Demon Slayer has taken the world by storm, the series has exploded in popularity, with manga sales exceeding 100+ million within a year's time. While the anime is being recognized as a classic.
Set within the Taishō period of Japan, young Kamado Tanjiro inspires to become a "Demon Slayer", pursuing a path of vengeance for the murder of his family committed by a demon, while also trying to find a cure for his younger sister Nezuko, who turned into a demon.
If you hate shōnen troupes and shōnen anime in general, this series won't really change your opinion. But if you look past that you will find an anime with a simple, but wonderful story, great episode direction, some of the best animation you will ever see, and some of the best voice acting and music.
Ufotable’s adaption is the best anime adaption I have ever seen. An adaption few authors could ever hope to receive. An adaption that is not only better than its source material, but it also enhances the experience in a multitude of layers, ways the manga was never able to achieve. The manga still has a solid story, but suffers from less than impressive artwork, direction, and page layout. While the adaption improves upon the content of the manga while enhancing every other quality.
At its core, it is a battle shōnen. The fights featured are wonderfully animated, superbly directed, fluid, and contain an appealing art style fitting the series. The strength of the fights lay behind the main antagonists, the demons. They are simply monsters that go out of their way to kill a multitude of people, to feast on their flesh while having no remorse or humanity.
Or so that is how you are supposed to view them. But demons were all originally human, turned demon against their wills, suffering from painful hunger, turning violent with their humanity fading away, being portrayed as misfortunate people.
Tanjiro is a very standard shōnen protagonist, he's the hard-working type, has an unusual great sense of smell, and has a variety of comedic quirks. The main aspect of his character is his incredibly kind nature, despite this, he shows no mercy towards demons, and makes no exceptions to beheading one. He essentially kills them in order to "save" them, as funny as it sounds.
The Demons he cuts down reveal details about their past lives, eventually coming to regret what they became. While Tanjiro can never forgive their actions of killing innocent people, he still shows sympathy and sends them off to rest. Generally, to deliver this type of message, you would need an overly kind character like Tanjiro, as not many characters could reasonably show sympathy to a cannibalistic monster. While his character is very cliche it is perfect for the themes in the series.
Tanjiro has an immensely strong bond with his younger sister Nezuko. One of the themes pushed by Demon Slayer is family, their relationship feels genuine and sweet throughout the anime.
The other characters have room to grow, but seeing as only 1/4th of the source material has been adapted, there is still plenty of growth to come. They have their share of quirky personalities and great designs, while each having an appropriate amount of screen time. I am excited to see how they progress, as well as other minor characters.
