After watching the 1st episode of the anime the premise hooked me enough to give the manga a read.

To keep it short, shounen at its finest. Kinda reminded me of Naruto's good old days with the overall direction. Tons of action, lots of drama, comical situations I haven't read in a while, all of them blending perfectly with the otherwise heavy climate. This had me thinking actually, how this manga managed to stay under the radar up till to the point it got an anime. Not enough promotion by Jump, I guess?

Anyway, spoilers ahead.

Story: 10

This is a tragic story about Tanjiro and his sister Nezuko. It was on a day like every other when Tanjiro left his home in the mountain to go deliver charcoal to the village and help the villagers in every other way he could, much like your standard Harvest Moon hero.

Returning to the mountain, Tanjiro discovered that his entire family had been slaughtered while he was away, bar his sister Nezuko, who was still alive, but had been turned to a demon.

The story becomes pretty straight-forward from that point on. The boy who had lost his entire family runs away with his demon-turned sister to try to find a cure and turn her back to a human.

He eventually joins the demon-slaying corps in an effort to become stronger and prepare for the day he'd face the demon who massacred his family. He takes up the sword, faces a lot of hardships due to the discrimination for carrying around a dangerous demon in a basket (Nezuko), though slowly more and more people start looking up to him for choosing the hard path. They accept both Tanjiro and Nezuko and the two of them eventually meet more comrades in their journey to fight demons.

Art: 10

I'll be honest here. Nothing has made me laugh more than the faces Tanjiro makes when he gets curious about something/someone. It's like the author intentionally wants to mess with his other characters whenever he has them interact with Tanjiro.

The really astonishing part is how the artstyle can just shoot from completely comical to downright serious in an instant. Once again that's more evident with Tanjiro. You can have him making some awestruck, goofy face that takes 1/12th of a page, feeling like a comic-relief side-character most of the time, then next page you have him in a dead-serious clash with someone, taking the whole page much like Ichigo from Bleach would do most of the time.

I just love those jarring transitions.

Character: 10

Well, I think I've already talked enough about the protagonists, so I'll talk about the antagonists. Keep the word, ANTAGONISTS, not so much villains.

This is the truly amazing part of Kimetsu no Yaiba. There's no superficial anatogonist except a few minor ones. Every antagonist has their own backstory and circumstances. You might absolutely rage and hate a demon for killing a hero, till the demon's tragic backstory turns on the waterworks inside you. You will empathize, you will regret, you will cry.

Character development is the strong suit of this manga, no doubt.

Enjoyment: 10

I binged and finished the manga in 2 days, 'nuff said.

Overall: 10

Hidden gem. Spread the word.