Review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc

Well, we're back here again talking Demon Slayer. I first off want to say thank you for all of the interaction I got when the movie came out. Rather it was positive or negative, I want to thank you for just reacting to it and sharing your thoughts. Now judging by the summary, I bet you think I hate this season of Demon Slayer. Well, I can tell you right now I don't hate it. I just find it slightly above average. Let's start with the plot. Demon Slayer season 2 picks up right after the Mugen Train arc. So, this is good news for anyonewho doesn't watch them just reanimate the same arc again. What's going on? Well, not much as it is just Tanjiro and his friends training and getting in shape to the moon like WWE wrestlers. The story for the Entrainment District is a simple one where Tengen, Sound Hashira, recruits Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu to take down a demon that has been causing trouble. That's the simple basis of everything as the rest of the spends time with the three poorly pretending to be women to search for the demon. They do a little to establish this new location, but I do feel changing the name of the arc was not very smart as it is clear to anyone that we're in brothels. I am not gonna say the really bad word, but you could play WAP by Cradi B and Nicki Minaj and you'll get my point. I don't like the world-building here as it is just brothels and that's about it. They do explain the class and what can happen to workers if they get in too deep or want to leave but this made me think of them as more expensive hookers. I also just feel things happen. There is no real-time spent on developing our characters outside of maybe three. I think it is the worst for Inosuke and Zenitsu who are still the same characters. This could have been a great chance to develop them as this could have them really take time to reflect or learn from nearly dying on the Spider Mountain arc. How many times do these characters need to experience near-death for them to luck out because the plot says so?

I just don't get it. You give Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu all of this screen time and they still feel flat. You know it's a problem when I have more to take away from an arc regarding the main villains of it than the heroes. There should be a balance here because out of Tengen, all of the heroes are either just there or annoying as all hell. Especially Tengen's three wives that are just as annoying as Inosuke and Zenitsu. I feel Tanjiro is only taking advantage of his screen time but that must be because of him being the main character. I just wish they could have done more with this arc. This just felt like having our main characters overcome an action set-piece.

Though, I should take this time to say they did a good job with Tengen. They flush him out and gave you reasons for roto for him. He is an asshole, but he is a likable asshole. It sucks he is retiring. Why does this show go out of its way to remove its good characters from the plot? It's not even his fault he lost an eye and hand due to Tanjiro and his friends being idiots.

We're not done yet as we need to talk about our villains. This is the fun part as I like it for once. I enjoyed the characters Daki and Gyutaro a lot. Their voice acting, goals, and just overall presence made me like them as villains. I thought they were well written and placing the backstory at the end was really smart. I really felt for these characters and thought they were very likable. I would love to get the art of them in the future.

The next part of this I want to discuss is the use of deus ex machina this season. There is a lot of it. For starters, Tanjiro using Flame breathing whenever the plot says so. I felt this can be handled better because you don't say something will hurt his body, but he pulls it out to avoid losing a fight. I feel he could have been mixing his stances from the start. This show has established Tanjiro is not an idiot, so let's not turn him into a character that just wins fights because the plot says so. The next one is Zenitsu fighting while he is asleep.....this is a carryover from the film. They still haven't explained that. The next one is Inosuke moving his organs to avoid getting stabbed in the heart. Since when he can do that? Also, since when can Nezuko heal with her blood Demon powers? This just feels like not doing a good job of explaining things. I don't know why this is becoming common it is like the writers love writing themselves into corners.

Overall, though, I feel the plot and characters for Demon Slayer were a very mixed bag. There is no character development outside of Tanjiro and our demons. It has been two seasons and from what I gather we don't have much left, so I hope we start developing characters now and not later. I am starting to become worried as the writing in this series is just not good. Toss in having a cast of mostly annoying characters you have to wonder what the angle is here. That was also not very well pace as I felt the fight took way too long this arc.

Moving off that let's talk art, animation, and sound. The art in the series is very strong as always. I think most of the designs were good. I even found the Entrainment District outfits for our main guys were fine. I also loved the design of Daki and Gyutaro a lot. It was truthfully fearful looking at them. I also feel the animation was very good but there were a number of errors and directing choices that were odd like Nezuko hitting Daki with her leg instead of her leg and some really bad CGI fire. I do think we got good fights, but they were done in small busts. There was too much talking to fill in those gaps to make the fights truly great. It's good animation but I wish to see more action and less talking.

Lastly, the sound of Demon Slayer season 2 may be my favorite aspect of this show. I love the sound design and hearing the clashing of real swords. I love the music in the show and within the OP and ED. I love the voice acting the most. Watching the English dub, I feel the roles were well cast. I really love the choices for Daki, Gyutaro, and Tengen. I feel they did a good job with how they played their roles.

In conclusion, I feel this season is only a little better due to its villains and Tengen. I feel if you didn't have them the score would be much lower. I really want to like its show, but it is writing is just holding it back from greatness in my opinion. I don't hate the show, but it is extremely overrated, and this is on track to be the most overrated anime created since Dragonball Z.