Tanjiro and Nezuko could have ended up like Gyutaro and Daki if the Demon Slayer narrative had been somewhat different. Gyutaro and Daki, the antagonists of the “Entertainment District” arc, occupied a large portion of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. The Upper Six devils are dark mirror copies of Tanjiro and Nezuko, two siblings who love each other above everything else and have no other family. Demon Slayer appears to favour nurture over nature in the conflict between nature and nurture. The only major distinction between Gyutaro and Daki’s childhood and Tanjiro and Nezuko’s is that the Kamado siblings were privileged and loved, whereas Gyutaro and Daki were despised and alone.
Gyutaro, like the majority of the series’ demons, was overcome by recollections of his past as his death loomed. Demons usually remember their human existence only when they are about to die. Demon Slayer excels at making its demons likeable characters after they’ve done numerous atrocities and paid the price with their lives. The series does not elicit forgiveness from the villains, but even the most triumphant beheading of a nasty demon is accompanied by a sense of sympathy and general sadness.
Gyutaro’s childhood explains why he was so enamoured by Tengen Uzui’s attractiveness, as Gyutaro despises everyone who is born beautiful and beloved. Gyutaro’s scarred skin and malformed visage aren’t the result of his demonism; he was born with them. Ume, Daki’s human name, was born beautiful and matured into someone Gyutaro felt happy to guard. Gyutaro arrived home one day to find Ume’s burnt body, like Tanjiro had done with his own family, in vengeance for injuring a client.
Both Tanjiro and Gyutaro adore their sisters and will go to any length to defend them. Tanjiro, on the other hand, did not succumb to his rage the way Gyutaro did. Gyutaro, in all honesty, did not chose to become a demon in his despair. Gyutaro and Daki were discovered by a mystery demon, the former Upper Six, who converted them into demons himself. Gyutaro, on the other hand, may have gone down that path regardless, because the first thing he did after discovering Ume dead was kill two individuals, one of whom had nothing to do with the attack she had endured.
Tanjiro was lucky enough to get revenge on his family’s killer because a demon killed them. Who knows what Tanjiro would have become if it was people who slaughtered his family? Tanjiro himself remarked that a single misstep in his path could have easily turned him into a demon, his head under the blade of a demon slayer. Tanjiro hates the demons who took his family away from him, but he’s not happy about ending their lives. Gyutaro, on the other hand, delights in murdering those who oppose him.
Gyutaro and Ume are similar to the Kamado siblings in that Tanjiro and Nezuko know how to love others, whereas Gyutaro and Ume only know how to love each other. While this does not excuse their behaviour, it is comprehensible how Gyutaro and Daki got to be the way they were. Tanjiro and Nezuko were born with the ability to be decent, whereas Gyutaro and Daki had to be ruthless in order to survive. Tanjiro and Nezuko, Gyutaro and Daki are all products of their environments, and their roles in the story may easily have been switched if their childhoods had been somewhat different.