Two minutes later, he finally yells and tries to intervene, cut to the ED before anything happens. One of the most egregious moments is when Tanjiro angrily stares at his friend being beaten up. Constant inner monologues, flashbacks, unnecessary comments, and awkward pauses bring the action to a screeching halt. It struggles, then it says aloud exactly what we saw happen “I wrapped my hair around his hatchet to grab it but it got tangled up!” We could easily assume this from the shot composition and body language. For example, a disembodied head demon ties it’s hair to Tanjiro’s weapon, then it is flung away and gets stuck to a tree. Time after time, the action is undercut by the awkward dialogue. If people can hypnotize demons to be good, why is this the only time we see it happen? Rather than integrating this information into the story, it is dumped onto us during an action scene as if the author forgot to mention it in a prior chapter. Not only is this a cheap way to avoid writing character development, but it also raises even more questions with the internal logic. Nezuko, despite essentially being a lobotomized demon, is trained to believe ‘humans good, demons bad’. There was no character progression, but at least there was lots of pretty animation. Thankfully through a lucky coincidence, Tanjiro gains new powers in a training montage. Demons are enough of a threat in this world that there are demon-hunting squads, yet this family didn’t know about them. There’s a real sense of progression.īefore his family was killed, Tanjiro hadn’t fought at all. As the demonic threats become bigger threats, Tanjiro becomes a more capable fighter. Tanjiro vows to avenge his family and cure his sister, by becoming a DEMON SLAYER!! It practically writes itself a horrific monster-of-the-week for the heroes to fight off, and it works. Soon she becomes the monster that killed her-a demon.

He carries away the only survivor, his sister Nezuko, barely clinging to life. It plays out so predictably, and we still know nothing about him other than he was part of the happy family. If you need speed lines to convey the protagonist’s severity finding his family violently murdered, you need to rewrite the scene and start over. Aside from the maximum shock factor of a happy family being slaughtered, there’s little reason to care.

Tanjiro stares in terror, speed lines on either side of the screen. Blood soaked with horrific expressions, children protecting one another in their final moments, it’s all the more effective because their deaths are left to our imagination. Demon Slayer never shies away from violence, and we learn this immediately. Upon his return, he finds his family viciously murdered. The lone survivor, Tanjiro, inevitably leaves them now that his father is deceased, he is the designated man of the family. It is obvious this family with zero characteristics other than ‘happy’ will be killed. The scene is saturated with brilliant light reflecting off the snow-covered ground, angels singing with hopeful music. Soon after, we flashback to before everything went wrong. fifteen, carries his dying sister as he trudges through a snowstorm, crying out in anguish. Demon Slayer has some of the best animation of this generation, but I can’t recommend the entire show because the writing is… pretty bad. Either they love it for the amazing animation, an abundance of horrifying villains, and incredible fight choreography-or they hate it for subpar storytelling, shallow character writing, and unfunny comedy.

*This review contains very minor spoilers*ĭoes fantastic animation trump mediocre writing? When it comes down to it, can you ignore one to enjoy the other?Īs for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, most of the anime community falls into one of two extremes. Alongside the mysterious group calling themselves the Demon Slayer Corps, Tanjirou will do whatever it takes to slay the demons and protect the remnants of his beloved sister's humanity. Consumed by rage and hatred, Tanjirou swears to avenge his family and stay by his only remaining sibling. Worse still, the sole survivor is his sister Nezuko, who has been turned into a bloodthirsty demon. When he finally arrives back home the next day, he is met with a horrifying sight-his whole family has been slaughtered. On his way back, night falls, forcing Tanjirou to take shelter in the house of a strange man, who warns him of the existence of flesh-eating demons that lurk in the woods at night. One day, Tanjirou decides to go down to the local village to make a little money selling charcoal. Though living impoverished on a remote mountain, the Kamado family are able to enjoy a relatively peaceful and happy life. Ever since the death of his father, the burden of supporting the family has fallen upon Tanjirou Kamado's shoulders.

Yt music wrapped