So I originally had this whole video planned where I would basically tell you why I think
Demon Slayer is really really really overrated.
But honestly I was going to just kinda point out the obvious flaws of Demon Slayer and
raise the question does this really deserve almost a 9 on MAL, does this really need to
be so critically lauded after just one single episode being really good in only one way?
These are questions I will ask and answer in this video.
Basically this is how Demon Slayer went from Mediocrity to (somehow) the best anime ever
and dissecting everything wrong with that statement and some critical thought and praise
on a series that deserves to be looked at more honestly.
So break out your #ThankYouUfotable hashtags, RT Funimation and Crunchyrolls twitter
posts on the matter, and ask Ninja how many anime hes actually seen.
This is Demon Slayer: From Mediocrity to Best Anime Ever.
Demon Slayer follows Tanjiro and his kid sister, Nezuko who becomes a Demon Slayer after his
sister is turned into a demon and the rest of their family killed.
He became a Demon Slayer to find a way to turn Nezuko back into a human.
But strangely enough, Nezuko is unlike the other demons which murder and then devour
any human in their path.
Nezuko is docile and chooses not to eat humans, and so Tanjirou travels with Nezuko (whos
in a box because direct contact with sunlight kills demons).
By all accounts Demon Slayer is a shounen anime through and through.
Except its strengths are unique and welcomed in a world where Black Clover, Fire Force
and My Hero Academia are churning out maybe a more watered down shounen style.
Demon Slayer unabashed in its inspirations with the anime pulling from countless Edo
period and the-like shounen anime from yester-year like Rurouni Kenshin and Blade of the Immortal.
In these inspirations there-in lies Demon Slayers core strength and thats its ability
to perfectly execute the classic shounen style and bring it into the modern area with style
and grace.
With direction from Haruo Sotozaki and production from Ufotable, the studio known for the core
main-line Fate Anime, Demon Slayer packs a punch and then some.
I found myself utterly surprised at how well Demon Slayer was pacing its episodes consistently.
I felt the first 12 episodes of this series went by in a flash.
This is thanks to the animes action being a primary feature over character and story
development (well get into these two things later in the video in more detail).
Everything I was watching from Demon Slayer through its 26 episodes was easy and fun to
watch because of these aspects which played together quite well.
Tanjirou is your basic shounen protag, but hes on a whole other level of likeability.
Most shounen protags are witless, dumb, annoying, or downright some of the worst characters
in anime.
But Tanjirou breaks the mold of what being a shounen protag is.
Sure, hes incredibly simple and his goal is singular, but the goal is a noble one me
and you can relate to on some level.
Tanjirou wants to reverse Nezukos status as a demon back into a human.
Tanjirou will go through hellfire and brimstone just to see his sister return back to the
kid sister she was before, the beauty of their village as Tanjirou put it.
This isnt the only reason Tanjirou breaks the mold though, most importantly hes not
annoying.
Tanjirou is an incredible character who mild-mannered, sweet and delivers every time hes on screen.
He doesnt whine or complain, yell at high ear piercing volumes, and he doesnt perv
on any of the female characters.
Tanjirou has only one goal in mind and thats reversing Nezukos state of being a demon.
This makes Tanjirou one of the most notable characters in shonen right now as it seems
shounen is reverting back to its old self of making the characters youre supposed
to like, unlikeable.
But while all of this may be, at some point Demon Slayer hit a snag with a couple of arcs
and characters.
For a while, Demon Slayer was a perfectly fine show but near the middle of its run time
many issues came to light and thats the shows debilitating lack of good characters,
boring antagonists and a couple of ear piercing side characters.
And those characters Im talking about of course are Zenitsu (as I lovingly refer to
him as, Lemon Boy) and Pig Head Boy who I refer to as Pig Head Boy.
They have to be one of the worst additions to this show.
And its not exactly because their characters and writing are necessarily bad.
I quite enjoyed Zenitsus backstory for what its worth and in a fight Pig Head
Boy is one of the funnest characters on screen.
But oh man, they are annoying, with Zenitsu screeching out the sounds he does when hes
yelling at the top of his lungs.
Better yet, the fact he runs away and complains and whines until the plot seemingly calls
for him to not and win whatever fight he needs to.
For Pig Head Boy hes sorta the same reason.
He is just always yelling and ramming his head into things over and over.
It very much feels like a basic Shounen trope to have these two characters be so damn loud
and annoying playing as the comedic relief.
And granted, this show needs comedic relief and some, keyword SOME jokes and gags are
actually funny.
But I cant take those gags in and digest them because Im being shoveled a million
other things as they both flail around.
If I am to compare the two on a scale from 1-10, Zenitsu is probably at an 8 as Asta
exists, and to be fair Pig Head Boy is simply not as bad because he has great fights and
hes also much more bearable so Id give him a 5.
But the introduction of these characters highlighted Demon Slayers crippling issue which is
a lack of good characters until Episode 20.
It also highlighted Nezukos weakness as a character.
All she really does is pop out of a box and kick people or now in this case change sizes.
And while Nezuko is without a doubt cute, cuteness and memes do not make a character
good, Nezuko after seeing most of the episodes in Demon Slayer is simply not a good character.
Now that doesnt mean shes bad per-se, Id rank her as mediocre at best.
But I also realize something, just like every other character in this anime.
Demon Slayer has set things up where there is a potential for this situation to get better,
and they showed in this season there is a promise that the cast will be getting more
diverse.
With the introduction of these new Demon Slayers in episode 20 or so, this opens up a whole
new world for this series.
On top of that, these characters, all of them so far seem like absolute basket cases, nut
houses if you.
And while you just listened to me whine about those other characters everything and all
at once, Ive got nothing but good things to say about these new Demon Slayers.
From what Ive seen theyre all quite compelling based on first impressions.
Mitsuri Kanroji who has a sort of grating design to the eyes, but a personality youd
just love to hate.
Hes super weird and weird is what excels in Demon Slayer at times, so her introduction
is most assuredly welcomed by me.
Kanao Tsuyuri is also interesting, we saw her earlier in the show but she knocks out
Tanjirou with ease and I wouldnt be opposed to seeing something of a relationship progress
between these two.
It would show a different side to Tanjirou that may be needed depending on how long the
series chooses to go for.
Then we have my favorite, the beautiful psycho butterfly lady, Shinobu Kochou.
I mean, what can I say, shes got the best design and the best personality.
The best way I can describe it is shes sadistic, and Im not sure if shes fully
aware of how unhinged she is.
Probably the most entertaining of the new bunch, shes awesome.
And I think its time we talk about the shows antagonists so far, which has so
far been sorta weak for me.
I think Kibutsuji is solid, but most others besides Rui and Susamaru have been mediocre
for me.
The Swamp Demon in particular seeming like a waste of time as the arc in hindset didnt
do much if anything at all.
I feel like they turned that into an arc because they needed a cool fight and as well to introduce
Kibutsuji.
But to me the Swamp Demon was so poor I just felt removing that whole thing would have
been best for the pacing of the show overall.
Same goes with the hand demon, it was a cool fight, but in hindsight it wasnt as good
as it could have been.
But I think more antagonists like Rui and Susamaru need to be in this show.
They are some of the finest examples of how to do solid to great antagonists.
Rui as an example is one of my favorite shonen antagonists in quite a while if were not
counting Hunter x Hunter.
He just had this heartbreaking and profound backstory which really got you into the fight
and invested.
Episode 19 in particular was one where I didnt even realize how sucked into the story I was
until I finished the episode.
It was perfectly paced and while I think Episode 19 is overrated, from a story perspective
and writing its damn near perfect.
Honestly speaking here, Demon Slayer took 19 episodes to get good for me.
Before that episode I was struggling to find reasons to keep watching and we even killed
it off on the King of Anime Podcast because it was simply spinning its wheel for so long.
And this is where I think some of the internet fanbase is wrong about Demon Slayer.
People are calling this anime one of the all time greats, and I simply do not agree with
that on a fundamental level.
Demon Slayer is a perfect example of how great the internet is at taking something and blowing
it out of proportion.
This is one of the most extreme degrees I have ever seen though.
When you have twitter campaigns like #ThankYouUfotable which felt to me like a way to latch onto
a popular trending anime rather than something genuine.
Because every single studio out there is putting a lot of hard work into anime, it isnt
just Ufotable.
And even then, I can tell you to go watch the Heavens Feel movies and there you will
find stuff on par and even better than what happened in Episode 19.
Also just looking at this critically, my points dont feel like nitpicking here to me, I
feel like these are genuine flaws with Demon Slayer.
So I think there is a lot of hype and excitement surrounding this show because its
a moment, a genuine moment that people are excited to see and want to talk about.
But I dont think that means we can just forget about all of these mediocre episodes
of Demon Slayer.
It feels unfair to me because you have shows like Fruits Basket and Carole & Tuesday which
are more consistent and have vastly superior writing than Demon Slayer not really getting
as noticed.
And dont get me wrong here, I actually like Demon Slayer quite a bit.
I think its a very good anime with very good production and direction.
But Im gonna stick my neck out here and say Demon Slayer is the most overrated anime
of 2019 along with Dr. Stone.
And Im not saying that to poo poo on anyone's opinions or love for these shows.
I am not a tastemaker, nor do I think what Ive said here today are objective facts.
These are simply my opinions on the way this show has been treated, which I think is rather
unfair to be honest.
Demon Slayer is a very good anime, but its not one of the best, at least not yet.
If you think Demon Slayer is the best anime ever, thats perfectly fine.
But we should also be discussing at the same time anime like FMA Brotherhood, Miyazaki
films and other anime which do stand at the top as some of the brightest examples of how
great anime can be.
Its only fair to do so.
And that is how Demon Slayer went from mediocrity to the best
anime ever.
