Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 1

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | YA | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1

Chapters 2-3

Chapters 4-5

Chapters 6-7

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Literary Devices

Comic Relief

As a story about demons and human evils, Demon Slayer is extremely dark, violent, and gruesome, with Tanjiro and Nezuko’s family being brutally murdered in the first chapter. On the other hand, comic relief is a literary device wherein humorous characters, scenes, and other narrative features are included in otherwise serious works. These comedic moments provide levity and a release of emotions, a break from dark or emotional moments.

While later volumes include characters solely present for comic relief, the first volume employs brief moments of comic relief, usually through changes in Koyoharu Gotouge’s art style. Characters’ eyes in manga are often drawn large, with detailed and expressive irises. Therefore, one of the comic relief techniques used in manga is illustrating a character’s eyes as small dots in comic moments—to express confusion, disbelief, or innocence among other states of mind. This trope is sometimes called “black bead eyes” (“Black Bead Eyes,” TV Tropes) or “dot eyes” (“Dot Eyes,” Japanese with Anime, 6 April 2020).

In one such moment, Tanjiro returns to Nezuko, whom he’s hidden in a cave in order to protect her from the sun (64). On the right side of the middle panel, Tanjiro is illustrated with dot eyes as he thinks, “My sister is like a mole now” (64). His eyes return to normal but change again when Nezuko shrinks herself to fit into his basket. The scene also includes sound effects such as “stuff,” “flop,” and “fwup” (66). This combination of Tanjiro’s dot eyes and Nezuko’s physical comedy provides a moment of comedic relief in an otherwise serious situation.

Flashback

A flashback is a narrative device that interrupts a narrative’s chronological order to take readers back in time to witness past events. Often, flashbacks are used to explain how a protagonist ended up in their present situation; they can also provide additional backstory or characterization.

Demon Slayer opens with Tanjiro carrying the bloodied body of his younger sister, Nezuko. He pleads with her not to die and vows to save her. At this point, the reader does not know who Tanjiro and Nezuko are, where or when they live, or how Nezuko came to be injured. Despite this, the moment uses pathos to make the reader invested in the narrative. From here, the narrative flashes back to the previous day, before Tanjiro visited the nearby village. Though Tanjiro’s family is technically already dead when the volume begins, this flashback contextualizes his loss and Nezuko’s injuries.

Pathos

Pathos is a rhetorical literary device that appeals to an audience’s emotions. An author crafts their narrative to elicit certain emotions from an audience at certain points in the narrative—usually, these emotions are sympathy, compassion, pity, or sorrow. These emotional responses are elicited to keep the reader invested in the text.

Demon Slayer opens with Tanjiro carrying the bloodied body of his younger sister, Nezuko—which evokes sympathy, compassion, pity, and sorrow. These emotions compel the reader to continue reading, to find out how Nezuko was injured and if she will live. Pathos is used throughout the manga, usually through Tanjiro. Tanjiro has a unique perspective on demons: Rather than mindlessly killing them, he sees Sympathy as Strength, and has compassion for them despite their violence. As a result, readers are positioned to develop compassion for Tanjiro and become attached to his character.

Setting

Setting is the geographical and temporal environment in which a narrative takes place; narratives can have large and small-scale settings. The large-scale setting of Demon Slayer is Taishō-era Japan. This era is symbolically important to the plot of the manga, as it was a time of rapid and sometimes disorienting change and social upset. This is the case for Tanjiro, whose idyllic rural life is forever changed by the murder of his family by a demon. As the manga progresses, readers will see more of the industrial and technological sides of the era, which further emphasize Tanjiro’s rural lifestyle in the first volume.

An example of a small-scale setting is Mount Sagiri, a largely forested and unpopulated mountain with Urokodaki’s house at its base. These types of remote mountain forest are called okuyama, and Japanese folklore holds that creatures like yōkai and oni live there. This is true in the manga: Spirits of deceased children like Sabito and Makomo live near Urokodaki’s house, and Tanjiro and Nezuko encounter a demon attack on their way to find Urokodaki.