Kaigaku - Tumblr Posts - Page 2

Kaigaku: There is nothing more threatening to a demon than a human who is smart and strong. We have to pretend you are those things! Zenitsu: Wow, that's my big bro, everyone!

Rewatching KNY and seeing Zenitsu again is almost giving me whiplash, because he went from being one of my least favorite characters to one of my most beloved in a flash. It sucks that his defining moments are so frequently interrupted or otherwise disturbed by his obsession with finding a wife, and that it kept me from analyzing him the way I should’ve been doing at the start. Because, at his core, Zenitsu is a lesson on weakness — on learning to live and adapt when you can’t immediately overcome it.

This is evident from his very first appearance, where he’s shown mumbling about his inevitable death and his fear of demons after surviving final selection as one of the five senses (the hearing to Kanao’s sight, Tanjiro’s smell, Inosuke’s touch, and Genya’s taste.) It continues on in his actual introduction in the Tsuzumi Mansion Arc, where he spends the majority of his time crying or in various other states of terror. The two exceptions to this are when he falls asleep for the first time and when he defends Nezuko’s box from Inosuke.

The former is part of a larger discussion on his sleepwalking habit and its impact as a coping mechanism, so I’ll be talking about the latter;

Zenitsu outright says that he has a habit of trusting the wrong people, and that being able to hear their sounds hasn’t done him any good in remedying that. He’s known Tanjiro for maybe a handful of hours at this point, but he throws himself on Nezuko’s box anyway. Not because he likes her (not yet) but because she matters to someone he wants to believe in. For someone who clearly hates being in pain, that says volumes about who he actually is as a person. He might be a coward, but he’s also loyal and self sacrificing.

He earnestly follows behind the people he cares about even when it might get him into trouble. The fact that he’s a demon slayer at all is evidence of that — a testament to his love for Jigoro for believing in him and continuing to believe in him even when he seemed hopeless or tried to run away. There was nothing keeping him attached to the demon slayer corps after his gramps wasn’t there to drag him to the final selection or his missions (and we know from Aoi that he could definitely retire early) but he stays.

He runs and cowers and cries and he keeps moving forward, because his gramps gave him the courage to try again and again after failure;

This, I believe, is the reason behind his sleepwalking habit. It’s a response to his desire to change and grow as a person, manifesting in an unconscious state where he forces himself to shed his terror and pain so that he can actually work at his full potential. It doesn’t just apply to his body either, given that (as the series goes on) his sleepwalking also allows him to access his natural analytical abilities where his panic might have blinded him. He couldn’t get rid of the weakness that hindered him, so he adapted to it;

And then — when he learned what became of Kaigaku and that their shared mentor had given his life in repentance — he finally overcame his cowardice altogether and stopped sleeping;

He beat Kaigaku entirely awake, and he fought Muzan the same way. Being with Jigoro and Tanjiro and Nezuko and Inosuke and everyone else didn’t rid him of his fear, but it did teach him to adapt to and then overcome it. To push it aside to achieve his goals, protecting the people he cares about as more than the human shield he was when he held onto Nezuko’s box and desperately hoped that his body could withstand Inosuke’s abuse. More than that, they also taught him to be more comfortable in his own skin.

I’m not going to say that Zenitsu can’t be an annoying character — I can’t stand his behavior toward women and rather disliked him for the longest time — but he’s much more interesting than his initial impression would have you believe. He’s loyal, protective, self sacrificing, insecure, and surprisingly taciturn when he wants to be. The fact that he sleepwalks for every battle before the final arc and his resolution with Kaigaku really hammers his character themes home, and I find that he’s genuinely interesting to think about!

OK OK YOU KNOW WHAT I JUST REALIZED???

So much of demon slayer might not have happened if not for Kaigaku-

Listen, listen, assuming other slayers don’t somehow fill these plot points-

If Kaigaku had never betrayed Gyomei, We might not have the Stone pillar because Gyomei may not have met Ubuyashiki

If Gyomei didn’t meet Ubuyashiki, the Kocho sisters might have died to the demon that killed their parents because Gyomei wouldn’t be there to save them

If the Kocho sisters never joined the Corp, Kanao wouldn’t have been adopted, not by them at least.

If the Butterfly sisters weren’t around, there’s no butteryfly mansion the way we know it, and the Douma fight would look quite different

So would the Kokushibo fight, since Gyomei wouldn’t be there

Zenitsu wouldn’t be fueled by anger at Kaigaku for their masters suicide.

And without Kanao, Tanjiro might not have become Human again.

Jfc, is Kaigaku actually secretly important?

we were denied of a kny beach episode 😔😞 /hj

I would've wanted to see the kamaboko squad having a contest on who can build the best sand castle (rip everyone but kanao and genya made the best ones) inosuke's is just literally a huge pile of sand and some sticks he found but he's so proud of it that they awarded him first place bc it's the right thing to do. Mui is the judge, let him be a silly child who sasses everyone's works but tanjirou's

mitsuri, obanai, rengoku and tengen having a beach soccer tournament; shinobu, aoi and the butterfly mansion girlies are the ones who keeps track of the scores (and is there mainly to make sure nobody dies of stupidity)

gyomei literally has hoards of cats under his clothes but nobody says a thing because he's having fun and that's what matters

giyuu chilling on a corner until sanemi pulls on his hand while saying, "stop bumming everyone out and have fun with us" so they join the soccer tournament for fun and it gets intense that they all break the poor ball

then everyone jumps in to swim

suddenly, tengen's three wives, makio, suma and hinatsuru arrive to serve more food to everyone

gotou and murata are there too, focused on grilling fish and meat while both take interest on the sweets

okay you know what, let's include the moons but at night time

akaza will bury douma on the sand, with only his head visible and douma is happy to finally get noticed by akaza, not knowing akaza intended for him to be there until morning because of the absurd amounts of stones keeping him there. hantengu even asks him if he's fine there and douma is just chilling and happy. It took all of akaza's resistance to not kick douma's head off multiple times

gyokko gathering seashells and making an insane "art" that's too terrible that daki would've insulted it if gyutaro didn't stop her from letting her destructive intrusive thoughts win over the hierarchy

nakime is chilling far away from them and is wishing to not be associated with any of them. like at all.

kaigaku is underwater probably cursing zenitsu or sth

kokushibou is ignored by everyone and sees everything unfold, mumbling, "I see..." And then proceeds to bury himself in the sand with only his six eyes visible on the ground.

muzan curses in a different language when he realized he almost stepped on kokushibou's three pairs of eyes