The Twelve Kizuki: Blood is Life, Innate Power & Natural Gift (Demon Slayer Anime Analysis)
The Twelve Kizuki, infused with the blood of the first demon, Muzan Kibutsuji, are a representation of the primal and devastating power of innate, natural talent and ability.
In the anime “Demon Slayer (Kimetsu No Yaiba)”, the protagonist Tanjiro Kamado, along with his intrepid and plucky companions, face off, with the power of breath and swords in hand, against powerful supernatural creatures of the night known as “demons”. They are aided in this noble quest to rid this dark world of demons by the Demon Slayers, warriors specialized in killing demons.
Demons, as they are called in the anime, are creatures with greater physical ability than an average human. They are faster, stronger, and with higher stamina. However, the strongest demons that our heroes face are known as “Kizuki”, or “Demon Moons”. They are the twelve most powerful demons, all infused with the blood of the first demon, Muzan Kibutsuji.
The more of Muzan Kibutsuji’s blood a Kizuki has coarsing through their veins, the more powerful that Kizuki is. The more of Muzan’s blood a Kizuki inherits, the more powerful and potent their magical spells, known as “Blood Demon Art”. Finally, the more of Muzan’s blood that has been poured into their undead being, the more enhanced their physical abilities are, which entails more speed, physical strength, and faster healing and regeneration.
However, it should be made known that the Twelve Kizuki are symbolic of why innate physical or intellectual talent and gifts give such a clear advantage for those that are so blessed with such. We see this everyday in our world populated with everyday human beings. We see many humans win the genetic lottery in many ways, and we also see how a human’s physical development from youth can also give them a decisive advantage over their competitors. This metaphor is expressed via the blood, the life-force of a living creature, that fills the veins of the Kizuki. Now let’s explore this idea…
Blood is Life
To begin our analysis, it must be expounded upon the fact that blood is not just a red, viscous fluid that the heart pumps around the creature’s body. Blood is powerful and infused with energy and potential. It produces movement, creates order and chaos, supersedes limitations, and facilitates the discovery of the universe. Blood is the life-force of all sentient creatures.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
Leviticus 17:11
We see clearly that blood, within the context of demon blood that brings life to the undead Kizuki and other lesser demons, is power. Which is right, biologically, physiologically, and spiritually. In many past cultures, such as the Aztecs, Celts, Romans, and even the Ancient Chinese, the shedding of blood, whether of a sacrificial animal or another human being, would be conducted to gain favour from the gods and to compel the higher powers of the gods or the universe to exhibit their power for the benefit of the self or the community.
Blood, as the life-force of all human entities, was considered sacred by the Ancient Israelites, in that they offered blood sacrifices to God through the killing of a live animal, or the blood sacrifice of a son in the extreme case of the patriarch Abraham, to please and curry favours and divine blessings from the one God. God would in turn demonstrate his infinite power through various means, such as in Abraham’s case, to make him a “father of many nations”. Hence, blood is symbolic of one’s life-force, power, and capability of regeneration and progression through time.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Genesis 22:9 –13
This is made clear from a physiological perspective in that if a person loses excess blood, they die. If a person experiences excessive blood poisoning, they die. If a person stopped circulating blood through their body through the failure of the heart, they die. If a person’s blood becomes contaminated with the blood of another, the life-force of another, where the two life-forces conflict within the one body, where the blood of the recipient is not compatible with the blood of the donor, they die. Blood must remain pure in order to maintain its potency and potential.
It must also be pointed out that more efficiently blood circulates through the body, the more power and energy one has, which is reflected in their day-to-day actions. Hence, this is why people that are the most physically active are also the most energized and powerful, through how efficiently blood circulates within their body and rejuvenates their being.
We see this all the time, in which if one’s blood is less than the absolute ideal, perhaps through oxygen deficiency, iron deficiency, or high or low blood pressure, the performance of the individual suffers. If the blood does not circulate to the person’s limbs fast enough during individual activity, performance suffers. When blood is so contaminated or deprived to such an extent where an individual is an utter lifeless shell of himself, we can appreciate even more the inevitable truth that blood is, quite literally, life.
Not only life. Power. Potency. Health. Wisdom. Energy. Strength. Limitless possibility coursing through your veins, locked away within the life-giving fluid of blood.
Inequitable Distribution of Blood, Life-Force and Innate Power
Hence, when Muzan gifts his subjects more of his blood, he is literally giving his subjects more life, more substance, more spark, more potential. Much like a life-saving blood transfusion grants the receiver more life to live, and thus give them more time and more potential to exert their power in the world and generate more life through their actions, the Twelve Kizuki becomes symbolically more alive the more blood they receive.
When you think about the term “lifeless”, it is not practically the same as “dead”. Lifeless is having no force of will or action, no generation of creative structure. Boredom, inaction, stagnation, all of which breeds lifelessness, comes from the result of the stagnation of blood within the body or the degradation of the bloods quality (through anaemia, lack of water, or lack of sunlight).
The more blood a Kizuki receives from their master, the more innate potential is stored up in their body, the more physically gifted they are. In this way, Muzan Kibutsuji giving inequitable amounts of his demon blood to his subjects is a metaphor of God giving inequitable physiological gifts to the people of the world.
Only be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
Deuteronomy 12:23
In the anime, the Twelve Kizuki are split into two ranks: Upper Rank and Lower Rank. The six Lower Rank Kizuki have far less blood than the Kizuki of the Upper Ranks, and within both ranks, the Kizuki have an unequal share of Muzan’s blood from the sixth Kizuki to the first. For instance, the Upper Rank Two Kizuki will have more demon blood than the Upper Rank Five, and thus would be more powerful and more dangerous.
Is this not like how God distributes inequitable amounts of physical gifts among the people of this world? Are there not people that have been gifted with more height, or a larger brain, or a more aesthetic facial composition, or a genetic line without the genes for a debilitating disease? Thus, Muzan’s blood draws parallels to God-given natural talent. Many would feel reverence of such naturally endowed specimens would suggest that they have been graced by God’s hand, and thus has been granted an easier road through the treacherous road of life. On the other hand, enviers would feel resentment of having a more difficult road to traverse due to their lack of natural gift in comparison to those blessed with such. Those that lack such a gift would feel that God’s curse has fallen upon them if such envy festers within unabated.
But with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
1 Peter 1:19
Such envy is the curse of those that reside within the Lower Ranks of the Kizuki. Day in and day out they watch the Upper Ranks receive the satisfaction of Muzan’s favor, as they watch how Muzan rewards them with more of his blood whenever the Kizuki successfully does his bidding. They watch as more and more Lower Rank Kizuki are slain by the Hashira, the most powerful of all the demon slayers, while the more powerful and more gifted Upper Rank Kizuki kill higher successive scores of Hashira.
The question is asked within the hearts of the Lower Rank: “how can I more effectively perform my duty to slay the Hashira if I am not given the power to?” One could argue that the Lower Rank Kizuki were set up to fail through their lack of inborn physical gifts. How often have we heard of weak, disempowered, self-sabotaging people shake their fists at God, complaining that they are not tall enough to make it to the NBA, or their face is not physically attractive enough to win a lover, or intelligent enough to build spaceships?
The inborn nature of physical blessing is reflected through the inborn nature of the Kizuki’s powers. A Kizuki’s magical, physical limit is determined proportionally by the amount of Muzan’s blood within their veins. A lack or insufficiency of such life-bringing, power-generating blood, would be a curse to those Kizuki possessed by the spirit of ingratitude.
Such is the limitation of the Kizuki, as compared to the noble and mighty Hashira, the arch-nemisis of the Kizuki, the sun to the “demon moon”, so to speak. The Hashira, using the power of breath, and with no innate physical advantages to boast of over the Kizuki, have virtually unlimited potential to become stronger, dependent on their mastery over their breath.
The innate powers given to us by God at birth through our characteristics should be used to our full advantage and leveraged to its limits. Our natural gifts, much like the powerful, life-giving demon blood of Muzan Kibutsuji, also contains much potential for us to exploit. The natural blessings and characteristics that define us, that are in-build in our cells, our DNA at birth, gives us power, potency, and potential, if used in the proper way without feeling the heavy weight of envy of the natural innate powers of others.
Our Own Natural Powers
So what potentials do we have coursing through our own blood, and how to use such God-given abilities to our advantage? Most of all, how to feel gratitude for the gifts given to us, the life-force and limitless potential ideal we can manifest through the transmutation of life energy flowing in our blood? How do you not feel resentment, envy, and insecurity for the abilities given at birth to others and not us? Here is a non-comprehensive list of things you can do:
Capitalize On Your Innate Biological Advantages
The reality of the human condition dictates that perfection of one’s soul through achieving excellence is a mandate, and such an in-built mandate is fulfilled through the process of leveraging one’s strengths. The reality remains that God has gifted you a combination of attributes that is unique only to you. It is God who decides what attributes we are to be gifted and what physiological traits he chooses to optimize and make beautiful and sublime, but it is our divine right, or even responsibility, as God’s creation to choose how we use such natural talents.
How will we harness the latent powers within? How will we activate the inactive powers and talents within for the betterment of our struggle on this planet? How will we transmute our divine essence, our life-force energy, our primal, biological advantages into sublime creation and manifestation?
Much like how Muzan Kibutsuji “blessed”, so to speak, his subordinate Kizuki with his demonic essence, granting them abilities and force inaccessible to other demons, we have also received from our birth our own unique enhanced qualities. If you pay attention to the nature of the Blood Demon Arts each Kizuki uses during battle, they have their own unique magical spells. Hence, much like how the Kizukis construct their own set of moves during battle, which are all enhanced by Muzan’s blood, we too can capitalize on our God-given advantages for our own purposes, within ethical reason.
Take, for instance, a woman that was born with a higher percentage of fast-twitch muscle fibres in her legs. If she chooses to fully capitalize on such an advantage, she would pursue the Olympic gold medal in sprinting, would she not? Or perhaps a man was graced with a higher IQ compared to the majority of the male demographic of his region. One possible path he could take would be a career within the physical sciences. Such is the result of identifying your natural gifts you were given at birth.
The ever imminent danger of capitalizing on your strengths in such a manner is that such actions can lead to complacency and arrogance, particularly of one makes the mistake of resting on their laurels and relying far to much on natural talent. Such hubris could potentially lead to blind spots to one’s character, where one is not privy to other areas of themselves or of their lives where they are insufficient.
For instance, compare two women: the first woman God has gifted with excellent genetics that manifests as physical beauty, while the second woman God has not been as generous when it comes to physical beauty given at creation. Both women are interested in the same man. Now let’s say the first woman solely relies on her beauty, and neglects her other parts of her being such as her intellect and ability to practice temperance. The second woman is beautiful, but objectively speaking is inferior to the first woman in terms of raw, uncorrupted physical beauty; however, the second woman is intelligent, has great emotional maturity, carries herself with grace, and makes up for her disadvantage to the first woman in beauty through her other qualities. If the man has half a brain, he would choose the second woman.
Such is the danger of overcapitalizing on your qualities enhanced by God. Such is the fall of hubris and haughtiness. Do not solely rely on natural talent. Capitalize and make the most of the advantages God has given you, whether it is physical beauty, enhanced senses, or coming out of the womb with all four limbs intact, but do not neglect other parts of your being, and do not fall into arrogance and one-dimensionality.
Boast no more so very proudly, Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth;
For the Lord is a God of knowledge, And with Him actions are weighed.1 Samuel 2:3
Address Your Innate Biological Insufficiencies
The arch-nemesis of the Twelve Kizuki, the Hashira, addresses their in-built disadvantages through mastery of their breath. However, the Kizuki are cursed to never have the opportunity to rectify their own greatest innate weakness: when exposed to sunlight, they die. For this, they live within the shadows, as a punishment for their arrogance and lack of self-awareness. For their self-indulgence in their natural powers gifted, not earned, from Muzan’s blood, they live like kings in the night, but scurry away for cover like rats in the day. Their inability to attack their weakness, hence remaining as creatures of the night, is symbolic of those that refuse to see their own shortcomings. They are, much like the Kizuki, perpetually “in the dark” of what they must improve on.
The Kizuki, when in the shadows and in full knowledge of the advantages their demonic powers give them, through the life essence of the first demon, become hubristic when faced against a Hashira, or any Demon Slayer for that matter, knowing the gap between their inner potential and the inner potential of a Hashira is so vast. The Kizuki know full well they have the biological advantage against a Hashira warrior, which can make them careless in battle, even costing them their heads. When in the night, without the deadly force of the sun’s rays, a Kizuki feels invincible, immortal, impotent. They feel they lack weakness, and thus can never have the foresight to address them.
As humans, we do not want to fall into the same trap, the same stagnant mindset. Surely, you have biological weaknesses, and if left unaddressed, can lead to bitterness, frustration, weakness, and resentment. However, we cannot undo a biological disadvantage. We are not God. So how must one turn a biological weakness into strength, or at least a competency?
Self-awareness is key. As masters of our own psychological, emotional and physical domain, we must conduct careful analysis of ourselves, and discover what our weaknesses are. From there we must formulate a plan on how to address such weaknesses, particularly if such a weakness is an irresistible impediment to our higher goals. Overcoming ourselves is a key component of fulfilling one’s purpose on Earth. Without such, we become like the demons: narcissistic, aimless, drifting, hedonistic. The Kizuki are the prime example of such a tragedy of character.
For example, say you are an aspiring orator, and you have been gifted at birth with lungs larger than the average human. However, you have been “cursed” (I use this term loosely) with a mind prone to a weakness in memory retention. As a result, your large lungs gives you a booming, commanding voice to compel the masses, however your weakness in memory retention means an inability to remember information after a certain number of days. If one is truly serious about addressing such a weakness, one would set a study and recitation schedule that is more frequent compared to other contemporary orators.
The clear danger in conducting such intensive self-analysis and identifying and rectifying innate disadvantages is that such actions may cause one to be excessively harsh on themselves, leading to self-flagellation for not being more than they are. Such can also lead to envy and unhealthy comparison with others, particularly if ones weakness is another’s strength. Is envy not the curse of the Lower Rank Kizuki when comparing themselves to the Upper Rank? The Hashira always had a history of killing scores of Lower Rank Kizuki, while the Hashira usually die at the hands of the Upper Rank Kizuki. Is it not reasonable for a Lower Rank to aspire for more of Muzan’s blood and be elevated to the status of Upper Rank?
The antidote to such envy is accepting one’s biological disadvantages, but understanding that the focus of your envy in turn has biological disadvantages in comparison to you. How much latent potential are you leaving on the table if you solely focus on your weaknesses and neglect cultivating and capitalizing on your strengths God has blessed you with? So yes, address your innate disadvantages as precisely and intensely as you can, without brooding and resenting your insufficiencies too harshly.
A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.
Proverbs 14:30
Cultivate The Growth Of Your Biological Entirety
Many make the mistake of only doing one or the other when it comes to developing themselves in relation to the physiological structure God has built for them. Either they exclusively capitalize on their gifts and become false and hubristic, or they address their insufficiencies in excess that they become envious and self-hating. Complete self-actualization is the union of both philosophies. You must both capitalize on your strengths AND address your weaknesses. That is the full, uncorrupted essence of self-improvement.
Unlike the Upper Rank Kizuki, who stagnate from growing through their hubris and over-confidence in their innate gifts, we must never stultify when it comes to our personal growth. God has injected us with latent potential within our blood to build ourselves from the ground up, and it is our responsibility to do so. Perhaps we ourselves are not divinely gifted in certain aspects of our physiology the way the Kizuki are (although one can argue that the Kizuki is cursed, even with their enhanced abilities), but there are still things we can do with what we have.
If we are naturally gifted in certain areas, use it to our advantage without becoming relaxed and arrogant against others not so gifted. If we are lacking in other certain areas, we rectify such insufficiencies to the best of our capacities without becoming bitter and resentful towards God. To paraphrase, work on everything about yourself, all areas of concern, whether gifted naturally or not.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13
The Twelve Kizuki can teach us the power of innate gifts, and how the blood coursing within them, which is symbolic of divinely-given life-force, gives them abilities no one else can boast of. The same with us, and how we can learn from the hand given to these creatures of the night. We can always become better in all aspects, through understanding how blood is life, innate power, and natural gift.
