Demon Slayer Vol. 14: The Mu of Muichiro
- ISBN
- 9781974711147
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- English release
- Pages
- 192
- Chapters
- 116–124
- Anime
- Season 3: Swordsmith Village Arc ep. 45–55
The middle book of a three-book fight, with a title that the anime and Viz translate differently. Chapters 116 to 124 continue the Swordsmith Village battle on two fronts, the Mist Hashira against one Upper Rank and everyone else against the other, and only one of the two is settled before the book ends. It needs Vol. 13 before it and Vol. 15 after it. Viz titles chapter 118, and the volume, 'The Mu of Muichiro'; the anime titles the matching episode, 52, 'The Mu in Muichiro'. One preposition is a small thing, but it is a checkable case of the licensed manga and the licensed anime wording the same Japanese two ways, which is a subject this site keeps returning to. Episode 51 is named 'Awful Villain' after chapter 116, and a season 3 viewer starts at Vol. 15.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
Muichiro, drowning in the water pot, is kept alive by Kotetsu blowing air into it, and as he weakens his memory returns: orphaned young, with a twin brother, Yuichiro, who met every kindness with contempt and was killed by a demon that Muichiro then destroyed in a rage. Marks appear on his face. With them he beheads Gyokko alone, the first Upper Rank in the series to fall to a single swordsman. The other front goes worse. Hantengu's four bodies merge into a fifth, Zohakuten, who fights with wooden dragons while the real demon, shrunk to almost nothing, hides. Mitsuri Kanroji arrives, is knocked out, and gets the chapter with the longest title in the book, 'Mitsuri Kanroji's Life Passes Before Her Eyes': a girl with abnormal strength and appetite who hid both after a marriage proposal was withdrawn, and joined the Corps to stop hiding. She gets up marked. Haganezuka sits polishing the old sword while an Upper Rank fails to get his attention, which is the funniest thing in the arc and the most characteristic: the series' comedy is always someone refusing to notice the stakes. The marks are the consequential part. They give Vol. 15 its title.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Links on this page are affiliate links, which cost you nothing extra. They never influence what appears on this site or what the commentary says about it.