The following contains spoilers for Engage Kiss through Episode 11, "Gentle Foolish Lies," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Engage Kiss is a hit anime series of the Summer 2022 season that's also part of the larger Project Engage franchise. At first it seemed to be a fun but cheap action/adventure series with an obligatory harem surrounding the protagonist, but now the stakes are far more serious -- and more personal -- for protagonist Ogata Shu and his family. In some ways, he's become the new version of Demon Slayer's Tanjiro Kamado.
Like Tanjiro before him, Shu has lost his family to demons, and only his little sister Kanna remains. But as Episode 10 of Engage Kiss showed, Kanna is now a half-Demon -- the child of Asmodeus -- and there is only a sliver of hope to bring her back to the human side and redeem her. If Tanjiro can risk his life to restore Nezuko's humanity, then Shu and the others can do the same for Kanna.
How Kanna Became Engage Kiss' Own Version of Nezuko
The exact circumstances of Kanna's Demonic status differ somewhat from Nezuko's, but they have much in common in the broader stories of Engage Kiss and Demon Slayer. Both of them were once happy, innocent girls living with their big brothers and families, but then the king of demons arrived and tore those families apart. Muzan Kibutsuji slaughtered the Kamados and turned Nezuko into a demon, while Asmodeus the ultimate Demon posed as Shu's mother and conceived the half-Demon Kanna with Isamu, Kanna's father. All this is part of Asmodeus' larger plans for the cyberpunk island realm of Bayron City, and Asmodeus even had Miles Morgan's reluctant help to make it all possible. Then Isamu set off some explosives that buried the Demonic Kanna, inspiring Shu's quest for revenge on Asmodeus.
In the world of Engage Kiss, some humans enter contracts with Demons to become possessed -- as Miles did -- but Kanna is different. She is one of the few known human/Demon hybrids, and that makes her even more powerful and quite loyal to her mother, Asmodeus. Episode 11 showed with Kisara and Shu that a Demonic contract can be broken, but Kanna has Demon blood in her -- and that's a whole different problem.
Kanna is Asmodeus' daughter, and it seems nothing can change that fact, not even Bayron City's advanced medical science or the combined efforts of all Demon extermination companies. For now, it seems the Ogata family is doomed to be forever cursed with brother and sister being mortal enemies -- but some dialogue in Episode 11 hinted at the possibility of Kanna's redemption. Whether or not she can be turned fully human, Kanna is not yet a lost cause, and the anime's main characters might find a last-minute solution.
Engage Kiss's Personal Stakes for Shu, Kanna & Kisara
Any action anime becomes far more exciting when the protagonist's battle gets personal. It's one thing for Ichigo Kurosaki to slay Hollows or Izuku Midoriya to beat up villains in the streets, but when protagonists like Tanjiro, Shinra Kusakabe and Engage Kiss's Shu have personal stakes involved, everything changes. Fighting isn't just about duty as a demon hunter or fire soldier; it's about meeting a more intimate need, and family often comes first. This has the potential to create unique conflicts and challenges for the heroes, with characters like Shu being forced to choose between their duty, self-preservation and fighting to rescue an imperiled family member. They are trying to redeem and rescue a sibling-turned-villain, and that's something not even their professional allies can relate to.
All this may lead Shu to make drastic, rash decisions for his little sister Kanna's sake, and his pink-haired Demon ally Kisara is part of it too. Kanna is poised to be Asmodeus' most powerful asset -- only Kisara has the power to defeat her, and Shu alone has the personal stakes to care enough to try. This is now Kisara's problem by extension, and she must have these personal matters in mind as she prepares to fight Asmodeus one more time in Engage Kiss's climactic finale. Any other character would likely fumble with this, unable to handle the physical danger and delicate emotional stakes involved in fighting a family member/villain like Kanna.
This job is not only the protagonist's personal business; it's a job that only they know how to handle. Only Tanjiro will fight so hard to restore Nezuko's humanity in Demon Slayer; now it's Shu and Kisara's turn to go down this unique path and end Engage Kiss with a bang -- and the emotional release of saving a beloved family member from the darkness. Anyone can save the day, but only Kisara and Shu can save the Ogata family from ruin.