Ever since the death of his father, the burden of supporting the family has fallen upon Tanjirou Kamado's shoulders. Though living impoverished on a remote mountain, the Kamado family are able to enjoy a relatively peaceful and happy life. One day, Tanjirou decides to go down to the local village to make a little money selling charcoal. On his way back, night falls, forcing Tanjirou to take shelter in the house of a strange man, who warns him of the existence of flesh-eating demons that lurk in the woods at night.
When he finally arrives back home the next day, he is met with a horrifying sight—his whole family has been slaughtered. Worse still, the sole survivor is his sister Nezuko, who has been turned into a bloodthirsty demon. Consumed by rage and hatred, Tanjirou swears to avenge his family and stay by his only remaining sibling. Alongside the mysterious group calling themselves the Demon Slayer Corps, Tanjirou will do whatever it takes to slay the demons and protect the remnants of his beloved sister's humanity.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Roevhaal
Oh boy, the seasonal battle shounen that everyone raves about, what does it do right? Well to be completely honest, nothing, the only thing it got going for it is the production quality from ufotable. Story: 2 (contains spoilers up to ep 19) There's really nothing special here, the series starts out with Tanjirou's family got devouvered by demons and his sister Nezuko got turned into one. In order to save his sister and turn her human again he set out to find Muzan Kibutsuji the original demon who surely has some way of turning Nezuko human again. In order to get to him he needs tobe strong and fight a lot of demons thus he becomes a demon slayer. After this set up he just fights demons every episode and honestly it gets tiring fast. They decide to fix this repetitiveness by introducing two other main characters who are extremely obnoxious and later by introducing a spider demon who's several times more powerful than Tanjirou and the demons we've seen prior. However the way they handle this demon is done in the worst way possible, first to showcase how powerful he is when Tanjirou goes to cut his spider thread it is the sword that is cut instead and after getting destroyed by the demon, he has a flashback and pulls out a breathing technique called dance of the fire god from his ass, he then oblitirates his opponent with his sword whose blade is now half the length of the hilt. After this I completely gave up on the series, Fairy Tail has better writing than this.
Art / Animation: 8
The reason this series got popular in the first place, I have to admit it's beautiful and the fight scenes are fantastic, I do have a minor issue whenever I see CG Tanjirou walking around but it's otherwise fantastic.
Sound: 6
There's really nothing to complain about but there's not much to praise either. The music is solid and gets the job done but it's also unmemorable. The've assambled an absolutely fantastic voice cast but their roles don't alow for them to shine, the only exeptional voice performance is from Saori Hayami as Shinobu.
Characters: 0
The absolute worst part of the show, pretty much all the characters are as flat as a piece of cardboard with a single character trait, for many of them this character trait is also extremely obnoxious. Tanjirou is your standard shounen protagonist, overly righteous with a strong sense of comradery, honestly a really boring character that we've all seen a hundred times before so that he still ends up being one of the best characters in the show is speaking volumes about the rest of the cast. Nezuko is cute and that's it, apart from protecting Tanjirou a handful of times she hasn't done anything apart from looking cute she's also one of the better characters in the show. Inosuke is stupid, loud and obnoxious and tries to solve everything by beating stuff up, that's it there's nothing else to his character. Zenitsu is one of the worst characters I've seen in any medium, he's the biggest coward ever and his constant screaming makes you want to tear your hair off. Giyuu seems like a passable character on par with Tanjirou but I haven't found a reason to actually like him. Shinobu would be the most intersting character so far but she appears too robotic in her mission ''demon bad, gotta kill demon''. If she actually listened to Giyuu but still come to the same conclusion I wouldn't have a problem. Also she's a woman so of course she has to be too weak to sever the head of a demon, her sword and poison is cool and all but come on, find a better reason, it's pretty clear that strength is not the key component in severing the head of a demon in this universe. The rest of the pilars hasn't had much screentime but they've made an awful first impression, they've all been shows to have a single exaggerated character trait and nothing else.
Enjoyment: 0
Boring plot with obnoxious characters that drive you insane leads to an absolutely abysmal level of enjoyment on par with staring into a wall while listening to a screaming baby for 10 hours.
Overall: 1
To me this is the perfect example of style over substance and goes to show that as long as something has flashy fight scenes it's very likely to be loved by the anime community. If you're not already a big battle shounen fan who's able to watch a series for the action sakuga alone stay far away from this series.
Stark700
Ah ufotable, the studio that keeps on giving. Before Kimetsu no Yaiba aired, news broke out that we’d get them animating the show. And to my delight, it’s a studio that earned its praise for its high caliber animation and consistently delivering quality content. Being their first 2-cour show (without a split cour break), Kimetsu no Yaiba is a special gift not just for the manga fans but anyone ready to experience a world of demons and dark fantasy. With over 170 chapters and counting, manga artist Koyoharu Gotouge made this series as a dark fantasy-adventure about demons. With 26 episodes, there are some concerns abouthow much content we’d actually get adapted. For statistical references, each episode adapts about 3 chapters. Most of the episodes follows these chapters by the letter and to manga fans, I think this is a special treat. Not too manga series follows this trend and some unfortunately decides to jump off the rail and follow its own path. With that being said, Kimetsu no Yaiba is a series that I recommend and there’s plenty reasons to see why.
The experience of watching this show goes beyond the realm of its visual quality. Ufotabe applied their cinematic style to bring the characters and story to life but it’s important to realize what the author wanted to bring from his work. From the start, the show had a vision. It sets up a state of tragedy that deals with life and death. The demons in this show are devices created with the purpose to generate fear, the type of feeling that viewers needs to experience when watching a dark fantasy. Often these days, I find myself feeling bored when watching dark fantasies when it relies too much on relationship developments. Instead, Kimetsu no Yaiba elegantly tells a story that’s straightforward yet meaningful to deliver its premise. We meet main protagonist Tanjiro Kamado, a determined demon slayer who stops at nothing to help find a cure for his sister, Nezuko. The first few episodes establishes their important character relationship as even with Nezuko being a demon, he refuse to kill her. In return, Nezuko uses her own skills to help Tanjiro when he is in trouble fighting demons on his own. Early episodes also shows Tanjiro learning the ropes as a demon slayer. The anime makes it clear about the reality of their world where death is common and can happen in the brink of an eye. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at what happens to Tanjiro’s family. With such a tragic setup, the anime seeks to bring hope for Tanjiro and his journey to make things better for his only remaining family.
In remembering the past, Kimetsu no Yaiba is known for showing the importance of family. Known for showing rather than telling, it should be easy to see the close relationship Tanjiro has with his sister, mother, and father. Throughout the show, Tanjiro is also known for his duty to eliminate demons although he doesn’t truly hate all of them. Rather than having a black and white philosophy, he also feels sympathy for some of the demons he faces. However, there is one demon he both fears and despises – the mysterious and powerful Kibutsuji Muzan. As the primary antagonist of the show, he is also the catalyst of tragic events in Tanjiro’s life. Let’s face the reality here: he killed Tanjiro’s family and is responsible in making Nezuko into a demon. How can Tanjiro not hate this demon? As a cold-hearted and manipulative personality, Kibutsuji is one of Tanjiro’s main obstacles to overcome during this dark fantasy adventure. Unfortunately, we don’t get too much inside scoop on Kibutsuji’s character besides what he shows on the surface. The anime limited itself with adapting his story but it’s still shown that he is one, if not the most dangerous antagonist in this show.
With the premise of demon slaying, there’s plenty of room for other characters to get their own spotlights. Some of the more prominent names include Zenitsu Agatsuma, Inosuke Hashibira, and Genya Shinazugawa. The author made these characters with conflicting personalities to bring more value to their roles. For instance, Zenitsu is initially portrayed as a coward but over time, he conquers his fears and learns to accept his role as a demon slayer. Inosuke is known for his fierce personality and competitive persona. While the show doesn’t develop his character as much as the others, he brings a unique form of fighting and charisma. And we shouldn’t forget about Genya since he first appeared in the show. Known for its foul mouth and killing desire, one should wonder how much he can really fit the role as a demon slayer. It helps that Kimetsu no Yaiba features a diverse cast of characters who are all unique on their own. On the other hand, the same principle may not apply entirely for the demons. Truth to be told, most of the demons in the show has a rather one sided personality. Most of them are known for their bloodlust and urge to kill. It’s a primary factor that can make the demons more forgettable compared to the human characters. Outside of Kibutsuji, it’s really hard to say any of these demons are actually worth remembering for this adaptation. If in the future when this gets more animated episodes, they could be worth mentioning.
Yet, ufotable is well worth mentioning again for their stellar animation and character work. It seems throughout the show, there isn’t one instance where an episode suffered quality. It manages to consistently adapt battle scenes with stylistic and cinematic choreography. Character movements aren’t wasted but instead used to showcase the different fighting styles of the cast. The show also uses a realistic environment of snow and mountains to show the harsh conditions of surviving in the wilderness. The demon designs are made with menacing elements from their aggressive nature to their killing expressions. At the same time, the anime also has room for humor with over the top character emotive performances especially from Zenitsu. Even Tanjiro himself has moments where you can’t easily forget. If there’s something to take away from this show, it’s ufotable and the director’s impressive work. They earned this praise. If you don't believe me, watch episode 19 and see for yourself.
And it’s not only that either. Music and the soundtrack used in this show creates a thrilling atmosphere. In early episodes, I could feel the show being able to tell its story by its melancholic soundtrack alone. When you take the fact of the cast being able to make the characters into life, it really sends a strong impression. The OP song “Gurenge” by LISA carries a sensational aura with its visual storytelling while the ED theme “from the edge” contains a feeling of serenity and loneliness.
Kimetsu no Yaiba is like a love letter to dark fantasy adventure fans. Based on financial reports, the first week had sold over 11k copies while the manga also enjoys a decent success. It’s not too often to see this type of series succeed but I’m so glad it’s on this road. With ufotable behind the wheels as its studio, this is no pushover when it comes to technical quality. The characters and storytelling are meaningful to its premise while maintain an aura of mystique. We really need more adaptations like Kimetsu no Yaiba.
literaturenerd
Welp...I'm late to this party! Time to review the most overrated shonen garbage of the last 5 years! Demon Slayer is an anime that absolutely EVERYONE watched last year. Except for me of course, because I was watching bad hentai to make comedy reviews on the internet! I went in with pretty damn high expectations. As of January 2020, DS is rated one of the best anime of all time on MAL and the #1 anime of all time on Kitsu. I'm dead serious! The kids on Kitsu truly think that this is the GOAT. Galactic Heroes? Ping Pong? Lain? Ashita no Joe? No! Fuckthat shit! Demon Slayer baby!
I went in expecting an action series SO epic that it blows your balls off and shoves them up your ass! I expected the love child of Hellsing Ultimate, Fist of the North Star, and Berserk with maybe some Shigurui and Violence Jack thrown in for good measure! The anime with SO much testosterone that Woody Allen could watch it and go into a Norse Berserker rampage, repeatedly bashing his head against a wall just to calm down!
What did I get? A very average shonen that looks pretty but is horribly written. At least RebelPanda tried to warn me about this. I just didn't listen. He's now made me a sad panda too!
So, what is Demon Slayer about? They certainly don't slay any demons. That's just a shitty translation into English. In Japanese the enemies are called Oni, but they're actually vampires. They're undead, fanged humans with vampire powers that can transform other humans by biting them and are immortal unless exposed to sunlight or decapitated with a holy weapon. They're fucking vampires! I'm going to call them that for the rest of this review.
The story starts off as shonen as possible. The main character is named Tanjiro and he's a young coal miner/charcoal merchant from a small, mountain village. At least he's a country bumkin, so he's not in middle school! One day, an old man randomly warns him that vampires exist! Later that night, his family are slaughtered by vampires. The old man wasn't a vampire BTW, that was pure coincidence because this show is horribly written. However, Tanjiro's adorable little sister Nezuko has survived and turned into a vampire! A vampire hunter immediately shows up to kill Nezuko, but Tanjiro fights against him and desperately tries to save her. While all other vampires immediately turn evil, Nezuko is able to avoid killing her brother and retains her goodness because the power of love. The vampire hunter is very impressed by the strong bond between these siblings, so he spares Nezuko and sends Tanjiro off to train under an incredibly generic kung fu master and become a vampire hunter.
As you would expect, Pai Mei is a hard bastard and puts Tanjiro through the wringer. He trains for a year and gains superhuman strength, speed, and techniques because this is a shonen. Now it's time for the vampire hunter test! The final exam involves surviving for days against hordes of high-level vampires. The test is so EXTREME and BADASS, that only 2 people have survived it in the last 50 years! The vampire hunter test has killed over 100 potential vampire hunters and thus has actually produced more vampires than hunters. Now that's what I call efficiency! Tanjiro survives of course because he's the main character and that gives him the power of plot armor!
Let's stop the plot summary and talk about world building. Something that Demon Slayer forgot to do. I mentioned this in my review of Shiki, but vampires are fucking bullshit! In most vampire fiction, they're immortal and it takes 50 villagers with luck on their side to take down a vampire. The vampires can turn other people into vampires and increase their population exponentially, but somehow there aren't that many vampires and normal people don't believe in them. There's an amazing scene in the Witcher novels in which the comic relief bard talks to a vampire about how they reproduce. The vampire replies, "Of course we can't bite other people and turn them into vampires! Do you comprehend basic math? Let's assume a founding population of just 1,000 vampires that came into existence 500 years ago. Each vampire attacks remote villages and kills only 1 peasant per month. Just 20 percent of those bitten turn into vampires. At the end of the first year, there are just under 2400 vampires assuming a couple fucked up and got killed. At the end of year 5 there are 79,000 vampires. After 500 years, do you really think that vampires would be so rare that you've never seen one?!"
The only way for humans to stand a prayer against vampires would be to design a highly effective weapon that's mass produced to the point that everyone has one and can use it. How about a crossbow that shoots blessed silver bolts? In Demon Slayer, the only thing stopping vampires is the guild of vampire hunters, who designed a test so EXTREME that there are 10-15 vampire hunters at any one time and that's being very generous. In order for the vampires to not overrun Japan, Tanjiro must be putting up INSANE kill numbers. We're talking Soviet state executioner Vasily Blokhin numbers. 7,000 vampires a week! His life is eating, shitting, and killing vampires on an assembly line! In season 2, we're going to be introduced to 3 vampire hunters that by themselves have somehow been running Vampire Treblinka in the middle of Tokyo! Jesus, that rant got dark. I apologize for that highly offensive joke, but I just hate this show so much!
Next, we're introduced to some annoying side characters that add nothing and piss me off. We do get some cool fight scenes though and Tanjiro carries Nezuko around in a basket as an homage to the 1982 B-movie Basket Case. I just wish it had referenced the Toxic Avenger instead. I'm more of Toxie guy!
The art and animation is the only reason this show got a 5 and not a 3 or 4. Demon Slayer followed the My Hero Academia formula to make shonen great again. Rule #1 No filler #2 Fuck character development. Just have non-stop action! #3 SAKUGA!!! MOAR SAKUGA!!!!
The music was a huge letdown for me. An action scene for me lives or dies by its music. If you want to have non-stop ass kicking, you better have a pulse pounding, AMAZING OST. Demon Slayer got the composer of Idol Master and 1/10th of the Tekken 5 OST. What's wrong with you Ufotable?! You're based out of Japan! You could have hired Michiru Yamane, the goddess who wrote all the awesome Castlevania music over her 30 year career at Konami! She made a whole career out of orgasmic, badass music about beating the fuck out of vampires! Even I would probably give this series a 7 if Yamane had been given the OST. Instead, I'm left having to deliver the sad report that the climactic battle scene from Season 2 of Netflix Castlevania was better than any single scene in Demon Slayer. Yes, the Netflix Americanime with that obnoxious Indian director who said he comes from the future. That show is better than Demon Slayer! Because Bloody Tears!
So in conclusion, if you enjoyed Vampire Slayer...that's cool with me! It just wasn't my cup of tea, but I'm glad other people had fun with it. Those guys on Kitsu sure are overly generous though! If they loved Demon Slayer so much, I can't wait to read the praise they wrote about my favorite anime!
(Browses Kitsu) Let's see here...series rank 1,983rd. The top rated review by a longshot simply reads: "u might enjoy this if u re a stupid, horny 12 y/o. LOL!"
(channels George Costanza rage) " You know we're living IN A SOCIETY! WE'RE SUPPOSED TO ACT IN A CIVILIZED WAY!"
I think this is the last time I ever browse Kitsu.
Karhu
Only cynical criticism can save us from the gooey sentimentality and naivete, but sometimes rarely a series too precious to deserve this treatment appears, offering nothing but genuine entertainment to a point where its own shortcomings start to seem very insignificant compared to its strongest merits. I may have a soft spot in my heart for this series, but all the things I found to be problematic within the work are still covered here in this review and explained why I think they can be forgiven, because even with all of its problems, this is -in its own way- one of the greatest series seenin the era of modern anime.
The story itself is nothing to write home about. Boy experiences a dramatic event which entirely rewrites his life, after which he starts walking this path that is the combination of ongoing rescue arc and revenge tale. I wrote this sentence in about 6 seconds, and I assume the writer did his version in the same time. If you remove the script, what is left is quite an awful idea on paper. Had the show been done by any other studio, it'd have great potential to be unwatchable. But it's made by ufotable. And they remind us of one of the basic philosophies of anime that goes as follows: Anime is exactly as good as its execution. Which, in this case, is something that very accurate matches the definition of "epic". This is one of the rare series where the obscure statement "doing it right" can have universal meaning, because from artistic point of view, there is not much room for different interpretations.
A lot can be said about the animation and art, but perhaps the most essential part is how immersive they are. The visual style can be absorbed to such extent that there is no room for multitasking or side-tracking. Every frame is like a painting, and every sequence and scene delivers because they have been polished beyond belief. Due to this, the series deserves 100% of its viewer's attention. This is the type of content that makes it hard to look away from the tv screen, because if you do, you're likely to miss something amazing. Overall, the quality combines things from 3 highest peaks of anime art. From it's color scheme and art design, Yaiba, at its best, can be compared to Katanagatari (which, I personally consider to be the highest peak of raw art in anime, and I don't compare anything to it lightly). From its fluid animation during action scenes, it's not far from the best of the best AKA One Punch Man. And from the small/even subtle details, its level of polish comes close to Mahou Tsukai no Yome. Seeing all of these combined and come to life inside a series that follows the classic shonen formula and maintains its quality for two continuous cours is something I never expected from this industry: it's simply not realistic to await something this outstanding/this beautiful to come, and because of this, the series is not less than a masterpiece from its artistic side - and becomes one of the rare must watch titles from 2019 for this reason alone.
Yaiba's music and the use of the music in action scenes is simply stunning. I wouldn't change really anything from this department. OST choices are uncommon, yet efficient and highly fitting. Among the better things from this department is not really even how good the songs sound as standalone pieces, but how well and to what extent they are used in the series. Sound mixing stands out because the job is done in such respectable manner; beats play loudly, adding to the tension and atmosphere, and further serving the immersive effect and making the series captivating. OP and ED are praise-worthy as well. As a person who owns LiSA's entire discography, I cannot be but pleased to hear her twice in almost every episode. They have been setting me in the right mood/mindset and fixing it before/in-between each episode (I marathoned this series in 2 sections instead of watching it weekly). I don't think voice acting really deserves an analysis here because the seiyuu industry is very tight and talent is consistent there, so I will just say that seiyuu choices have been smart. Most of the time the voice goes well together with the character in question, maintaining a certain harmony where the person behind the character does not stand out but, rather, fits in.
To sum up the production: Yaiba is among the highest peaks of audiovisual achievements in anime, but it doesn't only have godly production values: it also never falls into doing compromises. Moreover, anime, as a medium, has widely entered the zone of advertisement platform where original works are becoming scarce and ultimately adaptations based on manga are just a side product of the original. But Yaiba itself is an improvement over its sauce, and for this reason it has all the rights to exist and is deserving most of the praise it gets. This is very clearly a work driven by passion and love for the animated medium, and that makes all the difference in the world.
Our cast itself doesn't do anything too great at any point. Their charm really lies within what they don't do instead. In every way, the cast is non typical for a series that follows classic shonen format. Tanjirou, our main lead, is a kind soul whose lawful "good guy traits" are not pushed to the realism of annoying moral soldier but limited so that it only happens to a respectable, genuine extent. This dude has some chill in him, but also totally different, down-to-earth type of serious side of him exists and it can best be seen in forms of the strong bonds he has for his own sister and the friends he makes along the run. What makes following his adventure and role as the main lead so pleasant and different from the usual is his inner balance which makes scenes that resolve around him appear rather neutral, keeping the focus in the events and visual art instead of being affected by Tanjirou's personal ideals. In many ways, he seems like a nameless video game main character thru to whom the viewer (player) experiences the series (game). I found this type of character approach to offer incredible entertainment value in Yaiba's case, because the series can be its raw self instead of being a reflection of the so called "heart" that many shonen series are famous for.
For readable length, I will not go in depth with the other cast members, but I have found none of them annoying. Zenitsu is kind of a fujoshi bait, a real cowards and a whine even, but the way he acts out/how his personality is delivered made him my 2nd favorite character in the series. Inosuke (the boar head dude) is what Kacchan from Hero Academia should have been. Nezuko (the sister person) is just criminally cute. What I really appreciate about her is how her entire character -with its traits, behavior and personality- is told visually. Let me repeat what I already said: It's all about the execution, and it even makes the characters come alive. To briefly also cover the villains: after the beginning, lots of planning has been put into them. Not all are super memorable, but some still will be bound to be used as an example of good design by me in the future. Outside very few expectations, all of them were still enjoyable to follow in the given moment.
Since Yaiba's writing itself is not super stellar, to put it lightly, the next two paragraphs will be covering some of its major problems as promised, and commenting on to what extent they are a problem and how&why they can be forgiven.
The first impression is incredibly bad and off putting; The first 5 episodes are hideous, the build up phase literally sucks, the prologue should've been a backstory narration at later point in time, how the story starts rolling onward rises more questions than answers, episodes 6-7 are still subpar. The start is slow and very far from impressive, the story kinda just has to exist for the events to play out, otherwise it's highly meaningless. The main character has a superpower that works as a deus ex machina thru the first cour. The comedic reliefs and strong personalities of the assisting main cast can appear impossible to tolerate for some viewers. There is a long list of reasons to not find this show as enjoyable as I did, but even when acknowledging these issues, I don't think any of them are severe enough to actually make this anime any less than great. The beginning is hard to forgive, but most of the other stuff not. After the start, the author clearly does not even attempt writing a solid main plot for the series, but instead utterly focuses on polishing these fight scenes and his characters, which essentially are the entire point of the series, writing-wise. When the series so heavily centers around them while the main story itself is a secondary factor, it doesn't become hard to actually appreciate the things that are mastered here instead of complaining about things which are besides the point when taking in consideration the bigger picture and the approach of the show. The assisting lead characters are more preference based question, but even comedic reliefs centering around these personas are more of the sort that come from within the characters, being part of their genuine personality instead of purely existing as an attempt to make the audience chance their mood/laugh, which so many similar series fail to do in genuine/believable manner. In this case, I didn't have any problems with the approach of the comedic scenes due to this reason. I could complain that some of them are unnecessary, but they still were not badly made.
The directing itself is a mixed back and inconsistent at times. It's like there is a respectable concept, but no solid means or ideas on how to deliver it, so they just kinda throw it in there without any type of build up and hope that the visuals will do the rest/carry it. For example, almost every single character introduction is just a teleportation. Dude/girl/monster appears from nowhere and be like sup. Then they fight or have a chat. That's it. There is very little vision and continuity to be seen, in fact, there is almost no content prior the main event (fight) at all. Another poor thing the series uses specially in the beginning are cheap devices that exist in purpose of adjusting the story or lead it to preferred direction. Literally NPC's appear and lead the way. They try to give an explanation, but it don't even matter, because the explanation could as well be "literally NPC's" and it wouldn't make a difference. These may seem like small things, but this is how the entirety of the story is constructed, developed and moved onward. It's simply not very solid way to lead the story and needs to be taken into consideration. Action-wise, the flow is splendid thanks to this very same attribute covered above, but story-wise, these events are based on coincidences, and that level of writing surely doesn't get my appreciation. As was already said: It's clear that the series doesn't even try to offer a substantial story where these events would be standing on more solid ground, and I do have to say that when there is no attempt, it cannot really be seen as a fail either. For example [[coincidence-based story events]], our mc literally just runs into a forest and meets people and monster because, for some reason, all of them are dwelling in the same place. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure gives a magnificent explanation why this happens in its story; stand users attach each others, and at the same time, there is always a possession of something physical or even mental (knowledge) that is of interest and therefore gives legit explanation why randoms meet each others in this manner. You can call it bs and not buy the explanation, but it still makes perfect sense and follows the series' own inner logic. Here it's like a bar gag. "Soo, you come here often?"
These complains are something that I hanged onto during the worst parts (in the beginning, specifically), but after that, the series became pure art and entered the zone of genuine entertainment, having little to no annoying problems at all in the later episodes. In short: Kimetsu no Yaiba is not a flawless anime that's based on flawless writing, but it is pretty damn close to flawless art and flawless execution of its own flawed story. While appreciating imperfections may be a hard task, it's not hard at all to enjoy Yaiba for the few things which it does so incredibly well, especially when those are its main event. Now I hope that 122 episodes later, this can have its place as the 2nd best shonen anime. As a final verdict: No matter what you think of shonen anime in generally, I highly recommend giving this series a go, because Yaiba is not just a shonen done right, it's an anime done right: Art done right.
SingleH
Maybe it’s just because I’ve gone old and crotchety, but I’ve been really disappointed with ufotable lately. Maybe even that is too harsh. I’ve just felt so out of touch with them for the past three and a half to four years since they seem to have completely abandoned their old selves. Whether it be the astronomical success of the Fate/Grand Order mobile game, or the fair success of their own Tales of Symphonia OVA BD sales, ufotable has apparently honed in on game adaptations. All they’ve made for TV following their 2014 re-adaptation of Studio Deen’s Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, hasbeen game adaptations. God Eater, Tales of Zestiria the Cross, and Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu, with their only projects outside of TV animation being limited to even more Fate. The ONA series, Today's Menu for the Emiya Family, and the film trilogy, Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel. It just feels like it’s been so long since I’ve seen them put their phenomenal production values towards something other than a glorified advertisement for some game I have no interest in whatsoever. When I heard they were adapting Demon Slayer last year, I was excited for two reasons. For one, the manga itself had been selling big-time on its own rights and was extremely hyped up, and more importantly, because it was finally something I could latch onto as a real, self-contained, genuine story. However, I naively forgot a story itself has to be good enough to latch onto in the first place, no matter whose adapting it into animation.
If I had to describe Demon Slayer in one word, it would be “expected.” Best seller in Shounen Jump? Okay, well it probably has a really bland main character for all the young boys to project themselves onto. Chapters are released weekly? Okay, well the narrative is probably really slow to give the author time to draw it consistently, with overwhelmingly drawn-out action scenes to keep the kids and teens engaged. Author is new to the industry? Okay, well then I’m sure it sells on stellar art design alone, much like its contemporaries who’s visuals obfuscate their aimless writing and vapid theming. I could keep rattling off my judgmental criticism all day, but the point is, no matter how crude I’m being, I’m not wrong. The main character Tanjiro is, indeed, an uninspired and unopinionated self-insert; the narrative is painfully slow, plodding, and directionless, but not in a way which comes across as intriguing or mysterious at all, just boring; the screenwriting can be frankly incompetent at times, like the time it followed up a scene of the main villain graphically murdering a young girl with a scene of Tanjiro boisterously bickering with a street chef about the unreasonable price of his udon bowls; and while the artwork is extremely unique, well-drawn, beautifully colored, and honestly just pretty to look at, the character writing is brain-numbingly insipid and archetypical. Any assumption you could’ve made about its source material translates identically to the adaptation, and while I mean that for both positive and negative points, the negative is quite pronounced.
However, if the show’s blowout success didn’t make it obvious, the positives are very easy to boast, since the issues with this show—much like the issues with any pop-media bestseller which relies on the patronage of the disproportionally large casual masses—are all hidden under the surface, and while it doesn’t take much thought to peel back the layers and see the emptiness inside, it takes even less thought to just sit back, relax, grab yourself some popcorn, and indulge in the mindless spectacle before your eyes. The action sakuga is outstanding, with the likes of Go Kimura, Masayuki Kunihiro, Mitsuru Obunai, and any other ufotable veteran you can name going all out with their ever-impressive animation extravaganza, and the studio even outsourced some even greater talent in a few godly freelancers like Nozomu Abe to deliver on easily the best cuts of the entire season. And I don’t just mean the best cuts of Demon Slayer’s first season, I mean the best cuts of all concurrently airing anime running alongside it. The artwork is utterly gorgeous and fit with the same sharp, crisply digital, deep color design which ufotable has come to define their aesthetic with, only now with the most unique and attractive character designs and downright badass costume design they may’ve ever had the privilege to work with. Set in a magical take on feudal Japan, everyone wears these beautiful kimonos and yukatas with their own characteristic patchwork designs which take complete advantage of the phenomenal coloration aforementioned, and it all looks wonderful.
Outside of action, the characters are unapologetically switched with CG models in tracking shots, and inside the action, the backgrounds are all 3DCG and frankly fail to copy the camerawork of WIT Studio—which they were obviously attempting to do—but the animation overtop was always bombastic enough to distract its desired casual audience from the cost-cutting, so taking issue with it is pointless. The voice acting was competent, with the exception of Hiro Shimono’s ear piercing performance as Zenitsu which sounds nothing like his best of work, and the sound design was at least existent, which is a hell of a lot more than you can say about most of its genre contemporaries who’ve realized how lazy they can be with their young audiences who couldn’t care less about quality sound design. But speaking of the soundscape, it’s time to stop bitching and start gushing, because I must complement the one person behind the production who outshone everyone else on staff despite said staff already bringing their all, the composer who I’m sure many of you love with all your heart even if you don’t know her name, Yuki Kajiura. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, you still probably know her from her iconic gothic soundtracks for some of the most famous anime of the last decade, from Fate/Zero to Magical Girl Madoka★Magica, and while her work on Demon Slayer was a collaboration with Go Shīna, the combination of his brass with her strings was a match made in heaven. Kajiura was a prodigy to begin with and has only continued as a full fledged musical genius for the past decade, and she and Shīna made this show so much more than it could’ve been, even with its already full staff of talent.
Since Demon Slayer supplants its intellectual emptiness with tireless action sequences, she had more than enough room to work as many high-tempo tracks as she wanted, and they all fit their scenes like a glove. For BGM, she went a direction she hasn’t gone since .hack//Sign (if a little less experimental) and integrated traditional Japanese melodies and chants which complemented the feudal setting magnificently. Shīna has made some solid music before working with Ghost Oracle Drive and their insert songs in God Eater, but the insert songs he pulled off in collaboration with Kajiura are seriously something to behold, because everything I’ve discussed up until this point is all factored back in to the visual spectacle to breathtaking effect. The beautiful artwork is made utterly bewitching by the action wherein the characters’ designs and color aesthetics are artistically incorporated into their fighting styles in the most visually memorable ways imaginable, like Tanjiro’s bright blue scarf flowing off his neck like waves only to be enveloped in the tangible waves flowing out of his blade or his best friend’s striking yellow yukata lighting the entire screen up like fireworks in combat when he himself becomes a raving bolt of lightning. The 3DCG environments are shaky, and the action is what carries this otherwise innocuous show, but I personally found the meandering to sometimes be just as engaging as the show’s biggest and best flair thanks to the god tier hand-drawn background art from the art director who’s work with ufotable was so renowned, Production IG themselves reached out to have him do the backgrounds for Psycho-Pass, the highest budget and most ambitious TV animation production of the 2010s.
But I need to make clear the fact this review sounds overwhelmingly positive only because applying critique to something so vacuous is a brief process. It’s boring, even if someone as seasoned and jaded as myself did manage to find some semblance of entertainment in the experience. I mean, its TV rating was R15, so it gets to be super edgy. There’s this one episode where he fights these two guys underwater and shreds them to pieces like they’re in a blender, so I guess that’s pretty fun. The show got a couple of good laughs out of me, if only for the sheer ridiculousness of the silly gore like that time this guy’s head popped like a ballon when he got hit with this weird CG volleyball. But that’s all the personality I have for you. Tanjiro, the main character, is just another Kaneki Ken, Igarashi Ganta, Midoriya Izuku, Kirito stock standard shounen self-insert. Zenitsu, the token secondary, is just another Uchiha Sasuke, Gray Fullbuster, Kuwabara Kazuma, Yukine stock standard shounen best friend and rival. Inosuke, the guy with the boar mask who literally does the Naruto Run everywhere he goes, is just another Excalibur, Albedo, Darkness, Osamu Dazai stock standard shounen one-note-meme character. Nezuko, the cute imouto waifu with a bamboo gag, is just another Kuroyukihime, Moriyama Shiemi, Elizabeth Liones, Lucy (Nyu) stock standard shounen pet girl. And worst of all, Tomioka, the Dutch uncle whose about as much fun as he looks, is just another All Might, Reigen Arataka, Ichinose Guren, Isshiki Satoshi stock standard shounen superficial senpai. If you liked any of the shows I just referenced, I highly recommend Demon Slayer since it’s the same thing, just much prettier. Not bad, not bad by any stretch of the word, but nothing beneath its eye candy.
Thank you for reading.
MainstreamBean
Ahhh, Demon Slayer. If I were to describe you in very short terms, it would be "a show with decent to mediocre content overshadowed by its own technical achievement." Firstly, the positives of this show. Without a doubt, the main intrigue and appeal of this show upon first inspection is the art, and for good reason. Ufotable, the studio previously mentioned, is responsible for this shows adaptation into anime, and has overall done a fantastic job at keeping a consistent and unique artstyle incorporated throughout the show's airtime. Not only ranging from the shows beautifully rendered backgrounds, coolass powers, and character designs, but the translation of each element into animation is executed to great measure. Sure, there are admittedly a handful of scenes in which some CGI is incorporated into the foreground, such as character models and moving objects. However, as the show progresses, the use of it altogether is noticeably reduced, and even so, never looks particularly bad when incorporated either, especially considering how awful other shows can look in comparison when attempting this same fate. This is all encompassed and reflective of the fact that Ufotable has seemingly become masters in their craft of aesthetic presentation. The use of gradients, shadows, and contrasts in colors make many scenes, be it moving or standstill, a visual splendor to behold in this show. Previous examples from the same studio such as the Fate franchise and Kara no Kyoukai series impressed me on all levels with their visual presentation, and it doesn't fail to impress me here either. It all has a certain polish to it that I absolutely dig and can't help but worth mention.
Visual direction, especially amidst action scenes, flow impressively well together. There are a plentiful amount of cool action sequences, ranging from fights with other demons to simple conversation scenes in which we as an audience can get a real feel of our characters' surroundings. Of course, it would be impossible to get away from this review without mentioning the infamous ending of episode 19. Despite the amazingly fitting soundtrack and incredible animation during that final stretch, what pushes it forward is the all impressive visual direction, as we witness a full view and experience of fast-paced movements and a consistent following of our MC flying through the air, swinging at every direction. Speaking about the soundtrack in that scene, the musical score of the entire show couldn't be understated either. Much of the music by Yuki Jajiura and Go Shiina aids to the overall tone of the show. From traditional instruments and vocals to intense orchestras and piano playing, I couldn't be more satisfied with the outcome and overall impression the show's music presents to me. Whether it be in times of a calming relaxed scene, or an actioned packed showdown, the score always seemed to find a way to fit into the mix of it all, enhancing and accompanying the overall atmosphere.
Well, that essentially wraps up the immediate positives I have to praise about the show. Now onto the mediocre and downright awful aspects.
Regarding its mediocrity, its stories main idea of fighting against demons after the sudden entire slaughtermen of your family by one isn't particularly special to me and happens to come off as a bit generic, however, nothing much was to be expected there anyways. The protagonist himself, Tanjirou, isn't necessarily that bad, but just underwhelming in terms of depth and personality, as much of it is lost while dedicated and fixed towards another individual, his sister Nezuko, who is admittedly pretty great. The pacing is decent at best, considering events throughout the story flow in such a way that I at least don't feel like I'm being dragged along certain events for too long. However, it is worth mentioning though that the casual time skip implemented, that being of Tanjiros training period, was executed pretty badly, as powers and techniques weren't capitalized on properly, and felt more or less in the end just poorly explained and brushed over. Other than that, the flow of story events was done at a decent speed, with the exception of some scenes.
Regarding its downright awful aspects, there are a couple of major ones. First and foremost, the comedy. The comedy that makes up this show is genuinely horrible and unfitting and is the biggest offender this show has to offer by far. I'm not sure what the authors intent was of incorporating such childlike and overly annoying immature humor, as I am sure the studio had to translate it one way or another into animation, but it's annoying as hell and I hate it. As I would like to coin it, as incredible as episode 19 was with its action scene, an abomination likewise was met in episode 11 with its introduction of Zenitsu begging a random pedestrian girl to marry him, followed by a rejection. Because of this rejection, what now plagued this show was a continuum of loud, obnoxious, and irritating screaming that ensued throughout the rest of the second half of this series. Secondly, in general, the main supporting cast of characters, that being Zenitsu and Inosuke, are inherently offenders of this show altogether, especially being the main tie in of its comedy. I had actually enjoyed the first half of the show to a decent amount, as there weren't any inherently jarring annoyances and issues that had come up. However, never had I once felt that these characters added anything necessarily positive to the show since their introduction, and instead rubbed off more on me as an annoyance and hindrance to the series than additional entertainment value. They served as failed comedic relief, with some background insight later on Zenitsu in an attempt to develop this already one-dimensional character, but in failure, never gave me any reason to care in the process. The chemistry between the three is unendearing and empty of any real bond. Hell, even the demon lady and boy introduced earlier in the show, with their personal attempts to fit into society and help our main cast with their future endeavors were more interesting and genuine than Inosuke and Zenitsu, but alas they were tossed aside. Thirdly, the whole family aspect never resonated with me, which the show seemed to allude to a lot as well. Callbacks to the family members in times of desperation or despair often occurred, but it always tended to feel like a weak link and a failed attempt of connection with myself as an audience member, since I was never given any experience or personal attachment to this family in the first place.
Overall, I personally find it hard to call Demon Slayer a genuinely good show. Sure, it can be full of beautiful art and animation, with a great soundtrack and some nice action which I did appreciate and enjoy along the way. However, this is all mainly to praise upon, once again, its technical achievements. Beyond that lies a lack of depth and originality. A disconnect with an audience member such as myself was truly apparent because clearly inhabiting mature fight scenes and story elements amidst a constant regurgitation of 5-year-old humor can paint an unbearable and inconsistent experience for me. Its highs in the show can be pretty high, but in contrast, It's lows can be glaringly low too. It would be a lie for me to say that I hadn't been entertained with the show at certain points in time, however, amongst all of it, it would also be inexcusable for me to disregard the personal annoyances and abundance of issues I had along the way.
zeltron
In life sometimes you get bored of the hobbies you used to have as a child. Anime is one of them in my case. After being disappointed season after season with countless fast food adaptations. I decided to put a stop at my once favorite hobby. Of course after a short 2 year hiatus you cant possibly ignore that even in that time frame at least something decent had to come out. Generally speaking most popular anime could be considered decent if only viewed on a surface level, but you're in for a surprise. Naturally after having thoughts of going back to watching anime. I decidedto check what was fairly popular these last months. Spotting Demon Slayer want difficult at all, since it had such an bulked up mean score here in MAL making it into the top 20 ranked anime in this page, So of course I was interested.
Overwhelmed in excitement and interest I went onto crunchyroll, paid a monthly subscription, and without any doubts I dived right into this series. (6PM)
After 12 hours of binge watching anime like in my old days, having completed Demon Slayer, with tired eyes, weak calves (after only having snacks for half a day) I turned off my pc, got off my chair and opened up the windows, After letting the air get in my living room I went ahead and prepared myself a meal.
After 2 hours of reflecting on what i just watched, I could only find myself with nothing but sheer disappointment and deep regret. Feeling the same way just like 2 years ago. Reminiscing on why I even went on hiatus in the first place.
Such a generic and mediocre title. with nothing new to offer is seriously being tossed around with amazing titles like Berserk and HxH? Is this the standard for an 8 and 9 nowadays? Generic writing and mediocre plot points? The soundtrack is mediocre at best, the animation is subpar, characters are so generic and forgettable.
OVERALL A FORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE FROM START TO END.
Yuri-Crusader
Welcome to my review of Kimetsu no Yaiba!! Minor spoiler warning!! The Kamado family lives happily in peace in their seclude cabin high up in the snowy mountains .After the main protagonist Tanjirous father passing away some time ago, he have taken over he's responsibility and providing for he's family .One day after selling some coal in the village nearby and coming home later than expected, he stubble through the door and are met by a gruesome and horrifying sight! He's family have been brutally slaughtered .Hesmother and siblings are laying dead in-front of hes feet,but in this tragedy life still existing and breathing, hes beloved sister Nezuko have survived the macabre attack.But as a cruel and terrible twist of fate she is now a demon herself and hunger for humans flesh to devour! Tanjirou refuses to give up and swear to avenges the death of his family! But mostly to restore humanity back to his sister!
The story itself especially early in, may feel extremely simplistic uninspired and boring .Village boy get family or village killed and sets out for seeking revenge.Never heard that one before. But with some good twist drama segment and fast even pacing,Combined with some interesting female characters and great side story's it have some interesting factors as well. And the way it being told is pretty entertaining rather than feeling slow and tedious .Its noting special but it works overall
The animations are just stunning from time to time.The action flows like the mighty river and are a grand spectacle to watch .This anime have gorgeous flashy action scenes with great lightning effect that are really enjoyable to watch, and makes me looking forward to the next fight!
Sadly I think the design on the males in this anime got little attention, and is very dull plain and noting to remember it by.But the demons and females on the other hand have great attention both in details and design, that defiantly are memorable and made a great impacted
When it come to characters this anime total fails again with the males . They are as interesting and deep as a kiddie pool. The main trios are the most uninspired stereotypical predictable and boring set of reused anime characters i have ever seen . Tanjirou is overly good and wants to help, Inosuke wants to be strong and like to fight, and the last one Zenitsu wants to cry and are afraid of fighting or getting seriously injured.But for some odd reason he joins a society that are in war with the demons!,, Doesn't that make sense?,,NO it doesn't. There are no complexity no deeps to be found .Alone they are horribly and boring enough but together they are a irritating deadly force of chaos! That destroys everything I like in this anime . It's like a five-year old was in charge over those so-called humour segments.All they do is run around screaming ans chasing etch other like five years old do. I'm sry but I don't find that very funny. More irritating and infuriating, the Biggest problem is the character Zenitsu nonstop whining and crying .Complaining seems to be that characters main trait, As soon he is in picture the crying and bitching start and never stop! And with a very high-pitched voice which gives me a headache! Don't you just love the things in life that give you a headache? I don't. I want to kill it with fucking fire!
Again the females come to the rescue. They are lifting this anime up and opposite from the male, The female characters are interesting and don't act like misbehaving children all the time .They are beautiful and very alluring. Main character is a little interesting conundrum and I thirst for more information about her.The butterfly girls that get introduce later in is also a huge plus for the story. And with all the good female characters, at-least some enjoyment are to be found in this mess
My experience in the whole was extremely inconsistent .The action was incredible and i love every second of it.But the male trio especially the cry baby make some scene unbearable and they are mains so they get a huge amount of screen time,,Running screaming in your face or crying! In the end its hard to judge. I hate it! I love it! I hate it! I love it! So I give it 5/10
This anime is trash but its kind of shiny and flashy trash that are nice and fun to look at. When it doesn't piss you off with its poorly written humour or infuriating characters
I dedicate this review to every female in Kimetsu no Yaiba, Thank you for making this anime at-least acceptable
lt_wassile
Once upon a time, the anime industry came up with the perfect formula to create highly acclaimed shounen one after the other; however, as time passed, this pattern became repetitive and, while a few next-gen shounen have been able to achieve their objective following this predetermined path, most of them have faltered along the way. Kimetsu no Yaiba is not your typical shonen anime but at the same time it is. It does not have your archetypical main character that accomplishes all his goals through the power of friendship and/or by activating his hidden power -which is never revealed until the plot armour established is notlife-saving enough-; instead, Tanjirou is a run-of-the-mill guy who does not become a one-of-a-kind swordsman overnight, but spends months training, shedding his blood, sweat, and tears, showing the story of struggle and how it has molded his character.
It does not attempt to build a story based on a main protagonist who wants to become stronger justified by the simple fact of being the strongest or proving the world wrong, but for a much deeper motive.
It’s also not afraid to deviate from the standard path taken by most shonen of advancing as little as possible in each episode, mainly done to extend the journey –and the money raised- as much as possible. Speaking about this, Kimetsu no Yaiba solid pacing makes the show advance energetically, although it does not forget to catch some breath when the situation justifies it –as in ep. 19, if you know what I mean…-.
Still, it follows the standard battle shonen familiar-hero’s journey plot of: member(s) of family killed fuels progress, finds someone who trains/instructs him, passes an exam to become part of a faction, and, after becoming strong enough, ends up in an expedition where he makes friends and forges bonds, while at the same time encounters people (either comrades or villains) that change his way of thinking and acting towards life. However, if it’s done correctly, who says this is a bad thing?
As you can see, the plot is rather simple and straightforward, as nothing really stands out story wise speaking, though it doesn’t change the fact that the show is remarkably enjoyable. Despite a pretty slow start where some parts felt quite boring, the story came up to be really attention-grabbing, and these first episodes turned to be important for establishing a solid, well-paced plot -so please wait a little bit for the action! -. Also, the power progression pace is nicely done too, making it quite satisfying to watch them apply their training to the battles. Besides, the way different situations are expressed through narration is pretty noteworthy, transforming this shounen-type anime into a really good piece of story exposition.
Ufotable is just flexing on other studios right know. Digital era has given studios the opportunity to develop in so many different ways, though Ufotable has seized the opportunity to improve as much as or more than anybody else, and Kimetsu no Yaiba represents a good case in point.
With a unique art style, they’ve achieved to display an outstanding hack-and-slash action-packed animation really eye-catching to the viewer. That’s mainly thanks to a really fluid and lifelike animation, which pays close attention to even “minor details” such as rendering, moving backgrounds or characters’ portrayal. I mean, who would not love to see humans slashing demons, demons crushing humans, in short, both fighting against each other in a life-and-death struggle with flashy action sequences full of intense colouring, smooth shading and outrageous use of angles that enhances the experience?
Additionally, the way which music and voice acting has been used on this 1st season has been amazing. Without going into comparing its OST to that of other shows, we could say that it’s a soundtrack that it neither will remember for the ages nor would get stuck in replay on your mind for weeks, although when watching the show it’s pretty noticeable and makes a lot of scenes much more enjoyable and mesmerizing, making it pretty obvious that both the piece itself and the moments chosen for the OST to be played were extremely well thought-out.
Last but not least, characters. Some think Zenitsu is irritating; some think he’s hilarious. Some think Tanjirou is a light-hearted, kind, strong person; some think he’s too trustful. BUT WHO THINKS THAT NEZUKO IS NOT WORTHY OF WORSHIPING? NONE. Jokes apart, characters play an important role in KnY, as they carry the whole series in a team effort, meaning that most of the characters with some screen-time are important, as they play a part in the development of the story and/or our protagonists; they do this quite well, making most of them really likeable and relatable –even though we are talking about demons and swordsman- as, their feelings, goals and states of mind are much like our own, as well as their abilities –speaking exclusively about the human union-, which are obtained via loads of effort, and not magically.
However, all is not yet rosy either, as there are diverse subjects, mainly with regard to the story –and I won’t talk too much about it in order to avoid spoilers-, where I sensed -at times- hurriedness and lack of strategic and operational thinking, like in the sequence of different events or with CGI’s utilization. And we can’t forget about that really slow start…
Nevertheless, all these “complaints” are something minor and end up being ostracised by all the positive points of the series, making it impossible to deny that this anime is one of a kind.
theRealGuyFieri
Kimetsu no Yaiba, or Demon Slayer, an overhyped, overrated and over almost everything show that fans can't stop praising and talking about this hell of a mess. Yes, after a year or more from dropping it initially, I have completed it and rest assured, it's not as good as people say it is. This is my super deconstructive take on the show. From the studio that brought you, urgh, Fate comes another stupidly popular mainstream series that is Demon Slayer. Where do I start, I can't comprehend to you how much it irritates me or saddens me when a friend or anyone comes up to me andsay 'dude you should check out Demon Slayer it's really good', just for me spoil their fun by saying 'it's not that good'. Without fail, almost everyone that I have encountered replies 'What? No way. It's great!'. I am truly annoyed by how big this series has become, how this low-tier Shounen series has managed to climb it's way to the top due to shameless fan-service or fan-baiting if I would call it. I'll admit, I didn't hate all of it. But to compare it to what people say it is and to actually watch it firsthand, you can eat my shit. This show is nowhere close as good or as 'legendary' as a ton of people are saying it to be.
I'll start with the good side of the show. Yes, I'll admit, the visuals are very good. With the show's distinctive thick outlines of characters to the colorful template of the character's clothing. This show is really unique in terms of style and visuals, everyone who sees's a character or anyone from the show would know immediately that this is Demon Slayer. And... That's about it, that's all that is that caught my attention or in some ways interest me.
Now, this is where the fun begins, the downfalls. For a start, this show's story is painful mediocre and lame. It's a very simple concept of our protagonist suffering from what the antagonist did in the beginning and it's just him finding his way back to bring vengeance on to this antagonist. I don't mind a simple structure of a story, but what you need to do to make that simple structure interesting is to add in the details and to make all those small matters an enjoyable experience. What Demon Slayer presented was pretty repetitive with our main character fighting and then getting summoned to another mission and repeat. I do compliment them with the addition to more main characters to our Tanjirou and Nezuko pair because, to be frank, our main boy Tanjirou isn't really an enjoyable character to listen to. But what the studio did when filling in those gaps in between plots are kinda poorly done. At times, the pacing is off, and off I mean very off. Those times are when the characters talk too much and fight scenes don't really feel as fast-paced or as action-packed as it should. At moments the time just seems to pass so slowly and other moments are sonic fast.
The second installment of the downfall, the characters. Tanjirou is one of the most Naruto kind of character since Naruto. His over-optimistic behavior paired up with his never-ending feeling of 'not giving up' is truly annoying. But what I want to focus on him is how the show tries so hard to push his plot-armor. Specifically, episodes 18, 19 and 20. These few episodes just blew my mind on how is he still alive, I know everyone's protagonist needs to have some level of plot-armor but, what the show did wasn't even hiding it. There are so many moments where I went 'he's gonna die' and miraculously, he lives! Who would have seen that coming... Not just once, I counted at least 5 times where Tanjirou was sure to die and he didn't, this really pisses me off. I can just imagine the writers/author was going through when making the scene, 'Oh so our dude is fighting one of the broken bad guys, so the bad guys used this fucking lightsabers-ass web-shooting thing, oh so he just avoids it no biggy. Oh, he's sword is broken? No worries he still can do more DAMAGE WITH A BROKEN SWORD AND PERHAPS WIN.' Sure. Now that I knew the background before the fight scene in episode 19 (before I didn't) it just removes all the enjoyment I had when seeing that fight scene alone.
Another fucking issue is the villain, like, we got this Michael Jackson wanna-be asshole that is just turning people into demons. We later got to know that he's a boss man that handles big important business, then this comes to my head. Why was he in the woods near Tanjirou's house? Like we have seen him hiding in the city in Tokyo, what brings him to a village? Plus, what are his main goals? This is another big issue of the show, characters or antagonists having no purpose or driving factor. So take Muzan, he's the boss, turning people into demons. So what does he want to do, take out the Hashira? So what is he gonna do after that, take over Japan? Ok then what. See where I'm coming at? Like they have no driving factor or a strong purpose to what their goals or objectives are. So Tanjirou wants to cure his sister, the ONLY demon that has ever been friendly to a slayer out of the WHOLE years of the Demon Slayer Corps. But why? I don't see an issue, she's clearly having a pretty good time being a demon, I don't see the issue, this is a win-win in my eyes. Speaking of villains, gosh they suck. They're the usual badly bad guys in almost any lame-ass Shounen series. Like in episode 20, the reason for that Rui spider motherfucker's purpose was to make a family? Are you serious? Like, was he that pathetic and trying so hard to be pitiful that we the audience are supposed to swallow that shit? This brings me to my third installment.
The overuse of trying to be pitiful. This can be seen almost everywhere throughout the show, we have main characters and side characters and villains all having a tragic past likey involving their parents or family getting killed so on and so on. If the author or writers are so tryhards on this then fine, I pity them for doing such a poor job or trying to make the depths of the characters. Every time, without fail, our main dude Tanjirou when fighting an intense match will suddenly talk about his parents or how he wants to bring Nezuko back to normal. Not just him but the majority of the characters have a tragic backstory or a past and they talk boring shit about how they want to avenge or overcome that challenge. Boring stuff I'll say. Speaking of pity, I really pity the person who comes up with the script or maybe it's the person making the subtitles. In episode 7 where Tanjirou was in that demonic swamp puddle involving that 3 demons, he said 'The air was thinner on top of Mt.Sagiri!'. You idiot, you're not a fish you can't breathe underwater, there is no air under the water you moron. There are other moments of stupid scriptwriting but this is one of them.
Lastly, and there's actually more but I'll cut it short, I want to talk about the laziness of the author. Does it kill them (preferred pronoun) to do some research when making the world and character? So for a start, the character Inosuke, seeing him with two swords wants to make me kill myself. While yes there are records of people using two swords, not at once you fucking dingus. Come on with have experienced this a few times now, a popular one being Deadpool. It's not very functional when using two double-handled swords, both swords make it very impractical due to one sword blocking the other or the strength distribution not being even. Another this is the occasional technological gap, there are times when what seems like the dawn of man when the whole surrounds are just trees and suddenly a bustling city like Tokyo. There are cars and trains available so why do we only see them so occasionally. Plus, gosh there are guns in this era, all of you aren't savages using swords all the time. Speaking of swords, the only interesting one was the sword-rapier that Shinobu used, the rests are just your typical samurai sword action. This plays a small part in the story but it affected my enjoyment.
-SCORES-
Character-3/10: Everyone has either no family or families been killed or they'd peed their pants in their early days or just something tragic happening at a young age. So Zenitsu's a simp, but I do like the part when he used his simp-ness to his advantage in the training involving girls. Plus, he's really noisy, slightly too noisy I feel, over-exaggerated to just give the borderline audience some 'unique character personality'. Inosuke, also sometimes too extra, like I feel they are too scripted in being 'them', being loud and over the top. It gets tiring fast. Fuck Tanjirou, he's too entitled thinking he's the only one that lost his family thinking he is the only one that can stop Muzan. Even Nezuko I'll admit she's way to fan-bait like she's just cute for the audience to say 'oh my gosh she so kawaii' and stuff like that. I don't really care cause I feel all these are just cheap shots to gain a fanbase, what's worse is that it has succeeded.
Art-8/10: I will say despite the animation looking smooth and pleasing, I do see times of underproduction due to the long talk time or the irritating flashbacks or the reuse of scenes. Plus, I realized that after the studio started using those 'funny faces' with the dotted eyes and silly expression, they used it way too many times. Another cheap move to attract viewers.
Writing- 3/10: Oh is it boring, I will admit the problems do become numb after the first half of the show and the rest is just bad but at a consistent level. I will admit the Fire Force has a more interesting concept that this but they didn't do a better job than Demon Slayer of course. Definitely a good example of a top-notch Shounen is, of course, Hunter X Hunter. I feel what Demon Slayer is doing with the writing is lazy but they just get most of the pull factor from the audience is the art and the visuals.
Sound-5/10: Holy shit is the sounds overused, every time a demon appears that 'aaaaaaaaaaaaa' sound of a woman singing comes up and every intense scene has that same repetitive fight song. Additionally, I heard the intro gets a lot of praise and I really don't see the appeal, sure it's fine but it's so anime-ish that it's blain and boring. Just a catchy chorus with FAST SING is what you need to get a ton of likes apparently....
Overall, I expected shit and I got shit, I pressed X to doubt to all those people that said Demon Slayer is good. If it weren't so overhyped, definitely my scores will be slightly less biased but seeing and experiencing the situation of the 'Demon Slayer Hype' is really annoying.
Strong to a Decent 3
jimbionicles
I never really write reviews, but I feel like I had to for this one. Story: 1/10 Genuinely one of the most boring, horribly written, cringe-worthy shounen stories ever written. This show is on-par with shows like Fairy Tail, writing-wise. The show is extremely simple and predictable, not once was I shocked, sad, happy, angry. I did not feel a single thing watching this show, other than boredom. How many times are we going to have to see your typical young boy suffers tragedy and becomes an epic super fighter story before we get sick of it? Characters: 1/10 Shallow, undeveloped, stereotypical shounen characters that do not get anounce of development throughout the entire show. As a friend expertly said, the main trio is just Deku from My Hero Academia split into three, Tanjiro, the kindness, Zenitsu, the cowardice with occasional bravery, and Inosuke, the part that caused Deku to continuously break his arms over and over. This would be fine if any of them actually had any development (getting stronger isn't character development by the way), but they were the same throughout the whole story, not a single ordeal changed any of them. Shounen fans made fun of moe fans for liking cute anime girls during cute things, yet went berserk over Nezuko, a bottom tier anime character with no personality, who barely passes as cute, who essentially, is just a cute anime girl doing cute things. Overall, horrible characters with horrible writing, nothing out of the ordinary for shounen to be honest.
Animation & Art: 10/10
Ufotable is well-known for amazing animation and art, Kimetsu no Yaiba is no exception to this rule, no matter how bad the actual content of the anime may be. Top of the line visuals and fight scenes, amazing CG, clean art, and amazingly done backgrounds/settings. Episode 19 broke the internet, and for damn good reason, it was a genuinely beautiful fight scene. Every good thing about this anime comes right from ufotable, as the actual show accomplishes nothing, which is something to note.
Sound: 7/10
The character voice acting was average. Zenitsu, Inosuke, and about half the characters had cripplingly annoying and bad voice acting, while the rest were pretty average/decent. The sound effects of the swords and the fighting were top tier, and beautifully done. Not much to be said here.
Enjoyment: 2/10
The enjoyment of watching this show is equivalent to the enjoyment one would get chugging a litre of soy sauce. The only enjoyable thing about this show is the animation, and even then, it barely counteracts the atrocious story and writing. Frankly, this show was completely unnecessary, and probably drained some of the funds off of the new Heaven's Feel movie, so I enjoyed it even less, because it is probably lowering the quality of an actually good franchise.
Overall: 4/10
I wish I could give it a lower score, but anything lower than this would be an insult to ufotable's amazing work. I would never recommend this show to anyone, I will always laugh when I see the absurdly high score this show has, and I will consistently avoid Kimetsu fans on the internet, because they are the new My Hero Academia fans.
TL;DR: I would rather be reincarnated as Umaru-chan's Onii-chan than ever watch this anime again.
Dukino
It's the heart that drives people. So grow yours to as strong as it can be. That's beautiful, sums up to me what the message of Kimetsu no Yaiba Demon Slayer really is. Follow your heart, listen to it, if your heart is strong you can do anything. The story of Tanjiro and Nezuko is a tragedy there is no doubt but it never feels hopeless. Even at his lowest Tanjiro never gives up, as cliche as that sounds it matters to hear. Some famous words of "Don't give up, don't ever give up". Tanjiro and his heart are the embodiment of that ideal. Strivingto find a way to cure Nezuko, defeat Muzan, and never stopping along the way. Pushing forward even when your body breaks, even when your soul is crushed. Keeping your heart strong.
Kimetsu doesn't break the mold in any significant way but it handles those old shonen archetypes pretty damn well. Tanjiro could've easily been a run of the mill angry protagonists who wants to kill all the enemies, demons in this case. He doesn't to that though. Just as Shinobu said in the finale, he has a clear goal. The top, the big dog not these little pups. If they're hurting people of course they're to be stopped but the number one goal will never change, these are just stepping stones. Nezuko being his driving force when he's even lower than low. When Tanjiro even for a second thighs of stopping there's always Nezuko he has to look upon and fight for. Whom herself can handle a brawl pretty well. Always a joy seeing the Kamado siblings team up in battle.
The supporting cast is one of my favorite in shonen. Zenitsu and Inosuke alone would make for great lead characters in their own stories. Complementary to Tanjiro and Nezuko they add great foils and instruments of change for the Kamados. Whilst having their own great character arcs in the middle of all this. Zenitsu going from whining about the littlest to even now being pretty resolute in his decision to go on the train mission, no dragging him or anything. Inosuke a bit more subtle development but he's definitely domesticated somewhat from when we first meet him at the Drum House. Learning to work with others to accomplish something greater instead of just fighting them.
All of this to not even dive into Giyu the best big bro around putting his life on the line for these kids, Shinobu the butterfly queen of grace helping them along in getting stronger, Urokudaki getting the Kamados started on this path, Tamayo showing there's a way to break Muzans curse. So many people helping out crew along their journey. It's an endearing and exciting cast to say the least. Ever along we go with bounds of more amazing moments for so many of them.
Visually I don't think there's anything I could say that hasn't been said already. Best looking show of the year in my eyes. Hinokami is the cherry on top with all the incredibly stunning moments brought to the screen. Ufotable has outdone themselves. Truly a marvel in animation, it's ridiculous to think a tv anime could look this good. Nearly movie level quality throughout the show amped up in its fights. My one and only real complaint I'd have is the pacing. Could've been faster but honestly it's not a big deal. Gave us a bunch of intense cliffhangers to gasp at as well as I'm sure giving ufotable the ample prep for all the big scenes.
Demon Slayer has I think always been good but I think sometimes it takes seeing a story brought to life for you to really appreciate it. That's what happened with me here. The anime has made me savor the manga that much more, especially with it reaching it's end soon. What was adapted here isn't even the best the series has to offer is the crazy thing. There's so much more so see and experience. Loved this anime to the moon and back. A fantastic experience to participate in these past twenty six weeks. Ufotable is a blessing onto us all.
10/10, one of the best this year
SSGSlayer
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a Japanese dark fantasy, adventure manga series by Koyoharu Gotōge with an anime adaptation by Ufotable, directed by Haruo Sotozaki and produced by Hikaru Kondo. Season 1 began airing on April 6th, 2019 with the final episode of the season airing on September 28th, 2019. Here’s the basic plot: Our protagonist is Tanjirou Kamado (Voiced by Natsuki Hanae). Following his father’s death, Tanjirou supports his family by selling charcoal. Despite their hardships, his family lives a content, happy life. That is, until demons attack and slaughter his family, save for his sister, Nezuko (Voiced by Akari Kitō). It’s not as simpleas two siblings surviving a demon attack though, Nezuko has been turned into a demon, but she still retains some human thought and emotion – enough to keep from killing and eating other humans, at least. With no other options left, Tanjiro becomes a Demon Slayer in hopes to turn his sister human again and avenge his family.
Now some detail:
Over the course of their adventure, Tanjirou, of course, gets stronger and learns new skills, in particular he greatly advances his Water Breathing techniques, to use against the demons they face along the way. Nezuko sees a lot of development as well, she does become a bit more human-like, but is ultimately still a demon and must fight her urges to kill and devour, and she learns she is a unique case for a human turned demon, having special abilities such as “Blood Demon Art” (cool demon attacks) and she can sustain herself without eating humans.
Throughout the series they meet other Demon Slayers, such as Zenitsu Agatsuma (Voiced by Hiro Shimono) who has the Thunder Breathing ability, and Inosuke Hashibira (Voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka) who was raised by a wild boar and has the self-taught Beast Breathing ability. It’s great to make new friends and all, but Tanjirou’s sights only focus further when he discovers the identity of the power demon who is responsible for the creation of almost every demon that exists – including Nezuko – Muzan Kibutsuji (Voiced by Toshihiko Seki). Not only is he incredibly powerful, but he commands a force of twelve demons known as the Twelve Kizuki (“Twelve Demon Moons”), whom Tanjirou and the other Demon Slayers must defeat first if they want to even have a chance against Muzan.
Tanjirou is a great character. He is incredibly kind, but that isn’t to say he’s weak by any means. Seeing this world through his eyes is what makes the series stand out among other “demon fighting” troupes. Yes, these demons murder and kill people, but 90% of the time they didn’t become a demon as a choice. They didn’t WANT to become demons – they were either tricked by Muzan or turned against their will and Tanjirou is able to sense their deep despair at what they’ve become, allowing us to see what happened in their past that led them to their transformation. Honestly, it’s usually SUPER sad. There are also other cases like Nezuko, demons who fight the urge to kill – such as Dr. Tamayo (Voiced by Maaya Sakamoto, a talented doctor who was converted into a demon by Muzan, which caused her to kill and eat her entire family. She eventually found a way to alter her cells to allow her to survive on a small amount of blood and no flesh and is working to find a cure for demons.
There are demons who are straight up horrible, but often times you find yourself feeling sympathy for them, the way Tanjirou feels and the other slayers have a hard time comprehending. Rather than kill them to destroy them, Tanjirou kills them to free them from an endless suffering on themselves and others. It a show full of action, but also one that strikes you on an unexpected emotional level.
OVERALL SCORE: 10 / 10
Make sure you check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, now streaming season one on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
Orion911
Strap yourself in for a rollercoaster of clichés, repetitive fights, and enough yelling to shatter glass. Demon Slayer is a show that throws every shounen trope in the blender, hits puree, and hopes you'll call it a smoothie. Tanjiro, our protagonist, is about as original as a white t-shirt. Whining about his dead family and spouting generic lines about never giving up gets old faster than expired milk. Nezuko, his demon sister, is basically a silent prop with a kawaii box strapped to her back. The supporting cast is a mixed bag of annoying archetypes: the loud boar-head dude, the sleepy drool-fest, and the brooding emowith a tragic backstory. Don't expect any character development beyond power-ups and bigger swords.
The plot? Paper thin. Demon slayers fight demons. Tanjiro cries about his family. Repeat. Rinse. Lather. The fights, while visually flashy, are all variations of the same dance: Tanjiro dodges, Nezuko gets captured, Tanjiro unleashes some flashy CGI move, demon explodes in a shower of purple goo. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
The animation, admittedly, is pretty slick. But even the most stunning visuals can't distract from the repetitive story, predictable plot twists, and characters so flat they could be used as pizza boxes. The soundtrack is forgettable, except for the opening theme that gets stuck in your head like a bad earworm.
Demon Slayer is like a cheap buffet: it looks appealing at first, but after a few bites, you're left feeling greasy and unsatisfied. If you're looking for a shounen anime with genuine innovation, complex characters, and a story that doesn't rehash the same tired tropes, steer clear of this one. You'll thank me later.
Bonus
The humor is forced and cringeworthy, like watching your grandpa try to do TikTok dances.
The pacing is all over the place, with long, boring stretches punctuated by rushed fight scenes.
The ending is predictable and unsatisfying, leaving you wondering if you wasted your time watching the whole thing.
Overall: Demon Slayer is a flashy, soulless slog through tired tropes and predictable plotlines. The characters are one-dimensional caricatures, the animation is mediocre at best, and the music will make you want to rip your ears off. Unless you enjoy melodrama, repetitive battles, and enough crying to fill a slayer's sake gourd, steer clear of this demon-infested disaster.
gabrielrroiz
Finally we have it, the new anime about loud teenagers with cool swords fighting the ultimate evil. Another shonen jump work which I ultimately like, but have a hard time describing the experience as not frustrating. So let’s get to that. The animation and presentation are definitely a plus, containing beautiful 3d backgrounds, that are seamlessly implemented (for the most part). The composition and usage of color are great, setting the mood really well, making for a good ominous spooky atmosphere, which in turn, really brings to life the more melancholic tragic aspects of the story. Those only come into play when we finally see thedemons dying, sadly. The lament for these wretched creatures, lost to all love and humanity becoming really touching. More importantly the animation is fluid where it matters, the action scenes, the audience can always follow what is happening; feel the strikes and impacts of every blow, in those. So basically this looks sex.
Oh yeah, it also sounds sex. The music is phenomenal, impossible to find a mistake with. Every track seems to have a purpose, melody, also allowing for an entire new layer when added. You can get the gist of a scene, the danger, peril, sadness excitement of moments, or whole sequences with the soundtrack alone. I would argue sometimes in terms of emotions, those are actually doing most of the job. Try and imagine episode 19 without the incredible track in the flashback, or the rush for the final strike. You would have a completely different fight (and a way more boring one). In terms of translating the Kimetsu no Yaiba’s story into anime, there is definitely a lot of work in crafting this show, which is shown in every episode (not mob psycho levels, but it sure is up there with the best).
In terms of narrative, it also contains some cool stuff. It understands the appeal of modern shonen, those are usually short and direct to the point. Borrowing a lot of elements and inspiration from classics in the genre, but making for a breezier, better-paced viewing. Which I would argue is great in a genre where pulpy action and excitement are 90% of the appeal (though Yaiba moves way too fast a lot of the time). Also, there is always a good sense of progression, getting slowly larger in scope, the story allowing for constantly bigger threats and enemies. I do think the show handles the whole slowly developing for a larger narrative with dozen characters, and world ending stakes somewhat neatly.
Unfortunately, there was a lot that stopped me from completely buying to the emotions of this melodramatic and exciting tale. The characters were the issue for the most part, needing a more elaborate development in several key moments. The first episode is infamous in that regard, for killing the protagonist family in the middle of its run, while giving our main 3 scenes interacting with them. On this specific situation we find the protagonist motivation, the fact he lost everything of value, while gaining determination to save his sister and fight demons. But it feels like more of an afterthought, irrelevant, because we barely know this character, or have any grasp on the relations displayed, and bam, they die. Understanding the protagonist is essential, we need to see what he loves, get true action and moments with those people, see that family and discover why they were something to die for. The entire basis of the series relies on the Nezuko – Tanjirou bond, the thing it needs to nail more than anything. However, the introduction blows it pretty well.
The issue of never managing to land, the big importance character moments and interaction, is prevalent. There are some obvious shortcuts attempted, like both Zenitsu and Tanjirou’s main fight in the anime, rely on a memory of an important father figure. Detail, we were not aware those characters even existed before the conflict of the episode started, and their whole appearance in the narrative is through flashbacks where they say important information. These interactions and supposedly super important people have no weight, or purpose, only serving for exposition. The lack of development is almost disturbing, just try and give such appearances relevance before putting them as devices to move plot. Try and think of episode 19 without the music, suddenly there is not much to care.
Narratives inevitably become more complicated, entangled plotlines more common, complexity only tends to rise with progression. In turn this makes the need for a strong foundation really pressing, especially in the shonen genre, one infamous for introducing dozens of new characters per arc. Yaiba is giving strong signs of branching off, as lots of new super relevant people have been introduced. Nevertheless, I cannot trust our main party to hold interest at the center stage.
My boy, Tanjirou, is probably the best of a character this show has, and even him does not hold that well on his own. Sure I may love way too good for this world boys, filled with kindness, comprehension, focus on always attempting to do what is best for the world, with everything he’s got. It may be impossible to not grow attached with the guy, seeing the lengths of effort displayed, the entire journey revolving around saving loved ones, and even more surprisingly, the own demons he uses that blade against. Goodness just comes so naturally for him, acts of helping, trying to understand, while also putting everything on the line for others, they just hit me right in the feels.
Nevertheless, no matter how much I love his nature, there is something lacking, which comes in the almost nonexistent challenges. The ideals and what Tanjirou represents are never meaningfully contradicted, and he never experiences much in terms of failure. The ideals are too perfect, and come pretty much unscathed through the course of the story. This means he is not given much to react to, and learn from the world, or adversaries presented. Conflict mostly comes from external, physical barriers only there to be surpassed, but are not really that meaningful or memorable. While somehow everyone else features way worst when hold to scrutiny.
Another issue comes from how Kimetsu no Yaiba is not really developing most of the concepts presented. The anime wants to have this tragic depressing side, where the demons are representations to some of humanity deepest anxieties, and desires, perverted on these loveless creatures. All the while denying to develop, and add human characteristics for the demons through most of their appearances. Giving the whole weight of characterization, humanity through flashbacks is a really roundabout way of adding the idea. Especially when they happen just when the character is dying, i.e., there is no more conflict, i.e., they do not matter anymore. The contrast, between the man eating monster at the surface, and human nature in the core, is barely allowed time, proper position, to shine, and make room for conflicted feelings towards the adversaries. The fact those are inflicted souls suffering is here, but portrayed in an addendum like manner, which feels related to nothing.
The same wasted potential can be seen on the emphasis the show gives to the importance of empathy. Shown in the signs of it wanting us to understand and care for these creatures, their humanity and existences are not objects of pity, indifference, rage, but are of worth, deserve to be respected, and ultimately acknowledged. Humans and demons alike deserve compassion, someone who will attempt to understand their pains, try and help, Tanjirou being in the role of always doing this. Nevertheless, the concept is never given relevance in the narrative, our characters never win because of understanding the demon, the knowledge of who they were as people is in effect, made practically useless. Despite the importance of bounds, helping the weak and afflicted, being something hard to deny, Kimetsu no Yaiba does not have a particularly meaningful thing to say, or topic to explore, regarding such point
Concluding, Kimetsu no Yaiba might be an action spectacle at times, with plenty of fun moments and interactions, which I would overall recommend. There were some reasons I could never completely embark in this mostly comfy show, about an impossibly good natured kid. Go for Mob Psycho for a way more interesting version of such, but you are probably going to have a better experience than me.
BropixWuff
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a historical, action-shōnen, supernatural manga written and illustrated by Gotouge Koyoharu. Adapted into an anime series by the immensely talented Studio Ufotable. The studio behind the successful anime adaptions of Type Moon's series: Fate and Kara no Kyoukai. Demon Slayer has taken the world by storm, the series has exploded in popularity, with manga sales exceeding 100+ million within a year's time. While the anime is being recognized as a classic. Set within the Taishō period of Japan, young Kamado Tanjiro inspires to become a "Demon Slayer", pursuing a path of vengeance for the murder of his family committed by ademon, while also trying to find a cure for his younger sister Nezuko, who turned into a demon.
If you hate shōnen troupes and shōnen anime in general, this series won't really change your opinion. But if you look past that you will find an anime with a simple, but wonderful story, great episode direction, some of the best animation you will ever see, and some of the best voice acting and music.
Ufotable’s adaption is the best anime adaption I have ever seen. An adaption few authors could ever hope to receive. An adaption that is not only better than its source material, but it also enhances the experience in a multitude of layers, ways the manga was never able to achieve. The manga still has a solid story, but suffers from less than impressive artwork, direction, and page layout. While the adaption improves upon the content of the manga while enhancing every other quality.
At its core, it is a battle shōnen. The fights featured are wonderfully animated, superbly directed, fluid, and contain an appealing art style fitting the series. The strength of the fights lay behind the main antagonists, the demons. They are simply monsters that go out of their way to kill a multitude of people, to feast on their flesh while having no remorse or humanity.
Or so that is how you are supposed to view them. But demons were all originally human, turned demon against their wills, suffering from painful hunger, turning violent with their humanity fading away, being portrayed as misfortunate people.
Tanjiro is a very standard shōnen protagonist, he's the hard-working type, has an unusual great sense of smell, and has a variety of comedic quirks. The main aspect of his character is his incredibly kind nature, despite this, he shows no mercy towards demons, and makes no exceptions to beheading one. He essentially kills them in order to "save" them, as funny as it sounds.
The Demons he cuts down reveal details about their past lives, eventually coming to regret what they became. While Tanjiro can never forgive their actions of killing innocent people, he still shows sympathy and sends them off to rest. Generally, to deliver this type of message, you would need an overly kind character like Tanjiro, as not many characters could reasonably show sympathy to a cannibalistic monster. While his character is very cliche it is perfect for the series.
Tanjiro an immensely strong bond with his younger sister Nezuko. One of the themes pushed by Demon Slayer is family, their relationship feels genuine and sweet throughout the anime.
The other characters have room to grow, but seeing as only 1/4th of the source material has been adapted, there is still plenty of growth to come. They have their share of quirky personalities and great designs, while each having an appropriate amount of screen time. I am excited to see how they progress, as well as other minor characters.
Demon Slayer has been one of the most enjoyable anime I have watched in a while, for what it is, it's amazing. Such a perfect blend of great animation of music, with a wonderful story that tackles its themes with flawless execution. While certainly not a perfect series, for the time being, I giving Demon Slayer a 10/10.
TheDiamondBro
(CONTAINS SPOILERS) Demon Slayer is an anime about a kid named Tanjiro that had his family killed by a demon but only one of his family members lived and that was his sister Nezuko. Tanjiro is out with revenge to kill the person who killed almost all of his family by passing any obstacle that comes his way like getting his sister bitten to a bloody nightmare or fighting to survive. The narrative isn't the best thing in the world but at least its something enjoyable. . Animation: When it comes to animation the show has a lot to offer. I swear to you every frame is amasterpiece. The character design in each main and side character is unique in its own way. Sometimes its stiff in frames but it can't all be perfect. The detail for everything like the hair and houses is wonderful. But I wish I would say the same thing with the character development.
Character Development: The shows characters are kind of poorly made and rushed. They do what a lot of Shonen anime do, when someone's in a middle of fight they just say there tragic backstory like growing up I got older and struggled with fighting or something like that. But the real problem I have with characters is that they all just have own personality trait and they make the worst of it. Like Zenistu, all he does is just cry and yell and he does that with just obsolete territory. But they can't all be perfect. But there's this one character that is amazingly well done. And that is the antagonist, Muzan Kibutsuji. You love him and you love to hate him. He may not have that much screen time but he is an amazing character when he does have screen time.
Plot/Story: They plot to this show is okay, so far in this season the main character in this is just going on missions. The try to make the last arc of the season be special and it kinda worked. But it just felt like every Shonen anime when they do a fight or arc. But at least we got a good fight and a nice backstory of Tanjore's dad. At first it was going for its own style of show, but the director was just like nah lets do what everyone does. This shows plot had a lot of creative potential but through some of it away but kept a good junk of it so it could be popular. But the story is still entertainingly well done.
Music/ Soundtrack: The music in this show is outstanding. You can tell they put time and effort it the music. Who ever picked the opening and made the shows music you have a good taste. I swear the end of the fight between Tanjiro vs that spider demons soundtrack was so incredibly calming. It had a good touch to the end of that fight. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece but lets get real hear, you have to at least enjoy it a little bit.
Writing: The shows writing is pretty fine. It's good but not bad, its one of those things. I got to admit the person who writes for the wart hog for a head guy is a good writer. That wart hog dude is second to main the antagonist in the show. All in all, the writing is good enough.
CGI: This anime has CGI and for anime we all know how that turns out. But this show does it well. I haven't seen CGI in anime this good. I would say they do it better than Vinland Saga. I think Demon Slayer is one of the first animas that have done CGI non-poorly. They even use it in their fights. They mix good animation with CGI, something that has probably never been done before in a incredible way. Trust me you will not be unconfterbale when you look at the CGI.
I recommend this show to people who love adventure and combat with swords. But I wouldn't highly recommended it. If you have nothing to watch you should take a look at this.
itnotevan
*Spoilers ahead* Kimetsu no Yaiba or Demon Slayer is probably what you would think it is People slaying demons. I am kinda new to this reviewing thing so go easy on me hehe. Demon Slayer is what it was hyped up to be and I am glad I got what I wanted out of this anime. Going into the anime I recognized most of the characters as I got spoiled on social media a bit but it didn't matter. All that matters to me is the story behind the anime and the characters if you get my jist. The tales of Tanjiro Kamado, Nezuko Kamado, InosukeHashibira, and Zenitsu Agatsuma are quite enjoyable throughout the 26 episodes.
Story 9/10
The main story of Demon Slayer is very good and I enjoyed watching it go throughout the series. Having an older brother have his family killed except his sister turned demon was not what I was expecting to be honest. With the assistance of Inosuke, Zenitsu, and many others. Tanjiro and Nezuko push forward in slaying the demon responsible for killing his family. I really liked how this story went from a horrific horror at the start to some of a comedy throughout the anime! (I like comedy anime a lot! As they tend to appeal to me more).
Art 9/10
I liked the art style throughout the anime and the colours as well. The animation was really impressive as with the fight scenes as well. There are some parts of the anime's comedy that I was not expecting but enjoyed as well!
Sound 8/10
The voice acting for the dub was quite good and Inosuke (voiced by my favourite VA Bryce Papenbrook) was my favourite of the voices by far. The voices of the anime characters are quite exceptional with a few of them here and there having some eh moments.
Character 9/10
The characters are shown well as Tanjiro being the one who wants justice for the murder of his family to Zenitsu's cowardness and to Inosuke's hard-headedness. The expressions shown with these characters throughout the anime are quite exceptional in my opinion.
Enjoyment 9/10
I enjoyed this anime very much through the days I've watched this and I hope this review among many others helped anyone with their view of Kimetsu no Yaiba or Demon Slayer!
vkmlia
I rarely like shounen protagonists. They're usually "dumb", noisy, self-centered, ambitious, somehow inapt, don't seem to know how to deal with feelings... which is boring to me. Tanjiro's different. He's sweet, caring, and is not after some big thing for himself. He reminds me a bit of Kenshin, from Rurouni Kenshin. And it's not only him! Other characters in Demon Slayer have been/are being developed this wayl: Urokodaki, the leader of the Demon Slayers, Tomioka in his own way... To me this is a plus. I love to see male and female characters go out of their traditional roles, because this way I canactually identify with them.
The contemplative moments are just incledible, imo. You know, the pauses where we can actually breath after the action and enjoy the amazing scenery. Ghibli movies do it beautifully and I Think Demon Slayer does it too. And I love the moments where we are in Tanjiro's mind.
Which brings me to the one thing which I think is a REALLY put-off: Zenitsu and Inosuke. They are SO noisy and repetitive. All that peace and contemplation goes away when they appear. But they're having their share of development, so I really hope it gets better with time.
Outstanding animation and sound, I don't think I even have to comment on that. Top-tier. Nice gory/horror moments. Tanjiro definitely does not flinch before taking a demon's head or makes a fuss because of his compassion. The characters actually get injuried to the point that they can't fight. Those things add up to Incledible high-stakes battles.
To me, the words for the script/dialogues seem hand-picked, because it's neither excessive nor lacking: just perfect for the moments in question and what they want to achieve (exceptions are Zenitsu and Inosuke, of course). And there are moments where no words are needed. For example, the anime doesn't keep stating how great the main character is - It shows you, in beautiful ways.
The plot is simple and easy to follow. I'm the one to like complicated plot lines, but I was surprised to see how a simple but well done development can get you so involved. No good animation that can compensate shallow characters and poor development, I've seen this time and time, because you and up asking yourself in the middle of it: seriously? all this prodution for this? Demon Slayer is not like that. It's getting a lot of hate because of the "overhype". Is it the GOAT shonen? NO, IT'S NOT. But it's great, and I think we have to do it justice.
To me, the keyword to define Demon Slayer is "involving". It's that thing that the sum is bigger than its parts. It's dark, beautiful, simple, well made, with relatable character and key moments that get you seriously hooked. To me it's enjoable through and through.
