"Demon Slayer is carried by its animation"
A common take that haters of this show love to spew, but how true is it actually?
Demon Slayer S2 picks up immediately where the movie leaves off with the main trio and now the sound hashira going to the "entertainment district" to kill a demon residing there. It introduces us to the new Sound Hashira, and also new villains, in the form of a pair of brother-sister demons.
It goes without saying that Demon Slayer's fight scenes look spectacular, i dont think i need to spend much time praising the visuals or its choreography. When people talk about or hype up Demon Slayer, this is the first thing that comes to mind. While Demon Slayer may not be Ufotable's best work (that goes to Heaven's Feel in my opinion), it does not change the fact that it is still undeniably one of the most well-animated shows in the medium.
The score is by the renowned Yuki Kajiura, and its decent. It compliments the animation and the fights well. It hits when it matters, nothing much else to say about it. The Aimer OP and ED, while they are very nice songs to listen to, do not really fit the dark, gritty tone that the show was trying to adopt, especially towards the latter half of the season, but i dont think this means a lot in the grand scheme of things so i wont dwell too long on it.
Now onto the less amazing parts of Demon Slayer.
Demon Slayer's character writing is very polarising. Tanjiro, probably the most interesting character, is an altruistic, selfless empath. He never fails to see the good in even the worst of demons. He is a nice guy at heart, and easy to get behind which makes for a likeable protagonist, but not necessarily the most interesting to watch. Zenitsu and Inosuke on the other hand, represent running gags that the show has. Inosuke is aggressive, hot-headed and short-tempered, while Zenitsu is a simp. Most of their dialogue and personality revolve around this one trait that they have. While fans may find them to be funny and great comic relief, I am certainly not one of them. The 2 new antagonists have a somewhat endearing sibling relationship, but we are spoon-fed their backstory just as they are about to die. It comes off as if they are forcing us to feel sad for characters that we would otherwise not care about. Because, before the backstory, i saw the 2 villains as one-note, blank slate villains which will surely die by the end of the season. Their backstories are admittedly somewhat sad and heartbreaking and I am sure that these moments do make many viewers feel for the characters, and thats great. However for me, and lots of people i've interacted with, these moments come off as emotionally manipulative and forced.
The dialogue in Demon Slayer is very VERY bloated. There is an extraordinary overuse of monologues. Monologues arent inherently bad, but when its used so much, it gets to the point of being completely meaningless. This causes the flashy, pretty looking fights to become somewhat boring and stale. What do i mean by this? Demon Slayer has a tendency of treating its audience like they are 3 year olds who dont have basic reading comprehension. It feels this need to explain everything that happens on-screen, even the most blatantly obvious things. "I'll slash as hard as i can!", "The slash didnt go through!!" This kind of "walkthrough dialogue" (a term coined by a friend of mine) that almost narrates the events shown, give the fight sequences themselves a lot less impact and make them far less meaningful or immersive.
As for the tonal inconsistencies, there are many sudden tone changes that happens out of the blue. The show would randomly crack a joke in the middle of a fight, the music stops, and some sound effects intended for comic relief start to play. Dont get me wrong, comic relief isnt bad, but the timing is what matters, and Demon Slayer times these comic relief moments IN THE MIDDLE OF AN INTENSE FIGHT SCENE. This breaks immersion, and reduces investment, especially when it comes out of nowhere. Thankfully, as the season progressed, this became less and less of a problem as the show managed to stick to the dark, gritty tone that it had originally intended to adopt.
Demon Slayer is also rampant with plot conveniences. Characters would have broken fingers, be punched in the gut 10 times or so, and still effectively be at full fighting capacity. At one point, Tanjiro goes down, has a flashback about Nezuko, manages to get back up (albeit with a little bit of difficulty and limping), and is suddenly ready to fight again, "Determination conquers all", a common theme throughout the series. So whats the problem here? The injuries and hits that they take feel very meaningless. Yes sure, when they do get hit, they get hit very hard, but why does it matter? They just get back up a minute later as if nothing happened to them. Fingers broken? Just hold the sword with your remaining fingers lmao. Got stabbed through the chest? Just shift the position of your organs lmao. This can potentially stop me from taking the fights seriously, as the stakes become nonexistent. The only real stakes that are present, come at the end of the season, but by then, the fight is over, and the impact that it leaves, is not very significant.
Its easy to see the appeal of Demon Slayer, and i do enjoy what it has to offer. It is easily accessible, easily digestable, and it looks great, making for a very entertaining show to watch, but its definitely not without its fair share of flaws. I imagine the diehard fans of the series either dont consider my issues as flaws, or are willing to overlook the flaws despite them being present. On the other hand, i imagine that the diehard haters think the positives count for little when the myriad of other flaws are present. Both positions are totally reasonable and understandable. Thank you for reading.
