Review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc
Since not much has changed since the first season in terms of characters and plot structure, I will instead give you a list of 10 things that made Demon Slayer the success it is. This is done after some chats I had with people who insisted Demon Slayer did not become such a success just because of the animation. Up to a point they were right, since if animation alone was enough then every well animated anime would be a success, something which is not true. So, here are those 10 reasons that made a show with such a by the numbers plot and castto be such a hit.
1) Animation
With the first one still being the animation. Don’t fool yourselves to think it would be the success it is if the pretty colors weren’t so pretty. Modern audiences became addicted to it so much it eclipsed any other reason for watching something. Even if you put together the other 9 reasons that follow, they are still not going to be as important as the pretty colors. With that said, here they are despite not being that important, yet helping out in making Demon Slayer to stand out amongst other well animated series.
2) Fighting Shonen
It’s a fighting shonen! Holy crap, who could have predicted that most people who watch anime don’t like comedy or drama or romance as much as they like action. So it’s not just the animation, it’s the well animated and rather brutal action scenes, a prime attraction of anime in general.
3) Death is Permanent
This shouldn’t be a reason, and yet it has become a reason because most action anime chicken out when it comes to killing characters and leaving them dead. Magic resurrections and time resets and alternative timelines became so commonplace, it actually became rare to find an anime where people stay dead. Demon Slayer is one of those rare cases.
4) The pacing is great
Although most people watch anime for the action, one of the huge detractors fighting shonen have is the stretched out duration with slow pacing and a ton of filler episodes. Demon Slayer doesn’t do that, there is clear plot progression even in the action-free buildup episodes.
5) The plot is easy to follow
Believe it or not most people do not expect an action show to be super complex with constant plot twists, multi layered mysteries, and a whole bunch of other convoluted bullshit that demand from them to think for hours what the shit is going on, only to get a complete trainwreck that doesn’t make any sense, contradicts its earlier messages, and in general confuses him more than it entertains him. Your average fan wants things to be simple. Guy swings sword, stuff explode. It doesn’t have to be more complex than that. Demon Slayer with its generic and simple to follow story gives you exactly that.
6) Ideal Setting
Escapism can have mass appeal when it keeps the best aspects and disregards everything that makes it look bad. The setting of Demon Slayer is Japan in its coolest form, nothing but stuff people want to see in order to be impressed. Swords and ninjas and kimonos and all those stereotypes we expect to see in Japan. At the same time it completely disregards everything that would not make it cool, such as showing us what a bunch of xenophobic fascist chauvinists the Japanese used be at time period the story is supposed to be taking place in. If any of those nasty bits were showing there would be many who would be bothered and they wouldn’t like the show.
7) Everyone has a Backdrop
Any show with a large cast has a hard time to show everybody’s backdrop story. There is simply not enough time to do that, resulting to most secondary characters being left without one and feeling flat as a result. In Demon Slayer everyone has a tragic past that makes him more than a generic swordsman or a generic monster. Obviously this is achieved through the cheap method of showing someone’s life story as he is dying, but then again your average anime fan doesn’t know shit about good writing and is pleased with a sad flashback, regardless of how cheaply written it is.
8) Everyone has a Badass Mode
The characters are, just like the plot, very simple and easy to follow. This usually results in coming off as having only one trait in their personality, which in extreme situations becomes obnoxious. The protagonist is a dull boyscout, his blond comrade is a loud coward, his sister is a mind controlled puppet, and so on. Your average viewer is willing to forgive that if those characters have a badass mode during battles. And they do. When things get serious they get super powerful and kick ass instead of being permanently obnoxious and useless in battle.
9) Family Bonds
Something that is often overlooked in appeal is that most Japanese anime fans love family bonds. They love the living shit out of characters who are relatives, not simply friends or colleagues. When a character does something for his family it hits way deeper than when he does it because it’s a mission or a friend is in need. Demon Slayer is about family since it’s the protagonist doing it all for helping his sister. This simple detail elevates the show above all others that are not about family.
10) Promotion
From the pedigree of the animation studio, to the company that streams it in the west, Demon Slayer got some pretty big names in the industry to attract a wide audience. Part of its success is the heavy promotion it got. The more promotion something gets, the more sales it ends up having. What? Did you think it all has to do about quality or some shit? The manga sales were fairly low until the anime came out. It’s all about exposure and giving the people what they want. Which is pretty colors and 9 other minor reasons.