'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba' Is a Masterpiece

Mad props to Ufotable.  Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – the studio’s first venture in adapting a shonen manga into a full anime series – ends up being an anime masterpiece.

However, this wasn’t really apparent at the start.  In fact, I even contemplated of dropping it after watching the pilot.  It took a few episodes before I was convinced to watch the series all throughout.  It indeed got better and better with each passing episode, but even though I’ve already come to like it at the end of the spring season, I wasn’t convinced yet that it was going to amount into something special.  Going into the summer season, I even wrote that I was “a bit doubtful it will be able to compete against the new season’s crop of strong, new shonen anime series.”  Boy, was I ever so wrong.  Not only was it able to hold its own against the summer season’s Big Three (Dr. Stone, Vinland Saga, and Fire Force), but it utterly surpassed them.  The second half of its 26-episode debut season leveled up to heights I didn’t expect it would go.

Kimetsu no Yaiba (translated into English as “Blade of Demon Destruction”) follows a boy with a keen sense of smell named Tanjiro Kamado who returns to his mountain home from selling charcoal in the village just to find his family massacred by a demon.  His sister Nezuko survives, but she herself has been turned into a demon.  However, even though she has become a demon, she still retains part of her humanity – especially her love for his brother – and she refuses to attack and devour humans.

A legendary demon slayer named Giyū Tomioka encounters the siblings, and after seeing their remarkable situation, he sends them to Sakonji Urokodaki at Mt. Sagiri.  There, Tanjiro trains under Urokodaki to become a demon slayer.  After passing the deadly “Final Selection” exam to become a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, Tanjiro begins travelling around Taishō era Japan with Nezuko to hunt down demons and look for a cure that can turn Nezuko back into human.

Tanjiro is one of the most unique shonen heroes I’ve ever encountered.  Although he displays some of the qualities of the archetypal shonen MC, he essentially plays against type by being distinctively sensitive and compassionate to others, even to his enemies.  In turn, there’s a sense of kindness in Kimetsu no Yaiba that isn’t quite present in other action-oriented shonen.

The narrative goes out of its way to bring depth to the demons Tanjiro is fighting, and thus, each one of them doesn’t come across as mere disposable enemy-of-the-week that he has to overcome before moving on to the next (although most of them are technically are).  In the process, the audience feels sympathy for these demons.  Now, this doesn’t mean the narrative ends up justifying their evil deeds; it just makes the audience understand where they’re coming from, which is a place of very relatable human emotions and motivations but are tragically twisted in their expressions.

Tanjiro, probably through his superhuman olfactory gift and his empathetic heart, is able to instinctively sense the traces of the humans these demons once were and the pains they’re dealing with underneath their fallen, demonic exterior.  However, make no mistake: he has no illusions that these demons should be spared.  He understands that if they’re left as they are, they will only keep on doing evil and causing harm.  He understands that they need to be stopped ASAP.  Thus, he will readily terminate them with extreme prejudice.  But he performs the deed coming from a place of mercy and justice rather than hate and vengeance (even though it was demons who murdered his family; this anime is no revenge story).  Moreover, once the killing blow is dealt, he will sincerely extend a final, brief moment of human connection and comfort to his defeated opponents.  Thus, in their last few seconds of consciousness before they completely expire, these demons are moved to realize that, despite the evil they’ve done, they are being given a “rest in peace.”

This powerful display of grace gives Kimetsu no Yaiba a lot of heart, and this is what makes it very different from all the other shonen shows I’ve seen.

Tanjiro is also not the only interesting character in this anime.  Nezuko is both extremely adorable and badass – arguably the definite Best Girl of 2019.  The supporting cast is also quite strong.  I can’t blame anyone preferring Zenitsu Agatsuma or Inosuke Hashibira over Tanjiro for Best Boy.  They are both wonderful characters in their own right, though Tanjiro, for me, is still the most complex and coolest character of them all.  Meanwhile, the Hashiras – save for Shinobu Kochō (also a Best Girl contender, along with her adopted sister and protege, Kanao Tsuyuri) – have not yet been given enough screen time to be fleshed out, but they’ve already given off vibes of being worthwhile characters.

Moreover, it wouldn’t be much of an anime masterpiece if its production value isn’t fantastic as well – it is.  The animation is breathtaking; the compositing of traditional hand-drawn techniques with CGI is simply fabulous.  Every frame of this anime is brimming with beauty.

As a battle shonen, it’s a sakuga aficionado’s delight.  It has plenty of jaw-dropping fight scenes (most notable of all is from the world-trending episode 19).  However, its action sequences are outstanding not only because they are viscerally exhilarating and absolute eye candies – which they undoubtedly are – but also because they have real substance from a storytelling standpoint.  They serve as a genuine mode for expanding the world, establishing the power system, exploring the recurring themes, developing the characters, or simply moving the plot forward.  The action is rarely there just for action’s sake.

All in all, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is gorgeous, thrilling, and thoughtful – and a standout of the shonen genre.  It is, for now, tied with The Promised Neverland as the best new anime series of 2019 in my book, and definitely one of the best anime of the year overall.

Postscript:

The saga is set to continue through a film titled Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen.  This is remarkable because: a.) it’s uncommon for a shonen anime series to get a movie after just one season; and b.) it’s much more uncommon for that movie to be actually connected to the series’ overarching story, as most movies of shonen franchises are basically unessential, non-canon, standalone romps.