Demon Slayer is not a story that takes a lot of risks. For a seasoned anime fan, Demon Slayer doesn't waste any time checking off every shounen trope in the book. Yet at every familiar turn, there's a light ahead that keeps you captive to the journey: A lingering mystery, a cliffhanger, the prelude to a thrilling battle. After coming down from those highs there are times your patience might wear thin, but then it pulls you back in again. This process can be frustrating, but despite the ups and downs that come with shounen series, the elements that Demon Slayer excels in make it easy to forgive its shortcomings. For someone new to anime, Demon Slayer would be a fortunate first entry into the world of shounen anime, with an easily digestable episode count. For anime veterans, you'll see echoes of characters and arcs from series past that you've loved and hated, willing and reluctant at the same time to take those familiar journeys again.
STORY (6/10)
+ Straightforward story with clear goals
+ Solid setting & timepieces
+ Compelling story arcs and worldbuilding with potential for larger stakes
~ Power system is very simplistic, lacks logical structure
- Tonally jarring and overbearing humor, jokes don't always land, some drag on too long
- Foreshadowing could be utilized better
The story of Demon Slayer is laid out simply. Our main character Tanjirou's family is slaughtered by demons - save for his sister Nezuko, who has been transformed into a demon, who thirst for the blood of humans. He vows to avenge his family and to restore Nezuko's humanity. And so his journey begins by training to become part of the Demon Slayer Corps, to find the demon responsible for slaying his family, and for discovering how to save his sister.
I would say the story of Demon Slayer is where the anime has its most glaring strengths and weaknesses. It's only speculation, but I believe Demon Slayer must be an ambitious learning experience for its creator, mangaka Koyoharu Gotouge, as this is their first published manga that has run for more than a single chapter. And when you look at it that way, it's easier to understand why Demon Slayer sometimes clumsily handles shounen pitfalls, while later handling the same scenarios better.
Ufotable's adaptation thus far has been absent of wasteful filler with brisk pacing, so this first season is packed generously with content. Because of this, I could talk about the story forever - but to keep it short I'll share my thoughts on some things it does well, and others it doesn't.
As far as strengths goes - Demon Slayer's world is full of compelling mysteries and conflict. It is the early 20th century in the Taisho period of Japan - while the advent of an industrialized Japan is on the horizon, the rural settings and traditional Japanese aesthetic is still dominant. And so the presence of demons plaguing their world blends perfectly with the almost mythical status of those who fight them, and the techniques and weapons they use. The story shines its brightest when the fights between humans and demons transcend beyond characters loudly announcing their next attack or technique - something that is largely trivial to the story - and instead give the audience a conflict deeper than blood and swords. While many demons that Tanjirou and his friends face end up being "monster of the week" fodder, we'll see a side of them that gives them humanity, and begins to blur the black and white line the story presents at the beginning. By the end of the first season, you really begin to question what larger meanings are stirring in the world of humans and demons, or even if they could possibly coexist. The best shounen are known for making you question what you believe to know as good and evil, and Demon Slayer begins to tap in to that, which I hope it will continue to build on in its coming seasons - and judging by the spectacular sales of the manga and the anime I have no doubt will come. Demon Slayer raises the stakes with each passing arc, and it's easy to see how a 2nd season could build on what the first establishes, as the true powers that be have not shown their hands yet.
While Demon Slayer is a fairly serious story, there are plenty of moments of humor, and it felt more miss than hit here. There is a lot of yelling and screaming used to deliver comedy (more on that later), with plenty of 'reaction faces' and chibi moments to boot. If I had to describe these moments in one word, it would be hyper. We're talking sugar-high, kids running around with permanent marker and no parental supervision hyper. It can clash with the tone of the episode sometimes, especially during battle scenes. Whether you enjoy this kind of humor depends on you, but how quickly you tire of it will probably depend on your age. Personally, I never laughed at any of these scenes, and many of them physically hurt me to watch as some drag on for far too long. But then there are moments when you're caught by surprise, and a snide offhand comment or quick visual gag will be thrown in, and make you laugh when you weren't expecting it. It was relieving to laugh out loud at Demon Slayer when it wanted you to, and I think the comedic timing by the animators at Ufotable helped a lot in delivering these moments. Humor can really help tie together a story with a lot of violence, tragedy and death, because you can't bum out your audience forever. The author certainly knows this, but are going overboard at times.
Yes, Demon Slayer is not without its moments of weakness - and while the story is ripe with potential and fascinating questions for the audience to ponder, it sometimes immediately smothers those opportunities. Easily the best example I can give is that at one point, a demon mentions his craving for a special kind of blood that only certain humans have. Immediately your mind starts to flood with possibilities - who has this cursed blood? Why do they have it? Why do demons want it? Well, worry not - because quite literally right after this blood is mentioned, Tanjirou's familiar appears out of absolutely nowhere to explain away everything about it, instantly dissolving the tension and creating a pointless distraction for an awkwardly placed bit of trivia. These are rookie story mistakes that hearken back to early days of shounen where authors couldn't hold back anything longer than 5 seconds, or assumed audiences wouldn't remember something being foreshadowed for longer than 5 seconds. It can do a story a lot of good to withhold information from the characters and the audience until a time when it needs to be known.
And whether this is a negative or neutral point to you, it's important to mention this: Demon Slayer does not present its audience a power system or set of rules for how powers really work beyond what a character needs to do to make them work - which usually involves some kind of special breathing. As far as you should be concerned, the techniques and powers characters can utilize are more or less elemental magic. If you're looking for Hunter X Hunter levels of structure within shounen battling here, you will not find it. If that bothers you, you may have a very hard time watching Demon Slayer. As to whether the story will address these things later on in serious depth (as Hunter X Hunter did not introduce its power system rules by this point in the series either) I cannot comment. I am judging this series as a 26-episode anime, and what is contained within it.
Overall, Demon Slayer is solid in concept while clumsy, but formidable in execution. While it rushes out the gate and stumbles a bit, I feel the author earnestly learning how to tell a better story along the way, and it's rewarded by sticking the landing after a couple worrying stumbles on the way there. Hopefully in future entries, the weak elements of Demon Slayer's writing will be ironed out. There's more good here than bad, but there's plenty of room for improvement. While Demon Slayer has lots of potential, it will be tough to live up to it, but it's hard not to cheer on the author when you're riding the high of a fantastic arc with a satisfying payoff only to realize the first season is winding down for an ending.
CHARACTERS (7/10)
+ Bond between main characters is strong
+ Demon Slayer corps supporting cast are eccentric and compelling, leave you wanting more
+ Cast helps the story blur the line between good and evil
~ MC can feel too powerful at times
~ Demons can feel like "monster of the week" throwaway characters
- Zenitsu's personality is overbearing to the point of being obnoxious
There are a lot of characters in Demon Slayer, too many to go over here. Because of that, I will keep it to a few groups of people, and my thoughts on each.
TANJIROU & NEZUKO - a very strong sibling relationship, but not creepy or sexualized in any way. Tanjirou is honorable to a fault, as one would expect of a young, capable shounen hero. He is also incredibly powerful, sometimes to the point where he may as well be impervious to injury. Despite this, he does have his limits, and is not always victorious in battle. In fact, he fails a lot, though he often surprises his enemies or sparring partners with his natural talent. Overpowered? Probably, but within reason - as ridiculous as that sounds.
Nezuko is adorable, but sometimes felt more like a pet companion rather than a real character. It doesn't help that she can't really speak, but at times it's obnoxiously cute. Speaking of obnoxious...
ZENITSU & INOSUKE - Tanjirou's eventual travelling companions. Inosuke is a stubborn, short-tempered fighter overflowing with pride. Zenitsu is, well.. mostly a whiny, blubbering coward who is almost constantly screaming.
Zenitsu has his moments. Brief moments. Moments of pause, introspection and gorgeous fight scenes. And maybe this is one of those characters that is better seen through the scope of a manga, because then you wouldn't be able to *hear* him. I began to dread episodes with Zenitsu in the preview because of how obnoxious he is. If you're supposed to like this character and root for him, it's a hard sell. While he does get a sympathetic angle and a bit of backstory to explain why he is the way that he is, he's also a bit of a degenerate pervert that is played off for cheap laughs, and you always have that in the back of your mind. Overall, I don't have a very positive impression of Zenitsu. He's fairly selfish and genuinely unlikeable. If he "gets better" as the saying goes, it didn't happen much here. Again, he does have maybe 5 collective minutes worth of screentime where you can come to an understanding with his repulsive personality, but he's so overly exaggerated that you just want to see him grow up as fast as possible - and we know that's not happening.
Inosuke is also very loud, but in a more tolerable way. He is the type that refuses to run from a fight, and must always prove himself. He clashes with Tanjirou's personality to make for a great rival, and when he has vulnerable moments you can really feel how hard it is for him to express his feelings as someone who spent most of his life disconnected from society. As far as the travelling shounen trio goes, his chemistry is far more compatible than Zenitsu. You just know they are going to become great friends and want to see that relationship develop.
THE DEMON CORPS - There are so many characters within the demon corps that you will meet. They are all an eccentric bunch, but the one that struck a chord with audiences the most was almost certainly a hunter named Shinobu. Soft-spoken and elegant, yet terrifyingly powerful and overflowing with conviction, Shinobu meets Tanjirou and his company about halfway through the series. As far as I am concerned, she is a supporting cast member that has such a great story you wish she was a main character - and a character that leaves you wanting more is always a good thing. For the most part, many of the demon corps characters you will meet don't get as much attention as she does, but it is implied that they'll have much more screen time in the future. If any of them are half as captivating as Shinobu, good things are in store for Demon Slayer fans.
THE DEMONS - Again, a large cast, but mostly throwaways. Demons are introduced and then promptly killed in their respective episodes or mini-arcs for the most part until the second half of the series. Some get little backstories, but they are fleeting epilogues when someone you just met is about to die. But they are there to serve part of a larger narrative - that demons are often a product of their tragic past. The more it happens, the more you start to feel that there may be some grand misunderstanding of demonkind, that their circumstances in another life were taken advantage of by a greater evil. And in fact it is part of the implication based on the limited information the series gives us about the story's overarching villain, who leaves the limelight as mysteriously as he appears. Again, most demons come and go, but as part of a bigger story and concept of the Demon Slayer universe, there is a lot of potential and it's beginning to bare fruit already.
ART (10/10)
+ Excellent animation
+ Consistent quality
+ Solid direction that matches the source material
+ Elevates its source material
This may actually be the best thing about Demon Slayer. And I don't mean that in a negative way, but the staff at Ufotable did such an insanely good job elevating the source material for animation that its significance is hard to overstate. From front to back, Demon Slayer is consistently well animated, masterfully directed and is visually coherent and compelling. I would recommend reading the Sakugabooru blog "DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA – THE POWER OF UFOTABLE’S HARMONY" (ep 19 spoilers) if you'd like to know more about the inner workings of Ufotable and the massive amount of industry experience and skill that came together to make Demon Slayer happen. Almost all of the fights in Demon Slayer are breathtaking spectacles that raise the stakes through the sheer power of what magic only 2D animation can bring. Demon Slayer is full of cuts that demonstrate what truly makes anime special and a worldwide phenomenon. What's happening on the screen is sometimes more spectacular than what is actually taking place in the story, but what matters is that not only can you feel the passion of those working on the series and that they truly care about making it the best they can be, but that Ufotable gives their staff a schedule that allows them to create a series like this and give it the attention they felt it deserved.
I could nitpick some 3D/2D hybrid scenes and moments of awkward pacing, but when it comes to TV animation, to ask for more than what was delivered here is silly. Demon Slayer is an anime series any studio would be more than proud to have in their portfolio, and meets a standard of excellence rarely seen in a world of overworked and underpaid animators.
SOUND (9/10)
+ Music is tonally appropriate
+ Sound design elevates the scenes
The music of Demon Slayer is very appropriate for the time period and helps immerse you into the world. There's a few standout themes, but as far as earbugs go Demon Slayer is mostly inoffensive, for better or worse. The sound design and effects also bring more energy to fights and the atmosphere. Overall though, there is nothing here that detracts from the production of the series. The music always plays to the tone of the scene, and the sound is always on point.
ENJOYMENT (6/10)
+ Made with intent to be as good as they could make it
~ Mixed feelings in the first half
~ Many memorable "good" and "bad" moments, but good outweighs the bad
~ May be harder to watch for long-time anime fans used to shounen
My mind races trying to piece together all my thoughts about Demon Slayer, and subsequently breaks trying to condense it into a "yes" or "no" to the question "did you enjoy Demon Slayer?" There were times I was excitedly speechless, times I wanted to turn it off in annoyance, and everything in-between. However, The times where I had negative reactions began to wane as the series went on, and I found myself - to my own disbelief - anxiously waiting for the next episode more and more. And now? I think I "get it" - I get what Ufotable staff see in Demon Slayer, and why they put every ounce of effort into making the anime as fantastic as they could have. I get why the fans of the manga assure me that my qualms with this and that will be resolved. I get that the mangaka is learning how to write a story with this many layers and this many characters, and I see that growth throughout the series. As cynical and jaded as I can be, and as much as I may have even subconciously wanted to say that I didn't enjoy Demon Slayer... I can't say I didn't.
OVERALL (6/10)
All that being said, I have to give Demon Slayer a final score with a nice round number. I'm not going to lie, it took me a long time to come around to Demon Slayer, but at the end of the day, I kept watching it - and I'm glad that I did. But I still have to keep all my feelings in mind about it through the weeks. There were times I wanted to drop it, times I didn't believe I was going to like it, but rather reluctantly sit through it. I'm relieved to say that in the end, despite my gripes, that I want to see more and eagerly await a second season. My entire thought process on Demon Slayer is usually "well, bad thing, but also good thing", and I like the good things more than i dislike the bad things. At the risk of continuing to repeat myself, i'll just give a few other scores to sum up my review.
FIRST HALF: 5/10
SECOND HALF: 8/10
ZENITSU: 3/10 - this is a failing grade, see me after class
SHINOBU: 10/10 - tfw she will never ask to see me after class
OVERALL: 6/10
EXPECTATIONS: HOPEFUL/10
