The Demon Slayer / Kimetsu no Yaiba manga is good so I'll get straight to it. Spoilers are tagged.

The first thing I'd like to mention, as one of the high points, is the art style. It can be pretty simple or pretty detailed, and the character designs especially stand out as unique and pretty. The expressions are done to show emotion very well.. and the eyes though.... Shinobu's are just lines, yet no expression is lost:

(Sorry this part ended up long.)

• Tanjirou Kamado is very unique for a Shounen protagonist: he mixes pure killing intent with pure compassion. Shounen protagonists usually stick to one side or the other, but he keeps both, at the same time, and takes them to the extreme. He will kill the threatening demons no matter what it takes, no matter how beat down he is. His killing intent is so deep that at one point he has to try to learn to hide it to fight a demon who can sense it (and he fails).

His compassion, though, stems from the fact that he's a reasonable and kind person who sees things clearly and wants good for everyone. Once a demon is on the verge of death, it usually suddenly recalls its past as a human, often changing it instantly and putting it into tears. The stories usually are pretty tragic tbf, as the world is cruel. Tanjiro feels deepy for them and cries for their pain, but spares no effort to slay them because it must be done, even if he has to practically kill himself for it. Protagonists don't usually relate to the vicious antagonists, but Tanjro does and he lays them to rest peacefully. And the empathy isn't just limited to demons: he'll pity anyone who's acting mean because of pain, even some of the Hashira, much to others' annoyance. In short: he's sweet and kind, but as a warrior, he is savage.

• I won't go over this one much but Nezuko Kamado is a pretty well-written character, a girl-turned-demon who goes back to her simplest form to avoid hurting others.

• Zenitsu Agatsuma is a 'coward' who simply doesn't want to feel pain. At first he's too scared to do anything, but over time he learns that training isn't too bad, and that with training and the (imagined) love of his crush, he'll be okay. (He also curses in the manga, in contrast to the anime adaption.)

• Inosuke Hashibira takes unique to another level. He's a gruff, wilderness-dwelling "raised by the boars" dude wearing the head of a boar as a mask (how he sees through is a mystery to demons and humans alike), yet his face under the mask shows he's a bishounen pretty boy, almost mistaken for a girl. He has the strangest ways of training (again, mystifying everyone) and yet it works, making him unbelievably strong.

Then there're the nine Hashira, and Tamayo's family group, and the entire Corps, and many more. They're all relevant in some way or other, and each one has their own motivations.

Not all of the cast is likeable, especially at first but even fairly far in. But this is one of the things the manga does best: some of them are mean to the main characters, but once you learn their reasons later on, you realize that it makes perfect sense and wish you could help them. Alot of the characters in Demon Slayer are incredibly realistic specifically because not everyone on the good side is 'nice'.

I think that alot of the characters are pretty relatable, in some way or other, whether that's Zenitsu's fears, Nezuko's simple enjoyment, Tanjiro's kindness, or Giyuu's emo depression.

Also worth note, but the story takes place in the Taishō era of Japan, and all the characters are very young (young teen protagonists). They also have much shorter lifespans.

I'll just go over this briefly. Demon Slayer has a unique power system based on real-life technique, just taken to a superhuman level, whether that's breathing, meditating, or bodily awareness.

The Breathing Styles is a neat power system, and while it's neat to look at, not nearly enough information is given on it to tell how strong any given Form is. The implication is that certain Forms are used for certain situations, but there're so many styles, and the Forms are used so much without being addressed at all, so besides some of the Water Breathing, it's not really something you can predict or understand, which makes it a pretty mid power system overall.

Alot of it is just simply dull. Besides the breath forms, the swords and their colors were also introduced, but then got no more development or relevance.

Power scalings aren't diretly given. For the humans we have the Hashira, and for the demons there's the Twelve Kizuki, but the actual order of the characters' strength in the series is never directly given, so you have to figure it out from the events and feats, which is very fun and unique too.

There's the main, overarching story, and then the backstories of many characters. I can't really say much without giving specific examples, and there're too many to list out but I'd say the stories, and the backstories and the ways they are resolved or not, are what Demon Slayer does the best and most solidly. And the foreshadowing is really good too, such as later-relevant characters from the forest arc, or Muzan and the Lily, or even just the Hashira's interactions with each other, whether they get along or just don't.

Anyway, the pacing is decent, but in the second half it picks up and gets right to things, and really catches your attention.

Some of the developments at the end weren't really foreshadowed at all. If they were, it would've hit much harder.. but this way is sudden, realistic, and leaves us in for complete surprise, so it's not really a flaw.

Now to write on the Master, 'Oyakata-sama' (and other legendary demon slayers):

Now, the big question: Is There Plot Armor Here?? I'd say..

No, not really. I did mention a power up that feels "arbitrary" in one of the spoiler tags above, but that's the worst of it. Plus it only really affects 2 characters, and the rest, especially Tanjiro, have to work for everything. With Tanjiro,

Whatever you think of all that, though, the manga will not hesitate to kill off characters where it sees fit.

Demon Slayer doesn't always follow troupes. Big, big spoiler:

Also. A benefit of the manga over the anime is the bonus illustrations and descriptions given on the side or in bonus chapters (and there're alot). I don't understand why the author had to self-insert as a very whiny crocodile to say the most basic stuff at times, but it's made up for by the details given at other parts, such as who would win in an arm-wrestling contest, what a gender-swap would look like, characters as nekos, and in one chapter, the author just added alot of left-out details to a backstory in a few paragraphs at the end. That was both surprising and refreshing as mangas don't usually do that.

• Zenitsu's later development. Inosuke and the rest of them had great development during the last arcs but

Spoiler, click to view

while the development Zenitsu got was cool and all, I really would've enjoyed having the manga follow through with Zenitsu's sleep attacks, maybe giving him at least one more in the entire second half of the manga, instead of making him an angry warrior.. it just doesn't fit him quite as well as his grand-sleep-instant-death moves.

• As aforementioned, the power system is mid and not built up to.

• Muzan. He's a smooth criminal but

• The bonus chapters at the end.

• Some of the attempts at comedy.. the swordsmith guy isn't funny.

I know I gave alot of flaws but the high points are so good that I still rate it a 8/10 or so. That's because it was still really enjoyable, captivating, and any weak character writing was made up for by strong character writing at other parts, and the backstories.

Do I recommend? Demon Slayer is a good Shounen. If you're following the anime, I'd say just stick with that as it has the peak animation and music, but reading from where it leaves off is fairly short, so if you're curious, go for it. I do recommend checking out one of those two, though, as it has great characters, a decent story, touching scenes and is just fun.