I hear a lot of hype about Demon Slayer, with a lot of people calling it one of the years best anime.Following the quest of a young boy trying to find a way to turn demons back into humans in order to save his sister, he travels with her as a Demon Slayer. Not a complex premise, but leads to a lot of room for some interesting things to happen.
And sure enough, a lot of cool stuf fdoes happen, specifically in regards to many of the shows fight scenes. Backed with some great animation and details, not one fight in this show has felt the same. Using his Water Breathing Techniques(There is an elemental breathing type for Flames and Lightning as well, the name isn't really literal) Tanjiro has a very fluid style to his fighting. Paired with his wit and intellect, he and his sister Nezuko, who seems to hold on to her human thoughts and emotions, cake for an interesting pair on combat. All the unique demon abilities create a lot of interesting scenarios for Tanjiro to deal with, so if you are looking at this from a pure action standpoint I could easily see an argument for it being one of the years best shows.
Where things start to fall apart for me is Tanjiro and his exceptional sense of smell. And when I say exceptional, I mean to a degree I can't take this seriously. He once smelled a person and, I shit you not, he says she smells trustworthy.And at no point does this show seem to understand how incredibly stupid this is. Yet this smell of his is a core part of the story and is constantly relevant to whatever is going on. If it was at least something that happened only on occasion It wouldn't be so bad, but there hasn't been a moment of this story they have not found some way to utilize that smelling thing. I am not going to be surprised if at some point he sniffs a person and knows they were molested as a kid by one of their uncles during thanksgiving.
This is where things get a bit odd to talk about because we have to talk about comedy. This is something that is going to vary wildly, but if you don't think this show is funny you are going to be in for a long ride. I find almost none of the jokes funny, and there is a lot of them when the side cast comes in. There are two additional Demon Hunters that Tanjiro fights side by side with, and they are constantly acting as the comic relief. Zenitsu especially is constantly irritating, but the biggest issue with him is I could see him getting pulled out of the anime entirely and nothing would have to change, at least not up until the end of season one. If you do find the side casts shenanigans funny, you'll get a lot out of it. I'll go ahead and leave the introduction to Zenitsu here, and you can judge the comedy for yourselves because this is him constantly.
The show also has this really odd habit of showing you the history of the demons Tanjiro defeats, but only after they are already beaten. You are constantly being told to feel bad for demons who do nothing but act like absolute monsters after they are already beaten. This isn't inherently a bad thing, but every time it feels so forced I find it hard to get invested in these stories. They keep happening too, so it just feels a bit draining more than anything.
The story has some interesting things going for it, like the question of why Nezuko is able to survive without feeding on human blood, or the main antagonist being the only demon able to kill other demons, and a few other things that keep the story interesting. It's not the most intriguing story, but there is enough there to make it worth getting invested in, despite a the smell thing and the comedy holding it back for me.
The actual climax of the story takes place a good number of episodes before the end, and the last few episodes are more building towards the next season. That said, it was fantastic. You finally get a glimpse at the real power of the demons,the tension his high throughout, it is the best pure action of the show, and it came with a twist at the end I did not expect. I may doan 'Aspect Analysis' article on it in the near future so I can talk about it without worrying about spoilers, but it kind of helped makeup for a lot of the frustration I had with the show up until now.
Demon Slayer is a good show that has a lot holding it back. It's kind of like Attack on Titan for me, where I went in to watch it and it didn't live up to the hype of being one of the greatest anime out for its time. Demon Slayer isn't a show that's likely to crack my top five of the year, but it still had a lot more going for it then Attack on Titan did, and I think there isa lot of room for it to get better as the show goes into season two.So long as you don't let the hype ruin your expectations, is a solid show and worth a watch.
