Kimetsu no Yaiba

I originally got into the series through the first season of the anime. While nothing amazing, I did have a fun time watching it and tried to hold off on reading the manga and wait for the movie of the next arc to come out. After being spoiled on major story events and character deaths, along with being curious as to why people were so upset with the series' final arc, I decided to read on from where the anime left off.


Story: It has a relatively simple premise. Tanjiro Kamado's family gets slaughtered, save for his sister, who is instead turned into a demon. Tanjiro's main goal in the series isn't revenge against the main antagonist or becoming the strongest demon slayer in all of Japan, it's simply to turn his sister back into a human again. While it's not as generic as other battle shonen, it also doesn't do anything special with its premise. It does suffer from several deus ex machinas, questionable power-ups, and a very rushed final arc.


Art: There's not too much to say about the art. It's nice to look at, but it's nothing out of the ordinary and at times it is very difficult to keep up with the action.

Characters: The cast of characters are fun and likable for the most port, but not particularly
well-written. Tanjiro is a static character, meaning that he doesn't go through much character development in the series. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but sadly the other characters don't really make up for this. Nezuko is hardly a character and more of a plot device, existing solely to motivate Tanjiro. Zenitsu and Inonosuke are relegated to comic-relief 90% of the time and aren;t given much characterization. Zenitsu only had about two serious moments I can remember off the top of my head in which he behaved like an actual character instead of a goofball.

The Hashira are severely underdeveloped, with the exceptions being the flame, butterfly, and water pillars. The main antagonist Muzan ended up being a complete disappointment that failed to live up to the hype. He lacks the somewhat understandable motivations that many of his underlings have and as such, ended up being far less interesting.


Enjoyment: Despite my problems I had with it, it's still an enjoyable read. The characters are likable, many of the fights are creative with the different abilities to various demons have, the pacing is quick enough to keep the reader engaged, and it's a relatively short manga.

Overall: I feel that this manga would've turned out better had the anime come out a few years earlier. Considering how the manga was already in its final arc by the time it rolled around, I think that Gotouge would've seen the success of the anime's first season and stretched it out just a little bit further to give a more satisfying ending. Despite all of its issues, it was a solid read. Likable characters, creative fight scenes, and a pacing that never made the series feel stale.

Here you should not wait for dizzying plot twists, which at once change the direction of the whole story, reveal some terrible secret or introduce a new side to the conflict in the desire to rewrite the rules of the game. The story and setting are unpretentious, so someone will definitely find it uninteresting. Also, fighting and unique art are frankly modest in the first quarter. What made manga for me is a few meritorious principles that separate it from the vast majority of competitors in the genre.

Firstly, the main character is Tanjiro. Its peculiarity is in the emotional maturity due to the origin: his compassion does not turn into complete naivety, he knows his limits, does not consider himself special and is not afraid to rely on others, also realizes his mortality, which is also a rarity for shonen manga. On the one hand, this deprives him of constant development, on the other hand, the plot is built up to the beat, his character gives new facets to the events that take place, noticeably affects other characters who are developing quite well or at least open up from new sides. The main thing is that the author does not turn the manga into a show demonstrating the coolness of the years, which further emphasize his usual character and gives rise to the second feature.

Most of the battles are based on team interaction, and there are few moments where 1 character came out and corny defeated a demon many times superior to him. This move gives more weight to minor characters and emphasizes the power of demons, making the fight with them more exciting.

Thirdly, the character system itself is very well-structured, there are practically no extra faces that were added as if to demonstrate the author’s design decisions (they, by the way, are not bad here, they all seem to be memorable and do not look like a circus troupe). In addition, everyone has their own story and some psychological depth that helps make the interaction of the characters enjoyable, with good humor and a small amount of vulgarity.

Finally, the tragedy, almost any battle senen is a typical example of the so-called power fantasy, where the main character gradually becomes the strongest and due to strength, as well as friendship and love, all problems are solved. In other words, they give the impression of controlling their fate, that is, as long as a person is virtuous and capable, he will succeed. The beginning of the Blade already abandons this illusion, and later the author will repeat over and over again that there will always be one winner in the struggle of man against the world. The presence of death adds stakes and emotional stress. In general, this and special attention to family circumstances give the manga an interesting themed cocktail.

What is the result? This is a good manga, which was lucky to become wildly popular. You should not wait for a revolution from her, but she is able to beat off a couple of evenings for reading.

Kimetsu no Yaiba

At least I knew the manga from easy reading before the anime adaptation appeared, I have already completely forgotten the 10 chapters I had read. After the anime made a very positive impression in terms of implementation, I just had to give myself a try to the manga.


In the end, I have to admit, it was a satisfying shounen, with emotional backgrounds and visually subtle fights. However, that's about it. It was significantly weaker than the currently popular anime adaptation.

The main plot of Kimetsu no Yaiba is even among the shounen, probably one of the weakest, and is enormously linear.
On the part of the characters, hardly anything happened, only that you saw more of the backgrounds, which were quite interesting and emotional. Except for sympathy, the characters had no depth.
The drawings were also rather poor at first, but it improved significantly over the course of the year.

Story

You can read the majority of the plot from the description. Tanjirou wants to save his sister and must find the demon that wiped out his family. And the anime is practically all about looking for him to the bitter end.

He meets other characters on his journey and makes friends, fights other demons until he can finally face his enemy.

Drawing / illustration

As mentioned, it was pretty meager at the beginning, especially with the backgrounds and the presentation. Around halfway through the manga and on, the level increased significantly. In the end, it was just an above-average presentation.

Characters

The characters were likeable, I in no way doubt that. I actually liked Tanirou as the main protagonist, even though he was practically the stereo type. However, his way of thinking and his approaches were quite understandable. And for once he wasn't a hypocrite.

The remaining main characters were mostly just entertaining, couldn't add anything worth mentioning to them.

A very strong factor here was clearly in the area of ​​the character backgrounds. Unfortunately, that alone isn't enough to make a character good.


The main antagonist of the show is a type that I really like. I generally prefer such antagonists. Unfortunately, it lacked depth and meaning. He was mean, mean, and enormously impressive. However, it was just completely empty. Apart from his small background, he had nothing.

Conclusion

I have to admit, in the shounen area, Kimetsu no Yaiba has a very weak main plot. Nonetheless, it is by far one of the 10 best shounen I've seen so far, because it still stands out from the competition.

And note again, no the manga is no better than the anime. The anime adaptation is far better than the manga due to the high quality work done by the studio.

I'm going to keep this short because I don't think I'll ever be able to capture my thoughts and feelings about this manga correctly. I will not include any spoilers, so that is also going to be one of the reasons why I'll keep this short; I'm not even going to try to vaguely describe what I thought about the major story arcs. I do wonder what this series would've become if Gotouge would've been able to end it like they would've wanted to - I read that they were kind of forced to wrap the story up quickly because of some reasons. (from what I gathered, they were personal)

So, I got into this manga pretty late; the final major story arc had already begun, but thanks to this series being quite short, I easily read the +100 chapters in a week. It also helped that I knew what the start was going to be like since I already watched the anime; I already knew most of the characters, I already cared about them, I knew the setting and the world, so it was easy to get into it, even though the story moved surprisingly fast paced (compared to other shounen mangas I've read).

The story of Kimetsu no Yaiba is gripping, though at first I thought it was too cliché. Tanjiro, no matter what anyone says, is one of my favorite main characters ever because he's kind. I get that many people don't like that (for who knows what reason), or think that he's boring because he's kind, but in my opinion, it's his greatest quality. Despite everything, Tanjiro remains kind, he grows and changes, but he always remains who he is; a kind boy who loves his family. It's Tanjiro's kindness that makes the story of KnY so good; he is, in a way, rebelling against the world where literal demons exist. Kill demons? Okay, but we're gonna save the ones we can.

Tanjiro's willingness to listen, to help others is, in my opinion, the core of this series because in a cruel world where your loved ones die; people are out to get you; evil does its best to bring you down, being kind, even to those the world tries to convince you that they don't deserve kindness, is the most powerful thing in the world. It might even save it.

SPOILER FREE

WOW, what an adventure. let's get my biggest gripe out of the way quickly, the last chapter was a little abrupt and the ending was a bit fast. whew, OK, that's out of my system, now we can praise and nitpick this artful masterpiece.

Story (8): It starts out simple, like a monster of the week type deal, but it quickly becomes overarching plots that had me on the edge of my seat. What would happen next, who will die, who will survive, what is so and so's backstory. The flashbacks are very similar to Eiichiro Oda's and that's a good thing. An amazing story with an amazing beginning, middle and end. The epilogue is a bit lackluster though.

Art (8): amazing, beautiful art that is a joy to read through. It's not harsh on the eyes but it's so very detailed. The action flows from every panel to the next gorgeously. The character designs are creative and telling. The art makes the world they live in fell so real and tangible...Tanjiro-ble...hehehe. It's not afraid to get gruesome either.

Characters (9): OK, the characters in this manga are really something else. The way they act is believable and realistic (in the story's context). They have amazing chemistry that pairs up characters very well. No character is killed in an unfair and unsatisfying way. No character has a negative payoff to their respective arcs. They feel like people, they are people, and they grow.

Enjoyment (8): I felt the hype with this one, some fights even had me clapping my hands in excitement. The elements of all these things combine to make a true modern classic. There are things that didn't work out in this manga, sure. Fortunately though, they are far and few in-between. The quality of this manga is there and it is true.

Overall (8): Would I recommend this? HELL YEAH, if you like unique and pretty art, if you like fascinating stories, if you like good understandable characters. I suggest this to you. Very few manga, no, stories in general are ever able to reach this level, at the very least, give this a chance so your friends don't jump you when you tell them you haven't read it.

I'm sorry if I missed something, I ended up following the last chapters through the raw scans. But still nothing will change how sad I feel when I remember this, I really thought it would be a big one, turns out I just wasted my time. If you already started reading this then finish it I guess, but its not worth reading it at all.
[Spoilers]




I'm so sad the author did a horrible job after the red district arc, there were some mistakes before too but I and many others decided to overlook that. I have no idea why the author decided to rush everything and just kill everyone in the worst way (for the story) possible. After Shinobu's death I simply could not care less about anyone else, because not only it was predictable it simply got boring, they didn't feel like people anymore. So many missed things like the blue spider lily?? Hello?? Also, where did their powers come from? The breathing techniques aren't magic and demons came from Muzan who just drank some weird medicine so where do they get their powers from?, I think the fourth moon was also forgotten because nobody knows her name lol, the relationships were also lazy, throwing Ishiguro's backstory before his death was WOOOW "SO GREAT"... I don't even care if you decide to kill every single character just do it RIGHT, Shinobu's death was very well done compared to the rest.
honestly, I'm disappointed and I hope the future anime adaptations just take another route, maybe it can still be saved.

As of the time of this review, the manga has not finished but I am completely caught up with the english translation of it.

This was a hard manga to score as I am reluctant to give any series a 10, but this manga really had me reconsider my position on that. I am so very tempted to give it a perfect score because of how well executed this is and how much I loved it. However, I will wait until I see the final chapters/end before I give it a perfect score. So for now, it stands at a very solid 9/10.


Lets start with the story; its fast paced but well earned. Though sometimes in hindsight I do wish it had a few more side stories/fillers, its purely because of how interesting the world and characters are that I desire to see as them as much as possible. The story has a very clear direction, and it sticks to it. Not in a way that it feels constrained, just more like its following a precise vision and isn't floundering around in the dark to find its footing or waffling. Plot wise; its fast pace but in a good way. A keeps-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat kind of way. Every arc feels like it moves the plot along and doesn't feel tacked on for the sake of filler. Characters are introduced somewhat naturally, with some getting more screen time than others - but overall, a very natural and deliberate flow to the events of the story.
The characters are varied and well written. While you might see a stereotype or two at first glance, they always bring something new and interesting to the table, so all of them stand out. Even when you feel you might not like a character at first, the writing does a very good job of warming you up to them. The interactions especially with the main gang, are often absolutely hilarious and a welcome surprise. The sense of camaraderie between the characters is strong, and makes for some very funny but also warm moments. A loss of a character is very tangible to the reading, and personally had me in tears each time it happened. There is a very real danger for all characters, so you genuinely feel worried when a character is in a precarious situation, and it makes you really root for the main gang.
Back onto the main story; the theme and atmosphere of this series strikes a very good balance between dark and light. The main story is often quite tragic and although its a shounen, doesn't stray from gory scenes or harsh realities - which was frankly a massive breath of fresh air form me. However, the smaller moments are often packed with some good jokes and fun interactions between characters. If this was executed poorly, this would have been some pretty intense tonal whiplash. Thankfully however, this is done right, and so instead the two contradicting tones compliment eachother. The light moments make the tragic moments hit that much harder, and the tragic moments give the story a very grounded feel to it. Just overall, a very good execution tonally, and one of the reasons why I recommend this to anyone one, mostly regardless of taste, because it hits both bases so well.

I'm not an artist myself so I won't say a great deal on the art style. Its consistent, unique and adapts to the situations. Lighter situations have a bit more of a goofy and fun style to it, while fight/plot scenes have a very detailed and serious feel to the art. I would say that art style perhaps makes characters look a little younger than they are (most are on the shorter side), but it gets much better as the manga goes on and honestly kind of grew on me. The way the sword techniques are drawn are also very creative and well represented.

Onto characters. I already did a more general overview above in story, but I'll continue by focusing on the leads.
Tanjirou is probably one of my favourite shounen protagonists yet. Normally I've very skeptic of mains, especially sunny/justice driven ones like Tanjirou, but boi did he grow on me. Its hard not cheer this ball of sunshine on when you see how hard he works and all he does to protect his family and friends. Tanjirou is perhaps "talented" but not a prodigy or genius like some of the other characters, and yet he still manages to come off as a badass when he pushes himself past his limits for his ideals or others around him - and not kind of pretentious like some other shounen protags do when they ignorantly ignore warnings of others and still try to help despite being useless. Tanjirou is nurturing, loyal, protective, friendly, trusting, hardworking and empathetic. And while that sounds a little generic and lacks major flaws, it works really well for his character. Honestly its hard to put it quite into words, but he is a very likeable character. He's not the deepest character, but they make up for it in his sheer likeable-ness, I don't know how you can't cheer the kid on.
Now Muzan, as the main villain. We don't know a great deal about him even this far into the manga, but so far he's been a good villain. He's noticeably cruel and pragmatic but not in 'kick a puppy' kind of way. His psychology is clearly deeper than just 'evil', but he certainly isn't one of the deeper characters. His plans aren't the dumb 1 dimensional ones you see in the movies, but he does lack direct involvement in the story. You can argue that he's basically the final boss so it wouldn't be right to have him do everything himself and come into early. And I definitely get that, his haughty personality even complements the stance - but I can't shake that maybe he could a *little* more. But overall, a good villain who doesn't attempt to go down the sympathetic villain route (which is interesting considering Tanjirou's emphatic disposition and the series overall message about demons being human once yada yada), and sticks to the pretty much irredeemable bad guy. It knows it can't justify his awful actions so it doesn't try to, just fleshes his horrible personality out so he at least feels natural in the story as the final boss. So while not the best villain I've ever seen, certainly one of the better ones.


Thats pretty much all the main points I can discuss without going into spoiler territory.
So would I recommend this to EVERYONE? Tentatively yes. I personally feel that it has a good balance of tones and elements of action, bonds, and comedy that most anime fans will like it. Of course there will inevitably people that don't, but I have high hopes for this series and with its recent release of the anime, I'd say this has a chance of becoming one of the next big series.

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.

Review based on personal opinions and taste:

Spoilers ahead :)


The lead characters got injuried? No problem, just hop on in butterly estate and get all your injuries healed up by skipping the story, what happened in the time we skipped? oh...well the leads were just asleep you see, and the demons being the good guys they are, they didn't do anything while that happened, they respected their privacy and planned their attacks for when they're all healed up and ready to battle, i mean sure the boss demon wants them dead but why all the rush, jeez...anyway, now that they've woken up why not get stronger by playing tag with the butterly estate triplet slaves? :D suddenly the blood shedding plot turns into bonding with the ladies, hurray.

Anyway, now we gotta go the the next bad guy, bad guy does bad things, reader mad, lead character getting beat up, reader in suspense, invoke the secret power within you, reader happy, flashback back to when bad guy was good guy, now reader sad, hop on in butterly estate for that sweet heals, train with the triplets, next to the other bad guy, rinse and repeat.

5/10, didn't hate it but didn't love it. I'm sure there's something much better to sink time in than this.

I finished the anime and was already impressed with the direction in which ufotable was taking the series. I decided that i did not want to wait for the story to continue so i read the manga from the point in which the anime had left off. I found an amazing character driven, and at some points emotional thrill ride which i had never experienced in a shounen battle series. As the plot moved on and condensed, I saw characters change and develop in ways i never would have expected whilst watching the anime. The fights contained not only amazing art, but really allowed me to see the characters intentions more clearly. A great example of this was the fight between Akaza, Tanjiro and Giyuu. Gotouge highlighted Akaza's experience and really allowed me to sympathise with him. I think that Akaza may just be one of the best written villains in shounen and i do not say that lightly. At the same time, I found other characters' arcs to be underwhelming. A really good example of this was upper moon 2, Domu. Instead of being able to experience his full power and characteristics, he was weakened and presented as a complete psychopath. I was hoping to have seen just as much from him as I saw with Akaza but he was gone within just 5 chapters. When it comes to the series's current point in the story, I have been absolutely blown away with what i have experienced. I think that chapter 201 will trend even more than episode 19 when it finally airs in the anime. Kimetsu No Yaiba is one of the best shounen battle series of the past couple of years and I can't wait to see where Gotouge takes the series next.

Not gonna lie I went into this series fresh off the anime and had high hopes and expectations. I was sorely disappointed with what I found.

Story:

The anime strongly reminds of Magi (manga version) and so diving head first into KnY's manga, I expected some strong but compact narrative arcs. What I got felt like a cheap imitation. The arcs are compact alright, almost to the point of rushing them. Everything that happens within a set arc seems to have limited impact on what happens outside of them. Where a truly inspired series like Magi sees what happens in each arc have a definitive impact on each arc going forward (and the narrative overall), KnY struggled to keep any arc relevant after it closed. It sort of feels more like a collection of connected stories, as opposed to one complete story. This isn't an uncommon problem with shounen, but it is especially exaggerated in the case of KnY.

Art:

No complaints. It's a pretty generic world but the setting being Taisho era Japan is neat, if a little underwhelming considering how little the setting is actually utilized. Character designs are inspired though. Well done there.

Characters:

So, the early arcs of the anime and manga alike didn't bother me so much because they're there to introduce us to these characters, their past, their motivations, etc. At some point though you have to give your characters, especially your morality-driven protagonist, a real question to struggle with. Tanjirou never really questions his actions or his motives. It's all for revenge against Muzan. This renders every battle outside of the one he is sure to wage against Muzan totally moot, unless someone else is there to bridge the gap (and often there is, re: Kyojurou, Giyu, etc). Tanjirou is seriously one of the least interesting protagonists I've ever come across. He's boring. Should've made Giyu the protagonist instead of giving him a spin-off manga. Tanjirou would have made a decent side character, but he just doesn't cut it when it comes to being a main character.

Enjoyment:

Due to the lack of narrative cohesion, uninspired characters, and overall poor writing, my enjoyment of this series bottomed out after the Demon Train arc when I realized things weren't going to improve. I kept reading, just to see if I was wrong, but I've caught up with the current, final arc and I'm still not impressed.

(My First Review)
Demon Slayer was a series that i heard much hype about,so i decided to check out the anime ,the result was utter disappointment.From there i went to read the manga as i had heard the manga was amazing,but the result was still the same,a disappointment.
*SPOILERS*
(continuing from where the anime left)
starting with the infinte train arc where innosuke and tanjirou alone wreck a lower moon.Now this wouldn't have been a problem only if we hadn't been shown tanjirou struggling against a lower rank moon only a few time back,I mean how much did he train to like get so strong,then the arc ends,rengoku dies(just so that tanjirou could receive some motivation) and then tanjirou returns , where he joins uzui to go on another campaign,now the story just churns this formula of tanjirou fighting alongside pillars for a while then we get to the chaotic,final battle.Now this would have been very good if it would not have been to the sense behind some fights here,like zenitsu actually defeating a upper moon(that too while being awake) while tanjirou and nezuko couldnt defeat a lower moon themselves.all pillars die just so that tanjirou can be motivated but even the deaths are so ridiculous,here we have a pillar dying after a few slashes from muzan while another is literally holding his guts inside his abdomen with his hands and not dying.The final task was to hold muzan till sun rise which was an hour and a half away,5 pillars and a bunch of other fodder demons slayers somehow manage 30 minutes but somehow tanjirou does it for an hour,i mean wtf why is MC being so focused on.

Now lets talk about the elephant in the room which was the ending,Muzan dies,everybody starts celebrating when Muzan pulls a trump card and possesses tanjirous body.Now this was supposed to be it for tanjirou but he survives and drives out muzan from his body,the reason for which is revealed later on to be tanjirou's demon side to be greater than nezuko's and muzan's. I mean wtf? did the mangaka run out of ideas to kill muzan after making him too strong?we are never given an explanation for this.

some other minor things which adds to all these inconsistencies are:
-Nezuko's way too convenient timing to conquer the sun and also her becoming a human on her own(are you telling me all this never had to happen?)
-For some reason Zenitsu cant use 2nd,3rd,4th,5th or 6th form of breath of thunder but manages to create a 7th one
-Innosuke's Goddamn plot armor,gets stabbed through the heart and poisoned but doest die due to a measly reason.
-Nezuko can for some reason heal any physically possible damage a man can take
-Pillars being used as fodder characters for Tanjirou to be motivated and him getting stronger.

In the end,this is a series to be enjoyed by people who just want to read a typical mediocre shonen (or watch the show for its breathtaking animation and soundtrack),but this series is in no way even comparable to great shonens out there such as One Piece,Naruto,HxH,Bleach,FMA etc.
also on side note,
TOO MANY GODDAMN BACKSTORIES,
EVERY PILLAR,DEMON,SIDE CHARACTER,
A BACKSTORY FOR EVERYONE

Honestly I thought this would be something interesting but as more and more new chapters came out I started to have less and less hope for it.

My biggest issue was the pacing, it has long drawn out fight scenes and flashbacks but the story moments which should be long and properly articulated are pushed to the sidelines to fight yet another generic villain. Another issue I had was how formulaic it was, the whole series was just this on repeat:

New demon shows up
Tanjiro meets a new Demon Slayer
Tanjiro and the others almost lose
Flashback detailing some character's past life which doesn't seem like it fits with their current personality
Demons almost win
Short internal monologue while Tanjiro is on the verge of death
Tanjiro gets OP
Short "arc" that establishes a couple characters

...and it never really deviates from the formula.

and besides that, the characters are archetypes with little to no interesting traits, the only character that's even slightly praiseworthy is Tanjiro, his motivation was good and his character definitely seemed natural, but although he had all that going for him he acted like a generic shonen protagonist akin to Deku from Boku No Hero Academia.

And before you call me a hater or something, let me list a few things I did like:
-The character designs (appearance wise)
-The first arc
-The distinct art style (It was cluttered at times though...)

TL;DR: Painfully generic and nothing special. but a decent shonen to waste a couple days on nonetheless.

Kimetsu no yaiba came out of nowhere and placed on top in a short time so I decided to give it a go, compared to many shounen manga out there it didn't had that much chapters to read, and honestly after finishing this I really can't say I liked it

Story 4 : it's pretty flat to be honest, entire motivation of the tanjirou is just curing his sister other than this he and no reason to join demon slayer corps. Author really tries her best to give those demons some background but only think she can do is info dumping their back stories and expect you to feel sad for those demons. I really couldn't feel any connection to any character I'm this story

Characters 3 : they're mostly one note archetypes without barley any depth to them, when I read a story I expect more fleshed out characters with build up to their development so I can sympathize with them. When something bad happens to those well fleshed out characters I actually feel sadness but in kny's case character's development happens suddenly, pacing of their character arcs are pretty bad and doesn't feel natural at all and they suffer from "info dumping sad stories so you'll feel bad " syndrome. Main character tanjirou have 2 modes and this almost never changes, he's the nice young boy who feels remorse even for demean he kills and until last arc he never gets any development at all, and Nezuko... She's not even a character she's just a plot device. There's not a lot to talk about her

Art 4: it's medicore at best, pretty inconsistent at times and fight scenes can have so much stuff going on which tires the eye but sometimes there are some decent shots so I guess it's OK

Over all I really think this show didn't live up to its hype

after reading 190 chapters
may contain spoilers
when i watched the anime i really liked the series so i decided to give the manga a go, It was a bit disappointing that the quality of manga was not as good as the anime but it was still enjoyable. its an OK shoounen but i don't see why it was so hyped up, it's not that special and it was hyped up more than MHA and made it most selling of 2019 surpassing one piece which is way better series than demon slayer
ok now let us get into it
STORY(5/10): the story is pretty simple, we have demons, we have demon slayers and, it's pretty obvious now. The story follows tanjiro who has his whole family killed by a demon and has one of his sisters turned into a demon(MOE character of the series). now he went on a journey to become a demon slayer and save his sister, and on the way encountering different demons and demon slayers, pretty simple story but quite enjoyable, there are things in the storyline which could have made the story a lot better, but it didn't. for example in one of the arc, it was told that the demon slayer organization is illegal and is not supported by government, the potential to create a good plot based on this was huge but was never used, and almost every arc is predictable, enter->a demon stronger than the last arc->has some cool techniques->defeated. and usually, every shounen has plot armor, but the level of plot armor in this series is huge, in the final arc we are getting powerups and plot conveniences just for the sake of defeating the final villain which really destroyed a lot of build up the story had.
ART(7/10): the art is pretty decent and the changes in facial expressions of characters at different occasions are pretty amazing, the art in the manga is average and not that special, and i have never seen a single demon slayer fan saying "that manga panel was amazing" or "the art in that chapter was amazing", all I can hear is "this would look amazing when it is animated" clearly shows the effect Ufotable has on this series.
CHARACTER(7/10): some of the characters are good while some are really bad, like the main character tanjiro is decent, not that good, his personality is like fully grown-up naruto even tho he never had any character development to back that up, inosuke is one of the most enjoyable characters, while zenitsu is straight-up annoying. while all of the pillars have distinct character designs and personalities, they are all pretty simple. while the main villain(muzan) is just a rip off of Michael Jackson :P. the main villain is one of the worst written characters in this series, every other villan in the entire series is a better character than muzan himself. Muzan is just an OP villain and that's it, there's nothing else to his personality other than being OP and ruthless. one of the best things in the series is the backstories of each and every character, it seems like the author put way more effort to write those backstories than anything else and it is actually really good. Akaza(upper moon 3) is one o my favorite characters in this series 90% due to his backstory, and almost every character has a tragic backstory(like almost a lot of series), while backstories do a lot of things to flesh out these characters, there are a lot of things that should have been done in the story to show how each and every character has evolved, rather than putting all the effort on the MC and giving him the ultimate plot armor, series could have been a lot better if each and every character's growth was shown at a steady pace.
ENJOYMENT(7/10): while there are a lot of moments that feel like "why is this even happening" the series is really enjoyable up until a certain arc. The series was going at a steady pace and each character was growing at a steady pace until the author decided to end it suddenly, usually we will get a feeling that series is going to end a few arcs before, but here it all happened suddenly. I was like "final arc already?? seriously??" I was a bit disappointed but decided to continue, it was going good but when every character is going in full out(and we don't know everything about each character), and each particular character requires a specific setting to show how good he is, and all of this was compressed in a single arc. Now I like the side characters a lot and very disappointed in how they were treated in the final arc. The title of pillar was build up as a big thing in the series, but in this arc, the MC is as good as a pillar without any "pillar level growth". This growth had to be shown sooner or later but in my opinion, this was done too soon. A whole revenge arc was building up in which tanjiro should be going to revenge for a certain someone from Akaza, but all of that was also compressed in this final arc. And the way he gets the powerups is just simple plot armor. And the way the pillars are being disrespected by how powerful the MC has become has destroyed all the buildup given to the name pillar. To make things clear tanjiro becoming as good as a pillar this soon in the series would be equal to luffy defeating an admiral during marineford war in one piece, while in one piece luffy is still not as good as an admiral, tanjiro inn this series is currently more powerful than the strongest pillar, and all that growth happened in a single night. tanjiro went from pillar level(somehow he was pillar level at the beginning of this arc) to be stronger than the strongest pillar in a single night, now the ones who have read the manga know that the difference between the weakest pillar to the strongest pillar is huge, Upper moon 3 is strong enough to kill an average pillar mid difficulty while tanjiro destroyed the same guy after getting a simple plot armor and in the same night he got another plot armor to fight against Michael Jackson... i mean MUZAN
Overall the series is good, but not as good as it was hyped up by its fans and NINJA, the series is enjoyable but doesn't deserve everything it's getting(in my opinion)

Kimetsu no Yaiba is truly something but not in a positive way.

It never tried to do anything that was never done before as the author since the beginning had in plan what the series would have become. The truth is, for whatever reason, the easy stuff that should have gotten right was done the opposite and the author never learned from her mistakes to make the story more consistent later on instead she went out of her way to worse things up.

Kimetsu no Yaiba suffers from mainly 3 things:

1 - It's writing
2 - Its comedy
3 - Its villains

1 - I hate it to say this but the writing is bad. It all consists of turning a character into a human since somehow she had become a demon and Tanjiro, her brother has to take a lot of pain to achieve this goal. By pain I mainly mean doing unbelievable stunts, getting hurt without consequences (well, directly to him since there are characters that die while saving him), and having insane luck. Of course, all this happens because of the way it's written. The author has managed to make the protagonist untouchable by literally anything. It doesn't matter what happens, he and her sister will survive. From chapter one when Tanjiro encounters Giyuu and the latter is about to kill Nezuko. Tanjiro saved her because he impressed one of the strongest characters in the series. A guy that has been killing demons left and right is impressed by a cheap trick is what the author is making us believe as if this has never happened to him Before. To the last moment of fighting which Tanjiro has still the power of God within him.

In the early chapters, we get introduced to two more characters that appear out of nowhere and help Tanjiro on becoming stronger. We never got any explanation why that's the case and how that's possible because slightly after Tanjiro finished his training we learn from Urokodaki that the two are actually dead and they were once his students. How's that possible they were able to interact with Tanjiro? Are they ghosts? Is that even a thing in the Kimetsu no Yaiba universe? Because the author NEVER mentioned that phenomenon anymore. At worst this is a crazy asspull we've got to witness. Clearly, the author didn't know how to make Tanjiro stronger that would make a lick of sense and she just went on the stinky territory.

Since this is a shonen, it's imperative for everyone to help Tanjiro because the odds are that Tanjiro and Nezuko are the only ones that could actually defeat Muzan. Throughout the story, many individuals help him because they see the courage held within his spirit and the so-called desire to help his sister. They're moved by their sad story and of course, they risk their lives for two random kids they just met. On the other hand, the fights are extremely dull. They seem flashy but none use any strategic means to beat them. They go full-on-power and directly attack the enemy without causing them any damage. As for the development characters get, is not much. In fact, the one important character that has the most development happens to have less screentime. It is weird and I was really hoping for other characters to have the same growth as well which sadly didn't happen.

2 - The comedy at first didn't even exist. Not until Zenitsu and Inosuke were introduced. The two are the classic yelling guys that so happen to accompany the protagonist on his quests to save his sister. The reasons for this simple fact are to this day yet unknown but they do and so we get to witness all sorts of 'jokes' that not only aren't funny and would make anyone die inside but they're placed in such a nuisance that affects their battles as well. Zenitsu yelling for a half episode but for some reason when sleeping he gains some OP power which naturally makes us question why didn't he do that earlier? Did we really need to hear him yell like a maniac? The same goes for Inosuke. He doesn't need to sleep but regardless in a lot of cases he still gets OP for really no reason accompanied by the lovely 'comedy' that is yelling. Yes, the comedy in this series is yelling. That's it! Are you on the floor laughing right now? Laugh goddammit! Laugh!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA - Zenitsu and Inosuke in a nutshell.

3 - They're simply bland. Whether they had an over-the-top personality or a calm one, they're extremely poorly written because they gain nothing and get effortlessly beaten. A villain gets introduced, monologues for like a chapter, beats the crap of the good guys but somehow gets cornered and dies because the good guys had a stronger will and didn't surrender. No strategies are involved, just swords slash, a few random powers usually bestowed upon the protagonist and a friendship speech just to cool off the whole thing and the villain is done for. What's worse is its flashback's purpose that exists only to show one's forgiveness rather than showing its motivations. Well then, let me ask you this, why do they repent themselves on the verge of death? Is that a requirement? Because, as far we have seen no one has actually done so in their full power. What the author is trying to get us to understand is that everyone deep down inside has a good soul and deserves a second chance but this is NOT the way to go about it. If nothing else you can have one or two characters that are inherently good and have them change but it shouldn't work for anyone. Not everyone has to be a good guy just because the protagonist is the classic 'gentle guy' that wants to save everyone for literally no reason.

Furthermore, the rest of the characters aren't great either. Aside from the main cast, which is the worst in the series, everyone else, despite all having a different and cool personality, are bad. Not by default though. Some of them have a cool 'sense of justice' but are badly developed and it saddens me. A few die too quickly that get little to no development and some others take an awfully long time to either win or die and in the midst of that, even though they do receive a somewhat interesting flashback that would define their objective at best, is placed either too soon or too late. Never in the right spot that would not distract them from the battle itself in receiving a random and unnecessary bust of their powers.

As for the ending, is really bad. Because not only Muzan death was anticlimactic but the whole reincarnation thingie was not necessary to the story itself. You could have added a few more chapters and added a time-skip that would have solidified the case at best but alas it didn't happen.

Last but not least, art. It's not bad. It's definitely somewhat original although not very detailed and at times sloppy. It's well-drawn when it is but it's unnecessary awful in other cases. It's rushed. You can see the author just didn't have enough time to work more with it and left everything like that. Though, it's her first work therefore she's forgiven.

All in all, Kimetsu no Yaiba is overrated. There are some likable characters here and there but that's about it. It didn't do any good for me and I hope this review will share the truth among all the lies that have been spread since its anime adaptation.

As of the time of writing this review, I have yet to see the anime adaptation. Therefore, I’d like to offer you a point of view untainted by the ufotable hype. Note that this review might contain some spoilers, though nothing too specific.

“Why should it matter if you’ve seen the anime or not?” is what you might be asking, so I’d like to address that first. I suspect that the anime adaptation had a huge impact on the manga ratings. It’s understandable to an extent, sure, I bet ufotable did a good job with the animation of action scenes which are the core of this series. Should a source material be praised because of the achievements of the adaptations though? I don’t think so. And yes, I have some numbers to support my claim about the undeserved ratings boost. In 2017, Kimetsu no Yaiba had mean score of 7.46. A week before the anime started airing, it was at 7.92. During the time period when the anime was airing the score jumped from that to 8.50 (with the current mean score being 8.55). That’s a jump up of almost 0.60 which is something that pretty much never happens organically. Sure, you could claim that the manga suddenly got better (and coincidentally in the same time frame as the anime was airing). The manga arcs published during this period was Swordsmith Village arc and a training arc after it so no, there was no sudden spike in the quality of the manga content. You can check the scores on Wayback Machine, and learn that MAL mean scores aren’t always to be trusted.

Well, that’s enough of a rant, now to the manga-only experience review.

Now, I’m usually quick to complain about a slow story progression and unnecessary padding. This time, I’ll have to complain about the story going way too fast. Sure, at least there are no fillers, but in exchange Kimetsu no Yaiba goes with extreme on the other side of the spectrum. Reading it feels like the author is trying to do an any% battle shounen speedrun. Everything is happening so fast in this manga. Training? Nah, here’s two chapters, two year timeskip, the protagonist is now no longer a random village hillbilly but a stronk boi who can fight demons. Good job on smashing those big rocks kid, now you’re fully prepared to fight ruthless and almost immortal creatures. Sure, training arcs tend to be not that interesting, but not only they can be made interesting, they are also important to help establishing the power system of battle shounen, which Kimetsu no Yaiba fails at completely. More on that later, now back to speedrunning.

The worldbuilding is pretty much non-existent with the sole focus on rawly progressing the plot. The protagonist’s first assigned mission ever? Boom, here’s the main antagonist just strolling there, what an amazingly lucky encounter. Most of the characters feel just like a cannon fodder whose death are used for a cheap thrill. The cast dies off faster than you can create any attachment to the characters. What was probably supposed to be a dramatic character conclusion end with the impact of “Meh, another one’s dead. What was his name again?” The supporting cast dies like flies and so do the minor antagonists. It’s hardly a shock value when such thing is made a mundane occurrence. Oh yeah, also just slap some random tragic backstories for the demon in cheap attempt to not look so shallow.

Few minor happenings later the final arc starts, which makes up a whole third of the whole manga. That one’s a bit special. It’s at the same time way too long and keeping the whole speedrun spirit too. The cheapness of deaths become even way cheaper, as if the author said “fuck it, I’m almost done with the manga anyway, I’ll just kill of most of the characters”. And no, they still don’t die in any satisfying (for the reader) way. The stock of nameless characters seems to be endless too, as bunch of unknown demon hunters seem get mass-murdered with almost every attack of almost every demon, yet they keep flowing in right up to the final boss encounter. How many demon hunters are there anyway? Because I fell like hundreds of them died just in the backgrounds of this arc alone. The final fight is riddled with all of the cliché bullshits such as the power of friendship, trashed characters that shouldn’t have been able to even stand up by any mean suddenly rejoining the fight again, “this isn’t even my final form you fools”, asspulls, and revivals. Yes, after all of the slaughter the author is now suddenly too much of a coward to let some of the characters die. At least go all the way in if this is what you decide to do, don’t back up at the last moment to leave us with this lukewarm entirely uninteresting and artificial-feeling ending. The epilogue chapter is an absolute joke. Well, at least I wish it was just a joke. It’s more disappointing and laughtable than the finale and epilogue of Prison School, to give you an idea about this trainwreck. I had to doublecheck if this wasn’t just some fanmade chapter, that’s how much it doesn’t fit.

I have mentioned the absolute disaster of a power system previously, right? Let’s expand on that. Some sacrifices had to be made to make the speedrun possible and explanation of the powers was one of them. The last thing that makes any sense is the Total Concentration Breathing technique. Master the way you breath and do it consciously all the time to achieve a handy power-up for your stats. A bit of JoJo rip-off but sure, I’ll take it, with some suspension of disbelief it makes sense. How do we get from there to swords summoning fire, pillars of water, mist or a goddamn snakes? Fuck if I know, it’s some sort of breathing technique so you’ll have to make some shit up to make sense of it, because the manga sure isn’t going to help you with that. Tanjiro’s dad did ceremonial sword dancing, which made him a fire swordsman. Others just ripped of the fire technique to make their own breaths. How does remaking a fire technique help you summon butterflies with a sword slash? No idea. “It just works”, as they say.

The characters themselves are flashy but forgettable. The flagship Nezuko admittedly excels as being adorable while still having enjoyable fighting mode side, but that’s as far as likeable characters go. Tanjiro is a ball of screams and bruteforcing given a human shape. Zenitsu is an annoying idiot with creepy tendencies who is completely useless until the plot demands him to do something. Inosuke is a ball of even more screaming and bruteforcing also given (more or less) human shape. The hashiras have basically the personalities of their character design.

Honestly from some points I started to cheer for the demons instead. The protagonists are boring shounen templates with no depth. The demons at least have some motivations beyond “AAAAAAA DEMON REEEEEEEEE” and as ironic as it is, they have goals more relatable to actual humans such as just wanting to enjoy their lives. I don’t think this was intentional on author’s part though, the baddies are relatable only in comparison to the blandness of the other side.

One saving grace of Kimetsu no Yaiba is the artstyle. While I wouldn’t go as far to say that the art is great, it’s certainly distinguishable and original. At least one part of this manga that attracts the readers’ attention, at least one part of this whole thing that is somehow interesting.

Overall, if you’re a fan of regular battle shounen, this might be your jam. If you’re looking for anything with a substance, you would waste your time here. As pretentious as it might sound, ultimately this manga just feels… immature. 

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is one major ride of a series. I was first introduced to this series after watching Kimetsu no Yaiba: Kyoudai no Kizuna, and right after walking out the theatre, I had to continue the story, and began immediately reading this. And wow, this story really took me on a ride, especially since I'm not a big fan of historical settings.

From the start, we're greeted by a young Kamado Tanjirou. His introduction into the series was mesmorising. In one chapter, we see a kid wanting to help his family to dealing with loss. This growth does continue throughout the series though.

As we go on, we see that Tanjirou learns and actually grows as a character. He gets stronger and refines himself into one hell of a man. It's wonderful seeing him actually grow, and this character development alone was wonderful, even without factoring other characters.

Tanjirou's desire for saving his sister from demons is never lost, even in the hopelessness, and along the way, he starts to see the wider world of not just himself, but with others. The trials and tribulations that Tanjirou, Inosuke and Zenitsu go on during this series is wonderful, with the story not shying itself from going very dark really quickly. I definitely did shed some tears within the series; there's some losses that can never be forgotten. This story is phenomenal, with shifts between humans and demons, as well as the themes of family and camaraderie really shining through. There are plenty of laughs, cries, intense scenes, and relaxing parts, and it's all well paced. Nothing felt forced or rushed for the most part.

I say for the most part as the ending did make me go: "What?". I wasn't too sure about it, but after a re-read of that chapter, it did make me happy. Sometimes, the characters and stories seemed to be a bit meh, but for the most part, it was basically a great ride.

The artwork here is brilliant. Gotouge-sensei really knows what their doing, with a wonderful spread of serious designs, as well as some more funny designs. It's brilliantly drawn. And the rare colour pages made the story pop even more, and gave me a better immersion into the series.

Overall, this Kimetsu no Yaiba was wonderfully made. Though the ending and some of the story could have been better, I don't regret reading this at all. I felt this was brilliantly done, with an amazing story, excellent characters with real character development, wonderful art, and an amazing setting. Would I recommend this? Yes. Would I read this again? Definitely.

Kimetsu no yaiba is the kind of manga that starts off slow, you feel like the author doesn't know what to do, but picks up later on when the mangaka introduces other characters, the characters are ALL lovable seriously! and Tanjiro's personality is not really your typical shonen stuff he's kindhearted and super sweet not hotblooded and impulsive, another good thing is the female characters they're all likeable and useful for a change i really like Nezuko and their brother-sister bond, as for the art many have commented that the characters sometimes look derpy but that's not bad either because it suits the funny moments. Conclusion: give it a chance !

I’m one of the few readers who followed this manga from the start to where it is now, and guys, what a ride. As one of the reviewers said, in the first ten chapters you get this feeling of imminent axing from WSJ, just close an eye and keep reading. Anyway, truly a refreshing manga, Kimetsu no Yaiba takes elements from the boring and repetitive Shounen genre and gives its own vibes, colors, atmosphere and setting, putting everything together. What I mean is, Kimetsu no Yaiba does NOT revolutionize the Shounen, the author gives his best to make it unique in its own repetitivness and boringness. So how does KnY differ from the others?

First of all, the manga takes a different route from the very beginning. We all know everyone dies but the protagonist alone or with one or two friends of his in every manga we might think of. Here in this historical adventure with the protagonist survives the sister, soon to be a demon. Now what are the demons? Humans transformed into humanoid creatures thirsty of human flesh. The enemies of our race. Props to the mangaka tho, with time in shounen mangas the enemies tend to be blank and without a personality. Here each and every demon is different, has its strenghts and weaknesses and its past/story. The demons are truly the horror elements of this series, while some might look like humans, others completely not. But keep calm, the gore is always granted. Demons are cruel but they are not stupid. In fact I might say some of them are even more intelligent than some humans.

When I think of “Kimetsu no Yaiba”, some words come out: gore, demons, blades, pighead and terrible drawings. So yeah, let’s get straight to the selling point of the manga. I might not be the one who can judge, but hey, the art is terrible. If I had to say how bad it is, probably as bad as in Shingeki no Kyojin. I’m not saying that there’s not effort put in it, ‘cause I’m sure there is, but maybe the author’s strength might not be the drawing. Is that a good thing or a bad a thing? Subjective. You always have to look things to other points of view, personally I see it as a positive thing. It’s this incosistent line which gives its uniqueness to the manga. The problem I have with some shounen, is that the panels don’t tell you nothing, whereas in this book every panel is a festival of emotions, feelings and sweat put altogether in simple ink lines. It’s not something I noticed straight away, but with every chapter being released I found out why I couldn’t get my eyes off to the drawings. The uniqueness and the vibes this gives to you.

Oh boy, this is just hilarious. The characters. Honestly? As I said before when I think of KnY Some words come to my mind, one of which is “colors”. Koyoharu has done an outstanding job with the characters. They just give you the right vibes of how good can a character be written. Don’t get me wrong, characterization is not something very noticeable, but this might be one of the few cases where it’s not really needed. What I mean is, all the characters (even the support cast) have their own personality, and you can truly feel what they are going through and what they are feeling, even with some of the demons. This might be just me tho. So now don’t call me crazy, but Kimetsu no Yaiba, as I see it, is a very colorful manga. When I said that the author had done an excellent job with the characters this is what I wanted to say; every single character has its color, its vibe and its shape. Each MC never gets boring to read, the interactions they have with one another is something everyone should praise. So yeah, both humans and demons are memorable, as they are very unique on its own.

When it comes to enjoyment, Kimetsu no Yaiba always hypes you up, doesn’t waste time to get to the action, in fact I can’t think of more than 10 chapters for a break from the end of a battle to the beginning of a new one. Yes it is very fast paced, or better, it might have a questionable pace, but I’m guessing that the author wants to do what he loves the most, gets you excited for an awesome battle, and you can feel the all the love and effort he puts in the choreography of the scene, the dance of the characters. Of course, you can’t call a Shounen-battle manga a shounen-battle manga if it doesn’t have over-the-top action, blood from a single scratch, some sort of weird techniques and screamings. Kimetsu no yaiba is not by any meaning lower than big mangas like Naruto or one piece when it comes to fight scenes. I’m sorry they not might be 100 chapters-long but every battle has its story to tell, its characters to develop, its demons, and its setting (most of the time night). Other than fights and gore, the enjoyment of the manga is characterized by a cast which is pure fun to follow, so it never gets boring there.

Overall, Kimetsu no Yaiba is an hidden gem, sadly underrated, that takes you to a completely different kind of world in a historical horror setting with a unique cast, atmosphere and identity.

Hopefully you will give it a try, thanks for reading!