Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge. It follows Tanjiro Kamado, a young boy who wants to become a demon slayer after his family is slaughtered and his younger sister Nezuko is turned into a demon. It was serialized in Shueisha’s shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from February 2016 to May 2020, with its chapters collected in 23 tankōbon volumes. It has been published in English by Viz Media and simulpublished by Shueisha on their Manga Plus platform.
A 26-episode anime television series adaptation produced by Ufotable aired in Japan from April to September 2019. A sequel film, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, premiered in October 2020 and became the highest-grossing anime film of all time.
As of December 2020, the manga had over 120 million copies in circulation, including digital versions, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. Meanwhile, the anime series has received critical acclaim, with critics praising the animation and fight sequences. It has received numerous awards and is considered one of the best anime of the 2010s. As of December 2020, the Demon Slayer franchise is estimated to have generated total sales of at least ¥270 billion ($2.6 billion) in Japan.
The film however was released on October 16, 2020 in Japan, and earned widespread success in Asia, praise for its characters, voice acting, and action sequences. It set multiple box office records, including the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, the highest-grossing anime film and Japanese film of all time, the highest-grossing animated film of 2020, the fourth highest-grossing film of 2020, the seventh highest-grossing traditional animated film, and the 15th highest-grossing non-English film. Due to its success, it was submitted in the Best Animated Feature Film category for the 93rd Academy Awards.
Anime Series Summary
A family lives to a village on a hill. One mother, 3 sons and 3 daughters. The eldest son and daughter names are Tanjiro and Nezuko
One day while Tanjiro was out to sell coals, Muzan attacked his family and killed everyone except Nezuko who was turned into a demon unintentionally by Muzan. Tanjiro without knowing this rushed his unconscious sister to a hospital but during midway Nezuko became insane and tried to kill Tanjiro. Nezuko stopped when Tanjiro talks to her and asks her to remember her family. But a man named Tomiyoka Giyu- a demon slayer comes to slay her.
Tanjiro begs him to leave his sister while Giyu is thinking if he would have arrived earlier, he could have saved his family. As Tanjiro beg, Giyu screams at him and says to fight for what he wants. Tanjiro attacks Giyu but is knocked out by him, Nezuko rushed to her brother. Giyu thought that she will eat him but to his surprise she protects him.
When Tanjiro wake up, Giyu send them his master Urokodaki for training. Some years went by and Tanjiro trains under him and his two other students- Sabito and Makomo while Nezuko was slept for all the time. To kill a demon his head must be cut so that he won’t regenerate and leave him in sunshine till he vaporizes.
Finally, the training ended and Urokodaki gives Tanjiro a fox mask that he gives to all of his students. Tanjiro bids farewell and went for the demon slayer corps exam and says to give his thanks to Sabito and Makomo leaving Urokodaki wondering how Tanjiro knows name of his dead students?
Tanjiro arrives at exam and he has to stay alive in demon forest till morning. Many exam takers already died in few minutes, but Tanjiro was killing demons with his Breath of water after asking whether they know how he can turn his sister back into a human. But none of demons replied. Then he met a demon with multiple hands who said that he has killed many Urokodaki students and even Sabito and Makomo. Tanjiro then kills him but as he was dying his last memories as human came and he was crying but Tanjiro held his hand as he was feeling his suffering.
After passing exam he returns back and waited till his Nichirin sword come. It is said Nichirin sword contains sun, so a demon whose head is cut by nichirin blade dies instantly. The blade takes color according to user. Tanjiro’s was pitch black which surprised sword maker because he thought it would be red because Tanjiro was like a sun.
After leaving, Tanjiro killed some demons and met Zenitsu and Inosuke, 2 of other 4 who passed exam with Tanjiro and Tamako and Yushiro. Tanjiro went to a hill to defeat some demons but they didn’t know that there was a lower moon residing in the hill.
Lower moon means strongest 7–12 ranked Demon aside Muzan and upper moon are rank 1–6 and all can use a skill called Blood Art. Zenitsu used Breath of lightning to kill a spider demon while Inosuke hanged with his breath of beast to fight another strong demon whom he assumed to be lower moon while Tanjiro was fighting the real lower moon rank 11 Rui.
Rui wishes for a family and seeing Nezuko and Tanjiro he kidnaps her and wants to make her his sister. Tanjiro then remembers what his father told him before dying: Dance of Fire God. This instantly turns his Breath of Water into Flames. He finally manages to kill Rui’s neck with help of Nezuko’s Blood Art: Exploding Blood.
But Rui manages to stay alive only to be killed next by Giyu. Giyu came along with Shinobu who uses Breath of Insect. Giyu remembers Tanjiro and tells him to run with Nezuko because their order is to kill every demon, which is also Nezuko as he stops Shinobu from attacking her. But they were captured and were presented in front of Hashiras: the strongest 9 demon slayers and Kagaya Ubashashi.
Majority of Hashiras wanted death of Nezuko since she is a demon who could turn insane any time.But after Kagaya Ubashashi-the master of Demon slayer corps tell them that Tanjiro has already seen Muzan (which all hashiras never did) and that Nezuko has never eaten a single human even after showing human blood is proof that they are different. Even Giyu and Urokodaki, current and former water hashira promises that if Nezuko eats a human, they will kill her themselves and will commit suicide.
After their wounds were healed, the trio started some training and met the remaining 2 demon slayer who passed exam with them in Shinobu’s house, Genya and Kanao. The former is brother of Wind Hashira and the later uses Breath of Flower and also has a cute love moment with Tanjiro.
Muzan then calls a meeting of all lower moons and kills them for being worthless except rank 7 and gives him more of his blood and orders Enmu(him) to kill Tanjiro. The episode, and season, ends with Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu jumping onto the train just as it leaves the station. Zenitsu asks Tanjiro if it was a good idea to bring Nezuko with them and Tanjiro tells him that while it would have been safer for her at the corps, he never wants to be separated from her again.
Anime Movie Summary
Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke board a train to meet and assist Flame Hashira Kyōjurō Rengoku in his quest to search for a demon that killed more than 40 demon slayers on a train, believing that their deaths were disappearances. Shortly after embarking, the group is assaulted by several demons that Rengoku kills easily, but all of them fall into deep sleep after the collector checks their tickets, and Enmu, Lower Rank One of the Twelve Kizuki, instructs four riders, all of whom suffer from serious insomnia, to approach the sleeping demon slayers and use some magical ropes to enter their dreams. In exchange for their cooperation, Enmu will allow them to have a peaceful dream.
During their sleep, Tanjiro dreams of reuniting with his late family, Zenitsu dreams of having a date with Nezuko, Inosuke dreams of going on a cave exploration mission with his friends being his henchmen, and Kyōjirō dreams of meeting his brother. Tanjiro realizes that he is dreaming and starts looking for ways to wake up, succeeding after being instructed by a vision of his father to kill himself inside the dream. At the same time, Nezuko uses her Blood Demon Art to burn the ropes, awakening the passengers affected by Enmu’s abilities. In fear that Enmu won’t allow them to have their good dreams, the passengers attack Tanjiro – however, the only exception of his attackers is the one who entered his dream, as he was moved by the warm scenery, he found inside it and is immediately knocked out by Tanjiro.
While Nezuko awakens the others, Tanjiro confronts Enmu. Tanjiro continuously kills himself inside his dream every time Enmu forces him to sleep until he finally beheads Enmu. However, the demon does not die and reveals that he fused his head with the train itself. Kyōjurō instructs Inosuke to help Tanjiro look for the demon’s neck while he, Nezuko, and Zenitsu stays behind to protect the other passengers. Tanjiro and Inosuke find Enmu’s real neckbone in the engine room and Tanjiro severs it, killing the demon and stopping the train. However, Akaza, the Upper Moon Three, appears soon after and attacks the demon slayers, with Kyōjurō choosing to fight him single handedly after Tanjiro is severely injured.
The two clashes, and Kyōjurō is fatally wounded by Akaza driving his hand through the Flame Hashira’s stomach. However, Kyōjurō holds his own against the demon and manages to injure Akaza’s neck while attempting to land the finishing blow. Akaza is forced to flee when the sun begins rising, but not before being injured by Kyōjurō, who carves off his arms, and Tanjiro, who throws his sword at Akaza and impales him. Tanjiro angrily calls the demon a coward for running away and declares Kyōjurō the true winner of the fight. As the Hashira and the rest of the Demon Slayer Corps are informed about Kyōjurō’s death, Tanjiro and his companions mourn the passing of the Flame Hashira.
I think Demon Slayer has an awesome animation and it is likewise finely styled that I guess the genuine feature is all aesthetics. I love the art style and how they’re simply giving each fight a novel vibe you can’t discover elsewhere. This force framework depends on breathing strategy that encourages the character to practice similar energy as different components like water, thunder and insects. All is conceivable as long as you most likely are aware how to inhale appropriately. However, the animals that emerge from the blades are only a visual picture and representations or metaphors.
There’s only something about the dangerous thunder effects, the hypnotizing sting of an insect or the entrancing way the blade nearly hits with the water impacts on screen. It resembles a painting that moves. The activity scenes appear to accompany this way of thinking of what amount would we be able to clean a refined that one excellent or unstable minutes. There’s a feeling of freedom you need gets defeated you will consider flashbacks to be the lives as a human and the turmoils that they experienced prior to transforming into a devil for a moment. You sort of feel frustrated about them. You know, if not, the little actuality of the many individuals they’ve killed put a brisk focus on the characters, see how Tanjiro acts towards the demons is somewhat what makes them so charming and these accounts provide a decent feeling of a sense of finality to the various devils he defeats.
What separates Tanjiro is that he shows that pure hearted energy without the naivety or silliness. He can in any case sympathize with the evil presences and the inconveniences have landed them on this way while realizing that what they’ve done isn’t something that can be excused in light of the fact that his way to deal with everything is extremely develop yet he actually is solid with regards to his own belief system and the hopeful way he sees the world in spite of having a family who was frightfully killed by demons. He’s not doing this because of retribution or outrage or contempt before an pure love for his family and the drive to improve the world a better place.
I do believe it’s a good anime yet I believe It’s overhyped. Like I said, the animation was extraordinary however I believe the story is not unique nor exceptional at all. Despite the fact that I can’t say that it resembles each other shounen. The story is somewhat ineffectively composed, its loaded up with plot openings, hurried and numerous things appeared to be constrained. Be that as it may, since it’s just the first season, perhaps the following season will give us more details in the story.
Generally, I like it, yet there is still opportunity to get better.