About Me

Hey y'all, this is my first review so it probably won't be all that good, but I just feel like sharing my thoughts on this season. I'll say some stuff about me first so feel free to just skip this part if you're only interested on the actual review portion of this. I'm 17 years old and started actually watching anime in 2020 with classic Naruto, even tho I have watched Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul and One Punch Man before, Naruto is the first big anime that I finished and the show that got me into anime. My favorite animanga are Dragon Ball(classic and Z) and Berserk. You probably might think that I don't have the bag to talk about any anime since I started watching it so late, and you might be right, but I'm here anyways. I also think it's important to share how I rate the shows that I watch, which is by personal enjoyment, that's how a show like Nagatoro-san is the same rating as Dororo or Naruto Shippuden, that being said, if the story of the show is bad, the score will go down, because I didn't like the story, same thing as if the animation is bad, it will affect how I enjoy the show. Basically, if a show is below a 5, I didn't like it, and mostly wouldn't recommend it, if a show above a 5, that means I liked it, and would recommend it, if a show is a 5, means that I'm indifferent towards it, in essence, if the show got erased the day after I watched it, I wouldn't be mad or happy about it. I know I'm a bit late to the Demon Slayer season 2 party, but whatever, I just finished it and need to talk about it. That's all! Let's go to the review!

___ WARNING!!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS UNMARKED SPOILERS FROM DEMON SLAYER 1ST AND 2ND SEASON(duh), DEMON SLAYER MANGA ONLY CONTENT(as of 11/03/2022), NARUTO, ATTACK ON TITAN, BERSERK MANGA, PARASYTE -THE MAXIM-, DRAGON BALL Z AND ONE PIECE MANGA ONLY CONTENT(as of 11/03/2022) ___ # Preface
If you went to my profile before reading this review, you noticed that I'm not the biggest Demon Slayer fan, and that is mostly because I prefer a show with a good story and/or good/charismatic characters over a good looking show. That being said, I still came into this season with neutral expectations, just like I did with the movie, didn't expected to hate it, didn't expect to love it, especially since I do believe that the animation and direction of the show puts it at least at a neutral spot, hence the 5/10 ratings on the first season and the movie. In this season of Demon Slayer, the creator of the show proved to me that not even a god tier animation squad can save it from its gigantic flaws. Honestly, considering that I believe that the animation this season is even BETTER than the first season AND the movie, this just goes to show how much I dislike this arc. And I would say that Demon Slayer is the perfect example of how the animation theory is super real and should be acknowledged(the animation theory is just a fancy name I created to talk about something later, I'll explain what it means in a second). So, to actually start the review, let's talk about by far the best part about this anime. ___ # Animation & Direction
Ufotable did it. Again. And even better. How? I wouldn't be able to say. This is one of the most visually pleasing anime that I have ever watched, saw clips of great scenes, chinese anime AMVs, this season is better than all of them. The fire effects that appear on episode 10 are just so incredible that I wanted those scenes to never end because they looked just so fucking good, the way that ufotable were able to mix 3D fire effects to the 2D ambients is just superb and it's not talked about enough(at least I don't remember seeing anyone talk about it). Since we are talking about 3D, holy shit. The 3D on this anime looks incredible, and again, it's even better than season 1, which already had amazing 3D, not only that, I feel like the 3D on this season is even better than the 3D on the movie, which it even feels weird to say because it's A MOVIE, the budget to make a anime movie is so much bigger that an anime episode that I never thought I would say that an anime outanimated a fucking MOVIE! I don't really know about the state of ufotable staff, but holy shit give those people a raise, they deserve it, imagine if they actually used their unmatched(yes I said it) skill to animate an actual good story! And how the fuck no one mentions the direction on this show? Because it is second to none, a bunch of scenes are as good as they are because of the god tier direction. So many great angles followed by a masterpiece animation and a perfect mix of 3D and 2D makes this, again, one of the most visually pleasing anime ever. I'll leave some spoilers tag to gifs of the animation just as a eye pleaser.

Spoiler, click to view

___ # Characters & Script
Look, I know, Demon Slayer is not known to have the greatest plot ever or anything, but man, does this arc takes it to a extreme. I'll make a list of things I thought were bad about this arc and I talk based on it: -Bad writing; -Deus Ex Machina on almost every episode; -Bad power scale; -Tanjiro explaining every single thing is happening on screen; -Zenitsu's character(yes his whole character gets a spot here); -Too many flashbacks; -Plot holes/incoherences; -Bad humor; -NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT 8 ARCS IN; -Nezuko's sexualization. Before I start talking about each topic, let me say that I did enjoy most of the characters designs, Gyuutarou is a great example, from his body to his weapons. Uzui also is a very well designed character and his fighting style is also pretty interesting but also badly utilized(I talk about it when we get to talk about him). Other than that most of the protagonists look the same. One problem that I do have tho is the fact that this anime suffers from the Oda/One Piece female character design curse, every hot female character has the same body structure but with different faces, from the upper moon six, to the wives, to "full oni mode" nezuko. While the male characters are all different and have creative design each. I'll start by talking about each individual character, and I'll get to the topics while I'm talking about them(some of them will be talked in another portion of the review) Tanjiro The first thing that we learn about Tanjiro at the very beginning of the 1st season, is that he is a very kind-hearted kid, he likes helping other and is so kind that his dreams are nothing but peace, he can't even tell a lie maintaining a straight face. Look, I'm cool with that, but, c'mom y'all, are we really not going to see his character change AT ALL. We already know that he is kind-hearted, that he cares about people, the show doesn't need to keep reminding us about it every single time it has a opportunity, like I just mentioned, the "can't keep a straight face while lying" scene is useless to the story and it's just there for the "comedy", I DO NOT CARE, do not show me tanjiro cleaning the place he's in or being helpful to everyone on the place, especially, if it's not going to matter at all! Later on that woman reveals that she knew Tanjiro wasn't a woman so why even bother showing all of this? But to me, the most criminal aspect of his character, and this whole season at that, is the fact that the creator raised a discussion. He raised the "why onis do this?", "why do oni have to keep killing people?", the "oni = bad" questions. And didn't developed it a single bit. The creator raised all of those questions on episode 6 of the show, when Tanjiro "mysteriously" got a power up on the rooftops, Tanjiro asked all of that to Daki, and she answered: "well, onis are just better than humans", and then Tanjiro replied basically: "oh, ok understandable let's fight now". Why? That is an actual discussion that could have been worked out and be a focal point of the story or the arc, but nah, let's show the actions scene cause they are cool, and badass, and cool... and hey Tanjiro got a power up so that's cool! Really? There is a anime called Parasyte -the maxim-, it's a fairly popular show especially after it went to netflix on 2020 if I'm not mistaken. The point is, the plot of this show is centered around Shinichi Izumi and an alien called Migi. Migi is a alien that came to Earth with a lot of other aliens to pretty much dominate the humans, they enter on the humans body and consume their brains, and then they have to kill other humans to survive(reminds me of something similar on Demon Slayer, hmmmm). But, Shinichi, the protagonist got invaded by one of these aliens and didn't let it consume his brain, so now Shinichi has to work with his alien friend Migi to avoid and erase all of these aliens out of Earth essentially. One of the discussions of this show is about why do the aliens do this? Why do they have to kill humans? The protagonist ask Migi all that and he responds, and what he says is that, humans are to them, what cows are to us, a lower species, something you can trap and kill to eat, humans have been doing all of this to animals for centuries, why do when we, aliens, do this to you humans, you think that NOW is a problem? And this could have been a discussion point on Demon Slayer too, obviously don't just copy the whole argument, but there could have been some easy changes, like: onis were also human once, don't they feel bad even tho they are superior to humans, to just kill humans like that? Or even, about their families? Wouldn't they still care about some people? Make something like that and then bam, you got yourself a plot story that is worth talking about, but no, let's show cool fights. Another cool discussion that could've been made is how does Tanjiro not give a fuck about the onis that he's killing, while having his oni little sister on his back all the time? He could have a Levi Ackerman "so you are telling me that I have been killing humans all this time?" moment. But no, the hypocrisy of Tanjiro is not discussed at all. There could've also been more discussion/focus on that line that the oni said about how Tanjiro doesn't look human, the topic of humans looking like/resembling monsters is nothing new but can be pretty good if executed well. A great example of that is the chapter 111 of Berserk, which revolves almost entirely on a scene where the protagonist, Guts, looks more like a monster that the monster that he's fighting. This would later on create/be important to a discussion that Guts has with his blacksmith friend about hatred and revenge, this discussion would later on matter to Guts' decision to actually stop his seek for revenge. The scene in question: Tanjiro also explains everything is happening on screen, why? We can see all of that you don't need to put the thoughts balloon of the manga on every fight scene. Zenitsu Zenitsu is probably the most obnoxious character on an anime that I have watched, he can't do shit but cry and scream every time he's on the screen. The two big things about his character, is the fact that he is scared of everything, and has mastered only one move, therefore, he can only use this move when he is unconscious. I have no problem with these things, the "hidden/suppressed power" thing is cool, and the "only mastered one move" can be really dope if utilized well, it isn't. I am a big Dragon Ball fan, so the concept of the suppressed power is nothing new to me, Gohan, my favorite character on the show, is the big example of that. And I still have it on my mind, that the whole reason of the existence of the Z portion of the anime, is Gohan, he was supposed to be the protagonist after Goku died. The thing is, why do I think it works on Dragon Ball, but not on Demon Slayer? First of, Gohan is the first character we see on screen when we watch Dragon Ball Z, we see him walking on the woods, getting lost, and crying for his dad to come save him(reminds me of something similar on Demon Slayer, hmmmm). As the show progresses, we get to see the how strong Gohan can actually be, first when he hit Raditz with his head, up until later against Vegita's and Nappa's "crew" and even later on Namek. And then we get to the Cell Games arc, which in my opinion contains the greatest fight in anime history, with Goku & Gohan vs. Cell. In this arc, Gohan finally uses all of his strength, and unlocks the SSJ2 transformation, this is an important moment because of the buildup, since the very beginning of the show, his character is being build up to this very moment, to the climax of this arc, almost two hundred episodes later, so we can see him shine and beat Cell ass. While with Zenitsu, we get introduced to him on episode 4 of the first season, and he uses his powers on episode 12, 8 episodes later, the build up is not enough, considering that he is also only using ONE MOVE while unconscious, the move gets old pretty fast, even more when the move is only a dash forward that if wasn't for the god tier animation wouldn't even be that exciting. The other trope about his character is the fact that he only has one move, and the move is just a dash, that's it. Another character that does this very well is Rock Lee or even Maito Gai from the Naruto series. They both only practiced one portion of the jutsus, the Taijutsu/physical combat. The reason it works on Naruto is because we know how hard it is to not be able to use any other jutsu, since pretty much all we see during the show is Genjutsu and Ninjutsu, so to have a character that mastered the weakest of the jutsus almost win against Gaara(which at that point is probably the second strongest antagonist we've seen) is fucking great, and you cheer for him. Same thing for Maito Gai against Madara, Maito Gai, the dude that has been clowned his whole life for not using Ninjutsu or Genjutsu is declared the strongest ninja by Madara, which at that point is basically god because he's so overpowered. And you know he earned that, we've seen him through the whole show training and getting better. With Zenitsu, it's one 5 min flashback and that's it. And look, if you are going to make Zenitsu able to feel, smell, hear and formulate REAL SENTENCES while unconscious, why don't make him battle awake already, it's not funny to see him asleep as hes fighting nor it is more cool or anything. Inosuke Inosuke is the same character this season, nothing has changed, he is a less charismatic and less entertaining Goku Nezuko Now Nezuko, the reason why the whole show exists. I like to think Nezuko is the Mikasa Ackerman of this show. Strongly connected to the main character, the mc wants to protect her but always ends up being saved by her, they both look cute, and are strong for no apparent reason, basically, they are plot armor. The person that needs to be protected the most ends up saving the mcs ass every time, how funny is that. Nezuko might just be the definition of Deus Ex Machina, she always appears out of nowhere and saves the day. If Nezuko is going to save Tanjiro everytime, why not make her fight from the beginning? After all now Tanjiro actually knows how to calm her down(which btw is such a stupid way). Also why did the creator decide to sexualize a 14 year old character? Why does she need to have half of her boobs out when using her kekkijutsu? She wasn't like that in the first season, why decide to change that now? Oh and by the way, what more appropriate then to give a Deus Ex Machina kekkijutsu to Nezuko? That shit was so stupid but ok. Uzui Uzui is a cool character, I would argue he was more likable than Rengoku. I just didn't really like the fact that his sound powers were pretty much forgotten, the only powers that he uses that are related to sound are the thing to analyze his surroundings(which pretty much every character has one), and the music attack he uses against the Upper Moon Six(which don't really make sense, and the oni says that it doesn't make sense and he's right). Upper Moons The Upper Moons on this arc were mostly cool, probably tied with Rui(from the first season) for character design. They weren't developed up until they died which personally I don't like(I'm sorry Ace you fall on the same category as these two), but their backstory was cool. Again you have another Deus Ex Machina with these two, this time is the fact that it was never mentioned that the girl oni had a brother, and he only appears as she is about to die and is significantly stronger than her. After Daki almost dies for some reason all she can do is cry all the time, her whole attitude and strong personality is almost entirely gone. ___ # Final Considerations/Things I Haven't Talked About
So I think now it's pretty obvious that I didn't really enjoy this season of Demon Slayer, it managed to be story-wise worse than it's previous seasons. But there still some stuff that I want to talk about that I couldn't fit on the original characters paragraph. The first thing is the abundance of Deus Ex Machina, not only with Nezuko, but throughout the whole cast of characters, while I feel like Nezuko still has the biggest share of these moments there definitely are some other moments that need to be talked about. I won't even talk about trivial characters entrances because that's a cliche on literally every show in existence so it doesn't make sense to criticize Demon Slayer because of it. But look, Uzui and Inosuke FUCKING REVIVING to save the day is just so stupid, it doesn't make sense and it's Deus Ex Machina to it's definition, still on the same scene, Zenitsu coming out of the rubble at the very exact moment to save the day is also really stupid. I've already talked about the Upper Moons Deus Ex Machina so yeah. The second point is the fact that the power scale in this show doesn't make sense, why do the hashiras have difference in power? Wouldn't you want your best demon slayers to be at the same great level, kinda like the Gods of Destruction on Dragon Ball Super? Same thing with the Upper/Lower Moons. Other than that, how does no one question the fact that Tanjiro, a low rank demon slayer was able to go toe-to-toe against a Upper Moon? There are way too many flashbacks, sometimes even in between fights. Why in a show like Naruto everyone is so quick to talk about how many flashbacks it has but no one cares when it's on Demon Slayer. You might say that; "well, didn't you ask for character development? Story progression? That's the flashbacks". Well, yeah, but the flashbacks sometimes are in the literal middle of the fight, which just breaks the pace of the fight, also most of the flashbacks are of things that we already knew/don't progress the story, like Tanjiro remembering his family, WE'VE SEEN IT, A BUNCH OF TIMES!!! STOP IT!!! There are some plot holes too in this season, like Tanjiro's sword was dull but turns sharp out of nowhere later on(sorry if I missed a scene but I genuinely don't remember seeing it). When Tanjiro is about to kill Gyuutarou he implies that the he's not a oni only because if he was, a demon slayer would come kill him, which just makes me doubt Tanjiro's character at so many levels. Tanjiro apparently despises onis but sympathizes with them when they are about to die, how the fuck would Tanjiro know what 2 onis feel for each other? Tanjiro just met them like wtf. Again, another moment where he could've pulled a Levi Ackerman. The Humor on this show is just too goofy to be actually funny, it tries way to hard and doesn't have the charm of something like a One Piece. This is not another point that I'm making, but honestly, I wouldn't be mad if the whole thing ended on episode 10. Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen just proves the animation theory, that being: no matter how bad your story, characters and pacing are, animation will be able to solve it all, and make people not care about any flaws that your product has and actually love it. The proof of that? Look at Demon Slayer's manga sales before it became an anime, now look at it's sales after season 1 ended. It passed One Piece in weekly sales. Is the manga good? No. But the anime has good animation so hell yeah I'll buy a volume. Another fact that proves this theory, look at the One Piece Wano arc on the anime, it still has the biggest flaw of the One Piece anime: it's horrendous pace. But do people care/talk about it now? No. Because the fights now are flashy and the art style and animation is pleasing to look at. Would people talk about Attack on Titan how they talk now if it had bad animation/direction? No. Would people talk about Black Clover how they talked about it if it had good animation? No. Animation is key, and it's the most important aspect of anime nowadays, and it hurts to say it. I do know some spoilers from the upcoming arcs so my hopes that this show could get any better now are actually zero, like why the fuck do japanese authors think it's such a good idea to reveal that the main character is actually the reincarnation of a fucking god or something, like Naruto being the reincarnation of Ashura, Luffy probably being the reincarnation of Joy Boy(hope this is wrong, at the time I'm making this the furthest chapter we have out is 1042), and then Tanjiro having the Sun Breathing which is like the genesis to all breathing forms like dude, just make a regular ass mc and make him work his way to be great, it's not that hard. ___ # Conclusion/TL;DR
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Yuukaku-hen is the proof that good animation can take people away from the fact that your show sucks. ___ # Note From The Author
Hey! Thanks for reading my review, I put a lot of time into this(around 5 hours and around 4000 words). This was my first review so I might have made some silly mistakes so forgive me. Also sorry if there were any spelling errors(there were), english is not my main language aswell as this is way to long to read it more than 2 times and properly correct it. I would appreciate a like(or a dislike) if you would be kind to leave one. Thank you so much. -nadish