013 Jump Treasure Newcomer Manga Awards with a one-shot named Kagirigiri about a young man with a sword hunting a magic-using vampire. She also submitted a story in 2014 named Monju Shirou Kyoudai that unfortunately, I wasn't able to find anything about except that there are bugs and young ladies involved somehow (I… potentially approve?). Rokkotsu, her third work was also released in 2014. I was able to find a Japanese version showing a young man roaming around what looks like modern Japan fighting spirits and supernatural creatures that plague people. In 2015 she published Haeniwa no Zigzag, which is about a young man able to lift curses. Now, each of these works was a one-shot story that, while often over forty pages, were done fairly quickly. It wasn't until 2016 that she started on her first series, published in Weekly Shonen Jump: Demon Slayer. Before we jump into that series, let me talk about Shonen Jump. Weekly Shonen Jump is a magazine that features multiple comics and is the dominant magazine/comic in Japan, and might be the best selling and long-running magazine in the world. It was first published on July 2nd, 1968. Today it sells around 1.5 million copies a week (Holy Crap), compare this to the US market where a successful comic book rarely gets past 100,000. The current line up has such works as Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, Dr. Stone; and in the past works such as Dragon Ball Z, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Rurouni Kenshin also appeared. While aimed at younger boys, it also boasts a large female readership (polls conducted in the early 2000s showed it as the favorite magazine of choice for middle school girls and boys, over 60% of its readership being under the age of 14). Which may explain some trends in anime in general but let's get to Demon Slayer already shall we? Quick note: There will be spoilers.

Demon Slayer takes place in Japan during the reign of Emperor Taisho (aka the Taisho period) between the years of 1912 and 1926. During this time Japan is rapidly modernizing and democratizing with a liberal movement known as the Taisho Democracy increasingly taking up the reigns of government. I'm not entirely sure when in the Taisho era but I'm leaning towards the beginning and possibly even before World War I. To be honest, most of the series as I've seen it is in the Japanese countryside where the outside world doesn't have much meaning at this time (Which makes dating things a bit difficult, yes. If you want to go Full Ham you could maybe use fashion, if the author is particularly fastidious about such things.). The main character is Tanjiro Kamado, who lives on a mountain with his large but somewhat struggling family. That struggle is unsurprising, given that his father is mentioned as having passed away recently (I say recently because one of his siblings is barely a toddler). To support them Tanjiro sells charcoal that he has to carry from the mountain all the way down to the village. The series opens with Tanjiro heading out to sell charcoal so he can buy food for his brothers and sisters as they good-naturedly clamber to come with him. Their Mother puts a stop to this, as the journey is a long one and might be dangerous for children. Tanjiro also proves popular in town and can even use his hound-like sense of smell to determine who broke a plate. However, he spends to long in town and has to spend the night with an elder of the town who insists that he do so to avoid being attacked and eaten by a demon. Tanjiro goes to sleep thinking this is just a bullshit excuse because the old man is lonely, and showing what a good guy he is resolved to bring his younger siblings next time so the old man will have more company. Tanjiro takes off the next morning and arrives home to find everyone violently murdered and blood just everywhere. Interestingly enough, it doesn't look like anyone in the family has been especially... gnawed upon. It's also interesting that they're only attacked after their father is dead. I may be overthinking it but I find myself wondering if there wasn't another motive to the attack, because if a demon attacked Tanjiro's family to devour their flesh... Why is no one eaten? I will ask readers who are ahead of me in the series not to provide spoilers, please. (Supposition: The demons don’t eat the flesh, they’re eaten in other ways. Or the demons could be after something else entirely. Dun. Dun! DUN!)

Now Tanjiro isn't the only survivor, his sister Nezuko survived but was grievously injured. Not seeing any other choice Tanjiro picks her up and starts moving down the mountain as fast he can in the snow and cold, and it's here that our story begins. Because Nezuko didn't entirely survive or at least she didn’t survive as a human being. Instead, she has become a monster or as it's translated in the series Demon. Tanjiro realizes this when she wakes up and promptly attacks him, although his pleas do seem to be getting through to her. I'll admit to being picky here about the whole thing because being a Westerner and a Christian for me, it's not a bloody Demon until it's a fallen and corrupted divine servant that is literally crawling out of the bowels of hell (Well yes, but this is a Japanese demon.). These demons seem more comparable to the Oni of Japanese folklore (creatures that feed on humans who have a wide variety of magical powers and massive physical strength) or vampires that eat flesh instead of drinking blood; given that they were all once human and will die if exposed to direct sunlight. Although I should note that the demons here can survive in direct sunlight. That said I'm willing to give it a grudging pass based on translations issues. Now Tanjiro learns all of this when he encounters Giyu Tomioka, a demon hunter who tries to take Nezuko's head.

This is a great sequence because we manage to learn things about all three characters and Ms. Koyohara does this very economically while still being very entertaining. In a brief confrontation, we learn Tanjiro is intensely devoted to protecting Nezuko and has an equally intense faith that she can restrain her darker urges. We also learn that when pushed he is capable of violent action and tactical thinking.  To the point of being willing to embrace tactics that have a high chance of injury or death if it will bring him the best chance of victory. We learn that Giyu is a cold but not uncaring or unreasonable man. He confronts Tanjiro, questions and roughly tests him but in the end, encourages him in an aloof and rather cold kind of way. Additionally, when Nezuko breaks free and throws herself between Giyu and an unconscious Tanjiro, to protect Tanjiro instead of attacking her helpless brother, we learn about Giyu and Nezuko. Giyu's reaction tells us that he will react to the situation in front of him instead of the situation in his head, being willing to take his observations without layering his preconceptions on top of them. That said, he will test his observations and just doesn’t accept things at face value. Which are enormously valuable and rare skills. We learn about Nezuko that having gotten past the initial trauma of her transformation she can and wants to control the urges that come with being a demon. Another rare and valuable skill. This leads to Giyu deciding to spare Nezuko and giving Tanjiro directions to a trainer to become Demon Slayer and begin his quest for a cure for his sister. Of course, the trip isn't free of dangers but I'll let you see for yourself what Tanjiro and Nezuko have to deal with.

The rest of the manga covers his rather brutal and difficult training under the masked Sakonji Urokodaki. Over the next two years, Tanjiro is trained in swordsmanship and a martial art focused on using his breathing to enhance his speed and strength so he can fight demons on more even terms. This isn't an uncommon idea since learning to breathe effectively is part of many training programs but Ms. Koyohara does do a good job of using it as the central pillar of the Demon Slayer arts and as an explanation of why her characters can do the crazy stuff they will be doing later. That said, I do think Urokodaki's training program has an issue since Tanjiro needed a pair of ghosts to show up and help him achieve full mastery of the skills he was taught but that's a discussion best dealt in the next volume I think. The manga ends with Tanjiro being sent to the final selection process, which I thought was honestly insane. My first thought was that the final selection process would be an advanced training course that weeds out those unsuited for the Demon Slayer life gradually while teaching such skills like how to investigate or find a hiding demon. Instead, Tanjiro is sent up a mountain where several demons have been imprisoned and being told he needs to survive up there with the demons for 7 days. He's not alone but none of the others are working as a unit so it's kinda everyone for themselves against the magically powered, man-eating horrors. This test is not graded pass/fail. This test is graded survive/horrible death! This is honestly the equivalent of having Marines who just finished their training have to storm a beach against live fire before they can actually join the armed services (I mean… D-Day was kinda like that with promotions to Specialist. {I can’t agree considering everyone in D-Day went through a lot of training specifically for D-Day and was already a member of an Allied military}). It kinda tells me one reason why there don't seem to be a lot of Demon Slayers and I'm sure the series will show me more.

That said, I enjoyed this book. Tanjiro is a great character, he's kind-hearted but still capable of action. His loyalty to his family doesn't override his beliefs or thoughts. Giyu and Sakonji are interesting characters as well even if we didn't an in-depth look at them. At this point, I can't say we have a lot to work with when it comes to Nezuko but I'm sure that her time will come. The fact that Ms. Koyohara can communicate so much about characters without long monologues or asides but through their interactions with each other and the world around them is the sign of someone who believes in showing, not telling. She does this not just with the confrontation between the Komado's and Giyu but in the opening sequence when she tells us everything we need to know about Tanjiro's life and family to understand the depths of his tragedy. The combat style that Tanjiro learns is also interesting, being water-based but more as the basis of the art's philosophy and style which gives it a distinctness. I also really like the art style of the series and will be discussing that more in-depth when we look at the anime. This is a great way to start a series and I'm very excited about it. That said, I'm not thrilled about ending on a cliffhanger, I know it's likely unavoidable given the roots of the series as part of a weekly release but it still irks me. That said that's my biggest complaint (the translation issue isn't an issue with the story, just how it's been transcribed to English so won't be affecting the grade) besides thinking we could have more from Nezuko. So I'm giving Demon Slayer Volume I by Koyohara Gotoge an A-. Come for the sword fights and violent murder, stay for the characters and good storytelling.

So tomorrow I'll be posting a review of the first 4 episodes of the anime.  Next week, my patrons voted for a military science fiction month and we will provide.  Based on their votes your editor and I have decided that this November will be the Women of Military Science Fiction month, where I will review a military science fiction novel written by a lady author.  First up as requested by our patrons, Warriors Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold. Thank you for your support and keep reading!