Saturday morning at the Yukishiro household.
Both sisters had watched episode nineteen on Thursday evening and had been following the ongoing conversation about the series for the two days since. The discussion volume had not dropped. If anything it had expanded, drawing in viewers who had not previously been watching through fan-edited clips and forum posts circulating across every platform they used.
The Demon Slayer tankōbon volumes at major bookstores had been in a sold-out condition for the better part of two days. The rebroadcast rating for episode nineteen on Ion TV had come in at a number that was difficult to look at without pausing.
"This is completely outrageous," Miyu said, staring at her laptop screen.
It was not as though Japan had no history of a single exceptional episode reversing a series' reputation. It had happened before. But the scale of what was surrounding Demon Slayer right now was different from any previous example she could think of.
The fans were not simply praising it. They were treating it as a personal discovery, sharing it with people who had not seen it, writing about it in terms that suggested they felt they had witnessed something they needed others to experience.
"Was all of this within Rei's expectations? It has been two full days. Why have the fans not settled down even slightly?"
She looked at the screen again with an expression that was somewhere between disbelief and reluctant awe.
"These posts are praising it far too generously, aren't they? There is no way this can genuinely be more affecting than the Komugi and Ant King sequence will be when the Hunter x Hunter animation produces it."
"Do not measure everyone else against your own responses," Misaki said, her tone carrying a mild edge. "There are hundreds of millions of anime fans globally. Your taste is one data point. Some of them prefer Hunter x Hunter. Looking at what is happening right now, it appears that more of them are going to respond to Demon Slayer."
"That cannot be right."
"It is not an exaggeration. You are not inside Hoshimori Group so you do not have visibility into what the internal picture looks like. The volume of fan letters arriving from across Japan in the past two days is several times the weekly average from any previous point in this series' run. The editorial team's market sampling is more sensitive than what you have access to as an individual creator."
She paused.
"After episode nineteen aired, this work became something different from what it was before. The probability is high that the discussion and attention it is generating right now is not going to behave like a short-term spike."
"Not short-term? What does that mean specifically?" Miyu asked.
A notification sound came from Misaki's laptop.
On a Saturday morning in weekend mode, she would ordinarily have let it sit. Something made her open it instead.
She and Rei had both largely stopped paying attention to the weekly Dream Comic popularity rankings a long time ago. The work in first place was the work in first place every week. There was nothing to examine.
This week was different, and she had known since Thursday that it would be different. She had been waiting for this specific number.
When she opened the email and read the first line of the ranking list, something in her chest went briefly still.
"Work title: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
Ranking: First.
Number of votes: 2,021,354."
'As expected.'
Misaki's expression remained calm.
As editors, they had been able to form a rough sense of the numbers before the official count arrived. After the Dream Comic Journal went on sale the previous day, the Hoshimori Group website had been overwhelmed by the volume of incoming voters, going inaccessible for a period in the afternoon.
Anyone paying attention could have predicted that this week's vote count for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was going to be unusual.
"The latest popularity ranking for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is first place," Misaki said.
"Did you need to say that specifically, sister? Since Hunter x Hunter concluded, Demon Slayer has been first in the journal every week. I was not doubting its position."
"That is not the point," Misaki said.
"Under the influence of episode nineteen, the total number of votes for the Demon Slayer manga this week exceeded two million."
The words landed quietly. Miyu sat with them for a moment.
The ranking itself was not the story. The ranking had been predictable. But a vote count exceeding two million was a different kind of number.
"Is it really that much? I remember the highest Hunter x Hunter ever reached was the chapter where the Ant King died, and that was approximately 1.6 million votes." Miyu's voice had shifted slightly.
"Yes. And the tankōbon volumes that Hoshimori scheduled for release in the market are sold out across multiple regions. The group is already running emergency reprints."
"This cannot be right. It is one episode of animation. I will admit the Hinokami episode's production was exceptional. But the effect should not be this large."
"Why not?" Misaki looked at her sister steadily.
"Stop applying past experience as the measuring standard for what Rei does. Whether his works decline at an unimaginable speed or rise at an unimaginable speed, both are entirely within the normal range for him."
She picked up her phone and dialed Rei.
"Two million votes. I see. I did not expect it to break an industry record."
She paused, listening.
"The first manga in the history of the Japanese manga industry to receive over two million votes in a single week."
Another pause.
"Why do you sound as though you are not particularly happy about this?" Misaki said.
"I am happy. It is just that it is not time to be happy yet," Rei said on the other end.
Misaki caught the meaning immediately.
"What do you mean?"
"The first eighteen episodes of the Demon Slayer anime were foreshadowing for episode nineteen. And after episode nineteen, that is when the real Demon Slayer begins," Rei said, with a quiet laugh.
He did not explain further than that, and Misaki did not press him.
But she understood the shape of what he was describing.
The Natagumo Mountain arc had been the turning point. But what came after this arc was the more important threshold. The Hashira, who had been present at the edges of the story until now, would finally move to the center of it.
Tanjiro was the protagonist and would remain so, but his individual character presence had limitations that the series' early structure had made visible. The arrival of the Hashira as active figures in the plot represented a significant expansion in both the cast's emotional range and the story's pacing.
This was the point where Demon Slayer stopped building and started delivering on everything it had been building toward.
When Rei said this was only the beginning, he meant it in precise terms.
The tankōbon sales, the journal circulation, the viewership ratings. For Demon Slayer, the conditions for genuine sustained growth had only just arrived.
...
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