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Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Season 1 Episode 1 Recap – Cruelty
BY Harris
Published 2 years ago
Family
A boy named Tanjiro readies himself to sell charcoal to a nearby village. Two of his younger siblings want to go along, but the snow is thick, and the wagons can’t pass. He promises to bring them gifts instead. His mom asks him to be careful before sending him off.
Tanjiro meets her sister Nezuko on the road. She’s carrying their youngest sibling on her back, who’s fast asleep.
Back in town, he meets several patrons. One of them comes to him distressed, as he’s being accused of breaking a vase. Tanjiro uses his sense of smell and figures out that a cat is the culprit. It’s a unique talent of his.
After selling his wares, he heads back home to the mountaintop. One of the men from the base of the mountain, Mr. Saburo, tells him not to go home at night for fear of demons. He explains that man-eating demons are coming out nowadays. He asks him to sleep there and go home the next day instead.
Smell of Blood
He climbs back the following day to find a strange smell on the road. He sees Nezuko lying down and bleeding by their door when he reaches home. Tanjiro panics and checks inside. Every single one of his family is dead; only Nezuko remains breathing.
He carries his sister to the nearest doctor in town. It’s a long way, and the cold air burns his lungs.
Nezuko convulses behind him, leading them both to fall from a low cliff. The snow saved them from the fall, but Nezuko is acting strange. She tries to bite him. Her sister has become a demon.
Tanjiro can’t believe it. Even her sister’s smell is different. He tries to block with his hatchet, but her strength is growing. Tanjiro feels sorry for not being there to save everyone, but he feels determined to save her. He asks her not to transform into a demon, and tears fall from her eyes.
The Swordsman
A stranger appears, who tries to cut her with a sword. Tanjiro dodges and is shocked by the newcomer.
The swordsman asks him why he’s defending her, and Tanjiro explains that she’s his sister. The swordsman moved like a blur, snatching Nezuko away from him. He explains that he’s here to kill demons.
Nezuko has gotten demon blood injected into her body and has now become one herself. That’s how they grow their numbers.
Tanjiro rejects this idea. He knows he can cure her sister and that he can find the one who killed his family. He bows and begs the stranger to spare them.
Man-eating Demon
The swordsman yells at him that it’s not that simple. The weak don’t have a choice in this world. There is no way to cure a demon, and she’s too far gone. He stabs Nezuko, but Tanjiro fights back and picks up his hatchet.
He runs at him to strike but is countered easily. The ax, however, goes missing from his hand, and it hit the tree behind the swordsman, almost wounding him.
Nezuko frees herself from the man; she runs to his brother and snarls to protect him. She then attacks the swordsman, who dodges easily. Something curious is happening here. The man knocks her out with a karate chop.
Tanjiro wakes up after hearing his dead mother’s voice. He sees Nezuko alive with a bamboo muzzle, realizing the two of them have been saved. The swordsman tells him to go with his sister to the Sagiri mountain to find a man, and that Giyu Tomioka sent them.
Tanjiro and Nezuko head back home to bury their dead family before leaving to follow Giyu’s directions.
Our Thoughts:
The perfect first episode to introduce us to this world – it’s a contrast of a loving and gentle family pit against a reality where man-eating demons exist. If your heart’s not rearing from this first episode, you might have to get it checked. I rate this episode 4/5.
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