Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 19 Impressions

DEMON SLAYER EPISODE 19. HINOKAMI

Breath the Fire of Life.

Let’s just start off with a collective WHOA!!!

Now let me say that this article will be full of spoilers for the latest episode of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. So if you haven’t watched this episode and do not want spoiled, then be sure to come back here afterwards. In the meantime below is a video of the opening to the anime. After that the spoilers and discussion begin.

So again, just wow. This episode looked so good. This episode is called “Hinokami”

Hinokami is one of many names for the Shinto god of Fire. Other names are Ho-musubi, Kagu-tsuchi, or in this case Hi-no-kami. Why am I talking about this? We will get to that.

Hinokami was the son of the creator diety Izanami. When he was born he fatally burned Izanami and his father Izanagi cut him into pieces creating many new gods. He is revered as a purificatory agent, but also feared for his destructiveness.

So why is this relevant? Well when we see Tanjiro pushed into a corner he has an important flashback. One that involves a character that has not been talked about yet. His father Tanjuro Kamado. He remembers his childhood when he was curious how his father was able to dance in the cold for so long, especially commenting on how his lungs would freeze. Near the end of the flashback Tanjuro tells his son Tanjiro that it is a special way of breathing that will let him dance forever without exhausting himself.

Tanjiro remembers this after many things happen in the episode. It start with his sword having been broken by the Spider Demons’ threads. The Demon toys with Tanjiro for a while punishing him, but not killing him. Once he finally gets a good attack on Tanjiro Nezuko pops out of the box and takes the hit for him. This panics Tanjiro and he hides briefly with Nezuko. Then the Spider Demon reveals his motivations of wanting a family bond, but one of fear. Afterwards Nezuko is taken hostage by the Demon and then strung up. Tanjiro fights more but to no avail as the Demon beats him easily. The Demon even offer Tanjiro a free hit to which he realizes he can’t cut the demon.

Now is where it gets interesting. Tanjiro, after taking a massive strike into a mountain sees Nezuko struggling in the web, cut, and bleeding even more before passing out. He decides he has to use his final form of Water Breathing, the technique that he learns from Urokodaki Sakonji to be able to fight demons. This particular form allows Tanjiro to gain power and momentum from each strike and rotation eventually letting him have enough power to cut the webs. Once the Demon sees this he decides to up the power of the webs into a red form with his Blood Demon Art. That brings us back to where we started and why the flashback is important.

Tanjiro unleashes the Dance of the Fire God breathing technique. This Technique is uniquely passed down in the Kamado family along with the hanafuda earrings. This is particularly interesting since fire breathing looks to be an opposite of water breathing. Tanjiro references that he must push through the entire ordeal in one go because he will be immobilized once he stops for swapping into the Dance of the Fire God from Water Breathing.

The Dance of the Fire God changes Tanjiros’ typical water dragon art into a blazing fire dragon.

This just looks cool as hell and lets Tanjiro cut through the Red Threads. He pushes the Demon back in fear. The Demon we now know as one of the Twelve Demon Moons, and is the 5th or Lower Moon 5.

In a desperate finally attack The Demon (Rui) pulls his threads to kill Tanjiro along with him when we Nezuko get a moment with her mother in her head. Nezuko is asleep in the threads when her mother tells her she now has the power and is ready to help Tanjiro. While Nezuko is silent as first her mother pleads once more saying that Tanjiro will die without her help. Nezuko wakes up and uses her Blood Demon Art that was not even hinted to up until now. Nezukos’ Art lets her ignite her blood into explosions (as far as we see this is all of it so far). This lets her break free of the webs as well as snapping the threads that were set up to kill Tanjiro.

Tanjiro rushes through an explosion that has The Demon Rui confused and allows him to his Rui in the neck with his broken sword again, but this time with Nezuko’s blood on it her Art activates and helps power up Tanjiros’ strike which ends with him slashing off the head of the Lower Moon 5. You can see the whole ending sequence (again), below here. This is the absolute climax, so here is another super spoiler warning for you.

It is important to note that Tanjiro is still one of the entry ranks of Demon Slayers so this is a major feat! With Giyu Tomioka, the Demon Slayer Tanjiro first encountered when his sister Nezuko turned into a Demon at the very beginning, nearby there is bound to be an awesome encounter between the two after so long. Also Tanjiro just did his job for him as well.

To add to this Nezuko now has a power to really help Tanjiro. We will have to see if this Art has some sort of backlash to her or not, but I imagine it has far more room to grow as the series goes on. This could be the shaping for a formidable teaming between the two of them!

What are your thoughts on Episode 19 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba? I thought it was fantastic, and that the art was beautiful. Also as of writing this it looks like it has reached even more of a following and has got the internet into quite the stir. This includes trending worldwide! Be sure to check out the series if you have not. I feel that this is really cementing Demon Slayer as a top teir Shōnen among some major players.