Well, I Give Up Readers
Well folks, you won’t believe what I’m about to say. I have officially run out of ideas and exciting video games to review right now. Don’t really understand why this is happening specifically right now out of all things. There are tons of video games coming out each year and the catalogue of games to go over seemed to be infinite. Everything is just kind of getting stale at the moment. 2021 was supposed to be an exciting year now that we left the dreaded 2020 behind, and you'd think there would be at least some actually interesting new games coming out to cheer us up. Yet there’s nothing much coming out this year that would get me as hyped as the last few. The peak of gaming for me was 2017 and 2018, but now we are getting titles that don't feel as ambitious.
Resident Evil 8: Village is a follow up to the fantastic Resident Evil 7, which is a first person survival horror game I really liked and the reveals for the game so far seem to be setting it up for a tremendous launch. However, Resident Evil is slowly reaching that decline period again as they pushed out two cash grab remakes recently. One of them being not so good. Deathloop, the new action packed immersive-sim with a clockwork system being developed by the incredible Arkane Studios, has been delayed yet again and gamers are getting skeptical whether it should even come out or not due to the rocky development. I’m personally really excited though, because it’s by Arkane Studios who are the same guys behind Dishonored 2 and Prey which are two of my favorite Triple A games. Hollow Knight: Silksong is my most anticipated game at the moment, but that’s definitely not coming out this year or probably next year. As the fans beg the developers t rush the game out, stressing them out further. Horizon: Forbidden West isn’t obviously going to come out as well. God of War: Ragnarok is probably going to get pushed back to either 2022 or 2023. Elden Ring hasn’t received any gameplay footage yet so I don’t know if I should get excited or not. I still don’t have a Playstation 5 since they are expensive as hell and impossible to get a hold of at the moment, so don't expect a review on the Demon’s Souls Remake for a while. I could just emulate the original version onto my PC, but would have to do it in a way where it doesn’t drop below 30 FPS. My most hyped up game this year wasn’t even a new game , but rather a re-release of an RPG from 2019. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, which I recently did a review of which you can read about if you want. There has to be something I can review. A piece of media that is interesting and fun to talk about. Something that I can explain was made by a passionate team and is a pure work of art. Something.....
Let's Review An Anime!
Well I can always try reviewing something else besides video games. Don’t know if that’s such a good idea, but what the bloody heck am I right? If people online can review cars, food, lamps, criticize each other, and then criticize each other for criticizing each other, then I can review anything I want. So what am I going to review today? How about an anime. Now I know what you are about to say. "I don’t seem like the type of person to like anime and there tons of people out there already who review anime." Yes, that is true and I know that, but I stated during my Indivisible review that I can respect what anime is and what it tries to achieve. Plus some of the video games I reviewed take inspiration from anime or feel just like it. Dark Souls took inspiration from the violent classic Berserk. Titles like Devil May Cry and Nioh try to act like over the top anime. Then there are the several JRPGs I have covered which take heavy influence from the writing of anime. Octopath Traveler, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Indivisible, and Persona 5 which actually has its own anime! It’s not good, trusty me all the fans know that. So what recent anime am I thinking about covering today?
How about one that I watched over my spring break. One that took my older sister, who is an anime fanatic, two years of convincing to get me to finally watch it. She said the ending for the manga was disappointing and rushed, but the anime is an absolute blast. It’s one of her personal favorites, and now I should stop stalling since it’s in the title of this review. Today we’re talking about the first season of Demon Slayer, otherwise titled in Japan as Kimetsu no Yaiba. The manga the show was based off of first debuted in 2016 in Japan, and later translated and brought over to the US during 2018. It was written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge and gained massive success within a few months. Many readers loved the story, characters, pacing, and fleshed out world building despite having a simple premise. Demon Slayer has sold more than 150 million copies accounting all volumes, making it one of the best selling mangas of all time.
Gotouge saw the success of his book series, and partnering up with animation studio Ufotable decided to take his work to the big screens. Well not exactly. Most likely streaming services as those are better for mass marketing these days. The anime was directed by Haruo Sotozaki and premiered on Netflix in 2019. The anime, much like the manga, was a massive success having more than a million watchers within the first month and being considered the best anime of that year. So my stubborn ass decided to sit down to finally watch an anime, and surprisingly I fell in love with Demon Slayer within the first two episodes. It’s not a perfect show cause it does have a few faults, but it is something fresh for my mind outside of dying over and over to Souls games. So today we'll be talking about why I really love Demon Slayer and why utterly deserves your attention. So sit back, relax, and let’s hear me talk about some weird violent sh*t.
Story
So the plot follows Tanjiro Kamodo, a young teenage boy who lives up in the mountains with his mother and several younger siblings. He’s one of the nicest and most confident travelers in the region, and everyone respects him for how honest and hard working he is. He makes several trips up and down the mountain to sell goods in the nearby village, and bring food supplies home to his family. Tanjiro is much different than most of the people who live in the mountains though. He has the special ability to sense dangers by sniffing, and locate where they currently are by focusing on that scent. That’s why a lot of people find him reliable, because he can solve problems that involve an entity being in location previously by tracing down the source or where they currently are.
One day during a trip to the village he is told to stay there for the night, because demons are up and about in the mountains and several individuals have gone missing in the past few days. Tanjiro always thought the tales and rumors about demons were myths, but the next day when he comes home he finds his entire family dead with the oldest sister Nezuko heavily wounded. Luckily, Nezuko is still somewhat alive from the attack, and Tanjiro finds out that a human eating demon broke into his home and clawed his siblings to death. Tanjiro tries to climb down the mountain and get Nezuko help, but finds out that she has turned into a man eating demon herself and attacks him on sight. Tanjiro fends off against his sister Nezuko, but knows deep within she is still his little sister and she couldn’t have possibly been the demon who ate his family.
Out of nowhere a skilled Demon Slayer named Giyu appears, Demon Slayers being employed skilled warriors who travel across the land and slay demons who threaten mankind, and Giyu plans on killing Nezuko since she has transformed into a demon. Tanjiro isn’t as skilled as Giyu, but using the axe he is armed with and his ability to sense danger he is capable of fighting him for a short period of time. Tanjiro convinces Giyu that Nezuko is innocent and that maybe he can find a way to revert her back into a human. Giyu is impressed with Tanjiro’s skills and willpower, so he instructs him to locate a man named Sakonji Urokodaki who can teach how to slay demons and safely travel across the land. Tanjiro locates Urokodaki and through two years of harsh training and passing through a deadly trial that almost gets him killed, Tanjiro becomes a skilled demon slayer. He is given a katana made from sacred ore and a uniform which marks him part of the Demon Slayer Corps. The group responsible for hunting demons.
Urokodaki gives Tanjiro a wooden box allowing him to hide Nezuko from others and carry her across his journey, because demons burn up when they make contact with sunlight. Urokodaki also tells Tanjiro that there is one man who is the source of all demons, and if Tanjiro tracks him down he can become the first person to find a cure for demon transformation. Tanjiro will make mysterious friends, take on deadly jobs, face numerous foes, and maintain the determination to find the main source of demon transformation and make his little sister human again. He is honorable afterall.
Quality, Pacing, and Presentation
Normally for one of my video game reviews I would start talking about the gameplay and what design choices works and doesn’t work, but right now we are talking about an anime so we’re going to have to approach this in a different way. Let’s talk about the show’s quality, how well paced it is, and what it does to translate the still images from the manga into animated moving pictures. I do have to clarify that I haven’t read the manga, so I don’t know if or how they changed certain scenes up in the show. From what I was told they did a really good job translating the manga into anime form.
How about the quality? Is the animation choppy, lazy, and did the studio cut any corners during production? Thankfully the answer is no. Demon Slayer has some top notch animation and with stylish action moments and backgrounds. The studio that I mentioned earlier who animated the show, Ufotable, spent a lot of time putting detail into the world and characters. Everything is colorful and vibrant, the characters move around so gallantly, and whenever another clusterf*ck fight pops up onto the screen I just keep screaming “YES!” I screamed that word to myself because the fights in this show are so majestic. You have the main hero and maybe a few of his friends trading blow after blow with with the demon they are fighting, and they never use the same attacks or postures again and again to the point it get repetitive. You get character background on the villain and see the sad story of how they became a demon. You see the main characters properly develop and grow stronger over the course of their journey, and you see all these emotions being flung about as the story moves forward.
That’s the number one thing I love about Demon Slayer. It’s the show's pacing and how they reveal key plot points or insights to the world. Each little adventure should take about two to three episodes, and when the story does slow down to explain important info the writers take their time to show what is going on and what’s so important with the current task. They keep rolling out character after character and that should be a problem at first. If you keep rolling them out and follow the motto, "Quantity over quality," then none of them are going to come out as well developed or compelling. Yet, Demon Slayer manages to have a very interesting cast. You would expect Tanjiro to be a dimwitted fighter who rushes through problems and probably get impatient with others just by looking at his design, but he comes out to be charismatic and sympathetic with those he interacts with. Even to some individuals who transformed into demons. He recognizes that too they were once human and they have suffered greatly when traversing down a dark path of misery and hatred. It’s nice to witness how Tanjiro gets along well with random strangers, because it's through him we see the bright side to the world. It reminded of Dark Souls or any apocalyptic setting where the world should be in ruins and nothing good can come from it, but there are still individuals and ideas who try to find hope within this fractured society. Light in the eternal darkness.
That's all I really have to say about Demon Slayer and how the quality adds up. I could explain to you some of the fights in detail and what made them so memorable, but I don't want to spoil them and they're best experienced going in blind. Same as to how a Souls game is best experienced going in blind and if you are going to get help just have a pointer towards the next area. Hopefully Tanjiro and pals can slay the demons in their wake and stand tall amongst the blood and horns.
Yes, I Strongly Recommend This
Demon Slayer is a really good show. I wasn’t expecting a simple idea like this to be stretched out farther than it had the rights to. Let's just give a quick summary to each element. The story is well written and the colorful characters are likable enough to drag you along for the ride. The world has enough intriguing elements and history to immerse you into the action, and the places you end up in with Tanjiro can either be pretty due to beautiful design or somewhat horrifying due to how the show makes use on tension and lighting. The animation like I already stated is top quality and the soundtrack is surprisingly good. During frenetic battles it's this symphony of madness as character try to maintain the flow of the fight. The intro is great, but I do have to admit after two times you'll skip through it just to get back to the show and not have your ears blasted out because you were trying to binge watch this after midnight. I also really like how they represented older Japan and mythology. I'm not a mega nerd on the subject, but the backgrounds remind me of old Japanese drawing. The ones with waves and flowers that guide your eyes from one side of the picture to the other.
Demon Slayer could have been a perfect anime, but there are a few things holding me back. A majority of the characters are well written and none of them get boring as they hop on for the story stroll, but there is a small minority that get very annoying within a few episodes. Specifically this one guy who just keeps screaming. I mean he’s relatable and I can understand why half the community loves him, but having a character like this gets repetitive very quickly. Some characters I felt like could have been expanded upon more, but that’s something we see more of in later seasons. Besides that there's nothing else. If that's my only complaint then why don't I slap a 9.5 or perfect score onto this show, especially since it’s one my most favorite things I watched in awhile. We have to remember this is season one. We don’t know if it’ll get better or worse with later seasons, or if the quality of the show will drop as animation studios are forced to meet deadlines or they swap to other studios. I heard there’s a movie coming out soon covering the next important adventure, so we’ll see how it goes.
For what it’s worth right now, Demon Slayer is highly worth your time. There are about 26 episodes each being about 20 minutes long, so you get almost 9 hours worth of an incredible anime to binge. If I had to score Demon Slayer what would it be? In the end I am going to give Demon Slayer a 9/10 for excellence at best. Really wish I could rank it higher, but knowing grerat pieces of media that are well made or have great ideas they usually age well. Unless your Ubisoft or Rockstar Games. Leave a comment and tell me if you enjoyed my review of Demon Slayer, because I may try reviewing another show in the near future. Otherwise I’ll go back to reviewing games. Till next time lads.
Comments