After episode one’s cruel and graphic nature, I somehow forgot that this was a Shounen Jump title. That’s why the sudden comedy was a little surprising this episode, but it didn’t make this episode any less enjoyable. It still had the danger and suspense the first episode gave us, while also giving us a little insight to Tanjiro and Nezuko’s new relationship, as well as a new character.
First off, I just want to say Nezuko is extremely adorable. She showed to be a possibly dangerous force last time, and she still showed that this episode too but while still being incredibly cute. Since she’s a demon now, like any other demon, she can’t travel in the sunlight as it can kill her. The demons of this world are basically like vampires, burning up into ashes immediately when being exposed to the sunlight. We don’t know how long the two have been traveling but it seems like it’s been awhile. While Tanjiro is off getting a basket and some bamboo, adamantly insisting a local farmer that he’ll pay for it because he’s a sweet boy, Nezuko is holed up in a dark cave waiting for him. Literally, in a hole. Like a mole. It seems she understands her situation pretty well and is taking extra precaution. Tanjiro wraps bamboo leaves around the basket to cover all the holes just for Nezuko to climb in. The whole scene was unusually funny and cute with Nezuko trying and failing in entering the basket. Tanjiro suggests she shrinks herself to fit in, to which she does and did I mention how cute Nezuko is? Yeah, she is. With her in the basket and a blanket wrapped around the basket for extra measure, Tanjiro can now freely travel during the day.
When night falls, the two siblings wander about together and come across a temple. Seeing a light inside and smelling blood in the air, Tanjiro rushes in to check what’s happened and sees a pair of bodies mutilated, and a demon eating them. Again, a very gruesome scene reminiscent of the first episode. Things get really intense as this demon attacks Tanjiro, while Nezuko is salivating and fighting her urge to also eat the corpses. When all of a sudden, Nezuko comes to Tanjiro’s rescue and kicks the demon’s head cleanly off like a soccer ball.
It…was strangely hilarious while also being gory at the same time. I’m not sure what to make of this fight because it was so strange. After the demon’s head gets kicked off, you think he’s dead. But then his headless body stands up and attacks Nezuko. As Tanjiro tries to help, the head comes back because the head somehow grew arms and it looked like this messed up looking Geodude. It was a really serious situation because Nezuko was being beaten badly and Tanjiro had his own troubles, but the whole fight was just so weird and kind of funny. At least the show continues to deliver with its beautiful animation (besides the CG) and OST. In the end, they manage to kill the body by making it fall off a cliff, and Tanjiro goes over to the head to finish it off. But he hesitates.
That seems to be his biggest weakness as Sakonji, a man in a tengu mask, approaches him. Stabbing it won’t work, and Tanjiro hesitates to bash its head in with a rock. He takes too much time and the sun rises, killing the demon. We get our proper introduction to the man Giyu had mentioned before, Sakonji Urokodaki. He poses a very important question to Tanjiro: What will he do when Nezuko hurts an innocent human? He hesitates to answer and he points out to him that being his biggest weakness holding him back. He can’t make decisions, and in a life or death situation, that could be his death sentence. Pretty much immediately, Sakonji takes Tanjiro (with basket Nezuko) to his house and starts him on a test.
Sakonji seems like a pretty cool character. He’s your typical mentor taking our naive shounen protagonist to a forest on a mountain and sets traps for him to navigate through, testing him to return to the house before daybreak. Yup, typical mentor. We haven’t seen too much of his personality other than the usual you’d see in the mentor trope, but it is pretty interesting that he also possesses the same heightened sense of smell that Tanjiro has, which Giyu mentioned in his letter to Sakonji. He seems like a pretty good guy, though, as he kept his promise and watched over Nezuko as she slept and took on Tanjiro as his student when he came back in time. It’ll be cool to see what he’ll teach him and what kinds of powers he has of his own.
I’m liking Tanjiro more and more. He’s incredibly kind and sweet but he’ll still put himself in harm’s way to protect Nezuko. He kind of reminds me of Deku actually. I like the sis/bro moments between him and Nezuko, they’re really cute and sweet. The demon fight was a little strange but it was pretty entertaining if I have to be honest. The balance between the comedy and serious moments were done really well thankfully, and the visuals continue to impress. I’m really liking the atmosphere of this show so far as it kind of reminds me of Dororo, except a little less sad. :’)))
I think the moment where Tanjirou hesitate when trying to kill the demon is great. Remember before switch to a rock, he was already ready to kill the demon with a knife. he only hesitate because he don’t know how to end the demon life quickly and less painful way. He know he have to kill demon to protect the innocents and his his sister, but he also don’t want to inflict needless cruelty to another sentient being.
Yes, it was very interesting! It’s amazing that Tanjiro didn’t show resentment towards the demon. It wasn’t the demon that killed his family but it was a demon no less that killed two innocent people already. You would think that Tanjiro would have an easy time killing one, but he showed kindness to the demon in not wanting to give it a painful death. Here I thought he would be like Eren from Attack on Titan, but Tanjiro’s the complete opposite. Though his kindness is a good thing, it could also be a bad thing.