Review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc

"Even if you have someone to pave the way for you, a loser is still a loser!" - Gyutaro, Upper Moon Six "I'm gonna slash you! I'm gonna behead you!" I'm not giving up!" - Tanjiro Kamado, just some shonen protag Rating: Story - 7/10 Art - 10/10 Sound - 8/10 Character - 9/10Enjoyment - 10/10

Overall - 9/10

Demon Slayer Entertainment District Arc is a continuation of the much beloved Shonen series giant, now set in, as you guessed it, the Entertainment District! We get to see our main cast again, Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu. But, of course, if one's been watching the tv version of Mugen Train, it's like they've never left. So, as a continuation, the emotional weight and narrative of Mugen Train still looms heavy around our main cast, especially Tanjiro, who understands their loss is immense. And for him, it was probably their first major loss, both physically and emotionally, on this Hashira named Rengoku.

And, the show efficiently ties those narrative threads to a close, as a new arc sets in, almost masterfully, with the use of Tanjiro to deliver the emotional narrative, and Inosuke and Zenitsu as the show's shounen co-protagonists, whenever Tanjiro is not on screen or on site, so the story carries on.

The rest, well, as they say, is history. If you've seen the show, you'll know.

Now on to the review proper...

Let's start with the strengths of "THE" Demon Slayer 2nd? 3rd Season? Eh, we'll just call it Entertainment District Arc!

The Entertainment District Arc easily builds upon the success of its first season and movie turned tv series arcs of the show. Since they've built upon the world of Demon Slayer earlier on, even establishing all the Hashiras, and Tanjiro's "vague but super essential to the plot" backstory, it's now so easy to set up shounen fights between the main cast and the hashiras with the demons of the show. This is to the delight of the studio behind the show, ufotable.

Studio Ufotable knows what they're doing with their animation, visual effects, and compositing. They've definitely mastered it too! And while the original manga of this anime has been quite simple, nothing too grand in design, Ufotable definitely saw this as a gold mine, a rush of opportunities to elevate the story to crazy levels of spectacle!

From the character's kimonos / robes, to the entertainment district's sliding doors art, the title cards, down to the geishas, there is so much care to the aesthetic of its anime. Especially in a very Japanese-esque location, a certain distinct Demon Slayer style is imbued and easily recognizable. These are the lesser regarded bits of the show, and yet we must not forget that the love and care for this fictional world is given justice. And when we get to the highs of Demon Slayer, like their fighting sequences, choreography, use of camera, visual effects, and storytelling, know that it all comes from a place of love and care for the show. Even if at times, Ufotable's distinctly dark and drab 3D environments can feel suffocating, it's easily contrasted by their colorful cast of characters, who are anything but drab!

So yes, animation work, character design, and even Demon Slayer's narrative setup all are this season's greatest feats!

Let's now go to the show's weaknesses...

Unlike other shounen anime, Demon Slayer, as a series, and especially the anime, manages to fix a lot of the problems that previous entries have normalized in shounen culture. We're talking, power scaling (Enemies that seem to get more overpowered, along with the main protag as well), size of cast (with each arc adding twenty new characters), and annoying MCs (think of Luffy, Naruto, Goku, Asta, Eren, Ed, etc.). We even have our first empath Shounen protagonist, Tanjiro Kamado, who contrasts Deku from My Hero Academia, who is an intellectual (or mostly just informative, ehem, nerdy). Tanjiro instead embodies emotional intelligence, a rarity in shounen, trust me. He's easy to love, and a great contrast with the rest of his friends, Zenitsu and Inosuke. His empathy and deep love for life seems to rub off of them and kickstart their character development.

However, outside Tanjiro as the main lead, there are many shounen tropes, storytelling gimmicks, and plot bs that the show throws to be 1) inoffensive, and 2) artificially raise stakes in anime. We're talking characters that instantly bounce back, injuries that mean nothing sometimes, abrupt comedic scenes, sometimes awkward, and sudden boosts of power from nowhere, but one's emotions! We know these gimmicks before. We've seen it from other shounen, from other anime, sometimes even in Hollywood movies or your country's own soap opera shows. It's the telltale old story of mainstream storytelling. As much as one hates it, it works.

Besides that, the show doesn't have that much weaknesses, if I'm being honest. The Entertainment District Arc is living proof that ufotable is always willing to deliver, especially with its latter half just being about small consistent cinematic fights, evolving into a grandiose conflict of epic scales. And in hindsight, the sound hashira and the upper moon six demons aren't even the strongest during the fight's setup, nor is the arc anymore about the escalation of demon slayers and demons trying to one up the other. It's all elevated by the studio's work into its animation, visual effects, and compositing that raises this simple story into a spectacle worth its mainstream appeal.

So yeah, just your typical good shounen, ain't it?

I'm kidding please-