Book Review: Demon Slayer Volume 12 by Koyoharu Gotouge

The cover image for this volume was taken from its Amazon buy page for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine.

Spoiler Free Summary: Demon Slayer Volume 12 by Koyoharu Gotouge is the twelfth volume in the Demon Slayer manga. A member of the upper Twelve Kizuki has been killed. Muzan is furious, and now he’s seeking to go on the offensive. Meanwhile, Tanjiro has to recover and train. He also has to explain how he keeps breaking his swords to the swordsmiths. This provides an opportunity to learn more about his abilities and improve, but Muzan’s plans and Tanjiro’s training are destined to collide.

Character: One thing I like about these later volumes is we start to further expand on the characters outside the main cast. We start to get to know the members of the Hashira, and some of them have some awesome backgrounds. While this book starts to establish a pattern in where we typically have one “set-up” volume and one action volume. This was the set-up volume. It’s probably my favorite of the set-up volumes though because we see Tanjiro train. We also see a few of the higher ranks. 

Exposition: There’s a bit more exposition (in terms of narration boxes). This is because there’s some background and new locations we need to learn about.

Worldbuilding: This volume has a fantastic quality in that we start to see more of the Kizuki and their hierarchy. We learn the group dynamics and a bit about how they establish their ranks. We also learn more about how some of the Hashira are somehow related Tanjiro.

Dialogue: This dialogue is more natural than the last few volumes. This is an improvement. The conversations they have absolutely provide background, but they don’t feel so forced.

Description: This is it’s typical outstanding stuff. The art is wonderful. The way the artist portrays movement is particularly interesting in this case. There are a lot of beautiful landscapes and scenes that really help draw the reader into the world.

Overall: This is probably my favorite set up volume in the series, and that’s also taking into account the other volumes I read. it was real cool seeing the Kizuki as well. This volume ends and makes a reader want to just devour the next ten. I guarantee it.

Thanks for reading,

Matt