Introduction

Humor lands flat. Character depth is minimal. Backstories don't hit as hard. Cinematic direction isn't as good as previous seasons, and it's not as on-edge/engaging. 3D is glaringly obvious and detracts from the otherwise good animation. This season feels like a detour.

A problem I'm starting to notice with Demon Slayer is how formulaic these seasons are. Each season is basically Tanjirou getting stronger, a Hashira shows up to make sure he doesn't die, and a villain dies... Outside of that, not much is going on. There isn't much in terms of mystery, foreshadowing, depth, world building, hyping up potential threats later down the line, unveiling previous mysteries, fleshing out other parts of the world and what's happening, or really anything to get me excited outside of just constant action...

Action/Power Ups/Backstories

Action is great, but I need more substance to care about what's going on, and so far these backstories aren't doing enough to bolster up these fight scenes, the characters, or the stakes. Compare this to One Piece, where every moment there are several things happening all at once, converging on an overarching narrative, with lore drops, hints, mystery, intrigue, foreshadowing, and other writing techniques holding up the foundation.

The action isn't even good here either. While previous seasons have a nice back and forward momentum, a sort of ebb and flow, the fights here are as follows: fight, enemy power up, backstory, protagonist power up, easily beat antagonist. There is no feeling of being on edge and not knowing what will happen. Side characters introduced barely get fleshed out, and they all just have power for no reason (every backstory is like this): Mitsuri Kanroji was just naturally strong for no apparent reason; Genya Shinazugawa has demon powers, which was never explained or hinted at as possible before; Muichirou Tokitou blacks out and then kills a demon as a kid, and the memory of this gives him an insane power up with flashback no jutsu.

Story

The constant isolation of events and very little tie-ins to future seasons, make each new season of Demon Slayer feel tunnel visioned. One area, 1-2 Hashira, a few side characters to help, and one main demon antagonist... The back drops may change, the side characters and antagonist might be different, but the structure is the same - it feels repetitive. There are maybe a couple things that happen each arc that actually feel like they add to the overarching narrative, and this arc was Tanjirou getting a new sword, and Nezuko being immune to sunlight, which happened at the very end of the season. This begs the question, did everything up until that last episode feel worth watching? Kind of? I mean you get more action, you get more Demon Slayer, but ultimately I feel like I just wasted my time.

Entertainment District Arc Was Far Better

It's also hard coming after the previous season, which has some of the best action, animation, stakes, cinematography, atmosphere, highs, lows, we've seen so far. In terms of just an enjoyable action-filled season, this pales in comparison. I also like Tengen Uzui and his wives much more than these side characters... As cute as Mitsuri is. The villains were also a lot more interesting to me, and their backstories a lot more devastating/tragic - while this villain's backstory just makes you like him less... And not in a way that makes him a good antagonist.

Carried by Animation

This is by far everything that Demon Slayer does bad, ramped up to 11. It's still visually impressive, and if you like action, it exists, but if you're looking for something more, it's not here. I thought Demon Slayer was getting better, proving me wrong despite my initial issues I had with the series... It's starting to feel like the hyperbolic remarks are correct, and this show really is just "carried by animation".

Final Thoughts

Usually I'm not this harsh regarding "generic shounen", but I was genuinely looking forward to this, and now I'm left feeling disappointed. What makes this worse for me, is that this quality is expected around the start of a series trying to find its footing, but we're too far in now to make excuses for shallow development in a franchise this big.