hold tight 🎈

i finished KNY the other day and it's really all i have been able to think about. i read the whole manga in just about two days (it's only 205 chapters and they're relatively short so it was pretty easy) and i am just overwhelmed with emotion.

i understand a lot of people may be upset with how the manga ended--it's normal to feel like we are missing out on a lot of story possibilities bc frankly we are! gotōge, as far as i know, didn't want the series to end as quickly as it did, but certain unavoidable things popped up and they had to make that decision. it's fine to feel however u feel about it, but don't be upset with them bc i'm sure they're plenty upset about it themself.

i agree that the ending was rushed (bc it had to be), but i don't think the flow of events don't make sense. on the contrary! i think the way things happened do make a lot of sense. in my eyes, it's kinda obvious to see where certain things were pushed in order to transition to the last arc (nezuko suddenly being able to withstand the sun, for example). that isn't necessarily a bad thing and i know that this development would happen eventually. nezuko was, from the beginning, a different kind of demon. she was special from the first chapter on--not eating tanjiro, using sleep to recover rather than consume humans, remarkable strength, etc. i do not believe her developing to withstand the sun was "jumping the shark" nor do i think it was a cheap gimmick of any kind. i guess what i'm trying to say here is that, yes, i think it happened a bit abruptly and could have come later after a lot more development if the circumstances were different. seeing as they're not, it is what it is. i don't think it was done poorly, it just makes me wonder how it could have been better introduced if gotōge had more time.

having said that, it makes me think of how early we are introduced to muzan. he is the Big Bad, someone who no one else had seen before, and we meet him in chapter 13. this is part of why i don't think kny is all that rushed and the ending coming so soon isn't all that disappointing to me. now, granted, many manga introduce the Final Boss pretty early. BNHA introduced shigaraki in chapter 11, for example. but, with shigaraki, we see development in both his character and abilities. we watch as he comes into his own so he needed to be introduced early so horikoshi had time to see him mature. muzan, on the other hand, is more akin to all for one--someone who is borderline overpowered (i would argue muzan is overpowered, but i guess it makes sense considering he's lived ~1000 years, so one would get pretty fucking jacked after all that time plus demons get more powerful with the amount of people they eat soooo) and has posed as a threat to the heroes of the story for a Long Ass Time. i personally feel it would have been better had muzan not been introduced so early if the manga was allowed to be more fleshed out, as i'm sure gotōge planned/hoped. however, it works with how short the manga is. i don't really have a problem with it, it's just something i found interesting to think about and i haven't seen a lot of criticism on.

now, i am making a lot of assumptions on what gotōge had planned--perhaps they planned it to be shorter than i would have anticipated and the end just came a little bit faster than expected. perhaps they planned this to span for 400, 500, 1000 chapters. who knows? i am, after all, projecting my own thoughts on the pacing of the story and what would be appropriate. in my mind, i expected the series to follow tanjiro until he, himself, became a hashira. i would expect it to take hundreds of more chapters to reach that point before the final confrontation loomed on the horizon. i am in no way saying that that is the correct pace the story should have been at. again, it's just my thoughts. i would like to say i am in no way disappointed with how the story turned out. i don't think it was too rushed, i just feel like it's obvious there was more gotōge wanted to tell. we were only just (relatively speaking) introduced to the hashira and now all but 3 are dead. no doubt the quickness is elevated for me since i finished the whole series in 2 days, so things that spanned over years happened in a blink of an eye. however, i would argue that seeing the whole story in a short amount of time emphasizes just how short of a timeframe we are looking at (i realize there are timeskips, but i am speaking from a storytelling perspective).

rengoku dying quickly after being introduced is effective as a tool to show that even the hashira have trouble combatting the upper kizuki. this effectively conveys how much of a challenge the demon slayers have laying ahead of them. it was important to tanjiro especially to see how strong his opponents are. if upper 3 could strike down rengoku, arguably one of the most skilled of the hashira, single-handedly then muzan is a bigger threat than he could have anticipated. from a narrative perspective, this sets the tone to how much of an upward battle tanjiro was facing. it also effectively conveyed to the audience that tanjiro would not be the sole person to end the demons, that he would need help from his friends and peers to end things. this, in my eyes, is so important. yes, a part of me wanted tanjiro to be singularly responsible for muzan's defeat, but i know it wouldn't have been a good decision. when facing an impossible opponent, u have to rely on teamwork. this is something that has been conveyed from nearly the beginning. tanjiro wouldn't have made it to final selection had it not been for sabito and makomo helping him; he would have been overwhelmed and died on his first mission without nezuko; tanjiro wouldn't have been able to save kiyoshi (and teruko + shoichi) without zenitsu and inosuke there to kill the other two demons; he certainly would not have been able to kill the Spider Family by himself; etc. Teamwork has been the focus of the story from the beginning and rengoku's death reminded the audience that the demon slayers needed everyone they could in order to even come close to beating muzan.

still, seeing so little of the other hashira before they died is, understandably, disappointing. i wish we got to know them better, i wish we got to see the trio becoming tsuguko, i wish we got to see the five that passed final selection become hashira themselves, i wish i wish i wish. but it's okay that it didn't happen that way. gotōge still made me care about them in such a short amount of time. i sobbed when they died. genya hits especially hard. he and sanemi only just reconciled and then he died....and sanemi loved him so much. there was so much unsaid when he died and, as of right now, we won't get that resolution. again, not a bad thing. sometimes, while it hurts and you want to know, some questions are best left unanswered.

it hurts thinking about all the people who died. i am still getting choked up at just the thought. chapter 204 hurt me a lot--when nezuko smiled and sanemi saw genya....ouchie!!!! it hurts me so so much and i am so heartbroken and distraught over it. mitsuri and obanai dying in each other's arms, feelings still unsaid but it wasn't necessary bc they knew. they knew they loved each other so much. himejima seeing his orphans again and finding out they were just trying to protect him....and he spent so much time hurt by them running away.....god. it all just hurts so so much. i am so sad. i really don't have the words to capture how much my heart is aching. i fell in love with all the characters and i had to watch them die, watch as the ones they loved and loved them come to terms with their loss, and somehow i'm expected to be okay???? i'm not lmao i am heartbroken. i don't like things a normal amount so after i was done, i literally triggered a depressive episode. i hate it!!! i don't regret reading it and i think the story is beautifully done. the deaths were impactful and they meant something--i don't think anyone's death was unnecessary. they just....hurt. it's a beautiful story and i will recommend it to anyone who wants to try reading it (hopefully those people aren't reading this considering i spoiled uhhhh everything lmao).

thank you, gotōge, for sharing this amazing story. i loved it so much. it was a pleasure to read and i am so excited to experience it animated. seeing rengoku die in theaters will diagnose me with Sad Bitch Disease and i am ready 😌🙏🏻

especially thank you for this ❤️