Review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc

You seeing this shit? This anime looks so good. Absolutely gorgeous. The production values are some of the best I've ever seen. And then there are the plot and the characters. . . I don't want to sound pretentious because I'm really not an expert on this stuff, but Demon Slayer: Entertainment District Arc is as good as it is going to get for what it is. I can see why people like it. But it's not to my taste. Story The story is simplistic. We're not doing a character study, a deep-dive into the human condition, or an multi-generational epic tale. In this anime, ourheroes find the bad guys and go to war.

Characters
Along with the story, the characters were the weak part of this anime.

The characters are one-dimensional. They are who they are. Hopefully, you love them because this is all we are ever going to get from them. Though static, they are strongly characterized; each of them have their traits and adhere them to a fault. There is nothing wrong with the characters. I liked them. It's just that they don't have anything going for them other than what's on the surface. There's no nuance or personality growth.

The characters were not normal humans. They were idealized, heroes, and so I didn't relate to them.

Art
Wow. Even though I'm not a fan of the cutesy art style, I have to give it up to the studio. This shit looked amazing. It was probably the best anime art I've seen. Everything was crisp. The colors popped. They did the camera rotations, the changing focuses, and the CGI right.

The character designs were great. The boys and girl were back and they were exactly who you remember. The new Hashira guy looked cool and exuded his motto of being flashy. He had a headdress, green and red painted nails (Merry Christmas!), and swords that said "Badmotherf~~~er" on them. His three wives were thicc ninja girls. Nice. (Speaking of thiccness, I laughed pretty hard when a certain little sister matured before my eyes. You may too.)

The bad guys looked their part. The prettiness and the repulsiveness fit the characters were relevant story points. It was a pity their story was explained so late. I would have cared about them more if I knew their back story earlier.

The action looked great. I got chills when Tanjiro's sword caught fire and made the water streaks. The stylized art was done perfect.

Sounds
Great. The voices, the music, and the effects were top tier.

The opening theme had a jazzy vibe and was cool. It was matched with awesome visuals and left a lasting impression on me. The ending theme was very average.

Random Thoughts
1) They did the end-of-episode cliffhangers right. I needed to watch the next episode =).
2) As good as they looked, I never liked the mechanics of the fights. I like it when the characters figure things out and adapt their tactics. AoT battles were amazing in this regard. The fights here were just people powering up and performing new attacks. They won because they got more angry, shouted louder, and powered harder, not because they were more clever or adaptable. I don't like stories based on power levels.
3) The author and director created the hype moments. Those were cool. The best involved Tanjiro's water and flame blade animations. With the slow-mo, the orchestra music, and the screaming voice actors, those moments were peak anime.
4) I wish there was more to do with the environment. They call it the Entertainment District Arc, but besides the setup, their surroundings didn't play into the story meaningfully. They could have done the same story in a farm, a factory, or another part of the city. There was the point with the villains being beautiful and ugly, but that card was played far too late to have a strong effect on me.
5) I wanted to get to know the bad guys sooner. I would have cared more about them.
6) Tanjiro shutting up the brother at the end was peak Tanjiro. +1 as a character moment. I liked that.
7) +1 for our guys going in drag. I love it when our good guys have to dress as women. It's always funny.

Overall
Pretty good stuff. I can see why people like this and why it's so popular. But it's not for me.

Though high-quality, the animation was too kiddy. The story was shallow. The characters are well-defined but too simple for my liking.

Not my fave, but I am glad that I spent my hours watching it.