Gyutaro and Daki - A thematic analysis

Fan colouring by ( http://missgoldnweek.tumblr.com )

Gyutaro and Daki were demons who lurked in the Red Light District in which they were originally born. As humans, their environment and upbringing led to the development of specific faults in

character with Gyutaro becoming incredibly envious of others, whilst Daki became arrogant and prideful. These faults are accentuated in their personalities as demons. They fought and were eventually defeated by Tengen Uzui, and the main gang. I will look at the themes of fortune

and balance, and how they were expressed through Gyutaro and Daki in their fight. Like all the Upper Moons, Gyutaro and Daki's fatal flaws can be found within the main antagonist, the assemblage of all things evil, Kibutsuji Muzan. In addition, these flaws come into direct

conflict with the ideals and traits of the accompanying pillar of the arc, in this case Tengen. I will start with the theme of balance. The idea is that with the Buddhist themes of the series, forces within the world exist in a state of Yin and Yang.

Light and Dark energy. As a result, there is balance as the two are ever-changing. A dichotomy acknowledged to be present in the series. In the context of Gyutaro and Daki's troubles, this dichotomy related to the concepts of fortune and misfortune.

The cause for their dismay and anguish stemming from the feeling that they only ever encountered misfortune. To understand why this is the case, we need to look back to their past. The Red Light District wasn't just a random location chosen for them to grow up in:

Immutable characteristics such as natural beauty can only be left up to fortune. Therefore, in a RLD where a person's beauty can immensely dictate and dominate one's quality of life, the reliance on fortune over misfortune is greater than ever.

Gyutaro recollects the extent to which he considered himself blessed. In contrast, this is the fortune Daki, (Ume) was bestowed with. With a beautiful sister like Daki at his side, Gyutaro felt a sense of balance and that he was no longer inferior or lacking.

He may have been ugly and had tons of other physical defections, but he had a beautiful younger sister, and was also gifted with strength, something she lacked. The two together were balanced and complete Their issues arose as a result of their lifestyle of debt collecting and

how they lost sight of what they already had. Gyutaro was envious of others as a result of his own personal defections and having discovered his great strength, he sought retribution for all the misfortunes bestowed upon him by taking from others. In his mind, he was simply

rebalancing his life. However, things truly went wrong when he also encouraged Daki to do the same despite how blessed and fortunate she was. This resulted in huge unbalance as they were not only unnecessarily collecting debts, but someone as pretty as Daki in the RLD was the one

doing it. This ultimately resulted in their demise as karmic forces counterbalanced their debt collection. Gyu got a slash to the back and Daki was burnt alive. The tragedy that led them to become demons. Once demons, despite centuries having passed they chose to remain in that

same RLD,continuously collecting debts from the people of the town
Their story directly contrasts elements of Tengen and also Tanjiro and Nezuko's pasts. It's no surprise that Gyutaro would absolutely despise someone like Uzui who's strong, cool and handsome that even has 3 wives

But the point is that not everyone is fortunate, and that includes Uzui himself who isn't someone that was given his talents, but brought them about on his own, not through taking from others, but through his own personality and way of life. Despite as shinobi being raised in a

manner that encouraged a disregard for the wellbeing of others and a heartless dedication to the mission,he took the best of the skills his surroundings brought him, (i.e. his shinobi fighting skills),but totally rejected the philosophy associated with it,becoming his own person.

Flipping the notion of a silent heartless assassin on its head and replacing it with a flamboyant and compassionate pillar that valued the lives of humans as the number one priority. All whilst using his unique and explosive breath of sound, fitting as music is one of the most

common mediums for self-expression.
Uzui as opposed to Gyu and Daki didn't blame anyone for the extremely tough upbringing he found himself in. He rejected a cold philosophy and chose to balance his contradictions of a compassionate shinobi in his own way. An honourable way..

that didn't involve taking things away from innocent people. Likewise, the same goes for the Kamado siblings They too had misfortunes in their life. Their Dad died when they were still young, they were poor, but recognised what they had each other and that they had the authority

to choose what made them happy.

The demons Gyutaro and Daki are ultimately one big misfortunate version of Tanjiro and Nezuko. A variable that Tanjiro himself recognised could have been the case. But the difference is that circumstances didn't just randomly happen for the two of

hem to be on those paths. Gyutaro's misfortune was self-manufactured. He created his tragedy as a result of bad karma from his and Daki's debt collecting lifestyle. Whereas Tanjiro and Nezuko's tragedy was created by Muzan, an unnatural, unintended force. that is why fate had gyu

met Douma (then Upper Moon 6), whilst Tanjiro comparatively met Giyuu (A pillar) in their moments of crisis.
The fact is that, had Gyutaro and Daki simply remembered the promise they made to one another as kids, the whole series of events that followed never would've happened.

Gyu looked towards debt collecting in order to counter balance his misfortunes, totally forgetting that balance wasn't acquired by anything he could take away from others, but was instead through being together with his sister. They are the yin and yang to each other.

A truth that they'd forgotten over time. Their designs are chosen accordingly. Gyutaro has black hair representing Yin, whilst Daki has white hair representing Yang, with them both having green ends, the streaks of envy that led to their corruption and misfortune.

Shoutout to my good friend Mercury101 for writing this amazing analysis. https://mangahelpers.com/forum/threads/gyutaro-and-daki-a-thematic-analysis.3017742/