The Boar Bares Its Fangs, Zenitsu Sleeps

The twelfth anime episode keeps the Tsuzumi Mansion battle in motion. Separated by the drum-driven rooms, Tanjiro contends with both the reckless boar-masked swordsman and the manor's master, while Zenitsu, paralyzed by fear, must protect the boy Shoichi. The hour also unveils Kyogai's history and the danger his obsession with rare blood poses to those trapped inside.

The masked stranger charges Kyogai, but the demon spins the room to dodge, endangering Teruko until Tanjiro intervenes and flings the careless slayer aside for hurting her. As the rooms keep rotating, Tanjiro starts reading the pattern between each drum and its effect, locates the children's missing brother Kiyoshi, and treats his wound with Urokodaki's ointment. Elsewhere, overwhelming terror knocks Zenitsu unconscious, yet his body keeps fighting: in his sleep he draws his blade and uses Thunder Breathing's first form to behead the long-tongued demon, leaving him baffled when he wakes. The masked swordsman, meanwhile, dispatches a horned demon with his self-taught Beast Breathing. A flashback shows Muzan demoting Kyogai and slashing the numeral from his eye, the root of the demon's craving to devour someone of rare Marechi blood. Tanjiro's crow explains that such blood can be worth dozens or even a hundred ordinary victims, and Tanjiro vows to keep fighting despite his unhealed injuries.

Adaptation details

The episode adapts chapters twenty-two through twenty-four and takes its name from chapter twenty-two. Its second eyecatcher recreates the cover of chapter twenty-one.

Recurring themes

Tanjiro endures his lingering wounds by recalling Urokodaki's teaching that water adapts to any shape, allowing him to keep moving through the spinning chamber. He resolves that even if his body is broken he will never quit, framing the resolve that carries into the following episode.