Demon Slayer Vol. 9: Operation: Entertainment District
- ISBN
- 9781974704439
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- English release
- Pages
- 192
- Chapters
- 71–79
- Anime
- Season 2: Entertainment District Arc ep. 34–44
A new Hashira takes over the series in this book, and he is nothing like the last one. Chapters 71 to 79 send Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke into Yoshiwara, Tokyo's red-light district, under Tengen Uzui, the Sound Hashira, to find an Upper Rank demon hiding among the courtesans. In the manga the arc starts one chapter earlier, at the end of Vol. 8, and runs to chapter 97. The anime covers it in episodes 34 to 44 of season 2, so a viewer who has finished that season starts at Vol. 12. A reader coming from the Mugen Train film should not start here, because four unseen chapters of Vol. 8 come first. The tone changes with the cast. After two volumes of grief the book opens as an undercover comedy, and it does not stay one.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
Tengen has sent his three wives into the district's three largest houses ahead of him, and they have gone silent; chapter 72 is 'Search for My Wives'. He disguises the three boys as girls and sells them into the same houses. The demon is Daki, Upper Rank Six, who has been living as an oiran, and chapter 74 carries her name. Zenitsu recognizes her and is taken. Tanjiro ends up fighting her alone, the strongest demon he has faced, with the Hinokami Kagura wearing his body out faster than it wears hers. What the volume sets up, and Vol. 10 springs, is that Upper Six is two demons: Daki shares the body and the rank with her brother, Gyutaro. Why the book matters in the run is a change of ownership. In Vol. 8 an Upper Rank was a Hashira's fight, and the boys looked on. From here it is theirs as well. The anime opens the arc with a 46-minute episode named for Tengen, and this site's Inosuke line, introducing himself to the 'God of Festivals', comes from this arc. That he is the first Hashira the series lets walk away from an Upper Rank is the point, and Vol. 11 prices it.
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