u/OmniSnatcher

It's something that occasionally occurs to me every time there's a surge of rants about one adaptation or another, manga to anime, comics to movies, games to animation, and there are always, always either arguments or complaints centered around the adaptation being or not being "faithful to the source material". I think today's the day I put all those feelings and thoughts into actual words.

As a long-standing fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, all this "faithful adaptation" talk seems a bit amusing, especially regarding works that are loose adaptations to begin with, like MCU movies.

Let me explain. Pretty sure everyone here knows Sonic the Hedgehog, the free-spirited Blue Blur, one of the best-known gaming mascots. A big part of why he continues to be such an icon is his multimedia empire. The hedgehog's got a dozen cartoon and anime series, several rather impressive comic and manga runs, a few short movies and OVAs, a full-blown Hollywood movie series recently… and NONE of them are, per say, "faithful" to the source material in a way this word is often used around here.

"Adventure of Sonic the Hedgehog" has Sonic and Tails traverse borderline surrealistic Mobius, fighting goofy Robotnik, "Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)" has Sonic as part of Freedom Fighters going against a chilling Robotnik who already took over the world, "Sonic X" has Sonic and his friends end up on Earth, away from their homeworld, "Sonic the Hedgehog (OVA)" has Sonic and Tails save the Land of the Sky from Robotnik's forces hiding in the Land of Darkness, "Sonic Boom" is basically a sit-com with Eggman being more of an irritating neighbor than world-conquering menace he usually is, "Sonic the Hedgehog (Manga)" has Sonic as a superhero persona of a hedgehog kid named Nicky and "Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics)" by all accounts outright functions as a Western-style superhero universe with multiple subseries, grand schemes and rather complex politics between various heroic and villainous factions and so on.

Green Hill, the staple of Sonic franchise? Pretty sure of those adaptations I mentioned, it only appears as God intended, in its faithful game form in Archie Comics, with a Green Hill-inspired area being a part of Sonic's world in Sonic X. Most of them don't bother adapting any singular plot of any game and when they do, it might be extremely loose. In fact, Paramount movies might be some of the most faithful adaptations with how they even bother to adapt Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Adventure 2 in short succession.

And yet, even with all this unholy unfaithfulness going around, pretty much ALL of these adaptations and then some are beloved to this day, to one extent or another. If you ask Sonic fans which adaptation is the best or the worst, people just won't be able to tell. At most they'll tell you which ones are objectively more accurate to the games or which ones are objectively better made from technical perspective, but it won't correspond at all to how high of an esteem they hold them. Adaptation-original characters? "Eh, we vibe with Agent Stone, would be nice to see him in the games". Of course, it takes a bit since new adaptations ruffle feathers occasionally, especially in the case of Boom, where after content draught people were afraid it would just replace the mainline series. Now, though, it's got one of the most beloved shows around, peak comedy.

The overall benevolent opinion of the adaptations is downright hilarious considering how Sonic fandom is considered notoriously capriscious and impossible to satisfy.

I think it all comes down to all Sonic adaptations keeping Sonic's "vibe" and not so much adapting the stories themselves as much as the idea of a free-going guy with a bit (or a lot) of snark going around helping people and wrangling freedom from a mad scientist's hands. Well, that and all adaptations just consistently being fun, at least decently made and not going against that vibe in the first place.

Sonic can be a smug trashtalker down to the bone (Archie, SatAM), a geniunely chill guy with a snark streak (AoStH, OVA, X) or an excited kid (Movies), but the free-willed and well-intentioned core of the character doesn't really change and neither does the core of the series. Might be speaking from a high horse here, but it feels like various adaptations I see people complain about because they change too much aren't bad because they change stuff per se, but because they change the wrong stuff and focus on the wrong things, changing characters' and worlds' whole vibes for the worse. Shows like Invincible and The Boys (at least in Season 1) and Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) changed A LOT compared to their source material, but are also extremely beloved exactly because of those differences, so there's that.

That said, I mostly wrote this rant to share the miracle of Sonic's unfaithful, yet widely beloved adaptations.

TL;DR: unfaithful adaptations aren't necessarily bad and Sonic the Hedgehog is a living example with a dozen adaptations that don't bother adapting his games much.

For those in the back, Justice League Action is a 2016-2018 animated show about Justice League, showing off various heroes fighting various villains in various circumstances, funny and some more serious. Rather light-hearted show for the most part, kinda like Batman: the Brave and the Bold, but with maybe 40% less Batman, freeing up space for really unique and fun character combos, like Mr. Mxyzptlk messing with Captain Marvel for a change.

Booster Gold is one of the lesser known heroes who gets some solid spotlight here, alongside Firestorm and a few others, and between JLA and Brave and the Bold I've come to really like Booster… but it frustrates me how he's characterized because of several particular episodes.

You see, in general, Booster is presented a comedic goof who does heroics to get famous enough he can profit off of merch and, in general, for money. That's perfectly fine and he's funny while doing it. Then in Episode 27, Chronovore, it's revealed that despite his goofiness, Booster can be serious when it comes to keeping timestream in check and he works with Batman to defeat the titular time anomaly, showing himself a competent time-specialized hero who's a bit lonely because he has to goof around and act extra stupid sometimes or people might start poking too much at time-space stuff. Batman gets his memories of that adventure erased, but Booster made a pic he keeps at his base, so he feels a bit better about being valued. Solid character work.

HOWEVER, then Episode 31, Booster's Gold, has him actively goofing around with timestream, bringing dinosaurs from the past to make a Jurassic Park copy, which just goes entirely against his characterization in Ep. 27 and it just freaked me out on first watch.

And the last bit. Not as egregious, but it still pissed me off. One of shorts connected to JLA has a funny/kinda sad bit where Wonder Woman uses her Lasso of Truth on Booster and during the compelled rant he mentions how he's "terrible at caring for things he loves". That turns out to be a bit of foreshadowing, as he gets the show's finale, Episode 52, She Wore Red Velvet, to himself. The titular villainess, Red Velvet, is Booster's fiancee he left at the altar in the future, because he felt he wouldn't be able to support wedded life and that is why he's obsessed with getting rich as a hero. Justice League gets him back, but then Red Velvet reveals that she didn't become a villainess because he left her, but because he came back and their marriage was terrible. As a result, Booster's fiancee runs away, causing a reaction that makes Red Velvet disappear, leaving Booster visibly lost.

Given that Booster had his serious moments and this is the show finale with kinda serious premise and kinda serious presentation that completely wrecked Booster's goals for life, you'd expect some resolution at the end to give Booster a new vector or something? NOPE, literally last seconds are to play Booster up as a womanizer.

>Wonder Woman: How can we be sure this Red Velvet isn't still out there?
Batman, using Watchtower tech for search: There's no record of her, even in the future.
Booster Gold: …Red Velvet she never existed. *covers his face mournfully*
Batman: Booster, I know how difficult this must be, but you'll get over it in time.
Booster Gold: *pause where he uncovers his face*
Booster Gold with a silly grin: ...do you have Giganta's number? I know she's a villain, but I guess that's my thing now?
Batman: *visibly unimpressed, starts walking away*
Booster Gold, being playful: Got Giganta's digits? Hey, it's not like you're gonna use them! Bats, come on!

Reminder, this is a guy who can stop joking around when things get serious and who basically dedicated his heroics to his fiancee so they'd have a rich and happy married life. That dissonance right at the end of the episode SOOOO pissed me off when I was younger and it pisses me off now. Honestly, you could even leave the phrase about getting Giganta's number in, if it was more self-deprecatingly and without being played up as a joke with his tone and background music. But no, we have to be extra light-hearted here.

So annoying. And outside of these inconsistencies, Booster is honestly a hilarious and enjoyable mainstay in the JLA show, even moreso than in Brave and the Bold, given how much more often he appears.

It's the second time I bring up DBZ with some old-fashioned rant point this year, but man, I LOVE DBZ, so I need to rant about it.

So, Yamcha.

One of my favorite DBZ characters, he was beside Goku since the very first arc in his travels as a kid, grown from a desert bandit into a decent man and beloved baseball icon, not to mention one of the strongest humans on Earth. Handsome, sweet, a bit awkward in a cute way and ever reliable. And completely meme'd to death to the point it's depressing and leaking into official works. The worst part I kind of see how it happened, with US receiving DBZ without the original series, which led to wrong first impression of Yamcha. But even then, somehow people just missed the point that Yamcha's infamous death was the result of a surprise attack after the saibaman fight concluded, plus Yamcha took him on instead of Krillin to avoid him getting (what at that point would be) permadeath in case they pulled out a dirty trick just like that.

And, honestly, given how Yamcha's death was played out dramatically and with all the gravitas it deserved, I think it wouldn't have stuck if not for Toriyama's writing decisions surrounding Bulma, Vegeta, Trunks and all around that. I can live with my man being relatively weak, it's something that befell most Z-Fighters. Now, basically getting cucked by the guy who got you killed is something else.

Yeah-yeah, "Yamcha is a cheater" Toriyama says, but even voice actors didn't believe Toriyama, especially with Bulma's characterization where she was hanging up on every handsome guy beforehand, like General Blue (before she learned he's gay), Jackie Chun (before she learned he's an old man) and Zarbon (before he transformed into his monstrous form). Honestly, even Yamcha fits the mold of "badass and powerful" because he was a rugged and intimidating (for ten seconds) desert bandit in his first appearance. Pretty sure there's a fanon thought flying around that since we only know about Yamcha "cheating" from Future Trunks, Future Bulma just lied about because why would she ever admit the opposite, especially with how Bulma is frequently characterized as petty, vindictive and hypocritical.

Now, that's mostly anime characterization, but it genuinely makes her even more unbearable in that after Yamcha become a decent guy and starts living with her, she starts getting jealous about his fangirls outside the house when Yamcha still hasn't fully gotten over his genuine fear of women (according to Toriyama himself, mind you, Yamcha pretty much never got over it). I watched Dragon Ball from the very start and the only thing I kept thinking off was "man, Yamcha deserves better". Honestly, outside of the whole "getting pregnant with the kid of the guy who killed her friends", Bulma and Vegeta deserve each other.

How come Frieza has a better taste than Bulma?

>Excerpt from Dragon Ball FighterZ fighting game.
Yamcha: "This is Frieza, huh? This is the first time I've gotten a good look at him."
Frieza: "Oh ho ho ho! This Earthling is aware of my greatness. I do love how the word of my return gets around!"
Goku: "Oh, yeah, Yamcha. And this isn't even Frieza's full power. Get this… When he's at his strongest, his whole body shines gold like a Super Saiyan."
Frieza: "I would appreciate it if you didn't compared me to you Saiyans!"
Yamcha: "Y-Yeah, that's right, Goku! D-Don't be so rude! Super Saiyans aren't the only gold things around. You know what I mean? Gold medals, championship wrestling belts… Being gold means being number one!"
Frieza: "...Well, this is quite a surprise. I didn't think Saiyans associated with such sensible and handsome creatures."
Goku: "Hmm, well that's all well and good, but can we hurry up and get to the fighting cuz I'm bored?"
Yamcha: "Oh, c'mon, Goku! I just set the mood and you're killing it!"

And yeah, gonna make a note to all insufferable "ackshually Vegeta didn't kill them, the saibaman and Nappa did" and of course it makes it THAT much better. Saw one comment make a strong counterargument "If my dog rips you apart, I feel like the court will still charge me with murder" and Vegeta made the whole point of "I'll kill you if you don't kill them" and stood there with a smug grin.

Now, all that is the canonical basis, right there in the manga and original anime. But then it got worse. DBZ Abridged took its time in kicking Yamcha down at every turn until in Cell Saga even the cast felt they were going a bit far and started throwing him some bones. But of course because of cultural osmosis of this extremely popular parody in the time of DBZ content drought, Yamcha's role in Abridged got mixed up in people's heads with his canonical role.

Then Dragon Ball Super came around. It hit pretty much every member of the cast with a case of flanderization and, honestly, Yamcha got off somewhat easy, but the anime showed him living in kinda poor apartment despite his fame, his non-inclusion in ToP felt genuinely mean-spirited with how he expected to be invited only for his friends to basically forget about his existence, and his supposed "moment to shine" in baseball game culminated with the official material, I must remind you, making fun of his memetic death. Which, as I mentioned previously, was played completely straight and tragic originally. Yeah, on the other hand, manga actually threw Z-Fighters, including Yamcha, an actual bone in having them defeat prisoners Moro set on Earth… but they're literal noname fodder.

There's a supposed girlfriend for Yamcha in Heroes, but he's too young for her because alien species and he gets cucked by time. There's that "Reincarnated as Yamcha" manga with a badass Yamcha, but I never quite got it and its hype because, you know, it isn't EXACTLY our dear old Yamcha. Neither Yamcha nor other Z-Fighters got new fancy moves like Yardrat techniques or even Kaio-ken despite training with King Kai, none of them got any use out of god ki to equalize them with saiyans or something.

IT ALL LEAVES ME SO FRUSTRATED.

In a word, as I said, Yamcha, the guy who stuck around since the very first arc, really got slighted by the writing even more than other Z-Fighters. At this point I'd even just prefer if Puar was confirmed to be his girl/boyfriend (or even wife/husband, depending on the dub) because come on, all Yamcha has ever wanted was a family and you don't even give him that!

TL;DR: sometimes JoJo stand users ARE actually unassuming characters who look like extras and that's very cool.

Let me nerd out about JoJo. This thing started my shonen obsession in recent years and there's so much to love about it. But my little favorite thing is something people meme'd to death. "The stand user can be anyone" they say and the absolutely flashiest peacock of a human appears to reveal themselves as a stand user. Right? Except it's not exactly always true.

Part 3, Stardust Crusaders and the introduction of stands. The first enemy stand and its user, Kakyoin, are kinda the meme, but anime highlights future JoBros, so he kind of slides by. Now, the actual first enemy stand, pure evil, Tower of Gray, actually has a stand user I didn't see coming. During the airflight, an unassuming old man from the background just wakes up to leave for the bathroom, sees the blood, knocks himself out... only to be revealed as a crazy bomber when the stand is defeated and damage reflection goes exactly to that man.

There are conspicuous stand users like Devo and Rubber Soul, but Part 3 also pulls out few genuinely unassuming stand users, my absolute favorite being Steely Dan. The crusaders make a stop after defeat Enya, where Joseph haggles with a common-looking street vendor, the narration putting focus on the art of haggling in that usual way JoJo speeches about random trivia facts go and the scene ends with the vendor cackling to himself because despite Joseph's haggling, he still overpaid the vendor. I genuinely thought that'd be it for the scene, since the vendor seemed like one of numerous "a bit quirky" and functional to the momentary bit, but ultimately background unnamed characters who appeared throughout the story. ...NOPE, there's a stand attack and the vendor actually throws off his cloak to reveal himself as one of Dio's assassins.

Part 4 is a bit odd about unassuming stand users since plenty of stand users in Part 4 look unassuming like Yukako and Tonio, but the narrative puts them in position where you know they're the stand user. Kira, while presented as unassuming, even in his early anime appearances in the background, it kinda noticable with his signature bright jacket. However, there's one brilliant scene in the anime, right after Kira switches faces and escapes in the crowd: there are actually several future stand users right there in the background and even Kira himself, animators didn't slack, he's right there in the crowd, but all of them blend with the rest of the people, really bringing that "anyone can be stand user/Yoshikage Kira" feel.

Part 5 stand users are memetically conspicious, but Part 6, the grand finale of the original timeline, brought the tradition back in my second favorite case. In High Security, Pucci releases four stand users to kill Jolyne. …and there are way more than four prisoners in their in all sorts of flashy outfits, which already confuses the viewer. When one of the guards and his friend escorting Jolyne wrestle to death with little provocation, you'd think these two are just victims of a stand attack, since the two look rather unassumingly, but then there's focus on the survivor who fights Jolyne herself when every prisoner is released for a free-for-all brawl. I'll be honest, I doubted that guard was one of the stand users until the narrative flat-out said it and showed his stand. I was pleasantly surprised one last time (since Part 7 and Part 8 stand users aren't subtle in the slightest and I have no idea about Part 9).

I've been around, writing Demon Slayer rants, interpreting, analyzing and ranting on underrated villains of the series. This one topic has been on my mind for quite a bit and I think it concerns the most obscure and underrated characters yet. My previous rants:

• Muzan Kibutsuji: An Underrated Antagonist
• Douma the Mischaracterized
• Subtleties of Kaigaku
• I Love Kokushibo

Today, I'll be ranting about not one, not two, but, just, A LOT of characters, a specific category that's just generally underrated in the series: Demon Slayer's human villains. Well, in some cases "villains" might be overstating it in comparison to Muzan and his demons, but in other cases humans are just as monstrous as Muzan's demons.

To preface specific paragraphs, I'd note that every single human villain only appears as part of major characters' backstory, either slayers or demons, which, given just how many there are, feels like a deliberate choice, given that surprisingly many of them are actually alive and, presumbly, live well-off lives during Demon Slayer main story, in some cases even outliving characters whose backstories they belong to.

Some villains will be grouped together for one reason or another, and I must also note that while I want to add him here, I've already written about the only human villain who appears in the main story… Kaigaku. Notably, he never appears in main story as a human, only as a demon, so he doesn't disrupt the pattern.

Anyway, with that, I start looking over.

• Kanao's parents and Douma's parents

Two groups of abusive parents I stack together because of their basic concept as selfish parents who use their kids to enrich themselves, whether it's through actually selling them (Kanao) or starting a scam religion using them (Douma). They're also grouped in how both sets of parents contributed to their related characters experiencing issues in showing their emotions. In a way, they're even contrasting each other, intentionally or not: where Douma's parents are shown to be rich via their scheme and psychologically abusive, forcing their sole kid into service of the people and (likely unintentionally) brainwashing him into believing their religion to an extent, Kanao's parents are outwardly poor, taking it out on their many kids right up to killing them and are pretty much physically abusive, to the point Kanao didn't really talk when Kocho sisters found her.

At the same time, both sets of parents are equally unsympathetic, some of the most hated characters in the story, and with how Douma's parents ultimately killed each other in falling to their vices, it's not too hard to imagine something like it would happen to Kanao's parents as well.

• Edo Period Samurai and Rival Dojo Heir

Two nameless individuals from backstories of Upper Moon 6 and Upper Moon 3 respectively. Let me remind you how villainous they are with brief summaries.

The samurai in question was one of the Ume's clients in the Red Light District. Already perfectly considered to be a sleazy, getting services from the beautiful 13-years-old, he insulted her brother, Gyutaro, for no reason, and got stabbed for it in the eye by the hairpin he got for her. In retaliation he went to outright burn Ume alive, which led to Gyutaro killing him (and no tears were spilled) and accepting demonhood from Douma to save her.

The rival dojo of Keizo, Hakuji's mentor, are generally considered a collective villain, but I pick out the heir explicitly due to the extended backstory never adapted from Gotoge's manga notes. While the dojo in general wished to gain Keizo's land and was pissed off at him being a superior fighter, the heir in particular is a more personal rival of Hakuji, harboring a crush for Koyuki, Keizo's sickly daughter who, nevertheless, didn't bother helping her with an asthma attack, unlike Hakuji. So when the two became engaged, he was the one to challenge Hakuji and Keizo to a fight and, when that failed, the one to hatch the plan to poison them all. Since his plan failed to kill Hakuji, Keizo and Koyuki's deaths served as his breaking point before he went on a murderous rampage to brought Muzan's attention to him.

These two are individual villains, but are, just like the previous group, are some of the despised characters in the story due to how they ruined lives of people who would, in the future, become demons, explicitly because of their actions. It's extra notable since Daki, Gyutaro and Akaza are some of the most sympathetic demons, contrasting the humans who created them.

• Obanai's family

Obanai's family are some of the human villains whose villainy is much more pronounced than previous groups, as their bandit clan for centuries lured people to be eaten by the snake demon they hosted. The first boy their clan had in centuries, Obanai, was both kept in cage yet spoiled with meals so rich and fat he couldn't help but feel ill from it. They would smile at him yet they, his mother, aunts and cousins would also cut his mouth open to mimic their patron demon when it wished so. In all honesty, Obanai's backstory is one of the most twisted ones and no tears were shed when the demon killed them all in rage when Obanai escaped.

However, it's also of note that one of Obanai's cousins survived… to promptly victim blame him for their family's death because "he dared to escape", so Shinjuro Rengoku who killed the demon had to hold her back from beating Obanai (after, I suppose, he wrongfully thought he'd be doing good to reconnect the survivors of the family). It's also the most bittersweet part: Obanai holds nothing against his cousin in particular, because she wasn't one of the adults and, from his point of view, didn't have the full idea of what they were doing. At the same time, she, such an unsympathetic girl, according to manga notes, outlived Obanai and built a happy family afterwards. Even if you don't like Obanai for most of the story, it's bitter how Obanai never gets a happy life, dragged down by belief he's tainted by his family, while his cousin picks up what was left of their fortune to life well.

• Tengen's father

Not gonna lie, I think Tengen Uzui's father is the most monstrous human in Demon Slayer, which is rather impressive, since even in Tengen's backstory he never appears in person.

Let me summarize who Tengen's father is. An overzealous and ruthless ninja, most likely specializing in assassination, given the context, who trained his nine children to the bone. Because of the kids wearing masks all the time, when Tengen (the oldest sibling, mind you) was 15, he tricked Tengen into killing two of his siblings, forcing a selection to have the strongest and the most ruthless of his children procreate to continue the clan. That's why he also arranged for Tengen (and, presumably, his surviving younger brother who was successfully molded into his father's likeness) to be married to Hina, Suma and Makio, treating kunoichi as nothing more than baby factories.

Just like with Obanai's family, actions of Tengen's father drag his respective Hashira down, with Tengen fully believing he's going to Hell after death no matter how much good he's done after leaving his clan upon realizing how twisted their life is. Even without appearance, he's a major foil for Tengen himself, who, while bossy and boisterious, also carries a lot of care for the Kamaboko boys working under him and a lot of love for his beloved wives.

Genuinely, Tengen's father, even from what little we don't see of him, sounds like he belongs to a more cruel and twisted setting like Naruto in general. I'll be honest, with this absolutely ruthless set-up I lowkey expected Tengen's brother to make a surprise appearance as new Upper Moon 5 to contrast Tengen, not unlike Kaigaku, since both Tengen's brother and the aforementioned father are still at large during Demon Slayer. Alas, it was not meant to be.

• Kyogo Shinazugawa

The only guy on the list to have a name to put to the face. All things considered, he's the least villainous on the list, being a "mere" violent alcoholic who would beat his family (mostly his wife) but I, surprisingly, have quite a few things to say about him.

The Shinazugawa brothers, Sanemi and Genya, quite transparently parallel the Kamados, very noticeable with both families having many young children who are killed by a demon, leaving only two eldest as survivors of a massacre. What's less noticeable, but, for me, an entirely legit interpretation, is how Kyogo is a complete opposite of Tanjiro and Nezuko's father, Tanjuro.

Both Tanjuro and Kyogo died before anything demon-related happened to their families, with Tanjuro dying because of his illness and Kyogo being shanked by one of the victims of his violent outbursts. Both Tanjuro and Kyogo have strong resemblence to their sons. But most importantly… both of them make posthumous appearances in story despite their deaths. Tanjuro is Tanjiro's spiritual advisor at least on one major occasion, giving him a hint against Enmu's dream ability. Kyogo appears to Sanemi when the latter's on the verge of death after the final fight, forcing him back to life, when Sanemi wanted to comfort his beloved mother in Hell.

There's something ironic in how Tanjuro keeps loving his son even when the advice he's forced to give to Tanjiro against the dream ability is "cut your own throat to escape the dream", while Kyogo keeps being harmful to Sanemi even when he forces him out of the afterlife: at that point, Genya's dead and Sanemi has no family left and given the Demon Slayer Mark he awakened, he's not guaranteed to live past 25, so what Kyogo gives him feels cruel, as does his compliment.

>Sanemi: Okay, mom. I'll carry you and we'll go to Hell together.
Kyogo: Let go. Shizu's coming with me. *throws Sanemi back*
Sanemi: You ass…!! Jackass, let go of mom!
Kyogo: You're not going anywhere, not here, not there. Be grateful you're my son. You're goddamn tough.

It's honestly funny how Kyogo is a very, and I mean very insignificant character, but his nature as Tanjuro's potential foil and his single afterlife scene, a very rare element for such an antagonistic and insignificant character, gives certain layers to his character.

Demon Slayer is, at its core, is a rather bittersweet story, given how many sacrifices heroes make to overcome their adversary. I think a bit of that bittersweet taste lies in how humanity is presented. Yes, humanity is virtuous, as shown with the slayers, but every demon was once human, even Muzan himself, and while slayers have brought down the greatest evils of Japan, others, like surviving human villains, are still there, running in the background, because humanity is imperfect even when striving to be the best it can be.

That's a fourth rant on Demon Slayer I'm doing. Earlier I analyzed underrated and misread antagonists, but this time I just wanted to yap against a universally acclaimed villain. Positive rant incoming. My previous rants:

• Muzan Kibutsuji: An Underrated Antagonist
• Douma the Mischaracterized
• Subtleties of Kaigaku

When I was first reading Demon Slayer, I was spoiled on some things, but Kokushibo, for the most part, remained a complete mystery to me. But at some point I familiarized myself enough with the fandom that I learned a common opinion that "Kokushibo is the best villain of Demon Slayer" and even "Kokushibo is the best written character in the manga". I asked myself if, perhaps, people are overhyping him. After all, I've reached the Infinity Castle Arc and Kokushibo has only had one appearance during the Upper Moon Meeting at the start of the Swordsmith Village Arc where he didn't do much but intimidate Akaza.

I don't think I've ever seen a character so hyped up yet completely living up to said hype. Neither have I ever been so glad to be wrong.

I'll separate my rant into summary of Kokushibo's appearance in story and discussion of Michikatsu Tsugikuni's psychology, geeking out about everything I like about him all the way.

• Kokushibo, the strongest Upper Moon

Kokushibo stays in the background for the most part. His first appearance is the aforementioned Upper Moon Meeting, where he shows he's the strongest of the Upper Moons, though keen-eyed readers can notice how oddly similar he appears to the mysterious slayer from the past who scared the life out of Muzan (something I personally didn't immediately catch in the black-and-white manga). His second appearance is his appearance in Kaigaku's backstory where he intimidates the boy into becoming a demon or facing death. Then he makes a brief appearance after Akaza's death, denouncing him for his weakness.

After Douma's defeated by Kanao and Inosuke, outside of Nakime controlling the Infinity Castle, Kokushibo remains the biggest threat to deal with in Muzan's absence.

From the get-go, Kokushibo proves himself a fascinating and unique character, being a former demon slayer who states his relation to the Hashira who first encounters him, Muichiro Tokito, being his ancestor, Michikatsu Tsugikuni. It's notable, because Tokito has been assumed to be the descendant of the slayer who created the Sun Breathing, the original breathing style from which all slayers' techniques are born.

The battle picks up when the Shinazugawa brothers, Genya and Sanemi, appear and then, Gyomei Himejima, the Stone Hashira. The stakes are much more acute in Kokushibo's fight than any previous one. Tokito, Genya, Sanemi and Himejima - all of them are secondary characters with none of the plot armor offered to Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke in their respective fights against Upper Moons, and the author has shown herself to be absolutely willing to kill named characters with Shinobu's death against Douma.

There's not reason for me to recount the battle step by step, but Kokushibo shows the ridiculous gap between himself and Upper Two not in brute force, but in ridiculous level of skill. Kokushibo reveals himself to be the wielder of Moon Breathing, a style he refined over centuries, with the largest number of shown techniques of any breathing style by a large margin, 11 various techniques on-screen and they're not even sequential. No, given the names of the forms, Moon Breathing has at least 16 various forms, each enhanced with Blood Demon Art, not unlike Kaigaku's, making the aura of his attacks real. Kokushibo extends his flesh katana for maximum effectiveness, possesses the ability to the Transparent World, retains his composure throughout, shrugging off most of the four's desperate attacks in what might indeed be the most graceful fight in the manga with the finest choreography and desperation seeping through. Really, it's just a SPECTACLE to read and yeah, I'm basic, like most KnY fans, I think it's my favorite fight.

Ultimately, Kokushibo is brought down by all three Hashiras awakening their Demon Slayer Marks that empower them at cost of their lifespan, and with Genya, who gains demonic power from eating demon flesh, awakening a Blood Demon Art from eating broken parts of Kokushibo's flesh katana. Kokushibo, shockingly, become the second demon to regenerate after decapitation, boasting internally of being superior to everyone else, including Akaza who was so close to doing the same but giving up his power for his humanity.

However, Kokushibo's regeneration is monstrous. He catches his deformed appearance in the reflection on Sanemi's blade and the hesitation costs him, allowing the Hashiras to decapitate him once again, definitively. Both Tokito and Genya are bisected by some of Kokushibo's final attacks, giving Upper One some of the most notable bodycounts in the story.

However, while Kokushibo, the demon, was already memorable with the show of unparalleled force, he wouldn't be nearly as great without the human aspect of him, Michikatsu Tsugikuni, implied in his throwaway phrases, brief snaps of past showing when he starts losing and culminating in the two-chapter backstory at the very end, when Kokushibo reflects on his life.

• Michikatsu, the envious brother

Here, we need to go more or less chronologically. Michikatsu Tsugikuni is the twin brother of Yoriichi, the man who became a legend, founding the breathing styles all slayers use against demons. The two were born to a samurai clan and Yoriichi, odd silent child, marked as if a bad omen, was treated poorly, while Michikatsu was brought up as the heir. Michikatsu, in his words, thought him pathetic, even when his brother treasured poorly made flute Michikatsu made for him.

At one point though, Yoriichi revealed his prodigious talent for swordfighting in a spar against Michikatsu's trainer. The disparity between twins was tremendous and that's where Michikatsu's greatest flaw first showed itself, his envy.

Michakutsu felt fear in being reduced to Yoriichi's position in their household and being sent away to the temple in his stead if he was to be the heir, he felt inadequacy in how Yoriichi saw the world transparently, in how better he was. When Yoriichi, after his disappearance, re-appeared in Michikatsu's life, saving him from a demon that mauled his samurai force, Michikatsu's envy swelled up, making him abandon his family to become a demon slayer, it drove him to try and overcome Yoriichi. When he learned that the Demon Slayer Mark he gained would kill him young, his envy made him seek out Muzan for demonic immortality, not even for the immortality itself, but for the fact that he couldn't accept dying before overcoming Yoriichi.

In the end, as a demon, Kokushibo only met Yoriichi once, when the latter was an old man, and he still couldn't surpass him. Yoriichi, even as an old man, stuck him across the neck swiftly, the only slayer to do that before the Taisho Era Hashiras, and would have killed him with the second strike if not for dying of old age right before that.

However… that's where things get truly interesting.

>Kokushibo (narrating the flashback in Chapter 174): Why is it always you? Why do you always, always have to be the special one? You managed to live a long life despite the mark. And even in your old age, the techniques you displayed had the exact power and speed from when you were in your prime. The memories came rushing in wildly. Those resentful days from sixty years ago. The envy that seared through my very bones. You were the only exception to the laws of the world. You lived your life with the favor of gods on your side. I hate you. I want to kill you. But my head was going to get chopped off with your next blow. I was one hundred percent certain of it. That sword technique of his had pushed Him to the brink. Basically, it was no different from the holy techniques of gods. Irritation and defeat twisted through every organ in my body. But that next attack never came. Yoriichi died a natural death from old age as he stood on his feet.

In fury of no longer having the chance to prove himself better to Yoriichi, Kokushibo slashed Yoriichi's body in two. It happened to cut through the small bag he's been carrying on him, a bag that had a poorly made flute, now slashed in two, the same one Michikatsu made for him as a child. Before their fight, Yoriichi, usually very short on showing emotions outwardly, cried for his brother, and once Kokushibo saw the flute his brother carried, a proof of sibling love, he cried himself.

>Kokushibo (narrating, while his past self actively cried upon seeing the broken flute, as shown in extended flashback in Chapter 178): Just stop. I hate you.

One of the most notable things about Kokushibo is that he's an unreliable narrator and while initially it seems his contempt for Yoriichi is genuine, the charade breaks completely in the full backstory where his narration directly contradicts the actions and emotions shown on-screen.

Kokushibo's final internal monologue when he's decapitated for the final time, bares Michikatsu's insecurity when he realizes that for all he's done to satisfy his envy, to overcome Yoriichi, he, in the end, heartbreakingly, achieved nothing.

>Kokushibo (narrating): I could never grab hold of anything. Anything at all. I abandoned my home. I abandoned my wife and children. I abandoned my humanity. I cut down my descendant and abandoned being a samurai. But even all that wasn't enough? You said that those who master their paths all reach the same place. But I never did. I could not see the same world that you did. Every swordsman who knew the breathing of the sun's forms was utterly massacred by me and Him after you died. So why does your breath still remain? Why could I not leave anything behind? Why could I not become someone known? Why are we so different?

Unlike most demons, Kokushibo's clothes aren't made of his demonic cells, it's the same outfit he wore as a demon slayer of the Sengoku Era. When Kokushibo disintegrates fully, his kimono remains. The final panel of Kokushibo is, perhaps, one of the most heartbreaking in the manga, one of very few that made me actually cry: in Kokushibo's kimono, lies the same broken flute Yoriichi carried, the symbol of brothers' love for each other.

>Kokushibo (narrating): Why in the world was I ever born? Tell me… Yoriichi.

I can't say enough how I LOVE the visceral and raw feeling of envy Kokushibo relays, along with how that sin can burn you out. I think it truly hit me when Kokushibo started to cry after slashing Yoriichi's body and their flute, while his narration vehemently tried to convince himself and the audience that he hates Yoriichi. What little of his charade remains crumbles completely with the reveal of Yoriichi's backstory in the following chapters where, from his point of view, Michikatsu has always been a loving brother who tried to take care of his supposedly weak brother despite their stern and even cruel father's wishes. It's because of how loving a sibling Michikatsu was, that Yoriichi was broken so much by his turn to demonism.

>Yoriichi (narrating in Chapter 186): My brother was a nice boy. He was always worried about me. Even the day after my father hit him and told him to forget about me, he made a flute and gave it to me. "Blow this if you need help. Nii-san will come and save you right away." Then he smiled with his bruised face and said, "That's why you don't need to worry about anything."

Kokushibo is unique in that he's written to be tragic without being sympathetic. He abandoned everything good he had in life, his loving family, his esteemed status, his dear brother, to satisfy his envy. Without a doubt, Kokushibo is evil, and unlike most antagonists, he doesn't have an afterlife scene to provide extra clarity or resolution to their character, the cover of Chapter 179, right after Kokushibo's death, shows his point of view, clawing his way as he sinks into flaming hell of his own making.

However, the raw feeling of inadequacy Michikatsu conveys is something very human, a fallible quality most of us can be empathetic towards because we experienced it, unlike some of the extreme circumstances behind most demons' backstories. Ironically, the strongest Upper Moon, despite Muzan's belief that demons become strong when they reject humanity, is the most viscerally human enemy among the Kizuki.

I swear, the writing on Kokushibo is just SO GOOD, it made me tear up just rereading pages for this rant AND I LOVE IT.