Demon Slayer was one of the most hyped-up anime of 2020, so I thought it was finally time to watch it, or at least the first season. Did it live up to the hype? Well, it's complicated...
Demon Slayer has an incredibly simple premise, Tanjiro's family has been slaughtered by demons and his sister was turned into one, he becomes a demon slayer to find a way to cure his sister. After the first few episodes set up the status quo for the series, most of the season is composed of a bunch of arcs, each based around Tanjiro and the other demon slayers being sent out to, well, slay demons. These arcs are a mixed bag, ranging from the fairly standard Mansion arc (11-14) to the absolutely phenomenal Mountain arc (15-21). Despite most of Demon Slayer being built around fight scenes, it does manage to execute its premise with a duo of protagonists that I genuinely empathize with. Tanjiro is a genuinely compassionate and empathetic main character, and Nezuko is absolutely adorable. The rest of the cast is a bit more hit and miss, with certain characters like the crow and Zenitsu being incredibly grating and annoying, and the loud and bombastic voice direction not helping at all. Still, Tanjiro and Nezuko's voice actors are great, and I feel most of the cast manages to nail their emotional moments incredibly well when the time calls for it. Demon Slayer definitely starts to show its potential during that Mountain arc, which boasts amazing villains, solid character development, a relentless and intense tone, and some top-notch action scenes. Speaking of which...
The place where Demon Slayer truly excels is in its presentation. Ufotable did a lot of the animation for this show and it's absolutely stunning, whether it's in the beautiful backgrounds, expressive characters, and especially the fight scenes. For a show built on its action scenes, thankfully, most of them are absolutely outstanding. These demon fights have cool visual effects, great choreography, and a really solid usage of CGI (especially in that gravity-shifting mansion fight). The music and sound design (those teeth-grinding demons, holy crap!) is great but it especially shines during the fight scenes, the leitmotifs for the demons and Tanjiro are great, and apparently Yuki Kajiura (composer of Madoka, SAO, etc.) composed a few tracks too! And the final kills of pretty much every demon manages to be both spectacular and kind of sorrowful, in a way. These fights are easily the best parts of the show. My only major gripe with this fights is the abundance of dialogue and narration. Like, I know this is an anime thing, but I don't like being told what's going on while it's happening. It works for a manga strip and maybe even in something like JoJo where the characters are super flamboyant, but the animation is so good and clear in Demon Slayer that it just feels unnecessary, and partly even patronizing. Frankly, I think the script and dialogue is probably the show's weakest aspect. A lot of the jokes involve the characters screaming loudly and overreacting, and there is a lot of exposition and narration where there shouldn't be. Demon Slayer is a fun show and an amazing visual experience, but as a story, it does have its flaws.
Demon Slayer gets really good in its second half, and these are some of the highlights:
Letting Someone Else Go First: The Spider Mother might be one of my favorite villains yet. The possessed Demon Slayers getting their heads snapped in unison is shocking and creepy, and I was genuinely shocked when she got killed off so quickly, and in such a visually beautiful death scene as well. We also finally get to see Inosuke and Tanjiro team up for once which felt like a breath of fresh air after the former constantly picked fights with the latter for the last five episodes.
A Forged Bond: I like how this arc actually tried to flesh out Inosuke and Zenitsu, but I especially love how Inosuke is forced to confront the reality that maybe he's not as strong as he thought along with how easy it is for him to die. We also get our first full introduction to Rui, his cruel personality, and the fact that he could straight-up split Tanjiro's sword in two!
Hinokami: Here it is, the iconic Episode 19, and I'd say it pretty much lives up. This episode is almost entirely a confrontation between Tanjiro and Rui, the first of the Twelve Kizuki he ever fought. I love the parallels between these two, and their differing views on family make the fight even more intense and personal. And the fight itself is stunning, all building up to that beautifully executed final scene where Tanjiro lands the final blow.
Master Of The Mansion: I like this episode a lot, even if it wasn't very action-heavy. It packed in a lot of new information about the Demon Slayer Corps as we finally get to meet all of the Hashira. Tanjiro's trial was incredibly tense and compelling as well.
New Member: This was an odd season finale. It wasn't very climactic and felt mostly like an extended set-up for the Mugen Train movie, but I think it still managed to work. Tanjiro exchanging goodbyes to everyone at the Butterfly Mansion was really sweet, and the cliffhanger is incredibly exciting.
Overall, Demon Slayer is fun yet undemanding watch with great visuals, fun fight scenes, and a strong second half, but it suffers from a weak script, odd voice direction, and way too much exposition.
3/5 Stars
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