Everyone has heard about Demon Slayer. It’s an extremely popular anime series that was adapted from a manga by Koyoharu Gotouge. The story is set in the early 20th century (1900-1918). It follows the main protagonist, Tanjiro Kamado, who finds his family slaughtered. His family was killed by a powerful demon (Muzan) while he was away and only his younger sister, Nezuko, survived.
Although Nezuko survived the killings, she didn’t escape the attack unscathed. Tanjiro discovers she is no longer a human but a demon. As a result, Tanjiro’s main focus is to save her from living out the rest of her life as a demon while protecting her from those who do not trust her for being a demon.
Despite the series following Tanjiro’s perspective, she is a prominent character since she is essential to the overall story. Without her, Tanjiro has no path ahead of him or motivation to go on.
Nezuko: Who Is She?
Nezuko is the eldest daughter of the Kamado family. She has a strong bond with Tanjiro, which is why she can continue to protect humans at all costs. She is also a very well-liked character in Demon Slayer. She is an adorable young girl that people are drawn to because of how she is portrayed and looks.
Although during most of the series, she does not talk and is stored away in a box that Tanjiro carries to protect her from the sunlight, she still has gained a lot of popularity with fans. Despite how cute she looks; she is still a demon, and her powers continue to grow just like Tanjiro’s powers grow, too.
She is a powerful demon who eventually can walk in the sunlight. Unlike other demons, she can restore her power without needing to consume human blood. She can restore her body by sleeping and she has a fast growth rate despite not training, along with other abilities.
Nezuko’s Importance
Without Nezuko, Tanjiro would not have a constant reminder of why he needs to continue to grow stronger. Since Nezuko and Tanjiro have a strong bond, they use each other to persevere and protect each other at all costs.
In Nezuko’s case, she has to constantly fight to keep her humanity intact while she grows stronger as a demon. Although some demons choose not to attack humans like Tamayo, Nezuko is different from even those demons. She has not killed a human even when she is faced with a Hashira who tries to tempt her by slicing himself and taunting her with his blood in front of the rest of the Hashiras.
Although demons, even Nezuko, cannot venture out in the sunlight, the main villain, Muzan, continues to find a way to conquer the sunlight. This leads to another reason why she is so important as a character. In the Swordsmith Village arc, she does what Muzan has not been able to achieve for thousands of years, which is to walk in the sunlight as a demon.
Why Should She Be The Main Protagonist?
Nezuko is just as valuable as Tanjiro. Without her, Tanjiro would not have the motivation to become stronger to defeat Muzan since turning her back into a human is his driving force. Both characters are essential for each other’s growth.
If she was not a key character, then she would not have any special abilities like sunlight immunity, blood control, size alteration, regeneration, and strength. Her blood art was also the reason why Tanjiro was able to defeat the Upper-Rank demons in the Entertainment District.
There is a reason why she continues to become more powerful in the series. She is the other half of the coin. For example, Tanjiro has grown since he first appeared in the series. Although he is still at the bottom of the ranks, he was able to attain a Demon Slayer Mark despite not being a Hashira. His power speaks volumes because of that mark.
Although she does not speak and appear in the show as much as Tanjiro, her character growth is essential in Demon Slayer. Both the Kamado siblings need each other to defeat Upper-Rank demons and eventually Muzan. Without her abilities, Tanjori, Inosuke, Zenitsu, and Tengen would have died during the Entertainment District arc.
Final Thoughts
Demon Slayer follows Tanjiro’s perspective which makes him the main character, but Nezuko does play a huge part in the series. Without her being there, Tanjiro would not be as strong as he is, and he would not have survived certain fights without her help. The two need each other to survive and in the end, they will be able to defeat the main villain because of their strong bond.
Tanya has been writing for over a decade. She loves writing about any subject because she loves to research and learn more about everything. She has a master’s degree in Rhetoric and Writing Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso and currently lives in El Paso, TX.
She began her writing career writing about sports, like basketball, football, and even hockey. Despite not knowing much about these sports, she did her research and successfully published work that even the local sports reporter loved. She has also interviewed athletes like Aaron and Alvin Jones.
She has written about science, cooking, sports, desserts, gaming, fitness, music, TV, pregnancy and so on.
I gotta disagree. The story is about a brothers love for his sister. For most of the story she is a mindless demon craving blood and trying to kill anyone if blood is spilt nearby. Each and every step is about his progress, the friends he makes, and his constant suffering over his sister. Being a demon allows her incredible gifts and those gifts multiply due to her body adapting from being denied eating blood. She grows leaps and bounds from each new gift in battle prowess but mentally remains a 3 year old child outside of battle, there is zero constant growth just leaps based on her brothers needs. She is a great partner to her brother, but not worthy of the protagonist.
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