Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 12 & 13: Recap & Review

Episode 12, The Boar Bares its Fangs

Inosuke Hashibira, is the boar headed warrior attacks Kyogai. When he steps on Teruko he comes into conflict with Tanjiro. He said that he chipped his sword deliberately so his sword would shred flesh instead of slice neatly like Tanjiro’s. The demon separates Tanjiro, Teruko, and Inosuke. Tanjiro and Teruko find her brother. Meanwhile, Zenitsu and Shoichi draw the attention of another demon after Zenitsu screams in terror. The demon gives chase leading Zenitsu to pass out and go to sleep. In this state he manages to defeat the demon with Thunder Form.

This part was epic. It was a little predictable that Zenitsu would have great fighting ability despite his cowardice. Of course he doesn’t remember he killed the demon and assumes Shoichi did. I still hold out that Zenitsu is going to surprise us with his character. Anyway, we get a glimpse of Inosuke’s fighting style. He uses a self-made style Beast Form and quickly defeats the demon. Kyogai is in search of “marechi” the rare blood of a human that’s worth 100 people. It is revealed that Kyogai is a former member of the Twelve Moons. So far we have been teased by the power of this group.

We’ve seen two false ones and a former. This helps set up of expectation of what the future encounter with one of the Twelve will be like. Tanjiro faces off against Kyogai who begins to flip the room over and uses his claw attack. Tanjiro begins to learn how the ability of Kyogai works. However, with his leg still broken, Tanjiro has trouble getting close to Kyogai. Tanjiro claims that he ready to fight.

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Episode 13, Something more Important

The house shifts once again, but finally frees Zenitsu and Shoichi as they’re thrown outside. When the room flips papers are thrown around, Tanjiro takes careful effort not to step on them. As a result Kyogai has a flashback. In the flashback, he is seen as being belittled by someone. This series does well when giving the demons more of a humanizing story. It’s really effective. Tanjiro releases that in order to fight well he needs to “take shallow breathe,” and “reinforce the muscle around his leg.”

Tanjiro also begins to smell the claw attack. Using this new tactic, Tanjiro is able to avoid the claw attack. Tanjiro is able to finally get close to Kyogai and decapitate him. Before he does, Tanjiro compliments Kyogai on his Blood Art. As he dies, Kyogai cries as he finally has had his blood art and writing recognized. Tanjiro uses a knife that Yushiro gave him to collect blood from Kyogai. So far in this series they have convenient elements in the universe. The ravens that give the missions and now the cat that collect the blood. I’m not complaining, but I like they way the manage these elements.

Tanjiro finds Kiyoshi and Teruko, bringing them outside. Here he finds Zenitsu being assaulted by Inosuke. I’ve always predicted that Zenitsu was more than his initial impression. He has shown that he does have courage. Tanjiro finds that Zenitsu was protecting Nezuko from Inosuke. Zenitsu always knew that there was a demon in the but trusted Tanjiro had a good reason for it. Nezuko is going to become a big problem for Tanjiro. Zenitsu may accept her, but I’m not sure anyone else will. I predict that Inosuke and Tanjiro won’t fight for long before someone interrupts them, most likely the raven giving them their next mission.