throughout the week, i found myself amazed by your takes on giyuu’s character or sanegiyuu’s dynamic as whole and i just find myself so mesmerizing by your analysis because you truly get them as characters.
i’ve been saying this for ages — but i wish demon slayer was longer as a manga. it would’ve been so nice to see the hashiras play more of a role and form a better bond as a group by sorting through the different dynamics they have with each other and clearing any misunderstanding through basically filler episodes or some shit. (i was dragged into this fandom by found family hashira only to find out the found family in question was a lie. the family is on fire. the family is going through a divorce and a death in the fam too.
i wish we got to see more of the hashiras now i think more on it. like obanai backstory could’ve been shown way earlier so we can witness the change he has leading up to the final battle. i wish we could’ve seen more interactions or how exactly the hashiras go by their day as pillars to the rest. omg i wish we could’ve seen more of the hashiras reactions to giyuu (third in seniority as a hashira btw) sparing a demon and placing his life in her hands too. like why wasn’t this expanded more during the aftermath of the meeting? like imagine your co-worker being so contradicting. like one minute he’s aura farming and being nonchalant then boom. he became a single mother of two.
i wish we as a fandom can understand the characters we favor more smh. like giyuu was a hashira from age 15-16 (i like to go with 15 for angst), he has such honor to him and he is a man driven by duty yet haunted by guilt. he’s so interesting yet the fandom dumbs him down to “emo” “depressed” “suicidal” like guys can we be fr. giyuu is passive at best, but isn’t almost all the demon slayer corps members are? they are in an organization doomed to ruin them. but giyuu does not cut himself, he will not let himself die without witnessing his goal of all demons to be killed. we don’t even talk more on how the corps literally recruited sanemi bc of his unorthodox methods. his own suicidal tendencies.
but lemme not even get started on that bc i will crash out guys.
sanemi and giyuu dynamic could be so complex yet everyone is a COWARD as far as ik 😭. like here’s giyuu tomioka — a hashira for at least half a decade, accomplished with so many achievements under his belt, one of the strongest amongst the hashira, and yet he can’t see his own strength and assumed he’s underserving of his position. we know why sanemi could assume he thinks giyuu is better than him but for sanemi to even have this idea, he has to acknowledge giyuu skills and strengths. he has to hate that. bc giyuu is everything sanemi isn’t and vice versa. giyuu was trained under a former hashira (lol my fav nepo baby of the corps) which sanemi may have viewed that as a privilege when he had to work from scraps (and in his eyes that must mean giyuu was all prodigy rather than hard worker when it’s the opposite).
i’m actually so intrigued by your fic and it’s not even out yet lol. i’m so interested in how you’re going to showcase their dynamic. i also saw that it’ll have rengiyuu?? loll giyuu moving from his dead childhood bf to the co worker who always saw the best in him to sanemi. his number one hater. his fav ragebait victim. also the guy who sees the worse in him…oh it’ll be funny but sad.
anyways enough of my rant here’s my actual questions or whateverrr: what motivated you to write this fic like what was your inspiration? what are you most excited to have your audience read about in your fic? also what’s your fav duo in this fic and your most underrated duo that you randomly thought of making them interact and you was like “wait…they lowkey eat as a duo. slay ig”
Anon, I’m living for these asks rn cause I have told zero people about my fic in depth except my teddy bear (he’s tired of me lol). That post exam holiday freedom is hitting me so hard, the idea for the just hit me like a pile of bricks at the perfect time and I’m having so much fun with it. I’ve always been a heavy literature and lit analysis lover so it probably helps with my analysis cause I really like reading between the lines and seeing what makes people tick. Saw a TikTok comment earlier today talking about how sanegiyuu is a fetish ship because they never showed any romantic or even platonic feelings towards each other and have nothing in common. I was like wow, it’s one thing to be a homophobic dude bro but to even go as far as to ignore the fact post war they became friends and it was clear the only reason they weren’t before was the misunderstanding is crazy. I hate mischaracterization. I don’t know why but it genuinely is my biggest pet peeve. I don’t mean like hc’s like I’m not insane and intense or anything. I love characters being hc’d as different sexualities or having different backstories etc. But I just can’t stand it when the fundamentals are changed. Like there’s this creator on TikTok with an AU where Tanjiro did kill Giyuu that day in the woods and proceeded to hunt people for Nezuko. It’s such a far cry from the Tanjiro we know because Tanjiro is just so kind, it’s difficult to imagine he’d do such a thing. But they did such a good job at maintaining the fundamentals that it feels believable. His visions of his family warped to urging Tanjiro to keep Nezuko alive. His indecisive in the swordsmith village on whether to save those people or save Nezuko was so revealing. The only reason Tanjiro ever became a slayer was to save Nezuko. Even when he saw Daki and Gyutaro he noted how close him and Nezuko could have ended up like them. Giyuu saved them from a corruption of both their souls in more ways than one.
Truly there is a lot in demon slayer but it requires deep analysis because it’s hidden between the lines due to the story being underdeveloped. I don’t pretend it’s the best most well written thought out anime/manga to ever be made. After all it was Goutoge’s first piece. But as far as criticisms go, “we wish there was more” is the best response you can hope to get from your audience. There’s so much implied that these characters interact behind scenes but we never get to see it. Even that tiny scene where Mitsuri cooked pancakes for Tanjiro made me so happy because we rarely get to see these guys interact outside of plot essential scenes. And it was so cute cause they really are just a bunch of kids
Like Sanemi and Giyuu are supposed to be so very professional and put together and they are but at the end of the day, they’re still just a couple of 21 year olds. They should be in the club, not dealing with the horrors of supernatural war. Genuinely Giyuu adopting Tanjiro and Nezuko is an insane move but you consider the fact he’s just 21, emotionally repressed and stunted, and probably hasn’t been hugged since he left Urokodaki’s place and you’re like yeah it’s like kids bringing home random ass stray cats they found on the street without thinking about rabies or anything. It reminds me of this ep in Naruto when Sasuke, Mr Nonchalant CEO, actually acts like a kid for once thinking about what was hidden below his seniors mask. Yes Giyuu was nuts for randomly coming one day and vouching for these two to the point of seppuku if they fell short, I really wish we got more reactions after that. Even with Kyojuro’s death? We didn’t even get an informal hashira meeting or anything. I don’t know something to show they were actually united and talked to each other. It could have happened on screen but we wanted to see it come on :(
Okay but on the part of nepo baby Giyuu, it’s funny to think that Sanemi already is fuming about this guy only for him to be like “hey this is my younger adopted brother. Mr Nepo Baby new gen and he gets to keep his demon relative alive with him.” Yeah I don’t know how Sanemi didn’t actually murder Giyuu after that meeting. Truly people are cowards because of mischaracterization. So much abusive alpha Sanemi who just has anger issues but not enough people want to actually go deep into understanding just why Sanemi is so angry with Giyuu and how complicated their relationship is. And the characterizations of Giyuu as an uwu can’t stand up for himself crybaby make me wanna chew drywall. That man did not go out of his way to use his yearly speech count to call Sanemi simple minded then act like he didn’t say anything when asked about it just for fandom to think he won’t bite back if somebody starts something. Even when he fought Akaza he said he did not appreciate being thrown around like a rag doll and that extends to people talking shit to his face (although considering he is the 3rd deadliest man in Japan, that list is very short). Him and Sanemi would go bar for bar, hit for hit. The hashira worry that Giyuu is trying to start a fight not Sanemi. There’s a reason why and it’s not because Giyuu is Mr Fragile. He has pride and honour. The only reason he doesn’t say anything when Sanemi starts his ‘you think you’re better than us’ thing is because either way he still thinks the hashira shouldn’t associate with someone like him so what’s the point of clearing misunderstandings when the truth is just as bad, if not worse.
Also isn’t it funny how Giyuu is upset that Tanjiro didn’t master water breathing well enough to be the water hashira. But he also thinks Tanjiro is hashira level just a month later. Yes it’s partly because of Tanjiro relying on sun breathing, but Giyuu whether he realizes it or not is using his own skills for a litmus test here. He wants Tanjiro to be better than him because he feels he isn’t that good to begin with. But he quite literally made his own water breathing form and mastered the style in a way no other breather ever managed to. The cognitive dissonance this poor guy has pls
As for my fic, yes it’ll have rengiyuu! I’m very excited for their scenes together but the fic is canon compliant (for the most part) so I think you can guess what’s gonna happen to Kyojuro. I feel the manga put more emphasis on their interactions but even then they were limited. But Giyuu and Kyojuro seem to talk even more than Shinobu and Giyuu and yet people overlook their dynamic very easily. But even in the anime when Giyuu talks about Kyojuro a little speech bubble pops up next to him saying “love him” obviously as friends and for including him but yes he clearly cares a lot about him. Why didn’t we get more? Even in Kimetsu Gakuen, Kyojuro goes out of his way to include Giyuu even when Giyuu is excluding himself. He never forgets him :( if Giyuu got cursed he’d 100% try to help him in any way to his dying breath
My inspiration for the fic was quite literally Apollo hitting me with a giant red dodgeball to the face. I was thinking of forced proximity and how good of a trope it is for these two. Then I thought about the fuck or die trope by extension. Then my angst loving brain just kept turning it until I said well enemies who have to fuck while enemies is overdone, what if they had to fall in love first? Hmmm. Then I ended up with this monstrosity of a fic. As for my most excited thing for the characters to read, it’s definitely one of the later chapters when Giyuu and Sanemi start to get closer and start to open up to each other more and more. It’s post war so the only thing they have pressuring them or holding them back is themselves. It’s very cute I think, and very ‘oh god he’s looking at me don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic, I’m panicking’. Fave duo is Tanjiro and Giyuu cause Tanjiro is like the little angel of common sense and opening up sitting on Giyuu’s shoulder. Underrated is Nezuko and Giyuu cause I feel the anime mostly treated her as a plot device. I feel especially post war, she’d have a lot to say and a lot of feelings on things that would help Giyuu take that final step towards taking a hold on his desires.
I’m also excited to write Giyuu as an unreliable narrator and also even more underrated duo I can’t wait to sprinkle in is Kyojuro and Sanemi. How would it feel for Sanemi to watch Giyuu pick Kyojuro, to worry that even after mugen, Giyuu would always pick Kyojuro? Also I do ship SaneRen both platonic and romantic but mostly leaning to platonic with a deep devotion and mutual respect. So I’d say they’re the most interesting duo to pick apart since they have even less interactions than Giyuu and Kyo
