Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 1: Cruelty (First Impression)

I went into this not really knowing what to expect, only knowing the hype surrounding this series. The PV was enough to draw me in and I came out of this episode with some positivity. Even though the events that happened in the episode were nothing positive.

Tanjirou is a young boy that tries his hardest to make a living for his family being the eldest. His father died awhile ago and he left behind a wife and six children. That’s a huge family for a single mother to have to care for but thankfully Tanjirou is a really good kid and helps out by selling charcoal to the city. People seem to like him a lot and he was able to sell all the charcoal he had.

But things turn slightly sinister as an old man makes Tanjirou stay at his place for the night as he fears the mountains to be very dangerous. A huge red flag. They talk about demons and the old man mentions demon slayers being the ones to protect people from the demons from killing them at night. Tanjirou thinks it over but then falls asleep and as he leaves the next morning, he repeats the line he said in the beginning. “Whenever happiness is destroyed, there’s always the smell of blood.”

He smells blood in the air, because for some reason Tanjirou has a really good sense of smell like a dog. He was able to help someone in town by saying a cat broke a vase, and this time he used his smell to figure out something was very wrong. Running to his house, he comes across his sister Nezuko and his youngest brother on the ground covered in blood. Peering inside the house he sees the horrific sight of his mother and the rest of his siblings mutilated in a bloody mess. I knew his family was going to die with all the foreshadowing and the introduction to them all in the beginning, but I didn’t expect the killing to be so gruesome. The total inside of the house was covered in blood so I’m kind of glad they didn’t show it onscreen. Feeling the warmth from Nezuko however, he grabs her and runs for a doctor to treat her wounds. But his life gets even worse when Nezuko turns into a demon and attacks him.

The whole episode was pretty depressing. Even though he and his family lived a tough life, they were still pretty happy and you could see that before he left for town. But just like he said, life can change in a second just like the weather. In an instant, Tanjirou had everything and then lost it all. Even though he still has Nezuko, she’s not the same person anymore. She was intent on attacking and killing him until Giyu appeared. And if he hadn’t defended her, he would have lost his last family member. Tanjirou’s begging was painful to hear, and thankfully Giyu doesn’t seem like a bad person.

Giyu partially feels responsible for letting Tanjirou’s family get murdered. If only he had arrived sooner, they’d still be alive. Giyu doesn’t want to hurt Tanjirou any more than he is right now, but he sees the logic in it all. We learn from him that Nezuko turned into a demon because demon blood had been introduced to her body. Now that she’s a demon, she’s going to hunger for humans and the best thing is to kill her before she does. Tanjirou mentions that Nezuko wasn’t the one that killed their family as he smelled a scent other than his family’s. He begs Giyu not to kill her by bowing, but Giyu eggs him on to fight. Don’t turn away, don’t show weakness at a time like this. He wants him to fight back, and he does. Tanjirou does show some skill with his ax work. Thankfully nothing bad happens and when Tanjirou comes to, he finds Nezuko lying next to him with bamboo on her mouth. He tells Tanjirou to meet a certain man by a mountain that could help them out before leaving. Seeing as how Nezuko went to protect her brother, he saw that maybe these siblings could be different and lended his aid. And before he and Nezuko set out on their new journey, they bury their family members and I can’t imagine the strength of going back inside that house to give them graves. I shudder at the thought.

This was your typical introduction episode but it was a pretty thrilling start. The show made it pretty obvious in the beginning that something terrible was going to happen, but of course if you read the synopsis you’d know what would happen too. But I’d say that it did pretty well keeping me engaged, especially with Nezuko’s condition. I also like Tanjirou already and Giyu also catches my attention.

Ufotable is handling this and as usual it looks very nice. The setting is gorgeous and the characters look great. I really like the thick lines and Tanjirou’s squiggly pupils. The OP also showed some sweet action and beauty with the character’s abilities. The only drawback is the constant use of CG in places where I felt didn’t even need to be used such as Tanjirou just…walking. Especially in the beginning when he was carrying Nezuko on his back. They did a great job of his struggling to walk in the snow due to carrying his sister and also because his nerves were high in desperation. But then it pans out and you can see a CG Tanjirou walking through the snow normally. It’s just really strange, especially when the CG is very noticeable in other scenes as well. But other than that, the show looks good visually, and the OST is amazing as well. Pretty expected of Ufotable. Nezuko also looked pretty scary and that just made me more sad.

The show has a pretty solid start. I wonder how Tanjirou got that wound on his head and I wonder how Nezuko will be from now on. That bamboo thing on her mouth seems to ease her urges or something because she woke up all calm. I like the atmosphere of the show so far but I still have no clue where it will go from here. The OP showed lots of other characters and it sort of gave me this “school” setting, which I’m really worried that this will just turn into a generic battle shounen. I hope this could be the exception so I’m still a little wary, but I don’t mind checking out the show some more because it does look pretty promising!

Possibility of watching: High

Possibility of blogging: High