i just need to yell into the void (tumblr) about this. so, giyuu became a hashira at 19, and then later on gotouge randomly puts him in the hashira meeting of sanemi's backstory. gotouge said that the mission with tanjirou and nezuko was his DEBUT AS A HASHIRA. it makes giyuu's reaction to tanjirou's weakness so so much more raw. of course he was THAT angry, he had JUST become a hashira when sabito should have.
okay, cool retcon to have giyuu become a veteran hashira later on, that's no big deal if demon slayer doesn't care much about timelines anyways. it doesn't change a thing. that's not the problem.
the REAL problem here is the giyuu gaiden.
according to everyone's favourite tomioka giyuu gaiden, that was supposedly supervised by gotouge and what not, and hence is completely accurate and canon: giyuu taught shinobu what a "hashira" should be. that's the entire story. a hashira should be this and that, from giyuu, to the new hashira shinobu.
1. if giyuu became a hashira at 19, shinobu would have been more experienced than giyuu. giyuu has no right or reason to explain to shinobu what a hashira is.
2. this is ignoring the fact that shinobu had the advantage of having her own sister among the hashiras in the first place, and hence knows deeply what being a hashira entails, more than giyuu would have. EVEN IF we go by the later retcons where giyuu was senior to shinobu, their conversation still makes 0 sense holy shit i hate the gaiden
3. gaiden came out BEFORE THE 1ST FANBOOK. HIRANO FUCKING MADE IT ALL UP. i can't stress enough, THE GAIDEN IS ALL MADE UP. HE MADE UP THE TIMELINE TO INTENTIONALLY MAKE SHINOBU LOOK LIKE A NEWER HASHIRA THAN GIYUU, TO HAVE GIYUU BE A "HERO" AND SENIOR TO HER.
4. though if he had just ASKED gotouge, gotouge would have told him that giyuu was a newer hashira. """"gotouge supervised"""", """canon""", my ass. gotouge had said it already in a 2017 interview anyways.
5. i like the gaiden only for the irony and comedy of it all: the short two-chapter story about "how to become a hashira" is about giyuu tomioka, whose whole thing is not feeling good enough to become a hashira. he later did apologize and the explanation still makes 0 sense lmao.
6. hilarious that gotouge didnt even try correcting the "rengoku hair yellow because food" thing in rengoku gaiden and then later published about kankagiri.
moral of the story: gotouge truly deeply does not care about a single thing demon slayer extra materials does. the anime is not supervised by gotouge, the gaidens are not supervised by gotouge, and the light novels aren't either (although the light novels are great). and i need everyone to stop saying "giyuu gaiden giyuu/shinobu is more beautiful than the canon manga" just out of principle for how much i don't like the damn gaiden. the amount of issues within just 2 chapters is truly impressive. don't even get me started on giyuu's actual actions and dialogues within the gaiden, especially regarding yae, my goodness, lmao.