Alex Ram · Follow
23 min read · Oct 20, 2020
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DISCLAIMER: This article contains spoilers up to chapter 66 of the manga series, “Kimetsu no Yaiba” as well as its side story, “Rengoku Volume 0.” Please proceed with caution.
Mugen Train arc is a major turning point in the series, wherein the true stakes of the demon battles were finally made visible to the surface. This was first truly shown in the finale of Infinity Train arc, when Upper Moon 3 makes his appearance and fights against the Flame Hashira Rengoku Kyojuro, who is one of the strongest swordsmen in the Demon Slayer Corps. Despite of being supposedly one of the strongest, his power still pales in comparison to the strongest of the demon moons, a reminder of how the supernatural will always be a step higher than the humans no matter how much training they will undergo through.
Mugen Train arc is also a treasure cove of character-defining moments between the main characters, and it shows the brilliance of Koyoharu Gotouge-sensei’s character writing.
Through the usage of the dreams and the physical manifestation of the unconscious in this arc, a lot of character depths were brought to attention in this arc.
Due to the extensive use of the dreams and subconscious in this arc, it is only fitting that psychoanalysis may be used in order to dig out and analyze the information about the characters revealed in this arc.
Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic methods which have originated from the ideas of Sigmund Freud. The main focus of the psychoanalytic theory is the unconscious mind.
According to Sigmund Freud, the unconscious could basically expresses itself in different ways. One thing that it could express itself in is through dreams. Dreams also take on various symbols, and these symbols, when analyzed, reveals something about the unconscious of one person. Dreams are also said to be fulfillment of repressed desires. There are two concepts used by Freud in his dream analysis: manifest dream and latent dream. The manifest dream is the very content of the dream itself, while the latent dream is the underlying meaning of the symbols that were in the manifest dream. In the proceeding parts that tackles about the characters, the manifest dream and latent dream will be analyzed, and will also be juxtaposed to what the canon has revealed in regards to the characters.
It is also to be noted that dreams can have more than one interpretation.
On the other hand, in this arc, the term subconscious is sometimes used. Subconscious and unconscious are usually used interchangeably, but the difference is in their depths. Subconscious refers to those which are not readily available to the conscious mind, but can be unearthed, such as general knowledge and memories. The unconscious is where the repressed thoughts are, literally the deepest part of the iceberg and that which cannot be easily unearthed. A lot of times, what the scenes in the arc pertain to is the unconscious. However, to avoid confusion, the term subconscious will be used instead.
In context of the events in the Infinity Train arc, the physical manifestation of the subconscious reveal a lot about who the characters truly are beyond the actions they show. These will also be analyzed following what their dreams revealed about their characters.
Inosuke Hashibira
Inosuke’s manifest dream seems comical at first glance. It’s just like him to dream about going on an expedition with his underlings, probably to defeat the lord of the cave and assert his dominance.
This also quite reveals something about his own mindset. The fact that Inosuke sees himself as the leader of the group tells about how he still views himself as the strongest, something that has always been apparent ever since he was first introduced. This also reflects his whole “god of the mountains” spiel.
Despite of the fact that Inosuke has been taken a few pegs down in the Natagumo Mountain arc when he was first slapped with the reality that he may not be the strongest at all, he still kept that pride and the need to prove himself as the strongest. This also reflects how he was raised as a child in the harsh environment of nature. Considering that survival of the fittest is the rule of the wild, Inosuke may have learned that the weakest always dies first, and so grew to have the mindset that he must always prove his strength.
He even said that his only hobby was to match his strength with other creatures.
So his dream reveals one desire — to prove that he’s strong, if not the strongest, symbolized by him taking on the role of the leader of the group.
However, the dream also shows a growth in his relationship with the three of them, from just viewing them as stepping stones for his glory to them being his underlings. From what we can see in his dream, he makes use of Tanjiro and Zenitsu’s assets, their acute sense of smell and hearing respectively. This shows that Inosuke is now quite willing to work together with both of them. If in the beginning he would do everything on his own and flaunt how he’s capable of doing what others can do, now as the supposedly leader of the pack, he’s capable of making use of their assets to their advantage and sniff out the “leader of the cave”. He even tells Nezuko that he will give her shiny acorns, something that seems to be his special way of showing his care. This also shows that there’s now some sort of comradeship with all of them that Inosuke feels, and he acknowledges them enough to even think of them as his underlings.
Inosuke is slowly warming up to both Zenitsu and Tanjiro, and this is a big milestone in their friendship.
Inosuke was first shown cooperating with others in the Natagumo Mountain arc, where Inosuke worked together with Tanjiro in defeating the Mother and Father Spider Demons. Inosuke was shown to be capable of cooperating with Tanjiro throughout the arc, a far cry from how he acted with reckless abandon in the Drum House arc, wherein he mostly fought on his own and without a single care for the others, even stepping on a little girl as he tried to aim for Kyogai’s neck. This also marked the start of him being able to acknowledge people’s strength other than his own.
This then further becomes emphasized in the Infinity Train arc, when Tanjiro and Inosuke, again, cooperates with each other to find the Lower Moon 1’s neck. Inosuke starts giving out praise towards Tanjiro whenever he does something he finds remarkable. Inosuke also stopped Tanjiro from cutting his own neck after being disillusioned by Enmu’s blood demon art, showing his concern for him which was upped a notch when Tanjiro got stabbed in the gut. Inosuke asked Tanjiro frantically whether he was okay, even shaking him hard as he did. He even follows what Tanjiro tells him what to do, under the guise of “making his underling happy because he’s a good boss.”
This then begs the question: does he truly see them as just his underlings? Basing on his actions alone, how he sees them at this point may have already progressed beyond that of a “leader” and an “underling” in his own words. It may have just been his own ego speaking whenever he calls them as his underlings.
Why he sees Tanjiro and Zenitsu as animals in his dream, signified by the usage of cute names for them and the overly cute design they took reflects his upbringing. Since he sees himself as a real boar, then it would make sense that he would also see his comrades as animals like he does to himself.
Inosuke’s subconscious was visualized as something akin to a tunnel, with narrow paths. The background seems also dark, emitting a claustrophobic vibe.
I interpret this as something relating to how difficult it is to properly interact with Inosuke, considering his very little interactions with humans (represented by the narrow tunnel path) and how he’s in the dark mostly with how human interactions work (represented by the dark background).
Tunnels, especially those that are narrow, are also considered to be very difficult to explore. Adding to that, it’s easy to get lost in the process, and one mistake in the exploration could lead to someone’s death. This is not to say Inosuke’s dangerous or interacting with him could lead to someone dying. It just means that because of how limited his interactions were with humans, it is easy to lose someone’s patience with him. It is easy to get lost in the narrow paths of his tunnels and create misunderstandings about who he truly is.
Even Inosuke himself might not know who he truly is.
The missing spiritual core signifies that he still hasn’t completely grasped his identity, and is still struggling with accepting that he’s a human, not a boar like how he believes he is. After all, this is the first time he has properly interacted with humans for long periods of time, and he’s still adjusting to the difference between the environment of the wild and that of humanity.
Inosuke even seems like he’s going to chase off anyone who dares to try forming any intimate relationship with him, because that’s how not used he is to the idea of forming relationships. He’s on guard with anyone who dares to get close to him because that’s not how the wild works. This is why he appeared in his own subconscious like a wild boar preventing anyone from finding his spiritual core, his true self. He’s not used to anyone giving him any affection or in his own words — that fluffy feeling.
But now, he has friends who are willing to stick with him through thick and thin; friends who won’t give up on helping him in being in touch with himself and finding beauty in forming relationships.
Inosuke’s learning slowly but surely. Tanjiro and Zenitsu’s friendship with him is helping him warm up to being a human and based from everything that happened, he certainly is making progress.
Zenitsu Agatsuma
Zenitsu’s dream also tells a lot about his own character. In all cases, it is a very romantic dream, and a pure one at that. It basically is about him taking Nezuko to a “date” (which is quite a loose word to describe it, honestly), where he takes her to various places — where the peaches, the flowers, and even the river are.
This dream actually clears up a misunderstanding that a lot seem to have on Zenitsu: he’s not a pervert. All parts of his dream screams a pure and innocent love towards Nezuko, who is the object of his affection right now. If he was a pervert or a womanizer like what the common consensus says on him, his dream might have been structured in a different way. Whatever structure that is, it’s left to your imagination.
If anything, this also cements something that has been subtly weaved into Zenitsu’s character: he’s someone who’s craving for love and affection, something that has been deprived from him in the past, which is why he’s easy to cling onto anyone who shows him even the smallest sliver of concern.
He even almost cried at the mere sound of Tanjiro’s soul.
Adding to his craving for love and affection is his debilitating self-doubt and belief that he will die because he’s too weak, which is why he wanted to marry anyone, no matter who they were (as painfully straightforward as it sounds).
In short, Zenitsu is a hopeless romantic. He’s someone who, despite of not being on the receiving end of someone’s love and affection for most of his life, is willing to give his 100% in a relationship, as signified in his dream where all the actions he took in the dream are proofs of him being willing to give his all in the relationship, his significant other being Nezuko. Unfortunately, this led him to being taken advantage by the few women he dated in the past, to the point that one of his previous partners piled all of her debt on him.
Even so, he still remained hopeful. After all, just as he said, he will trust whoever he wants to.
In fact, the flowers Zenitsu mentioned in his dream have a romantic meaning to it. White clovers signify the messages, “Be mine,” “Think of me,” “Promise,” and “Happiness.” It seems like it’s a subtle way of Zenitsu proposing to Nezuko, and also a promise from him that he will make her happy.
All of these line up with what Zenitsu dreams of — to be someone strong enough to protect those in trouble and make them happy, even if they’re just one person.
Zenitsu’s subconscious has been described as pitch black with a very heavy atmosphere, almost as if it was covered in ink.
This represents Zenitsu’s self-hate and how he despises himself so much (signified by the pitch black subconscious). Zenitsu has always been burdened with a lot of doubts in himself (signified by the heavy atmosphere of his subconscious), always thinking of how weak he is even though he always proved that he’s stronger than what he believes he is.
Zenitsu has always been a kind and strong person ever since the beginning. He only wanted to make others happy and to become strong enough to be someone who can protect them. But despite of all of these, he didn’t see himself as such, which is why he always shook in fear and screamed like there’s no tomorrow because he truly believed he had no use.
It is the sad truth about him. Because he had no one to assure him that he was strong, no one to shower him with the love and affection he needed, and all he heard was disdain for him, he truly believed no one had dreams for him. That is, until his master Jigoro came and became the first person to believed in his strength, and took him under his wing as his successor.
But even so, even if we meet people who will shower us with the love that we need, our frayed pasts don’t just untangle that easily. A lot of our hate and doubts for ourselves still linger, like a voice behind our minds, reminding us of everything that others have told us — those that warped our image of ourselves into something so disdainful.
Such is the power of words.
Zenitsu, despite of receiving the love he wanted from Jigoro, still received a lot of disdain from his senior Kaigaku, which further contributed to his self-hate. Because of all the hate that weighed heavily in his mind, Zenitsu lost his hold on who he truly is — on how strong and gentle he truly was, in the pitch black of his subconscious.
Adding to that, he’s not even willing to let anyone know about his true self. He might cut them off or chase them away before they could know him fully, seeing that he appeared in his subconscious with a pair of scissors to chase away those who will try to trespass.
With his ever-growing friendship with Tanjiro and Inosuke, Zenitsu now has friends who believes in is strength; those who will always remind him of these things that he lost his grasp on a long time ago. Maybe someday, the darkness of his subconscious will be vanquished, and Zenitsu will be able to grasp again who he is.
Hopefully, he will not chase them away or cut off their relationship due to his insecurities. Tanjiro and Inosuke might help Zenitsu put down the scissors and help him be able to create deep bonds again. But first, he must trust them enough to reveal his true self — his spiritual core — to them. Based on his words, Zenitsu might be willing to do so, albeit with Nezuko, and there’s some hope that he will take this first step someday.
Tanjiro Kamado
Tanjiro’s dream is a very emotional one all things considered. In his dream, instead of returning back to his family left dead after being massacred, he finds them alive instead, a complete opposite of what truly transpired.
Tanjiro’s desire is very simple — to just live happily with his family. After all, he’s just a simple family man, a simple charcoal-burner, and a simple elder brother who became the breadwinner at a young age after the death of his father.
All of that was taken away from him after one night, and he was forced down a path that he never thought he once wanted.
All of his trauma, regrets, desires, and guilt flowed into his dreams as he hugged his “alive” siblings so tightly, apologizing over and over again, even though his dream self doesn’t know exactly why he was apologizing and crying.
Tanjiro must have been riddled with so much guilt from everything that happened that night. After all, he was supposed to be the eldest brother. He was supposed to protect his family from danger. He was supposed to be there for them and keep them safe, not sleep his night away in safety as his family got massacred in the dark of the night without him knowing anything.
He could only apologize and cry profusely in the embrace of his his little siblings. No words could properly describe the amount of pent-up feelings he kept within him all these years.
Life was cruel. He was denied any chance to fulfill his wish.
He was not even allowed to despair or to stay in the slumps, as he had to bring Nezuko back to being a human. It was always hammered into his head — from Giyuu, Sabito, to Kyojuro — that he must not falter and despair because time does not wait for him. Tanjiro was not given any chance to properly mourn his family, nor was he allowed to process what happened to his family. He can only become strong, repress all the trauma and guilt the event brought him, and suffer in silence, because it’s the way of a man.
Because he is the eldest son.
He can only fulfill the wish he had for his family in his dreams.
But he cannot go back anymore. The past is in the past. How tempting it must have been for him to just turn around, keep living in that world even though it was just a dream constructed by a demon’s technique, and pretend that everything was just fine, that he was just again a simple elder brother who was the breadwinner of the family, not a demon slayer who must heal his sister and avenge the deaths of his family.
Tanjiro, despite all of this, still steeled his resolve to keep on moving forward, and turned his back away from the dream.
It’s a testament to everything that is Tanjiro — his resolve to keep on going forward despite of all the trauma, the guilt, and the burden of living on his back, even if he had to bear all of it in silence.
But even so, all of those that he tried to keep in his unconscious will always find a way to leak into his consciousness.
At one point, Tanjiro’s mind may have told him that his family was mad at him for not protecting them like he should have. Even though it’s illogical to think that at all.
It’s how our mind works — even if we try to rationalize everything that’s been happening to us, there are still a lot of times that our minds become irrational, especially in dealing with a lot of guilt. Even though it wasn’t Tanjiro’s fault at all, he must have thought a lot of times that maybe his family blamed him for all of the things that happened to them.
What would have changed if he was there?
Despite of all the pain and burdens Tanjiro is carrying, his subconscious still remains with not a single speck of darkness, filled to the brim with brightness and warmth. Tanjiro, despite of being in so much pain and suffering from all the circ*mstances handed to him, still remains kind. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Tanjiro the personification of kindness himself.
Even his spiritual core is akin to the sun.
Even in the mere presence of Tanjiro’s kindness was able to reduce a man to a crying mess and even light up the darkness in his heart. Just like Zenitsu who almost cried at Tanjiro’s gentle sound, the man could only cry in the warmth of his presence, wanting to stay in the vastness of Tanjiro’s subconscious.
Tanjiro is truly a source of light to many of the characters. Adding to that, from a narrative standpoint, his kindness is integral to the story, like how the sun is integral to all life on Earth, as it’s basically a bridge to one of the central themes of the story: how the demons and humans are alike in nature.
Due to Tanjiro’s kindness, he is capable of empathizing with demons despite of the fact that they took away everything from him. He still saw them beyond the actions they took; that they were just victims of circ*mstances. Nezuko’s situation may have given Tanjiro this perspective that they were humans before they were man-eating demons, but the fact still stands that his kindness allowed him to look beyond the rage he had towards the demons and see the fragments of humanity within them.
Sunlight destroyed the demons. Tanjiro became the gentle sunlight that freed a lot of demons from an eternal cycle of pain.
Tanjiro not only became a source of light for demons, but also for the characters as well. Because of his empathetic nature, Tanjiro also showed that just like the demons, the humans are also victims of their circ*mstances. His empathy exposed the deepest parts of their unconscious that they have been repressing. Because of his existence being filled to the brim with so much warmth and empathy, people tend to gravitate towards him and open up about the burdens they carry.
Tanjiro also became a catalyst in a lot of the characters’ developments. Not only his sunlight shined and freed the demons, it also helped in liberating people’s hearts.
However, even though his subconscious is plunged in an ethereal warmth that only Tanjiro could bring, the existence of clouds in his realm reminds us that it’s not always a bright, sunny day within Tanjiro’s mind.
Tanjiro, no matter how perfect he seems, is still a human. We must never forget that Tanjiro is someone who was forced to mature due to all that happened to him, from his upbringing to the cruelties life served to him.
Maybe that’s also one of the secrets behind Tanjiro’s empathy — because just like the demons and the humans he met, he’s also just a victim of circ*mstances.
Kyojuro Rengoku
Kyojuro had two dreams in the train. His first dream was about him defeating a demon inside the train in front of Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke, and them being in awe of him as they proclaimed him their big brother. A little bit before the start of this dream, Kyojuro already proclaimed the three of them as his tsuguko, him promising to look after them as he turned them into promising swordsmen.
It seems like just your normal, comical dream at first glance, with Kyojuro trying to create a bond with his tsuguko by showing off that he’s someone capable and he can really mold them into the next hashira someday.
But it is given a new context with his second dream.
Kyojuro remembers a fragment of his past from his dream, where his father tells him that they won’t amount to anything great, even though he just became a hashira, which is the highest position in the demon slayer corps. Despite of the amount of effort it takes for a person to become a hashira, his achievement was flushed into the drain by his father, wasn’t even acknowledged for his efforts, and was only told that he won’t amount to anything.
Kyojuro, ever since he was only starting as a demon slayer, has always been reminded by his father that he’s talentless. Being always reminded of something terrible like that must have made him internalize it all even if he appeared unaffected by it externally. Actions speak louder than words, and Kyojuro’s surprised face is already telling of the hurt he felt from his father’s words.
This then reveals the one desire behind Kyojuro’s first dream — to be acknowledged by others.
This is why Kyojuro must have wanted Senjuro, his little brother, to feel like he had someone who believes in him. He replaced his father as the supporting figure in Senjuro’s life. If his father cannot support them, then Kyojuro will take his role instead. He didn’t want Senjuro to experience having no one believing in him, like what Kyojuro experienced. Kyojuro must have wanted someone to tell him those words too. He might have totally believed that he was talentless, that he won’t ever amount to anything. After all, being told like that throughout your life will definitely impact the way you see yourself, even in ways that one won’t notice.
So he became that someone for Senjuro. He told Senjuro the words he wanted someone to tell him before.
Just like Tanjiro, Kyojuro repressed all his hurt and pain into the deepest parts of his soul, as the cost of being the eldest child who must be the foundation of the family in place of their parents when they were gone.
Kyojuro even tried to rationalize his father’s behavior, a defense mechanism he employed to keep himself from completely crumbling.
This is why Kyojuro continued to motivate Senjuro by telling him that he will become a great person no matter what path he chooses, because someone believes in him. Kyojuro wanted Senjuro to believe that whatever path he chooses, even if he cannot become a swordsman, will still make him a great person no matter what.
It’s something that their father failed to do for them, after all.
Thus, it reveals another of his desires — to keep on becoming Senjuro’s pillar.
His first dream also reveals one more of Kyojuro’s desires: to have a successor.
He didn’t want to force Senjuro into the path of becoming a swordsman. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t want a successor for himself. The lineage of the Flame Pillars has existed ever since the Sengoku era, and Kyojuro must have wanted someone to continue the lineage. Because a demon slayer could die at any moment, Kyojuro wanted to have someone who will continue what they have started, even when he’s gone.
That’s why he was so adamant at having Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke as his successors.
Kyojuro, by all means, was a fragile soul hidden behind his fiery personality, undoubtedly because of the pain of losing his mother and father figure.
He perfectly masked his fragility by keeping up a boisterous, energetic personality that everyone knows about. He kept the flames of his passion burning, and didn’t let his father’s words dampen the flames even one bit.
What kept him strong like this was probably because he held onto his mother’s words.
Kyojuro’s mother, Ruka, had a great impact on Kyojuro’s philosophy in life. Because of Ruka’s words, Kyojuro became the person he is right now. It is safe to say that what anchored Kyojuro to this world and kept him from falling into despair was her mother’s word, which he kept close to his heart. He was strong and he must help the weak. He cannot fall into despair and let it weaken his heart.
He must stay strong, for the sake of others. After all, he had a responsibility to keep; to help weaker people.
Which is why he became Senjuro’s pillar, protecting him from the danger of completely falling into the hellhole of self-hate.
Which is why he sacrificed himself for Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, and all the passengers of the train that night, in his last stand against Upper Moon 3.
In the end, even with him steeling his resolve and living with his mother’s words in his heart, Kyojuro is still a fragile soul hidden beneath a fiery personality.
Kyojuro, even at the end of his life, still wanted to be reassured that he did everything right. He had no one to reassure him about everything in his life ever since he lost his mother. He had to keep a strong facade despite of the fragility of his soul. He kept his mother’s words and dutifully attended to the responsibility given to him, even with all the despair he carried with him.
How relieving it must have been for him when Tanjiro screamed how he was the true victor in his battle against Upper Moon 3, and how his mother told him he did a good job as the dawn scattered in the horizon. Finally, he was acknowledged for all of his hard work.
Finally, one of his desires was fulfilled.
Until the very last moment of his life, Kyojuro saw through his responsibility as a strong person.
Even though he was at death’s door, he kept himself strong, so that he can empower Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke in face of despair. He lit up the fires in their heart to keep on living, even though with living comes an unbearable amount of pain. He might have told those words to himself, in nights when the despair is too much to bear. He wanted his successors to also live with the same words that he lived by.
Thus, passing his will on to them. Another of his desires was fulfilled as he finally found his spiritual successors in Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke.
Keep your heart burning.
Kyojuro’s flame will live on.
And that will be the greatest acknowledgement he will ever receive.
Conclusion
There are a lot of theories as to why we dream. Are they just a random set of images conjured by our mind? Or do they provide us glimpses on what our unconscious has to say about us?
Whatever it is, there’s an interesting question that is posed to us in all of these:
If given the chance, will we choose to just live in our dreams?
