NIETZSCHE’S PHILOSOPHY IN THE ANIME “THE DEMON SLAYER”
Written by: Bert Junrie B. Espina
This is my insight after watching the available series on Netflix of the anime “The Demon Slayer,” I realized that maybe I can write about this anime as I can see that there is perhaps some element of Nietzsche’s philosophy in the anime series. If you are one of those who follow the series, you will notice that most demons in the anime, especially the “Twelve (12) Demon Moons,” were insecure, ugly, powerless, impotent, and/or weak humans in their previous lives, except for those demons who were merely infected and didn’t choose to become one. Those in the “12 Demon Moons” are obsessed with gaining more power which they didn’t have when they were still humans. They blame mankind for all the terrible things that happened to them when they were still humans. If you have read Nietzsche, this can already give you a hint. This is what Nietzsche wrote about the ‘man of ressentiment’. For Nietzsche, after the death of God, the ‘man of ressentiment’ manufactures another blamable person. He blames man for all the evil things in this world.
The 12 Demon Moons were previous humans who couldn’t accept their lowly life, and they wish to gain immense power in order to execute vengeance against humans, especially the gifted humans. In the book “Genealogy of Morals,” Nietzsche mentions that ‘morality’ (which he calls slave-morality) is forged by the Weak as an act of retaliation against the Strong; while in the anime, we can simply translate that the 12 demons are forging their powers through magic and by eating humans as a retaliation against the latter because they were obsessed to become a perfect being. Simply, the weak wanted to overthrow the strong. Isn’t it?
We all know in nature that no weak animal ever dominates the strong. You can’t see a lion being hunted by a zebra. In the anime, ‘The Weak’ (referring to 12 Demon Moons) oppress ‘the Strong’ (referring to gifted humans) by eating humans. They wanted to deny ‘the Strong’ their natural rights. This is to say that if the weak are given power, the earth will be turned into a bloodbath. Hence, in the anime, what the “12 Demon Moons” are trying to achieve is to equalize by force what is unequal by nature. They are revolting against nature. But this is a ridiculous revolt since the ugly would still be UGLY even with how much power is given to the ugly, the ugly remains UGLY. Having the power to punish the beautiful will never make the ugly beautiful.
