Letting Someone Else Go First

The sixteenth anime episode deepens the Mount Natagumo battle against the puppeteer demon. Tanjiro searches for a way to stop the controlled slayers without killing them, while Inosuke treats the struggle like a contest. The Mother Spider Demon, terrified of punishment from Rui, escalates her cruelty, and the hour ends with her quiet, sorrowful death and a warning.

With Murata holding off attackers behind them, Tanjiro and Inosuke push deeper into the forest. Rui appears before the Mother demon, threatening to tell Father if she fails, which drives her to contort her dolls into inhuman speed and break their joints. Rather than cut them down, Tanjiro lures a controlled slayer close, then hurls her into the high branches so the threads tangle and lose their grip; Inosuke gleefully copies the tactic. Furious, the Mother demon snaps the captives' necks, leaving Tanjiro shaking with silent grief. The pair then face a headless giant doll armed with blades, and by coordinating, climbing off Nezuko's box, and combining their breathing forms, they slice it apart. Tanjiro is launched toward the Mother demon and prepares a killing blow, but seeing her surrender and yearn for release, he switches to a gentler form that brings her a painless, rain-like death. As she fades, recalling someone who once cherished her, she warns Tanjiro that one of the genuine Twelve Kizuki is somewhere on the mountain.

Adaptation details

The episode adapts chapters thirty and thirty-one and the opening of chapter thirty-two, taking its name from chapter thirty-one. Its second eyecatcher recreates that chapter's cover.

Differences from the manga

In the manga the Mother demon warns that the Twelve Kizuki itself is present on the mountain, while the anime has her say a member is there.