Demon Slayer is an anime adaptation of the famous manga Kimetsu no Yaiba and it was released in October 2020. It gained massive popularity and is widely acclaimed to be one of the best anime of the decade, some avid anime watchers even consider it to be one of the greatest anime of all time!
The anime is set in 1912-1926 which is known as the Taisho era in Japan. The main protagonist is a young boy named Tanjiro Kamado, and the story follows him on a quest to cure his younger sister who he found had been transformed into a demon in the first episode. Demon Slayer is unlike most conventional anime because while most anime promote romance between a protagonist and his/her counterpart, Demon slayer does not do so. Instead, Demon Slayer appeals to the audience emotionally by showing the unwavering love and attachment that the main character Tanjiro has for his younger sister Nezuko. Tanjiro doesn’t find a love interest throughout the anime which is very uncommon for popular anime. Demon Slayer focuses on well-animated fight scenes which are mostly based on sword skills that display elemental magic properties. The incredible fights in Demon Slayer make it a must-watch for people that like action-based anime since there are a lot of fights throughout the season. Another one of the unique aspects of Demon Slayer is how well the action scenes and fights have been spread out across the episodes. Instead of using long filler episodes and dramatic scenes between encounters, the fights are spaced out very appropriately in a manner in which they are neither too rushed (making it seem like a non-stop brawl sort of anime), nor are they so far apart that people lose interest. Demon Slayer features CGI boss fights that are unlike any other Shonen anime, which is why fans of the show just can’t get over it. The 3D CGI scenes are transitioned very smoothly in a way that they blend well with the regular hand-drawn animation of the rest of the show, which must have been a difficult feat for the animators.
Other than Tanjiro and Nezuko, many supporting characters join them along their journey, which includes fellow demon slayers such as Kyojuro, Zenitsu, Hashibira, Tenjin, Gyomei and a few others. The enemies (and antagonists) of the show are the demons that are spreading havoc and mayhem throughout Japan. The main antagonist of the Demon Slayer anime is Muzan but there are also other foes for Tanjiro and his band of demon slayer friends. Some of the notable demons in the show include the hand demon, Rui, Susamaru, drum demon, and of course the whole spider demon family. The concept of the show is that there is a demon society comprising of demons who were previously humans but then eventually gave up their humanity and hence end up killing humans for pleasure. However, when Nezuko transforms into a demon in the first episode of the show, she later shows signs of retaining her humanity which is a very uncommon occurrence. In the later episodes, a few other demons are introduced that have also retained their humanity and are therefore known to be kind demons. Consequently, this proves that not all demons are bad. Tanjiro, whose sister has become a demon, therefore, finds it easy to sympathize with all the demons he counters and shows empathy towards him, which is why he chooses to kill demons swiftly and thereby offering them a painless death (which he learned from his master). On his journey to help restore his sister back to her normal self, Tanjiro learns that it’s possible to restore a demon back to human form by utilizing the blood of demons, this means that other than just killing demons, there is an alternative way to handling them which almost no one cares for, especially the demon slayers. While watching the anime, viewers are forced to understand the philosophy of how just because a race of vicious and scary-looking creatures such as demons may seem to be a threat, they should still be treated with kindness and respect since they all have a past and experience emotions similar to humans. Also as proven by the presence of kind demons, not all of the demons are the same and some of them are actually good. This rationalization, that is emotionally dissolved into viewer’s brains throughout the anime, is another reason why so many people enjoy the Demon Slayer anime.
Unlike other popular anime of the decade, such as Sword Art Online, My Hero Academia, Seven Deadly Sins, Hunter x Hunter, etc., the Demon Slayer anime is very different. It is short and concise, and although some people may consider that it targets a younger audience since the main protagonist is a child, it was actually created for people of all ages to enjoy. The action-filled combat scenes can be enjoyed by any fan of the action genre of anime and the plot developments are just as good as any other Shonen manga. One of the reasons why Demon Slayer has become so popular is because of its addition to the widely used streaming platform, Netflix. This makes the show much more accessible and convenient to watch for many people.
Demon Slayer will definitely be remembered as a great anime for a long time even though it doesn’t have many episodes. In fact, the anime being so short is another one of the reasons why people like to watch it. Nowadays viewers don’t like committing to anime that have hundreds of episodes since they usually have slow plot developments, filler episodes, and it takes a long time to unravel the mysteries that are introduced throughout the show. Instead, people prefer to watch anime such as Demon Slayer, that don’t have many episodes, making it an anime that can be watched casually and can be completed fairly quickly.