Demon Sayer Corps: Episode 15 – A Mountain of Spiders and Breath of the Beast

Another week, another fantastic episode of Demon Slayer to review. Seriously, this show is really doing a great job in the Shounen battle department. Not only are the visuals just absolutely stunning, like, every single episode, but the pacing is pretty nice as well, or at least it’s fixed itself from the somewhat slow pacing of the last few episodes.

With all that said, I think we’re all enjoying this show, and the collab as a whole, so why don’t we get right into the episode, eh?

Me, as always.

Moyatori, queen of confections

Aria, professional shounen criticist

Plyasm, the lazy boi

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What are your general thoughts on this episode?

It’s half-and-half, with the interactions with the spider demons being the better half by far. I don’t want to spend entire episodes of Zenitsu chasing Tanjiro and Nezuko around, to be honest. 

While Zenitsu is irritating as always, we also got some great scenes with Inosuke, and some good story bits as well. Overall, a great episode!

Interesting. Spider villains are the best, so I’m looking forward to the confrontation.

Hell yea, great episode, we’ve got amazing animations accompanied by a good starting for another arc.

Did the episode fit your expectations, and in which ways did it differ from it?(If it does) 

I didn’t expect Taisho Secrets back so soon…knowing KHR’s anime, those end-of-episode segments normally run for a while before being changed. 

I think they actually added to Inosuke’s character somewhat in this episode. I actually don’t recall much in the manga about how he reacts to being treated kindly, so that was fun to watch.

The long-haired girl is “Mother”? No way!!!

Yes, very good. I don’t remember the whole spatial awareness thing but the translation into anime form was very nice and smooth.

Discussion:

Another thing that surprised me was how much the shady guy who talks about his “children” sounded like Muzan. They must be related or something… 

Almost like they share some blood or something eh?

What do you expect to happen from here on out?(and why) 

Kick some spider demon butt, get some backstory. Maybe those demons were family in real life as well, so Tanjiro feels some kinship with them. Also, Inosuke gets to show off his Beast Breathing.

Time for some arachno buttkicking! Plus, Hashira are finally getting sent out into the field, so we’ll get to see how they fight soon!

I expect to cheer for the spider family more than the Demon Slayers… I’m guessing they might have done some hardcore blood transfusion thing like Muzan did with the Kizuki, which made them “family.”

Now that I remember what’s gonna happen(being reminded by this episode), I can safely say that there’s going to be a *spoiler* and then after it *big spoiler* will happen and *noun* will turn out to be *descriptive words*, finally ending the arc with a *certain event* by none other than *insert character name here*.

Discussion:

I get the feeling Inosuke is more popular with the Japanese fandom than I give him credit for, based on what I’ve seen around the ‘net about this series.

Why wouldn’t he be popular? He’s hilarious!

Which scene got the most reaction out of you? (If any at all)

Tanjiro thanking Inosuke. I didn’t think Tanjiro was scared of anything aside from losing Nezuko again, not to mention the scenes leading up to that scene were on par with some of the beginning demons.

It’s nice to see the comradery that’s starting to build between Tanjiro and Inosuke. It feels really natural and fun, as Inosuke continues to be heavily competitive, and Tanjiro is far too nice for his own good…

Sparrow vs Zenitsu. The uphill battle of the poor sparrow has only just begun.

Which character did you like the most this episode? Have they done anything in particular/changed?

Chuntaro Ukogi (Zenitsu’s sparrow) again…because I am immensely biased.

Inosuke, because he’s great… (and not because i’m suffering from a lack of Nezuko screentime…)

But seriously, I really like Inosuke. He’s kinda nuts, but also funny, and a bro.

The classy old lady with a gigantic bun. It was so sweet of her to offer a description of what tempura was when Inosuke was confused. It was also kind of funny that Inosuke immediately thought back to two heartwarming scenes involving the old lady (rather than ones with Tanjiro) when Tanjiro offered him thanks. Hey, we never got an explanation for how she moved so quickly!

Ukogi-san. CHYU CHYU!

Discussion:

I still have no idea why Tanjiro understands his crow just fine, but Ukogi needs subtitles…I think I brought up this complaint in episode 11’s post, actually. (Also, it turns out ukogi is known in the scientific community as eleutherococcus, while ukogi rice is rice with ukogi in it. *insert “The More You Know” image here*)

Maybe different birbs just have different ability to verbalize. Because Tanjiro’s birb is clearly speaking plain Japanese, since everyone can understand it. But perhaps he is the oddity rather than the norm.

Yet Zenitsu is the one with super hearing. The irony.

…Also, does Ukogi go “chu” or “chun”? I thought it was the latter, since the former is the Japanese sound effect for a kiss or a mouse squeak and the latter makes the name “Chuntaro” make more sense.

What’s the high point of the episode for you and why? 

The scenes leading up to Tanjiro thanking Inosuke. They put a chill down my spine like any good horror should.

Beast breathing. That was freakin cool to watch. It’s a little “shounen nonsense power”, but who cares? It’s cool as heck!

Seeing glimpses of spider lady. She elegant and pretty.

<Spatial Awareness>, the animation was brilliantly done and ultimately, it’s the kinda thing you can expect ufotable to pull off so nicely with the fate series under their belt having the same kind of amazing animations for these kind of things.

Discussion:

I thought Beast Breathing was pretty cool too (made more sense than Water Breathing). I always expected Inosuke’s power to be intuition, and this proved me right. It makes Inosuke potentially overpowered though, since he can do what Tanjiro and Zenitsu can without relying on any one sense. Tanjiro’s power is already so great that Gotouge constantly has to think of scenarios to handicap him (e.g. the overpowering acrid smell in this episode). That’s the problem you get when a shounen protagonist starts out too strong in a long series…

I think they missed out on some details in translating this specific bit. In the manga, it’s explained that Inosuke has extremely sensitive skin, which is why he doesn’t like to wear a shirt. His beast breathing allows him to concentrate and accentuate this, so he can sense things around him, such as vibrations in the ground and the air.

It’s very interesting because while Zenitsu and Tanjiro have their special senses that they use sometimes, and learned a blade style from a master, Inosuke is self-taught, meaning his whole fighting style is based around how to best use his own body in battle.

What can be improved in this episode and why? (a.k.a low point) [Mandatory]

Following the trend of this anime being too obvious and foreshadowing a little too well, Mt Natagumo (那田蜘蛛山) has a hint in its name as to what’s on it – namely, the kanji for “spider”. 

Not much, honestly. This was a solid episode.

Gotta agree with Aria here. I love the episode titles, but think that the episode’s pacing will have to be adjusted if the title is already so telling.

Not much to be honest? Can’t think of anything.

Discussion:

…Also, have you noticed the titlecard reflects the title? (e.g. this episode’s titlecard has a red spider web pattern on it, “The Boar Bares Its Fangs, Zenitsu Sleeps” had a picture of what I assume is a boar drawn in an older style etc.)

… I never noticed that, but that’s actually a fun little detail! The more you know, I guess…

Wow, I never noticed either!

(Update from future!Aria: If the title doesn’t indicate a particular character – e.g. “Letting Someone Else Go First” – the titlecard just has a pattern on it, although the pattern seems to indicate who does what the title says – for instance, the episode I just named has a blue wave pattern to indicate Tanjiro.)

Pick a situation from this episode. If you were put in this situation, how would you have handled it?

Can I be Sotozaki or Gotouge? Because you know what I want…#LetUkogiSpeak2019!!!

Most beautiful scene?(screenshot)

We’re back to nice scenery.

Creepy demon spider kid, but a cool looking shot.

Mommy.

This artstyle that was used for the Spatial Awareness animation blew me away.

Discussion:

An obvious trend, but I’m always amazed to see Aria screenshot pretty scenery that I don’t recall seeing and Astral screenshot someone from a badass angle. Idk about myself…atmospheric shots, I guess?

Admittedly, I did capture some badass angles myself – there was one for Zenitsu a few eps back. We also agree on what to screenshot on rare occasions (e.g. Enchanting Blood). By that train of thought, Moya, Ply’s screenshots are aesthetic ones.

(The secret to nice scenery is to hit pause when you think you’ve got the perfect shot and if you miss it slightly, keep moving the time slider around until you have it. On top of that, the streaming service I’m using also has the option to hide the overlay controls, which is handy.)

What can I say, I’m a fan of cinematic camera angles…

In 10 words, summarise what you want to say about this episode. (A good joke question?) [Could also be a haiku or other things of that creative nature,]

Our heroes rush ahead…

But Zenitsu’s left behind.

Spiders freak him out.

(Maybe?)

The itsy bitsy spider

Crawled down the mountain path

Freaked Zenitsu out

But Inosuke actually took a bath?

Teenage boys charge into spiders’ den and wreck family life.

Ever wanted to watch a puppet show?

Discussion:

Clearly my rhyming skills aren’t particularly great…

(Maybe one day Astral will write a Demon Slayer limerick for this question…LOL.)

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Now it’s time for some Aniblogger Secrets!

Astral: We’re actually pretty far behind the anime’s release schedule with our regular posts, but did you guys know that most of the collab members are actually relatively up-to-date with the freshly releasing episodes?

Nezuko: Mmmm?

Astral: Yeah, oddly enough, it seems the biggest time loss is actually getting the post from writing to posting stage. And though Plyasm has indeed returned, he’s still pretty far behind the rest of us.

Nezuko: ?!?!?

Astral: Yeah, as of writing this, I’ve done my part all the way through episode 19, and Aria’s done up through episode 18! We’re not entirely a collection of lazybones, I promise! The hardest part now is just trying to keep spoilers on the minimum for people who aren’t caught up!

That’s all, folks! All-in-all, another great episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba, I’d say. If you haven’t seen the show yet, definitely give it a shot, because it’s loads of fun. Also, please make sure to check out the blogs of the other wonderful peeps for some other awesome content. Thanks so much for reading, and we’ll see you all in the next post!