Current Events > Is Demon Slayer considered a good anime?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I basically havent watched any anime in my life except Pokmon when I was a kid and the first season of One Punch Man while I was hungover and glued to my couch. Oh and a while ago I watched the first four or five episodes of Kurokos Basketball and I thought it was pretty good but didnt necessarily hook me.

A friend was suggesting Demon Slayer to me for MONTHS and other friends who picked it up seemed to enjoy it. In the fall I decided to give it a chance. Like really give it a chance. I kept pushing through way past where I would have given up on other shows. All in all I gave it sixteen episodes and its just not good. Im all for turning my brain off and appreciating cool animation but thats not how this was pitched to me. In fairness, I wasnt sure how many of my gripes were specifically with Demon Slayer and how many were just tropes of the genre I was unfamiliar with.

Anyways, the Demon Slayer experience turned me off to anime for a few months but today I decided to try again. Figured Id go with Attack on Titan since it seems like its got a shitload of acclaim and Im five episodes in and this show slaps. So now I have to ask, is Attack on Titan just really good or is Demon Slayer just shitty?

Demon Slayer is good but just... really generic. It can be a turn-off for that reason.

It has really good animation. Story is standard shonen stuff.

Attack on Titan also has some standard shonen tropes, but has a way more intricate story.

Yeah...DS is okay, but it's a bit over hyped

HotLap posted...

All in all I gave it sixteen episodes

Watch da next 4 episodes, dats where it got da most hype iirc

and it was really cool, but da anime isn't all dat great imo. Its mainly considered good because of da animation in da fights, which are hella badass. But as someone who has read da manga as well due to all da hype, da story isn't dat great and it felt meh by da end.

I recommend Fullmetal Alchemist: brotherhood or Assassination Classroom, dose are TOP TOP tier imo. Attack on titan is good too doe

It is beautiful but plain in every other way.

Whew thank god. I think the chances of me going back and giving it another four episodes are basically none. Ill check out either FMAB or Assassination Classroom after finishing AoT for sure.

AoT is peak fiction

If you want to give a different battle shonen anime (basically the genre of Demon Slayer) a try, I really liked Jujutsu Kaisen

Also, I feel like I haven't seen you post in a while, so welcome back ^^

teep_ posted...

AoT is peak fiction

Breaking bad holds that title

Some folks who like battle shonen end up not liking Demon Slayer cause the way it executes things is a bit off from the typical way. So it is hard to say if your problems with it are battle shonen in general issues or demon slayer specific issues.

It's ok with the action sequences

teep_ posted...

AoT is peak fiction

If you want to give a different battle shonen anime (basically the genre of Demon Slayer) a try, I really liked Jujutsu Kaisen

Also, I feel like I haven't seen you post in a while, so welcome back ^^

Ive heard good things about Jujutsu Kaiden, maybe Ill check that out. And thanks! Ive still been lurking every now and then. Thought about starting a CYOA last week actually but I wasnt sure if theres anyone here anymore who would read it.

Demon Slayer is excellent. Extremely compelling story and great, nail-biting action.

animation good, world building bad.

Seems like a fairly standard shonen mostly propped up to its current status by some pretty good animation. I've only seen the movie, but it was fine.

HotLap posted...

Ive heard good things about Jujutsu Kaiden, maybe Ill check that out. And thanks! Ive still been lurking every now and then. Thought about starting a CYOA last week actually but I wasnt sure if theres anyone here anymore who would read it.

Jujutsu Kaisen is really hype, would recommend.

I love Demon Slayer, but I feel that I'm more forgiving than many when it comes to anime.

What exactly did you dislike about it TC? Some of it could just be common shounen tropes, but it could also be unique to Demon Slayer.

LordYeezus posted...

Breaking bad holds that title

I've not seen that yet

HotLap posted...

Ive heard good things about Jujutsu Kaiden, maybe Ill check that out. And thanks! Ive still been lurking every now and then. Thought about starting a CYOA last week actually but I wasnt sure if theres anyone here anymore who would read it.

There's still a few of us around, I think

NoxObscuras posted...

I love Demon Slayer, but I feel that I'm more forgiving than many when it comes to anime.

What exactly did you dislike about it TC? Some of it could just be common shounen tropes, but it could also be unique to Demon Slayer.

I stopped watching several months ago, so I cant remember everything. Maybe some of my gripes were explained and I missed it, but heres what I have off the top of my head.

Demons need to eat humans to survive, but apparently none of them tried sleeping? Why is Nezuko non-verbal when literally every other demon weve seen can talk? I didnt like how shes basically just kept in the box until she was needed as some deus ex machina plot device, then back in the box she goes. Tanjiro needs to train? Oh Nezuko is just in Urokodakis house in a sleeping bag for an entire year and doesnt need to eat anything. We need Nezuko for a fight? Okay come on out of the box, but get back in before we need to develop your character in any meaningful way. (I know she needs to be in there while the sun is out).

I forget his name, but blonde-haired orange kimono boy is the most intolerable character I have ever seen in my life. He either seemed to be screaming for his life or actively creaming himself whenever a female was in a two mile radius. At the end of the last episode I watched, it seemed like for the next episode or two he was going to be alone in the spider woods and I had absolutely zero interest in seeing that play out.

I rested most of my hopes on the Pig Man I saw in the opening credits. When he showed up, I was pretty disappointed. His entire arc seems like itll be hes gonna learn what teamwork is and nothing I saw in the episodes he was in really disproved that. His character was incredibly one note.

The tone they tried to strike between bleak and silly never really landed for me. The parts that were intended to be funny (Pig Man and Orange Kimono Boys dialogue, Im assuming) totally missed the mark and prevented me from getting invested in other parts of the story.

This is probably more of a trope of the genre than DS itself, but I cant stand when a character announces the name of the attack theyre about to do. Total Concentration Water Breathing Slash Number Six. Tight, that means absolutely nothing to me.

Overall the animation was great and the worldbuilding was decent, but every storytelling and character development decision the show made drove me up the fucking wall.

teep_ posted...

I've not seen that yet

There's still a few of us around, I think

Teep you should watch Breaking Bad if you get the chance. And sweet, maybe Ill make one if the urge strikes again.

Demon Slayer
My Hero Academia
Attack on Titan

The holy trinity of overrated

HotLap posted...

Teep you should watch Breaking Bad if you get the chance. And sweet, maybe Ill make one if the urge strikes again.

I plan to but I never seem to get around to it. But I've definitely heard very good things about it

Oh man, that reminded me I never read all of Merlin the muscle wizard

Yeah, I would recommend Jujutsu Kaisen as well. The first half of season 1 is also kinda generic, but I did enjoy the second half a lot more, and it also has really well animated fights. (Also, the humor landed a lot more for me than anything in Demon Slayer.)

HotLap posted...

His character was incredibly one note.

Yeah, that's pretty much every character in the series. For the most part, everyone revolves around a single character trait ("I'm loud!", "I'm flamboyant!", "I'm angry!", "I'm in love!") and I didn't care for it, since most of the time it just means the characters are simply being loud.

Also yeah, the blonde kid is super annoying. And his "cool" moments later on felt more goofy to me than anything. I also don't really care for boar-mask either, so that's already 2/3 of the main trio I don't really like, so there was no reason for me to keep going.

@TC hmm yeah, a lot of that is specific to Demon Slayer, so I wouldn't give up on anime just yet. Some of that gets toned down in season 2, like Zenitsu (blonde-haired orange kimono boy) doesn't drool over girls, but other parts are still there. They do get some character development, but it's nothing too deep.

I also agree with the recommendation for Jujutsu Kaisen, but be warned that it does still have some tropes like yelling out attack names lol.

And if you want to move away from the shounen genre, might I recommend watching Eighty Six. Lots of death and no yelling out attacks. The last episode of season 2 will be airing on the 19th. So a good amount of episodes to dig into.

Nice, thanks for the recommendation! Looks like I have a bit of an anime list accruing.

HotLap posted...

Demons need to eat humans to survive, but apparently none of them tried sleeping?

In fairness, why would they?

Its shonen anime. Dont go in expecting much.

It has nice art which lets it get away with more crap than say, Bleach or One Piece.

It is insanely popular here in Japan. When it came out in 2020, nearly everything was themed after it. Kids were wearing the character kimono masks, the theme song would play nonstop in stores. It is still popular today, but there are more annual Shonen animes that are getting popular too.

It is not bad. It looks nicer than most shonen anime, and it is a bit more violent than most stuff meant for kids (seriously, the show has clear beheadings of monsters, and 3 year olds watch it mostly because they think Nezuko is a cute princess).

It's a gag manga. All the special fire and water effects around their weapons are not real, its just "anime power!"

JJK has a good premise, but starts falling downhill once you get used to it
Some of the most imaginative fights, though. One guy's power is the ability to use anything he has a receipt of, so he covered in receipts.

Demon Slayer is generic trash.
Character - bad guy
Character backstory, bad guy back story
Fight
Maybe one or both die
Repeat until the very end.

My wife watches this, idk why. She never watches anime and neither do I.

I second 86. Amazing series

Demon Slayer is the best Shounen action series since Hunter x Hunter