Reviews for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

As of the time of writing this review, I have yet to see the anime adaptation. Therefore, I’d like to offer you a point of view untainted by the ufotable hype. Note that this review might contain some spoilers, though nothing too specific. “Why should it matter if you’ve seen the anime or not?” is what you might be asking, so I’d like to address that first. I suspect that the anime adaptation had a huge impact on the manga ratings. It’s understandable to an extent, sure, I bet ufotable did a good job with the animation of action scenes which are the core of thisseries. Should a source material be praised because of the achievements of the adaptations though? I don’t think so. And yes, I have some numbers to support my claim about the undeserved ratings boost. In 2017, Kimetsu no Yaiba had mean score of 7.46. A week before the anime started airing, it was at 7.92. During the time period when the anime was airing the score jumped from that to 8.50 (with the current mean score being 8.55). That’s a jump up of almost 0.60 which is something that pretty much never happens organically. Sure, you could claim that the manga suddenly got better (and coincidentally in the same time frame as the anime was airing). The manga arcs published during this period was Swordsmith Village arc and a training arc after it so no, there was no sudden spike in the quality of the manga content. You can check the scores on Wayback Machine, and learn that MAL mean scores aren’t always to be trusted.

Well, that’s enough of a rant, now to the manga-only experience review.

Now, I’m usually quick to complain about a slow story progression and unnecessary padding. This time, I’ll have to complain about the story going way too fast. Sure, at least there are no fillers, but in exchange Kimetsu no Yaiba goes with extreme on the other side of the spectrum. Reading it feels like the author is trying to do an any% battle shounen speedrun. Everything is happening so fast in this manga. Training? Nah, here’s two chapters, two year timeskip, the protagonist is now no longer a random village hillbilly but a stronk boi who can fight demons. Good job on smashing those big rocks kid, now you’re fully prepared to fight ruthless and almost immortal creatures. Sure, training arcs tend to be not that interesting, but not only they can be made interesting, they are also important to help establishing the power system of battle shounen, which Kimetsu no Yaiba fails at completely. More on that later, now back to speedrunning.

The worldbuilding is pretty much non-existent with the sole focus on rawly progressing the plot. The protagonist’s first assigned mission ever? Boom, here’s the main antagonist just strolling there, what an amazingly lucky encounter. Most of the characters feel just like a cannon fodder whose death are used for a cheap thrill. The cast dies off faster than you can create any attachment to the characters. What was probably supposed to be a dramatic character conclusion end with the impact of “Meh, another one’s dead. What was his name again?” The supporting cast dies like flies and so do the minor antagonists. It’s hardly a shock value when such thing is made a mundane occurrence. Oh yeah, also just slap some random tragic backstories for the demon in cheap attempt to not look so shallow.

Few minor happenings later the final arc starts, which makes up a whole third of the whole manga. That one’s a bit special. It’s at the same time way too long and keeping the whole speedrun spirit too. The cheapness of deaths become even way cheaper, as if the author said “fuck it, I’m almost done with the manga anyway, I’ll just kill of most of the characters”. And no, they still don’t die in any satisfying (for the reader) way. The stock of nameless characters seems to be endless too, as bunch of unknown demon hunters seem get mass-murdered with almost every attack of almost every demon, yet they keep flowing in right up to the final boss encounter. How many demon hunters are there anyway? Because I fell like hundreds of them died just in the backgrounds of this arc alone. The final fight is riddled with all of the cliché bullshits such as the power of friendship, trashed characters that shouldn’t have been able to even stand up by any mean suddenly rejoining the fight again, “this isn’t even my final form you fools”, asspulls, and revivals. Yes, after all of the slaughter the author is now suddenly too much of a coward to let some of the characters die. At least go all the way in if this is what you decide to do, don’t back up at the last moment to leave us with this lukewarm entirely uninteresting and artificial-feeling ending. The epilogue chapter is an absolute joke. Well, at least I wish it was just a joke. It’s more disappointing and laughtable than the finale and epilogue of Prison School, to give you an idea about this trainwreck. I had to doublecheck if this wasn’t just some fanmade chapter, that’s how much it doesn’t fit.

I have mentioned the absolute disaster of a power system previously, right? Let’s expand on that. Some sacrifices had to be made to make the speedrun possible and explanation of the powers was one of them. The last thing that makes any sense is the Total Concentration Breathing technique. Master the way you breath and do it consciously all the time to achieve a handy power-up for your stats. A bit of JoJo rip-off but sure, I’ll take it, with some suspension of disbelief it makes sense. How do we get from there to swords summoning fire, pillars of water, mist or a goddamn snakes? Fuck if I know, it’s some sort of breathing technique so you’ll have to make some shit up to make sense of it, because the manga sure isn’t going to help you with that. Tanjiro’s dad did ceremonial sword dancing, which made him a fire swordsman. Others just ripped of the fire technique to make their own breaths. How does remaking a fire technique help you summon butterflies with a sword slash? No idea. “It just works”, as they say.

The characters themselves are flashy but forgettable. The flagship Nezuko admittedly excels as being adorable while still having enjoyable fighting mode side, but that’s as far as likeable characters go. Tanjiro is a ball of screams and bruteforcing given a human shape. Zenitsu is an annoying idiot with creepy tendencies who is completely useless until the plot demands him to do something. Inosuke is a ball of even more screaming and bruteforcing also given (more or less) human shape. The hashiras have basically the personalities of their character design.

Honestly from some points I started to cheer for the demons instead. The protagonists are boring shounen templates with no depth. The demons at least have some motivations beyond “AAAAAAA DEMON REEEEEEEEE” and as ironic as it is, they have goals more relatable to actual humans such as just wanting to enjoy their lives. I don’t think this was intentional on author’s part though, the baddies are relatable only in comparison to the blandness of the other side.

One saving grace of Kimetsu no Yaiba is the artstyle. While I wouldn’t go as far to say that the art is great, it’s certainly distinguishable and original. At least one part of this manga that attracts the readers’ attention, at least one part of this whole thing that is somehow interesting.

Overall, if you’re a fan of regular battle shounen, this might be your jam. If you’re looking for anything with a substance, you would waste your time here. As pretentious as it might sound, ultimately this manga just feels… immature. 

Kimetsu no Yaiba is truly something but not in a positive way. It never tried to do anything that was never done before as the author since the beginning had in plan what the series would have become. The truth is, for whatever reason, the easy stuff that should have gotten right was done the opposite and the author never learned from her mistakes to make the story more consistent later on instead she went out of her way to worse things up. Kimetsu no Yaiba suffers from mainly 3 things: 1 - It's writing 2 - Its comedy 3 - Its villains 1 - I hate it to say thisbut the writing is bad. It all consists of turning a character into a human since somehow she had become a demon and Tanjiro, her brother has to take a lot of pain to achieve this goal. By pain I mainly mean doing unbelievable stunts, getting hurt without consequences (well, directly to him since there are characters that die while saving him), and having insane luck. Of course, all this happens because of the way it's written. The author has managed to make the protagonist untouchable by literally anything. It doesn't matter what happens, he and her sister will survive. From chapter one when Tanjiro encounters Giyuu and the latter is about to kill Nezuko. Tanjiro saved her because he impressed one of the strongest characters in the series. A guy that has been killing demons left and right is impressed by a cheap trick is what the author is making us believe as if this has never happened to him Before. To the last moment of fighting which Tanjiro has still the power of God within him.

In the early chapters, we get introduced to two more characters that appear out of nowhere and help Tanjiro on becoming stronger. We never got any explanation why that's the case and how that's possible because slightly after Tanjiro finished his training we learn from Urokodaki that the two are actually dead and they were once his students. How's that possible they were able to interact with Tanjiro? Are they ghosts? Is that even a thing in the Kimetsu no Yaiba universe? Because the author NEVER mentioned that phenomenon anymore. At worst this is a crazy asspull we've got to witness. Clearly, the author didn't know how to make Tanjiro stronger that would make a lick of sense and she just went on the stinky territory.

Since this is a shonen, it's imperative for everyone to help Tanjiro because the odds are that Tanjiro and Nezuko are the only ones that could actually defeat Muzan. Throughout the story, many individuals help him because they see the courage held within his spirit and the so-called desire to help his sister. They're moved by their sad story and of course, they risk their lives for two random kids they just met. On the other hand, the fights are extremely dull. They seem flashy but none use any strategic means to beat them. They go full-on-power and directly attack the enemy without causing them any damage. As for the development characters get, is not much. In fact, the one important character that has the most development happens to have less screentime. It is weird and I was really hoping for other characters to have the same growth as well which sadly didn't happen.

2 - The comedy at first didn't even exist. Not until Zenitsu and Inosuke were introduced. The two are the classic yelling guys that so happen to accompany the protagonist on his quests to save his sister. The reasons for this simple fact are to this day yet unknown but they do and so we get to witness all sorts of 'jokes' that not only aren't funny and would make anyone die inside but they're placed in such a nuisance that affects their battles as well. Zenitsu yelling for a half episode but for some reason when sleeping he gains some OP power which naturally makes us question why didn't he do that earlier? Did we really need to hear him yell like a maniac? The same goes for Inosuke. He doesn't need to sleep but regardless in a lot of cases he still gets OP for really no reason accompanied by the lovely 'comedy' that is yelling. Yes, the comedy in this series is yelling. That's it! Are you on the floor laughing right now? Laugh goddammit! Laugh!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA - Zenitsu and Inosuke in a nutshell.

3 - They're simply bland. Whether they had an over-the-top personality or a calm one, they're extremely poorly written because they gain nothing and get effortlessly beaten. A villain gets introduced, monologues for like a chapter, beats the crap of the good guys but somehow gets cornered and dies because the good guys had a stronger will and didn't surrender. No strategies are involved, just swords slash, a few random powers usually bestowed upon the protagonist and a friendship speech just to cool off the whole thing and the villain is done for. What's worse is its flashback's purpose that exists only to show one's forgiveness rather than showing its motivations. Well then, let me ask you this, why do they repent themselves on the verge of death? Is that a requirement? Because, as far we have seen no one has actually done so in their full power. What the author is trying to get us to understand is that everyone deep down inside has a good soul and deserves a second chance but this is NOT the way to go about it. If nothing else you can have one or two characters that are inherently good and have them change but it shouldn't work for anyone. Not everyone has to be a good guy just because the protagonist is the classic 'gentle guy' that wants to save everyone for literally no reason.

Furthermore, the rest of the characters aren't great either. Aside from the main cast, which is the worst in the series, everyone else, despite all having a different and cool personality, are bad. Not by default though. Some of them have a cool 'sense of justice' but are badly developed and it saddens me. A few die too quickly that get little to no development and some others take an awfully long time to either win or die and in the midst of that, even though they do receive a somewhat interesting flashback that would define their objective at best, is placed either too soon or too late. Never in the right spot that would not distract them from the battle itself in receiving a random and unnecessary bust of their powers.

As for the ending, is really bad. Because not only Muzan death was anticlimactic but the whole reincarnation thingie was not necessary to the story itself. You could have added a few more chapters and added a time-skip that would have solidified the case at best but alas it didn't happen.

Last but not least, art. It's not bad. It's definitely somewhat original although not very detailed and at times sloppy. It's well-drawn when it is but it's unnecessary awful in other cases. It's rushed. You can see the author just didn't have enough time to work more with it and left everything like that. Though, it's her first work therefore she's forgiven.

All in all, Kimetsu no Yaiba is overrated. There are some likable characters here and there but that's about it. It didn't do any good for me and I hope this review will share the truth among all the lies that have been spread since its anime adaptation.

Kimetsu no Yaiba is a series that is loved and hated in equal measure. The only manga to outpace One Piece, and not by a small margin. The manga received a tremendous boost from its anime adaptation by Ufotable, but even before that, its quality led it to become very popular. I'll be honest, is it the most original work? No. Is it the best thing since sliced bread like those long queues in Japanese bookstores and the constant tweets on AniTwitter lead you to believe? No. What it is, is a really really good story, though. It does the little things right and does adecent enough job of world building, character development and growth.

While there are a lot of valid criticisms of the series like a subpar villain, less than stellar climax, final arc dragged on, etc. I'll mainly focus on the things I enjoyed. KNY is shonen done right. It's got all of the tropes and cliches you've come to expect from the genre, but they're executed in textbook fashion. The power ups, power of friendship, rivalries, etc. The Mangaka does a great job of blending them into the story in a believable fashion and creating an entertaining narrative.

From start to end, the manga remains fun, funny and engaging. The characters, no matter how much or how little time they get, make an immense impact on you. You genuinely do feel attached to the cast of the series and by the end, it feels you're losing a part of you by having to say goodbye.

The art is quite unique in my opinion and the expressions on characters' faces throughout the series enhance the experience by creating humorous situations. This is most evident with Tanjirou and Zenitsu throughout the series. I did find one weakness to be when the magaka depicted fights. At times I personally found myself confused and unable to discern what was going on due to the style.

Pacing wise, I had no issues with the series up until this final arc. I felt like I was reading the same chapter for MONTHS due to the repetitive nature of some of the chapters and panels. I think once Ufotable get their hands on it it will go much smoother, but in the manga format, I would have to dock points for the final arc.

I felt the ending was satisfactory for the most part, providing closure and resolutions for beloved characters as well as leaving the door open for more content later down the line.

Overall, KNY for better or for worse, is one of the biggest series of our generation. The numbers, hype and raving reviews all are evidence of that. While it's without a doubt overrated by many, it's also overly hated in equal measure. I found it to be a fun ride throughout and despite my minor issues with the pacing and art, enjoyed every moment of the past 4 years. Kimetsu no Yaiba gets 10 Spider Lillies out of 10.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is one major ride of a series. I was first introduced to this series after watching Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kyoudai no Kizuna, and right after walking out the theatre, I had to continue the story, and began immediately reading this. And wow, this story really took me on a ride, especially since I'm not a big fan of historical settings. From the start, we're greeted by a young Kamado Tanjirou. His introduction into the series was mesmorising. In one chapter, we see a kid wanting to help his family to dealing with loss. This growth does continue throughout the series though. Aswe go on, we see that Tanjirou learns and actually grows as a character. He gets stronger and refines himself into one hell of a man. It's wonderful seeing him actually grow, and this character development alone was wonderful, even without factoring other characters.

Tanjirou's desire for saving his sister from demons is never lost, even in the hopelessness, and along the way, he starts to see the wider world of not just himself, but with others. The trials and tribulations that Tanjirou, Inosuke and Zenitsu go on during this series is wonderful, with the story not shying itself from going very dark really quickly. I definitely did shed some tears within the series; there's some losses that can never be forgotten. This story is phenomenal, with shifts between humans and demons, as well as the themes of family and camaraderie really shining through. There are plenty of laughs, cries, intense scenes, and relaxing parts, and it's all well paced. Nothing felt forced or rushed for the most part.

I say for the most part as the ending did make me go: "What?". I wasn't too sure about it, but after a re-read of that chapter, it did make me happy. Sometimes, the characters and stories seemed to be a bit meh, but for the most part, it was basically a great ride.

The artwork here is brilliant. Gotouge-sensei really knows what their doing, with a wonderful spread of serious designs, as well as some more funny designs. It's brilliantly drawn. And the rare colour pages made the story pop even more, and gave me a better immersion into the series.

Overall, this Kimetsu no Yaiba was wonderfully made. Though the ending and some of the story could have been better, I don't regret reading this at all. I felt this was brilliantly done, with an amazing story, excellent characters with real character development, wonderful art, and an amazing setting. Would I recommend this? Yes. Would I read this again? Definitely.

I’m one of the few readers who followed this manga from the start to where it is now, and guys, what a ride. As one of the reviewers said, in the first ten chapters you get this feeling of imminent axing from WSJ, just close an eye and keep reading. Anyway, truly a refreshing manga, Kimetsu no Yaiba takes elements from the boring and repetitive Shounen genre and gives its own vibes, colors, atmosphere and setting, putting everything together. What I mean is, Kimetsu no Yaiba does NOT revolutionize the Shounen, the author gives his best to make it unique in its own repetitivness andboringness. So how does KnY differ from the others?

First of all, the manga takes a different route from the very beginning. We all know everyone dies but the protagonist alone or with one or two friends of his in every manga we might think of. Here in this historical adventure with the protagonist survives the sister, soon to be a demon. Now what are the demons? Humans transformed into humanoid creatures thirsty of human flesh. The enemies of our race. Props to the mangaka tho, with time in shounen mangas the enemies tend to be blank and without a personality. Here each and every demon is different, has its strenghts and weaknesses and its past/story. The demons are truly the horror elements of this series, while some might look like humans, others completely not. But keep calm, the gore is always granted. Demons are cruel but they are not stupid. In fact I might say some of them are even more intelligent than some humans.

When I think of “Kimetsu no Yaiba”, some words come out: gore, demons, blades, pighead and terrible drawings. So yeah, let’s get straight to the selling point of the manga. I might not be the one who can judge, but hey, the art is terrible. If I had to say how bad it is, probably as bad as in Shingeki no Kyojin. I’m not saying that there’s not effort put in it, ‘cause I’m sure there is, but maybe the author’s strength might not be the drawing. Is that a good thing or a bad a thing? Subjective. You always have to look things to other points of view, personally I see it as a positive thing. It’s this incosistent line which gives its uniqueness to the manga. The problem I have with some shounen, is that the panels don’t tell you nothing, whereas in this book every panel is a festival of emotions, feelings and sweat put altogether in simple ink lines. It’s not something I noticed straight away, but with every chapter being released I found out why I couldn’t get my eyes off to the drawings. The uniqueness and the vibes this gives to you.

Oh boy, this is just hilarious. The characters. Honestly? As I said before when I think of KnY Some words come to my mind, one of which is “colors”. Koyoharu has done an outstanding job with the characters. They just give you the right vibes of how good can a character be written. Don’t get me wrong, characterization is not something very noticeable, but this might be one of the few cases where it’s not really needed. What I mean is, all the characters (even the support cast) have their own personality, and you can truly feel what they are going through and what they are feeling, even with some of the demons. This might be just me tho. So now don’t call me crazy, but Kimetsu no Yaiba, as I see it, is a very colorful manga. When I said that the author had done an excellent job with the characters this is what I wanted to say; every single character has its color, its vibe and its shape. Each MC never gets boring to read, the interactions they have with one another is something everyone should praise. So yeah, both humans and demons are memorable, as they are very unique on its own.

When it comes to enjoyment, Kimetsu no Yaiba always hypes you up, doesn’t waste time to get to the action, in fact I can’t think of more than 10 chapters for a break from the end of a battle to the beginning of a new one. Yes it is very fast paced, or better, it might have a questionable pace, but I’m guessing that the author wants to do what he loves the most, gets you excited for an awesome battle, and you can feel the all the love and effort he puts in the choreography of the scene, the dance of the characters. Of course, you can’t call a Shounen-battle manga a shounen-battle manga if it doesn’t have over-the-top action, blood from a single scratch, some sort of weird techniques and screamings. Kimetsu no yaiba is not by any meaning lower than big mangas like Naruto or one piece when it comes to fight scenes. I’m sorry they not might be 100 chapters-long but every battle has its story to tell, its characters to develop, its demons, and its setting (most of the time night). Other than fights and gore, the enjoyment of the manga is characterized by a cast which is pure fun to follow, so it never gets boring there.

Overall, Kimetsu no Yaiba is an hidden gem, sadly underrated, that takes you to a completely different kind of world in a historical horror setting with a unique cast, atmosphere and identity.

Hopefully you will give it a try, thanks for reading!

This review will contain spoilers!! If you are easily triggered. Then please turn away from this review since I will not be holding anything back at all. I've said my piece about the first season of Demon Slayer anime. It was rough around the edges but land and sea above the awful of a mess known as the manga depiction. No hard feelings to anyone who enjoyed this crap. I mean, I was one of you as well for a very short period. Then I woke up and saw that Demon Slayer is not the least bit deserving of all the hype and fame it's gettingfrom a writing standpoint. After reading blindingly, ignoring my own feelings and letting the viewpoints of another affect my judgments and way of thinking. Just utterly throwing my own feelings in a circle of a pile of confusion, not trying to understand my genuine beliefs. I was able to come to terms with my actual views once I shut everything else out. I am not mad at the author, and quite happy they are selling millions on their work. But I can't say the same about the community. I am disappointed even if I do understand why Demon Slayer blew up as it did. We enjoy what we enjoy, and everyone is different. There's nothing wrong with that at all. Not to mention, it helped the manga community get more readers and prestige, and that's a big plus, no doubt.

That anime adaptation from Ufotable was a blessing and with it trending like mad everywhere. Curious newcomers, countless other individuals in the anime community, ate that shit up like it was cake. It's no doubt hard to differentiate the taste when you've not eaten or, in this case, read or watched something genuinely worth your attention because it's simply great. I am willing to bet any numbers of shounen such as Black Clover, which is like far better than Demon Slayer and deserves some actual attention. If that shit got a proper adaptation putting a strong emphasis on the production value and even making sure the experience in the anime flows smoothly like running river. It would totally blow up and sell like hotcakes. That goes for shit like Fairy Tail as well. Black Clover for one possesses most of the same elements as Demon Slayer. But the execution is far clearer and much more concise and decisive. At least it was when I read it. I need to get back on that. I will throw this out there. Noelle is a greatly written character with flaws and everything nice. She is properly written tsundere to boot. For me, that's a big fat cherry on top. Asta feels real and is not void of emotions or a sense of danger and all that.

The reason I think Demon Slayer doesn't deserve any of the fame it's getting from a writing standpoint - it's a mess with no lick of direction, genuineness in it's established themes and character drama. The impact feels so lackluster, and the deaths don't even affect my emotions a bit. It's so dull to read, and the pacing has no sense of balance or satisfaction. The cuts to events feel forced, half-assed. It's merely just damn random and is not running in paths without needless hindrances or broken roads. Even after all that, there's so much more I want to say and get off my chest. I would admit that Demon Slayer had the potential and elements to turn out as a decent shounen. If the author was not in a hurry or Weekly Shounen Jump didn't rush them to finish the story. I don't know if they were forced or not, but it has already happened many times. I don't want to open that can of utter worms, but it's obvious which shounen I am referencing, among others.

As for Demon Slayer, nothing about the story interested me whatsoever. Most of the characters were just happened to be a means to an end. But it had a good cast of characters with distinct enough personalities. Shinobu was like such a best girl, and for me, it is far more interesting than Kanao. She had this simple sense of complexity by putting on a facade behind her face when she is actually angry about lots of things. It's such a shame she was killed before her character's potential got fully utilized. Kanao is adorable and charming, but unlike Shinobu, which at least got somewhat fleshed out, Kanao's change was jarring and didn't sit well with me. At least it seems like Tanjiro and her got together. So that's good and gave me at least some sense of comfort. But they seriously did my girl Shinobu so damn nasty. Inousuke was by far the only interesting character out of the main trio. But just like more or less anyone else, his growth was sloppy and not well executed. I wanna say that each of the Hashiras deserved more build-up than they got.

Sadly, we only got something resembling a jittery backstory, and many were interesting, no doubt. Still, you could see that the author was in a rush to get back to the action. I think my favorite has to be Iguro's, which was seriously messed up. The way they tore his mouth to match that nightmare was a bit awkward and just a bit too much? But I definitely wanted him to bath in happiness after going through that tragic and scarring event. Also, that snake lady is damn nightmare-fuel. In just that one panel, she was much scarier than Muzan. I am not getting a wink of sleep tonight. I actually felt the chemistry between Iguro and Mitsuri. Sadly, once again, their relationship was not as sufficiently fleshed out or built-up like I wanted it to be. But it was by far my favorite ship. So unlike most characters. I felt their death but then that ending happened and my suffering was for nothing.

So let's talk about the big bad of Demon Slayer. Muzan so insufferable as a villain, and I cared little how the whole fight with him went. It was going places way too quickly. I didn't get enough time to absorb how much of a threat Muzan was since he was zig-zagging around places chopping up demon slayers left and right. But it didn't carry any weight or impact. It was obviously forced down upon us to make us feel frightened of Muzan. But I was like okay all the time. I have said it before that death is a pretty severe double-edged sword that can bite you in the back if one doesn't know how to use it well. This story throws that at us literally all the times like it's a tool to make the vibe heavy and tell you that the stakes are high. Anyone can drop dead, but it's pointless if you know it's going to happen, and when you barely have an emotional bond with the cast, it's not going to affect you. Plus, once it's used and the character dies.

We don't get time to process what just happened before we simply start moving to other things. It doesn't help either Muzan feels just like a joke with many loose screws in his already small brain. "I am like a natural disaster, so you shouldn't care if someone died" or something like that. I was seriously laughing out loud when those words came out of that freak's mouth. That's just a taste, so prepare to get your brain-cells eaten by Muzan stupidity. If you decide to read it. To make Muzan truly scary, the author should've given him common sense and some level of intelligence. Simply, flaunting your powers around will only work for so long. Just for like the first time, when you know nothing about said individual. This goes for many things. But in this case, a villain's appearance is not the only thing matters to make you respect or admire them. There are ideals, personality, and of course, flaws, and more. Not to the point, it's all over the place. Those things need to bounce off well with each other and not straight out devour each other.

What the hell happened to my boi Azaka? He was the best and the most entertaining villain in Demon Slayer. Too bad the guy's name, I don't even remember killed him, and I couldn't care less about him. Since he was just in that one arc and hardly felt well-established. We'll see how the anime does his introduction and all that. I already hear the angry mob consisting of the Demon Slayer out there. Azaka was the best among all the demons and had the biggest amount of potential. I would've liked to see him be replaced with Tanjiro as a main, to be honest. Now Muzan death scene was the most hilarious shit I have seen ever. There was a meme of how Muzan turned into a baby. I completely burst out in laughter. That shit was honestly GOLD. Then when he was such a manipulative jerk trying to control Tanjiro but it didn't work. So Muzan resorted to begging him and probably crying inside. That was good entertainment. We've waited a long time for Nezuko to turn to human, but man was that whole scene so bland and like whatever. I didn't feel any emotions coming out from that panel at all. Can we talk about how Giyuu and Tanjiro basically became the best bros? Still, it was never established with security or ingenuity in mind? It came from the left-field, just like most of the directions in this story.

Finally, I want to just say that regardless of all the death scenes that came from literally nowhere. Simply reincarnating them makes the situation much worse than it already is. Yes, those who died are not really alive, but calling it simply reincarnation and coincidence is not the best thing to say. It makes the already shaky story filled to the brim with all kinds of issues just crumble to utter pieces. Let's not get started on how Tanjiro time and time again. Became stronger without any clues that didn't feel wishy-washy, besides the obvious things like his hair and that mark on his head. The power system is really simple but effective and might be awkwardly written, but it does the job. That said, many of the characters' execution and how they went from zero-to-hundred was cheap and ineffective. I realized I have been simply focused on the character aspect, but the world-building was not there either. We don't even know many if any of the locations name. It all just seems so damn insignificant. One more thing I want to bring up is the author, Koyoharu, who uses tell and show at the same time. Most annoyingly, so it makes reading through Demon Slayer boring and lame. Since we already are seeing much of the things that are happening in the drawings, so we don't need to go all bananas about the details. Just a light touch be more than enough.

I don't like drawing most of the time, either. The action is rough, and I can't properly see what's happening. I mentioned already that emotions don't get conveyed properly through facial expressions or behavior most of the time. There are rare occasions when we get some good eye-candy with details in the background and character art. It's not in the slightest the best artwork I have seen. But the author can draw once they put their mind to it. So I wonder if the author truly enjoyed writing Demon Slayer? I sadly didn't enjoy it as much as I thought initially. It was all over the place, no sense of anything, and that final chapter was terrible. It simply focused on a new batch of characters and went nowhere with that. I would've liked to see some silver of world-building with how the world became after the demons were killed with details. Maybe see the public reaction to the events and properly tie all the damn loose ends. Being how the characters went from this to that and so forth. Btw, I think Nezoku lost something when she returned back to human. Did she seriously marry Zenitsu? Overall, Demon Slayer is probably the worst shounen I have read in recent memories, if not ever so far. I enjoyed bits and pieces of the beginning. It had the potential to become slightly more. If only the author wasn't set by being satisfied by mere cheap thrills that last barley a few moments.

THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW With this review I will go over each category for ratings and give my ratings as well as my thoughts that lead me to those ratings. 1: Story - 9/10 Overall I would say the story is great. It is quite fast-paced and full of action with a lot of emotional moments as well as just generally "cool" moments. Multiple times while reading I just kept on looking at a particular panel or page for a while after I read it because the story was just so enthralling and the moment was so awesome that I couldn't move on just yet. However,this section is only a 9/10 for me because while the story overall is fast-paced, sometimes it is TOO fast-paced, meaning that some things that should have been a bit more drawn out are instead done with quite quickly. Additionally, the beginning portion of the manga is quite slow compared to the rest of it. Another nitpick, which is not a big enough problem to dock another full point, is that a lot of times the comedy just does not work for me. Occasionally it does, but I would say the majority of the time the comedy is not good and sometimes it is misplaced.There are not really any glaring plot holes or anything, and a lot of character backstories are amazing. Basically, the story is much better than your average shounen for sure, but it is not flawless.

2: Art - 9/10

The art in Kimetsu no Yaiba is great. A lot of the sword / breathing techniques are a beauty to look at, and a lot of the character designs (like Akaza, Kokushibo, basically all of the hashira) are incredible. However, the art is getting docked a point solely because in the beginning portions the mangaka was clearly still getting into the swing of things (this is to say that the beginning had lower art quality, but fortunately the mangaka gets used to it fast and the lower quality does not go on for long at all). Basically, while the earlier chapters left something to be desired, the mangaka ended up creating an art style that is both unique and a pleasure to look at.

3: Character - 10/10

The characters are outstanding which is why this section is getting a 10/10. The designs are all unique and all great, and many of the characters have compelling backstories that help the readers understand their motivations for doing what they do. Obviously, there are some meh characters in here and some that are a "you love them or you hate them" sort of deal, but I would say the writing for the GOOD characters far surpasses the meh nature of some of the other characters. There are not two characters in this series that I would say are exactly alike, and this sort of uniqueness is awesome to see. Additionally, there are so many fighting styles and each character basically has their own, which just contributes to making unique characters. Also, it must be said that in terms of shounen-mc's go, Tanjiro is one of the best. He has compelling motivation and his development and power gains seem realistic and not too over-the-top or forced like some other shounen series. Most of the villains are also great as well, with good backstories and good designs. There are some standard villains of course, but there are more compelling villains than you would find in most shounens.

4: Enjoyment - 10/10

Enjoyment is an easy 10/10. While I did say previously that the pace was too fast sometimes, most of the time I loved the fast pace of the series and it kept me reading for longer than I had planned to multiple times because I simply had to see what happened next. I also really enjoy the fighting style in this manga with the different breathing techniques allowing for the characters to pull off different sword skills. This has become one of my favorite manga and I am very happy that it is enjoying the recognition it deserves.

5: Overall - 10/10

I would say that the enjoyment and character aspect of this series bumps up the 9 in both the art and story category, hence the 10/10 overall rating. This is a manga I would recommend to anybody who likes action or cool characters. I am extremely happy that a studio as great as ufotable is doing a FAITHFUL adaptation (let alone such a high quality adaptation) to this great manga. This fact gives me another reason to recommend this manga to people, because the quality of the animation is so high, even if you read this manga you will still look forward to seeing these amazing fights animated. I know a lot of people don't read manga so they can just watch the anime, but with Kimetsu no Yaiba I fully believe that it is worth it to read it first so you can enjoy it more for the characters and the story and then you can watch it after for the art and the fighting.

If you like action and/or a great story with great characters, do yourself a favor and read Demon Slayer.

Not gonna lie I went into this series fresh off the anime and had high hopes and expectations. I was sorely disappointed with what I found. Story: The anime strongly reminds of Magi (manga version) and so diving head first into KnY's manga, I expected some strong but compact narrative arcs. What I got felt like a cheap imitation. The arcs are compact alright, almost to the point of rushing them. Everything that happens within a set arc seems to have limited impact on what happens outside of them. Where a truly inspired series like Magi sees what happens in each arc have a definitive impact oneach arc going forward (and the narrative overall), KnY struggled to keep any arc relevant after it closed. It sort of feels more like a collection of connected stories, as opposed to one complete story. This isn't an uncommon problem with shounen, but it is especially exaggerated in the case of KnY.

Art:

No complaints. It's a pretty generic world but the setting being Taisho era Japan is neat, if a little underwhelming considering how little the setting is actually utilized. Character designs are inspired though. Well done there.

Characters:

So, the early arcs of the anime and manga alike didn't bother me so much because they're there to introduce us to these characters, their past, their motivations, etc. At some point though you have to give your characters, especially your morality-driven protagonist, a real question to struggle with. Tanjirou never really questions his actions or his motives. It's all for revenge against Muzan. This renders every battle outside of the one he is sure to wage against Muzan totally moot, unless someone else is there to bridge the gap (and often there is, re: Kyojurou, Giyu, etc). Tanjirou is seriously one of the least interesting protagonists I've ever come across. He's boring. Should've made Giyu the protagonist instead of giving him a spin-off manga. Tanjirou would have made a decent side character, but he just doesn't cut it when it comes to being a main character.

Enjoyment:

Due to the lack of narrative cohesion, uninspired characters, and overall poor writing, my enjoyment of this series bottomed out after the Demon Train arc when I realized things weren't going to improve. I kept reading, just to see if I was wrong, but I've caught up with the current, final arc and I'm still not impressed.

Kimetsu no yaiba is the kind of manga that starts off slow, you feel like the author doesn't know what to do, but picks up later on when the mangaka introduces other characters, the characters are ALL lovable seriously! and Tanjiro's personality is not really your typical shonen stuff he's kindhearted and super sweet not hotblooded and impulsive, another good thing is the female characters they're all likeable and useful for a change i really like Nezuko and their brother-sister bond, as for the art many have commented that the characters sometimes look derpy but that's not bad either because it suits the funny moments.Conclusion: give it a chance !

I have seen lots of negative reviews for Kimetsu no Yaiba. Even my own friends who read the manga and completed it didn't like the ending. I, however, have very different opinions. Kimetsu no Yaiba was probably the first proper shonen manga I read, with all the clichés and whatnot. However I have been reading books since I could actually read so I have a lot of experience with stories. Does that translate to experience with mangas? Of course not. But I would like to think I have at least some authority here. The main reason I loved Demon Slayer was quite simply due towhat it made me feel. I always judge any form of story based on what it made me *feel*. And needless to say Demon Slayer made me feel a *lot* of things.

What in particular made me write this review is the amazing movie by Ufotable. The thing is after that movie I reread the whole manga. And.. for some reason I found absolutely nothing wrong with it apart from nitpicks. The story flowed smoothly, the hero developed naturally and most of all, the fights were just the absolute best.

Two in particular I want to talk about are the Daki and Gyutaro vs, Tanjiro, Uzui, Inouske and Zenitsu AND in the final arc the battle between Akaza and Tomioka and Tanjiro.

For the first battle what stood out just how much our main protagonist improved. Since I was rereading I realised just how much improvement there was from all the characters. In particular Tanjiro using Hinokami Kagura. That battle was just pure amazing for me.

Second of all in the Tomioka and Tanjiro vs. Akaza battle; the backstory of Akaza. What this manga is unrecognized for, or even looked down upon are its absolutely stellar backstories. Each and every single one of the main and primary supporting characters have such profound and detailed backstories that just make you fall in love with them all. Yes even the villains.

With Kimetsu no Yaiba there were multiple scenes where I felt actual chills down my back. Not even watching the anime but reading the freaking manga.

If there is one thing I might dislike or annoyed by was the forced humour. While some scenes were hilarious others just made me want to skip them or cringe. However they were few and far in between and the other amazing bits made me completely forget about it.

The only true flaw of this manga I would say is that too much story is packed into the final 5 or so volumes. An insane amount of backstory and fight scenes. It was way too concentrated in my opinion and would've benefited from being spread out a little but I digress.

In the end I have read the whole Demon Slayer manga twice and the after the Mugen Train Arc once more. Not once did I feel like I was reading a subpar or boring story. Despite knowing what happens ahead I only got more excited. Objectively looking, it is far from perfect. But it just made me feel *so* much happiness, excitement and joy. Perhaps anime and manga veterans may not like it. That's perfectly fine. But for me Demon Slayer is for all intents and purposes: perfect.

10/10

English. I do not like to make reviews without having seen the complete product and I will do the review when the manga ends and I will give my final opinions but for now I will only dedicate to a recommendation of the current state of the work ... History (6/10): I will be honest, you will not find here silly and childish ideals of dreamers in the style of bnha or some other naruto 2.0, the story is ok, it starts strong with a premise with much emphasis on family issues with Tanjiro doing the impossible by save the soul of her sister turned into Oni tomake her human again, up to this point all right, the execution is decent (from this point Tanjiro is dedicated to strengthen and learn to fight to be a hunter of Oni's), in less than 100 caps his story has worked better and had better story arcs than the rest in the jump, better in thematic and the central story is still on track .. There is only two detail that bothers me and it is an asspull that was taken out in the arc of the Spider family but soon they justify it I want to believe, Also add that the first 30 chapters have a very inconsistent rhythm until rushed (And are complete dogshit), this is because the manga could be canceled if not something interesting fast, do not drop it

Characters (6/10)

The strong point of the work in general, the cast is simple but like the story is solid .. Starting with Tanjiro the protagonist is a calm, comprehensible, intelligent young man (He knows how to use his skills and tries to get out of difficulties thinking about good strategies not with power ups) and with a strong belief in the family, is not as hateful as other protagonists of the same demographic and in passing unlike other main character he is not an idealistic fool who seeks to forgive everyone and who go to the side of the good guys, instead he knows that the Onis have no remedy anymore (unlike his sister) so for the same reason he kills them but in case the demon regrets what he did then Tanjiro will stay with him until the end to have a quiet death (Good protagonist); We continue with the protagonist Nezuko, I can not say much about it, since his personality was quite abolished by becoming Oni yet you can notice how tender his personality really is but when he has to fight he does it and a lot of the best of the work is the interaction he has with his brother.

Continuing with the characters, the appellants are fine, Inosuke is great to be the muscles of the main team of the series and Zenitsu is scandalous in the good sense that gives quite a laugh; Now I want to touch a particular point and it's the villains (Los Oni's) have a lot of potential to draw story arcs with different themes for their pasts and why they ended that way from families, loss, envy, tragic love in etc .. But in if they are evil entities that like to kill people for the type of creature they are

Art (6/10).

In comparison to the HxH manga art here, if there is solidity and the character designs are totally different from each other, especially in the Oni's with the creativity that some of them have in their designs BUT the drawing in general is decent, it shows even that the author is very green in this type of works since it is her first complete serialization sometimes it is something crude and falls into the simple in the backgrounds but in general the style of the author is very interesting to draw attention and invite someone to read the work; Another question I want to touch is that the author puts a lot of work into the details in the fights, that makes them look very artistic and easy to understand where everything goes, by far is one of the strengths of the work

Enjoyment (7/10).

I really like the play, I expect good things from her, compared to other fucking shonens she has her feet on the ground and she knows her current situation to go to. The best thing about fights in the jump from afar.

Overall (6/10).

I would like give it 7 but I have my standards in question of this type of stories,if the story develops in a good way I upload the qualification

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Español.

No me gusta hacer reseñas sin haber visto el producto completo y volvere hacer la reseña cuando acabe el manga y dare mis opiniones finales pero por ahora solo dedicare a una recomendacion del estado actual de la obra...

Historia (6/10):

Sere honesto, no encontraran aquí ideales tontos e infantiles de soñadores al estilo de bnha o algun otro naruto 2.0, la historia es solida pero muy solida, arranca fuerte con una premisa con mucho enfansis en los temas de la familia con Tanjiro haciendo lo imposible por salvar el alma de su hermana convertida en Oni para volverla humana denuevo, hasta este punto todo bien, la ejecucion es decente (desde este punto Tanjiro se dedica a fortalecerse y aprender a pelear para volerse un cazador de Oni's), en menos de 100 caps ha trabajado mejor su historia y ha tenido mejores arcos argumentales que lo demas en la jump, mejores en tematica y la historia central sigue en buen camino.. Solo hay dos detalles que me molestan y es un asspull que se sacaron en el arco de las familia Araña pero pronto lo justificaran quiero creer y Tambien agregar que los primeros 30 capitulos tienen un ritmo muy inconsistente hasta rusheado, esto es debido a que pudo ser cancelado el manga si no hacia algo interesante rapido, no lo dropees

Personajes (6/10):

El punto fuerte de la obra en general, el cast es simple pero al igual que la historia es solido.. Empezando por Tanjiro el protagonista es un joven calmado, tranquilo, inteligente (Sabe utilizar sus habilidades y trata de salir de las dificultades pensando en buenas estrategias no con power ups) y con una fuerte creencia en la familia, no es odioso como otros protagonistas de la misma demografia shonen y de paso a diferencia de otros main character el no es un tonto idealista que busca perdonar a todos y que se pasen al lado de los buenos, en cambio el sabe que los Onis ya no tienen remedio ( A diferencia de su hermana) asi que por lo mismo los mata pero en el caso de que el demonio se arrepiente de lo que hizo entonces Tanjiro se quedara con el hasta el final para que tenga una muerte tranquila (Buen protagonista); Seguimos con la protagonista Nezuko, no puedo opinar mucho acerca de ella, ya que su personalidad fue bastante abolida por convertirse en Oni aun asi se puede notar lo tierna que es su personalidad en realidad pero cuando tiene que pelear lo hace y mucho de lo mejor de la obra es la interaccion que tiene con su hermano.

Siguiendo con los personajes, los recurrentes estan bien, Inosuke es genial al ser los musculos del equipo principal de la serie y Zenitsu es escandoloso en el buen sentido de que da bastante risa; Ahora quiero tocar un punto en especial y son los villanos (Los Oni's) tienen mucho potencial para sacar historias de arcos argumentales y con distintas tematicas para sus pasados y el porque acabaron de esa manera desde familias, la perdida, la envidia, el amor tragico en etc.. Pero en si son entes malvados que les gusta matar gente por el tipo de criatura que son

Arte (6/10).

En comparacion del arte mierda del manga de HxH aqui si hay solidez y los diseños de personajes son totalmente diferentes del uno al otro en especial en los Oni's con la creatividad que tienen algunos en sus diseños PERO el dibujo en general es decente, se nota aun que la autora esta muy verde en este tipo de obras ya que es su primera serializacion completa aveces es algo tosco y cae en lo simple en los fondos pero en general el estilo de la autora es muy interesante para llamar la atencion e invitar a alguien a leer la obra; Otra cuestion que quiero tocar es que la autora le pone mucho trabajo en los detalles en las peleas, eso hace que estas se vean muy artisticas y faciles de entender a donde va todo, de lejos es uno de los puntos fuertes de la obra

Enjoyment (7/10).

Me gusta mucho la obra, espero buenas cosas de ella, en comparacion con otros shonens de mierda esta tiene los pies sobre la tierra y sabe su situacion actual para donde dirigirse.. Lo mejor en cuestion de peleas en la jump de lejos, me gustaria darle 7 pero tengo mis estandares en cuestion de este tipo de historias, si la historia se desarolla de buena manera le subiria a 7

Overall (6/10)

Me gustaria darle 7 pero tengo mis estandares en cuestion de este tipo de obras, si la historia se desarolla de buena manera le subire la calificacion

If you are patient and can read my whole Review, i am pretty sure you wanna watch/read the Manga/Anime. But i am still sorry. First: I completed the Manga, but i hope nothing will Spoiler you in any way. I am not gonna name any characters in any way but only the Core of the Manga i believe to know. A Classic start of such a genre, a desperate start into the jorney of your life. Only a little hope your carry on the proof everyone else wrong. Probably fits in some other Mangas too. But the Story in this one here is a little different, ithink. Just because it´s not one but two "Main" Characters and the connection between them is something people can relate to easier.

And the jorney continues in desperate ways, but this little desperate hope is going on and thats in such an honest heartbreaking way. And you can feel the hope and the same feeling of despair as both of them. It´s cruel as it is beautyful.

BUT THEN OH BOY THE HEAT IS GOING ON.

You are doing a °180 from despair to FIGHTING SPIRIT. You can´t believe what´s happening now the quickness of the moves.

And the End ? The meaning of the End and that everything ? It´s up to you to decide but for me.

I think it deserves every praise it can get. I am afraid to watch the anime further(startet the first 6 episodes before i went to the manga) because i never want to loose this feeling and experience i had from reading it the first time.

End of my Review, pls tell me what you think(dont mind some minor mistakes i made and i hope it did not spoil anything.

PS FOR ANIME WATCHERS: If you watch the Anime you have to watch the Movie too cause its part of the Story, without the Movie you would miss a big piece of Story ;) A +1 for the producers to include a canon movie into the anime :D genius

In kind regard,

Esporeno

this is my first review ever so i hope i do it right spoilers aheaddemon slayer: kimetsu no yaiba is one of the most horrid shounen i have ever read. from the anime i was really excited to start picking up the manga, thinking i would enjoy it as much as i did the anime. however as i am writing this review, you can probably see that it had the opposite effect.

the manga is very solid up until the swordsman village arc, although i definitely feel like the red light district arc was where it was at its prime. however the last arc of the manga, the final battle arc, has never made me so upset to read a manga.

lets start with what i thought was a great aspect of the series, its characters.

many characters in this series are very good. they all have different designs, abilities, stuff like that makes you think that they really did well with this. however, this series has no idea how to actually expand on these characters well, as their backstories are all presented during conflict. the flashback usage is one of the most annoying things known to man, and demon slayer does it at least 30 times.

then there is the fact that after the writer develops these characters, he kills them off, one by one. the characters feel important, well written, all of that is thrown out the fucking window because they just die after they were shown in the spotlight. mitsuri kanroji gets hit one on the side of the face and DIES? the canonically strongest character in terms of prue muscle is hit once on the SIDE OF THE FACE AND DIES. its horrendous.

kamado tanjiro is one of the worst protagonists ive ever seen. who cares if the demon you murdered was once human? who cares if they liked to stare at the sunset? that doesn't mean you can ignore the fact that they murdered and devoured human beings. the amount of times we see them being pittied is so annoying and overused, it's like stale bread.

nezuko kamado is a plot device. wowie, a cute anime girl who likes head pats, why does it matter when her personality is that of a cardboard box? why does she all of a sudden have amnesia and cant remember her time as a demon?? its all just loose ends that aren't explained. nezuko transforms and makes her blood explode once and then is discarded for the last two arcs of the series.

speaking of loose ends, let's see what else they don't explain.

tanjiro can see ghosts.

the sword system. why do they say his blade is black as if it matters?

Spells. they exist and thats all.

i feel like my hatred for this series is stemming from that final muzan fight. breaths being thrown around like garbage, characters after being developed just get injured because the author doesnt know what to do with them, muzan himself, it's all just nonsense. this manga is the worst piece of shounen ive ever layed my eyes upon.

TLDR: 3/10 don't read it, stay an anime only fan.

at least the characters are cool

2 THESSALONIANS 2:11 “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:” This simple passage perfectly summarizes the success and story of DEMON SLAYER/ Kimetsu No Yaiba. It can be entirely attributed to the anime adaptation; the adaptations animation quality as well as visual effects. We know this is true because the manga volume sales flopped for nearly 4 years until the show came out. Truly befitting of such a fraudulent series of biblical proportions. STORY: You must be STRONGLY DELUDED to think that the story of Demon Slayer is anything, but one aimed at peoplewho enjoy eating reheated food; it is as cookie cutter and generic as humanely possible. It starts off with Tanjiro wanting to save his sister after she's turned into a demon which started off solid but quickly devolves in quality and gradually loses impact with each passing arc. The story eventually devolves into Tanjiro and friends going from Point A to B, encountering new demons, getting defeated by said demon, random asspull, and then a melodramatic backstory that desperately tries to recontextualize the life of the demon into a tragedy.

Characters:

DEMON SLAYER probably has one of the WORST casts in not just Battle Shonen history but dare I say the history of Shonen and just Manga as a whole.

Every character you can think of is literally just an archetype, they are nothing more than just a single trait. Don’t expect them to be fleshed out in any meaningful way, you have:

-Cornballs like Tanjiro who cries over everything, he literally cries over homicidal demons. He has no personality or character outside of being kind and having a big-ass forehead.

-You have Nezuko who has an EVEN BIGGER forehead than her brother, and you would think with a cranium so large that she would be able to do something useful? NO, she is nothing more than a damsel in distress. It’s hard to believe that she would look after her younger siblings when after being turned into a demon she develops some sort of Intellectual disability which causes her to act out as a child. This shift in personality ends up bleeding into other characters such as Zenitsu who has lust towards a girl who has mentally regressed.... Very suspicious.....

-The Demons are an absolute joke as they are all trying to be tragic characters; the only one that succeeded in being notable and compelling is the #1 Upper Moon who is also the only character worth any salt in this entire series.

Worldbuilding/Setting:

There is literally no worldbuilding or setting to speak of, there is nothing commendable about the setting, there is nothing commendable about the Breathing Styles once you realize that its fake and all the Demon Slayers are essentially undiagnosed schizophrenics running around as swordsmen since anti-psychotics haven’t been invented yet in the period the story takes place in

The nonexistent worldbuilding gets even worse at the end when the author just randomly decides to include reincarnation after having killed off majority of his cast in the previous arcs

Fights:

You would think that a Battle Shonen, a series focused on fighting would produce consistently good fights, however Demon Slayer fails at even doing that, the fights are plagued with garbage paneling, there is absolutely ZERO tension in these fights since characters will survive all sorts of injuries through their the author and his bullshit justifications like “I rearranged my internal organs to avoid being stabbed!” or something corny like that.

Artwork:

It has a unique art style, but art alone cannot make a series good or worthwhile.

CONCLUSION:

In conclusion, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba is nothing more than a meandering, and middling attempt at creating a battle Shonen. The readers time would be better spent on literally doing anything else. If you do decide to start this series it would be better to watch the anime since at least you have the addition of visual effects and music.

Kimetsu no yaiba came out of nowhere and placed on top in a short time so I decided to give it a go, compared to many shounen manga out there it didn't had that much chapters to read, and honestly after finishing this I really can't say I liked it Story 4 : it's pretty flat to be honest, entire motivation of the tanjirou is just curing his sister other than this he and no reason to join demon slayer corps. Author really tries her best to give those demons some background but only think she can do is info dumping their back stories andexpect you to feel sad for those demons. I really couldn't feel any connection to any character I'm this story

Characters 3 : they're mostly one note archetypes without barley any depth to them, when I read a story I expect more fleshed out characters with build up to their development so I can sympathize with them. When something bad happens to those well fleshed out characters I actually feel sadness but in kny's case character's development happens suddenly, pacing of their character arcs are pretty bad and doesn't feel natural at all and they suffer from "info dumping sad stories so you'll feel bad " syndrome. Main character tanjirou have 2 modes and this almost never changes, he's the nice young boy who feels remorse even for demean he kills and until last arc he never gets any development at all, and Nezuko... She's not even a character she's just a plot device. There's not a lot to talk about her

Art 4: it's medicore at best, pretty inconsistent at times and fight scenes can have so much stuff going on which tires the eye but sometimes there are some decent shots so I guess it's OK

Over all I really think this show didn't live up to its hype

What am I even supposed to make of this manga? Expectations are everything, and more often than not can hurt your perception of a story if you have overblown or inaccurate ones. But I can’t lie, nor can I think up a better way to open my review; Demon Slayer is a disappointment. Part of that is my own fault from having preconceived ideas about the source material from watching the show, and part of it is the fault of the manga itself, but nevertheless I think it’s a pretty good example of how to fall into a trap of enjoying amateur writing on aestheticalone.

First and foremost, the biggest flaw of Demon Slayer is its cyclical storytelling. We’re introduced to demon enemies, given an extensive, melodramatic backstory for almost every single one of them, and then they die at the expense of another character’s death, typically a hashira (in the context of the story, those are the big strong demon slayers, complete with color coding and elemental “powers”). This cycle continues throughout the entire manga, and all the demon (and even human) backstories are so similar (right down to a very frequent panel of their dead relatives/loved ones lying in a pool of blood on a tatami mat) that I couldn’t be convinced to care about a single one.

I can easily write a demon’s backstory for this manga. You ready? Watch.

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I was born in the mountains to a sad, lonely woman, whose husband returned only once a month and beat her.

I hated my father, because he beat my mother so savagely she was incapable of walking for most of her adult life.

One day I traveled down to the village to retrieve food for my mother. I was beaten by all the townspeople.

When I came back, my mother was sliced in half. I held her body and wept for six days and six nights.

Outside, I saw a demon leaving. He had slaughtered the entire rest of my family, too, all of fifty people, which he ate right in front of me, before throwing their remains into the sun.

Then that demon made me into a demon. The end.

--

It’s such a weird choice to develop the antagonists like this, because it would serve to strengthen the integrity of the story if it wasn’t so played out and redundant. It’s not even used in a thematic way, such as to convey a message or be a parallel to a previous events in the story, leading me to believe that this comes entirely from Gotouge’s writing inexperience.

A huge reason the anime got popular was the breathtaking visuals, which the manga absolutely cannot live up to. It’s perfectly fine art and a perfectly fine style; I even really like the chibi expressions we get from time to time on their round, chubby faces, and the linework in action scenes is decent. But it has little flair, and cannot mask or make up for the manga's absolute lack of narrative. Characters get injured in horrible ways, and their injuries are always put so bluntly it’s funny, with lines like “I think my lung has collapsed,” and “I rearranged the placement of my organs to avoid death when I was stabbed!” and “I’ll have to just sacrifice myself” (they say as they’re bleeding from every orifice), among far crazier situations too. But unless they’re a hashira, they always recover, and with little detail as to why other than… oh, I slept in a bed for a week. Seriously, the amount of times the characters heal from what should be fatal wounds by lying in beds for a few days is just absurd, it happens like three or four times over the course of the story.

It would be unfair of me not to acknowledge the characters we have in the forefront, and for what it’s worth they’re either fun or engaging on the surface. Tanjiro is kinder, softer, and more empathetic than most shonen protagonists. Zenitsu’s outbursts I did find funny, sometimes, and his backstory is unique. Inosuke’s backstory is also unique, as is his demeanor, and even Nezuko’s personality, while subdued, is enjoyable enough to where you forget she’s a plot device. But none of them go through any growth. They just… float around the narrative, never really doing much other than following the progression of events. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re cute, but because I know they’ll be fine every time they fight I can’t get invested literally at all, making their good qualities entirely mute. Similarly, I can’t get invested in the cut-and-dry, template villains of the demons, nor their somehow even more generic leader, Muzan. And of course, I can't bother to care for the hashira either, because they die at the same rate of speed as the demons they mow down.

I immensely dislike the way the story kicks off its climax, because it is an out-of-nowhere resolution to one of the biggest conflicts in the whole manga, which then leads to a chapters-long battle that results in practically NOTHING, other than the exact same shit that came before; Demon shows up —> demon gets backstory —> demon dies —> demon takes hashira along with it —> rinse and repeat, ten times over. I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but I hope that illustrates something about what it's like to read this manga.

In conclusion, I think Demon Slayer is the definition of a 4/10. A 4/10 is really hard to quantify, because if we think of 5 as average and 6 as above average, then something only marginally worse than average would have to be 4, but "below average," by nature, is infinitely debatable. But Demon Slayer fulfills these requirements easily; the enjoyable elements of the art and characters (while sparse) are overshadowed by a by-the-numbers, generic, and repetitive plot. It relies on obvious plot devices, has little internal consistency, and seems to have nothing original to say at all. Thus, slightly worse than average.

I will watch Gotouge’s career with great interest. At the end of the day, Kimetsu no Yaiba is only the way it is because it's made by a novice, and people get better at what they do. It's generic, it's got below average ideas, but it's also not worth hating. Demon Slayer is a manga for those who are specifically attracted to its aesthetic traits, like its time period, swordplay, and characters; not its storytelling. That said, though, I still can't recommend it. There are better manga with deeper explorations of their time periods, better swordplay, and better characters.

Kimetsu no yaiba is definitly a master class. The powwer of this manga live in the drama. There is not a single character wich fight because he want to fight, beging stronger ( one piece, dragon ball, well, in every shonen x') ). Tanjiro is fighting to save his sister. Shinobu want to revenge her sister. Giyu has lost his friend. Inosuke has lost his mother. Sanemi has lost his entiere family and hate demons. Well, il could continue, but there are so many characters x) Every character has been tortured by demon, even zenitsu at the end. The entiere manga is dramatic, it's dark, sad, but witha little happyness, despite the sadness. The best word would be... melancolic.

The 2 bests vilains of this manga, muzan and the first upper moon, gives off an aura..... you KNOW that theses guys, you just CAN'T fight them. It would be a spoiler to speak about their acts, so i can't really explain ^^'

But, every upper moon, you UNDERSTAND why they killed tens of pillars. And in contrary of other mangas, where when a strong vilains appear, the hero win anyway, in kimetsu, you UNDERSTAND, why they killed tens of pillars. Because they are, really, really, really to much powwerful for heroes. And every single upper moon as to be fight by like 3 or 4 pillars, and even in 4v1 , not every heroes are still alive after the fight.....

In kimetsu, the autor is not afraid to kill his characters, that's why he can accentuate even more the drama. And it's sad that over shonens does'nt do that.

It would be so cool if one piece could be inspired by kimetsu and stop to be afraid of killing his character.... In 1020 chapters there is what.... 2, 3 death ?

So, to conclued, kimetsu is a master class, really, run, go reading it !

I'm going to keep this short because I don't think I'll ever be able to capture my thoughts and feelings about this manga correctly. I will not include any spoilers, so that is also going to be one of the reasons why I'll keep this short; I'm not even going to try to vaguely describe what I thought about the major story arcs. I do wonder what this series would've become if Gotouge would've been able to end it like they would've wanted to - I read that they were kind of forced to wrap the story up quickly because of some reasons. (from whatI gathered, they were personal)

So, I got into this manga pretty late; the final major story arc had already begun, but thanks to this series being quite short, I easily read the +100 chapters in a week. It also helped that I knew what the start was going to be like since I already watched the anime; I already knew most of the characters, I already cared about them, I knew the setting and the world, so it was easy to get into it, even though the story moved surprisingly fast paced (compared to other shounen mangas I've read).

The story of Kimetsu no Yaiba is gripping, though at first I thought it was too cliché. Tanjiro, no matter what anyone says, is one of my favorite main characters ever because he's kind. I get that many people don't like that (for who knows what reason), or think that he's boring because he's kind, but in my opinion, it's his greatest quality. Despite everything, Tanjiro remains kind, he grows and changes, but he always remains who he is; a kind boy who loves his family. It's Tanjiro's kindness that makes the story of KnY so good; he is, in a way, rebelling against the world where literal demons exist. Kill demons? Okay, but we're gonna save the ones we can.

Tanjiro's willingness to listen, to help others is, in my opinion, the core of this series because in a cruel world where your loved ones die; people are out to get you; evil does its best to bring you down, being kind, even to those the world tries to convince you that they don't deserve kindness, is the most powerful thing in the world. It might even save it.

This manga was a read like a lot of other readers mentioned. Although I didn't think it was that bad. THIS IS MY OPINION JUST OF THE MANGA, although I watched the anime. ART The art is incredible and underrated. I think the art style is really pretty and fits the style that the author wants the series to go for. I've seen some negative reviews about it but I think it is a really good style for this storyline. CHARACTERS The characters are well written and have a lot of personality. Although some character you meet in certain chapters and don't get a back story until much later.The characters are very humor based and also have some really cute and heartwarming moments. The "villain's" of these series are also really well written. I think just like the main characters, the readers learn about their back stories until way later. It makes it really hard to read sometimes since you want to know who they are.

LENGTH

This is where a lot of people didn't like it. It was really long. Some chapters and ideas definitely could have been stretched into the last one. I personally like the length since it was easier for me to read rather than something short and condensed but when I tried to read it for a third time, I understood why people thought it was so lengthy.

OVERALL

For me it was a 9/10. I enjoyed the art style and the overall story line. It has a level of suspense and the characters are really lovable. The villains were well written and sometimes you wanted to cheer them on and help them. The length was definitely a reach but enjoyable if you do it in sections rather than in one go. Definitely recommend for lore. :)))))

I personally adore this Manga! I absolutely loved it! It had a gripping story with gorgeous art and phenomenal characters! This Manga is not perfect I do agree with some complaints, for example, the muzan fight ended too quickly, and muzan himself did not have enough development but I personally felt that it didn't take away from the experience much. I barely even noticed it on the first read. This is because of the excellent character writing in this manga. I can not understate how much I adore every single character! Also, I cried far too much... My final thoughts are This manga is amazing and Ihighly recommend it! Espically if you love character-focused works!