March 06, 2024
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba | Tsuzumi Mansion Arc | Summary, Recap, & Review
Tanjiro meets two new allies in his quest. Will they help him save the mansion's children? Find out in our summary and review of Demon Slayer's Tsuzumi Mansion Arc!
7
Good
The Tsuzumi Mansion arc gives us plenty of action, but relies too much on mediocre humor.
Pros
The plotting and story beats are incredible.
Tanjiro continues to grow at a resonable pace, especially for Shonen.
A visual feast.
Cons
Too much comedic material that was not very good.
Inosuke and Zenitsu are too one-note to be enjoyable characters.
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The Tsuzumi Mansion arc is the fourth arc in the Demon Slayer series. The arc spans eight chapters in the manga (excluding the Omakes, and the Specials), which have been adapted into four episodes in the anime.
|
Manga |
Anime |
||
|
Chapter Number |
Title |
Season/Episode |
Episode Title |
|
20 |
Agatsuma Zenitsu |
S01/E11 |
Tsuzumi Mansion |
|
21 |
Drum House |
S01/E12 |
The Boar Bears Its Fangs, Zenitsu Sleeps |
|
22 |
The Sudden Appearance of a Pig |
S01/E13 |
Something More Precious Than Life |
|
23 |
The Pig Bears its Tusks – Zenitsu Sleeps |
S01/E14 |
The House with The Wisteria Family Crest |
|
24 |
Ex-Twelve Demon Moon |
||
|
25 |
Self Inspiration |
||
|
26 |
Bare Handed Fight |
||
|
27 |
Hashibira Inosuke |
||
One of the most memorable and important arcs of the Demon Slayer anime and manga series is the Tsuzumi Mansion Arc, but why is that? That is because it introduces crybaby Zenitsu Agatsuma and the brash Inosuke Hashibira to the fray. So far, this arc has one of the best surprise moments I’ve ever seen in Demon Slayer.
Tsuzumi Mansion Arc | Summary & Recap
Zenitsu Agatsuma
Tanjiro receives his next assignment and, while leaving Asakusa, meets Zenitsu begging a lady to marry him. Zenitsu’s messenger sparrow signals to Tanjiro to help stop Zenitsu. While Tanjiro warns him, Zenitsu recounts that they’d met after Final Selection. Tanjiro doesn’t remember him. Zenitsu continues asking the girl to marry him, making her resort to hitting him. After throwing a fit, she storms off. He berates Tanjiro, calls himself derogatory names, and states that he’d soon die.
Zenitsu rants about how he became a Demon Slayer and, after calming down, they both continue on while munching on a shared rice cake. Tanjiro’s Kasugai crow reminds them of the urgency of their mission, urging them to move faster. On their way, they pass a forest and see a house in a small clearing in the forest. They see two scared kids named Teruko and Shoichi in a corner. After Tanjiro calms them down, they explain how a demon in the house had abducted their elder brother, Kiyoshi. As Tanjiro smells blood, Zenitsu also hears some unending eerie sounds, both coming from the house.
The Drums in the Mansion | Wild Boar
The sound gets louder as, suddenly, the bloodied body of a boy is flung from the house. As he lands, the blood splatters and Tanjiro runs to assess his wounds. The boy dies in Tanjiro’s hands. They hear a monstrous howl coming from within the house. Tanjiro tells Zenitsu to come with him into the house. He seems reluctant. Tanjiro places Nezuko in the children’s care and brazenly walks into the house, with Zenitsu fearfully following behind.
Cowering in fear, Zenitsu mistakenly shoves Tanjiro and a little girl into a room. Suddenly, the room changes. Tanjiro notices that at every sound of a drum, the room changes. As Tanjrio calms little Teruko down, the drum demon appears.
Elsewhere in the house, Zenitsu cries and begs the Shoichi to not alert any demons and leave quietly. After the boy brutally admonishes Zenitsu, he gets dragged towards the door. Zenitsu frantically opens random doors, searching for an exit, until he stumbles upon someone wearing a boar’s hide. The masked boy leaps off the walls and runs away.
At another side of the house, Tanjiro instructs Teruko to hide, while he listens to the drum demon rambling and prepares to engage him. As Tanjiro is about to strike, he beats a drum on its chest, and immediately, the orientation of the room changes, forcing Tanjiro and Teruko to fall. Inosuke, the boy wearing the boar’s hide charges into the room, wielding chipped sun blades.
Inosuke Hashibira | Zenitsu Attacks
As Inosuke also charges at the drum demon, it changes the orientation of the room, but Inosuke bounces off Tanjiro for a second attack. After another spin, Tanjiro falls on his back. Inosuke stomps on Teruko, thrilled by the demon’s abilities. Inosuke brashly attacks Tanjiro after he is flung off Teruko’s back, infuriating the demon, who then makes three huge slashes across the floor between the two demon slayers by beating another drum on his body. At the sound of another drum, Tanjiro finds himself in another room and detects the presence of other demons, and the smell of blood.
As Zenitsu walks with the little boy, he continues shivering, gasping, and sweating horribly. They argue with each other until a tongue demon crawls up, startling them both. They run away, but the demon stays in close pursuit, lashing out with its tongue, while they barely dodge the onslaught. As the demon catches up with them, Zenitsu passes out, much to the boy’s dismay. As the demon stretches its tongue to pull the boy, the tip gets nicked off, and a sleeping Zenitsu springs up, taking a stance with his hand on his sword hilt.
Using his breathing technique and a thunder form, he flashes forward, beheading the demon, and leaving a trail of dust in his wake. He wakes up immediately afterwards, but is startled at the sight of a demon’s head at his feet. He jumps up, frightened, leaving Shouichi bewildered.
At another end of the house, Inosuke continued running in search of the demons. He was eventually stopped in his tracks by his prey, a horned demon. He swiftly slices off the demon’s hands, beheads it, and continues his search for the other demons.
Drum, Beaten
Meanwhile, Tanjiro finds the older brother, Kiyoshi. As he tends to Kiyoshi’s wounds, he learns about rare bloods and how the boy got abducted. Tanjiro then leaves to slay Kyogai, the drum demon. He watches its movements and powers to come up with a strategy to defeat the demon.
In Zenitsu’s endless search for Tanjiro, he realizes he’s been going around in circles. He walks into another room and the room rotates, sending him falling through several rooms until he falls out of the house completely.
A conversation with Tanjiro sparks some memories and anger in Kyogai. It lashes out frantically and beats its drums ceaselessly, leaving Tanjiro no time or space to think or react. Tanjiro adapts to the rotations, using the walls to help reinforce his breathing technique, and, finally, beheads Kyogai.
Down the Mountain
Tanjiro grabs Kiyoshi and his sister and they leave the mansion. As they step out, they see Inosuke hitting Zenitsu, as he protects Nezuko from an angry Inosuke. Infuriated by Inosuke’s irrational persistence, and seeing Zenitsu in pain, Tanjiro rushes in and punches Inosuke, breaking his ribs. Tanjiro tries to warn Inosuke, but he punches him, despite Tanjiro’s reluctance to engage in further altercation. Inosuke demonstrates incredible combat skills and flexibility, until Tanjiro headbutts him. His boar hide falls off, revealing his face and an injured forehead. Inosuke tries to instigate Tanjiro into continuing the fight, but suddenly passes out.
When Inosuke wakes up, he sees Tanjiro and the children burying the remains of the demons’ victims. Despite his initial refusal, Tanjiro tricks Inosuke into joining them in getting the remaining carcasses from the house and burying them. Then, a Kasugai crow comes and directs them to come down the mountain. As they part ways, Zenitsu cries to Shoichi to continue protecting him, but Tanjiro puts him down.
The crow brings them to a house with a wisteria family crest on it. An old lady invites them in. She gives them a change of clothes and dinner, then calls a doctor to treat their injuries. As they lay in bed, they converse and Inosuke briefly tells them of his past and how he became a Demon Slayer. After some coercing, Tanjiro explains why he carries a demon around. As Nezuko opens the box, Zenitsu jumps up and runs around in fright. He calms down when he finally sees Nezuko. Mistaking Nezuko for Tanjiro’s lover, Zenitsu lashes out wildly, working up a ruckus well into the night, even after Inosuke is already fast asleep.
Tsuzumi Mansion Arc | Analysis & Review
Storyline | 7/10
This four-episode arc is very good and has impeccable story-writing, extraordinary execution, and a crisp storyline, but that’s not to say it’s not lacking in some aspects. While it introduces two main characters to the series, I couldn’t help but further question the recruitment process of the Demon Slayer Corps.
Looking back at Inosuke’s story of how he became a Demon Slayer, he said he simply challenged a Demon Slayer he stumbled upon, beat the guy, took his sword, went for Final Selection, and passed. Unlike all other Demon Slayers who had Cultivators who trained them, Inosuke claims to have trained himself hard, and his only motivation is his irrational desire to be the strongest guy in the room. Doesn’t really make a lot of sense, does it?
I understand that the addition of Zenitsu and Inosuke as comic relief to the serious tone that the previous arcs had might be good, but their personalities are jarring additions. Zenitsu is a complete crybaby and Inosuke is just a brash, irrational nutjob who likes to overdo things.
The arc’s focus on the demons of Tsuzumi Mansion explores their diverse nature and attempts to make us connect with the demons, so they become more than just monsters that should be killed. A flashback to Kyogai’s backstory saw to that, and, while the story did its bit in telling that story, I don’t think there’s enough to make me feel sorry for him. He maimed and killed little kids! Bruh!!
With all that being said, I think they should cut down on the comedic aspect of the story. It’s not just me that thinks the humor is bland or is overall lacking. I understand that it might feel necessary to incorporate more humor at some point, but the series’ first attempt flopped. Who knows if it’d get worse if they try even harder?
Of course, I must say that the one scene I found pretty funny was how Tanjiro quickly put Zenitsu down when he kept holding onto Shoichi and wouldn’t let the young boy go. I think it was something about the audio and visual effects used in that particular scene that made me just burst out laughing. Whatever it was, that one did get me.
Character Development | 6/10
As always, Tanjiro keeps me intrigued with the growth and intelligence he shows as the series progresses. I especially liked seeing him use reverse psychology on Inosuke when he needed his help in burying the dead at Tsuzumi Mansion. He shows he truly is an ideal elder brother by quickly learning ways to manage both Zenitsu and Inosuke.
I’ve stated earlier that the arc’s introduction of two other side characters is a great contribution to the series. But, I speak for others when I say that Zenitsu isn’t well written, as he doesn’t draw any amount of sympathy from viewers. Inosuke just acts rather dumb and too childish, can’t even correctly pronounce anyone’s name, and gives a “Tarzan” vibe, probably due to growing up among wild animals.
It might be too early to judge these two new characters since I’m not entirely certain how they will evolve later on in the series. However, if there’s anything memorable about these two, it’ll be Inosuke’s insane strength and Zenitsu’s dream-state abilities.
Nezuko had very little screen time and zero presence in this entire arc. There is nothing to say on that… Aside from that the mere sight of her was enough to make the simping Zenitsu all riled up and get infatuated almost immediately.
Sounds And Music | 8/10
The voice acting is, as with previous arcs, impeccable. Hiro Shimono’s (Zenitsu) rather shrill and sometimes childish voice and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka’s portrayal of Inosuke are extraordinary. Of course, seeing as these two are seasoned voice actors, I guess it’s okay to just give them kudos for a job well done.
This arc, like the others before it, uses two main theme songs; “Gurenge” as the opening theme, and “From the Edge” as the ending/closing theme. Although the Gurenge soundtrack was arranged by Ryo Eguchi, it was written and performed by Risa Oribe; and while Yuki Kajiura wrote and arranged “From the Edge”, Ryo and Yuki performed it together.
Art And Animation | 9/10
Everything has an unbelievable degree of polish that makes it an absolute delight to look at from the beginning to the very end. The art pops nicely, the movement is fluid, and the colors seem very sharp. The animation comes to life during the action sequences, each of which is stunning in its unique way and displays a great deal of inventiveness.
Overall Rating | 7/10
The story here is great and the combination of crisp graphics and sounds to seamlessly drive home the points does justice to the storytelling. I can already see that from this point onwards that Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke will have a stronger bond, but I just sort of hope it won’t be a strain on the main character himself, as having to keep Zenitsu and Inosuke in check just might prove a challenge for him.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the main, recurring characters introduced in the Tsuzumi Mansion Arc?
+Who are the main antagonists in the Tsuzumi Mansion Arc?
+What was Inosuke doing in Tsuzumi Mansion?
+What style of Breathing Techniques does Zenitsu use?
+What are the Twelve Demon Moons?
+How Does The Tsuzumi Mansion Arc End?
+How long is the Tsuzumi Mansion Arc?
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Welcome to the mesmerizing world of Demon Slayer, where demons wield extraordinary abilities known as Blood Demon Arts. These unique powers, individual...
“The Demon Slayers battle the demons with their mortal bodies. Since they’re human, their wounds are slow to heal, and, once lost,...
“My heart would never flutter for those who needlessly hurt others” - Mitsuri Kanroji Since the release of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu...
Before we begin, have a quick look at the number of episodes and chapters per arc in the Demon Slayer storyline: Arcs...
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The Kidnapper’s Bog Arc spans 2 episodes in anime, and 4 chapters in manga, as depicted in the table below: Chapter Number Manga Chapters Season/Episode...
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