Review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc

For the like 1 person that reads this, minor spoilers ahead. I'm not a critic, I just wrote this to organize my thoughts as a regular viewer. Make of it what you will. After watching Season 1 and the Mugen Train movie, I was very excited to see the adaptation of what I heard was one of the best arcs from the anime: the entertainment district arc. I am very much a fan of this series, however, I must be honest and say that this season was a mixed bag for me. ---Soundtrack--- I have no real complaints here. The soundtrack was solid, pretty comparable to thepast works, but maybe not quite as memorable. For better or for worse, it's probably the best part of this work in my opinion.

---Animation---

There are moments in this show where the animation is nearly flawless. It is one of the strongest traits of Demon Slayer. So there's nothing to worry about here, right? Well... I do have one complaint here. There is an overabundance of CGI use that distracts from the greatness of the hand animation. I'm fairly lenient on action shows for use of CG during non-fight scenes, but only if they plan to put that budget to use for the fights. Unfortunately, there is way too much 3D effect this time around. The 3D contrasts everything else too sharply and sticks out. Personally, I would rather they focus less on having so many items on screen at once, and more on demonstrating the "boom" behind each impact. This was done well in Rui's fight in season 1, and Rengoku's fight in the movie. That all being said, when they do it right, they hit the nail on the head. All they need to do is minimize that CG, and it's the chef's kiss.

---Characters---

Easily the weakest link here for me. I feel no one has grown from this arc except Tanjiro and Nezuko, with them both refining their combat and strengthening their resolve. Tengen is interesting, but he doesn't really change or impact the other characters like Rengoku did, and both Zenitsu and Inosuke were pretty much just along for the ride with no real developments. The demons were meh, nothing really stands out in particular about them. Just another sad backstory that puts their lives into perspective. Tengen's 1 dimensional wives are less interesting than a wet piece of cardboard and are only there because the script said so. Seriously, it would take very minor tweaking to completely replace them with something/someone way better. The wives' comedy relief was annoying, and their combat role is minor and felt forced in. Tengen's brother would've been a better way to tell his backstory because they must have shared a bond of some kind. There's no chemistry between him and his wives, and it shows.

---Story---

There's a lot to break down here. They spent too much time showing the boys in dresses where they could have spent at least a whole episode on Tengen's backstory to make him more interesting (or even his cardboard wives). Rengoku wasn't explained before his arc either, but we learned who we was through his valiant efforts defending the weak while heavily injured himself. I also think they didn't do as good of a job on separating comedy from tragedy as they used to. Poorly timed humor really sucks.

The editing/pacing was a big problem. Most commonly, fight scenes were interrupted by flashbacks. Yes, it happened in season 1, but those flashbacks were mostly during pauses in the fight. These cuts would happen right before the big moment, mid-fight, which breaks the immersion. To add to it, the flashbacks weren't that relevant to the fight. Tanjiro learning Hinokami Kagura via flashback makes sense, it's relevant to the fight. Tanjiro seeing his family before beheading Enmu makes sense, he was forced into a nightmare. Here, it's mostly just pointless drab with Tengen's wives, trying to up the stakes by showing how much he cares about them. But without a convincing reason, it's wasted screentime and broken immersion, which really takes away from the best parts of this show. It's like Jurassic Park 3 when the Spino is killing everyone and it cuts to the kid watching Barney. The whole fight is so broken, the edited fight will have way too many cuts. Can you imagine if we got a full 3 minute take like the one from Hard Boiled? Except with 360 rotations, zoom ins, water, flames, lightning, shockwaves, and blood everywhere? Nah, you'll get flashbacks and like it.

Additionally, I hope they can explain Nezuko's powers more in detail later. Even I can't defend how much the plot is relying on Nezuko's flames when I feel they would barely apply in some situations. Same with Inosuke towards the end. I know it's anime, and I always cut some slack as long as they're trying to convince me, but it's leaning towards plot armor. They have to explain it or find another way, lest you are left with good characters playing out bad writing.

---Summary (TLDR)---

Soundtrack was very good, but didn't stick with me like the past works. The hand animation is God-tier, but the 3D during the fights suck. Almost all the characters flopped, most of all Tengen's wives. Story lacked a better exposition, and the fights were needlessly interrupted far too often. The story needs to better explain Nezuko's powers, as it's starting to look silly. Overall, it IS still demon slayer, and was still very enjoyable, but up against its past successes, this season fell very short in my opinion. I truly hope future works will improve, even if that isn't the trend.