Review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc

I feel like, after getting this far into 'Demon Slayer', I'm starting to get a much clearer picture of the show's strengths and weaknesses. Going back to my first season review, the majority of the strengths continue to be strong. ufotable continue to make every show look sublime, and now I expected the style going in, I didn't need to settle in like I did the first time. I particularly adore the way that the Demon Slayers' sword techniques are conceptualised; the art-like texture of all of their attacks gives this a fantastically distinct style. I continue to enjoy Tanjiro a lot as a protagonist;while we didn't get quite as many opportunities to see the empathetic side of him, it's still obviously there, and he generally continues to be a fairly conventional, but very enjoyable shounen protagonist. As for new strengths, I have to admit that, by this point in the story, I have to concede that I've warmed to Inosuke a lot; he's still incredibly obnoxious, but it feels like it's done a good job of pushing his character forward enough that he feels like a character with depth and momentum.

Which brings us to the consistent weaknesses. Again, I just hate Zenitsu as a character; while Inosuke's gained some more depth and settled down a bit, Zenitsu is just as grating as ever, continuing to utterly ruin nearly every scene he's in. And the supporting cast generally feels like it's missing something; while I certainly enjoyed Tengen, past him there wasn't much to latch onto. His wives had fairly little depth, and the supporting characters I praised in the first season were largely absent (not without reason, they just weren't part of the plot, but I did miss them).
And, most pressing here, I've confirmed my suspicions that there's something off about the pacing here. It just feels like everything, in terms of the season/arc as a whole, but also in terms of some individual scenes, just takes longer than it needs to. It feels like there's a lack of concision, which did make it feel a little plodding at times; at a couple of points, I assumed I must be further through than I was. The quality of the animation in the overly-long battle did do something to soften the blow; it may have been a little slow, but at least it looked great. But I do think it holds the show back a little, as it does struggle to find a real sense of momentum sometimes.

To be clear, I did still enjoy it, and I am still invested in the story. Pacing issues aside, there's a huge amount in the narrative that I really like, especially some of the lightly-teased mysteries scattered throughout (I personally am incredibly interested to see exactly what Nezuko's deal is, because I think there's something we don't know yet...). It's absolutely enough to keep me coming back for more. It's just a shame that those last couple of details are stopping me from truly loving this show.