And yes this was taken down but now that i've watched 6 Episodes here is my review: If you want the overall here it is: Demon Slayer doesn't do anything new or ground breaking. The characters feel reused from other Shonens and the plot is like if Full Metal Alchemist and Tokyo Ghoul had a baby but that baby lacked drama, subtleties, or nuisanced characters. If you like Shonens, you'll like this show. It is entertaining but there's not much to it here.
If you're tired of the Shonen genre and hoped this show had even a little more depth to it's characters, world building and how it's presented you'll be disappointed and my review will consists of these faults.
Some more good (because I'm trying not to be a complete Debbie Downer eh!):
The use of mystery to introduce every monster of the week is entertaining. When Episode 6 began I was getting flashbacks to The Witcher 3 and Claymore and it was genuinely enthralling. Well...it was until it showed how he solves the mystery. Much of it gets boring when Tanjirou constantly says things that are obvious and not needed to be said and it contributes to this anime's over use of narration but at first it was nice.
There is fun action. If you're watching this show just to watch some sword fights, you're golden.
Art is nice. Animation is stellar, not much to complain, you may get a few ugly CG moments but it passes quickly.
With that said and BTW SPOILERSSSSSSSS.....lets go
Episode one wasn't good in my opinion as Demon Slayers is one of the most generic animes I’ve seen in a long time. Everything that it does has been done a thousand times and then some in other shows, some even more competent than this one. However I don’t really downscore an anime on the uniqueness of its story because every story has been told before. Without looking at the story what we are left is the presentation and in my opinion, presentation and execution matters more. You can have a beautiful, poignant story filled with love and anguish but if it’s presented sloppily, the plots don’t hold together, or characters don’t feel believable then….who gives a shit. And well, Demon Slayer is presented rather poorly.
Let’s talk about the good. The art and animation is fairly competent in their style and use of CG. The art direction is genuinely beautiful and subtle. Showering white snow and the faint puffs of warm breathes dissipating from characters really brought to life this fantasy world and it’s themes of the icy cruelty that the world befalls its citizens. Even though we don’t yet see this cruelty aside from the rumors of Demons roaming about, which we don’t even get to see. That’s about the only thing I found good in the first episode. I really wished this subtly was put into EVERYTHING ELSE in the episode.
The protagonist’s family’s sole purpose is to garner pity from the audience. They show how happy Tanjirou’s family is but this is immediately contradicted with Tanjirou narrating “We still are struggling to survive even though we look like a happy family”. This problem doesn’t just stem from this anime but it’s within the anime industry in general: they have the unfortunate habit of telling and not showing. Without Tanjirou’s narration we would have no idea that they are poor and in dire need of income. Most of them seem fine in terms of health. They all wear rather colorful clothing that’s clean and none are starving or seemingly depressed about their situation. We don’t even see a clear divide between how people look in town compared to his family, how am I supposed to believe that they are struggling to live? I know that the reason why they don’t explore this is so that it’d make the audience feel even sadder when they die because it’s much more dramatic in terms of how the situation has now changed. From “look at us, we’re all one big family “ to “look at how horrible and cruel everyone has been massacred, aren't you sad?!!!”. I know I'm not being subtle here but neither is the anime. This does not do well for the believability of this struggling family and above all this doesn’t make me feel anything for them, as this plot device is very predictable, melodramatic, and done to death. What contributes to family’s lack of believability is their on the nose dialogue. Everyone in this story talks straight out and says everything that’s right on their mind. If they’re not doing that they’re narrating it for us, the audience because the writer (whether it’s the original author or the scriptwriter for the episode) doesn’t understand real human communication. Again, it doesn’t have to be real but because this is a story about people, even if they are exaggerated by anime levels they should be believable. People rarely speak what’s on their minds. We have our own goals, hidden agendas, wishes and so on. Because of that we don’t usually just say things straight out. We euphemise, lie, and avoid the truth to spare others or ourselves. When characters start speaking on the nose, it shows a lack of good characterization and demonstrates how lazy the writer is being. All the characters just start sounding the same. We as an audience like to have a sense of discovery about characters and formulate why a character says something. When it’s said straight out, the audience has nothing to hold on to. In essence, it’s BORING. Anyone could write stock characters like the family members of Tanjirou and Nezuko because there is no real character in them. If you don’t believe me, then tell me what each of their personalities are without resorting to vague cliches? You can’t. The mother is motherly and caring, the siblings are sweet and cute and cheer on their big brother, the slightly older but still younger brother to Tanjirou is sort of rebellious but still loves his big brother. They are all stock characters. Nothing more. So? Even if I am right, how does this negatively impact the story you ask? Well, who really gives a damn that they died? We had no attachment to them as they literally were introduced and killed off screen less than 9 minutes later. WHO CARES. And when the audience doesn’t care about one of the main drives that starts the hero’s journey, you’ve clearly done something wrong. We can’t identify with the motivations of Tanjirou (at least emotionally) and so why should we cheer him on. I’m not expressing that more time spent on characters would necessarily make them more developed although there is something to be said about that however how they are presented and established matters most. You can develop and make characters feel believable in a short amount of time but that takes subtly and showing not telling. For example in Star Wars: A New Hope we are introduced to Luke and his family and their deaths would eventually serve a similar purpose for his hero’s journey. However it’s in how they are portrayed that’s the most important. While Luke’s family wasn’t the most developed characters they were written with much more nuisance and conviction than the family in Demon Slayer. For one thing, Luke’s aunt and uncle do have goals and worries for their nephew that they do not express forwardly to him. They worry about him and if he would grow to be like his father. They care so much for him that they make the excuse that he still has work to do on the farm in order to prevent him from enlisting in the Imperial Academy. As I’ve stated they are not the most developed characters but they are good and do have solid believability for their roles. They don’t play up the “we are a happy family trope” in order to set you up for the tragedy. None of the other Kamado family has this nuisance in them. Nothing for us the audience to grasp onto, because if they did, their loss would be much more tragic. Instead they do the cliche thing in which they play up the happy moments in order to create even more of a dramatic shift when shit hits the fan. It’s lazy.
Lack of subtlety isn’t just affecting the character writing but the music as well. The score is very on the nose with the emotions it’s trying to get out of you. If it needs you to feel sad, it plays this high strings sad violin. If it’s intense action it’s this pulsing orchestra. Nothing that really stands out but in fact creates a lot of melodrama within the scenes that’s not needed. The scene where Tanjirou discovers all the mutilated bodies of his loved ones could have been much more effective without music at all because if done well we should have already been feeling sad for him. In fact no music would have set this scene apart and would have made it much more memorable because throughout the rest of the show music plays everywhere. However because the of the poor characterization and pacing they have to play up the music for the feeling to come across. It’s not good storytelling when you have to rely on something as a crutch to tell your story.
Speaking of crutches, the narration is terrible. Narration can be justified and done well such as in Oldboy (2003). Dae-su is captured within the first 10 minutes of the film and as he’s banging on his captor’s door he narrates “If they had told me it was going to be fifteen years, would it have been easier to endure.” What Dae-su says here is justified as throughout the sequence he seems to be losing his mind and contemplating such a thought gives him a false sense of hope, maybe even relief in his situation. We as an audience can participate in this too and even believe the opposite. “Had I’d been in his position and I knew i’d be there 15 years it’d kill me inside”. This narration also serves a purpose in providing exposition that doesn’t feel forced as it’s provided through a conflict in the story. Demon Slayer’s narration is out of control and seems like the only story telling device the author knows how to use. We even get narration from Giyuu who’s introduced in the same episode and starts having this minute long monologue in his head to the audience while he’s fighting Tanjirou. This is problematic for a few reasons. One: we don’t even know Giyuu, he was barely just introduced. WHY ARE WE SWITCHING OUR PERSPECTIVE TO ANOTHER CHARACTER ALREADY WHEN OUR MAIN PROTAGONIST HASN’T YET BEEN ESTABLISHED? Two: why does he care that Nezuko seem human enough to leave alive? This is more of a plot hole but it’s still a valid one. He’s a seasoned, demon hunter he should know how dangerous these things are and by letting Tanjirou have his way he’d be putting more people at risk to Nezuko. He even admitted that most of the time human-turned demons turn on their loved ones in a second’s glance even if they seem docile at first. The reason why he lets Nezuko live isn’t believable for the character that they set him out to be since he’s supposed to be this righteous type that serves the greater good no matter what. It’d make much more sense if maybe he was a crazed morally ambiguous demon hunter who’ve experimented on demons before and grew a fascination toward Nezuko since she seems to have kept some humanity. He let’s her and Tanjirou go because he wishes to see the outcome of their journey or whatever. You may not agree with my version but it’s a stronger reason for him letting them go than just optimism. Three: his monologue becomes a crutch for subtly and nuisance in the character. Maybe we don’t even need a reason why he let them go at first, we can hint at something in his past but not give in to it all the way, like maybe he’s had a similar experience or something but we do this in the moment of when he’s confronting Tanjirou through his interactions NOT INTERNAL MONOLOGUE. Let us see the anguish and horror on his face as he realize that the two survived a family massacre to tell the story and his reluctance to give Tanjirou answers. We can play off his character with these moments and give mystery to him and why he lets them go. This will create tension and internal conflict for his character and promises a character arc for him in the future. Already, by doing this he’d be much more interesting and plot progression won’t feel cheap.
Episodes 2 and 3 doesn’t do much to alleviate the problems with the show, although they are generally better now that we’re out of the beginning and heading towards the “meat” of the show. These episodes are adequate but they still suffer from that constant expositioning and narration. For no reason Tanjirou and other characters just keep saying things that we already know or can infer. The demon that slaughter the family in episode 2 is a prime example of what I mean. In the episode he clashes with Tanjirou and gets hacked in the throat. He states “Oh I can heal this is no time” and it heals. Why would he say that? It brings me out of the supposed tensed moment more than anything when I have to questioned what was gained from that response. A better way to handle it would be this:
(Tanjirou gazes from his fallen position to the demon before him. Its eyes widen with fear and pain as it clutches for its throat, a gaping crimson slit spitting blood everywhere. For a moment a wave of relief washes over him, believing that he had won the fight. The demon’s lips curl upwards into a sadistic snarl and his eyes fill with amusement. He cackles uncontrollably as he releases the grip on his throat. To Tanjirou’s surprise the wound is gone, only remaining is a faint line that keeps disappearing till it’s no more. The demon meets Tanjirou’s quivering eyes once more before pouncing onto him, with beastial force.)
It works better when you don’t treat your audience like idiots.
The fights lack tension. I don’t find the demons particularly threatening as they don’t really seem all that capable. Aside from a strong healing factor, humans seem like they can handle demons pretty well. Tanjirou is still a teenager but he’s managed to grapple with TWO demons without so much of a scratch. He even head-butts the demon and OF COURSE we get narration from the demon which says “ Urggh! His head is really hard!”. HIS HEAD IS REALLY HARD. He literally says that…..(it reminds me of: "Ow! Heat was Hot!" Kudos and cheers if you know the reference ;) )
It hurts the world building when we question the main threat of the whole series. If the author wanted Demons to come off as terrifying beasts he should be very exact in distinguishing the differences in power levels between humans and demons. The line gets pretty blurred in the OP as everyone is unleashing “Bankais” and doing superhuman feats and again later on during training when Makomo says you can become as strong as demons when you just “breathe” a certain way. The anime/manga Claymore does this significantly better by outright stating that humans are nowhere near the level of even a basic Yoma. Killing one would take years of training and understanding Yoma as seen with Raki and even then Yoma still have the added benefit that they are totally undetected by human means, which again puts them at a disadvantage. Even if the first demons they meet are supposed to be “low level” or whatever they should still be a huge threat but the he defeats the Ep 2 demon pretty easily. Later on many of the other Demons he encounter act like third rate Bond villains. They stop their attacks and go on a minute long monologue telling Tanjirou who they are, what they've done, and their plans for eating him. It's silly more than threatening. You remember how menacing Titans were in Attack on Titian? They didn't say or do any of that, it was all in their actions and what they did. Or like in Kabaneri of The Iron Fortress, again the zombies in there were threatening and horrifying without having to go " Roaarr, roarr, I'm gonna eat cha little boy!". I'm not saying they should be mute, but they should be scary because they're doing scary things, not telling it. It also doesn’t help that he’s already got one on his side so every time he’s in even a little trouble she can bail him out. (And this is one of her only 2 purposes, the other is to be MOE as FUUUCCK!)
Also a point that never gets addressed even up to episode 3 is Nezuko. Why does being turned into a Demon apparently make you a mute? I mean she’s human enough not to attack and eat Tanjirou shouldn’t she be able to say something or communicate in some manner if you want to make the argument that the BDSM pole is preventing her? It's not a magic seal or anything, it's literally something Giyuu just shoves in her mouth thinking that she can't just hulk out and rip that thing off. If being turned into a demon makes you a raging animal with no conscious thought then how did that demon in episode 2 talk to him and even seem to have a banter with him? Or any of the other Demons later on. I’m okay with any reason just give us a reason that makes some sense. You’d think that Tanjirou would have tried something, anything, in order to communicate with her as she was the only who survived the massacre. If this is not possible then it’s important that it’s addressed or else it becomes a plot hole. I know it was stated that Nezuko is saving her energy by inducing into a comatose state so she doesn't feed on people but I find this reason faulty and boring in terms of what could have been an alternative exploration into character dynamics of the two. The master says she's inducing this sleep but why hasn't any other demons done this then? I'm sure there have been others who've loved their siblings enough not to want to eat them but I guess their love wasn't as special as Nezuko's love for Tanjirou? I guess other demons didn't love their siblings enough to try this. And this method seems to work flawlessly without any problems because she still saves him whenever the author deems it's necessary and the anime doesn't show any drawbacks aside from her sleeping a lot. It's a bit hard to believe.
When they showed the bodies of the family that was just murdered I thought Tanjirous was going to do the smart thing and hack pieces off to feed Nezuko, maybe even save some for later. It’s brutal but he loves her and it’d SHOW the lengths he be willing to go for her. But that doesn’t happen.
The training montage is not good because we are constantly being pulled out of the moment by Tanjirou’s narration. Tanjirou writes in his journal about every single aspect of his training after he has experienced it already and this creates a disconnect with the audience. We can’t experience the training with him because he’s already done in in the past since he’s recalling everything that happened in the past tense. It’s hard to actually see his growth when he just says he’s getting stronger instead of the anime taking the time to show us that. Again we don’t need narration of the things he’s learning and in fact it’d be much more impactful if we were kept in the present with Tanjirou and learning along with him and his master. We’d be able to create a connection with the master as we would be with Tanjirou learning the ways of Demon Slaying with him as it happens. Such as in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back we are in the moment with Luke as he trains with Yoda. Because we are in the present with him and Luke is not taking a step back to narrate for us we build a connection with Yoda. Everyone remembers Yoda despite being introduced and put into only one movie of the original saga. Can you even imagine if Luke had narrated to the audience and said: “ I told Yoda I wouldn’t be able to lift up the X-Wing even if I tried and then he told me: ‘Do or do not, there is no try’.” We see Luke’s failures throughout the training, and these failures are rooted with his character. I don’t really see an internal connection between Tanjirou and his training and how it relates to one another. Sabito later says that he’s not “man enough” but how does that have anything to do with his character? When was Tanjirou’s arc that he’s not “man enough”? Yeah he didn’t “finish” the demon in episode 2 but he didn’t hesitate to slit its throat with an ax. If this was his arc then shouldn’t the proper conclusion to his arc be that he slains a demon all on his own? But instead he has to split a rock in two. I know he kills Morph Demon but that part isn't part of hid training arc. The master even said that his training is complete and that he's accepted to the Final Night now. I understand the reason why the training was so rushed but because of that it lacks believability. Another example is My Hero Academia the first season. I’m not the biggest fan of MHA but it does Deku’s training a whole lot better than Tanjirou’s. Deku is accepted by All Might as an apprentice and a similar training ensues but the difference here is that Deku rarely exposites for the audience, it’s used scarcely and visual changes of Deku is put at the forefront without a lot of narration. We don’t hear Deku saying “ OMG this fridge is so heavy” and “All Might told me I have to be as swift as the ocean so we’re going swimming”. No it's all shown and we can infer it all. The ending of the montage is a climatic pan of Deku, screaming with all his might, bruised and batter, as he stands tall on top a mountain of collected trash, his tone body against the roaring winds. NICE!
The fight with the Morph Demon was narration galore and it's ridiculous. I'm tired of writing the same thing over again so if you like Shonens you'll be fine with this fight.
Tanjirou's mercy he shows to it is really inconsistent even within the same episode. If it's in his character to show mercy to Demons then what about the others he killed in the same Episode or the Gloop Tripplet Demons in ep 6 where he gets pissed that they told him they like supple young 16 year old girls. He charges at these with no mercy but the Morph Demon was the one who got the soft attention because he missed his brother? I'm fine if this is part of his character but the way it's portrayed is not believable especially when they try to justify it by trying to make you sympathize with the Morph Demon in a cheap flashback, as if he didn't murder and enjoy the fleshy bodies of little kids...seriously...who really feels bad for him. There's a serious disconnect of emotions when you can't identify with what the Protagonist is doing because it makes no sense and you wouldn't ever see yourself doing that same thing. This angelic mercy he has is a contrived trope that has been already done to death in other animes. Sure the opposite reaction is also a cliche, having raging hatred towards them. However one feels justified while the other feel forced in order to make sure you know Tanjirou is such a good guy.
I do agree with the Morph Demon on one thing though:
Yeah, that master literally did send those kids to their deaths...i don't care how "sorry" they make him to be, he still did it. I laughed because they even pointed this out with no self awareness. If the Demon Slayers are truly in control of the Final Nights then they should know exactly what's going on. It's a plot hole when they allow the demons to get that strong without any safeguards. You're Demon Slayers right? Aren't you supposed to be protecting kids? That's like if in My Hero Aca, the entrance exams was to fight a whole city filled with unsupervised super villains, and one in particular had become so powerful he's survived multiple trials for years and if they get killed or whatever it's whatever. Young boys , young girls...whatever right? This actually makes the Demon Slayers Corp outright inept or ruthless with no repercussions. If they're this merciless, shouldn't villager and people outright despise them, why isn't Tanjirou angry at this. His character is that he wants to protect people, SAVE PEOPLE, yet the final nights seem like they're just sending kids to their deaths for no good reason and he doesn't bat his eye? In Full Metal Alchemist Edward is constantly at odds with the State because of shit like this and he's interesting and well fleshed out because of it. Edward seems real, while this seems contrived.
Also I was right, Nezuko is a Deus ex machina. She's cute and I'll admit her character design is very attractive. SUE ME!
Overall, Demon Slayer doesn’t do anything new or particularly well. The characters are dull and overused, the story is riddled with plot holes or just contrivances, and the world doesn’t feel very well- fleshed out. At the heart of all the problems with Demon Slayer is it’s lack of subtlety and overuse of “telling rather than showing” to convey it's story. Like I said if you like Shonen, this anime will be just right for you. For anyone else, it's a flashy trip that unlike the devoured children in the show, lacks any meat or substance.
