Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen

***THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS, AND MANY SPICY RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS***

Imagine being animated by Studio Ufotable, imagine being animated by the CG gods, the very same legends that crafted Fate/Zero, one of the best stunning anime ever made. And now, give them a new project that ain't a Type Moon Visual Novel adaptation or a lame video game adaptation, and what do you get? you get Kimetsu no Yaiba, one of the worst shounen I've ever had the displeasure of watching. But how could this anime be bad if it is being done by the amazing Ufotable Studio? Well, more than being Ufotable's fault, ... this is just evidence that the source material is awful. Kimetsu no Yaiba is an anime so bad, not even the top tier animation from Ufotable can save it from being a completely and irredeemable utter disaster. I really tried to like Demon Slayer, I really did, and while it's true that the visuals are good, they won't carry anything if everything else freaking blows ass.

Do you like having headaches? Do you love when characters scream at each other for no good reason while they make the stupìdest faces trying to land an extremely bad joke? Do you enjoy having your eyes being completely obliterated by extremely over the top flashy visuals? Do you enjoy watching a fight extend itself aimlessly with characters outsmarting each other until the other end doesn't have any more tricks under their sleeve? Do you enjoy having random flashbacks of events that should have been told in cronological order being shown in the middle of a fight? do you like characters getting powerups through asspulls? do you enjoy looking at a little demon girl suddenly get a powerup where she grows to be a sexy thot that ends up being useless anyway? Do you enjoy same face syndrome? Do you enjoy listening to Aimer's voice while having Salsa and Merengue playing and absolutely ruining her vocals? Do you enjoy being spoonfed? Do you enjoy being stated the obvious by the character's thoughts? Do you enjoy plotholes? Do you enjoy petty plot devices? Do you enjoy being treated like a brain dead idiot? If the answer to anything above is yes, I suggest you go to the doctor, because there might be something wrong with you, there's no possible way someone can endure watching this turd of an arc and be okay with it.

This Second Season of Demon Slayer is one of the worst battle shounen I have ever seen in my life, not only does the comedy get worse, the whole thing is almost unbearable, because every minute a character has to scream, every minute a character has to act like has some serious mental illness, every minute a character has to make noises or do something stupid because somehow Gotouge Koyoharu thought it would be a great idea to keep you entertained with stupid shit that actually exhaust you rather than amuse you, and while she's at it, she attempts to create action by insulting your intelligence. This arc is a single battle, ONLY 1 BATTLE THAT GOES THROUGH THE ENTIRE ARC. Don't get me wrong, there have been great battles in shounen that have gone through several episodes and have been great, but that's only if you know how to write action, never exhaust it and always come up with something creative that doesn't drown the viewer in a pestilence of more of the same shit, but Demon Slayer does not do action right at all, ever since the fight starts, the following things I'm going to describe, are the only things that have happened in the spawn of 9 episodes:

Monster appear, hero fight, Monster succeeds, hero gets asspull, he gets power up, he succeed against monster, monster is not defeated, hero is surprised and tired, monster gets power up, reinforcements arrives, everyone gets power up, they clash, hero succeeds against monster, monster is not defeated, monster plays asspull, monster gets power up, monster obliterate heroes, heroes gets flashbacks, heroes gets asspulls, heroes gets powerups, heroes obliterate monster, heroes succeed... but they don't... IT WASN'T EVEN THE MONSTER'S FINAL FORM!!!

Imagine writing such crap, give me a damn break, how are you able to create such a boring battle that instead of excite you, bores you to death due to how terribly formulaic and extended it is? This kind of format would work for 2 episodes, but 9? Imagine the fight beween Saber and Caster from Fate/Zero, each time Saber uses Excalibur, Caster gets a new form after being destroyed, now extend it for 10 episodes, how would you feel? like you were scammed? if the answer is yes, then how is Demon Slayer "action" going to be any worth it, if nothing valuable happens through all those episodes? That's the neat part, it's not worth it, it never was, and it will never be. Demon Slayer is absolute balls, braindead and 0% innovative and 100% amount of schleep.

Ufotable, do yourself a favor, abandon Demon Slayer and embrace Type Moon forever and never ever attempt to adapt anything else, do not give shit manga godlike visuals, it won't save them from being an utter and complete failure.

Oh boy, I'm tired, imagine being tired and bored after having watched 11 episodes of "action" and "comedy". Jesus Fucking Christ...

*out-of-context spoilers*

People always say Demon Slayer is only popular thanks to its dazzling animation, but I completely disagree. When you actually sit down and watch it, you just see some generic, uninteresting shounen, and yet everyone acts like it’s this incredible masterpiece, so why the massive difference in opinion? It must be the flashy animation, right? Personally, I doubt it, because shows with good animation are ignored just as often as shows with bad animation are propped up. The most well-animated show of last season was Ousama Ranking, and it wasn’t even in the top five most popular shows of the season here on MAL. ... The most well-animated show from last Summer was Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S, and conversely, it was in the top five. Spring was Vivy, and it wasn’t. And Winter was Mushoku Tensei, but it was. My point is there’s no consistency in behavior. Shows like Attack on Titan: The Final Season can have laughable CG and be defended ferociously, while shows like Overlord III can have equally laughable CG and be unanimously mocked. Obviously, the visuals have a lot to do with Demon Slayer’s ability to go viral online, but if you ask me, the real key to becoming this much of a monolithic mega-hit is its accessibility. This is not a show where the writers feel the need to diversify their exposition dumps. Even mid-battle, every character is perfectly willing to spontaneously inner-monologue any information even slightly necessary for the audience, and everyone’s motivation is so simple and straightforward, that to forget it, you would have to forget the entire existence of the character. If you’re a cynical bitch like me, it’s very easy to think, “Wow. This show must be written for retards, five-year-olds, or retarded five-year-olds.” However, I finally realized it’s not that it’s written for retards or five-year-olds. It’s written for people who literally haven’t watched the show before. Allow me to explain.

This is going to come across as extremely condescending and insincere, but one thing I genuinely really appreciate about Demon Slayer, and the deciding factor which I think makes the show so easily accessible to such a vast audience, is that it’s so shallow and superficial, it requires no commitment and no real attention to enjoy. That’s an insult packaged within a very thin compliment, I understand that, but I’m being very genuine when I say this, because season one of Demon Slayer for me was a twenty six week long nap. I mean, seriously, I slept through so much of that first season, I truly do not remember even an hour’s worth of its content. I remember pretty much all of episode one, because I go into every show with somewhat of an open mind, and this is especially true with Demon Slayer, because ufotable has earned their reputation. I know their shows will never just be total effortless dogshit, and thanks to the massive marketing initiative Aniplex launched to advertise it, I had already seen the promotional material as well. I really loved the colors and the whole Taisho-era aesthetic of the show, so I really wanted to like it. When it turned out to be totally milquetoast and boring, that attention faded very quickly, but for at least episode one, I had my brain turned on, and I therefore remember how everything starts. This is important, because with shounen manga adaptations, the inciting incident is all that really matters. By the end of chapter one, you always have your one and only goal, and this one and only goal is the backbone of the Weekly Shounen Jump formula. Find One Piece and become Pirate King, become the Fifth Hokage, find all seven Dragon Balls, find a way to turn Nezuko back into a human, etc. But that’s where my memory kinda stops, and yet the fact my memory stops in no way impedes upon my enjoyment of the show. THAT’S the key to Demon Slayer’s success.

Having watched season one in this drowsy stupor, barely sober and barely awake, I only really remember a few distinct, well-executed moments beyond episode one. I remember Tanjiro cutting the boulder in episode four; I remember Zenitsu unveiling his sleep attack in episode twelve; I remember the Blessed Rain After the Drought from episode sixteen; I remember Zenitsu going crazy in episode seventeen; I remember most of episode nineteen, as well as how they invalidated the victory in the following episode and CG water man had to come and finish off the spider guy; and I remember that one Hashira trying bait Nezuko into attacking him in one of the later episodes. But that’s not how the series actually plays out, because Demon Slayer was twenty six episodes worth of content, not just those few moments I was able to recall and describe. It had a plot, it had multiple story arcs, it had tons of dialogue I’m sure, but it was so tortuously boring, it always put me to sleep. I must also stress that I did not binge this. Every single week for twenty six weeks, I would turn on the new episode and just pass out. My soul would just exit my fucking body. When I went to go see Infinity Train, I asked these three boys who were sat near me in the theatre if we’d met Rengoku in the show before, and when they said, “no, not really,” I burst out laughing. His character development in the movie was easily among the most unoriginal, uninspired, generic shounen flashback backstories I’d ever seen, and since his whole personality was just haha lol so funny haha he said UMAI! haha xd funny meme bro haha ayy lmao haha, that by the time the end of the movie came around and he was fighting some OTHER fucking guy who we also just met and who had EVEN LESS screen time or memorable characterization, I was just cracking myself up in the theatre cackling like a psychopath screaming, “Who the fuck ARE you?!”

All of ufotable’s most talented staff came together to produce one of the most spectacular fight sequences I’d ever seen, but there was no tension, no excitement, no emotion, no engagement, no anything, because the combatants were these two shallow non-characters who I only just met and who I didn’t give half a shit about at all. The result is an unbelievable spectacle that’s only impressive for the sake of being impressive, and that’s it. THAT’S the key to Demon Slayer’s success. Despite remembering only a handful of moments from season one and sleeping through the rest, I was able to watch Infinity Train (and now The Red Light District Arc as well) without feeling confused or missing the appeal at all. THAT’S the key to Demon Slayer’s success. It’s not successful simply because it has flashy animation—those people are just haters spouting random shit to diminish the show’s achievements because they don’t like it. It’s successful because anyone in Japan, whether they’re young or old, boy or girl, man or woman, student or professional, unemployed or retired, ANYONE can turn on the TV, see a sociopolitically whitewashed, inoffensive portrayal of Taisho, the most beloved and romanticized era of Japanese history, with pretty colors and a simple story, and say, “He wants to save his sister? That’s nice.” That’s called accessibility, and it’s why Demon Slayer is so popular. It’s boring and generic? Why the hell am I talking like these are bad things? Being boring and generic is exactly what people like about it! Like I said at the beginning of this review, it’s not written for dummies. It’s written for people who literally haven’t watched the show before. It’s written so that if you’re flipping though channels and land on Fuji TV, it’ll be more effort to find something else than it would be to think, “Eh. This looks fine.” If anything, the more dumbed-down the script is, the easier it is for people to get on board.

In episode one of season two, Mini Rengoku says to Tanjiro, “But you came all this way for it, only to end up learning nothing about Hinokami Kagura or what my father called ‘Sun Breathing’,” and I seriously laughed for something like two minutes straight. The dialogue in this show is fucking negative IQ level shit. It feels like watching Alex Kurtzman’s Mummy, where the blonde lady has to keep explaining to Tom Cruise who his character is supposed to be so the Chinese theater audience has multiple opportunities to read the subtitles. This tiresome, dull-witted approach to scripting is reflected in the notoriously bad comedy as well, because there are no jokes in Demon Slayer. There is no written humor. It’s just a bunch of dopey physical comedy. Never does it setup or payoff a real, constructed joke. It’s just: “HAHA He screamed! XD” “HAHA He fell over! XD” “HAHA He made a silly face! XD” It’s such basic, bargain-bin humor that even a monkey could laugh at. It can get me to smile when it stops trying to play itself straight—like at the beginning of episode two when Tanjiro and Uzui are doing this unfunny comedy routine, and it just keeps cutting to Zenitsu going, “What the fuck are these people talking about?”—but most of the time, the childish humor is just as annoying as it’s ever been. And don’t even get me started on the inept tone. When I reach the point as an audience member where I’m watching the red-haired demon guy from Infinity Train shuttering in terror, groveling in fear, getting fiercely accosted by the main villain who looks like shota Michael Jackson, I have to take a step back and ask whether or not this is supposed to be funny. I mean, when they cast Maya Sakamoto, utilize her perfectly, but then make her embarrassingly bawl, “Tasukete, Onii-chan!” I’m not thinking, “Wow! What a dramatic character arc!” I’m thinking, “How the fuck am I even supposed to feel about this character?”

I saw someone attempting to defend the shitty writing by arguing that generic shounenshit we’ve seen a million times like villains who waste time soapboxing instead of killing the protagonists shouldn’t be criticized because, indeed, we’ve seen this trash a million times and should be accustomed to it. This is a classic example of thinking with low standards. Yes, this trope is used as a crutch for hack authors who write themselves into corners all the time, but does that make it okay? Does banality elevate something above criticism? No, of course not. It isn’t not bad because it happens all the time; it’s bad, and it’s bad every time it happens. This, of course, is only addressing the general archetypes. I haven’t even touched the seriously goofy shit yet…
>Shifting the positions of my internal organs and having immunity to poison is child’s play because…I grew up in the mountains?
>Before, I was lightning speed, but when the narrative requires it, I AM GODSPEED. (please ignore Killua rip-off)
>Nezuko burns away the demonic poison, and Tanjiro literally says “idk lol” when asked how she can do that.
>”’Score?!’ Did he say ‘score?!’ Did he turn my Blood Demon Art into a song and deflect it?!”
Yeah. Not exactly the most brilliantly written show in the universe. With a script THIS dumb, it’s no wonder ufotable relies on spectacle.

To give credit where it’s due, Demon Slayer never derails and stays true to its core themes, hackneyed as they may be. If recent best-sellers are anything to go on, you can clearly see the “Big Three” era of 700+ chapter manga is over. A fantastic adaptation which greatly elevates the source material, amazing character designs, no extensive filler, good music, cool fights—just turn your brain off, and what's not to like, right? I’ve also seen people underrate Tanjiro as a character, labeling him a generic goodboy MC and moving on, but I think he's actually quite distinct from typical shounen protagonists. What makes him interesting is how his conscience is handled. He accepts the fact demons were once people, and he is able to sympathize with them despite the atrocities they commit, typically in the form of high bodycounts. However, he is also resolute in his efforts to slay them, and he does not hesitate to deliver killing blows. This apparent contradiction is justified by Tanjiro's innate respect for life: the driving, defining force behind his moral compass. This makes him relatively unique compared to most shounen protagonists, as he not only delivers killing blows frequently, but also with the knowledge he is deliberately ending an intelligent being's life—killing "people" that have been unsalvageably corrupted. I can't think of too many shounen protagonists who actually kill their enemies, much less one who is portrayed as a traditional hero as opposed to some edgy anti-hero. Deep character, right? Maybe, but what this boils down to in execution is: “Those lost lives will never return! They can never come back! Those made of flesh and blood can’t do what demons do. Why would you rob them? Why would you trample their lives?” There’s a solid character conceit hidden somewhere behind all that bland, platitudinous drivel, but it’s completely smothered by this Anakin Skywalker, Attack of the Clones-level writing.

The only character who overcomes the shitty writing is Uzui. Uzui is not only the first character with enough actual characterization for me to consider a character at all, but he’s also the first member of the cast to actually make me like them as a person even a little bit. I just love it when anime prominently features men written by women, because unlike the majority-male industry of manga authors who write uncharismatic, unimposing, self-insert characters, female authors are actually comfortable with having men who stand out and leave an impression. When this guy was introduced slapping some girl’s ass, taking children into Red Light Districts, selling said children into prostitution, and boasting about his harem of three beautiful wives, I could not wipe the grin off my face. Much like the pandering waifus we always see in anime written by men, it is crystal clear to me that Uzui’s painted nails and flamboyant, fujoshi-bait K-pop aesthetic is the embodiment of everything the author fetishizes in a man. To me, he just screams old, hair metal, 80s rock bands like Guns N' Roses or Mötley Crüe who had long hair, wore make-up, and got beauty treatments at glamor salons. They all looked very feminine, and yet they had literal oceans of topless women throwing themselves at them. For all the basement-dwelling otaku who wouldn’t have the slightest idea what rock stars used to look like before the year 2000, let me just say I don’t think it’s a coincidence this guy is called the “Sound Hashira” and defeats his enemies with the power of music. Again, Uzui slapped some chick’s ass, and all the shameless girls on social media were immediately smitten, slobbering over their screens wishing they were her. No male author could manufacture that shit, and unlike the cast up until this point which has consisted entirely of cookie-cutter shounen re-skins, Uzui gives this series a much needed spark of personality.

No offense to Director Sotozaki—and, yes, I’m fully aware fans of this series probably have little to no conception of what it means for something to be “well-directed”—I have no idea why this series hasn’t been handed over to Toshiyuki Shirai yet. His episodes are always more visually interesting, and I’d be curious to see if he could improve the tortuously boring episodes filled with nothing but braindead comedy and snail-paced narrative progression, or if he only seems wildly more talented as a director because he was lucky enough to be tasked with handling the more memorable episodes. Either way, the visuals are exactly what you’d expect from Fate-fotable: Unlimited Tax Evasion Works. Whether they’re drawing a still pose, adding speed lines, shaking the frame, and spamming digital effects, or actually treating us to well-rounded, legitimately impressive animation, the audience will eat it up regardless and denounce anyone who suggests the series has less than perfect visuals as a dishonest contrarian…but people call me that anyway, so fuck it. Let’s nitpick. First of all, no matter how relentless they are with their post-processing, ufotable still can’t hide their CG. The CG ribbons aren’t as bad as the CG tentacles from Infinity Train, but still. The main digital effects worth complaining about are the Michael Bay fireworks Uzui throws around, and of course, the fire. The digital smoke effects they love using in this aren’t terrible, but no matter how good ufotable’s compositing is, no one can make that Shutterstock™ fireplace.gif look natural. I could go on, but you get the point. Demon Slayer is an impressive, beautiful show, but anyone who says it’s flawless knows nothing about animation production. This show aired an episode with fight sequences nearly outclassing its own movie on the same day Attack on Titan ended on a jpeg of a manga panel, so even I’d feel petty for nitpicking too much.

I have high standards, so even though I never had any real animosity toward Demon Slayer, I gave season one the negative score it deserved. Remember, it’s only real problem was being trite and consequentially boring to any thinking viewer, but by allowing myself to fall asleep, I didn’t torture myself with it. The result of this uncaring attitude is that all I really remembered about the show by the time Infinity Train came out was the handful of awesome highlights which actually kept me awake, so even though I’m consciously aware of its shortcomings and failures, all the memories I had of it were great. Feeling generous and not wanting to sour these good memories, I had a truly brilliant idea. To take advantage of the—how should I say this?—subcultural predilections of my fellow Americans, I bought a ticket downtown and reserved a seat at a theatre with a bar to guarantee the audience would be a lively, rowdy, urban bunch. This way, I could get shitfaced, overreact and talk shit, and still ultimately be quieter and more courteous than 99% of the hollering moviegoers sharing the cinema with my good self. A genius move, needless to say, because I had a fucking blast watching Infinity Train—easily the most fun I’ve ever had watching anime in a movie theater—and I didn’t even kill myself driving all the way home. (Don’t drink and drive, kids. I’m not a role model.) The point of the story? Demon Slayer is perfect for casuals who just want to turn their brains off and gawk at pretty colors and loud noises, or losers like me who just want an excuse to indulge in some nice, diversionary substance abuse to escape the tedium of their lives and be ever so briefly stupefied by visual excess. Decorate it as much as you want; a garden-variety shounen manga adaptation filled with nothing but one-note characters, lowbrow humor, and multi-episode, asspull-ridden fights simply is what it is, ufotable animation or not.

Thank you for reading.

*spoilers for Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen and Yuukaku-hen

Kimetsu no Yaiba's ultimate downfall can be quickly surmised as an attitude problem. The series's lack of respect for its audience or characters, its incessantly speedy pacing between arcs, and its inane humor can all be boiled down to this singular, core problem. Its sheer lack of restraint can be felt from that attitude problem as well.

What made Mugen Train function was its limitations which forced the series to straighten up and dial back in all the bullshit which made the first season largely intolerable. However, this second season, Yuukaku-hen slips back into some of these old ... habits while bringing brand new issues into the fray.

Let's start with its attitude regarding the death of Rengoku: the Fire Hashira from Mugen Train. It's awful, absolutely appalling in its presentation. They desperately oversell the reverence everyone has for the man. First off, the first 3 minutes are an awkwardly presented recap of the Mugen Train finale to remind the audience of what they just watched: the dude dying and everyone crying. More importantly, they have the gall to shove his smiling visage amidst a heavenly backdrop onto damn near every scene people talk about him in. It happens so often that nothing gets to speak for itself; Kimetsu no Yaiba can basically be boiled down to those last 6 words. Then again, considering a quarter of the double-length first episode is about Tanjirou assuring Rengoku's teary-eyed kid brother and confronting a painfully obnoxious deadbeat "I lash out and shittalk but actually care for and cry over the dead" drunkard dad, this is not unexpected.

Perhaps it's rude to point at Naruto as a shining example on how to tactfully handle the fallout of the death of someone close to its heroes, as it’s one of the Big 3 and it often gets used as a measuring stick for how bogus 2010s shounen are. However, it's hard not to look at a shounen that genuinely respects those who have fallen, how the characters take the time to explore their surroundings, shut down, and require the help of others to move along, without noticing why KnY failed. In Naruto, we get to process the grief of those most affected in an artful way, not once, but twice. In KnY, we get caricatures and obnoxious slow-mo Zack Snyder trailer shots. Well, we also get a 4 month time-skip amidst a training montage and more obnoxious in-your-face yelly humor because clearly SAO shouldn't be alone in horribly mangled time skips. Hell, we even get told how Zenitsu and Inosuke develop rather than having that unfold in front of us, just like with Kirito in Aincrad.

Actually, to be fair to SAO, even it has more respect for Kirito and his supporting cast than KnY does for most of its characters. Hell, not once in the grieving process where Tanjirou struggles with a stomach wound, does Nezuko attempt to console him. Perhaps it's because she's barely a character --lower than most pokemon-- and more of an object to only be deployed when necessary for asspulls. Zenitsu might still be an insufferable, screaming simpcel who should have embraced his role as a straight-man to his wacky teammates by now, but at least that prick's a character. It would be funny how the series still treats its sole female companion to the heroes worse than most shounen like Naruto, Fairy Tail, or every Yugioh title if it didn't mean that the core sibling dynamic at the heart of the series wasn't shafted to such a puzzling degree. Hell, despite it being a major focus in the latter half, the most Nezuko plays into it after she's decommissioned in ep 7 is by appearing in Tanjirou's dreams. Can't let our trophy plot device sister have any actual agency, now can we?

As for the new characters, to address some of them, let's look at the show's lack of restraint regarding character gimmicks. Much like its Drifters-tier screamy tone-killer humor, KnY goes overboard with giving characters gimmicks. Sure, sometimes a gimmick or quirk is needed for a character to stand out. However, the way they constantly shift up gimmicks for Inosuke is head-tilting, and Zenitsu speaks (or shouts) for himself. More importantly, Tengen Uzui aka the Sound Hashira would be way better if he were just the vain ladies man and beleagured chaperone leader to our trio rather than having this irritating and incessant "muh flashiness" gimmick that he never shuts the fuck up about. Hell, that’s how most of the Hashiras in S1 were introduced, so it’s no surprise the issue continues. Admittedly, he does get better the more we learn of him and how world-weary he is and why he values “flashiness” so much. Still, a nasty first impression and gimmick crammed down our throats makes him the hardest to stomach of all the Hashiras that have gotten substantial screen time so far despite him being the best new character of the season. The antagonists themselves are pretty whatever as well, not that Kimetsu has ever been good at handling its villains barring maybe Akaza. They’re hardly worth discussing beyond just being mean vain pretty bitch Daki, and shaggy ugly avenger brother Gyytarou. Their powers are interesting, they’re petty, vengeful pricks, moving on.

In spite of everything, however, the season was proving to be tolerable once we transitioned from the heinous premiere to the start of the arc proper. The aforementioned issues were all there, but even returning problems weren’t as bad as they were in S1. Less of Zenitsu being insufferable, more time for Inosuke to be a badass despite his growth being skipped, and largely serviceable build-up. It was standard KnY fair, which while not good, is more akin to the more tolerable parts of S1 than the entire middle portion of that season. Then the middle of the season happened, and from there, the show went back down to the abyss.

Perhaps the most agonizing aspect of KnY’s attitude and approach to storytelling remains its usage of flashbacks as a primary tool. Mugen Train did well to limit this approach, not extending it to either of its antagonists, and using it for Rengoku long before his death so the audience can get attached to him without his exploration being an obvious pace-breaker or red flag. This season, on the other hand, has regressed back to the spider arc from S1, where fights are constantly being interrupted to provide brand new information about our characters that could and should have been naturally presented to us before the first moment they’re immediately relevant to a fight or emotional beat. It’s fake and hollow in its execution and overuse, making the show come off as wholly ingenuine when, say, we learn more about Tengen’s wives in the scene where they tearfully reunite with him than we did in all of the previous episodes, combined. Hell, they get more screen time in this one scene than they had cumulatively in previous episodes as well, though given how insufferable and one-note they are when they’re on-screen from ep 5-onwards, that might be for the best. The show’s rapid-fire flashback spam only even remotely works occasionally like with Tengen in ep 8, and that’s because they do it so often that, like with blindly or haphazardly throwing darts at a dartboard, there’s gonna be a hit somewhere in the distance amidst the meter-away misses. Still, when they’re bad, they’re abysmal, and the fact that the series has the gall to give its antagonists another ridiculously over the top sad backstory AFTER ONE OF THEM HAS DIED AND THE OTHER IS SOON TO FOLLOW, is scalding to the senses.

Another issue that rears its ugly head in the 2nd half is the asspulls. KnY is no stranger to them. S1 ep 19 had several back to back in the climax of the arc’s big fight scene before the start of ep 20 undoes all of that with yet another one that contradicts the very events of that iconic moment. Mugen Train pulled a final boss out of nowhere because we needed a final act and the previous antagonist of the arc had been slain. Kimetsu no Yaiba’s 2nd season combines the two, while reintegrating the idea of crafting asspulls via flashbacks. Let's not even discuss all of the death fake-outs with bullshit justifications that take place towards the last 3 episodes like this was a latter day Fairy Tail arc. Tanjirou constantly pushes past his limits like broken clavicles without any supernatural aide whatsoever for extended periods of time, Nezuko gets cool new powers out of nowhere without us ever showing her train or anything, and recovery breathing on top of stuff like Zenitsu being fully autonomous and capable when asleep are introduced this season, too! GEE, I BET THIS WOULD HAVE ALL BEEN REALLY COOL AND NOT AT ALL A BUNCH OF OUTTA NOWHERE ASSPULL BULLSHIT IF WE HADN’T SKIPPED 4 MONTHS OF TRAINING AND INSTEAD GOTTEN TO SEE THESE IDIOTS WORK FOR THEIR NEW POWERS, HUH?!

The second half, where the bulk of the fights take place, is filled to the brim with such utter nonsense that at some point, especially if you’re binging, you sorta become numb to them until an episode ends. Sure, the fights are all lavishly animated barring some gross ass CG blood splatter, but goddamn are they littered with idiocy. Between all that and the extraneous monologuing characters do in split-second slow-mo intervals, it all just becomes white noise. It’s hard to be consistently livid here compared to the insulting nonsense of episodes 1 and 5. Only when they keep spamming images of Rengoku because “HE WAS COOL, RIGHT GUYS”, is the numb trance broken. There are a ton of other issues and nitpicks that are barely worth addressing. Tanjirou learning more lore about his dad’s techniques is cool but they’re not expanded upon organically. Despite the breakneck pacing of the first half and how we time skip past all the training that could’ve justified much of what went on this season, the latter half is a dragged out bunch of flight scenes with painfully stretched-out episode closers. Characters sometimes just decide not to finish each other off for no reason or randomly become stronger in earlier parts of a fight when they were supposedly less threatening. Some of this is all standard shounen issues taken to their logical extreme because Kimetsu no Yaiba has always been like this. Some of it is new issues for this season. At some point, we can’t drag this review out like the show drags its fights, because watching this show has become nothing short of exhausting! No battle shounen has ever been this exhausting, Jesus Fucking Christ!

On the topic of those flashy brawls, the visuals this season are overall better than they were in S1. Haruo Sotozaki has largely proved himself as a very good director, with several outstanding shots and weighty fight sequences that despite the immense chaos and speed towards the final few episodes, can still be kept up with when things go wild. However, before we get into the merits of the visuals, there are some nits worth picking since there are frame rate issues and some of the CG (fire in ep 10) still can’t hold up so well. More importantly, there are several questionable shots like the janky camera motions when cutting up from someone’s screaming death, or the disquieting amount of scenes unnecessarily infected by speed lines. The premiere is easily the worst, however, as it seems like whoever the episode director was, really wanted to emulate Zack Snyder with all the stupid slow-mo trailer shots. Between that and some unintentionally silly shots of angry Muzan and Tanjirou, the presentation comes.off as very overblown at times. Plus, there’s an amusing number of moments where characters run in place when they’re clearly supposed to be moving.

However, these faults can in no way outweigh the technical prowess on display. Sure, they often try to oversell sequences to dumb degrees (and the music doesn’t help matters), but the visuals are still better than they were in the first season. There are no extremely ugly CG backgrounds, and they play more with experimental visualizations like watercolor brush stroke style visuals for visualizing certain sounds in a location, or how the show tries to visually represent certain explanations like Tengen’s shinobi upbringing. It's clear that Haruo Sotozaki and his team want to give the show the reverence its popularity affords, with more dynamic swooping shots and interesting styles than ever before. Moreover, the fight scenes get more and more impressive as they go along, showcasing some insane sakuga that can compete with the Heaven’s Feel Movie trilogy at times. Episodes 5-10 are an almost nonstop cavalcade of fight scenes, and each one looks better than the last. Ufotable’s trademark in-house digital effects certainly add that extra bit of flair to the spectacular action sequences. After all, it helped paper over some of the maddeningly dire state of the writing in the latter half. If one didn’t mind all the utter nonsense on display (or if they just watched sakugabooru clips) then they’d find these sequences nothing short of pulse-pounding rather than mildly cool. Without exaggeration, the latter half of S2 might be their strongest TV production to date in spite of some hiccups, not that the first half is bad by any means.

“Not bad by any means” can also largely be used to describe the soundtrack which was once again helmed by Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina. Unfortunately, this is certainly one of their weaker anime projects. Gone is any of the eeriness of some of S1’s tracks, and while the Marvel type orchestral tracks are fine, none of it is even remotely memorable. The OST serves the series well enough (barring that shitty dubstep piece in ep 5) and adding some light electronic elements to the mix isn’t a bad thing, but this is a bit of a step down from S1. There isn’t even an electrifying insert song like in S1 ep 19. If anything, Aimer’s OP “Zankyou Zanka” and ED “Asa ga Kuru” are picking up the pace a little, with some fun, energetic jazz pop for the former and a slower, more dramatic Kajiura type piece for the latter. The LiSA songs from S1, Mugen Train Movie, and even TV Mugen are overall preferable, but still, Kimetsu has never had a bad OP or ED and that continues even here.

Kimetsu no Yaiba’s 2nd Season was nothing short of an overblown, ingenuine exercise in exhaustion. Everything bad about the first season has been kept and some of them have been amplified alongside new problems. Plus, season one at least had Shinobu and a fair number of ok episodes so that the experience wasn’t just misery like the middle portion of that 2-cour juggernaut was. The first half of this season was a mix of rushed, agonizing nonsense and some tolerable set-up, while the latter half is a nonstop barrage of asspulls, flashbacks, and fights that turn into noise as the eyes glaze over and the brain begs to shut down. The visuals are largely better than S1 and perhaps more interesting than ever. However, that alone cannot save this from being perhaps the worst full installment thus far, and the worst arc barring maybe the spider arc from S1….maybe.

Sometimes you hear the take of ufotable carrying the series while the material itself is garbage, and there’s some merit to that claim. One might even wonder: had this gone to a lesser studio with a more modest batting average in terms of animation quality, would this be seen more akin to Fairy Tail or Boruto in terms of being the bottom of the battle shounen barrel. Such thinking is a tad malicious, as if whoever thinks so wishes the show got what it “deserved” rather than the royal treatment it has today. However, any good faith Mugen Train had built up after S1’s failings has been completely and utterly dashed. Worthwhile audiovisuals can only do so much to aid atrocious writing, but it's hard to deny that this show would not be as fondly remembered if not for the team it resonated with doing everything to make the most out of the material they more than likely love. Perhaps this abysmal battle shounen would be left to rot like a beheaded demon, and it would still see a sizable audience. Fairy Tail managed that before it became the shounen community’s punching bag, as did Hero Academia before the later seasons slipped up in production quality and started getting dogged on for it among other reasons. Alas, this is all speculation. What we have is what we have. Haruo Sotozaki and his team at ufotable should be proud, and if the legions of fans dazzled by the visuals and some of the show’s pathos cherish it as one of their favorites, good for them. Nothing can or should take that away from them.

We are nearing the halfway point of Kimetsu no Yaiba's story, so before it chugs along to its 3rd season, let’s depart from this demon train peacefully.

There's so much good in this show. That'st he obvious part. It looks beautiful. It sounds great. It's paced well. It's got amazing arcs. But any time anyone opens their mouth it's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in any medium. It's either completely out of place exposition that I guess the author was too stupid to figure out how to say naturally or annoying tropes screeching the trope 2 lines. In most scenes if the characters on screen literally stopped in the middle of their fight and looked at the camera to give deadpanned exposition, it would be better than this. It would even ... be more believable in world.

Tanjuro, the MC, is the exception to this in that even though he is a trope, he's done really well. The plot (which again is amazing) serves his development and all we need to know about him so the idiot author doesn't need to shove it into the a random scene.

Also Nezuko is cute

Most villains are pretty cool so far. The main villain aka Michael Jackson and the tattoo guy that killed 12 year old with no experience in drawing's first OC kinda suck, but everyone else have been pretty cool.

Story: 5 - Plot is amazing. Anything involving talking that doesn't involve Tanjuro is literally the worst thing I can remember from any medium. Not even the worst wuxia or throwaway isekai is worse than this

Art 10 - ufotable being ufotable. Tanjuro, Nezuko and some enemy designs are also pretty cool. Other allies like budget gotei 13 are pretty lame, but it's fine.

Sound 8 - I do feel the feels when Tanjuro is having his moments and sound is a big part of that. Never really blown away by anything though.

Character 2 - Dialogue of every character is again the literal worst in anything I've ever seen. Tanjuro being the exception of course for the most part. Some villains are pretty cool again as well.

Others 5, 2 - I feel like if an element of the show is so horrible that it's a contender for the worse in all of history, that should have a disproportionate impact on the overall show. Even though so much of this show is obviously so amazing, I can't misrepresent how awful that one element is.

Have you ever heard of demon slayer? Yes, that anime which everyone loves and calls a masterpiece, one that will be written down in the history as one of the best shonen's to have ever existed. Its for sure that its gonna happen but is demon slayer really worth it? Simple Answer, fuck no.

This has been a complete down hill after it's first season which unfortunately also wasn't very pleasing to me. But. This is worse. All of the problems from last season continue, we get even more asspulls but the best episode now being one from this season, demon slayer is nothing but rotten ... food that just sickens you.

For one, it has the same generic, overused and absolutely garbage formula that not only makes a predictable story but one that has very little to enjoy about, no, no. I take that back! It has nothing to enjoy about! Its very frustrating watching a show that has no surprises for you and even the comedy makes you feel like drinking vomit!

The comedy is basically:

Character one: Chasing!

Character 2: Screaming!

Character 3: Screaming!

Wow, the author somehow thought that's comedy, Yes! Screaming and running characters chased by more character doing the same thing is funny! Absolutely! That's hilarious! Who won't laugh? I mean, that's the funniest thing ever!

The garbage, random and cringe dialogue make it worse. The repetitive cycle of this type of similar comedy (yes, they call that comedy) and it absolutely not improving is why this has to be the most unfunny thing I have ever seen in a (not dark, imagine thinking demon slayer is dark hahaha) shonen ever do. It's not hard to make good comedy, you have chainsaw man and jujutsu kaisen as an example. Despite both of them being shonen, they nail the comedy aspect! One might do it by bringing in perverted jokes or characters with funny goals instead of the "very" original and serious goal that Tanjiro has of saving her demon sister.

Jokes are absolutely not perverted, none of them crack a funny or sex related joke. (this is something an interesting shonen does hehe) Not even once! The plot is set up to be either be fighting or unfunny and uninteresting characters who are doing random bullshit or on quests on hunting some fucking goddamn demon! One reason why the comedy also fails is that how the author made the characters.

The characters and demons are supposed to be the same boring thing you have probably seen in every fucking old shonen. There is no good character development or there's none! Every fucking character, be it the main character, Inosuke, Zenitsu, Nezuko or even the Hashira's are super annoying. The character writing is also fucking hilariously bad.

For Tanjiro, its because he is too kind (it makes him feel like every shonen protagonist) and keeps spitting random and unfunny stuff.
Zenitsu is such a weakling and boring character, every time he is on screen he makes you vomit. He is a simp with nothing but this one trait of being a simp, his time on screen is either him fighting or him being a simp. Fucking whaaat??
Inosuke keeps shouting for no good reason. His character is very aggressive, making him an annoying retard.
Nezuko does nothing aside from some fighting and she is not cute.

Every hashira's is also very unfunny and keep speaking random bullshit.

The art and animation may be the best part about demon slayer, for one the animation is done by ufotable a studio so top tier that every other shonen looks garbage in comparison, but I am not a fan of the animation style, its very flashy and the scenes aside from fighting aren't very pleasing to me. The character designs are also awful and I don't like them.

The sound is like every shonen at least decent, the second seasons opening and ending theme wasn't bad but didn't feel as good as last seasons. The voice acting is amazing but its being put into a terrible show with ass dialogue where the voice actors need to shout or talk weirdly because that's how demon slayer's dialogues supposedly are.

The fights apparently the best part about it are terrible, for episodes its like as:
Demon Too strong.
Heroes Can't win.
Random Power Up.
Monster Kill.

This cycle is repeated to the point where its the formula of demon slayer. And this is one of the many reasons why demon slayer is one of the most boring anime to ever exist.

I wish ufotable gave this kind of treatment to some good seinen manga such as Gantz hehe. (Joking, Joking, Gantz can never be adapted lol)

To sum up the issues with Demon Slayer-
-Them not to use much flashy colors
-The comedy felt very forced to me, they could have cracked perverted jokes similar to csm
-could have tried having more original plot twists unlike the same ones we have seen in other shonen
-character writing needed more originality
-dialogues felt cringe and out of place
-very formulaic

I understand that this might be a good anime for beginners but this is absolutely NOT a good show if you are looking for something more than bad jokes, great animated fights or a predictable story. Demon Slayer is unfortunately a terrible show which gets much undeserved love. If you are a beginner and want some actually good shows to watch, then try
-Made In Abyss (s tier adventure)
-Violet Evergarden (great drama)
-Barakamon (God Tier sol)
-Monster (peak mystery)
-Odd Taxi (well written, solid mystery)
-Samurai Champloo (fun, memorable)
-Cowboy Bebop (fun, memorable)
-Vinland Saga (good character, few issues related to character writing but most is fixed next season)
-Mushishi (the god of sol)
-Jujutsu Kaisen (a much better shonen than demon slayer)
-Death Note (good mystery)
-Kaguya sama (very funny)
-Fate Series (great)
-The Promised Neverland (obviously not season 2)
-Bakuman (fun, inspiring)
-Berserk (old version baka)
-Hunter x Hunter (good shonen)
-Houseki no Kuni (good characters, many issues in s1 but good)
-Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (nicely tied plot)
-re:zero (mind fuck)

**THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS**

Oh boy…

There are two sides of a coin if you’re talking about Kimetsu no Yaiba;
- Either love and enjoy it for the animation.

- Or dislike it for the bad characters, cringe comedy, and the poor storytelling

Animation is one of the main factors of an anime. However, how can you enjoy the anime if the plot or the story is poor? This leaves these two words that wise men always said; “Does the animation triumph a mediocre writing?”. “Can you ignore one to enjoy most of them?”. One of the confusing parts of the anime community is that if a franchise really ... sold well to the viewers, they will claim it a “masterpiece”. And Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of them.

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Entertainment District Arc is the sequel to the first movie of the franchise. The fans massively loved it for the “great story”, “great characters”, and for the animation that always triumphs. Hard-core fans always love to jump into the hype train and easily claim it as the “new-gen anime” and “masterpiece anime of all time”. If you’re new to anime, you will absolutely love it. However, if you see most of the shounen animes, you might criticize them for the poor elements and plot inconsistencies. Before I discuss the pros and cons of anime, I have to say a few things about the hard-core stans. Read and understood first my review before you attack my profile. So here it comes…

Pros
1. Animation
The animation of this show is superb, as expected from Ufotable. The viewers have always praised this show because of the art of this anime. The combination of 2D and 3D animation makes the whole show move more fluid. The cinematography and fight choreography are always fire. But I think it’s always Ufotable’s forte of animating things. The direction was pretty handled well but I always want to see some of its fights under the daylight. The amazing flashy things are always seen under the moonlight but I guess it’s because the demons are active during the night.

2. Sound
The BGM was always good to the ears, as expected from Yuki Kajiura. She blended the traditional Japanese music and the thrilling action sounds for the action sequences, which is so great. The OP was catchy and it’s my first time to appreciate Aimer’s voice. The ED was good but I prefer more the OP than the ED.

Cons

1. Story/Pacing
I will discuss this as a former fan of the manga. Ever since the ending of the Mugen Train, the next story arc followed this formula; There’s a demon invasion in a certain place, a hashira pillar will investigate it, the three characters will join the hashira, discover the world, find the demon, fight sequences, some flashbacks, and then boom! ending. I saw it many times in some story arcs in the manga and it was almost repetitive. In this anime adaptation, the pacing was slow and awful. The first episode of the anime that had 45 mins long, consisted of the epilogue of Mugen train, and the prologue of Entertainment District. The pacing of the anime was slow because of additional view scenes as a visual-feast. This arc from the manga had a nice pace but it seems the anime was just full of action sequences, in most of the episodes. No character developments were seen throughout the entire season. The useless monologues of Tanjiro were shallow and repetitive, in almost most of the story arcs. He just repeated himself that; “I can do it!”, “I have to break the neck!”, “Stand up! Stand up!”, etc. like the viewers might react, “We got you already, dude. You said that for the nth time already…”. The fact that they were always bringing his dead family, as his “motivation to fight” was utterly repetitive.

2. Comedy
I get it that most of the shounen have comedy, except AOT and Tokyo Ghoul if I may remember. The comedy in this show awfully sucks. I don’t know if they are trying to kill the intense mood of the series or just comic relief. The scene where one of the wives of Usui helped Inosuke from fighting the demon and then one of his wives just pulled a joke because she was scared of death was frickin’ horrible. Even the other parts of the season weren’t great either. The comedy was 3x worse than FMAB’s and it absolutely cringed.

3. Characters
I’ll keep this short and straight to the point. The characters are annoying as their finest. The entire season was just full of action sequences and no character development whatsoever, just like what I said earlier. The three main characters were just being them, and no development and progress. Tanjiro was always relying on and bringing back his dead family as a motivation for fighting the demon. And then after that part, boom! Powered up to the next level! Inosuke and Zenitsu were just a comic relief after all. Usui got a little bit of development but not enough to make him a great character.

4. Ass-pulls and Plot Armor
This element made me why I absolutely dislike this show. I get it that most of the shows have these two but in this show, it was countless times and getting out of hand. It’s just they are not humans, more powerful than the villains. I mentioned that Tanjirou always brings back his dead family, right? That was one of the ass-pulls I’ve ever seen. Many horrible plot armors I’ve seen in this show like when Usui got his arm chopped but didn’t die of blood loss and was capable of moving faster, Inosuke could frickin shift his heart while he was stabbed in the chest, Inosuke was capable of catching up Zenitsu after that poison, Zenitsu capable of escaping the building, and Tanjiro being alive after those massive injuries. I mean, how the heck did they survive all of that? They are just humans, right? Try those for yourself, let’s see if you can survive all of that.

Kimetsu no Yaiba isn’t a bad nor a great show. It’s because the hard-core fans are always claiming it as a masterpiece and flawless, which makes the show obviously bad. I really want to enjoy this show, but it seems it’s hard to turn your brain off while watching this. This show is obviously for entertainment only and visual-feast. Some animes have a high level of animation but the story was bad or generic like GoH, Takt. Op. Destiny, MHA, etc. However, I don’t seem to understand why fans don’t consider Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of them. But that’s just me and I don’t care for anybody else.

So that’s it folks, my review for this season. I’ll give this a solid 4+ because of those plot inconsistencies. But I do admit that I somewhat enjoy this show and its direction. As an anime fan, who always seeks a great story over animation, I could give this a 3 or lower. But it seems I’m generous this time. As a wrap of this review, I’ll quote this statement for the massive fanbase of this show, “Most of the people understood why people love Kimetsu no Yaiba. It’s because of the animation. However, can the fanbase understand why most of the people are criticizing the show and calling it a mid?” Who knows? You might know the answer.

This review may contain spoilers

Is this all it takes?


My only question is that, can the author try something new? I've never seen a narrower imagination, I simply cannot fathom how can you be this lazy as an author, let's put every single garbage aspect of this show aside, and talk about the events only.
First big arc of kimetsu no yaiba, demon slayers running after the supposedly moon-thingy demon, they kill him but... Wait... It actually wasn't him!!! He wasn't the main villan of this arc.. Damn, never saw that one coming.

OK second big arc, demon corps fighting main villan of this arc and ... let's Fucking GOOOOOO they murdered him, oh really? You're telling me he wasn't the main villan of this arc again? Dammit, the author can't possibly use this lazy ass scenario again, right? right? RIGHT?

*WRONG*

three arcs in a row, and im yet to see anything new. All the fight scenes look exactly the same, sometimes I feel like I'm staring into a void whilst looking at my screen during the fight scenes, it's to the point where I feel like they:re reusing old animations, I honestly wish they were, because it's not worth the sweat of the talented people working on this poop.


I wish the author displayed any sort of imagination, it's almost like she doesn't actually need any imagination to succeed.

Every single arc is the same thing, demon chads kill a demon, the demon "unexpectedly" loses, then they proceed to show us some melodramatic garbage that no human being could ever sympthize with past the first one, because, every single time, the demons back story is EXACTLY THE SAME.

I wish the events or the writing were my most hated things about this show. the writing sometimes doesn't look like complete garbage in comparison with the characters here, every single character of this show is literally a one personality trait, MC is the kind, the yellow haired is the pussy, and the boar is the crazy, both the hashiras we've extensively interacted with so far are the perfect charismatic role models.


I just can't with this show, I hate nagging but godam this is garbage.


I honestly feel very generous just for giving this hot trash a "2"

First of all, I can't put in words how this anime makes me feel.

I completely understand why people like the genre of this anime.
This anime is focused on mainstream people who don't watch a lot of anime, and just like to watch season animes and his fulfills his goal very well.
If i started watch anime today i could enjoy this, the animation is awesome, soundtrack is very enjoyable in most of parts, the animation is very fluid but an anime can't be made just of animation, then i'm going to talk the part i hate of this show.

First, the Story is DISGUTING when i mean ... DISGUTING i mean LITERALLY.
You can watch this piece of trash while you doing something, doing homework, talking with your friends, you can understand completly the "story" with just a few sentences of dialogue.

I think they made animation so good on purpose so the main people don't pay much of attention to the story because this trash don't has one, every single battle of this piece of garbage has a lot of scream, A LOT of slow motion so the characters can talk inside their heads.

Is the same thing of the first season, slice it slice it slice it, and then 3 episodes of boring training AND BOOOM
a BADASS funny character shows up with great humor and a sad backstory and leads the 3 protagonist in the adventure of MORE TALK and MORE SLOW MOTION and MORE SLICING
i can understand the people who loves and like this show, but if you have an formed opinion and pay attention to the anime this show don't have an actually great story.

The character development is absolutely trash, NEZUKO for example is a cute little girl WHO DON'T DO ANYTHING, you can compare her a bag of potatoes.

Tanjiro cries or scream all the time when his little sister is in danger, Just like on the first season.

But hold on in a minute, when a character DIES in the fight THEY DON'T ACTUALLY DIE so don't care about it, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS STABBED IN THE HEART.
They can back after when the protagonist is in danger.

Tanjiro literally says in every single moment during the battle that he can't even STAND up, how bad he is exausted, THEN he's have a FLASHBACK OF HIS FAMILY and brings up with a lot of energy to carry his little sister and run.

Overall, i think this anime is boring AS HELL, you can watch it but only if you DON'T pay attention in anything, is literally the same if you pay attention, you only missing your time.
I recommend this show if you don't usually watch anime, because if you watch anime usually and likes this garbage you are INSANE.

Being arguably the face of anime right now and being adapted by one of the greatest studios, Demon Slayer has a lot on his shoulders. I enjoyed the first season and the movie, but I thought the anime was mostly carried by Ufotable and had very little redeeming qualities outside of the art.

Now that the second season is airing, did it improve on its flaws or has ufotable been given another bad story to adapt ?

Story - 5
The story isn't really bad, it's just very average and not appealing. I didn't get to enjoy it a lot since I dropped this show on the third ... episode. The conext of the entertainement district might be good though.

Art - 8
Ufotable. Do I need to elaborate ?

Sound - 7
The soundtrack is still very decent and the sound of the blades clashing is still orgasmic. The OP doesn't seem as catchy is Gurren but it's still good.

Characters - 0
By far the biggest problem of this show.
First, the tone is very poorly managed with emotionnal scenes being followed by comic scenes with a 10 seconds interval.
Second, this show probably has the worst dialogues I've ever heard. I think the author tried to do comedy, but failed to understand the border between comic and cringe. It's like every character tries to be a comic relief. Words would fail to describe the absolute state of this show's dialogue. In the first season, Tanjirou was the exception and his lines were spot on, but this time even he fails to deliver.
Everyone is always making a joke or something funny, no one is ever serious. This doesn't allow the show to build up tension and makes everything feel like it has no importance.
Unless you're a young kid, I have no idea how you would do to watch this show without hoping that everyone were mute. Once the fighting starts and everyone stops talking the animation will probably be marvelous but dear god the author has no idea how to write compelling characters and dialogues.

Overall enjoyment - 3
I love Ufotable. I've watched Heaven's Feel countless times and I was excited to see that they got to adapt such a titan of the manga industry.
Sadly, the story they were given is a very bad one and even the talent of Ufotable can't make up for it. I guess they need the money for better projects and that they will come back with an adaptation of a way better work.
As for Demon Slayer, I dropped this show after the third episode and won't come back to it. I will probably watch the fight scenes on YouTube, this show is quite good when the characters don't talk.

It really says a lot when even a story adapted by Ufotable is unbearable to watch. If this anime was adapted by an average studio like JC Staff no one would care about it. We deserve this studio to get a better story to adapt.

Carried by the animations. It is what it is.

Story 2/10
In short, they go to a town, become women, "hunt" down the three wives and demons, fight and end it off with a "touching" ending. The flashback was somewhat decent to learn about but might need to take lessons from Black Clover (only real fans who don't skip fillers will know what I'm on about.) After episode 5, when the fight started, it started to get interesting and actually good compared to the first few episodes which, in my opinion, were a joke. Episode 1 took 45 minutes to introduce Tengen Uzui and talk about their ... journey to the new location to kill a demon. That's all there is.

Art 6/10
A studio what some people refer to as the "unlimited budget studio" and are designing/animating certain episodes like it's a special or some kids show? Surely not. Almost every episode had a "budget-decreased funny face" where the eyes are just black balls and other elements which are hard to describe but some of you will know what I mean. Alas the fight scenes were really good and enjoyable. Probably the only good parts of the entire season.

Sound 7/10
You can't go wrong with sound. It's nice to see that Tanjirou isn't screaming as much as he did in season 1.

Character 2/10
There was no character development anywhere. Same as they were in season 1. Zenitsu is a different breed. Hopefully he gets killed off later.

Enjoyment 4/10
Starting with the comedy: absolutely DRY. Are they trying to make a newborn laugh or what? The jokes they make are not even funny. They change the art style to look childish to fit the joke but they are only wasting their time and money. I'd rather count how many blades of grass there are on a large field. The fight scenes are what improved the enjoyment score from a 2 to a 4.

Overall 4/10
The start was really slow and the funny faces just wasn't it chief. But it got better over time. I'd say to watch the first 3 episodes in 10x speed since barely anything happens.

I enjoyed the first Season of Demon Slayer but not this one,

compared to the first, the first was like, it was really good, it had good atmosphere and passing and Joke's were like Okay. We got introduced into many new things that were interesting and the story progression was just fine.

But in this one it is just completly off, yes the art is good and the Animation but i expected something else from many people's favourite arc of this season.

The conversation's just feel off and the joke's are overdue or too strong, even for an todays-anime this feels just too strong and i must honestly ... say that i felt sometimes kinda cringe and just awkward. The story progression feels slow and each scene feels stretched with worthless conversations... and it is just not interesting enough to get me.

I decided to drop this Anime to rather focus on different kinds of Anime that I enjoyed more and with this one i rather felt bored or awkward that it is not worth my time anymore. I was really - really looking forward for this continuation of the series after the Movie & Ressha-hen.

This is just not my Cup of Tea.

I'm an animation director, so I enjoy anime at both a personal and professional level. I base my seasonal anime-watch list on MAL ratings, so critical, unbiased ratings are important to me.

Until now, I've found my critical opinion aligned with MAL's rating system, so I've never felt the need to leave a review. Four episodes into Demon Slayer's Red-Light District arc, I find MAL's high rating isn't reflecting the failures of this season.

I was a big fan of Demon Slayer season 1. I consider it a solid 9/10. For comparison, I rate FMA:B, Ranking of Kings, Arcane, and Avatar TLA 10/10.

The Demon Slayer ... art style is gooorgeous, the best designed shounen I've ever seen. I love the Traditional Japanese influence in the character designs and fx. The background style is equally impressive with beautiful color palettes and lighting . The animation budget was well spent, balancing funny or emotive static shots with dynamic camera moves and animation during the fight scenes. I will admit, I typically prefer traditional cinematography over flashy 3D camera work, but Demon Slayer became an exception to that personal preference.

Tanjiro's a great lead. It's refreshing to see such an emotional, empathic, care-taking boy in a shounen-lead. Inosuke's fantastic too, his little blushes throughout season 1 made him relatable and gave his character some depth. I like Nezuko, but I consider all of the Demon Slayers female characters too tropey and overshadowed by the male characters, an unfortunate standard for most shounen anime.

The red-light district arc, so far, has NONE of what made me love season 1.

It should have budget to burn, but 90% of its' shots are held animation with simple camera moves, blinks, lipsync or looped animation. It is, literally the worst animated series I've watched this season. The designs are as beautiful as always, but the animation itself is more like a motion-comic, similar to low-budget shows like Aggretsuko. We're 4 episodes in, and there's been perhaps 10 minutes total of actual, action based animation.

The characters and story are even more disappointing. Tengen, like many of the Hashira - has an incredibly tacky, unappealing design and one-dimensional writing. We know his personality gimmick and motives, but the series did nothing to establish his relationship with his wives or why we should care about them. His actions drive the plot, but make no sense. Why didn't he gather the information on his missing wives himself, before Zenitsu was taken?

The series ruined Tanjiro, Inosuke and Zenitsu's great group dynamic by separating them. Mugen Train suffered the same issue.

And my biggest beef so far - Tanjiro side-lines Nezuko for no reason, the moment we see her. She's a strong fighter, they shine best as a team, she adds some well-needed gender balance to the show - but no, she obediently stays in her box at the first sight of trouble.

Four episodes in and this season has been nothing but a huge disappointment. I've seen shows like Toilet-Bound Hanako roasted for similar limited animation, but at least that show had well written characters and plot.

It's time for fans of Demon Slayer Season 1 to take off their rose-tinted glasses and acknowledge how much the quality has dropped this season. We should hold the animation studio to higher standards, so future seasons of this show will return to season 1's quality.

Kimerdson II 2/10

It's the same review as the first season because it doesn't change anything.

It's just animation. Villains are shit. the protagonist is a door and the only thing that works in this crap is Zenitsu and Inosuke.

It's a generic battle shonen with slightly above average animation (Ufotable does better with Fate), there's nothing more than that, the script is crap and the dramatization is hilarious for being too bad.

Worst of all is the fanbase forcing this shit like it's the best anime in the world because of some scenes with colored lights. Get out of the bubble and stop forcing this generic shonen ... like divine animation because of colored lights.

it gets to be very funny because the fans just force the animation of this shit, and there's nothing to talk about other "qualities".

After a pretty mediocre film, and now this season being underwhelming, if not outright garbage, I’m left to wonder if the franchise became worse and is on a steady downward trajectory, or if I was duped all along, and the first season that I quite enjoyed was actually never that good.

It might be a mixture of both, but what helped the first season so much is that it was never overly fixated on padding out any particular segment. The arcs were leaner. Even if it was no masterpiece, the author was able to cover up his weaknesses that are so apparent in any extended ... arc like this one. An array of emotions were covered, we had humor (often not great, but more varied and not as cringe as what we get here); there were a lot of villains, minor and major, who had their different motivations, sob-filled quasi-redemption arcs, backstories, etc.; a wider range of environments and characters to explore. Most of all, the pacing was vastly better and it was never so samey. It's a simple heroic shonen series with straightforward morality, a thematic emphasis on family, a bit more melodrama than the average, and though it's more or less your typical story of good vs evil, it's an enjoyable enough retelling of familiar themes with excellent fight choreography and visuals.

Season 2 starts off at a snail’s pace. We’re first bogged down with Rengoku’s loose ends in a snoozer of a first episode, then it's off to the entertainment district.

We’re formally introduced to another of the Hashira, Uzui, the “flashy” shinobi. Being flashy and using the adjective to describe everything he approves of is the closest to a notable character trait that he has. He’s no stranger to nail polish (two colors for extra flashiness), makeup, gaudy jewelry, etc. He bases his views of everything on whether or not it is flashy or the opposite, and that’s where too large of a chunk of the humor of the show is derived from this season (not that the humor has ever been the show’s strongest point). He honestly looks like a stupid drag queen ninja action figure. He’s loyal and fights for his friends, and he has an uninteresting backstory. He also has three wives, another mainstay for jokes. One wife wouldn’t have been flat enough, so they had to give us busty bimbo triplets for maximum flatness—they’re paper thin other than their boobs. God, I hope this character and his three wives are dead by the end of this.

You know how in comedy anime in the 90s and the early 2000s they would have the main or other male characters dress in drag and “funny” hijinks would ensue? That’s basically episodes 2-5 or so in a nutshell. We’re subjected to different variations of the same thing in three different venues, following Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke, until they finally meet up for the action half of the arc. The fact that I found myself wishing for the often tiresome antics of the three mains from the first season shows just how painful and soulless these segments are. Action junkies will be disappointed because it takes about 5-6 episodes before the fights really get started. The story and setting are much too simple for this amount of padding, and none of what precedes the fights manages to create any kind of investment in the action or generate interest in the villains.

The action and animation are pretty solid and there’s the same active camera that KNY and Ufotable have been known for, but the fight scenes are a bit drawn-out and overly gimmicky. There are only two demons for this season: one of them is a one trick pony and pretty much just turns her hair and sash into sharp, tendril-like blades, swerving through the air with fluid camera and 3D assisted animation; it doesn’t have the grace of the fabled Itano Circus missile pattern animation (at least not the good examples, like 2D Macross), but it’s close enough. She spends most of the time just flailing them around and the characters block and dodge. The other demon has blood manipulation powers and is a BIT more creative. A sizable amount of the action is just him and the Hashira flicking their gleaming blades around at high speeds and the occasional explosion.

There are some twists and turns in pretty typical shonen fashion, and Tanjiro is stretched-out far beyond his limits to the point of absurdity. For some reason, Zenitsu is sleep fighting for most of his scenes, there is a ridiculous "fake death" segment where Inosuke MOVES HIS HEART to avoid death (this is painfully bad and it's never even hinted at before it happens), and there are plenty of parts where the baddies waste valuable opportunities. Like what on earth was the villain doing when one of the kunoichi was at his mercy? He just grabs her face for like 5 minutes while Tanjiro shambles around. There are so many instances where our heroes should be dead, but they have some ridiculous comebacks. The villains are simply spiteful and not interesting or sympathetic in the slightest. Nevertheless, I can't help but feel sorry for them, because the way this was written, they were cheated out of a win. The heroes STOLE this with dirty, dirty writing.

All of the drama is just drab, dead, and done Rengoku fire-eyebrows stuff at the beginning (I forgot about him after Train Slayer, okay? I just don’t care), a bit of “Oh, Tanjiro, you’re so nice” melodrama, and SLOW flashbacks to the boob trio gushing over flash-senpai. The only remotely decent scene is a short one with Nezuko, since at least that is a natural progression for the characters and isn't senseless. Zenitsu grows a bit of a spine and can play a mean shamisen, so I guess there’s that…

Sure hope season 3 can return to the more fast-paced style of season 1. Better villains would be helpful.

Openminded i begun watching Demon Slayer Yuukaku-hen, i thought it would be a good anime though i was let down its bad character development, poor establishment of power and mediocore story structure i cant really reccomend this anime to anyone over the many genuinely good well constructed anime out there.

Demonslayer Yuukaku-hen follows tanjiro as he, inosuke and zenitsu are guided by the sound hashira uzui tengen into the red light district in pursuit of an upper rank demon.

The animation in this anime is undeniably good, i feel however the emphasize on fight scenes really takes away from the story; to have slowed ... down animation and freeze frames is common throughout anime and can emphasize and exxagerate aspects of the story however demonslayer overuses and overnarrates this technique to the point where it can subtract from the story making what couldve been great scenes felt sluggish and overworked. Demonslayer has good animation with mediocore synergy to the story.

The audio in demonslayer is good and helps emphasize the story; though it lacks personality, demonslayers audio lacks an identity as i watched demonslayer i experienced deja vu; sounds which i heard before; generic shounen anime music, though to its merit the audio is well conducted with no faults.
Demonslayers audio is good; though it is reused often and lacks identity.

The characters in demonslayer lack power balance, personality and intrigue all personality traits they possess seem forced or unnatural, made artifically.
Demonslayers powerlevels fluctuate largely between episodes in an obnoxiously in high contrast. On one episode Tengen is portrayed as being onpar with an upper while in another being weak and timid, when tanjiro, nezuko or zenitsu suddenly gain overwhelming strengh it often goes unexplained or is explained through a poorly narrated flashback. Demonslayer adjusts their characters strength too freely ruining what little tension it developed, leaving no room for uncertainty, tension.
The characters in demonslayer are dissapointing, transient.

My experience watching Yuukaku-hen has been one of the worst ive had in a while. There are many reasons for this, the most detrimental one being how badly the story is constructed and paced.

I would not advise anyone to watch Yuukaku hen unless forced to or as a last resort.
there are thosands of great anime out there; anime better then demonslayer yuukaku hen..

I am tired of people rating this series a 10/10 and calling it the best thing since birth control.

Contains spoilers

This series is nothing but an overhyped normie show. All the normies who love it almost never talk about the plot nor characters and only talk about how good the animation is.

Part 1: Animation and sound design.

The only thing the normies get right about the series is the animation. It is full of high quality sakuga everywhere you look. The compositing is godlike as this is Ufotable. However, even though the animation is incredible and the fight scenes are well choregraphed, there are still some issues. ... The backgrounds do not fit the style at all, they are too realistic for the world. The fire effects in the background do not look like Rengoku's flames, they look like normal fire. The only other series which has real fire in the background is Ex-arm(this part was a joke, the fire just does not fit the world).

I would not say the animation is the best I have seen, far from it. It is incredible, but the dialogue scenes and anything other than the fights feel so still and lifeless. At least they still a bit. The best animation I have seen from a show is Mushoku Tensei. It's animation was like crack for the eyes and everything looked consistently amazing. Including the dialogue scenes.

The sounds sound nice and the soundtrack fits. It just has no banger's.

Part 2: The story and characters.


The story is the most boring thing I have ever seen. It is literally 3 pieces of cardboard and a chad fighting a demon and that's it. There is no deeper meaning or anything interesting going on in the behind. It is just a really long fight scene. Also some parts of the story is just plot armour. Like, Inosuke should have died from the poison. Him being able to resist the poison is actual BS. Also Nezuko going beast mode then falling asleep and then waking up when the plot needed her, was also there. During the story, tone is more inconsistent than the animation of Burrito. Daki goes from threating to useless hoe in the span of a minute, 86 times. The plot is basic so the normies do not have to think about anything and only watch the fights.

There are so many inconsistencies. Like how does Tanjiro almost decapitate Daki, but wait he forgot to breathe. Just kill that dumb hoe already. Also how did they not die, they defeated many Hashira before. The group should have already died.



The characters are still the exact same with no development. They feel the same and have no depth to them. Zenistu is still an annoying little bitch. There is only one character who is more than one dimensional. The sound pillar Tengen, or the absolute chad who also carries this arc. He has an interesting personality, motivation and goals. He is still basic, don't get me wrong. But for a side character in an arc, he's fine.

Also the ranking system is complete BS and if it was accurate, all the upper moons should have died. Also since Nezuko is so strong, why did she not become a lower or upper moon demon????????

Some other things I need to talk about is the voice acting. They speak so slowly that I need to watch the episodes at 1.25% speed in order for them to sound normal. Also the op by the queen AIMER slaps so hard.


4/10 overrated as hell and has such a high score on MAL. This show has a higher score than Mushoku Tensei and Re:ZERO. 2 shows which are better in almost every single way by a long shot.

Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of the most popular anime of current generation. If you are a anime fan, you must have heard about it or even watched some clips of it roaming around the internet.
If you are new to anime, you will think it's great. But when you watch other shows like- My hero academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach and others, you will understand that this "great" show falls short in execution and over-use of several things like- dramatic monologue,

Story - 2
Tanjiro, Innosuke and Zenitsu- the trio goes in undercover investigation under one of the 9 commanders known as- HASHIRA and for this mission ... the hashira is "Sound Hashira". The undercover investigation was to find the wives of the hashira who have gone missing while collecting info on the Demon and rescue them. The trio have never done such thing as undercover investigation and stand out a lot. Strangely, they find out the location of the wives held captive despite being discovered. The trio and the hashira then fight against the demons to rescue the wives and protect the city. Only the basics are there but the execution is bad. I don't know how people find it fun.

Animation, Art- 5
Special effects are quite great like the previous season but seems a bit too much and for that reason, you may not even understand what is going on.
During the fight scenes, the focus is on the main characters of the fight as usual but the environment is bland, boring and dead. They are fighting on the rooftops of buildings and yet, there's barely anyone in the street or complaining despite telling us that the city is quite lively at night. The fight scene occurs at night.
The fight scenes get boring as there's no consistency. In one moment, Demon slayers are winning and in another, the demons are winning. It gets more tedious and stupid in episode 9 and 10.

Sound- 6
The tracks are quite good to get you in the scenes and feel them. But due to the dull fighting scenes, the soundtracks are not fully utilized.
Every character's voice acting is good. But I specially liked the voice acting of the character- "Female Demon of the Upper Demon" Daki. Why did I like it? Mostly because of her character switch from a "ruthless, rough character" to a "little spoiled and a crybaby sister". Sadly, I found the voice of Daki's elder brother terribly annoying.

Character- 1
There's no character development. Despite some flashbacks, monologues, there is NO development. Yes, not even our main character is developed well other than getting typical "power-up from fighting stronger opponents" that you may have already seen in other animes.

Enjoyment- 2
There is ONLY ONE episode that is a lot enjoyable just like the first season, and for this season, that is episode 6. Unlike the first season, you can ditch all other episodes and probably won't even miss anything. And if you do watch episode 9 and 10, you will hate yourself for watching this pointless fight scenes filled episodes.

Overall, I give it a score of 3.
Even Fairy Tail is a lot better than this series. If you have watched the first season and even the second season, I tell you that this same stuff goes on even in the later parts. So, I recommend you all to just watch the specific fighting clips you find in the web because there's nothing else going for this series.

I loved season one... then I saw the movie..... it was good, but a lil bit to long.... THEN I saw season 2..... WTF was that.

I never watched a serie in so much agony... I wanted to stop after episode 3.... but then I wanted to finish it, cus I was naive to think maybe it's still has a good ending... well jokes on me...

The screaming, the voices , the way of talking, the random dumb jokes, the stupid faces, it was just to much. I wished they spent more time writing a good story, cus even the plot line was horrible. It ... just kept getting worse and worse even when they were trying to end it and I finally thought it was at peace.... NOPE.. the agony till the last second...

They really butchered every character development, their growth is just to surreal and random.

Just watch season 1 and keep it at that.

There is only one thing I am thinking about is: why it got a better scores than the very first season? I don't understand, I can't comprehend. The graphics are so much more beautiful, I do not argue. BUT! How can something so boring be so? I tried not to fall asleep, I tried to find the latest beauty in the second season, but I couldn’t find anything I liked (except for the visual world).

There was no point in dragging out constant fights, inventing an extra stuffing story, pulling fighting techniques/sentences. I so much was bored of not remembering what I saw and what I ... didn’t. Annoying new boss / bosses who had no use other than self-pity, outside of crying. This season didn’t give me any extra experience, I wish I could have missed it so I wouldn’t be discouraged from the third season.

I'm very, very angry. I’m not such a big fanatic of this anime, but I was really looking forward to seeing if he could show me something new and see if he could give me what the very first season, plus the film, could offer.

BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!

This was a pain to sit through.
The main focus of this season is a single fight between the Demon Slayers and a Rank 6 demon. The producers used 9 episodes to portray this fight, dragging it out to the point of boredom. During this long, long fight, you get the typical shitty shounen tropes: villain talks to themselves for 10 minutes; heroes that seemed like they were knocked out, out of the fight, lying in a pool of blood on the ground suddenly find more will to fight by force of friendship/love/insert other trope here, and then conveniently save their friends from certain death, at ... the absolutely last second. These tropes get repeated episode after episode, with no end in sight.
The first two episodes of this season were interesting in terms of world building and introducing some new characters, but once the fight started, this show was done. The pacing was way off. This entire arc would've been better off had it been condensed into a 90 minute movie instead.