I really enjoyed Demon Slayer Manga (2024)

Recently, I re-read the entire Demon Slayer - Kimetsu No Yaiba manga, and It reaffirmed my enjoyment of this series. However, in online communities, the opinion about this series is quite negative, to the point where it's literally impossible to mention it without someone repeatedly saying how bad the story is or how it's carried by the animation.

That's why I've decided, for a change, to make a positive rant about this manga and try to highlight the points that I believe make this series a charming and appealing work.

Kimetsu No Yaiba succeeds because it perfectly understands all the elements of battle shonens, and has executed them in a very satisfying manner without ever losing its way or forgetting what it wants to be:

-As it couldn't be any other way, the cornerstone of a battle shonen are the fights. KNY does a great job of creating hype and expectation; all the battles against the Upper Moons are incredibly intense because they are much stronger villains than the protagonists, and the fact that characters from the first half of the story, like Rengoku or Tengen, have shown that dying or being mutilated is a possibility that cannot be dismissed, adds tension to the fights because you can never be sure of the consequences of the battles. It conveys very well the feeling of a desperate struggle against very dangerous monsters that they may not survive and where the protagonists gradually accumulate damage, which makes the battles even more stressful, exhausting, and desperate.

The fights, especially toward the end, cannot be faced by a single character alone, so they become group fights with several protagonists facing a single villain, leading to really interesting choreographies, and adding value to the feeling of power, making the villain seem like an authentic force to be reckoned with.

-KNY knows how to hit emotional notes. All the main battles have their fair share of emotion and drama, with a conflict beyond the fight itself. No character dies without reason; all their sacrifices have meaning and play an important role, and none are ever forgotten.

Rengoku's death not only had a great impact on the Mugen Train arc itself, with really emotional moments like his mother’s backstory reminding his ideals or the vision of her appearing moments before his death to acknowledge his work, but beyond that, Rengoku is a figure who will never stop being remembered and inspiring the rest of the characters throughout the series. He is a character filled with love and respect from the rest of the cast and the author herself, and his death not only wasn’t the end of his character, but is what truly gives him value.

Some backstories are truly interesting and touch on universal themes, which will become very clear when the upcoming Infinity Castle arc is released.

Akaza’s story, even though he is the character who killed Rengoku and committed atrocities that put him beyond redemption, manages to be legitimately sad and emotional; you understand his obsession with strength, his immense hatred toward the weak, and the deep connection and conflict he has with Rengoku's ideals, which were later inherited by Tanjiro. Rengoku's ideals were that "The duty of the strong is to protect the weak," while the meaning Hakuji/Akaza gave to his life was exactly these same ideals: first, to protect his sick father, and later his wife when his master rescued him and gave him a second chance. Unfortunately, the truly weak people stood in his way, taking everything he loved in life, and circumstances led him from having a life as honorable as Rengoku’s to becoming a true monster with nothing left to lose. Ironically, in the end, you feel as much pity for Rengoku’s fate as for his killer’s, with one being a mirror of the other.

-Speaking of the Infinity Castle, this is one of the most enjoyable shonen arcs I’ve read, and I would say one of the best for me. The three main Upper Moons are incredibly charismatic, their fights are spectacular, their backstories are memorable, their battles mark the emotional climax for the characters. This is where most of the character arcs are resolved, and where the exposition and stories we saw throughout previous seasons truly pay off. It is in this arc that the flashbacks of characters like Muichiro or Genya in the third season, or Shinobu and Zenitsu in the first one, or all those fragments of Yoriichi’s memories scattered throughout the rest of the seasons gain value: everything that starts somewhere converges toward this arc, a really good climax for this manga.

And one of the things I like most about this arc is that the author is not afraid to do something many other shonens fear: killing characters. These final arcs are a slaughter, both for background characters and the protagonists, and that sense of real danger adds a lot of intensity. In the end, of all the fighters, only Zenitsu and Inosuke ended up without any permanent injury; the rest, including the main character himself, either died, were mutilated, or had their life expectancy drastically reduced. I find this tremendously respectable and very difficult to execute satisfactorily in the shonen genre.

There is considerable consensus within the community that this is the best arc of the entire series; in fact, there are tons of videos related to the fights or stories of the Infinity Castle with millions of views. This alone disproves the claim that the only good thing about the series is the animation, especially when the most beloved arc hasn’t even been animated yet.

-KNY does a good job of retaining attention and being enjoyable from start to finish. Throughout my life, I have watched many shonens, But I have struggled to finish many of them. This genre is very difficult to manage, and it is easy for the story to become boring at some point, drag on too long, get stuck in a dead end, leave many loose ends unresolved, or not know how to conclude the story. This series, at least for me, has avoided that; it is relatively short for a shonen, has barely any filler, goes straight to the point, maintains a fairly fast pace, and from beginning to end has a clear vision and sticks to it. From the first part of the story, it already introduces the final villain, and by the middle, you know all the characters that will appear. It doesn’t try to stretch itself by introducing sudden new villains or attempting a strange twist to sell you that there’s a hidden, even more powerful villain than the one already presented in an attempt to be groundbreaking. It knows what it is. It’s honest and genuine and doesn’t try to be pretentious.

Despite what some may think, it is quite coherent and consistent overall. From start to finish, it is clear about its themes and its direction, It also knows from the beginning how its end would be, and this becomes evident as elements introduced early on gradually gain importance throughout the story until, in the end, they become crucial in the conclusion. Elements such as the marks, the hanafuda earrings, How Yoriichi is mentioned and slowly unraveled from the very beginning of the story, Muzan's fear of him, Sun Breathing, the characterizations, their goals, and their backstories. Everything that starts at the beginning concludes at the end, creating a circle that, for me, is very satisfying.

-KNY has good characters for the story it wants to tell. There are really good and striking character designs, both for the protagonists and antagonists, especially the main Upper Moons, who are charismatic and memorable. The characters are simple but charming and have a purpose in the story. One thing I don’t like about many shonens is that they tend to create too many characters, and in the end, there are so many that some always end up sidelined; In KNY, all characters with a name have a background, a small arc, or play a role in the end. There are no characters that are truly forgotten; even the fodder characters and animals have their moment to shine and made honorable sacrifices. By the time it reaches the end, you don't get the feeling that any character was left without some sort of closure or conclusion.

A character I particularly like is Kokushibo; not only because his character design is cool as hell and his fight is one of the best in the entire series, but because his backstory and all the symbolism around him are also one of the best ones. His theme of envy and how, despite having everything, he threw it all away by letting his jealousy toward his brother take over is very well executed. Also, his relationship with Yoriichi and how, deep down and despite being a demon, behind that hatred, there was still a remnant of love and admiration for each other is very tragic because they could have been happy if he hadn’t succumbed to temptation. He wanted so badly to be like Yoriichi that he ended up becoming a six-eyed monster to try to match his power. Ironically, with so many eyes, he could never see how blinded he really was, and in the end, no matter what, he was always 'The envious moon that could never eclipse the sun.'

-KNY has a simple formal structure, but that doesn’t mean it’s shallow. It has a good dose of mirror characters and parallels (Akaza and Rengoku, Muzan and Ubuyashiki, Kokushibo and Yoriichi, Daki & Gyutaro and Nezuko & Tanjiro, Demon Nezuko and Demon Tanjiro, and so on), ancient Japanese folklore, symbolism, and a high Buddhist and Shinto religious influence that people in the West tend to overlook because they are unfamiliar with them. Not only does it explore universal themes such as mortality, karma, legacy, sacrifice, or family, but it manages to deliver its themes better than many other series of its genre.

The moment Muzan passes on to Tanjiro his will to become the demon who can walk under the sun serves the purpose of representing Muzan's ideological defeat, not just his defeat in battle. By doing that, passing his will to become the immortal demon king capable of conquering the sun, Muzan had to admit that his conception of eternity was wrong and that Ubuyashiki was right in believing that immortality can only be achieved through the legacy of feelings and wills, not through the physical body as Muzan wanted. He failed in his attempt, and in the end, nothing remained of him—neither his body nor his ideals.

This concept is further reinforced in the epilogue of the story. The protagonists, as individuals, died a long time ago, yet they will continue to be eternal through the actions they carried out to create a happy and safe world in the future. They achieved eternity through their legacy and will continue to be present through the happy people of the modern world even though they have been gone for a long time, while Muzan, being selfish and seeking the immortality of the flesh, was forgotten forever.

Obviously, I am specifically focusing on the points that I believe make the work satisfying and appealing. Like everything I enjoy, it also has flaws, such as rather limited worldbuilding, a power system that is too vague and ambiguous, Nezuko as a character being underutilized, and other issues. However, none of them destroys the overall sense of the work or the story’s messages.

That is why I believe this series has charm and authenticity beyond simply having good animation, and that’s the charm that many people, including myself, find in this work. Within its simplicity, there is a certain complexity that makes it beautiful in a way.

I really enjoyed Demon Slayer Manga (2024)
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