Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2017)

[鬼滅の刃]

Volume 5

Author/Artist: Koyoharu Gotouge
Publisher: Jump Comics

Synopsis:
Tanjirou and Inosuke face off against the father of the spider oni clan.

Story/Characters:
"Father" proves to be as formidable as his appearance would indicate and the pitched battle takes a turn for the worse when he decides to homerun Tanjirou with a frickin' tree. True to form, whilst sailing through the air, Tanjirou is more concerned about Inosuke than himself, telling him to hold out until they can reunite. We then cut to Zenitsu, who gets paid a visit by Shinobu. Back to Tanjirou, we see him stumbling on "Sister" getting punished by Rui for just running off earlier. Tanjirou gets angered by this treatment and he disputes with Rui about the nature of familial bonds. They get interrupted by a random a-hole Slayer who thinks Rui will be an easy kill (as all he wants to to is kill one for the credit and bail). Him being portrayed as such leaves you with little sympathy when Rui gives him the Colin Salmon treatment. At this point you should be able to tell that Rui is actually the one running the show, but despite the short work he made of that Slayer and his intimidating aura, Tanjirou doesn't back down from denying the falsehood of the so-called bonds of Rui's little family.

Back to Inosuke, he's holding his own, barely, but then "Father" decides to molt and boost his power further. Inosuke's instincts are to run away, but Tanjirou's pledge to return to help him inspires him to keep at it. Things go badly, though, and as Inosuke is being crushed in the oni's grip, he has a flashback to when he was a baby, of his mother abandoning him (though he doesn't recognize her as such). Luckily for him, Tomioka shows up to save the day. Inosuke is impressed by Tomioka's strength and challenges him to a duel, but Tomioka isn't going to waste his time with the badly wounded Inosuke and strings him up before he can hurt himself further. Tanjirou is having a tough time against Rui, getting his sword cut in two by Rui's web and nearly getting the Colin Salmon treatment himself when Nezuko tanks the hit for him. This catches Rui's interest. An oni. A sister. An oni sister who'll put herself on the line to protect her brother. Needless to say, his own "sister" doesn't measure up to this standard, so he wants trade up. Naturally, Tanjirou balks at the idea of trading his sister like a Pokemon card, but Rui isn't going to let that discourage him and reveals that he's the Kizuki of the family. So his whole deal is that he brings in oni to act as his family, ruling them with terror as we've seen. Nezuko, however, isn't one to be cowed so easily, so Rui strings her up so he can take his time beating her into submission once Tanjirou is dead. Tanjirou actually succeeds in cutting through the threads of Rui's web, but a few strands is one thing. An entire web is another.

Just as Tanjirou is on the verge on death, he has a flashback to when he was younger, to the Hinokami Kagura his father would dance at New Year's and adapts it into a technique to get him through the web, but the strain of it limits how much he can do. At best, he's got one more attack left in him. Nezuko has a vision of their mother, awakening her to use her Blood Art Bakketsu. Her blood that's been draining along the threads of the web catch fire, allowing Tanjirou to get through them easily and use that last shot of his to go for Rui's head.

We cut back to "Sister", who had previously been sent off to get rid of the rest of the Slayers to atone for her earlier failures. She finds Murata (the one Slayer Tanjirou and Inosuke met when they first headed up the mountain) and cocoons him so she can consume him and recover some of her strength. Then Shinobu drops in on her and claims that she has no hostile intent. Though "Sister" instinctively attacks at first, she decides to take a chance on Shinobu's friendly overtures, pleading that she was forced to obey Rui. Shinobu is more than happy to help, but her idea of help isn't quite what "Sister" had in mind. As the oni has killed quite a few people, she has to be punished for it and maybe if she's penitent enough, she'll get a favorable reincarnation. "Sister" doesn't go for this and unwisely tries attacking Shinobu again, only to fall prey to Shinobu's particular technique as a Slayer. As she doesn't have the physical strength to take the heads of oni, she relies on poisons to do the job. Had "Sister" accepted her due, she might've gotten a less painful concoction. So it goes. Shinobu then rescues poor Murata from the cocoon.

While this is going on, Tanjirou is dealing with the after-effects of using the Hinokami Kagura to defeat Rui. There's a bit of a fly in the ointment in that Rui isn't actually defeated. Because the power of the Hinokami Kagura would've destroyed him, Rui actually severed his own head to survive the attack. He then makes his move to finish off Tanjirou when Tomioka saves the day, taking out Rui with the heretofore unseen Eleventh Form of Water Breathing. In his dying moments, Rui tries to at least exact his vengeance on the Kamado Siblings, but as his body begins to crumble, he recalls his past. He was a sickly child turned into an oni by Muzan, but as he started to kill, his parents unsuccessfully tried to put an end to him. He interpreted this as their familial bonds being insufficient, hence his efforts to create a new family of oni. Tanjirou regards the dying Rui with his usual compassion, triggering a last-minute revelation for Rui that he was wrong to blame his parents and that the fault was his. As I'm inclined to take the appearance of spirits in this series at face value, Rui's parents appear to him and assure him that they'll follow him wherever he goes.

With Rui gone, Tomioka reproves Tanjirou for wasting his pity on such a monster, but Tanjirou objects, insisting that what little remains of an oni's humanity is worth pitying, that oni are more miserable than monstrous in spite of their crimes. Tomioka then recognizes Tanjirou, just in time to fend off a surprise attack by Shinobu, who sensed an oni (Nezuko) and intended to finish her off right away. She asks Tomioka why he's interfering and that's our cliffhanger.

Art:
We get a nice contrast between the fight with "Father". which is more of a contest of strength, and the more technical fight with Rui. The debut of the Hinokami Kagura is neat and combining it with Nezuko's Blood Art is quite rewarding, even if it didn't quite work out as planned. Shinobu has a nice ethereal quality to her. The way she drops in on Zenitsu and "Sister" leave quite an impression.

Other:
We get Taishou Secrets that explains that Shinobu was clued into Zenitsu's plight by his sparrow, how Inosuke's crow avoids him because Inosuke tries to eat him, that Tomioka's favorite food is salmon and daikon, and that Shinobu's attack was because she was trying to save Tomioka, who she apparently sees as sort of klutzy. We get some assorted illustrations for the other chapters and lastly have some words of thanks from Gotouge and AU profiles for Murata and Ozaki (the female Slayer who got killed off by "Mother" in Chapter 31), Kyougai, Yahaba and Susamaru.

Conclusion:
This volume is packed with action sequences and the climax of the Rui fight is one of the major highlights in the series. For readers whose interest was piqued by the introduction of Shinobu, you'll appreciate seeing her in action here. All the pieces come together nicely for another win that I'm more than happy to recommend for your collection.

Rating:
Own It