Now, why would I rate something like this remotely high? I hated Demon Slayer and it had around the same plot, and the animation quality surely was multiple times higher. Well, it just has to do with good character development. All the characters in Ragna Crimson are pretty fun to read about. When people or demons in Demon Slayer die and they show their flashbacks, it kind of just is some throwaway sob story that no one cares about. While Ragna Crimson does employ a similar tactic, it's a lot more genuine because you actually know a lot about a character through their actions and interactions in the story. It isn't just slapping a sob story to a random that died and now the author needs to make the viewer feel a bit empathetic with the side character, but moreso fleshing out a character that already was strong enough to stand by themselves. Almost as a last hurrah, you get to know the last piece about them before they die.
And that truly is what makes this generic shounen kind of fun to watch. Both sides are quite human. They literally ARE human, despite one side being so-called dragons. So that means that both sides would have human-like aspirations, and you're basically just watching a shounen show with both sides possessing shounen characteristics. OP characters with OP abilities, random powerups that are completely OP, and so on and so forth. It's again, like watching two shounen shows at the same time. It's not just a hero cutting down the demon lord. It's kind of more like heroes of both sides trying to beat each other. It's quite interesting.
But of course, the most interesting is how character dynamics come into play. You're lead to believe that Crimson is a mastermind-type individual, trying to micromanage and make use of all chess pieces as much as possible. And you're right. So how does a pretty much clueless hero-type individual like Ragna cooperate -- and perhaps rebel against Crimson's orders? I mean the main reason is plot armor, but nonetheless, the delicate power balance between Ragna, Crimson, and the dragons is always kept. There's always some way that Ragna can keep Crimson in check and vice versa, while both will still ultimately want the same goal of killing dragons and eradicating them. You're not really going to have a chummy relationship where Ragna and Crimson suddenly fall in love or something absolutely stupid like other shounen shows have you watch. Hopefully in the future too.
Plus, there's no BS arc of "training camp." Our MC Ragna is already pretty strong. No need for random high school academies for learning the arts with his peers, or just randomly getting strong because of a breathing technique his father passed down to him or something absolutely dumb. The show maintains a good amount of action the entire way, and it's split into a few parts due to actual plot reasons. You're not given a random raven that tells you another point of interest you need to go to in order to progress the plot. It's more like there's always some sort of reason (some flimsy, granted...) Ragna and his crew are somewhere. Whether it's to investigate or by pure misfire, Ragna and Crimson find themselves in situations that they crafted themselves ultimately.
Ragna's an absolute archetype of the typical shounen protag, and so the fact that he gets put in his place by Crimson and vice versa, there comes an actual story to tell. I still won't lie, it's still very shounen-driven. Friendship, random powerups, plot armor, and more are commonplace. Still, it's a bit equalized. Of course, Ragna and Crimson are practically immortal, but the rest of the characters are quite equalized. Yes, you could also find a lot of plot holes that don't make a lot of sense. There's a weird hybrid of science and magic that gets thrown around a lot with Crimson as well. It's like Crimson was deliberately nerfed so that there's a story to tell! I wouldn't watch this show for an in-depth story, but rather just suspend your disbelief and let yourself get shown the narrative the author wants to craft for the story and characters.
