Episode 17 was extremely excruciating to watch for me. I absolutely hate spiders and the spider kid made me shiver and cower. The only reason why this review came out longer than it should have is because of him. Yeah, we had mini spiders in the previous episodes but I could handle those. We had the spider mom, who was just a pretty demon. But this spider kid was terrible in that he was a head on a giant spider body. The way he moved around, all scriggly….ughhggh. It was worse with his army of human head spider things! Yuck! It was awful but I’m so glad Zenitsu took care of him in that episode or else I would have lost my mind.
Spider Dad was gross but wasn’t as bad thankfully. Anyway, of the two episodes, episode 17 is easily my favorite. I felt horrible for Zenitsu for many reasons, and I would have reacted the exact same way with all those spiders around me. Difference is that I can’t climb a tree but you bet I would be screaming and crying and running like an idiot.
We got an even deeper look into Zenitsu as a character and I want to give this poor boy a hug because he really needs one. Being duped by a girl he loved, getting struck by lighting that somehow changed his hair from dark to blonde, having no family, and being treated like a nobody. He absolutely hates himself and knows that he’s a coward, and because of this no one wants to stay by his side and support him. “He’s no good” is what people think, and slowly he’s left alone. My heart just kept breaking and breaking, but there was a bit of a bright side with his sensei. I couldn’t help but smile and laugh when Zenitsu screamed during one of his episodes that he loves his sensei and feels bad for being who he is, but he’s grateful to him for helping him out. It shows how much he loves him when he calls him “Gramps” instead of sensei, though that strikes an angry chord with one of Gramps’ other disciples who chastises Zenitsu. Just…I want to hug him. Everyone treats him like crap and he knows it, he hates himself but he still tries his best and I WANT TO HUG HIM. I’m glad he at least has Gramps as the sole positive person in his life, accepting him for who he is and being proud that he was able to at least learn one of the lightning techniques. He tells him to perfect what he’s good at, and to never give up, those words being the catalyst to unleashing a mighty blow to kill the spider kid (which might I add looked absolutely amazing!!)
We got to learn even more about this kid and they really did a great job in making you sympathize with him. The serious moments with Zenitsu are so damn good and I wish to see more of this, or just more serious moments like these that delve into the characters. Episode 18 showed something interesting with Inosuke as a memory of his mother I assume flashes before him. I’m not really a fan of Inosuke at all but I’d love to have an episode to himself going into his backstory, and just his feelings in general. Though, he’s not the type of guy who’s all touchy feely. He doesn’t like to use his head, for one thing. :/
Zenitsu is under the affect of the spider poison, his condition slowly worsening. Thankfully Shinobu appears in beautiful fashion, and it looks like she’s going to help him out. Yay! She and Giyu make it to the scene, but Giyu doesn’t appear until the end.
Inosuke and Tanjiro have to deal with the spider dad, who is incredibly strong. Inosuke is already injured so has trouble, and Tanjiro uses his ingenuity to fight this monster but unfortunately gets blown out of there. Instead, he comes across the other spider demons, the brother for some reason hurting his sister. Tanjiro says their bond is forged and this angers the brother demon (before killing a random idiot). This family is all kinds of dysfunctional and abusive. They work together but mistreat each other, so it really is hard to tell whether they care about each other or not. Tanjiro does bring up a good point, that it’s strange for demons to pact together like they are. It would be cool to know the reason why.
Inosuke has his hands full with spider dad and almost gets himself killed, but Giyu appears and saves the day by killing spider dad in a second without breaking a sweat. I assume the dad was supposed to be one of the Twelve Kizuki but we never saw a number on one of his eyes, so I wonder who is?
These were a great pair of episodes, with great storytelling and some amazing action and animation. I’m glad Shinobu and Giyu are here and I can’t wait to see more of them, while also getting to the bottom of who the Twelve Kizuki demon is. The Tanjiro fight ended with a terrifying cliffhanger with Tanjiro’s water ability failing against the spider boy’s web. I hope he does some quick thinking so he doesn’t get sliced by it. Also, I’m surprised Nezuko hasn’t appeared yet. No way can she still be sleeping when she’s flying around so much.
