Review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc

-BLAND, UNINTERESTING AND NEEDLESSLY CONVULATED- (minor spoilers) OVERALL THOUGHTS: I did not like and had very little fun watching DEMON SLAYER SEASON 3 (or 2, or the entertainment district arc). And it is something quite sad, because I really liked the first season, and absolutely loved the film and it`s subsequent season. And what`s ironic is that this season fails for the reason, that the first season succeeds at. Demon Slayer season 1 was a very enjoyable anime, and a start to something that seemed fun and entertaining. It`s story was admittedly simple and composed of Shonen tropes and plot ideas, and it`s characters weren`t very memorable orexplored enough to be interesting. But regardless, it was greater than the sum of its parts, and greatly entertained me. It somehow was able to take the common ideas and story points, and turn them into something great. Demon Slayer season 2 has the same ingredients, but executed in the wrong way. The first season knew how to use predictable and overly used Shonen tropes into something fun and gripping. It constantly kept the audience engaged and invested, whether in the story, character, the reveals or mystery. It was a balance between action and story, both of which you care about. Here, it`s none of that. The story feels predictably and poorly paced, and the script feels lazy and rushed. All the twist and turns and story beats feel like part of a shounen_trope_checklist, and don`t flow organically. All of the plot and character points feels under cooked and basic. This season barely expands the overall narrative of the Demon Slayer story. There is very little new plotline introduced, and almost none of the previous ones are resolved. The characters don`t receive any closure or evolve in any significant way, and feels underdeveloped and underutilized for the entire season.

MY THOUGHTS:
Let`s talk about the biggest problem - the story and characters. The season is filled to the brim with Shonen tropes and plot ideas. The season recycles so much of it`s old idea, that the entire season feels underdeveloped or as if it`s playing safe. It takes so many ideas and don`t build upon them at all. I.e. Tanjiro getting angry and powerful after Daki attacked the city. Or Muzen and Daki interaction - that went nowhere, I thought there was going to be some harsh twist there.
Not everything needs to to be new or innovative to be successful or a masterpiece. But you need to have a unique take on it. And for many, that unique take is in the form of new characters and story. Demon Slayer S3, doesn`t even do that. Believe me when I say, that all of it`s new characters, don`t feel new at all. The demons say the exact same set of dialogue, and perform the same set of actions, as their brethren, in the previous seasons. Dialogues like "YOUR WEAK", or "HUMANS ARE TOOLS". And actions like HUMLUATING A DOWNED TANJIRO or TALKING ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY. Did they all read the same "HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL DEMON" book. Not to discredit the demons, cause the humans don`t fair any better either. Tengen feel like a failed version of Rengoku, with only unique thing being his breathing style (which isn`t much considering it feels like all the other styles, and barely come into play). And his wives feel like rip-off versions of Tanjiro and his group. And whether it`s the humans or demons, both of their backstory (the only thing which could have saved them), is rushed and not enough to make them feel interesting or worthwhile. And the returning characters (OH MY GOD), feel the same as they were in the previous season. And that remains unchanged even at the end of the season. And will most likely remain unchanged, IN THE NEXT SEASON. There is literally ZERO development to these characters. And on top of that, ZERO opportunity for them to further flesh-out the established characters. The story needs to start exploring more of their side characters independently. Moments like Zenitsu standing up to the demon or Inosuke tracking down the demon, felt like breath of fresh air. A chance for us to explore and feel more connected with these side characters, away from the shackles that tie them to story arcs of the main characters. But that never comes in to flourishen and remains unresolved. I.e. Zen asks the demon to apologize, but never never gets it or says it again. It almost feels like an after thought. The season seemed to always be in a rush, as it barely developed the ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT any further from a few characters and places (all pertaining to the plot). Like that one lady that Tanjiro talked with, then saved, and was never brought up again. What was he point again? Just a simple damsel in distress.

Rather than feeling like a part of the main story, Demon Slayer season 3 feels like an extension or a spin-off to the main anime, which adds very little to the overall story. In it, Tanjiro and his group accompany the hashira Tengen on a mission to slay a demon and rescue his wives. The season admittedly had a pretty good and engaging opening episode. Concluding the excellent MUGEN TRAIN ARC, and reveal more information regarding the bigger demon slayer story. But other than this and a few more scenes, the season doesn`t do anything significant to progress the story. There is not anything new I feel that I learned. Nor do I think this has any significant effect on Tanjiro or the others. Which seems weird as there are certain lessons and new powers introduced here which can (and should) impact the entire anime as a whole. But because of how they are introduced, and how little they changed the anime`s fights and character`s thinking, I feel like they might have well not existed at all. I.e. Tanjiro`s new SUN BREATHING STYLE (which he just so happen to remember and use in combat successfully).
Look, I`m not saying that every new season needs to be filled with plot points and story reveals to make it worthwhile. But when your not trying to do anything new or different, you should at least reward your audiences with some closure and satisfaction. The story does noting to entice me for what is to come, and sadly nor does the action.

So much of it feels like random piece of action, without anything binding them together. They are there just to get your blood instead of your emotions going. And believe me, by the 6th episode you`ll be begging for Tanjiro and his group to die, so this long drawn battle can finally end. Because after the first few strikes, the battle begins to feel and look the same. And apart from introducing a new demon and more of the old demon slayers in the battle, it doesn`t evolve one bit. The animation and music isn`t even all that good here. MUGEN TRAIN (the anime, and by extension the film too I guess) had better looking and more diverse animations. The fights and actions looked and felt different, because of how much creativity there was in the script. The battlefield changed from from the dreams, to the train and to an open field. And fight kept evolving from Tanjiro trying to behead a demon and stay awake, to the characters protecting the Train passengers. And Rengoku fighting with his visceral breathing style with a demon that used his fist and shockwave attacks, rather than blades. And the best part, it had emotions coursing through the entire runtime. Here, the emotions are lost since the very start of the film. And it`s fun and dynamisms follows suits.

And the pacing of it all, is horrendous. Many episodes will go by without a single intense moment while some will have non-stop action back to back. Fights would be interrupted for a flashback or an dramatic entrance of a character. Big moments like cutting a demon heads or potential character deaths would be paused or occur at the end of the episode, like trying to build up suspense, even though at that point you would be a fool to expect your audience to believe that things would work out. All of this slowed down the anime to a snail pause and make sit feel even more boring and unsatisfactory.

FINAL VERDICT:
The entire season feels like something tacked on or a last minute things. Everything feels extremely boring and uneventful. The season failed to evolve the anime forward and feels like a major regression from the previous seasons, in every way. That said, I still feel like many will come to enjoy and even love this season. The reason being that it`s bones are solid. It is a story composed of good story points and ideas, accompanied by great visuals and music, only executed improperly and poorly. But if your someone who loves demon slayer and are greatly invested in it, I think You will have a good time watching it. I just unfortunately didn`t have that.

THANK YOU FOR READING MY REIVEW.