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Kimetsu no Yaiba
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
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Kimetsu no Yaiba

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Blade of Demon Destruction

Japanese: 鬼滅の刃

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 23

Chapters: 207

Status: Finished

Published: Feb 15, 2016 to May 18, 2020

Genres: Action, Fantasy

Theme: Historical

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Gotouge, Koyoharu (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.18¹ (scored by 278,415 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #479²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #9

Members: 439,626

Favorites: 29,158

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Oct 28, 2019

twigssss

Not Recommended

Preliminary (170/207 chp)

Not gonna lie I went into this series fresh off the anime and had high hopes and expectations. I was sorely disappointed with what I found.

Story:

The anime strongly reminds of Magi (manga version) and so diving head first into KnY's manga, I expected some strong but compact narrative arcs. What I got felt like a cheap imitation. The arcs are compact alright, almost to the point of rushing them. Everything that happens within a set arc seems to have limited impact on what happens outside of them. Where a truly inspired series like Magi sees what happens in each arc have a definitive impact on ...

May 17, 2020

Kaizoku-Otaku

Not Recommended

This review will contain spoilers!!

If you are easily triggered. Then please turn away from this review since I will not be holding anything back at all. I've said my piece about the first season of Demon Slayer anime. It was rough around the edges but land and sea above the awful of a mess known as the manga depiction. No hard feelings to anyone who enjoyed this crap. I mean, I was one of you as well for a very short period. Then I woke up and saw that Demon Slayer is not the least bit deserving of all the hype and fame it's getting ... from a writing standpoint. After reading blindingly, ignoring my own feelings and letting the viewpoints of another affect my judgments and way of thinking. Just utterly throwing my own feelings in a circle of a pile of confusion, not trying to understand my genuine beliefs. I was able to come to terms with my actual views once I shut everything else out. I am not mad at the author, and quite happy they are selling millions on their work. But I can't say the same about the community. I am disappointed even if I do understand why Demon Slayer blew up as it did. We enjoy what we enjoy, and everyone is different. There's nothing wrong with that at all. Not to mention, it helped the manga community get more readers and prestige, and that's a big plus, no doubt.

That anime adaptation from Ufotable was a blessing and with it trending like mad everywhere. Curious newcomers, countless other individuals in the anime community, ate that shit up like it was cake. It's no doubt hard to differentiate the taste when you've not eaten or, in this case, read or watched something genuinely worth your attention because it's simply great. I am willing to bet any numbers of shounen such as Black Clover, which is like far better than Demon Slayer and deserves some actual attention. If that shit got a proper adaptation putting a strong emphasis on the production value and even making sure the experience in the anime flows smoothly like running river. It would totally blow up and sell like hotcakes. That goes for shit like Fairy Tail as well. Black Clover for one possesses most of the same elements as Demon Slayer. But the execution is far clearer and much more concise and decisive. At least it was when I read it. I need to get back on that. I will throw this out there. Noelle is a greatly written character with flaws and everything nice. She is properly written tsundere to boot. For me, that's a big fat cherry on top. Asta feels real and is not void of emotions or a sense of danger and all that.

The reason I think Demon Slayer doesn't deserve any of the fame it's getting from a writing standpoint - it's a mess with no lick of direction, genuineness in it's established themes and character drama. The impact feels so lackluster, and the deaths don't even affect my emotions a bit. It's so dull to read, and the pacing has no sense of balance or satisfaction. The cuts to events feel forced, half-assed. It's merely just damn random and is not running in paths without needless hindrances or broken roads. Even after all that, there's so much more I want to say and get off my chest. I would admit that Demon Slayer had the potential and elements to turn out as a decent shounen. If the author was not in a hurry or Weekly Shounen Jump didn't rush them to finish the story. I don't know if they were forced or not, but it has already happened many times. I don't want to open that can of utter worms, but it's obvious which shounen I am referencing, among others.

As for Demon Slayer, nothing about the story interested me whatsoever. Most of the characters were just happened to be a means to an end. But it had a good cast of characters with distinct enough personalities. Shinobu was like such a best girl, and for me, it is far more interesting than Kanao. She had this simple sense of complexity by putting on a facade behind her face when she is actually angry about lots of things. It's such a shame she was killed before her character's potential got fully utilized. Kanao is adorable and charming, but unlike Shinobu, which at least got somewhat fleshed out, Kanao's change was jarring and didn't sit well with me. At least it seems like Tanjiro and her got together. So that's good and gave me at least some sense of comfort. But they seriously did my girl Shinobu so damn nasty. Inousuke was by far the only interesting character out of the main trio. But just like more or less anyone else, his growth was sloppy and not well executed. I wanna say that each of the Hashiras deserved more build-up than they got.

Sadly, we only got something resembling a jittery backstory, and many were interesting, no doubt. Still, you could see that the author was in a rush to get back to the action. I think my favorite has to be Iguro's, which was seriously messed up. The way they tore his mouth to match that nightmare was a bit awkward and just a bit too much? But I definitely wanted him to bath in happiness after going through that tragic and scarring event. Also, that snake lady is damn nightmare-fuel. In just that one panel, she was much scarier than Muzan. I am not getting a wink of sleep tonight. I actually felt the chemistry between Iguro and Mitsuri. Sadly, once again, their relationship was not as sufficiently fleshed out or built-up like I wanted it to be. But it was by far my favorite ship. So unlike most characters. I felt their death but then that ending happened and my suffering was for nothing.

So let's talk about the big bad of Demon Slayer. Muzan so insufferable as a villain, and I cared little how the whole fight with him went. It was going places way too quickly. I didn't get enough time to absorb how much of a threat Muzan was since he was zig-zagging around places chopping up demon slayers left and right. But it didn't carry any weight or impact. It was obviously forced down upon us to make us feel frightened of Muzan. But I was like okay all the time. I have said it before that death is a pretty severe double-edged sword that can bite you in the back if one doesn't know how to use it well. This story throws that at us literally all the times like it's a tool to make the vibe heavy and tell you that the stakes are high. Anyone can drop dead, but it's pointless if you know it's going to happen, and when you barely have an emotional bond with the cast, it's not going to affect you. Plus, once it's used and the character dies.

We don't get time to process what just happened before we simply start moving to other things. It doesn't help either Muzan feels just like a joke with many loose screws in his already small brain. "I am like a natural disaster, so you shouldn't care if someone died" or something like that. I was seriously laughing out loud when those words came out of that freak's mouth. That's just a taste, so prepare to get your brain-cells eaten by Muzan stupidity. If you decide to read it. To make Muzan truly scary, the author should've given him common sense and some level of intelligence. Simply, flaunting your powers around will only work for so long. Just for like the first time, when you know nothing about said individual. This goes for many things. But in this case, a villain's appearance is not the only thing matters to make you respect or admire them. There are ideals, personality, and of course, flaws, and more. Not to the point, it's all over the place. Those things need to bounce off well with each other and not straight out devour each other.

What the hell happened to my boi Azaka? He was the best and the most entertaining villain in Demon Slayer. Too bad the guy's name, I don't even remember killed him, and I couldn't care less about him. Since he was just in that one arc and hardly felt well-established. We'll see how the anime does his introduction and all that. I already hear the angry mob consisting of the Demon Slayer out there. Azaka was the best among all the demons and had the biggest amount of potential. I would've liked to see him be replaced with Tanjiro as a main, to be honest. Now Muzan death scene was the most hilarious shit I have seen ever. There was a meme of how Muzan turned into a baby. I completely burst out in laughter. That shit was honestly GOLD. Then when he was such a manipulative jerk trying to control Tanjiro but it didn't work. So Muzan resorted to begging him and probably crying inside. That was good entertainment. We've waited a long time for Nezuko to turn to human, but man was that whole scene so bland and like whatever. I didn't feel any emotions coming out from that panel at all. Can we talk about how Giyuu and Tanjiro basically became the best bros? Still, it was never established with security or ingenuity in mind? It came from the left-field, just like most of the directions in this story.

Finally, I want to just say that regardless of all the death scenes that came from literally nowhere. Simply reincarnating them makes the situation much worse than it already is. Yes, those who died are not really alive, but calling it simply reincarnation and coincidence is not the best thing to say. It makes the already shaky story filled to the brim with all kinds of issues just crumble to utter pieces. Let's not get started on how Tanjiro time and time again. Became stronger without any clues that didn't feel wishy-washy, besides the obvious things like his hair and that mark on his head. The power system is really simple but effective and might be awkwardly written, but it does the job. That said, many of the characters' execution and how they went from zero-to-hundred was cheap and ineffective. I realized I have been simply focused on the character aspect, but the world-building was not there either. We don't even know many if any of the locations name. It all just seems so damn insignificant. One more thing I want to bring up is the author, Koyoharu, who uses tell and show at the same time. Most annoyingly, so it makes reading through Demon Slayer boring and lame. Since we already are seeing much of the things that are happening in the drawings, so we don't need to go all bananas about the details. Just a light touch be more than enough.

I don't like drawing most of the time, either. The action is rough, and I can't properly see what's happening. I mentioned already that emotions don't get conveyed properly through facial expressions or behavior most of the time. There are rare occasions when we get some good eye-candy with details in the background and character art. It's not in the slightest the best artwork I have seen. But the author can draw once they put their mind to it. So I wonder if the author truly enjoyed writing Demon Slayer? I sadly didn't enjoy it as much as I thought initially. It was all over the place, no sense of anything, and that final chapter was terrible. It simply focused on a new batch of characters and went nowhere with that. I would've liked to see some silver of world-building with how the world became after the demons were killed with details. Maybe see the public reaction to the events and properly tie all the damn loose ends. Being how the characters went from this to that and so forth. Btw, I think Nezoku lost something when she returned back to human. Did she seriously marry Zenitsu? Overall, Demon Slayer is probably the worst shounen I have read in recent memories, if not ever so far. I enjoyed bits and pieces of the beginning. It had the potential to become slightly more. If only the author wasn't set by being satisfied by mere cheap thrills that last barley a few moments.

May 23, 2020

noyuhs

Not Recommended

this is my first review ever so i hope i do it right

spoilers ahead

...

May 15, 2020

ExtraCheesy

Not Recommended

Preliminary (205/207 chp)

Kimetsu no yaiba came out of nowhere and placed on top in a short time so I decided to give it a go, compared to many shounen manga out there it didn't had that much chapters to read, and honestly after finishing this I really can't say I liked it

Story 4 : it's pretty flat to be honest, entire motivation of the tanjirou is just curing his sister other than this he and no reason to join demon slayer corps. Author really tries her best to give those demons some background but only think she can do is info dumping their back stories and ...

Dec 17, 2023

LegendOfMazda

Not Recommended

Well-written

2 THESSALONIANS 2:11 “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:”

This simple passage perfectly summarizes the success and story of DEMON SLAYER/ Kimetsu No Yaiba. It can be entirely attributed to the anime adaptation; the adaptations animation quality as well as visual effects. We know this is true because the manga volume sales flopped for nearly 4 years until the show came out. Truly befitting of such a fraudulent series of biblical proportions.

STORY:
You must be STRONGLY DELUDED to think that the story of Demon Slayer is anything, but one aimed at people ...

Aug 23, 2020

Vimhhh

Not Recommended

Honestly I thought this would be something interesting but as more and more new chapters came out I started to have less and less hope for it.

My biggest issue was the pacing, it has long drawn out fight scenes and flashbacks but the story moments which should be long and properly articulated are pushed to the sidelines to fight yet another generic villain. Another issue I had was how formulaic it was, the whole series was just this on repeat:

New demon shows up
Tanjiro meets a new Demon Slayer
Tanjiro and the others almost lose
Flashback detailing some character's past life which doesn't seem like it fits with ...

Feb 14, 2022

bee_boop

Not Recommended

To be completely honest, I was struggling with myself on whether or not I should give a lower score for the manga. Demon Slayer was the second manga I had ever read after getting up to date with Tokyo Revengers. I was so excited to read the it as I had greatly enjoyed the anime and the movie that had come out. However, my enjoyment was practically stepped and spit on. I'll try not to include any spoilers, but this will be a long review, so brace yourself.

The beginning of the manga wasn't too bad. The content I had watched in season 1 was basically ... all the same, and I had no problem rereading the scenes. The art at first was a little inconsistent, but it gets better the more you read. It's nothing Berserk level, but the style is cute and it conveys the story well, so I have no problems with that, either. I started having issues after the Infinity Train Arc.

The overall pacing of the fight scenes was confusing and horrendous. They were either too long to the point that it was impractical to keep fighting, or so short that it made me question the purpose of the fight to begin with. There's only so many plot twists you can pull in one scene, and there's only so many techniques, broken limbs, and broken swords that you can have before it gets ridiculous. Especially in the last arc and fight with Muzan, there were plot twists added that can only be attributed to lazy story writing. I know how hard it is to structure fight scenes, especially the big one at the end. These "plot twists" are meant to aid the characters in the fight, but they could've been structured so much better so it didn't seem like they just appeared out of thin air.

As for the worldbuilding, there's practically none. There's almost no filler whatsoever save for about two or three training arcs in the entire manga. The characters are forced to only better themselves during the fight scenes between them and the demons, so their improvement is starkly linear. The characters *have* to win every fight because there's nothing to fall back on. I'm not saying you have to be Naruto, but filler is there to break up tension, immerse you into the world, and add depth to the characters' current disposition. Of course, learning the backstory of these characters also adds depth, but not in the same way "present" character development would. Besides getting better at fighting, all the characters are pretty much static. It's so disappointing as well. The characters and their backstories are so well written, but they suffer due to the quality of the plot.

Also, practically EVERY character dies. Not even a spoiler or exaggeration. You could guess and point to a character. Most likely dead. The deaths are only included for shock value. I can't think of ANY purpose you'd need to kill off that many characters, especially with the way it was written because most of them died in one scene, one arc, alone. Really egregiously executed. Now, I'm not saying mass murder never works. For example, Jujutsu Kaisen and Attack on Titan execute their death scenes extremely well in my opinion. However, Demon Slayer kills off almost all of its "important" characters—important meaning they contribute something to the story whether they're more of a side character or main character.

Speaking of characters, it also begs the question as to why Tanjiro is the protagonist to begin with. I think his character is a refreshing take on the protagonist archetype, but I would've loved to see more growth from him and more *use* of his character. I appreciate the side characters getting a good amount of the spotlight, but those side stories overshadow Tanjiro completely. He's practically not even at the forefront of the story 60% of the time, maybe even more. What sets him apart from the rest of the characters? What makes HIM the protagonist out of everyone else? The manga fails to answer this question and fails to add emphasis or any sort of quality that makes Tanjiro special. I mean, he learns sun breathing and some other questionable techniques (poorly added into the story as well) that help him fight, but other characters are widely stronger and more capable than him, and he barely plays a role in the final fight until the very end where the power of friendship and love magically saves the day and prevents the next cycle of destruction. Boom. Happily ever after. Woo hoo.

The ending is probably the worst part of the manga. It's obviously very rushed and makes little to no sense whatsoever. I was so confused reading because most of it is just a stall for time and the way it resolves is absolutely awful. It killed any redeeming qualities of the manga for me. Mangakas are people too, so stories made by them will have faults here and there, and I'm perfectly fine with that. But the entirety of Demon Slayer suffers from lazy story writing trying to piece everything together into a somewhat coherent mush, and a rushed ending because it seemed like the mangaka had absolutely no idea how to conclude the story.

I think I covered all the bases I wanted to. I hope the anime will be better and change certain things from the manga, but from what I've seen it's been following the series to a T. I haven't seen the second season because I'm still not over my disappointment from the manga. Also, take this review with a grain of salt because I read the manga a couple months ago LOL.

Nov 28, 2021

Ammarryu

Not Recommended

This is my first review ever. And it will be about demon slayer , this show started from being something meh to alright to absolutely horrible, there is simply no reason this is is high rated except that the anime carried, when you have anime like jujutsu kaisen being such a new great gen manga and then see people compare it to this is just not it. (Spoilers below)

The Good :
Since this is the manga I can’t say the breathing styles look cool so that’s out of the window, but this manga has good characters like for example akaza, shinobu, inosuke, koukushibo,yorichii , sanemi and ...

May 18, 2020

MangaObservatory

Not Recommended

I am disappointed. I began reading this with so much enthusiasm and interest but as the story progressed I gradually lost more and more interest. I had high hopes that the story could gradually redeem itself but I don't believe it did.

Story: My impressions of the first couple of arcs were very solid. I genuinely had an interest on how the story would continue. But after a while there was a very noticeable pattern. Fight a demon, get a backstory, feel bad for them, then defeat them. Rinse and repeat. The arcs never really felt all that meaningful and somewhat forgettable at times. The last ...

Apr 8, 2024

kmsc_deukae

Not Recommended

Eu comecei a ler após o fim da primeira temporada do anime, não tinha achado nada demais mas fiquei curioso porque, aparentemente, o mangá tinha se tornado um sucesso. Comecei a partir do fim do anime e fiquei fascinado como o mangá á apenas o maior exemplar de mediocridade já feito na indústria. Não que ele se ja ruim, não é. É apenas, NO MÁXIMO, OK. Tem algumas coisas divertidas, ideias interessantes mal trabalhadas, personagens com bons designs e mal desenvolvidos, lutinhas, uma história sem sal, um tema bobo e trabalhado de forma quase infantil(é bom ser bom e por isso pessoas boas salvam pessoas) ...

Jul 20, 2020

octoberry

Not Recommended

Manga, of course, is not a masterpiece. Just a good shonen. The ending is not so bad, but compared with all the potential inherent in the manga from the very beginning is definitely a profane.

But just many points have not remained uncovered.

- The main antagonist and his motives in comparison with other demons are not understood at all. The most powerful demon, who also lived a thousand years and so merge everything at the end, turning him into another cached villain, a la miserable - I am afraid of death and the only purpose of my life is to become immortal and invulnerable.

- The arch ...

Mar 22, 2021

-vanja-

Not Recommended

Oh boy... This is gonna be a small review full of spoilers.

Shinobu should create some poison or cure for a good plot. What did the hell happen? Everyone was talking about this anime and manga, maybe I expect something special, unique, but this is a typical shonen for young teens, something in a tier of Yu Gi Oh. This was a painful read, but if you want to hate and judge something, you should finish it. I don't like to use the word overrated, but this, what the hell people see in this story? What is so special, where is the good part, where is ...

Nov 24, 2021

LuciTheProphet

Not Recommended

At the time of writing, Season 2 (which covers a good arc in the manga) has yet to be adapted.

(If I'm referring to the mangaka I will use they/them pronouns because of the potential they're non-binary)

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a manga about a boy named Tanjiro becoming a demon slayer after his family got slaughtered by one, in turn his sister becomes a demon but actually doesn't want to fight him and tries to defend Tanjiro.

There are a lot of cliches in the manga that (at-first) made it a very enjoyable read but then just got annoyingly repetitive. one of the ...

Dec 28, 2020

Shado-kun

Not Recommended

Pegue toda característica ruim de shounens de porrada no geral, coloque num pote e veja o resultado: kimetsu no yaiba.
O mangá parece ser só um esqueleto de um battle shounen, algo que poderia vir a ser uma coisa de verdade, mas falhou em ser o que se propõe. É básico em tudo que pode, mas não um básico legal, é um básico diferente, com um quê de fezes e um pacing rápido, tão rápido que não dá tempo das coisas acontecerem. A autora apenas risca linhas da listinha de itens narrativos básicos de shounenzões e espera que nos emocionemos, mesmo que arcos que normalmente seriam ...

Nov 19, 2023

ErrOrnAn

Not Recommended

Preliminary (119/207 chp)

Really bad.Why?

I write review for the first time so rate my review to know what to improve.

ART-2
its really bad.Its drawed lazy and its bad.I hate it because there isnt putted effort and 75% from the art is looking goofy and just simlpe like eyes.Many times eyes are drawed like ahh black dot.But if you search for funny and goofy looking art kny is for you.

story-3
If you search for deep story avoid kny because its way too simple and isnt that deep as jjba,aot,one piece,naruto,bleach or MANY other mangas.to Mention every backstory is something like-in our family we were 7 kids and our dad beated us ...

Feb 23, 2024

Leopold09

Not Recommended

Kimetsu No Yaiba, in my honest opinion, comes across as a manga that, at times, feels hastily executed in terms of world-building, character development, and many other aspects that, in my view, are not well-delivered. I even find the action in some scenes to be somewhat dull (and I am specifically addressing the manga medium here, as the anime significantly elevates the quality of its action sequences). I perceive this as just another run-of-the-mill shounen battle manga, and towards the end, I was on the verge of giving up, almost tossing the book aside in disappointment. It seemed to me that the author was in ...

Aug 8, 2021

ez_real

Not Recommended

STORY: The story start one of the most ridiculous and contrived way. All his family gets brutally murdered outside his sister which instantly becomes for Tanjiro his only reason to keep living forgetting everyone else. After the first few arcs it start progressing and gets interesting with the introduction of the Ashira and Muzan. From that point on the surface nothing important happens they fights and that's it, the Muzan vs demon slayer though is mysterious enough to keep you interested. The story reach its peak with the confrontation between Kagaya and Muzan, this moment is easily the best moments of the series.

ART: For a ...

Jan 8, 2022

alcatraz_64

Not Recommended

Demon Slayer is nice to look at, but sadly the plot is repetitive and boring, albeit coherent. There is nothing in the second half of the manga that you've not seen in the first. Every fight resolves itself in the exact same way: the protagonists are losing, until suddenly they aren't, through the wonderful power of cliche and bad writing.

The writer frequently tries to substantiate their villains by force-feeding you their entire tragic backstory right before their deaths. Most, if not all of Tanjiro's peers are too one dimensional to care about in a substantial way. However, almost all of the characters are at least ...

Oct 4, 2022

Matan249

Not Recommended

Demon slayer is a sorry excuse of an uninspired battle shonen and a perfect example of how to not write a story.
you probably know already how the story goes so I'm gonna skip over the brief summary

Let's start with the pros
- Great fights
- Cool power system
yeah that's pretty much it
Moving on to the cons
- Uninspired side cast
- basic story
...

May 4, 2023

MthrFckrs

Not Recommended

This Manga is absolutely overrated. The art wasn't good the plot and writing is generic and overused. The only good thing about this manga is the samurai theme that's it nothing special.Ufotable just made this (Below Average Manga) popular coz of their top tier animation.

It's better watch the Anime than reading this sht. It's not recommended. The Art style was hot garbage..

This Manga is absolutely overrated. The art wasn't good the plot and writing is generic and overused. The only good thing about this manga is the samurai theme that's it nothing special.Ufotable just made this (Below Average Manga) popular coz of their top tier ...