44 pages • 1 hour read
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 1
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Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Cruelty”
Content Warning: Demon Slayer contains illustrations of graphic violence, including blood, murder, dead bodies, and intense fighting sequences. There is also a brief mention of suicide.
Demon Slayer opens as a teenage boy, Tanjiro Kamado, carries his younger sister Nezuko on his back through snow. She is bloody and unconscious, and he vows to save her.
The manga flashes back to a day ago. Tanjiro and his family live in a rural area of Taishō-era Japan. They collect and sell charcoal in the village for their income. Since it is almost the new year, Tanjiro decides to walk to the village to sell charcoal to earn money for a feast, even though the cold, snowy weather is dangerous. His four younger siblings (excluding Nezuko), who are extremely attached to him since their father’s death, want to go with him, but their mother tells them to stay home this time. He says goodbye to his family, including his sister Nezuko, before heading to the village.
In the village, the residents thank Tanjiro for fixing their things every time he visits. Due to his keen sense of smell, he gets roped into solving minor disputes: When people argue over who broke a dish, Tanjiro can smell it and tell that a cat knocked it over. He helps so many people that night descends by the time he starts to walk back home. An older man named Saburo stops Tanjiro, telling him it’s dangerous to walk alone because “man-eating demons [...] roam these woods after dark” (15). Tanjiro asks why demons haven’t killed all humans if they are real, and Saburo says it’s because demon slayers protect humans. He offers Tanjiro a place to sleep. Tanjiro accepts, though he doesn’t believe in demons; he thinks Saburo is just lonely.
When he returns home the next morning, Tanjiro sees a gruesome scene: His entire family has been brutally butchered, and blood covers the broken doors and walls of his home. Only Nezuko is still warm. Panicked but determined to save her, Tanjiro carries her on his back and runs to the village. Here, the narrative reflects the opening scene.
Nezuko awakens with a cry. Her eyes have changed color, her incisors have sharpened into points, and veins stand out on her forehead. She attacks Tanjiro, who is in disbelief but recognizes her as a demon. Even so, he doesn’t believe Nezuko could have killed their family and smells an unfamiliar scent on her. He pleads with Nezuko to be strong and not turn into a demon. An illustration shows Nezuko’s eyes welling with tears, the fight in her waning (28). The siblings’ fight is interrupted by a man with long, black hair and a katana. He later reveals that his name is Giyu Tomioka. He tries to slice Nezuko, but Tanjiro protects her. Giyu is extremely fast and snatches Nezuko from Tanjiro when Tanjiro tries to cover her. He explains that demon blood got into Nezuko’s wounds, transforming her into a demon. Since his job is killing demons, he must kill Nezuko. Tanjiro protests that Nezuko hasn’t killed anyone, and that he smelled another demon at their house. He thinks Nezuko recognizes him and won’t harm him. He promises to look after Nezuko to ensure she doesn’t harm anyone, until he can find a cure for her. Tanjiro bows and begs Giyu to spare her.
Giyu becomes angry that Tanjiro is bowing obsequiously, leaving himself vulnerable to attack. He says that while a demon might know how to cure Nezuko, no demon will respect his weakness. He says Tanjiro’s instinct to cover Nezuko and protect her rather than throw his hatchet was how he was able to take her, and that “strong, pure anger” will become “the force that drives your limbs” (41). Giyu moves to stab Nezuko. Tanjiro throws a rock and rushes at him; Giyu thinks this “simple, head-on attack relying on pure emotion” (45) is foolish and knocks Tanjiro out. Only then does he notice Tanjiro used the rock as a distraction to throw his hatchet, which he barely dodges. This clever plan impresses Giyu.
Nezuko rushes to Tanjiro. Giyu thinks she is going to eat him, but instead, she extends her arms to protect him. Giyu thinks about all the times he’s seen starving demons kill their own families, and the strength Nezuko must have to heal her wounds and protect Tanjiro rather than attack him. He has now been surprised by both siblings. While unconscious, Tanjiro dreams of his deceased family looking over his body. His mother expresses regret and implores him to take care of Nezuko. When Tanjiro wakes, Giyu tells him to find an old man named Sakonji Urokodaki and to protect Nezuko from sunlight if they travel during the day. The siblings bury their family members and set out.
Chapter 1 Analysis
This opening chapter establishes several key elements of the Demon Slayer universe: the physical and temporal setting, Tanjiro’s personality, the gruesome inciting event that compels Tanjiro and Nezuko into action and establishes the main antagonists (demons), and how the siblings’ relationship defies people’s previous understanding of the human-demon dynamic.
The beginning of the chapter illustrates Tanjiro’s life in a rural environment in Taishō-era Japan. Readers get to know the setting while learning Tanjiro’s personality before the murder of his family. Tanjiro and his family live a considerable distance from the nearest village: To sell charcoal in the village, Tanjiro must go on a walk that is too long for his younger siblings to make without growing tired. Taishō-era Japan followed a period of increasing modernization and mechanization, making coal vital for heat and power. Villages were often surrounded by an area called a satoyama, a borderland between flat, arable land where villages were built and the remote mountain forests (okuyama) beyond. These satoyama areas were managed forests where trees were cut and used to make the charcoal needed in the village. While Tanjiro goes to sell coal in the village, he asks his brother to cut wood, presumably so their family can begin making more charcoal to sell.
Since their father’s death, Tanjiro’s four younger siblings (excluding Nezuko, who also takes on a caregiver role) have turned to him as an authority figure and source of affection. He selflessly takes on the responsibility of helping his mother take care of his siblings. While she watches his youngest siblings with Nezuko’s help, Tanjiro spends the day selling charcoal in the village so his family can afford a feast for the new year. This selflessness also characterizes Tanjiro’s interactions with the villagers, who immediately flock to him for help when he arrives. Someone thanks Tanjiro for fixing their doors and another person asks him to help carry some bundles, which shows that he does more than sell charcoal. In one case, two people bickering over a broken dish ask Tanjiro to use his keen sense of smell to settle their dispute, and he can smell a cat. This interaction establishes two important things: Tanjiro extends kindness without expecting anything in return, and he possesses a heightened sense of smell.
In Japan, the remote mountain forests called okuyama were the subject of many folk tales. They were thought of as “wild and inaccessible places, populated by frightening creatures, both real and imaginary,” like snakes, foxes, demons, and tengu, a legendary creature in Shintoism (Cocora, Laura, and Kaori Brand. “Japan’s Charcoal Making Traditions Still Alive,” Our World, 5 July 2010). The elderly Saburo stops Tanjiro from going home after his outing because “For ages…man-eating demons have roamed these woods after dark” (15). An area’s stories and traditions often stay alive with a population’s elders, like Saburo.
Though Tanjiro doesn’t believe Saburo’s stories about demons, his assumption is proven wrong the next morning when he finds his family butchered and his younger sister Nezuko turned into a demon. The illustrations of Tanjiro’s murdered family are extremely graphic (17-19). The brutal nature of these murders contrasts with the previous rural idyll of Tanjiro’s life. The existence of demons and the murder of his family show Tanjiro that real evil exists in the world. However, rather than fall into despair, Tanjiro is characterized by his Perseverance Through Hardship. He is resolved to save Nezuko no matter the cost. A professional demon slayer, Giyu, wants to kill Nezuko because she’s a demon, but Tanjiro won’t let him. Tanjiro thinks The Power of Familial Bonds will be stronger than Nezuko’s nature as a demon. Rather than fearing Nezuko, Tanjiro sees Sympathy as Strength and is understanding of her. The power of their sibling bond contradicts everything Giyu previously assumed about the nature of demons and their relationship with humans. Even though he is trained to kill demons, he is open to the idea of seeing demons in a different way than he used to. Tanjiro and Nezuko will continue to surprise people and contradict their previous assumptions as the manga progresses.
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