Review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc

**THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS** Oh boy… There are two sides of a coin if you’re talking about Kimetsu no Yaiba; - Either love and enjoy it for the animation. - Or dislike it for the bad characters, cringe comedy, and the poor storytelling Animation is one of the main factors of an anime. However, how can you enjoy the anime if the plot or the story is poor? This leaves these two words that wise men always said; “Does the animation triumph a mediocre writing?”. “Can you ignore one to enjoy most of them?”. One of the confusing parts of the anime community is that if a franchise reallysold well to the viewers, they will claim it a “masterpiece”. And Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of them.

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Entertainment District Arc is the sequel to the first movie of the franchise. The fans massively loved it for the “great story”, “great characters”, and for the animation that always triumphs. Hard-core fans always love to jump into the hype train and easily claim it as the “new-gen anime” and “masterpiece anime of all time”. If you’re new to anime, you will absolutely love it. However, if you see most of the shounen animes, you might criticize them for the poor elements and plot inconsistencies. Before I discuss the pros and cons of anime, I have to say a few things about the hard-core stans. Read and understood first my review before you attack my profile. So here it comes…

Pros
1.Animation
The animation of this show is superb, as expected from Ufotable. The viewers have always praised this show because of the art of this anime. The combination of 2D and 3D animation makes the whole show move more fluid. The cinematography and fight choreography are always fire. But I think it’s always Ufotable’s forte of animating things. The direction was pretty handled well but I always want to see some of its fights under the daylight. The amazing flashy things are always seen under the moonlight but I guess it’s because the demons are active during the night.

2.Sound
The BGM was always good to the ears, as expected from Yuki Kajiura. She blended the traditional Japanese music and the thrilling action sounds for the action sequences, which is so great. The OP was catchy and it’s my first time to appreciate Aimer’s voice. The ED was good but I prefer more the OP than the ED.

Cons

1.Story/Pacing
I will discuss this as a former fan of the manga. Ever since the ending of the Mugen Train, the next story arc followed this formula; There’s a demon invasion in a certain place, a hashira pillar will investigate it, the three characters will join the hashira, discover the world, find the demon, fight sequences, some flashbacks, and then boom! ending. I saw it many times in some story arcs in the manga and it was almost repetitive. In this anime adaptation, the pacing was slow and awful. The first episode of the anime that had 45 mins long, consisted of the epilogue of Mugen train, and the prologue of Entertainment District. The pacing of the anime was slow because of additional view scenes as a visual-feast. This arc from the manga had a nice pace but it seems the anime was just full of action sequences, in most of the episodes. No character developments were seen throughout the entire season. The useless monologues of Tanjiro were shallow and repetitive, in almost most of the story arcs. He just repeated himself that; “I can do it!”, “I have to break the neck!”, “Stand up! Stand up!”, etc. like the viewers might react, “We got you already, dude. You said that for the nth time already…”. The fact that they were always bringing his dead family, as his “motivation to fight” was utterly repetitive.

2.Comedy
I get it that most of the shounen have comedy, except AOT and Tokyo Ghoul if I may remember. The comedy in this show awfully sucks. I don’t know if they are trying to kill the intense mood of the series or just comic relief. The scene where one of the wives of Usui helped Inosuke from fighting the demon and then one of his wives just pulled a joke because she was scared of death was frickin’ horrible. Even the other parts of the season weren’t great either. The comedy was 3x worse than FMAB’s and it absolutely cringed.

3.Characters
I’ll keep this short and straight to the point. The characters are annoying as their finest. The entire season was just full of action sequences and no character development whatsoever, just like what I said earlier. The three main characters were just being them, and no development and progress. Tanjiro was always relying on and bringing back his dead family as a motivation for fighting the demon. And then after that part, boom! Powered up to the next level! Inosuke and Zenitsu were just a comic relief after all. Usui got a little bit of development but not enough to make him a great character.

4.Ass-pulls and Plot Armor
This element made me why I absolutely dislike this show. I get it that most of the shows have these two but in this show, it was countless times and getting out of hand. It’s just they are not humans, more powerful than the villains. I mentioned that Tanjirou always brings back his dead family, right? That was one of the ass-pulls I’ve ever seen. Many horrible plot armors I’ve seen in this show like when Usui got his arm chopped but didn’t die of blood loss and was capable of moving faster, Inosuke could frickin shift his heart while he was stabbed in the chest, Inosuke was capable of catching up Zenitsu after that poison, Zenitsu capable of escaping the building, and Tanjiro being alive after those massive injuries. I mean, how the heck did they survive all of that? They are just humans, right? Try those for yourself, let’s see if you can survive all of that.

Kimetsu no Yaiba isn’t a bad nor a great show. It’s because the hard-core fans are always claiming it as a masterpiece and flawless, which makes the show obviously bad. I really want to enjoy this show, but it seems it’s hard to turn your brain off while watching this. This show is obviously for entertainment only and visual-feast. Some animes have a high level of animation but the story was bad or generic like GoH, Takt. Op. Destiny, MHA, etc. However, I don’t seem to understand why fans don’t consider Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of them. But that’s just me and I don’t care for anybody else.

So that’s it folks, my review for this season. I’ll give this a solid 4+ because of those plot inconsistencies. But I do admit that I somewhat enjoy this show and its direction. As an anime fan, who always seeks a great story over animation, I could give this a 3 or lower. But it seems I’m generous this time. As a wrap of this review, I’ll quote this statement for the massive fanbase of this show, “Most of the people understood why people love Kimetsu no Yaiba. It’s because of the animation. However, can the fanbase understand why most of the people are criticizing the show and calling it a mid?” Who knows? You might know the answer.