Anime Values - Gentleness
How would you define a “value”? Well, by dictionary definition, a value is a person's principles or standards of behavior; one's judgment of what is important in life. Now I’m sure you’ve heard many different opinions around which values are the most ‘important’ or ‘valuable’ or ‘critical to success,’ but that’s not what I’m here to talk about today. At the end of the day, values are unique to you as an individual, a sort of culmination of your life experiences, personal knowledge, family lessons, education, work life, personal discretion, etc. My values reflect me as an individual, and in no way am I trying to prescribe you a value that I believe you need to embody. I don’t need you to become me, I need you to become yourself. I’m here to expand on values, not through concept but through stories of action. I’m going to teach you about some of my own primary values through the lens of my favorite anime characters that I believe truly embody them. This will be a series in which I explore an individual value through the trials and tribulations of a protagonist I look up to. The goal is for you to walk away with a stronger understanding of what each of these values mean, ideally reflect on the values you yourself hold dear, and find new ways to understand them better through the people and characters that have inspired you during your own life.
“For values or principles to be truly effective,” Simon Sinek writes, “they have to be verbs,” (i.e. Integrity = Do what you say you’ll do). Now, I could sit here and discuss the theories and concepts behind these values, and y’all know I live for a conceptual tangent, but I agree with Simon, and think that it would be better to show you the value rather than tell you about it. For these characters, we will dive into how they embodied the value, how their words matched up to their actions, or how their actions even spoke for their value without any words. To get started, I would like to introduce you to Tanjiro Kamado, extraordinary slayer of demons, who quite perfectly embodies the peaceful quality of Gentleness.
There is strength in softness. What exactly is gentleness? Gentleness, by definition, is the quality of being kind, tender, or mild-mannered; softness of action or effect, lightness. In the anime industry, strong protagonists that somehow keep getting stronger is a common trope in what’s known as “shonen” manga, and remains true for Kyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer series. In shonen, the hero continuously finds ways to vanquish the evil villain, usually through some kind of power up, and almost always through some form of violence. Demon Slayer, and its protagonist, Tanjiro Kamado, are no exception to that. However, Tanjiro’s character embodies the concept of ‘soft strength’ through his words and actions, and completely changes how the viewer, fellow protagonists, and even the demons he’s vanquishing, view strength. And so, I introduce you to the value of gentleness through 3 moments when Tanjiro Kamado embodied it.
The first chapter of this series is titled ‘Cruelty’. A humble charcoal burner and eldest son of 7 in a mountainous village during the Taisho era of Japan (1912 - 1926), Tanjiro’s life was thrown into peril when he returned from a routine trip into town and found his entire family brutally slaughtered. All but his sister Nezuko, who was barely clinging to life, were murdered in a horrific scene. Tanjiro carried his wounded sister on his back through the snowy and desolate wilderness, desperate to find a way to save his last living family member. Things took a turn when she awoke suddenly, and violently attacked him. She had been turned into a ‘demon’, a superhuman monster that were commonly accepted as a myth, that lived off of eating humans and possessed unbelievable strength and almost magic-like abilities. He desperately tried to reason with her as she tried to get to him, and that’s when a mysterious swordsman appeared, with the direct intention to slay his sister. Tanjiro protected his sister from him, and even when she was captured by him, Tanjiro pleaded with the swordsman to allow his sister to live: she’s all he has left, and she’s still a human. After a brief confrontation, where Tanjiro lost the fight, something happened that shook the swordsman known as a ‘hashira’ to the core. His sister, who was a mindless demon, ran to Tanjiro to protect him from the swordsman’s blade. The swordsman realized that these two were different, and had no true reason to kill the demon, as she had not yet killed any humans. He allowed her to live, and led Tanjiro on a journey with Nezuko at his side to become a demon slayer himself, in the hope of finding a cure for his sister, as long as she never harms a human.
A massive part of Tanjiro’s strength wasn’t the physical, but rather the emotionally impactful strength. In a confrontation with one of the most skilled demon slayers attempting to kill his sister who was just turned into a demon, it wasn’t Tanjiro’s physical strength that allowed him to prevail in saving his sister’s life. Tanjiro had done everything he could to avoid a fight in the first place, having knelt down before the swordsman begging him to spare his sister’s life. He allowed his true emotions to be seen in a gentle and shameless form, and only when faced with no other choice, took physical action. Frankly, he was one shot by the swordsman the second he ran up to him. Rather, it was the loving bond between him and his sister who were determined to protect each other regardless of the impossible circumstances, that moved the hashira into helping them toward healing her rather than killing her. Tanjro’s love and kindness provided him purpose in his new journey and absolution from those who would judge and kill his sister based on what she has become.
Having become a skilled demon slayer over the next two years, Tanjiro set off on his adventure to cure his sister. He and his newly found friends confronted a ‘family’ of demons in a mountainous range, and struggled to overcome their mysterious powers and evil ways of killing. One demon in particular, could manipulate spider-like threads throughout the mountains to control and contort the other demon slayers who were unlucky enough to be caught in them. Even after Tanjiro and his group were able to immobilize their fellow demon slayers who were controlled by the threads, the unknown demon snapped each of the assumedly saved humans’ necks. Tanjiro watched in horror, and knew what he had to do.
With the assistance of his fellow demon slayer, Inosuke, Tanjiro was able to identify the location of the demon, and leveraged Inosuke’s immense strength to hurl him high into the air straight to the demon’s placement. After finding the demon and coming down on a direct path to her, Tanjiro prepared his blade to strike the demon down without mercy. However, something changed in the demon that he immediately noticed. The viewer got an inside look into the demon’s mind, and realized that she had been in immense pain throughout her years as a demon, and simply continued to exist and eat humans because that’s all she could think to do. Demons rarely remember when they were humans, becoming something completely different once transformed. When faced with impending death to end her long existence, she let down her strings, and reached her arms out to Tanjiro with openness, welcoming her end rather than struggling against it. Tanjiro noticed this change, and within half a second adjusted his sword form to a flowing and painless strike, ‘Blessed Rain After the Drought.’ A sword form saved for only those demons that offer up their own neck to the demon slayer’s blade. A sword strike of kindness. He came down and gracefully glided his blade through the demon’s neck, after which her world was filled with calmness, light rain, and beautiful sunlight. In her final thoughts, she remarked how beautiful it was, and thanked the kind swordsman for his deeds and felt remorse for the acts of her past.
In Tanjiro’s words: “In order to soothe the spirits of those it killed, and to make sure it claims no further victims... I will swing my blade down and lop off the head of any demon without mercy! But... I will not belittle those who regret their actions and suffer over the things they did as demons. Because demons were once human. Because they were like me.”
After witnessing the cruel and gruesome actions of the demon firsthand, it would make complete sense for Tanjiro’s rage and hatred of the evil demon to make him simply focus on slaying it however he could. However, until the very last second before he striked, he paid deep attention to the demon itself, noticing their regret and choosing to change his strike to a merciful slash. In the case of demons, regardless of how many humans they’ve killed, he always understands that they were in fact once humans, and their life has just as much meaning as any other. He views every death, human or demon, as a tragic loss, and respects each of them with humility and empathy. Tanjiro empathizes with his enemies, regardless of how horrid and gruesome their behavior and murderous tendencies are. He still sees them as humans, and approaches their battle with respect, even genuinely complimenting various demon’s fighting style at times before he takes their head.
In a role where the motto is ‘Slay all evil demons’, he approaches it entirely differently from the rest of the organization, even though his past history, arguably, is one of the most painful and traumatic of them all. Tanjiro has more than enough reasons to hate all demons and quite literally demonize them, but he refuses to do so. He sees them as humans just like his sister, who just weren’t fortunate enough to have others that assisted them in walking toward the light. He and Nezuko were lucky to have received mercy from the Hashira Giyu at the beginning of the series, that Nezuko never ate a human and remained strong in her resistance to do so, to have been trained and conditioned by one of the greatest swordsman trainers, allowed to be a demon slayer in tandem with his demonized sister by the leader of the corps, and supported by other eclectic demon slayers that respected Tanjiro and trusted his judgment and resolve. All of this was never forgotten by him, and was channeled throughout the series into his actions. He puts his traumas aside to still point things out objectively and fairly, such as pointing out the flawed reasoning in the Hashiras who were immediately keen to kill his sister simply for existing as a demon, even though she’d never killed any humans. His willingness to take into account the reality of the situation rather than demonizing one’s existence, and instead focusing on their actions, changed the thought process of the highest standing members of the demon slaying corps. He took the hate of those around them and brought it back down to earth, gently and kindly, and it once again allowed him, and in turn those around him, to come together and prevail. He took all of the strength and kindness he received from others and swore to never disrespect it, and placed all of his pain, determination, love and gentleness into his blade. He constantly strived to look at humans and demons alike with eyes untouched by hate. Many demon slayers reveled in being able to destroy demons, an opportunity to take out their anger for the pain caused to them by the demons through the strength the slayers grew and mastered. Tanjiro was never like that, and this instance of him showing kindness to a demon’s end only moments after witnessing them murder countless humans proves it.
This displays Tanjro’s unbelievable ability to empathize with others, even his enemies who are most usually a true embodiment of evil. This was validated even further upon his battle with one of the strongest and highest ranking demons in existence: the sibling duo that held the rank of Upper Moon 6, Daki and Gyutaro. These demons have been in existence for over a hundred years, and had honed their combat skills to kill uncountable demon slayers and humans alike over their tenure. Their strength was virtually unrivaled and unmatched by humans for over a century. Upon uncovering the real identity of Daki, who was posing as a courtesan in the entertainment district, Tanjiro saved her soon-to-be next victim’s life and began a one-on-one battle with the upper moon demon as he prayed his backup would arrive. He was overpowered upon one slash from one of her strongest attacks, which also decimated the buildings around him, and he suddenly was gazing upon a gruesome scene of rubble, dead bodies, screaming residents, and Daki’s laughter. As the Hashira of the arc, Tengen Uzui, arrives and cuts off Daki’s head, it’s discovered that in reality, she is a special demon that exists in tandem with her brother, Gyutaro, who emerges from the darkness and fixes her up. It’s revealed that both demons must have their heads cut off at the same time in order for the ‘Upper Moon 6’ demon to be defeated. Against demons using poison, blood, and sickles as weapons, the battle was an incredible struggle. In the process, the town was virtually destroyed, but fortunately Uzui’s apprentices evacuated the town during the fight. Each demon slayer was overwhelmed, but through force of will and determination, they overcame the challenge and succeeded in defeating the demons together. Upon defeat, Gyutaro released one more blood attack that leveled almost the entire district, but our heroes all survived.
Their heads landed next to each other, and the siblings began to curse at one another. Daki screamed at her brother for his uselessness and questions if they’re even blood related in the first place. Gyutaro angrily yells at her, calling her weak, how often he’s had to save her, telling her he’d be better off if she had never existed, that he would have had a better life if she hadn’t been born. It is at this moment that the incredibly weak and injured Tanjiro appears, and gently places his hand over Gyutaro’s mouth. These are the words he imparted on Gyutaro and Daki as they lie there dying, after lifetimes of killing and evil:
“That’s a lie. You honestly don’t think that, it’s all a lie. Just try to get along, all you siblings have left in this world are each other. Nobody’s going to forgive you for what you’ve done. You’re hated and despised by all the people you’ve killed, and now they’re disparaging you. No person will be your ally. That’s why the two of you shouldn’t be cursing at each other right now.”
Two pairs of siblings, one having gone toward the light and one toward the dark, sat together for the dark pair’s end. Daki began crying, and let her true feelings out: her fear of death and her desire to stay with her brother. She pleaded for his help as she disintegrated, upon which Gyutaro exclaims “Ume!” It was then, in that moment of silence, he remembered his sister’s real name, and regained his memories as a human, a terribly painful past full of poverty, abuse, and human cruelty. In the end, as they met in the afterlife, the siblings came to terms with their actions, accepted each other as family, and went into the fires of hell at each others side, finally taking ownership of their faults. Tanjiro and Nezuko observed the sibling’s death with respect, holding each other and hoping that the two siblings made up in the afterlife.
Even after Tanjiro’s most gruesome and tiring fights yet, he took the time to respect the demons as they die, a tragic loss of human loss regardless of their demon life. He and his sister could very well have gone down that same path if they weren’t so fortunate, and he utilized his endless gratitude and compassion for that to be there for the demons in the end. He practiced empathy at every moment, understanding that the demon siblings’ words to each other are most definitely untrue, and intervened to help them see it. He showed lightness in his ability to calmly stop the bickering of the siblings, bestowing parting words and respect to them, and allowing them the pause to truly reflect on their situation, which in turn allowed the siblings to be authentic to each other, as humans, after over a century. This was the scene that left the largest impact on me when I witnessed it. I was absolutely floored by his ability to go past his own hatred, disgust, pain and past to still console the dying demons. I wasn’t the only one impacted by his act of gentle kindness, consider the demon siblings. Throughout the entire battle, neither demon had any remorse or desire to change, it wasn’t until this moment of pause and gentleness from Tanjiro that shocked both demons to their core, and allowed them to pass on as humans, not the demons they so confidently stated they always were. It was Tanjiro’s gentleness that left the strongest impact. His soft strength was more powerful than any sword swing he could bring down.
Gentleness, like all values, takes many forms. It reveals itself through action, and with the correct analysis, can be explained through words after, as we have done with Tanjiro today. It was displayed through a humble plea for mercy, a kind response to one’s remorse, and an empathetic silence given to arguing siblings in their final moments. Others often incorrectly equate gentleness with weakness, but I believe we’ve more than solidified that gentleness allows for its own version of strength, one that leaves unbelievable impacts on the hearts of those affected by it, even adversaries. There is always a balance to be found, one that takes into account both physical strength and our capacity for compassion and empathy, which Tanjiro was able to master and utilize to overcome countless insurmountable obstacles throughout his adventure. Even when faced against overwhelming strength opposing him, it was his values and unwavering gentle nature that brought success for him and his fellow demon slayers. When I consider what I value in a leader, it’s not their incredible knowledge or experience that cause me to respect and follow their lead, it’s their kindness to their fellow team members, respect given to each person through action, honesty, and ability to handle setbacks with humility, accountability, and a resolve to find a solution together. Tanjiro is a leader I would follow, one who’s gentleness inspires me to be a better friend, compassionate colleague, and kind human.
Now I pose the question to you, what moments of gentleness have you experienced in your life that left an impact on you? How have you seen this value demonstrated? For me, I think of my father. He always acted with a softness in his actions. Frankly, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard him yell in my entire life, even with 4 rambunctious kids. He’s an incredibly loving and kind father, who treats every moment with his children and family as a cherished piece of time. He never fails to make that obvious through his actions, even something as silly as always being available for a hug, and I’m a huge hugger so you can guess where that came from. That’s gentleness that I never once in my life considered to be a weakness of his. May we take a lesson or two on how it means to live with gentleness, and potentially find opportunities in our own lives to grant that to others, in whatever form it’s translated through you. It’s a truly wonderful value, one which fuels actions and moments I firmly believe everyone deserves to receive or be appreciative of. In the words of Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, in his book Creativity, Inc., “It is precisely by acting on our intentions and staying true to our values that we can change the world.” Now get out there and slay some demons… gently!
Optimistically,
Jon
