Childhood trauma plays a big part in influencing children to grow up a certain way and often also impacts the person they become when they mature into full-fledged adults. Much like real life, the younglings in Demon Slayer, at least the ones who survived the harsh lives of early 20th-century Japan with the added stress of man-eating demons, have been hardwired a certain way. Like the protagonist Tanjiro Kamado, whose entire family was massacred by a demon, the Mist Hashira Muichjiro Tokito also suffered a similar fate at ten years of age. As Aniplex released the eighth episode of Demon Slayer, we took a ride back to Tokito’s childhood to find out why his head is full of mist and why his eyes are always glossed over.
Spoilers Ahead
What Do We Learn About Muichiro’s Past?
After being released from Gyokko’s water prison pot, Muichiro managed to pull out the sharp needles piercing his body, but his body was heavy as lead. With the fish demons advancing towards him with their weapons, Muichiro found it difficult to stand up, let alone draw his sword. At death’s door, like most Demon Slayer characters, Hashira’s mind flew back to a time when he used to help his kind-faced father cut wood; they were a family of woodcutters. However, when his mother fell tremendously ill, his father went out in a raging storm to find herbs that would save her, only to slip and fall. The 10-year-old Muichiro lost both his parents that night but was left with his twin brother Yuchiro, someone with a completely different personality than the mild-mannered Muichiro. Not only did Yuchiro constantly verbally abuse his brother, but he was also a staunch believer that helping others does no good. He added that the “Mu” in his brother’s name meant “meaningless,” and woodcutters like them are destined to live and die like the stray dogs that scavenge food.
How Did Muichiro Lose His Memories?
Muichiro found purpose in life one day when Lady Amane, the wife of Kaguya Ubuyashiki, visited and told the brothers about their lineage and how they could trace their family back to a line of swordsmen. The excitable Muichiro pleaded with his brother to begin learning swordsmanship with him so that they could protect the world against demons, but Yuchiro threw water at the gentle Lady Amane and screamed at his little brother. The two stopped talking that day until one very hot summer night when their lives were about to change forever. The door had been left open, and a demon snuck in to attack Muichiro when the brash and rude Yuchiro threw himself before his brother and had his arm ripped off.
As the two brothers found their backs against the wall, the demon taunted that lowly woodcutters like themselves should submit and die. Muichiro doesn’t remember much afterward, but he did let out a bloodcurdling scream, and when his brain cooled, he witnessed the aftermath as the demon had been ripped, stabbed, and its head crushed by this weak 10-year-old. With the sun burning his body to dust, Muichiro dragged his lead-like body inside the hut as Yuchiro lay dying. With his dying breath, Yuchiro was praying to Buddha to keep his brother safe because Muichiro was kind and gentle, unlike him. This broke Muichiro’s heart. He’d totally misunderstood his brother, who’d been tough on him to protect him from the dangers of the world. The trauma of the event wiped out all his memories until that day, making him forget about his life before the Corps.
How Different Is The New Muichiro?
In his final moments, with death before him, the memories of his brother returned to the Mist Hashira, and the mist from his mind dissipated. The young man who drew his sword now was a totally different person, with a poised stance and focused eyes, and he proceeded to make quick work of the fish demons before moving on to the hut. At the hut, with one eye blinded shut and wounds all over his body, Haganezuka kept polishing the Nichirin sword for Tanjiro as Gyokko’s frustration reached a peak. He was a second too late to notice Muichiro’s arrival, and after dodging to a nearby vase, Gyokko noticed a slash on his shoulder.
Does Muichiro Find The Confidence To Face The Upper Moon Demon?
Surprised that the Hashira escaped his water prison, Gyokko released a new blood demon art of squishy octopus tentacles that can crush anything. Haganezuka was thrown out of the hut, and he immediately resumed polishing the sword while Kanamori and Muichiro were squeezed by the tentacles. Muichiro, however, used the new sword Kanamori had forged for him to slice through the tentacles, and Gyokko had to dodge yet again but noticed only too late that a slice has been made on the demon’s neck. Muichiro warned the Upper Moon that the next slash would take Gyokko’s head as the demon got ready to unleash full force on the young Hashira. As Muichiro rushed towards Gyokko, the episode was brought to a close yet again.
Muichiro, as a young boy, was a timid and happy child who found excitement quickly, but the encounter with a demon changed him forever. He flew into a blinding rage and hacked the demon to bits despite having no experience wielding a weapon other than when he used an ax to chop wood, and since that day, his mind has been clouded by fog. The brain couldn’t take the trauma of losing his brother in such a vicious way, so Muichiro’s brain automatically wiped his past, leaving him with an amnesiac memory. However, faced with certain death and unable to move, his brain began working on overdrive, and the fog of his mind was let up to make him remember his father, mother, and brother, who loved him a lot secretly. These memories gave a glinting edge to Muichiro’s sword and a new reason to stand up against the evil that was the horde of demons that caused so much pain and suffering in the world. Armed with the new sword from Kanamori, Muichiro was finally confident enough to face an Upper Moon, his mind laser-focused on the battle at hand.
