Demon Slayer is rather by-the-books, but does it very well. It's an anime about our protagonists joining a demon hunting organization and, well, hunting demons. As such, there's plenty of training and fighting. If you're looking for an anime with good fights, look no further. To help, the animation in (and out) of them is stellar, so every fight really leaves an impact. Literally, as injuries are taken into account to boot.
I don't think there was a demon fight that wasn't unique and cool thanks to their designs and abilities. As a result, the fights are captivating, and I found they went on for just as long as they needed to. A lot of demons are also given backstories as to why they became what they did, which I'm a sucker for.
However, there's one demon that's the Big Bad, which I find diminishes how interesting demons could've been. Instead of demons having their own motives, most we see just work under him. He's the only one with the special ability to turn humans into demons instead of it being a thing all demons have, which would've made them cooler. Plus, as far as villains go, he's not unique and more "quiet cool guy who sends lackeys to do his work". I would've preferred the plot's attention to focus solely on finding out how to cure Nezuko, but instead taking down the leader demon takes the center stage as the motive and suffers from it a bit.
Furthermore, a plot element requires demon parts to be studied to help find a cure for Nezuko...then ends up barely showing up and only being for "high level" demons. It would've been neat if the protagonists had to balance killing the demons and making sure to get parts in all fights, but they end up just killing them instead. This whole thing is then completely forgotten about by the time they do fight a high level demon, which made me sad.
While Nezuko, the demon girl the plot revolves around, has her moments in battle, she gets a disappointing amount of screentime. The bond between her and her brother is talked about and showcased at times, but I often found myself forgetting she existed. If you're looking at this anime hoping that this demon and her brother will be doing a lot of tag-team fighting, you'll be left wanting (especially when battles with her are so cool). Likewise, not a lot goes into how Nezuko's curious condition works, which I was also disappointed by since she's such an anomaly.
As for the other characters, the main protagonist Tanjiro is saved from being your humdrum motivated/smart fighter by being a very Good Boy. For some reason he has a very good sense of smell, which can be dumb at times (like "I can smell trust on her") but also works well. He's left with his sister for around half the anime until the blonde-haired Zinitsu joins. I really don't like Zenitsu. His great design is ruined by being a loud complainer ALL THE TIME and always harassing women (just bordering being a perv character but not quite). He's a part of The Main Three, so he very often ruins scenes. Thankfully, the boar-headed Inosuke's temper and competitiveness make him very funny (and my favorite). The supporting characters are very good as well. Demon Slayer doesn't take itself seriously all the time, leading to a lot of fun and quirky character moments.
I haven't read the manga, but there points in the anime where I really felt like something was cut. A character will refer to something that wasn't shown as if it was, leaving me to imply "Oh, that was probably done/fleshed out in the manga." The most egregious is Tanjiro suddenly using "water art" techniques as his main fighting style despite his training never involving them. It's not like you'll get lost, but it does leave me wondering if the manga is the way to go.
...But the beautiful fight animation and soundtrack make me not so sure.
Hands down my favorite thing about Demon Slayer is its use of 3D CG for distant characters. I despise how distant characters in anime look like they're suddenly made of melted clay with minimal features, so this method of dealing with it made me really happy. Of course, it's not perfect in all the ways 3D CG isn't, but I hope it becomes a standard thing.
The end of Demon Slayer doesn't even attempt to wrap anything up since there's so much more story, so the question is "How hyped are you for the next season?" I think my answer is "Moderately." My time with it definitely was enjoyable thanks to good characters (except Zenitsu) and cool fights. However, the overall execution of the plot and story beats aren't unique enough for it to stand out in my mind...which makes the commitment that's going to be required seem tiring. If you're interested and like good fights, I'd definitely watch it. If you want to watch it solely because it's popular, I don't think you're missing as much as it seems.
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