muffin doodles 🌻

" Why were you even born? "

the hashira thinking genya and sanemi are actually super alike

but then there’s genya laughing at tanjiro’s lame jokes and, oh, look! it’s genya struggling to make a flower crown for nezuko, and then genya throwing acorns at inosuke, a teasing grin spread across his face. genya, helping tanjiro make food, genya, all red and nervous around women, genya, covering his ears because zenitsu and inosuke are being too loud. genya, genya, genya, the sweet little baby who is nothing like his brother

and then tengen and giyuu, who had been amongst the hashira as they had made this observation of the contrast of the shinazugawa’s. living to see a different side of sanemi, to see him bashful, and happy, and calm. to see him getting along with nezuko, see him returning tanjiro’s glare even as he sits with a flower crown in his hair. engaging in light conversations about this and that, humming quietly to himself as he helps aoi with the laundry. it’s just sanemi and the little peace he managed to snag, letting him relax slowly as the years pass. maybe genya and sanemi were very much alike, maybe they just needed the right circumstances.

KnY does an excellent job of establishing and building its characters and their traits, familiarizing them to us one way, and then using this knowledge to make us emotional when they act differently than we expect. There are many moments in the story where this happens, like when Inosuke finally says Tanjiro's name correctly just as he admits he can't bring himself to kill him, or when Zenitsu fights Kaigaku while fully awake. We see it in Kanae's seriousness when she encourages Shinobu to keep fighting and in Tengen's surprising gentleness with his wives.

But my favorite example of this is in chapter 179. Prior to the moment where Sanemi loses Genya and breaks down, pleading with God to save his little brother, we've never seen anything like this from him. Until that point, Sanemi has been portrayed as a menacing, violent, and volatile figure, someone who is fiercely independent highly competent and incredibly strong. He even dismisses his brother for being weak takes out a group of Lower Moons in one blow and goes up against the second strongest demon in the world. While we’ve seen him get emotional before, like shedding frustrated tears at the loss of the master or a quiet tear while reading Masachika’s will, we’ve never seen him truly fall apart. Not even when he lost his entire family in one night, he just stood there empty, like a puppet.

This made the moment in Chapter 179 hit even harder. When I first read the manga, I didn’t exactly favor Sanemi. But when this scene happened, I was struck by how upsetting it was to watch this formidable man beg for something he knows is impossible. Seeing someone who's the embodiment of hurricanes be helpless like that was heartbreaking. It hit me so hard because the story had built up his image so well up to that moment, making the contrast all the more impactful.

I can't imagine how scared he was when he first met Ruka after escaping

mamas boy

We need to talk about how Giyuu has always noticed Shinobu being affected by her wisteria dosing. I feel like he worries but doesn't know how to express his concerns for her so he just stays silent.

3 days.

The irony of so much of the demon slayer fandom arguing about who is the strongest and who "solos" who when two of the biggest and most reoccuring themes in the story are a) people all have something different to bring to the table that can contribute in unforseeable ways and b) some enemies can't be defeated alone and every little thing helps either your companions or your successors accomplish what you couldn't by yourself. Every action can change the outcome.

The final fight is literally a testament to that with muzan "soloing" everyone and losing to the combined power of every corps member, even the weakest ones. There were low ranking members holding up nearly every hashira as they fought. One guy just straight up drove a car into muzan, an act requiring no specific skill and a lot of nerve! And it all mattered in the end!

Creativity, willingness, and the importance of connections are literally major themes!!! That the demons couldn't genuinely cooperate with each other was one of their most fatal flaws!!! Lust for individual power was not the great driving force in any of the heros, only the demons. And every time, it was presented as a major flaw that ultimately ruined them.

Angst version

yes yes characters doomed by the narrative always slap BUT what about characters saved by the narrative? characters who have already given up hope and don't know they have a happy ending? characters who believe they are a lost cause, characters who feel irredeemable, characters who think there's nothing left for them, but the narrative does provide a way out? what about the characters who don't expect anything good, who don't even remember how to wish for it anymore, who get the things they need anyway? what about the characters who actively run from being saved getting saved in a way they can't stop or control. what about being saved by the narrative!!!

manga panel redraw of KnY Chapter 162

Early access posted on my Patreon

I had a vision

speaking of Kaigaku, his interaction with Yushiro is actually the funniest thing to happen in the entire manga

gripped by the image lol

i find it hard to believe that genya had no part helping tamayo and shinobu create a cure for demons. like if they're looking for a connection between demons and humans, he's the NUMBER ONE choice. if they want anything about turning from a demon back into a human, he's probably done it so many times! the process to revert back to humanoid features from long nails and fangs would probably be drilled into genya's memory. they could also study the process of how he flushes muzan's cells out of his body as they wear off and use it in the general cure. like they have so much potential. that could also explain why genya wouldn't generally be at the hashira training, or some heart-to-heart moment between genya and one of the girlboss scientists (shinobu and their relations to their older siblings, or tamayo sort if hinting at her own family) could've triggered him to tell sanemi about his eating habits...

also chachamaru and genya <3

douma recognizes those glittering emerald eyes

What everyone thinks of giyuu...

What actually in his mind...

I see people talk about how gut wrenching that scene is but have never seen a single analysis of just how much buildup there was to that one moment.