Before I start with my review, I want to congratulate ufotable for their wise choice. By making an anime adaptation of Kimetsu no Yaiba, the studio gained:
-a big audience of anime newbies who get surprised by great animation and overlook bad writing
-an even bigger audience of teenagers who enjoy well-animated fights and drama, even if it is nonsensical and forced
-reputation
-money
Not that it is important - because we are the minority - but ufotable lost us fans who look for more than that in a TV series. We want a plot that takes itself seriously and a good character writing. Animation comes second and always will, if we are not satisfied by these two. I'm writing this review for this kind of people, and I'm about to point out most of what went wrong in Yuukaku-Hen. Enjoy your read!
Ufotable did it again. After an amazing Mugen Train arc of shallow writing, the studio most of us love from Kara no Kyoukai and Fate/Zero continued their work on Kimetsu no Yaiba; a.k.a. the worst shounen anime I've ever watched, in terms of writing. The animation was great, but everything else was far from good. Yuki Kajiura didn't care to make a great soundtrack like she always does - this time she knew how bad this season is. Even the voice acting was annoying at times, with demons screaming and acting like psychopaths for the sake of making us hate them more. But there's much more than that to comment.
At first, Yuukaku-Hen starts with the introduction of Tengen Uzui; a Hashira with a flashy appearance who, let's say, slaps an underage girl's butt in the first scene. He also has three wives, and that's because Kimetsu takes place in the Taisho period, but it is clear that this anime uses polygamy as a way to promote a character's "badassery" and give more fan service to the audience. The wives are just there with their "hot" character designs, forgettable and with just a small, low effort backstory. Excuse me, but this kind of fan service is one of the things that encourage me to give this show a 1/10 even if I like ufotable's animation.
Tanjiro has some development and we get to know more about the Sun Breathing technique - though some things don't make sense. Inousuke is being Inousuke, and Zenitsu, thank god, stops screaming because he is sleeping for the most part of the arc. The villains in this season are two problematic demons; the one has inferiority complex and seeks power to feel better, while the other one is an insane sadist who enjoys making people suffer. Don't be surprised if you see characters fighting while sleeping, turning their opponent's attacks into music sheets, stopping their hearts temporarily by moving their blood elsewhere or getting out of others' bodies. I'm not kidding, it's possible that some of these might happen in a Kimetsu no Yaiba arc.
Anyway, these 12 episodes are just a task our protagonists have to do; to defeat two demons who dominate the "Entertainment district'. You might see some comedic elements, most of them being repetitive and cliché, and when things get serious you will see a long, well-animated, hardcore fight to death with lots of contrived plot twists and nonsensical badassery. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's like a Dragon Ball Z movie.
Well, there's Aimer doing a fine job with the opening and ending songs. The OP song is experimental for Aimer and not a typical song of hers, but it's surprisingly catchy. The ED song has vibes like LiSA's ED from season 1. The inserted soundtrack is composed by Shiina Go and Yuki Kajiura, like in the previous seasons. It looks like Yuki Kajiura is not putting much effort this time and, to me, it sounds worse than before.
So even the soundtrack isn't that special this time, which makes the animation the only noteworthy thing Yuukaku-Hen has to offer. The prevailing colours are red, purple and brown. They mix well in fights and they can be spectacular at times. Sadly, the character designs don't help and worsen the optical experience, and well, there's the terrible storytelling and the crazy villain's screaming that may turn some of the audience off even in those eye-catching bad written fights.
In the end, I don't want to make people unlike Kimetsu and I respect different opinions, but guys, if you're here for something more than supposedly badass good-looking fights, you're not going to have fun. It's just friendly advice with no hate towards anyone, and I'm only noting some of the things that annoyed me and made me dislike this anime so much. For the fans, I'm wishing with all my heart that you're having fun watching this show, and to those who understand me, this review is just a brofist to you guys. You're not alone here.
Let's hope for great things from ufotable on Mahoutsukai no Yoru and their next works. Thank you for reading!
