The booklet that came with the movie ticket has a few Taisho Secrets, I plan on scanning and translating them tomorrow in a reblog. For now, one tidbit with no illustration:

Among the Kimetsu no Yaiba cast, who are the best and worst at waking up in the morning?

The Best: 1. Rengoku Kyoujurou (He can wake up according to whatever time he set for himself) 2. Kamado Tanjirou (He’ll either wake up at the time he intended to, or he’ll wake up quickly if someone says something to him) 3. Hashibira Inosuke (He’s ready to make a racket from the instant he wakes up)

Gotouge Koyoharu: “Hello, I’m Gotouge. Thank you for coming to watch the movie! Furthermore, there were a lot of staff members who put their all into producing this theatrical release, and I’m truly grateful for all their hard work. As I was drawing the one-shot included here with Rengoku-san as the main character, it really hit home to me what a good child he is, and how very “main character” he is. Rengoku-san never complains no matter how hard it gets, he values his family and friends, and he’s a very forward-facing person. Everyone, please value your families and the people close to you in your lives, okay?” Gotouge-sensei made this special mini-version of “Taisho Secrets” to celebrate the theatrical release: 

What sorts of dreams does Tanjirou usually have? Tanjirou tends to have a lot of dreams about battles and training. In his dreams he’s constantly ruminating about what didn’t go well, and he analyses how to do it better next time, and he sees a lot of ways to work with situations you can expect in battle. His dreams feel pretty clear and realistic.

What was Tanjirou’s mother most skilled at cooking? Tanjirou’s mother was very skilled at cooking, she made a wide variety depending on each season. She also really liked trying out regional recipes that other people shared with her. Her children’s favorites were sanma-no-soba dumplings and tofu baked in miso.

(Translation note: Sanma-no-soba dango is a rural dish from the Nagano area, a decent distance northwest from where Tanjirou’s family lived (see my post about canon geography here). It has a piece of mackerel pike wrapped in a dough made of buckwheat flour.)

Is Nezuko’s hair accessory something she started doing herself? The reason Nezuko’s hair isn’t bound up now that she’s a demon is because Tanjirou’s not that good at doing it for her (Nezuko also now cannot do it herself). The accessory she has at the front is the one piece Tanjirou can do well for her, and since Nezuko doesn’t remove it, it stays.

While Nezuko is sleeping as a demon, does she dream? If so, what sorts of dreams does she have? Nezuko always dreams of her family. Zenitsu and Inosuke, as well as other people who have been nice to her will make appearances as well.

In the Mugen Train arc, Zenitsu seems to be the only one who has any familiarity with trains. Has he ridden one before? Zenitsu’s a city boy, he’s of course ridden trains before. That’s why I think going out and training with his master in the mountains was 10 times harder for him than it was for Tanjirou and Inosuke. He doesn’t really care for the inconveniences of the countryside.

In the Mugen Train arc, the tanuki version of Tanjirou that appeared in Inosuke’s dream was called Ponjirou and the mouse version of Zenitsu was called Chuuitsu, so what was the rabbit version of Nezuko called? Rabbit-Nezuko’s name was Pyonko. She’s a girl, so Inosuke took a little extra consideration of her than for Ponjirou and Chuuitsu.

Does Rengoku-san have any favorite sayings or mottos? Taorete nochi yamu: “If you put in your all, you’ll stand your ground even in death” Seishin ittou, nanigoto ka narazaran: “Nothing’s impossible if you put your mind to it”

This is a character who leaves a very deep impression. Does he have any real-life models? Rengoku-san does have a real-life model. Actually, besides Rengoku-san, most of the Kimetsu characters are modeled after people in real life. They’re typically normal people who the author happens to know.

Why do the men in the Rengoku family have hair like that? The Rengoku family has long since had a practice called “Kankagari.” For the duration of their pregnancies, every seven days the wives will spend two hours gazing at a large flaming torch. This seems to be what causes the men in the family to have flame colored hair. That being said, it seems that it’s normally bad for a pregnant woman’s health to stare at large flames, so please don’t attempt this.

(Translation Note: This was released on 2020/10/16, whereas the first chapter of the Rengoku Gaiden illustrated by Hirano-sensei published on 2020/10/12 had Rengoku declare that the hair color is due to his ancestor having eaten too many fried shrimp. While that’s funny and I’ve been wondering if demon slayers have a natural flamingo-like trait, I’m interpreting it now as something Rengoku said to cheer up Kanroji. As I was looking up Kankagari to see if it’s a real thing (seems it’s Kimetsu-universe only and not something that exists in real life), I saw Japanese Twitter commentary that this may be a practice that’s been going on long before the Rengoku family was slaying demons, and in Toujurou’s case, it means it’s become genetic, or the Rengoku family is still following this practice into modern day. This clan knows no chill.)

Hey there! While these sorts of outfits are a staple of kunoichi (female ninja) costumes nowadays, that's usually what they're called: costumes.

Everyone sort of knows they didn't actually exist, so the sleeveless miniskirt look is usually just referred to as kunoichi outfits/costumes/apparel. The thought, I think, is that it allows for more freedom of movement, but also people just find the silhouette really stinking cute and don't want to let go of the fantasy. It's as entrenched in collective ninja fanon now as shuriken are. There are sometimes sleeveless hanten (coats, similar to haori and happi but slight differences between them), but even so, those are usually referred to as "sleeveless hanten" and often they are either used for a little extra warmth over a kimono, or again, for costumes, like in modern Yosakoi dance. Historically, there were men who would wear sleeveless kimono because they did jobs in which sleeves got wet or got in the way, but women would had been thought very, very strange to wear anything sleeveless. Speaking of popular ninja culture not being based on reality, most of the modern Japanese image of ninja is based on Edo and especially Meiji era popular fiction, which combined various people of the Warring States era who specialized in a number of various very cool jobs and skills into one sort of person who could do them all, and then expanded on their capabilities with generous imagination. I've said more about the weirdness of the Uzui ninja clan in this post, but if we just focus on outfits, Tengen is already weirdly flamboyant as it is, and his wives would have turned heads for showing so much skin that, as one author wrote on the topic, kunoichi in these outfits 'wouldn't had even been able to get away with convincing anyone they were Japanese.' Since the point was not to stick out, you'd be far, far more likely to see actual female ninja dressed more like Uta and Suyako, or they'd be quick to disguise themself as any number of normal townspeople.

But as stated, the Uzui clan is weird. I think we can look at Uzui's wives, and their culturally/historically inappropriate outfit choices, for more than just being necessary fanservice in a Shounen Jump manga. It tells us more about the closed-off society in which Tengen and his wives grew up.

Also what happened his sibling that still remain.

Also what there react

Combining info from the fanbooks and Chapters 80, 87, and 90 we get the following narrative of Uzui Tengen and his family, as complete as I could fill it in. It's always possible the anime version will expand and give us more, but here's what I've got in chronological format.

Got to pick a fellow nerd and native speaker's mind on this one. Also, I have more recently learned that in this time period, katakana and hiragana names were considered humble (even men with aggrandized names would often have them written phonetically), and before kanji was widely used outside of the more educated circles of society, it was simply more accessible. This doesn't seem to have been consistently applied among the KnY cast, though, as the Kochou girls were highly educated, so phonetics were a stylistic choice. On the contrary, the potentially less formally educated Kamado and Shinazugawa families used kanji extensively, with one Shinazugawa sister (Koto) being written in hiragana.

Anyway, based on discussions with a native speaker nerd friend, here's our consensus, along with some extra thoughts:

Names:

Shinobu (しのぶ)

Hiragana has a soft feel to it, as far as Japanese writing in concerned, so this makes it feel like a pretty and gentle girl's name. However, in kanji like 忍 or 偲, the meanings might lean negative, even if they can also be positive or neutral. 偲 feels a bit sad and wistful, thinking back on something, and while 忍 can be in reference to being able to endure, it mostly makes people think of someone who works underhanded: aka, ninja, and this would overlap too much with Tengen. But there's the fun thing about Shinobu--all these positive and negative nuances here can totally work for her.

Kanae, Kanao (カナエ、カナヲ)

My friend's thoughts were that hiragana would had made these overall soft character feels too soft. The katakana, with its stronger angles and bolder strokes, shows more strength in them. I've also heard an interpretation of Kanao's name that it shows Kanae's wish for her in how it transforms the name.

Stick with me for this--"e becomes o."

Which is obvious, but if we state that in Japanese, it's said, "e ga o ni naru," which is a pun for "egao ni naru."

エ　が　ヲ　に　なる。

笑顔になる。

"Egao" is smile, so Kanae wanted to see Kanao smile.

If that was indeed intentional instead of just a fan theory, then the katakana may make it more obvious. I think using ヲ* instead of オ was a stylistic choice, like in how Makio's name is likewise まきを* instead of まきお, maybe to make them seem less like boy's names that often end in very masculine "o" kanji.

*In some romanization systems, these are written "wo."

Aoi (アオイ):

My friend didn't seem to find anything odd about Aoi's name being in katakana, it's just one option of many for a decently common name. I think it's a let down because of how many fun kanji options there are for this time, but I wonder if this was so as not to overlap with Tanjiro's mother, Kie, whose name uses the kanji commonly used for the "aoi" plant. Being in katakana, perhaps, is to make us think more of the color blue instead of the aoi plant. Also, phonetically written names were seen as humble and very common at the time, for men as well (though it was more common for women).

Hidden weapons:

I have no real life knowledge on which to based this, but I've always assumed it was a woven straw sole with the blade hidden within the weave, and she manipulates it with her toes--like as long as the tip near her toes is given the right push, it just slides right out, especially if the shoe is bent, since the blade itself can't bend. It would stick right out with a splinter manipulated in just the right way out to poke out of the opening of flexible skin.

As for hidden weapons, we assume Uzui has the general ninja array. perhaps just all lined with wisteria poison nowadays (but with his Breath, there's probably very little use for them). I think Shinobu might even hide more needles on her person lines with medicines or poisons for her own personal protection from both humans and demons alike, as he's canonically not physically strong and has to be resourceful.

As for the others, though, since Nichirin blades are the only truly effective weapon against demons, and since most of them have little to hide in their work, we didn't find it likely that anyone else would carry concealed weapons. I had considered Iguro, but he's strong enough to use a sword to remove demons' heads and to use his bare hands to subdued a misbehaving Corp member, he does not need anything else, and he's even with his bendy style, he's not trying to be crafty or pull anything untoward in his swordsmanship. Notably, many of the Pillars, and even Tanjiro, have shown they are skilled in open hand techniques to subdue human opponents; none of them require the extra edge that, say, a kunai might give them in those techniques.

Let's go on a quick deep-dive about this somewhat forgettable detail! After all, Genya's gun tends to leave more of an impact than that Nichirin-to he was so insistent on getting. But on this blog, I like swords, as well as sword decor.

The hand guards (tsuba) throughout Kimetsu no Yaiba range from symbolic items that are totally impractical (like a sharp pinwheel) to subtle accents inspired by real swords (like the elegantly charcoal-inspired one). Genya's is so close to some real-life tsuba designs that you can call this type by its name: namako-sukashi (海鼠透かし).

"Namako" is in direct reference to "sea cucumber," because that it what the shape of the cut-out segments resemble.

Wait, wait, wait, no, I'm not going to compare Genya to a sea cucumber. There's more we can say about this, really. And this was actually a very common motif integrated into many different tsuba designs, including highly complex ones!

However, it is best known for this design that looks very close to Genya's tsuba. It has been praised for centuries for being elegant in its simplicity. Although it is categorized as a namako-sukashi design, it is also called a "Musashi" tsuba because it is widely said that the master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) himself designed it.

You know, Miyamoto Musashi. The guy who wrote "The Book of Five Rings." The undefeated duelist who wielded two swords. The guy who, if up against a demon, would definitely not need to resort to blasting the demon's head off with fire-power, or when that fails, panicking and taking a bite of out it.

Perhaps they don't have much in common as far as fighting abilities are concerned, apart from Genya also being a double-wielder. We can, however, look for some similarities between Genya and Musashi in terms of lifestyle. Musashi could be a bit of a loner; he was the sort of guy who stuck to his own path instead of minding social conventions, and he would easily leave behind home and all his possessions if it was for a greater purpose. He was self-made in a lot of ways, and practicing Buddhism was deeply woven into Musashi's philosophies.

Let's put a pin in Buddhism and set aside those sea cucumbers. We can instead look at this motif for its overall shape. The overlapping circles make up the most basic form of a wachigai (輪違い) crest.

Basically, any crest made up of 2 to 10 circles in any arrangement can be considered a wachigai-type crest, though the names will get more and more specific for each arrangement. In general, these are considered auspicious because of the unbroken layering of good things. They got popular in the Heian period and got picked up by everybody from Sengoku samurai families to families with influence around the start of the Meiji period. But like, anybody who wanted to give something an auspicious touch could find ways to use repeating patterns like these. They are super common, and I would even argue that Shinobu's tsuba is based on a wachigai-type pattern.

To focus on the simple, basic wachigai pattern of two overlapping, linked circles, we can find examples of it in, say, a highly-ranked house of the pleasure quarters of Kyoto, the Wachigai-ya, which uses that as their crest. But Genya was not in the Entertainment District Arc, so let's instead go back to that pin we put in Buddhism. Among the handful of religious institutions that use this crest, one of them is the Buzan sect of esoteric Shingon Buddhism. There are actually multiple explanations of what sorts of duality it represents, like two inseparable realms where Buddha is just as present, but one of the simpler concepts is bonjoufuni (凡聖不二), the idea that both holy persons and common folk alike are both human, entirely and inseparably the same.

Now, in Genya's case, we have someone of two co-existing states: human and demon. Even for being human, he is capable of what is impossible for humans; he fully embodies the strength and regenerative capabilities of a demon, as well as the same weaknesses. Despite encompassing a demon's traits, Genya is not like Nezuko or Tamayo or Yushiro. He is human. He's got both states.

He is like overlapping circles.

I do, I do love the lore so much... and I'll make you a bet, if Sanemi ever heard of Genya's abilities prior to Pillar Training, as much as it would have pissed him off, I make you a bet that he would have curiously taken a bite on his next mission.

My understanding is that the ability to eat demons is not hereditary, Genya is just a weird anomaly as much as Sanemi is a weird anomaly with Marechi that makes demon's drunk. We've seen demons exposed to Genya's blood and none of them ever seem effected by it, so that means Sanemi's condition is not hereditary. Genya's ability is so weird that it probably pops up as a random genetic mutation, and other people out there since the one whom Kokushibo encountered who had this same mutation might had blissfully gone about their lives with no idea, and who knows, maybe they lived long enough to pass it on to their children.

What we must also keep in mind is that genetics are complicated, much more so than whether a trait is dominant or recessive. Many traits are affected by many different genes, which may trigger each other or not depending on other genes. Probabilities much more complicated than just if there's a dominant gene or two recessive genes involved, so even though you might see recurrent genetic issues and traits among siblings, it's also not unusually for one child to have something especially odd. Case in point, Kiyoshi was a Marechi, but his siblings Shoichi and Teruko were not (we do not know about their parents). That being said, I like to think that Shinazugawa Shizu happened to have a weird collection of genes, just through happenstance of what got passed down to her and maybe a mutation or two. When that set of genes got passed on, it expressed itself as Marechi in Sanemi, and the ability to eat demons in Genya, based on the total collection of genes they wound up with.

Why Shizu instead of their father, whom they picked up a lot of their physical strength from? Because Shizu is the one whom Muzan decided to make into a demon.

Despite the number of them out there, Muzan doesn't make new demons because he likes there being a lot of demons out there running around with this blood. He's been trying and trying to find someone whose unique constitution will turn them into a demon with cells impervious to the sun, assuming they even survive the transformation. That's why he bothered going all the way out to the mountain home of a family of charcoal farmers, hoping one of them might be capable (whether that was because he knew about their ties to Yoriichi or because he wanted to see if deep ties with fire were enough, we don't know, and I assume the latter). Shizu, unbeknownst to herself, may have been carrying around a weird set of genes in the first place and Muzan was curious is that might be what he's looking for a demon, simple as that.

Taking the time cues from throughout the series, this is an attempt to organize the course of (primarily) Tanjiro's demon slaying career. There will also be analysis of how fast Corp members move through ranks. Very open to being corrected.

Douma's first interaction with a Kocho girl is when he faces off against Kanae. She put up a good fight, but ultimately not a memorable one for him. After some reminding, he recalls her for her kindness and Flower Breathing, and that the sun came out before he could eat her, what a shame. He's encountered multiple Pillars, and presumably eaten all the other female ones thus far, and he only remembers Kanae because his memory is good in the first place.

Her kindness did leave a distinct impression on him, as even in her dying moments (at least as Shinobu recalls to Tanjiro) she still showed sympathy for demons. Douma has probably been short on this in his existence. As interesting as that was about her, he was never particularly in want of kindness (or anything), so that's all it was. A passing peculiarity.

Four years later he meets Shinobu, and realizes right away by her speed that she must be a Pillar, despite how small she is. He's intrigued by her Insect Breath, but that's about it. Shinobu's partial goal was to get eaten, banking on the fact that he wouldn't be able to resist a powerful female, but she was continually frustrated by how her power didn't leave a tantalizing impression on him. Even after he remarks that she may be the fastest Pillar he's ever encountered, he still points out how her ability to take his neck is her undoing. Shinobu, as little more than a passing amusement, very nearly found herself mercy killed and left out as garbage while he kept snacking on his silly followers who sought him out for eternal happiness, making him too full to have much appetite for just another dead Pillar.

However, Shinobu's efforts do surprise him enough to stick out to him, and it comes as close as possible to moving his typically unaffected heart. If there's anything Douma truly desires, it's something to shake him out of his blasé boredom, and Shinobu's final attack is the closest he's ever come to that. In that way, it's no surprise that this would lead to him to have positive feelings about her, both before and after she spells his doom.

Still, what he finds so attractive about her is not about how strong her finds her. To the end, dead or not, he isn't impressed by her strength, but by her unwillingness to be limited by it.

Then he meets Kanao.

If Shinobu accomplished the rare feat of stirring something exciting in his heart, then Kanao accomplished the even rarer feat of getting an angry rise out of him. No one else has gotten Douma to make this "oh, I don't like you" face.

Despite all his experience with Pillars and generally being unimpressed by Shinobu and Kanae's abilities, he's very quick to size up Kanao as more of a threat.

"She may have more ability/raw power than the Pillar girl I just ate."

Being more careful of Kanao as a foe drives Douma to identify why she's more of a challenge (her vision predicting his attacks) so he can nullify it (crush her eyes). Despite having a very unique little hatred for her (has only one else in his existence dared or bothered to criticism him? Well, besides Akaza, but Akaza is was his best friend, he doesn't count, tee hee! <3) and being a little more on guard, he still sees Kanao as nothing but small fry.

To go into this in slightly nerdier detail, that 雑魚 (zako) can be more literally "mixed (tiny) fish" or "insignificant person (and therefore and unworthy prize to take in battle)," and is one of the ways of writing 'zako' in 雑魚キャラ (zakokyara), which is sometimes translated as mob character or background character, but this is often to refers more specifically to cannon fodder or even Red Shirts--throwaway characters that exist just to get killed off in the background, who have no significance whatsoever.

Douma's assessment of Kanao was so dismissive that she was but a bug to squish on another day in his meaningless existence. Since he thought more highly of her fighting abilities than of Shinobu's, that goes to show just how much he was toying with her, and how little he actually thought of Shinobu's abilities even after she impressed him with her willpower to draw blinding speed and pin him even after harrowing injury.

Even in the end, when he's not really all that upset about being defeated or dying, what finally strikes him is listening to Shinobu speak, and express so many firmly held emotions of her own--that it's gross to hear him speak her or her sister's name, that she's glad to see him finally dead, that it frustrated her to have to depend on Tamayo's help, but she's pleased with the results anyway, and her trust that one of her friends will absolutely take Muzan down.

A collection of basic references, with links to more in-depth explanations and analysis. As much as possible details are taken from canon sources, but for what isn’t expressly stated, sleuthing was required and therefore has a margin of error. Some sections are also outside-research based for what is hopefully handy meta, especially for fanfic writers. Note: This post is likely to be edited with future additions.

Please see below the cut for the following topics:

- When does Kimetsu no Yaiba take place? - Attempted timelines of various characters and canon events - Where does Kimetsu no Yaiba take place? - What are the official Corp ranks? - Translations of some canon material printed outside the manga - Meta analysis with close reading of canon or outside research on: ——-Demons mechanisms ——-Name analysis ——-Taisho Period details ——-Traditional patterns and symbolism ———–and more…

This is a level of nerdiness no one asked for, but ever since I noticed that Tamayo’s kimono seems to have a Meisen pattern, my brain just up and went “and the Kochou haori is totally made with Yuzen dye, yup yup yup.” 

But then I sat down and thought about that more. 

Yuzen, a resist dyeing method, came to mind because honestly it was the only thing that came to mind and I didn’t consider anything else the technique is used for both crisp lines and faded colors, so it can be used for very elaborate patterns with a wide variety of color. However, it’s a very extensive process, and it remains very expensive. It’s been popular since Edo times and remains popular today, so it’s unsurprising that it would have fit the tastes of the Kochou sisters in late Meiji, early Taisho times. If the large butterfly hairpieces are anything to go by, they must not have minded paying for pricey items that fit their tastes and style. Many of the haori throughout the series carry personal significance to the person who chose or inherited it, so Kanae must have wanted something nice. 

Once we get to Pillar level, it doesn’t seem that the haori are chosen for practicality (except perhaps in Iguro’s case, in which the stripes may alter his opponent’s depth perception). After all, the uniform itself is made with strict practicality in mind, unless you have the misfortune of being a female character with a character design that respects none of your own personal safety. So this makes me wonder, then, if the Kochou haori is indeed Yuzen dye, is it produced with the quality of silk you’d expect to see it used on? 

It seems very likely to get damaged. If this is the case, then in half-hearted conclusion, the Flower and Insect Breathing techniques minimize the likelihood of damage, or Kanae had exceptional faith in Aoi’s mending and washing skills.

So here I am, trying to study, starting with legit topics, digging deeper, I stumble upon this part of an article about the geomancy origins of the very influential "Kimon" (demon gate) when taken into consideration in architecture and ancient city planning, mentioning how disease and disaster was thought to enter the home via the hearth, gate, water well, and toilet and such, so these parts of the home required some deification to counter-act the evil, but it's written LIKE THIS:

And my brain shouts "竈門、竈門炭治郎"

Kamado. KAMADO TANJIRO.

And next thing you I'm back down a fandom theory rabbit hole. Nothing new, I already know the distinct rarity (but real world use) of this surname, as well as the fact that there are a couple Shinto shrines with this relatively rare writing of "hearth" in the name. But still, it makes me appreciate all over again all the very subtle use of lore throughout this manga, a huge reason I'm so obsessed with it.

So while I'm here, I learned this fun tidbit from an article that asked old people with rare surnames how they feel about them being suddenly very prominent (one old Ms. Kamado tried to start watching it but fell asleep), and I learned about the name 栗花落, notoriously difficult to read as "Tsuyuri". Basically, back in the Nara period (well before Muzan would had turned into a demon in Heian times), a dude was romancing a princess with poetry and made a reference to falling chestnut flowers at the start of the rainy season ("tsuyu") and the emperor was like "That's a cool idea, I'm going to grant that as a surname." (Actually, a lot of surnames get their start from emperors granting them.)

Now, we know Kanao chose this name for herself based on choices the girls set before her, including "Kochou" and "Kanzaki", already used by her new housemates. Poor Kanao probably couldn't read and didn't have any knowledge base to properly appreciate such a poetic name, which I'm guessing was a choice Kanae contributed (Shinobu didn't seem to have put as much thought into the choices for first names and probably didn't think much about surnames either, and Aoi was really pushing for her own last name to be chosen). Kanao might have heard explanations, or she might had just thought the kanji looked pretty.

But, what's interesting to me (and reading way too deeply into it) is that Kanao joined them on May 19. While we typically picture "tsuyu", the rainy season, as spanning June/early July-ish, the start of the season is tied to late May, so even in modern-day formal seasonal references in Japanese written correspondence (yes, formal Japanese is a fussy like this), appropriate references in May include a lot of ways of saying "we're heading into the rainy season, so please take care." Furthermore, the scenes we get of the Butterfly Mansion garden (in both the snime and the manga) include prominent hydrangea, a plant that screams "rainy season."

This isn't important whatsoever, but heeeey, it's fun coincidences.

A few other little tidbits and lots of conjecture:

--Tomioka and Agatsuma may also be names with ancient origins handed down from an emperor or two. Tomioka, written in a couple different ways and pretty uncommon (but not super rare) today, miiiiiight imply Giyuu was of relatively comfortable origins, perhaps with ties to the (defunct) warrior class based on his parents' choice of name for him (even toward the end of the samurai era only a couple generations or so before Giyuu was born, there were volunteer samurai squads named "Giyuu-tai" (righteousness/bravery corp). Further evidence of this is that even after their parents died of illness, it doesn't seem the children Tsutako and Giyuu were left particularly hurting for funds. In the "my wife" Agatsuma case, this is also pretty uncommon and I've only come across it pronounced Adzuma/Azuma. Since Zenitsu was abandoned without a name, we can't assume he picked up a rather higher-class sounding name from them. Either some caretaker he had later on chose it for him (possibly even as late a Kuwajima-shihan), or Zenitsu chose it himself (and this totally seems like a name in line with his tastes).

--Kanroji is the name of a temple; there is a pattern of higher class and noble families having surnames shared with temples (often due to ancient financial ties with said temples). There are, in fact, many existing Kanroji temples, and one of them in Wakayama even installed a temporary decorative "Love Pillar" and some subtle cat references and specisl promotions of the temple's preexisting good luck in match-making. Even the train stop nearby changed the sign to a pink and green fade. And yes, I am super disappointed that I had not heard of all this until the temporary promotion was over.

Just for you, Anon, I read again through Genya's parts (and suffered).

Rather than a sense of taste being the reasoning for this (though it's convenient to group him in with the Five Senses group by calling it that), Gotouge has stated pretty plainly that his unusual biting force and digestive organs are entirely unique within the Corp, and they are what gives him the temporary ability to gain the strength of a demon.

While the strength is temporary, it seems some amount of regenerative ability remains, provided his neck isn't cut. Otherwise he likely would had died early in the fight against Hantengu (Aizetsu was surprised he wasn't dead and assumed it was because he missed vitals points), and later on he assumed he's going to die when an attack is headed for his neck, which he wouldn't be able to recover from. Kokushibo has encountered one other demon slayer over 300 years ago who had the same ability, but that person's vital point was their stomach, which was why Kokushibo tried to get rid of him by cutting him in half at the stomach (he knew to expect a demon-eater likely due to information shared among demons, perhaos reading Hantengu's thoughts directly).

I suspect that Genya's reliance on Repetitive Action helped him survive and focus on regeneration early in his encounter with Aizetsu, before he could find the chance to later take a bite.

Once he does, it's hard to say how long the effect lasts. Those bites from Aizetsu last him a while, and he gains more strength by eating the demon wood, but almost as soon as he's effected by Nezuko's fire he reverts back. It may be a self-protective mechanism, and the same may happen under the sun. Of note, he reverted before Hantengu was defeated, and even though Hantengu was an Upper Moon, Genya didn't necessarily take on Hantengu's traits. We don’t know if he would had been bound to Hantengu in any way.

As we get to know Genya better, we learn that Himejima and Shinobu find his condition worrisome. It's not well understood.

And Genya doesn't know the extent of it either, he's pretty surprised by the effects of consuming an even more powerful demon. Kokushibo's effect being so profound that Genya's healing is remarkably better than normal, and that Muzan can enter Genya's thoughts as he enters Kokushibo's, and that Genya can use Kokushibo's own blood techniques against him to manipulate his own cells goes to show both the degree which Genya's constitution can become entertwined, and just how much more powerful Kokushibo is than Hantengu. Furthermore, how much and the part of the demon Genya eats seems to be important, the seemingly insignificant hair already did more than eating Aizetsu's (presumeable) flesh, and the sword forged by Kokushibo's blood had an even more pronounced impact.

Genya has just discovered how powerful his ability is, and is in the process of finding out the danger of it too, being so intertwined with a demon.

Even if the temporary effects were wearing away as Kokushibo died, they didn’t all disappear at once. Even if a seperation from Kokushibo had been instantaneous, Genya's viral spot had been cut (even if not severed the right way), and regeneration would had posed a huge challenge, if it was even possible.

Fun fact, for the sake of fanfiction I have read that scene aloud to see how long Genya might had lasted once the disintegrating process began; it probably would had taken 2~3 minutes to get through his whole last exchange with Sanemi (see, I told you I've suffered). If we go by presentation of events, Genya's disintegration did not start until after Kokushibo was gone, so there was a lag.

Since he can gain abilities almost immediately, it's possible his body may be reacting more like inflammation brought on by a food allergy than by his cells breaking down food in his digestive tract and delivering it throughout his body as would happen in normal consumptive circumstances. ^^; So that means the effect may also vary in how long it lingers or how fast or slow its effects can disappear, again, more like an allergy than like blood sugar. Not saying "Genya actually has an allergy, he's not digesting it!" or anything like that, I just see similarities in how to think about it, since normal digestion is a process that takes many hours, and Genya does seem to eat like a normal human otherwise (but who knows?).

Kanao already reached the Tsuchinoto rank (5th of 10) within about 1.5 months* of passing the Final Selection but then only progressed to Hinoto (7th of 10) over the following 10 months or so.* Why the slow-down? I've got a handful of possible ideas but no indication of if any of them would be true. *(According to my timeline estimates.)

In the extra chapter in Volume 7 about all the suffering in Kanao's past, Kanao snaps. All of a sudden, she stops feeling anything. She doesn't think for herself at all, only doing things as she's told.

The booklet that came with the movie ticket has a few Taisho Secrets, I plan on scanning and translating them tomorrow in a reblog. For now, one tidbit with no illustration:

Among the Kimetsu no Yaiba cast, who are the best and worst at waking up in the morning?

The Best: 1. Rengoku Kyoujurou (He can wake up according to whatever time he set for himself) 2. Kamado Tanjirou (He’ll either wake up at the time he intended to, or he’ll wake up quickly if someone says something to him) 3. Hashibira Inosuke (He’s ready to make a racket from the instant he wakes up)

Gotouge Koyoharu: “Hello, I’m Gotouge. Thank you for coming to watch the movie! Furthermore, there were a lot of staff members who put their all into producing this theatrical release, and I’m truly grateful for all their hard work. As I was drawing the one-shot included here with Rengoku-san as the main character, it really hit home to me what a good child he is, and how very “main character” he is. Rengoku-san never complains no matter how hard it gets, he values his family and friends, and he’s a very forward-facing person. Everyone, please value your families and the people close to you in your lives, okay?” Gotouge-sensei made this special mini-version of “Taisho Secrets” to celebrate the theatrical release: 

What sorts of dreams does Tanjirou usually have? Tanjirou tends to have a lot of dreams about battles and training. In his dreams he’s constantly ruminating about what didn’t go well, and he analyses how to do it better next time, and he sees a lot of ways to work with situations you can expect in battle. His dreams feel pretty clear and realistic.

What was Tanjirou’s mother most skilled at cooking? Tanjirou’s mother was very skilled at cooking, she made a wide variety depending on each season. She also really liked trying out regional recipes that other people shared with her. Her children’s favorites were sanma-no-soba dumplings and tofu baked in miso.

(Translation note: Sanma-no-soba dango is a rural dish from the Nagano area, a decent distance northwest from where Tanjirou’s family lived (see my post about canon geography here). It has a piece of mackerel pike wrapped in a dough made of buckwheat flour.)

Is Nezuko’s hair accessory something she started doing herself? The reason Nezuko’s hair isn’t bound up now that she’s a demon is because Tanjirou’s not that good at doing it for her (Nezuko also now cannot do it herself). The accessory she has at the front is the one piece Tanjirou can do well for her, and since Nezuko doesn’t remove it, it stays.

While Nezuko is sleeping as a demon, does she dream? If so, what sorts of dreams does she have? Nezuko always dreams of her family. Zenitsu and Inosuke, as well as other people who have been nice to her will make appearances as well.

In the Mugen Train arc, Zenitsu seems to be the only one who has any familiarity with trains. Has he ridden one before? Zenitsu’s a city boy, he’s of course ridden trains before. That’s why I think going out and training with his master in the mountains was 10 times harder for him than it was for Tanjirou and Inosuke. He doesn’t really care for the inconveniences of the countryside.

In the Mugen Train arc, the tanuki version of Tanjirou that appeared in Inosuke’s dream was called Ponjirou and the mouse version of Zenitsu was called Chuuitsu, so what was the rabbit version of Nezuko called? Rabbit-Nezuko’s name was Pyonko. She’s a girl, so Inosuke took a little extra consideration of her than for Ponjirou and Chuuitsu.

Does Rengoku-san have any favorite sayings or mottos? Taorete nochi yamu: “If you put in your all, you’ll stand your ground even in death” Seishin ittou, nanigoto ka narazaran: “Nothing’s impossible if you put your mind to it”

This is a character who leaves a very deep impression. Does he have any real-life models? Rengoku-san does have a real-life model. Actually, besides Rengoku-san, most of the Kimetsu characters are modeled after people in real life. They’re typically normal people who the author happens to know.

Why do the men in the Rengoku family have hair like that? The Rengoku family has long since had a practice called “Kankagari.” For the duration of their pregnancies, every seven days the wives will spend two hours gazing at a large flaming torch. This seems to be what causes the men in the family to have flame colored hair. That being said, it seems that it’s normally bad for a pregnant woman’s health to stare at large flames, so please don’t attempt this.

(Translation Note: This was released on 2020/10/16, whereas the first chapter of the Rengoku Gaiden illustrated by Hirano-sensei published on 2020/10/12 had Rengoku declare that the hair color is due to his ancestor having eaten too many fried shrimp. While that’s funny and I’ve been wondering if demon slayers have a natural flamingo-like trait, I’m interpreting it now as something Rengoku said to cheer up Kanroji. As I was looking up Kankagari to see if it’s a real thing (seems it’s Kimetsu-universe only and not something that exists in real life), I saw Japanese Twitter commentary that this may be a practice that’s been going on long before the Rengoku family was slaying demons, and in Toujurou’s case, it means it’s become genetic, or the Rengoku family is still following this practice into modern day. This clan knows no chill.)

Very open to feedback, because canon is as spread out as Muzan after his first date with Sun Breathing. Instead of tracking the year or distance from current timeline, we shall track this by Shinobu’s age (roughly, in most spots).  Despite being centered around Shinobu’s life events, I’m also diving into Aoi’s life, the other Pillars’ timelines of life events too, and doing some conjecture about Shinobu’s deceased Tsuguko.  Should be obvious, but spoilers ahead. 

I saw a post once that entertained the idea of Tsutako being in the background of Sanemi’s hometown in the anime, and it got me thinking about a sanegiyuu childhood meet cute.

…

- When Giyuu was 13, he took a trip with Tsutako to a neighboring city where her fiancé had come from

- Though Giyuu was a much friendlier person as a child, he was still quiet, reserved and nervous. As a result, being in a bigger city was overwhelming and he struggled to keep up with Tsutako as they walked

- Before they could reach her fiancé’s home, Giyuu was separated from her in a crowd

however both of them are stubborn, and once he makes the decision, giyuu will keep pushing sanemi to his limits in order to befriend him. it seems that he doesnt understand sanemis yells to leave him alone and to stop being a weirdo, or perhaps he understands, but he just refuses to give up.