Ms. Tamayo in ‘Demon Slayer,’ Explained
Throughout Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba‘s four seasons, we have met a lot of characters. Especially if you’ve been watching the anime as it has aired, your memory might get hazy. Double-especially for a character who hasn’t been around much since season one.
Tamayo—or Ms. Tamayo, or Tamayo-san, or Lady Tamayo—has played a vital role throughout Demon Slayer. Hell, Tanjiro’s been sending her letters and vials of Nezuko’s blood this whole freaking time. But he’s been doing that without saying to the camera, “And today, I sent my 15th vial of blood to Tamayo-san! Boy, we sure keep in good touch!” You’re just … very occasionally reminded that’s the case.
But why would Tanjiro be sending a lady blood, anyway? Since Tamayo will be playing an important role in Demon Slayer‘s final acts, here’s a refresher on who she is and how she and Tanjiro met.
Tamayo, explained
If there’s anyone who’s down not to judge a demon by their cover, it’s Tanjiro. Most characters in the series are primed to kill a demon on sight—and for good reason, considering almost everyone’s backstory involves a brutal, tragic slaughter. But because Tanjiro has had to believe that his sister Nezuko can return to being human, he doesn’t believe that demons are automatically evil.
This is all relevant because Tamayo and her assistant, Yushiro, are actually demons. But they’re definitely not evil. Far from it—Tamayo is a skilled physician, and her (very extended) life’s work is to find a cure for demon-ness.
Like most demons, Tamayo was created directly by Kibutsuji Muzan many, many centuries ago. After tragically killing her husband and children in a frenzy directly after turning, Tamayo even served Muzan for a while. But eventually, she came to her senses and went into hiding, researching ways to oppose Muzan through medicine.
Tamayo doesn’t only deal in demon medicine. She treats humans as well. In fact, Yushiro was a fatally ill patient Tamayo was treating, and she gave him the option to continue life as a demon. Yushiro, Tamayo, and the demons they take in don’t go on bloody killing sprees like other demons. Instead, they make it a point to live as humanely as possible, surviving on donated blood, animals, or the blood of corpses.
Tamayo’s Demon Blood Art involves using her own blood to affect other people. She can create truth serums or hallucinations. It’s basically a furthering of her other skills as a damn good pharmacist.
How did Tamayo and Tanjiro meet?
Way back in season one, Tanjiro had his first encounter with Kibutsuji Muzan in a disarmingly innocuous manner—as if Muzan was just a normal civilian wandering around the famous Tokyo neighborhood of Asakusa. During that encounter, Muzan effortlessly turns a random civilian, who was on a date, into a demon. Tanjiro spring to spot the new demon from going on a killing spree, and he’s aiding by none other than Lady Tamayo.
Tanjiro showed compassion to the new demon, which Tamayo—rightfully—marked as exceptional. She brought him back to her secret retreat, which was hiding beneath some powerful demon spells nearby. However, some of Muzan’s demons followed them and found out how to get in. Tanjiro and Nezuko helped defend Tamayo’s safe house, earning her further respect and trust.
Nezuko, still under her spell to treat all humans as if they were her family, is notably at ease around Tamayo—essentially signifying that she clocks Tamayo as human. This endears the Kamados further still to Tamayo. United additionally by their mutual desire to take down Muzan, Tanjiro and Tamayo come to the agreement that Tanjiro will send Tamayo samples of Nezuko’s blood to study.
The hope is that, somehow, Tamayo can figure out how to make Nezuko human again. Nezuko’s blood proves unique, which helps Tamayo’s own research. In fact, Tamayo correctly predicts that Nezuko will “conquer the sun,” becoming the first demon able to stand in the sunlight, before it even happens.
At the beginning of the Hashira arc, Ubuyashiki’s crow (the head of the Demon Slayer Corps.) finally finds Tamayo and entreats her help. He asks that she relocate to Butterfly Mansion and join with Shinobu, the Butterfly Hashira, to research ways to take down Muzan. Considering that this would surround Tamayo and Yushiro with people who would normally want to kill her, this suggestion is obviously risky.
But she chooses to trust Ubuyashiki and accept. As for the rest … us anime-watchers will have to see.
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