so i’ve only ranted very briefly about tanjiro’s Absolute Fucking Brilliance as a character in tags or small posts but i just want to dump my in depth thoughts on why i think so.
first of all, i love how much he cares about nezuko. while it’s evident in the first scene with giyuu that he partly cares so much about protecting her because she’s all he has left, he clearly is so hellbent on protecting her whether it’s defending her title as a Whole Ass Cutie or keeping zenitsu’s desperate ass away from her.
demon slayer falls into a category i call “revenge shounen”, along with other animes like att*ck on t*tan and owari no seraph. the antagonist either is part of or is a whole group of evil creatures (vampires, demons, homunculi, etc.) who have wronged the protagonist somehow, and the protag sets off on a journey to defeat them. the thing that sets tanjiro apart from the rest is his mercy. when fighting the mother spider, he makes the effort to switch his killing blow to the most merciful as he notices her offering her neck. and though he didn’t forgive kyogai for killing people, he complimented his blood demon art, giving him the praise and recognition he wanted all along.
and as we saw recently, even after rui’s defeat, he puts a hand on his disintegrating body and reminds him of his old family and the bond he longed for. other protags don’t think much about the enemies they defeat, much less provide them with closure like tanjiro does. and i really love that about him.
his most prominent trait is his kindness, his empathy, and his ability to reach others with it. he’s not hellbent on revenge and on killing every demon. if he refused mercy towards them because they’re demons, it would go against his faith in nezuko. his victories in battle don’t necessarily come from his physical strength alone; what helps him is his ability to read and understand his enemies. and i think that makes him such a unique and lovable protagonist!
ok i got an anon message basically saying “abt your zenitsu post, it’s because the author is a woman, that’s why it’s good and not gross” but i accidentally deleted it bc i’m big stupid so here’s my response:
i was aware of that fact anon! and this is actually a good transition to bring up something i saw on my twitter feed a couple days ago:
basically, gotoge actually prefers gender neutral pronouns! while it makes sense that gotoge may be a woman because of their lack of gross misogynist nonsense, i’m not going to jump to conclusions.