Demon Slayer: Episode 8 – “The Smell of Enchanting Blood” Review

We’ve met the villain, and he escapes with relative ease. I’m still wondering what kind of villain we’re going to get out of this guy. I’m seeing more of a misunderstood monster vibe from him than the child eater kind of antagonist, but maybe I’m just a sucker for a pretty face.

Wild speculation aside, Let’s dig into this episode. This potentially misunderstood villain just slashed a guys throat and had him try to murder his own wife so he could escape. Tanjiro is unable to ignore this and predictably prioritises restraining the new demon rather than pursuing Muzan Kibutsuji.

The police show up, unaware of the danger the demon poses, and try to force Tanjiro away from the man. Before they can though, a pretty sweet visual effect blocks them off, giving Tanjiro the space and time to meet Tamayo and Yushiro.

They’re both demons, but like Nezuko, they seem willing and able to aid humans, rather than just indiscriminately murder and eat them. We learn that Tamayo is a 200 year old demon who survives by having altered her body to only sustain herself on just a small amount of blood.

Yushiro is her fiery disciple who she apparently turned in order to save him from death, and he is loudly and non too subtlety smitten with her. Her knowledge or feelings on this matter are apparently of no consequence.

When I first saw these two, taking and behaving normally despite being demons, I thought “hey, sweet, maybe Nezuko will become like them and she can become a little more of a character”. Strangely, Tanjiro doesn’t have the same thought, instead going straight to asking if there is a way to return her to being human.

I mean, sure, that’s the endgame, but wouldn’t this be a good stopgap for her until you get to that point? Although my hopes that Nezuko might become a character with an interesting moral dilemma behind her, seem to be fading by the episode as she spends most of this conversation rolling around the floor like a cat.

I thought she was the most mature, eldest sister when we first saw her in episode 1, but I guess her demonisation has digressed her mind somewhat. Which means she seems to have been relegated to cute background dressing for the most part now, which kind of bums me out.

Meanwhile we cut to Muzan and see him murder some drunks pretty brutally. So yeah, standard villainous fare from him, although honestly, it’s not much different than the sort of things we’ve seen from other demons so far in the show. He then summons two henchmen and tasks them with killing the Demon Slayer who called him out in the middle of the street.

Back at the house, Tanjiro, who has determined that Tamayo is trustworthy due to her smell. Because that’s how that works. Agrees to start collecting the blood of powerful demons for her in order to research a permanent cure for the demons of the world. doing this by using Nezuko as a catalyst, as she has survived for years without ever consuming human blood.

Before we can get any further, the house is attacked by Muzon’s two minion demons. Next episode is going to involve some water swords I think.

A good episode, we got to see more of the villain, who doesn’t seem like much so far, Although we do see he has history with someone who shares similarities with Tanjiro in a brief flashback. We also learn about a potential cure for Nezuko. There’s some cute stuff in here. For a grim and harsh as much of Tanjiro’s story has been up to now, it’s nice to see him given the opportunity for some more lighthearted moments.

Seeing him unable to accept Nezuko is being anything but beautiful is cute. Although, as for Nezuko herself, I am sad that it seems like her character is just going to play the role akin to a cat going forward. Powerful and badass in a fight, cute and aloof to most things the rest of the time.