‘Demon Slayer’: Will Tamayo’s Antidote Work?

Lady Tamayo from Demon Slayer might not be the best-known character in the series, primarily because she operated in the background, but her role in defeating Muzan and his demons cannot be overstated. Despite being a Demon herself, she was one of the first rebels against Muzan. Her skills in the fields of chemistry and pharmacy helped her save many lives, which is exactly why Tamayo was so important. She also played a major role in defeating Doma. But still, her main point, the most important thing she did, was the creation of the antidote that would turn humans back into demons once again. The antidote is something that Tamayo had been working on from the very beginning, and in this article, you are going to find out whether it actually worked.

Tamayo’s antidote did work. The antidote to Muzan’s demonic transformation was created by synthesizing Muzan’s blood from Nezuko’s blood and the blood of the Twelve Kizuki. The antidote was first tested on the Asakusa Demon, who turned back into a human, proving that it worked. It was later also administered to Nezuko, who successfully turned back into a human as well, thus cementing Tamayo’s role in the series and the battle against Muzan Kibutsuji.

The rest of this article is going to focus on Lady Tamayo and her role in the series. We are going to talk about the antidote she had been working on since she met Tanjiro and whether that antidote worked when Tamayo actually managed to complete it. This was a pivotal moment in the story and we simply had to provide you with all the information about it. Be careful, though, as the article will contain many spoilers, so if you don’t know all the details, be careful how you approach the text.

Tamayo’s antidote was made to reverse Muzan’s demonic transformations

In order to reveal everything to you here, we have to go back early on in the story, when Tanjiro first met Tamayo. These events took place during the short Asakusa Arc, in the town of the same name. The town was vibrant and full of life, which is why people enjoyed living there so much. The events we are about to describe took place on one pleasant evening that turned into an evening of horror for some of the participants that were there that night.

While walking around Asakusa, Tanjiro sensed the presence of a Demon, and that demon was none other than Muzan Kibutsuji himself. Unfortunately for him, Muzan also sensed his presence, and while he was in disguise as a normal human with a wife and daughter, he had to escape.

In order to hide his presence, Muzan Kibutsuji used his exceptional speed and sliced the neck of a nearby man, injuring him seriously as he started bleeding. His wife started worrying about him, unaware that her husband was actually turning into a Demon at that very moment.

Tanjiro witnessed the attack and tried to intervene, but he could not reach him in time as the man, now a demon, attacked his wife and bit her shoulder. Tanjiro managed to reach him and stop him from further injuring his wife, but some damage had already been done.

He then puts a scarf into his mouth to prevent him from biting others. In the meantime, Muzan escaped the scene. Soon, the police arrived and asked Tanjiro to release the man while he pleaded with them to let him handle it, knowing what would happen if he were to let the demon go.

Suddenly, a Blood Demon Art focusing on flowers suddenly blinds the policemen, and a female demon arrives, taking Tanjiro and the couple to her house. There, she introduces herself as Tamayo and tells Tanjiro her story and the story of Yushiro, a boy she saved a long time ago.

Tamayo takes care of the wife and locks the demon, who would become known as the Asakusa Demon, in a room in her mansion. She then explains everything to Tanjiro, and they become allies in their shared fight against Muzan Kibutsuji, the Demon King.

The main goal of their alliance was the creation of an antidote that would reverse Muzan’s demonic transformation. Namely, Tamayo would use her advanced knowledge of medicine and chemistry to synthesize a cure for those affected by Muzan’s demonic properties.

But, in order to do that, she would need more samples of Muzan’s blood, so Tanjiro would need to provide her with the blood of Nezuko and the Twelve Kizuki he encounters on his journeys.

The Asakusa Demon proved that the antidote worked

So, now that you know what kind of antidote Tamayo was working on, we can tell you what happened and whether Tamayo succeeded in making it. First, you need to know that Tanjiro Kamado did, as promised, send the blood samples to Tamayo, and at one point in the story, she had enough to synthesize the antidote. This was revealed in the letter she sent Tanjiro at the end of the Swordsmith Village Arc. But did it actually work?

The antidote, of course, had to be tested on a demon, and luckily for Tamayo, a demon that would be a perfect test subject was just around the corner. It was the aforementioned Asakusa Demon, who was, at the time, still locked in Tamayo’s house. So, she administered the potion to him, and after a while, he was, indeed, healed.

He regained his humanity once more and was fully free from Muzan’s influence on just a small amount of blood. His importance thus proved to be pivotal for the story. Namely, he was the first demon healed from Muzan’s influence, and he also was the first test subject for Tamayo’s anti-demon antidote, a cure that would prove essential later in the story.

After regaining his humanity, the man cried tears of joy as he was once again reunited with his wife, now a perfectly normal human, just like he was before the incident involving Muzan.

This proved that Tamayo’s antidote actually worked, but while they were all happy to see it, more work still needed to be done in this aspect. So, what actually happened next? Namely, the whole point of this antidote, in terms of the plot, was for it to work on Nezuko, so while we knew that the antidote worked, we still had to see what would happen to Nezuko. Luckily, we’ve seen it work on her too.

During the Infinity Castle Arc, Sakonji returns to the Butterfly Estate and is seen caring for Nezuko. He states that he has Nezuko Tamayo’s medication that should make her human once again, but he is unsure whether the medicine would do anything. As it turned out, Nezuko would continue to sleep for a while until later, when Sakonji Urokodaki was shocked to see Nezuko Kamado suddenly waking up. Observing how alarmed she is, he asks her what’s going on, but he does not receive a reply.

Nezuko starts running from him, and the poor Sakonji chases after her, not knowing what was going on at that moment; as Nezuko jumped down a cliff and landed there safely, he was sad to conclude that Tamayo’s medicine did now work. But he was wrong. Namely, as Nezuko continued toward the location of the fight, something started to change.

She suddenly starts remembering things from her past that happened while journeying with her brother and the others, including the friends she has made and the battles she had fought. She was overwhelmed, but Nezuko would soon up after regaining her balance, and her hand returned to being a human hand. Nezuko grabs her head, sweats, and cries out as she transforms back into a human, claims that she is Nezuko Kamado once again, and finally assumes her human form again.

And this was the ultimate proof that Tamayo’s antidote actually worked. The Asakusa Demon was a good beginning, but he was significantly less infected than Nezuko, so it was expected that it would work on him. But, Nezuko was more powerful, and she had received more of Muzan’s blood, which is why, ultimately, she was the real test for Tamayo’s medicine, and we can confirm that it actually did work.