Kimetsu no Yaiba

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]

Kamado, Tanjirou Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Agatsuma, Zenitsu Main

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Hashibira, Inosuke Main

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Kamado, Nezuko Main

Kitou, Akari Japanese

Rengoku, Kyoujurou Supporting

Hino, Satoshi Japanese

Kochou, Shinobu Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Tomioka, Giyuu Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Uzui, Tengen Supporting

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Kanroji, Mitsuri Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Tokitou, Muichirou Supporting

Kawanishi, Kengo Japanese

Kondou, Hikaru Producer, Sound Director, Series Composition

Miyake, Masanori Producer

Takahashi, Yuuma Producer

Fujio, Akifumi Producer

Reviews

Aug 21, 2024

MisanMa401

Recommended

My review refers to all seasons. In my opinion, Demon Slayer is a masterpiece.
From the very first episode, you are captivated by the stunning animation and the intricate design of the characters and landscapes.
The story is emotional and gripping. The fight scenes are visually perfect and impressive. The development of the characters, especially Tanjiro and his sister Nezuko, is profound and touching. You can easily identify with their struggles and hopes.
In summary, Demon Slayer is a 10 out of 10 for me. The combination of beautiful animation, an engaging story, and deep characters makes this anime a must-watch for any anime fan.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by MisanMa401 (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Aug 6, 2024

arifandi13

Mixed Feelings

I want to talk a bit about the anime Kimetsu no Yaiba 2019, and this might also apply to the subsequent seasons of the anime. It's not that I want to put it down or say it's a bad anime, but in my opinion, it's too overhyped or overrated. So, if you say this anime is good, I agree. The story is good, the opening and ending music are great, and the animation is top-notch. With Ufotable as the studio behind it, the graphic design of this anime is arguably the best.

However, if someone says the character development is bad, I would agree. Maybe it's ... because of Tanjiro's reasons during quests or battles. I don't see how Tanjiro should be able to succeed, but in this anime, he somehow does, without clear reasoning behind his victories. I hope you understand my point.

As for the story itself, I think it's just average, even leaning towards bad. Just look at the character relationships, for example, the trio of Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu. I don't see any cool or badass relationship within this trio, unlike the duo Naruto and Sasuke from Naruto, the trio of Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji from One Piece, or Frieren, Fern, and Stark from Frieren. For some reason, the friendship among Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu doesn't feel special.

In conclusion, if someone says Kimetsu no Yaiba is bad, I would agree. Also, I find it strange that a big studio like Ufotable would take on Kimetsu no Yaiba. After their huge success with the Fate series, why would they work on an anime with such an average story? In my opinion, there are still many good mangas that could be adapted into an anime. I once hoped that if Ufotable adapted Chainsaw Man, it would be amazing, but oh well.

Maybe that's all I can say. Thank you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by arifandi13 (7)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jul 22, 2024

ScarlettSkone

Not Recommended

**I explain elements of the plot but nothing big that really counts as a spoiler**
I went into Demon Slayer with an open mind. While the animation and music is objectively good, the story itself left me in immense pain.


1– I have problems with Nezuko’s character.
Nezuko, younger sister to main protagonist Tanjiro, becomes a demon in episode one. Because of this, Tanjiro sets off to turn Nezuko back into a human.

This premise could work, however, at every turn, Nezuko’s lack of agency is very upsetting to me. For one, while Tanjiro sets off on his grand quest, he never once asks Nezuko if she wants to ... become human again. Sure, she probably wants to become human, but the way it’s presented puts Tanjiro as the person who has to speak for Nezuko. Does Nezuko want to become human again? We don’t know, Nezuko never tells us. Why can’t Nezuko be the one to make the decision? It’s her life, she’s the one who got turned into a demon, but the audience is told to accept that Tanjiro has the final say about what his sister wants.

Secondly, Nezuko is heavily objectified. Not in a fan service way, but definitionally– Nezuko is treated more similar to an object than a person by both the narrative and the characters. I already mentioned her lack of autonomy in her own decision to turn back into a human, but it gets far worse than that. During the course of the rest of the story, because Nezuko is a demon, she can’t be exposed to the sun. Due to this, Tanjiro carries her around in a box. Nezuko becomes synonymous with Tanjiro’s special box– A literal object that he has to protect and that he cares very deeply for. Not a person, an object. Hello????? Excuse me??????

The lack of respect and agency given to Nezuko is beyond infuriating. The infantilization and lack of autonomy to Nezuko’s character is, in one word, chauvinistic, and frankly, I’d rather have my finger nails get torn off than be subject to watching it again.


2– Tanjiro, the special good boy.
Beyond his overprotective complex about Nezuko, Tanjiro is treated as a “very special boy” by the narrative. In episode one, within the first 5 minutes, there are 31 lines of dialogue that either explicitly or implicitly hold up Tanjiro as very special and cool. Yes, I counted. I thought it’d be funny and I wanted to do all of episode one, but I gave up after five minutes because my hands hurt too much and I have better things to do with my life.

I don’t have a problem when the protagonist is meant to be special in universe, but the amount that Tanjiro is touted up in the span of 5 minutes is incredible. I felt as though the only point of every line spoken was to explain, or set up another character to explain, how special and cool Tanjiro is. Everyone likes him and he has all these cool and great skills.

This is bad because it’s really damn annoying, but in addition, it’s lazy writing. Instead of telling me that I’m supposed to like this guy, the writer could’ve tried writing Tanjiro doing literally anything that could make me like him. Instead, I feel as though I’ve been lectured about how much I’m supposed to like this character. Frankly, this is the perfect way to make me utterly hate Tanjiro, if for nothing more than pure spite. I don’t think that was the intended effect.


3– “Demon slayer critiques toxic masculinity!”
No it does not.
I wish it did, I was excited to see critique toxic masculinity, but that is not what happened.
Tanjiro is trying to accomplish a goal, and other characters tell him to keep at it, even if it kills him. This is certainly a “toxic masculinity” kind of mindset, in which Tanjiro tries to push himself against his better health for an arbitrary goal. The problem is that… well, that’s all. This mindset, in the story, allows Tanjiro to achieve his goal, and that’s all. Rather than critiquing anything, Demon Slayer showcases and approves of Toxic Masculinity. The extra layer of complexity is simply not there, and anyone claiming there’s more to it is huffing massive amounts of copium.


4– Bad theming– Zenitsu addition
I could very easily make fun of Zenitsu’s existence… and perhaps I should, this womanizing piece of shit! However, the problem with Zenitsu is more complex than that. I want to talk about his backstory.

In it, Zenitsu is explained to be a lonely orphan child. He’s isolated, and was taken in by a retired, but respected, sword guy. This guy repeatedly physically hits Zenitsu and says some toxic things to Zenitsu, to the point where later in life Zenitsu has a trauma moment imagining his master hitting him again. It’s played mostly for comedy, and I know, I know, this a trope, but I have problems with this trope in principle. Somehow, even worse, though, is Zenitsu’s conclusion about it. He decides that, even though this person hurt him, he never left him alone.

Zenitsu is literally portraying why some people stay in abusive relationships 101– someone who’s isolated and vulnerable, staying with someone toxic, because they fear no one else will stay with them, and abusers don’t leave.

This message is a very toxic one and happens all the time in real life. If there was another layer of complexity in Demon Slayer, it’d be fine, but to my dismay, the story leaves the plot line as that, implicitly accepting Zenitsu’s abuse apologia as a responsible conclusion to his situation.


5– Bad theming– Spider Family Addition
I don’t even know where to begin here… this arc hurt my brain. Honestly, my entire review could’ve been me whining about Rui’s character, but I’ll try to be succinct. Rui is a demon with spider powers who, towards the end of season one, is introduced as an antagonist.
Rui idolizes a type of family structure– specifically, a rigid hierarchy that’s toxic. Because of his dream, Rui ropes several other demons to be part of his family, a family that’s referred to as “fake” numerous times. Additionally, it’s shown that this family Rui’s made is very abusive and bad towards each other.

I thought that, since Rui was the antagonist, the point would be that Rui, when he was human, he had his “ideal family structure”, lost his memories due to trauma, and repeated his abuse onto others. Y’know, a little cycle of abuse plotline. Instead, we learn that Rui’s family did follow his ideals, and in fact, it was super epic and based and cool for that. In fact, in Rui’s backstory, we learn that when everything went wrong, it’s because Rui accepted demon powers because he didn’t want to suffer from his disability.

Instead of being a neat little plotline about the cycle of abuse, Demon Slayer seems to say that Rui’s demon family he makes failed, not because of the toxic structure, but because they weren’t a “real” family, as well as saying that Rui ruined his “good” family because he wanted disability accommodations. Worse, in the story, when Rui goes up to heaven, he gets to apologize to his parents for being born… Thanks Demon Slayer, I wasn’t expecting to feel terrible today!
I really didn’t expect the end conclusion to this plotline to be evil disability accommodations, but that’s what we got. God help us all. How the hell do you write a storyline that’s anti-adoption, anti-disability accommodations, and pro abuse????



In reality, despite my dramatization, I know why Demon Slayer has the problems it does. I don’t think that Koyoharu Gotouge, the writer of Demon Slayer, intended for the messages in her story to be so terrible. I think she wanted to write little plotlines and didn’t spend much thought into the implicit messages present. However, regardless of author intention, the messages in media do matter, and Demon Slayer’s messages are really terrible.

Also the writing itself just isn’t that interesting or fun. The dialogue is super repetitive and bloated, the characters generic, and the world building ill-thought out and filled with plot holes…
So, yeah. That’s why I don’t like Demon Slayer.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ScarlettSkone (9)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Demons and Demon Hunter Anime

by ST63LTH

27 Entries · 12 Restacks

Mag​num ​opus

by 3033

11 Entries · 1 Restacks

Must watch before traveling to Japan

by Malefika

15 Entries · 2 Restacks

Aniplex Announces Lineup for Aniplex Online Fest 2024 [Update 9/13]

Aniplex announced the schedule and lineup for its annual Aniplex Online Fest event on Friday. Aniplex Online Fest 2024 is set to begin on September 16 at 12:00 p.m....read more

Aug 19, 9:01 AM by Snow | Discuss (5 comments)

Winners of the 15th Seiyuu Awards

Winners of the 15th Seiyuu Awards were announced via Nippon Cultural Broadcasting's internet radio program, "Chou! A&G+." The ceremony was held a...read more

Mar 6, 2021 8:27 PM by Snow | Discuss (15 comments)

	Poll: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jun 29, 2019	280 replies	by humungadunga64 »» Sep 11, 4:05 PM
	Poll: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 27, 2019	275 replies	by chris1763 »» Sep 6, 12:08 PM
	Poll: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - May 25, 2019	221 replies	by AZN_07 »» Sep 1, 10:05 AM
	Poll: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Apr 20, 2019	286 replies	by chris1763 »» Aug 26, 6:42 PM
	Poll: Kimetsu no Yaiba Episode 19 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Aug 10, 2019	1,101 replies	by SolalAnime »» Aug 23, 4:58 AM

The Episode That Broke the Internet

One year later, the explosive impact of Kimetsu no Yaiba is still being felt in the anime community.

by Shymander

80,230 views

MadMAL Collection: Demons, Dreams, and Dumbbells

A MyAnimeList guide to Madman Entertainment's September 2020 releases!

by Shymander

11,651 views