Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Why Demon Slayer Needs More Nezuko
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enurtsol
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This analysis deserves a pat in the back from the total Chad - he even makes his wives prostitute themselves for the mission
If they trained Nezuko in concentrated breathing, which breathing technique would she be? Demon Art Blood-bending? 
Also, Tanjiro be like the Avatar and use both Water- and Fire-bending at the same time |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2113 |
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I know this arc is Yoshiwara but man I didn't expect so much sexualization like this. Still not as overthetop as the sexualization from My Hero Academia but isn't Nezuko like 13? Still, the whole idea of Uzui being into polygamy doesn't add anything to his character considering these characters appear for like five minutes. At least I can say that Demon Slayer outdid Gintama in handling the concept of Yoshiwara more than Gintama could ever care.
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sjk9000
Posts: 36 |
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From a strictly in-universe point of view, I think it makes sense for Nezuko to be kept on the back burner. Her cognitive abilities right now are somewhere in between a toddler and a particularly bright dog. Even if they wanted to teach her breathing techniques or have her undergo subterfuge missions, I don't think she has the mental capacity for it. Plus I think it's irresponsible to let what is basically a child to fight bloody battles, even if she is almost immortal.
But that just raises the question: Why did the author choose to write Nezuko as trapped in a state of perpetually arrested development in the first place? Every other demon character eventually gains enough cognizance to pass as human. We even have Tamayo and Yushiro as examples of non-Muzan-enthralled demons, and they're mostly normal. It's been several months, if not a year or two, since Nezuko was turned, so why's ahe still semi-feral? I know the manga eventually gives a "reason" for this, but it's a pretty bullshit reason. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4788 |
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I think the out-of-universe reason is that most shonen authors show a staggering inability to write female characters, for reasons that will forever remain a mystery to me. I remember Kishimoto admitting that he was "bad" at writing female characters in Naruto, and it always made me facepalm, because, y'know, maybe just write them as the regular human beings that they are. There are so precious few shonen series that have give proper agency to their female characters, and it's a never-ending source of frustration. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11586 |
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I swear to god I can still amaze even myself with how impenetrably dense I can be. Only now, after seeing this image:
did I realize that in choosing our boys, Uzui essentially replicated his wives. In fact, I had always seen the image from the OP of him with his wives that led off this article as being Uzui and the boys once they got their makeup and secret identities down pat, or else it was some stylized image of their roles or something. I am ashamed. :headdesk: |
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KarlFranz
Posts: 185 |
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Nezuko basically stuck in the transition period, most demon start off feral but gain back sentient after eating people. Nezuko got stuck between the 2 stages because she never eat any human. She was suppose to eat her family but Tanjirou stoopped that. |
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SilvaStreamer
Posts: 28 |
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I whole heartedly agree that Nezuko should be outside the box again esp after the Mugen Train arc where she was treated as an addition to the group in order to help with the rescue operation.
But I feel like the producers/writers want to downplay her again in this new arc because her powers are actually very strong(she wields blood art magic!). She might become too OTT and wound up becoming a Mary Sue so she’s back in the box until the right moment comes again where she’ll showcase her new power(in the OP it looks like she’s controlling either some plants or festive lights) |
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livin_large
Posts: 107 |
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It also has to do with marketing. Shounen is aimed at boys, so they focus on male characters so the readers can relate to them. |
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Kirki
Posts: 296 |
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Welcome to the internet where we learn that writing female characters like human beings is impossible and too much to ask. Honestly, these excuses just tire me at this point. There are infinite bad and good examples at character writing, then and now, (Also the 90's and the 00's aren't ancient times). If you are a good writer, you write stories with relatable characters regardless of their gender and that's just it. You can't tell me that we've "progressed" when series like Platinum End get the spotlight and even popular series like My Hero Academia sideline their female characters at worst or center their development around their romantic feelings at best. It's just bad writing and it will always be apparent. Even if Araki said that he didn't know how to write them, his female characters had guts from the beginning. Of course he got better when writing the later parts, but his writing potential was always there.
Specifically for Demon Slayer though, I don't think that's the case. It's more like the writer didn't know what to do with Nezuko narratively. She doesn't get sidelined because of her gender but because of her role in the story. Demon Slayer is actually one of the good examples of character writing in recent WSJ series, right alongside Jujutsu Kaisen. Don't be too harsh on Nezuko, she tries despite all the handicaps. |
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KarlFranz
Posts: 185 |
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I think this is a most correct reason. Like unlike most of the cast, Nezuko isn't in any danger while in fights with other demon. She can get chopped off to pieces and still come back, the only thing that could harm her are sunlight, the slayer swords and Muzan. This mean her fights are usually the most brutal while also the least consequential. As for why they don't teach Nezuko breath, well it kinda spoiler but spoiler[Demon can't learn breath]. Like if you look at how Tanjirou trained, learning Breath involve pushing his bodies to the limit and build up the tolerance for it, something demon can't do since their bodies have no limit, they can't learn to build up stamina since they literally have infinity stamina. So unless the demon know Breath Style before turning, they can't learn Breath Style after that and generally don't need to. |
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Bayuro2.0
 Posts: 74 |
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For Akari Kito, her most popular anime role (Nezuko) is also ironically the easiest. She only sleeps and growl like a lion cub. She rarely speaks.
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Divineking
 Posts: 1297 |
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This gets thrown around a lot as a defense but it rings kinda hollow considering that half of JUMP's readership IS women at this point, and has been for sometime, and also that there are a fair amount of shonen manga outside the sphere of JUMP that can write female characters decently or at least give them more than one or two small fights across an entire franchise. It's less of a "shonen" thing and more a problem with the specific boys-club mentality of JUMP's editorial staff, considering they still can't be bothered to hire female editors even now, It did kinda briefly seem like JUMP stuff was getting better with female characters with things like TPN and Act-Age, but the TPN anime imploded, and the stuff with Act-Age's author...happened so I'm kinda worried they might push back in the opposite direction as far as the main magazine goes. At least JUMP Plus seems to be a little more flexible in that department. |
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KarlFranz
Posts: 185 |
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You will be surprise to hear that most female readers of Jump prefer the male characters over the female one. Like the characters don't have to share the same genitals with the readers for the readers to like them. |
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a_Bear_in_Bearcave
Posts: 549 Location: Poland |
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If characters don't have to share the same genitals with the readers for the readers to like them, then it means there never was a reason to avoid focusing on female characters and even female MCs in the boy oriented stories in the first place, was there? |
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andramus
 Posts: 192 |
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If after all these years you're still reading Shonen Jump you have to know the sort of stories you're going to get and generally how female characters will be treated.
There are other publications out there to choose from. Also to be fair within Shonen Jump itself there are a range of different series catering to different tastes some of which treat their female characters better than others depending on the standards you measure these things by. Jujutsu Kaisen and The Promised Neverland are a couple that spring to mind. I usually don't mind some series sidelining female characters to give male characters most of the story focus/glory such as My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer. I do mourn missed opportunities to develop secondary and tertiary characters regardless of their sex. However there's a limited amount of time a mangaka can invest in sideplots and characters. I do think there is value in spinoff manga and novels that are authorised canon by the original creator to expand on the world and the characters they have created. My Hero Academia Vigilantes being a particularly good example of this. |
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