Demon Slayer is one of the most popular animated series in the world. In my opinion, it doesn’t deserve such fame. However, I have now watched everything up through the Entertainment District Arc, and I’m enjoying it far more than I used to. It’s definitely a fun and exciting show as shonens go. I still don’t consider it original or profound in any way, but it’s entertaining. The following post is an update on my thoughts about Demon Slayer.
1) History with Demon Slayer’s First Season
When Demon Slayer first started in 2019, I watched about three episodes right away. Since I didn’t really like it, I dropped the show. As the entire world turned into crazed Demon Slayer fans, I got the unpleasant feeling that there was a widespread brainwashing of some kind that for some reason didn’t effect me.
It’s not that I hated the anime. I’m just not a big fan of shonen fighting anime with many reused elements. There was a bit of disconnect because when everyone was hyping up Demon Slayer, I expected it to be an original anime outside of the field of standard shonen.
Eventually, I picked up the show again and finished most of the first season. The main reason for this second chance was that I wanted to judge the audio-visual quality, which was the subject of much praise in the anime community.
Although I still found Demon Slayer largely unoriginal and difficult to emotionally invest in, there was no way I could deny the high quality of the series. The animation is creative, smooth, and vibrant. The way CGI elements are blended into it was really well-done most of the time. It was also impossible to not like the theme song by LiSa, and some of the OST pieces make for great listening.
At the end of the day, I still didn’t actually finish the end of the first season. I lost interest, to be honest. However, at least I now had a better opinion of the show. I decided I would go back and watch more in the event that I wanted to see some high-quality shonen battles.
This didn’t happen until several years later. This very year, 2023, I was given the chance to watch Demon Slayer with my very good friend, Nat. (I mention Nat from time to time because they are extremely helpful for providing blog ideas, and it’s really fun to watch anime with them.) So, after getting a recap of the last few episodes of season one, I watched the Mugen Train arc and the Entertainment District arc.
2) Brief Thoughts on Mugen Train Arc
Both arcs were enjoyable and I liked them roughly the same. Apparently, it’s a lot more fun to watch action and shonen with a friend. If I am deeply interested in a show and I find it thought-provoking, I enjoy it more alone, where I can take the time to analyze it fully. But it makes sense that more action-oriented shows would be easier to watch with others.
As I watched more Demon Slayer, I loved the incredible animation, songs, music, and voice-acting. The fights were usually fairly exciting. Occasionally, there was also more than fighting and shonen tropes to appreciate. Though Demon Slayer still isn’t thematically profound, it does sometimes have interesting character psychology and good emotional moments. Also, there’s nothing wrong with reusing and exploring classic shonen themes like friendship, determination, and courage.
My favorite things about the Mugen Train arc were 1) the lovable character of Rengoku, 2) the way Tanjiro had to “kill himself” in his dreams, and 3) the movie’s bold decision to kill off Rengoku. When I watched Mugen Train, Rengoku became my favorite adult character besides Tamayo. It’s hard not to love such a lively, funny, and altruistic man.
Although Rengoku’s death was sad, I was interested in the fact that Demon Slayer had “graduated” to character death territory. I tend to enjoy darker shows and themes, so I don’t shy away from losing characters, even if I loved them. When a shonen anime starts including character death, it can also be a sign that the writing is improving. I think the creators of Demon Slayer handled it well, making sure that Rengoku’s death had lasting impact.
The demons in this arc, Enmu and Akaza, were interesting as usual. Enmu has one of my favorite fantasy powers, which is to put people to sleep and trap them within their dreams. It’s a terrifying prospect – perfect for a villain. I was also fascinated by Akaza and his desire to make Rengoku into a demon.
The part where Tanjiro had to kill himself in his dream in order to wake up was surprisingly dark. But I enjoyed it because it was so interesting and psychological. I was also very happy when Inosuke helped Tanjiro realize he was no longer dreaming. He’s a little obnoxious sometimes, but I love Inosuke, and he’s a very dependable friend.
3) Brief Thoughts on Entertainment District
The Entertainment District arc was as enjoyable as the previous movie/mini-season. My favorite things about this arc were 1) the character of Tengen, 2) the music and songs, and 3) the story of the brother and sister demons, Daki and Gyuutaro.
As for Tengen, I didn’t like him much early on, but he slowly grew on me. There was a misunderstanding where I thought he was going to put the kids through actual prostitution training. It soon became clear that the children had no such duties, and instead started off as non-sexual servants for the ladies. Once I got a better feel for Tengen’s personality and motivations, I loved him as much as Rengoku. Though he is arrogant, he has a noble heart.
The opening song for the Entertainment District arc is “Zankyou Zanka” by Aimer, and it’s my favorite Demon Slayer song so far. I adored the ending song, “Asa ga Kuru,” also by Aimer. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I like Aimer way better than LiSa. That said, both are awesome. Finally, there were a lot of good instrumental OST pieces. The music for most of the series prior to this point has been composed by Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina. However, for this arc specifically, the composers were Kajiura and Masahiro Tobinai.
Daki, who I jokingly call the Slut Demon, is rather obnoxious, but I ended up liking her story with her brother Gyuutaro. It’s not that either of them were very appealing in terms of personality or even character design. But their history and character psychology was interesting to me. I love how the anime compared and contrasted Gyuutaro and Daki with Tanjiro and Nezuko. It was probably the most thought-provoking aspect of the show so far.
Character arcs about siblings tend to pluck at my heart-strings, even if they are about demons. So, when Daki chose to go to hell with her brother instead of going toward the light, I got a little teary-eyed. Not only is their psychology interesting, but the emotional weight of the siblings’ story was extremely well-portrayed. I’m grateful that Tanjiro tried to make the siblings reconcile at the end, as they faded away. That probably influenced their final decision to stay together in the afterlife/reincarnation (or however you interpret that).
That’s all for my thoughts today on the Demon Slayer Entertainment District arc.
4) Closing Notes
As you can see, I’m enjoying Demon Slayer a lot more than I previously did – though my core opinion of it as an unoriginal shonen lacking in depth has not changed. In terms of audio-visual quality, Demon Slayer would probably be 9/10 or even 10/10. In terms of personal enjoyment and story quality, however, it’s not going to budge above a 7/10.
Anyway, this anime is definitely entertaining, so I look forward to watching the Swordsmith Village arc very soon.
Thank you for reading~
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