Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - charcoal seller turn demon killer

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is an anime series based on the manga sries by Koyoharu Gotoge adapted by Ufotable that premiered on April 6, 2019. It currently has 20+ episode as by the writing of this Blog and is still an ongoing anime series.

It took me a while before getting on to this series due to my somewhat crazy schedule but I eventually managed to binge watch all the latest episode so far. I haven't read a single chapter of the manga so I won't be making any comparison to it on this review. But still minor spoilers flag is up for this one.

Tanjiro Kamado is a young boy who making money by selling charcoal. His family is attacked and slaughtered by demons. And to make matters worse his sister Nezuko, the sole survivor of the slaughter has turned into a demon. Tanjiro joins an elite demon slayer group in the hopes to find a cure for his sister her into a human again and to avenge the death of his family.

Revenge, an organization bent on slaying demons? As a plot there's really nothing new in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba that hasn't been done before by other anime multiple times already. Bleach, DGreyman, Claymore are just some of the other anime with similar tone but what the series lack in originality it makes up for execution and pretty much does a heck of a lot better than a lot of anime that has similar themes.

Aside from focusing just on the action pieces it also delves into the story and character of everyone on the series. Every demon killed has their own  back story and "how and why" they do what they do. This isn't just the typical demon of the week story or evil for the sake of evil. Sure some of the back story are week but the series still takes time on fleshing them out.

The character development of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is refreshing as it doesn't give said heroes its special powers right off the bat. You can tell just by seeing how many blisters and wounds and sores the main character Tanjiro receives. The first few episodes is basically a training montage that tells what the viewers needed yet at the same time tell the story. A rare skill many Shounen shows fails at.

The visual in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is impressive with the mixture of lighting, camera angle, the background is all done beautifully. The action scenes slows enough at certain fights that you can easily tell what was going on. And there is no shortcuts in animation as everything moves smoothly I could swear this was made for a movie than an action series Studio Ufotable is not pulling any stops. In fact I could even say that the animation alone is enough reason for anyone to go watch this series.

I love what they done with the music in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba specially when something exciting happens. They put this bgm chanting whenever the character does a special move, the action slows down. Each of the character has their own bgm that accompanies their character that fits their personality. A haunting chant here or a drum beat there it's pure eye candy for the eyes and ears.

Now this anime isn't perfect as certain animation scenes lack consistency like how blood never gets into the characters clothes even if they have been carrying a bloody corpse. or how certain plot devices like them suddenly knowing a certain move cause of some flashback that came out of nowhere. Also some characters pop in and out of the story when they are needed with no explanation on where they came from and how they got there.

Also some of the bad guy is crazy stupid. They clearly could have killed said protagonists already but just went into some lengthy dialogue or just leave them alone. But later in the episode orders his minions to kill said character when he clearly could have done so himself already. The worst part is he took the time to kill someone and cause a scene when he could have killed said protagonist specially since said protagonist isn't even that powerful yet. You will know what scene I'm talking about when you see it.

Still the shortrcomings of the series is rather minor specially on how well it is done both from the visual, character development and story telling stand point. I wouldn't be surprised if this will be on someone's Top Ten Anime list or become anime of the year.  Studio Ufotable is great at making visually stunning anime and if you put that with a really well written story you get something really worth watching. 

As a whole despite the obvious small animation errors and minor stumbles in writing Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a really excellent series. If you love action that has some really deep character and storytelling then this one is definitely for you. It's a highly recommended anime to anyone be it your new to anime or a veteran. If you are planning to watch only one anime this year than I'd highly suggest you go watch this one.