I literally love asks like this. So much.
I'm so sorry for not getting to this ask sooner, however, answering it would provide almost instant spoilers for Kizuki Eye and the backstory I wrote for Enmu. So now that the chapter has been up for a few days, I feel comfortable answering this ask! You can find more on the parents in the chapter notice.
Though for fun, I guess you can have Bo's (his mother's) early concept arts.
Firstly, I would like to say I’m co-opting Enmu’s first name listed in Kimetsu Academy “Tamio” which denote “Enmu” as a family name.
I’ll begin with with a quick dissection of Enmu in canon, as it is relevant to the kind of story I wrote for him and my headcanons about his parents.
Enmu in Canon
Enmu, as a character, is deeply self critical and intelligent. He is fully aware of his weaknesses as a demon, makes a back up plan for his back up plan to the point even he admits it is excessive, and then uses (primarily) evasive tactics when confronted head on.
He KNOWS he is not strong. He KNOWS he is not special. But he wants to be.
Of the lower moons, Enmu was obsessed with rank. And the only reason he was Lower-One is because Rui was indifferent to rank. Rui easily would have mopped the floor with him. Enmu's tactics are deeply psychological, and of the prowess he does possess physically, it is all for dodging or shielding his own body from harm.
He uses fleshy extensions of himself rather than his central body. He uses pawns to go into dreams for him. He detaches his own hand for surveillance. And then he's sidelined in his own movie for Akaza (not a dis, I love that man), who comes in with more power and strength than Enmu could even dream of having (something he laments in his dying speech.)
Not only this, but he also is seemingly incapable of generating weapons of his flesh, and has never been shown in canon (to my knowledge) generate his own clothing from his flesh either considering the body he left behind was a decoy. There are notes by Gotouge about the grotesque nature of his craft, such as using his blood as ink to cast sleep spells through the train tickets, creating rope from his own flesh/sinews, and awls made from his bones and his teeth. If he were simply able to generate these as other demons do, I doubt it would be listed the areas he is physically harvesting these materials from. These details imply he made all of these items himself with his own two hands. He is meticulous and dedicated if so, and his inability to simply conjure these tools speaks to the passion in his character to climb the ranks despite his disadvantage.
Enmu also comments himself in canon that the very nature of the lower moons is disadvantaged compared to the uppers. But beyond this feeling of being wronged, he also just wants to do it over again. What is interesting about him is we never see his backstory in the mainline canon, we only get the pieces of it in the fanbooks. I feel like this says a lot about his character if we choose to look at it in a character dissection way.
(original translator link)
He doesn't even sympathize with the more human aspects of himself, so why would he dwell on a backstory? What is important to him is the now and being able to achieve in said now. But that didn't pan out. He'll never be special or important. He dies a failure.
(Quotes I scribbled down while watching his dying speech in the movie. May have errors. Sorry...)
"Did I lose? Am I going to die? Me? Ridiculous! After all the time and trouble I've gone through! I was held at bay! Why hasn't Muzan killed the traitor (Nezuko)? That brat (Tanjiro) is to blame! I wish I could kill that brat, at least!"
"I want to do it over! I want to do it over! What a miserable nightmare!"
There's also a lot to be said about his acceptance of, and even approval of, his own death in other contexts when they are within his control. i.e. saying that dying by Muzan's hand would be a blessing, or his canon quote and general attitude of "Nothing will make me happier than to die as I dream!"
Basically, he worked hard and died useless. He only lamented his own dying when it it fell outside of his control and prevented him from achieving anything / mattering. He otherwise does not seem that invested in his own life, even though he is very cautious and calculated. It's all precaution to allow him to climb the ranks and have value, but not the specific aim of preserving his actual life.
In my chapter 9, I try to explain his mannerisms as well as this aspect of his character. I'll begin with a brief history note on Meiji era, since this is when I headcanon he lived most of his life as a human.
Brief History
Meiji era (1868 - 1912) marked the beginning of the cultural exchange between Japan and the West, especially after the forced opening of Japan’s Sakoku (closed country) policy by the Perry Expedition. With its borders now open to trade and a westernized government, this was a time for political and social change. And was also the death of the Shogunate, marking the end of the remainders of feudal Japan.
A more prominent aristocratic class was born. Class divides were usually collected in cities, and rural areas did not follow western trends like cities did. Western fashion in particular was more readily adopted by men, but women who these men married also (sometimes) adopted westernized fashion. Western fashion was expensive to afford in complete sets, so mixed accessories were common in the beginning of the Meiji era, and marked progressive ideals. But that soon wasn’t enough by itself, so the wealthiest could afford entire ensembles to prove their status.
Western clothing was considered appropriate/classy dress for public spaces or buildings with more westernized construction, though traditional attire was common house clothing or rural clothing. (Though many people in cities still wore traditional clothing, mind you.) Watches and hats were common accessories, and wool became popular for the first time in Japan, shaping a chance in the textile industry.
Why is this Important?
Because Tamio (Enmu) always wore more western clothing, something that really stuck out to me when I first watched the series and read the manga. Being that he wore dress shoes, a tailcoat, and pants, this was a fully western ensemble. His fascination with the Mugen Train and innovative tendencies in general point to someone more progress inclined (in relation to the period). The only other character who quickly comes to mind as western dressed is Muzan, but his entire character sort of hinges on progress so this makes sense (could also be another reason Enmu was infatuated with him. "Infatuated" being the canon word used in his character profile.)
Given that I think Enmu would need to be a demon for at least a bit to make it to Lower-One and his style of dress being fully western, I place him in Meiji. Probably died and was turned in his mid 20s around 1880s (if we’re being generous and assuming the taisho era placement in Demon Slayer canon is closer to the middle of that era rather than the beginning.) So born a little before the beginning of Meiji if not, like right at the beginning. But don’t quote me because I suck at date approximations. I actually had to make a chart to compare Bo (name I made for his mother) and Enmu’s ages through all of chapter 9. I may just make a chart for this too. I am genuinely so blind to time approximations.
Anyway, because I place Enmu in Meiji era and also assume him to come from wealth, it effects his parents in a few ways.
Relevance to the Parents / My Headcanons
Something about Enmu’s character I wanted to explain in the chapter were his obsessive tendencies, his infatuation with someone like Muzan, and his general weakness compared to other demons that made Enmu more resourceful and clever to survive. In chapter 9, the way he’s raised by Bo (mother) and the legacy left behind by Hideo (father) account for the largest contributions to his development into the monster he is now.
I’ll compile a few quotes from the actual chapter that best highlight the cards Enmu is working with thanks to them.
_____ Tamio’s mother was not nearly old enough to be considered a befitting mother, only around 16 when she’d given birth to him. Her business in westernized clothing was purely for the benefit of her own father, who she rarely spoke with. Given her business and her comfortable position in the upper class, she never should have given her lousy suitor, Hideo, the time of day.
≪ ◦ ❖ ◦ ≫
_____ “I’m taking him with me!” Hideo attempts to shout over her, but it’s Bo’s voice that carries better. She’s lashing him with her words, faster than he can comprehend them. Insult after insult.
_____ It wasn’t even that Hideo didn’t deserve a lot of them. Bo’s father stopped speaking with her because of him. Because he’d decided to flirt with an upper class girl. Because he thought it would be funny just to see if he could bed her. Because he thought she was lying when she announced her pregnancy. Because he’d entered a long term affair the night their son was born. Because he ruined her image by still refusing to marry her.
≪ ◦ ❖ ◦ ≫
_____ It wasn’t about Tamio that Bo was upset. It was the power struggle he represented. If Hideo took him, she would have nothing left to show for this stupid waste of time. She was the image of refinement and progress, with young Tamio as her only heir. She never should have spent so much time with Hideo.
Bo is a business woman by allowance of her father. And women who were seamstresses for the aristocrats, or even the government, were one of the few kinds of people in Meiji era who would almost constantly be in western dress since western clothing was part of their uniforms.
Bo was obsessed with making her father proud, as she was his only child, just as Tamio is her only child. The issue is that Tamio is also a technical bastard, and by the nature of his birth out of wedlock, he never could be used by Bo to get acceptance from her father, and as a consequence, Tamio could never get acceptance from Bo either.
Hideo, his father, was a traveling man and a free spirit before he met Bo, and even when she tried to tie him down, he wouldn't allow himself to be contained. But as mentioned earlier, a marriage would have improved Bo's image with Tamio already tanking her status as her illegitimate son. Even before Tamio's mental afflictions were severely noticeable, he was hated for what he represented to his mother.
When Hideo finally left the picture for good, Bo was left to try and fix her image in any way she could, and all without the support of her father while also being a single mother. While I never want the reader to forgive Bo, I do want them to understand how she ended up the way she is (she is inspired by my own biological mother). She never wanted to be a bad mother, but she didn't know how to be anything else. Especially with untreated obsessive tendencies of her own and lack of social and emotional support.
Tamio was left throughout his entire life to chase her approval, constantly being made to believe that if he could just get a grip on reality, he would be good enough for her (as a demon this behavior shifts towards Muzan as an emotional replacement.) Without his mother’s affection or support, he was also left to turn to extremes to treat himself of his canon issues with processing reality, none of these methods being useful and many of them being outright detrimental to him as a character. These extreme methods also made Bo look bad in the eyes of the public, and so Tamio was further resented and unloved.
Bo would give him just enough hope to believe he could make her love him, but that obviously never panned out. There’s more to say, but I don’t want to completely spoil chapter 9 for the people who haven’t read it.
Final Thoughts
Simply put, the father was absent and the mother was negligent, controlling, or outright verbally and emotionally abusive. Enmu was without anyone who could help him, and those who he felt could, betrayed him in one way or another.
Finding workarounds for his inability to tell dreams apart from the waking world (and not always being able to process or anticipate consequence as a result) trickles into his existence as a demon. Now a very innovative and crafty sort of person. He’s used to struggling to make things work for him.
Never receiving love from his mother who expected the impossible but made him believe he could achieve it is then transferred to his obsession with Muzan and rank. Muzan is not a caring figure and Enmu’s sadomasochism serves him in this instance as that’s the kind of person Muzan rewards.
As for the parents’ names, Hideo means "excellent man", and Bo (as her kanji reads here) is for "pining, yearn for, love dearly, adore". Additionally, I never gave Hideo a last name, as even his given name is only an alias. Hideo is not his real name, because he was never committed to being part of the Enmu family name to begin with.
Thanks for reading such a mega chunk. 🫡 enjoy the chapter if you haven’t read it yet.
