Demon Slayer is a Japanese manga series, which was published by Koyoharu Gotouge, which is his 2nd work. An anime television series adaptation by Ufotable premiered on April 6, 2019. The final episode aired on September 28, 2019.

From the earliest times, the humanity knows about human-flesh eating monsters, lurking in the darkness to devour an unfortunate soul that does not trust rumors. However, the rumors also mention an elite corps of demon hunters, skilled assassins, killing demons. Demon Slayer focuses on Tanjirou Kamado, who is still very young, but is the only man in his family. One day, Tanjirou decides to go down to the local village to make a little money, selling charcoal. When he returns back, he becomes an unwilling part of these horrifying rumors: his family is slaughtered and the only survivor, his sister Nezuko, is turned into demon. For some reason, Nezuko still acts as a human, which is the reason for Tanjirou to join demon slayers and cure his sister. Will he manage to join the elite corps and cure his sister?

It is, without a doubt, quite a challenge to make an interesting and new battle shounen. With so many titles that represent the genre, as well as cliché surrounding it, Kimetsu no Yaiba could have been another title, everyone will stop to hype about after the first week. However, there is something different about it, which makes it stand out. The story-line is slow, which grants enough development, the main protagonist does look like your average battle-shounen protagonist, but he is not as annoying as his counterparts, characters are actually interesting, since even supporting cast receives enough development, finally, the setting looks somewhat new, because you will not see that often a setting, describing the Taishou era.

Animation wise, it is quite challenging to find even one work of ufotable with bad animation. It does look somewhat similar to Katanagatari, but not quite. Everything from character designs to action scenes looks just awesome and beautiful, an eye candy you want to never end. Sound wise, even if there is English dub one day, I would still highly recommend you to watch Demon Slayer subbed, because of many voice acting gurus, voicing this series. Even the OST fits the anime well and makes the series even more catchy.

Characters is another important part, a must to make battle-shounen likeable. Kamado Tanjirou, however, does not look that promising to 'carry' the whole series. However, this problem is solved when he is joined by the other protagonists of the series, who together form a very likeable group of protagonist. They are interesting, because of how different they are: Tanjirou Kamado is a very trustworthy and hardworking individual, but he is a too trustful. Nezuko Kamado, Tanjirou's sister and the only person that was able to remain human after having been turned into a demon. The noodle head Zenitsu Agatsuma is a member of the Demon Killing Corps and a traveling companion of Kamado Tanjirou. He is always scared by any noise, but he becomes a fearful enemy for the demons, when it is needed. Inosuke Hashibira is the last companion of Tanjurou and he is also a t..p.

Enjoyment wise, it is truly one of the brightest gems of this season. Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of these titles that was able to unite comedy and drama and make it interesting to watch. What I mean is that many series were trying to do that, but failed. One was intervening with the other and the end result was horrible. Here, however, just like in Gintama, it is both funny and dramatic sometimes, which makes it that good. Imagine 26 episodes of nothing but drama. This is just unreal for any person.

Overall, Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of a very small amount of battle-shounen series that is actually fun to watch. The story, the art, the voice acting, the OST, I cannot think of anything, I did not like about it, nor have I ever felt bored, when I was watching this series. There are, however, some minor flaws, I feel useless to even mention. Great job, Gotouge Koyoharu. For your first animated series, Demon Slayer is quite an achievement to be proud of.

A very-very weak 10/10.