The corps has probably failed from what Yoriichi wanted it be.
Yoriichi, probably from the start, wanted the corps to work to only defeat Muzan. That's it. I'm not extremely sure about the Sengoku era training, but it was absolutely better than how the Taisho-era corps does it.
Back then, Yoriichi probably shared what information he knew about demons, which might've been small, but he probably considered a lot of possibilities on how demons behave and what they use the most out of others, with the other Hashira. The Taisho era corps organization does not give any prior information or even guesses to the new members, almost definitely just sending lambs to the predators' den like a compliment.
The Sengoku era probably also solely focused on people who could handle that type of pressure of overwhelming demons and potentially death at any demon meeting and didn't have that many people, maybe 3-4 people max for each Hashira to train.
Also, the corps in the Taisho era now feels like it's become something to protect the Ubuyashiki line instead of focusing on destroying the root of all demons, aka Muzan.
I really wish more people considered why Obanai hates Tanjiro rather than reducing it to just Jealousy. Sure jealousy (and envy which I never see mentioned despite Obanai probably wanting to spend more time with Mitsuri that he doesn’t have and Tanjiro does during the training arc) can be part of why Obanai has ill feelings for Tanjiro but it’s not the only reason. Onions have layers!!
Manga spoilers below
Tanjiro broke corps rules by traveling with a demon. A demon. The same species that Obanai’s family worshiped. That wanted his mouth cut open. That scared him every night by crawling near his cell. That killed his family which he blames himself for. Of course he is not going to trust Nezuko and by extension Tanjiro. Most of the hashira didn’t accept her at first either.
And we know Obanai takes the rules and being a hashira seriously. With the way he insisted Giyuu should be punished for defending the siblings and wanting Tengen to continue fighting despite his injuries. So simply breaking the rules also put Tanjiro on his bad side.
He also is protective of Mitsuri. We see this during the Muzan fight when he takes her out of battle. Obanai doesn’t want Mitsuri to get hurt. But during the training arc he has students to train and she seems fine from her letters so he doesn’t physically check up on her. That doesn’t mean his protectiveness and worry went away.
It also makes me wonder how Obanai felt knowing Tanjiro was there when Kyojuro died. Someone who I imagine was close with Obanai since his father saved him from the snake demon. When he was roughly 12 and had nowhere else to go. Especially since he refused to believe kyojuro died when first hearing the news. It would make his protectiveness of Mitsuri from Tanjiro fiercer than it already was
Uh anyway ya there’s definitely more to it than just jealousy/envy
genya's death was unexpected because there was barely any focus on him during the fight against kokushibo. there was a normal amount of development and narration from him, shown through that quick interaction between him and muichiro or eating kokushibo's hair, but other than that there was no depth into his past. the same can't be said about sanemi, however, as there was that look into his backstory after where genya left off. it led me to believe that sanemi would die throughout that fight, solely because this was our first glimpse into him from his perspective. this would have fit the narrative that sanemi had always wanted for genya; that genya would live in a world where sanemi had succeeded in defeating evil, and continue living for many years after. imagine my shock when genya was the one to die. rather than being a hopeful theme, it was one of tragedy: that you cannot save everyone, and so you have to cherish what you have while you still have it in your grasp. sanemi's life is filled with tragedy and loss when he pushed everyone away in anger where genya had support and healing along with people who he cared about and who cared about him back.
[A small contradictory post as a follow up to my previous Yoriichi's speed post..where he's nearly as fast as light]
▪︎Here, Yoriichi had ended up in Mount Kumutori; located in the boundaries of Tokyo, Saitama, and Yamanashi. This is because, as we know- he ended up sharing a home with Uta, before eventually giving it away to sumiyoshi where tanjiro would later be born to.
DISTANCE: If we consider the maximum distance from that point to the farthest edge of the country, which is Kushito, the road distance amounts to 1,397 kilometres to find out his max speed.
TIME: The phrase "whole day and night" in the panel above is somewhat ambiguous; it could refer to a full 24-hour period or simply one complete night plus the day before it reaches afternoon. Some translations state "one day and one night," which seems to resonate within the fandom as well, so for our calculations, let's assume he ran continuously for 24 hours.
So, to find his SPEED: 1397/24 = 58.208 km/h
For comparison, this would be as fast as a speedy bicycle.. yep- or perhaps just as fast as an average car.
This is how fast he would be running in real time for comparison [you could check that small watch he's having, and compare it to when it reaches 58. it's not the fastest in the verse but.. it's still fast regardless]
Still surprised that Tanjiro did not meet UM-2 (who would have been a perfect foil to Tanjiro 's kindness with his mock one) and UM-1 (with Yorichi legacy and Sun Breathing).... It could have been Shinobu and Tanjiro meeting UM-2 and Tanjiro learning about Kanae's killer just before Infinity Castle Arc..
Similarly, Tanjiro and Muichiro finally coming across Kokushibo briefly in a similar manner, maybe in an episode where Zenitsu learns about Kaigaku and gets to meet him and learns who made him an Upper Moon...I think all these could be accommodated in Hashira Training Arc itself without giving away much!
Surreal that Tanjiro should not meet two Upper Moons who actually could be his perfect foils in symbolic terms...
Imagine Doma being confronted for his fake kindness by Tanjiro in that brief encounter and then Kanao throwing the same in his face later on.... Similarly, the fact that Kokushibo should not meet someone who was his detested brother 's incarnation of sorts cannot be termed anything but a loophole...All these battles except for Akaza and Muzan ones needed a proper build-up...And Hashira training Arc should have been utilised to build these battles even if much need not to be revealed...
Folks who complain Hashira Training Arc should have been a longer season are right...So many battles of the last arc could have had a build-up in this arc...
Demon slayer fandom has completely ruined sanemi's character to the point whenever I try to talk how canonically sanemi is a very sensitive and caring person it feels like I'm infantilizing him
Do you think it had to be rengoku who died? Or could it have been a different character or hashira and still give the same effect?
AA THIS IS SUCH A GOOD QUESTION!! Okay im likely gonna go back and edit this later once i think of Better Words, but prepare for a Long Ass Leon Analysis Post
I think that while a similar effect could have happened had it been another Hashira, the fact that it was Rengoku affected not just Tanjiro, but the rest of the Corps in a massive ripple effect. I’m assuming that by asking this you’ve read my “why Rengoku’s death impacts the outcome of the series” analysis post, but regardless, im gonna start rambling now lol
Let’s turn it into a cause-and-effect formula. If [Hashira] dies after the Mugen Train Incident, it affects Tanjiro with [x] and the rest of the Corps with [y]. When Rengoku died, it devastated Tanjiro because of both his personal connection to Rengoku (Flame Breathing vs Sun Breathing, as well as Rengoku’s infectious brotherly attitude) and his respect for the Hashira as a whole. X is Tanjiro’s devastation and his exposure to the Actual Strongest Demons. Y, on the other hand, is much more powerful, because of Rengoku specifically. He was like an older brother to Mitsuri. He was an icon of strength and persistence for Tengen. He was a beacon of encouragement for everyone he encountered, and Rengoku was uniquely inspiring in that way. Rengoku, specifically. The latest link in the Flame Hashira chain, the Rengoku family legacy, he was really more legend than man. He was an unfalteringly blazing beacon of constant courage and flaming strength, and his loss hit especially hard, because of how unstoppable he always strove to be. Even the surlier Hashira like Sanemi and Obanai respected him, because he’s just that bright. He’s open, and approachable, and kind. He may be a legend, but he’s a human, living legend. He was friends with everyone, and impacted everyone’s lives just by being in them. The unceremonious and sudden nature of his death is what causes X to hit so hard for Tanjiro, and what causes Y to extend far beyond him.
If, for example, Sanemi was the one who dies at Mugen Train, things would’ve turned out much differently. Sanemi never accepted Nezuko, and probably would’ve died scorning her. This would cause X to be much less impactful for Tanjiro. He would still be devastated, because he’s Tanjiro, and because he holds a deep respect for all the Hashira, but Sanemi’s refusal to acknowledge Nezuko would significantly dampen the impact of his death. X would still hit hard, because Tanjiro is exposed to an immensely powerful warrior being unceremoniously taken out by a demon like Akaza, but Sanemi’s generally unapproachable nature as well as the fact that he stabbed Nezuko would significantly dampen the impact on Tanjiro. Additionally, Tanjiro doesn’t know Genya yet, so he wouldn’t have any personal motivation for sympathy. In the case of Rengoku, when he mentions Senjuro, that hits hard for Tanjiro, because they’re both eldest brothers. As for the rest of the Corps, they’d be devastated for the same reasons as Tanjiro- a Hashira has fallen, and that’s a rare and devastating casualty of war. But Sanemi doesn’t have the same social impact that Rengoku does, so ultimately I think neither X or Y would hit as hard.
Honestly im trying to stop myself from plugging every Hashira into this equation just for the sake of analysis, so I might come back to this later when I’ve gotten a bit more sleep lmao
Now let’s take a Hashira that Tanjiro has a personal connection to, like Shinobu or Giyuu. If Shinobu had come with Tanjiro to personally investigate Mugen Train, he would almost certainly blame himself for her death, and X would be a different flavor of powerful, because of her conversation with him in about Kanae’s dream. The death of any Hashira would cause Y to have some ripple effect, purely because it’s a Hashira, but ultimately, the only Hashira I believe could even start to rival Kyojuro’s influence is Gyomei, purely because he’s been a Hashira for so long. But no other Slayer had the same warmth and personable character that Kyojuro had, and that’s why his death in particular hits so hard. If Giyuu had died, Tanjiro would likely have been just as upset as he was with Rengoku- he’s witnessed Giyuu’s strength on multiple occasions, and Giyuu has staked his life on Nezuko. That’s something that Tanjiro won’t easily forget, and if Giyuu had died, it would easily devastate him to push himself harder, giving X the same emotional weight as Kyojuro’s death. However, because it’s Giyuu, Y would be MUCH less impactful, because a lot of the Hashira actively dislike him. ( @princeblue actually has an excellent analysis post on why he pisses the other Hashira off, I would recommend reading it, they make some excellent points!!)
Anyway, to restate my thesis, Rengoku’s death was as impactful as it was not just because he was a Hashira, but because he was Rengoku. He’s an infallible beacon of hope and warmth, and his unceremonious death sent a ripple effect through the entire Corps. He touches the lives of everyone he meets, intentionally or not- it’s just who he is. Much like Tanjiro, his passion is infectious, and his spark and drive spread to everyone who loved him after his death. It would still devastate Tanjiro to no end to watch a Hashira die in front of him, but it was Rengoku’s personal connection to not just Tanjiro, but the entire Corps that ultimately made him as impactful of a character as he was.
That last paragraph was a little shaky, I have a nasty habit of only doing analysis writing when it’s 4:30am and I should be sleeping, please ask me to clarify anything if I fucked up! I promise it makes so much sense in my head lmao
Thank you so much for this ask I’m literally happy stimming sitting here poking away at analysis posts nothing makes me happier than media-dissecting my blorbos
Hello, I’m back talking about Demon Slayer and what is probably considered to be the most iconic fight in the manga. So iconic, that they made the entire fight into a high budget movie that destroyed box office records. What makes the fight so iconic isn’t just that Rengoku is so likable a character, that his heroic sacrifice is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the manga.
The fight is good because it’s got a strong thematic backbone, it is like many things in the demon slayer manga about death, and the way both Rengoku and Akaza react to the deaths they’ve experienced in their lifes. The parallels between the two become even stronger when we learn about Akaza’s backstory during his second fight.
Weak vs. Strong
Rengoku and Akaza don’t only represent opposite elements (Akaza is ice/water, and Rengoku is fire), they also represent opopsite social ideals. Akaza is a social darwinist who believes in the right of the strong. Whereas, Akaza’s entire character is based around the idea of noblesse oblige. Strong people are obligated to protect weak people because they are more capable.
Akaza pursues strength at the cost of everything else, even begging Rengoku to accept a demon’s blood and become immortal because that will give him even more time to grow stronger. His opening act is to even attack Tanjiro while he’s helpless on the ground and injured, because he wanted to eliminate another weak person so he could talk to Rengoku without being interrupted. While he is a demon Akaza’s worldview that the only option the weak have is to die off and be taken care of by nature.
Akaza however, only defines strength as martial combat ability. Rengoku is able to counteract his argument right away by pointing out that people can be strong in more ways than one, which cuts to a panel of the innocent people on the train who are not demon slayers but have the strength to keep going and crawl their way out of the wreckage of a disaster. In Rengoku’s world it’s difficult just to live because life itself is fleeting, therefore surviving is it’s own strength.
Rengoku’s opinions on weakness go even further in his own spinoff chapters, where you learn that his philosophy on strength vs. weakness doesn’t just come from his mother telling him he’s obligated to help others because he’s born strong, but his father also constantly trying to discourage him from becoming a Hashira by insisting he’s weak. His father’s own mental breakdown into lounging around all day drinking, came from the fact that he felt that flame breathing was inferior to sun breathing therefore it wasn’t worth trying if he could never measure up.
In response to his father’s words, Rengoku instead of insisting that the only people who are strong have value, searches for other values people have and other strength besides physical strength. His brother Senjuro being the example, despite Senjuro being incredibly eager to train he’s not talented enough to become Rengoku’s Tsuguko. In spite of that fact, Senjuro keeps trying without getting discouraged which Rengoku sees as a strength.
In Rengoku’s mind a weak person striving to be strong, even if they don’t accomplish anything, or make progress is a strength, because that ability to put effort in and strive is what matters not the results. Rengoku’s chapter further on goes to praise the rank and file members of thedemon corps who never become Hashira simply because they don’t have the talent to advance and yet risk their lives all the same. In his mind value lies in effort and striving for something not talent or results.
Rengoku’s ideas of strength and weakness comes from his admiration of the people around him and humanity in general he praises their strengths. While we learn in Akaza’s backstory, his social darwinism comes from the actions of people around him poisoning his viewpoints, to the part where he can only see their faults.
The irony of Akaza’s backstory is how different his behavior as Kyojuro is from that of him as a human. Hakuji’s loved ones are two weak people entirely dependent on other people for their care, the kind of person that Akaza claims to despise.
Hakuji’s father dies because of the same social darwinist philosophies that Akaza espouses. His father needed medicine but couldn’t afford it because he was poor. Rather than just give him the medicine, society lets him die off like it was his fault in the first place for being poor, therefore he doesn’t deserve medicine that could heal him. Society punishes Akaza for simply trying to steal money for medicine when he was no other options, rather than just making the medicine cheaper, because the rich are right by the virtue they have more strength in their society.
His second loved one is obviously Koyuki, the girl he nursed after being taken in by his teacher. Koyuki is also someone weak that everyone has written off as dead simply because she needs care from other people and can’t get better on her own. The simple task of taking care of her is apparently so dificult that her mother commits suicide and her father leaves it to somebody else entirely.
However, Koyuki’s recovery proves that this social darwinist philosophy is wrong, because after three years of nursing her Koyuki is fully recovered and finally able to take care of herself simply because someone put the effort in of giving her help when she needed it rather than letting her die. Because, society doesn’t actually function on social darwinist ideals, it’s cooperative. If everyone was out for themselves, people wouldn’t form cities and towns, they wouldn’t have jobs, they wouldn’t even bother taking care of the sick.
Hakuji believes similiar to Rengoku that it’s worth the effort to nurse sick people, and take care of people that can’t take care of themselves, he never once felt like either of them were a burden. They’re even both inspired to help others because of the dying request of a parent. Rengoku’s mother was too sick to continue living and told Rengoku before he died to live his life taking care of others. Hakuji’s father kills himself so Akaza will no longer have to steal to support him, and his last words are a request for Akaza to start his life over again.
They’re also very self-sacrificing in nature, Hakuji said repeatedly he didn’t care at all if he was beaten or marked as a crimminal for his father he would have endured all of it just to help him get better. Rengoku himself even endures his drunken father’s constant abuse with patience because he understands that his father became that way out of grief for their mother, and his dying words to his father are just requesting for his father to take care of himself.
They are both strong people who wish to take care of the weak people in their lives, so what exactly was the branching off point where Hakuji turned into Akaza.
Life vs Death
Demon slayer is a manga about death, and more particularly the difficulty of living in a world where no matter what you do all life ends in death and there’s no controlling when either you or someone you love dies. It’s why the first event in the manga is the senseless slaughter of Tanjiro’s entire family, which Tanjiro was not even around to witness simply because he slept in town for the night because it’d be dangerous to climb up the mountain in the dark.
Akaza turns into Hakuji after the senseless death of his loved ones, something that just like the death of Tanjiro’s family happened when he was not with them. Hakuji only leaves for a day to visit his father’s grave to tell him of his marriage, and he’s back by nightfall on the same day only to discover they’re dead by a poisoned well.
Of course if Akaza had been there, it’s likely there was little he could have done but drink the poisoned water and died alongside them because nobody knew that the well was poisoned. There are two differences in this scenario of course, number one Tanjiro still had one person left in his life to take care of while Akaza was stranded alone. Number two, at that point Akaza gave up on living entirely and only wished to die alongside his family.
After this point Hakuji becomes Akaza, and his views towards life resemble nihilism. In his mind death makes life meaningless, because no matter how much you strive to take care or protect someone it’s always going to end in their death. Of course if he’d been allowed to make a few more happy memories with Koyuki instead of suffering such an early and tragic loss things might have been different, but the sudden loss of her robbed him of all strength to continue believing in any value in life.
This is in contrast to Rengoku who insists that life’s epehemeral nature is what makes it beautiful. What makes it special and unique is that it doesn’t last forever, therefore people need to value the loved ones and the times of happiness they have because they’re not going to have them forever. Rengoku gives worth to what is fleeting, but Akaza suffered too much loss and seeks immortality even if it’s a pointless one.
Hakuji and Rengoku have the same values of protecting the weak, but Rengoku is able to live up to his goal of protecting weak people, even finally giving his life having succesfully protected not only everyone on the train but Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke. Rengoku succeeded at his duty, and Hakuji failed at his.
Which causes Hakuji out of guilt for his failures to flip his entire identity around. Even in the symbolism of his name. Hakuji has the same character as “Koma” in Komainu, and he lives his life like a Komainu protecting a shrine.
This philosophy of life vs. death even incorporates budhist values. Akaza is the third pillar because he represents the three universal truths held be budhism. Dukha, suffering (the idea that all suffering is inherent to life), Anicca (impermanence, the idea that everything is change) and Anatta (Non-self soulless / lack of self) the third being the way that he’s beaten by Tanjiro.
Akaza’s driven to become who he is because of his inability to cope with the first two values, the suffering inherent to life and it’s impermanence. His reaction to Koyuki’s death causes him to veer into nihilism, the belief that his whole life was worthless including his love of Koyuki, his father, and his master (there are three people in his life he decided to protect as well, and when he loses all three he’s no longer able to uphold the values in his life).
In fact, impermanence is a running theme to his character. His relationship with Koyuki is symbolically tied to fireworks, she fell in love with him out of his belief that she’d be able to see the fireworks next year so she didn’t have to apologize for missing them this year. When the two of them officially get engaged there are fireworks exploding in the background. Akaza’s moves are all named after fireworks. Fireworks are, brief and beautiful explosions in the sky that fade quickly.
When he becomes a demon he also violates all three of those values, he becomes immortal instead of impermanent like a human being, he causes suffering to others, and he’s unable to reach the state of “no-self” that Tanjiro climbed to in order to defeat him. However, Akaza prolonging his life only keeps him trapped in the cycle of suffering. This is also inherent to budhism, that as long as people are alive, their human desires will cause them suffering because they’re inherently selfish. In the cycle of reincarnation, people are born again and again until they purify themselves and escape the cycle completely.
When Akaza embraces both his painful memories of the past, he’s finally able to remember the things that were good about his life, the love that he had no matter how brief. It’s through embracing his suffering (finally remembering the people he lost instead of forcing himself to forget), and the impermanence of his life, that Akaza is finally able to die and escape the cycle of suffering.
Rengoku and Akaza are finally the same in that their last and greatest act is to die. Rengoku dies protecting three innocent people and is consoled by his mother for his hard work in life, and Akaza’s redemptive moment is to finally let himself die rather than keep fighting pointlessly and he is similiarly embraced and reunited by Koyuki who makes the decision to go to hell with him. Even though death is tragic for both of them they’re also offered that final comort.
