Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Sibling's Bond

A film assembled from the first episodes of a television series. Tanjiro sells charcoal. He lives in a house on a mountain with his mother and five siblings. One day he is late in the town. He spends the night in another house. When he returns his family is dead. One person is alive. His sister Nezuko is breathing but is no longer human. She has turned into a demon. Tanjiro sets out carrying her on his back. From there the film is a story of training. Tanjiro goes to a swordsman and works on the mountain for two years. Then there is an examination. The candidates must spend a week in a forest and come out alive. The organisation is a corps of slayers. They kill demons and all of them use a breathing technique. Nezuko is a problem. By the rules she should be killed and Tanjiro will not allow it. He carries her in a box and keeps her out of the sun. What the narrative is interested in is not a monster but a sister: all its emotional weight is the question of whether the girl is still inside, and Tanjiro having to prove it. Tanjiro has a particular gift. He smells things; both demons and people's feelings. The narrative gives him a mercy as well. He pities the demons he kills at the last moment and sees that each was once human. The fights use an effect resembling watercolour texture, and that is the studio's known work. The structure is a compilation. The series' first five episodes were joined for cinema and one new episode was added; this is an introduction rather than a sequel. Natsuki Hanae, Akari Kito and Takahiro Sakurai are in the voice cast. Haruo Sotozaki directed. Who it is for: anyone curious about the series and unsure where to start. Who it is not for: anyone who has watched it; the content is almost entirely the same and there is very little new material.