This review will have SPOILERS, mostly regarding the last chapter. No specific deaths will be mentioned, although I do mention the state of the protagonist by the end of everything. I'll mark the spoilers, in case. I've got mixed feelings about pretty much everything. I'll be breaking this down to the aspects. Note: I've watched the anime, and honestly, after this manga? I have faith in ufo. Please stir it back into the right direction. At least they can somehow end it beautifully, I hope.

Story?
Now, the story to me, started off with such a good concept. Kid's sister gets turned into a demon. Might be impossible, but let's go find a cure and slay the master demon? Sounds basic, but fun. I thought that there'd be so many possible routes they could take this story to. Halfway through, what if our protagonist becomes a demon? What if the master demon wasn't actually the source of everything? What's up with those blue flowers? Hell, what if the protagonist dies in the boss fight? And Nezuko was the "demon slayer" all along? How will the story go on? How will the characters react to this? What now? How do we move forward? So many possibilities. Except none of that happened.

I liked some arcs, I appreciated the way they introduced the world. Some individual side stories were even quite interesting. But when you look at it overall? We come from point A, and get to point B. To some, this is good. But for me, this is way too simple. Kid's sister gets turned into a demon. Fight the side quest demons. Fight the top demon. You're done. No huge plot twists. No game changers. Plain and simple. Overall, the story just felt half-baked. It felt like something was supposed to happen, but we suddenly had to cut it off at 205 chapters.

*spoilers*
And though I loved the overall concept, what irked me the most was the timeskip at the very end. It made sense-- seeing all the ancestors throughout the story by means of flashbacks, of course our current cast would become ancestors one day too, right? So, to me, the timeskip did make sense. But what I didn't like was the way they executed it.

*spoilers*
It felt like a fever dream. I teared up for some. Everyone does get their happy ending in some way, but it felt rushed. Bam, here's a child from these two. Bam, Inosuke gets married with a chick that didn't really matter in the story. Bam, all of them are reincarnated. Bam, here's a descendant. Another descendant. Another one. Another one with their ancestor's physical abilities. Heck, have another descendant.

Again, it made sense. But it was rushed, up in your face, and felt lacking.

Art?
It does some things right. It's stylized, personal, and unique. The characters are most of the time drawn as "chibis", which I've never really seen before. But the problem with this is that they stay like that during boss fights. It's quite hard to take things seriously when you've got badass characters shedding blood when looking like a 12 year old with huge eyes. I've seen the cover. Wouldn't hurt to put some effort into the serious scenes, no? This is, at least, fixed by the anime.

Characters?
Oh, boy. Here's my biggest problem with KNY. I loved a lot of the backstories of some characters. I feel like some were quite fleshed out. I even cried for some. I enjoyed Tanjiro's personality. I loved how he wasn't special from the get-go, and he actually had to spend time learning. I loved his kindness. He was kind, not naive. Often, shounen protagonists are marked off as simply too kind = too naive, but there was something about Tanjiro that was truly unique. So you could say that the way they establish characters was good. What wasn't, was the way they developed. In the former half of the manga, some of the characters' endings were beautifully done. Their development pulled through and their morals were passed down onto the main cast. But in the latter half? It felt like a rinse and repeat.

The characters assigned to the latter half were extremely rushed. Here they are. Here's their backstory. Here's a fight. And now, they've developed. They've changed for the better. They've gotten their justice. Instead of gradual, everything is dropped on you: the exposition, the rising action, and the climax, all in 3 chapters per character.

Although some people did not enjoy the continuous cycle of a demon antagonist being killed and given a backstory afterwards, I actually enjoyed this bit. Some demons made me question my morals to an extent. Some of the defeats were actually sad.

For the main cast. All I have to say was that they were completely covered in plot armor. During the final boss fight that stretched for how many chapters, I started to develop some different opinions. I wanted Tanjiro to die. Because it made sense. So many pillars that were supposedly "strong" had died. Tanjiro, a newbie compared to them, was still alive somehow. So, I thought that it was just right in order to balance the chain of power: Tanjiro has to die. The strongest ones are gone, and Tanjiro could leave his legacy and protect everyone by sacrificing himself during the final blow.

Don't worry, he doesn't die. He just needs a breather. A little bit of time to recharge that sudden power he got from his flashback of an ancestor's past. Then he's back on track. No big deal. He's just been a demon slayer for, what, 2 years?

*spoilers*
Oh? He turns into a demon? I have to admit, I was excited at this point. My thoughts were running: What if he turns into a demon, and his friends need to kill him for the sake of humanity? What if Tanjiro regains a bit of consciousness and tells them to kill him? And they actually do? That would be an amazing way to end things. Some writers don't have the guts to kill of their main characters, but if this happens with KNY, this may just be it's point of salvation. I'm willing to ignore all the other mistakes if they just do this one thing that balances it all.

But no, they don't. He somehow gets over it. The plot armor sure is shiny.

Enjoyment?
The humor was, simply put, not humorous. The antics made me smile sometimes, but it wasn't deadly funny. Zenitsu is the stereotyped perverted character, and I did not at all enjoy the humor that came from his attitude. It was plain uncomfortable for me. The only other stuff I considered as enjoyment were the fights. But, halfway through the whole thing, the fights fell flat. Maybe I finally started looking at the art style different, or maybe it was the author. No substantial lesson is given at the endings of these later fights. The unique situations vanish. Punch, kick, slash-- fall down on the ground, channel your inner ancestor, and suddenly learn a new move. Punch, kick, someone highly skilled dies, and then the villain loses.

Overall?
I'll be honest. If none of the second half fell as flat as it did, I'd be giving this a solid 10.

Overall, KNY did a lot of things right. In the first half, I thoroughly enjoyed everything. I shed every tear for characters I loved, I felt excitement in every new arc. But it all falls apart when the story becomes completely predictable, the characters become bland and empty and way too OP, and the whole thing ends on an unbelievable note.

Inosuke, honey, I'm so sorry they did this to you.