Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Season 1 Episode 20 Recap – Pretend Family

Eleventh Form

Nezuko’s blood explodes with her demon art, searing away the threads from Rui. Her blood infuses into Tanjiro’s sword, and he’s able to cut the demon’s head.

Rui’s head flies into the air as he and Tanjiro fall. With all the threads severed, Nezuko falls as well.

Tanjiro remembers his father and the Kagura dance passed on to his family. It was the technique that helped him win. But then his eyes become blurry, and he can’t move well.

The smell of evil blood remains. Rui’s body approaches him; his head is now dangling from a web. He reveals that he has severed his head before Tanjiro could touch it.

Tanjiro scrambles to get away while Rui asks how Tanjiro didn’t get burned. He’s eager for revenge. He uses a technique that creates a basket of threads around Tanjiro.

Tanjiro can’t move, and he’s caught, but then, Giyu appears to sever the threads. He praises Tanjiro for holding out until he arrives. Rui condenses his threads and throws them to Giyu, but Giyu uses Eleventh Form to break his attack. The Hashira steps sideways and cuts Rui’s head clean.

Pretend Family

Rui’s demon sister runs through the woods. She remembers her past when she was chased by a gang of demon slayers into Rui’s territory.

Rui offered to save the girl in exchange for being part of his family. He cut all of the demon slayers clean and welcomed her as part of the family.

The flashback shows them Inside their hut, where Rui gives a drop of blood to the girl. With the blood, they’re able to inherit his powers. Rui then disfigures her face to look like the rest of them.

They are not related by blood; what they are at most is a pretend family at the mercy of Rui’s whims. When Rui sees one of them turn normal, he threatens them.

All they wanted to do was be safe, but they were forced to obey Rui’s orders. Secretly, they can’t take it anymore.

One day, one of them tries to escape, but Rui tortures her and leaves her out to the sun.

Wisteria Poison

As the daughter runs, she finds one of the demon slayers from earlier. She traps him inside a yarn trap that will soon dissolve him into food. Shinobu appears behind her and praises her technique.

They go on a chase until Shinobu overpowers her. She asks the demon how many she’s killed, and she says five, but Shinobu thinks it’s around eighty. Shinobu happened to see at least 14 cocoons hanging from the trees earlier. She says she’s not mad but only wants to learn about her death toll.

Shinobu threatens to torture her for how many people she’s killed. The demon lashes out and throws her yarn. Shinobu flies above her, and the demon sees a flock of purple butterflies. One of them stands on her finger and turns blood red. Her whole body bleeds as Shinobu goes for a Breath of Insect attack.

The demon is relieved that her head’s intact. Shinobu’s blade is strange as it resembles a needle. Suddenly the demon feels the effects of a poison, and she falls to her death. Shinobu may be the only Hashira who can’t decapitate demons, as she uses wisteria poison instead. She wonders where the leading demon is.

Meanwhile, we dive into Rui’s memories. The scene reveals that he turned the other demons into his pretend family because he doesn’t have memories as a human. He believes that by forming bonds with each other, his memories will return. Rui looks at Tanjiro hugging her sister.

Our Thoughts:

A heartbreaking episode that shows us the side of the demons. There’s a recurring theme here that strings the evil back to Kibutsuji. We get a cool glimpse into the power level of the Hashiras as well. I rate this 4 out of 5.