Demon Slayer: Season 2 – Episode 10: What Are You?

Squeezing this review in was always going to be a challenge for me this week. Thankfully, we’re got a real good episode to sink out teeth into, as the gang all start to uncover the fate of Uzui’s three wives and the possible presence of a powerful Demon lurking in Tokyo’s Red Light District.

We start in black and white sequence. Showing a scene that has, no doubt, occurred countless times over the years. With someone confronting a beautiful and dangerous woman, and paying the ultimate price for it. I mean, based on the credits alone, we know this woman is the demon and main villain of the arc, but the show is doing a great job of building her up already.

Cut back to present day and we join back up with Inosuke, who has infiltrated Ogimoto House in search of Makio. Who we discovered has been captured in a spider-web like mess of pink sashes and it being violently interrogated by the demon behind them.

Weirdly enough, despite her power, it’s Inosuke’s presence that causes the demon to flee. Leading to a dashing chase back through the house, with Insokue trying his best to keep up with whatever is skittering through the walls and ceilings.

One of the more frustrating things about the Demons, from the slayer’s perspective at least, is how unwilling they are to confront and battle the slayers when they’re not in a position of power. Despite Inosuke being unarmed, it’s the middle of the day outside and it’d only take one wrong move for the Demon to be thrown outside and destroyed.

Meanwhile, within the walls of Kyogoku House; the place where Zenitsu is implanted, we see our cowardly yellow swordsman suddenly activated by the cries of a young girl somewhere within the house. While Zenitsu has always been shown to be a total wimp, when it comes to girls he seems to have a drive and passion he otherwise lacks.

Which isn’t exactly the most positive character trait, but it’s a useful one for him to possess in this particular arc. And upon rushing towards the sound, we discover that House Kyogoku is the one playing host to the very demon they’re there to investigate. Isn’t Zenitsu the lucky boy.

In all honesty the though, the following confrontation between Zenitsu and the Demon: Warabihime Oiran is pretty great. Despite his fear, even knowing she is most likely an Upper Rank Demon, Zenitsu swallows it down and defends the young girl from the physical abuse at the hands of Oiran. I mean, it gets him a slap that sends him careening into the next room unconscious. But it’s the thought that counts.

The problem comes from the demon’s realisation that he is a member of the Slayer Corps the moment she makes contact with him.

From here we flash back and see Warabihime Oiran committing a murder after being found out as a demon. One that leads her home to find Muzan waiting for her, in one of his many guises. It’s a meeting that goes very different than the one we saw between Muzan and Akaza. Muzan calls the lowest ranked of his Upper Six Daki; who regards her master with a combination of fear, awe and a schoolgirl-like infatuation.

He’s there to give her a pep talk seemingly, as well as warn her not to become complacent. As there is a Hashira on his way to her location. But she’s apparently dealt with seven of their kind already in her long life. So the likes of Uzui and his gang of kids should be nothing to her… Cut to her bitch slapping Zenitsu.

It’s only the intervention of the master of the house that forces her to keep up appearances and not finish Zenitsu off there and then. Although in a post-credits scene, we se Zenitsu wake up under the care of the three girls he was defending from Daki. Something that gives him another boon to his self confidence. That is until we get a super cool jump scare moment where Daki’s sashes loom from above and suddenly envelopes him.

But you might be asking: Where’s my best boy Tanjiro. Well, he’s off at Tokito House living his best life. Seriously, it seems like Tanjiro missed his calling in life as a housekeeper, because his rampent enthusiam for the more mundane tasks of cleaning and maintaining the house is even too much for the head of the house to to keep up with.

And honestly, I’m not too broken up about Tanjiro sitting this one out for a while. While I do love the kid, I said in my last review that this could easily bee the arc for Zenitsu to shine, and given the events of this episode, it certainly feels like that’s the way the wind is blowing. As this is the most heroic we’ve seen him act in the face of a demon… whilst conscious.

Otherwise, the main focus of this episode was to introduce us to our main villain: Warabihime Oiran/Daki and give us a little context to her character. Which, so far seems to amount to little more than “malicious demon, who enjoys the cruelty and manipulation she inflicts on everyone around her”. Maybe she’s get a redemptive flashback, I’m sure she will if Tanjiro has anything to say about it, but so far she seems pretty bad to the bone.

Daki has at least one of Uzui’s wives captured, and now Zenitsu too. He’s hoping the yellow flash can do something to facilitate his own escape next time and simply doesn’t pass out and wait for rescue from Uzui, Inosuke and Tanjiro.

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