Demon Slayer

Hi, my name’s Daniel. Anyways, for this week’s manga, I will be talking about Mashle: Magic and Muscles, a lighthearted manga that is doesn’t take itself too seriously wait shoot I talked about a lighthearted manga last week as well I can’t write about the same genre two weeks in a row shoot.

Well ok change of plans, I need to find a bit more of a serious manga this week gimme a sec to think of one, wait this is harder than expected, no shot I only read for-fun manga ok I’m back and have thought of a manga to talk about.

Ok, so the manga that I now will be talking about this week will be Kimetsu no Yaiba, or Demon Slayer. The second season of the anime is going brazy right now, and for good reason! Just like the first season, the animation studio in charge of Demon Slayer (Ufotable) is killing it with the execution of the anime. They got amazing voice actors, good source material, and the animation in those fights is so stupidly clean I’m surprised the anime hasn’t been dubbed “eye sanitizer” yet (though I guess it doesn’t roll off the tongue that well). Thank goodness for tax evasion*! I guess that’s what happens when animators get paid huh? Anyways now onto the manga, no more talking about the anime.

<- The main bad guy (running joke in community that it’s Michael Jackson)

Ok so what’s there to like about Demon Slayer? Good villains (Michael Jackson), good good guys, dope art for the fights, decent character development I guess? You’re reading a shounen** manga, you’re getting a shounen manga.

Categories

Genre: Action, Supernatural

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47eDlsbTnBg&ab_channel=Takeno

Story

Ok so there’s this family of coal burners that live in the mountains, the eldest child of the family, Kamado Tanjiro, goes into the market to get stuff for his family, and comes back to find his entire family dead, all except for his sister, Nezuko, who has become a demon. The Demon Slayer corps arrive and are about to kill Nezuko, but in a chain of events, they realize that Nezuko seems to be an exception among the usually hostile demons, and Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps in order to kill the big bad demon villain who was responsible for turning Nezuko into a demon in an attempt to turn her back into a human. The story goes from there with Tanjiro growing stronger and stronger with his peers and fighting stronger and stronger demons. Not the most original or unique story out there though, but it’s done well enough that the generic-ness of it doesn’t hinder the overall enjoyment of the manga.

Characters

The characters are all pretty consistent personality-wise throughout the entire manga, except one character, but his development occurred a bit too suddenly for it to be called development, more like a character spurt. Is that a term? No clue. But yeah you got the goody-two-shoes Tanjiro, the permanently whining and crying Zenitsu who becomes goated while unconscious (gets the character spurt and becomes the GOAT), and the feral Inosuke. Regardless of the fact, the backstory of each character is pretty good. Though some are more simple than others, the ways in which the past influences the actions of the characters in the present makes sense, and that’s good enough for me.

Though simple, the manga in my opinion makes up for that in the sheer amount of characters it has. You have the Hashira (Pillars) of the Demon Slayer Corps, who are all super duper strong, all with their own backstories and motives. You have the Demons, a select few (primarily the Upper Moons, mini-bosses to the super boss) having their own backstory which explains how they ended up becoming a demon… y’know, thinking on the topic, I think the sheer coolness of each of the character’s attacks makes up for the simple personality of each.

Art

Art is good good. It’s fun and derpy when the situation is lighthearted but detailed and clean in fights or serious confrontations. In fights, the movement is easy to track and the choreography remains consistent throughout allowing for the manga to seem almost animated. Enough said, it’s good good.

*The President of Ufotable was sentenced to 20 years in jail for tax evasion wowowo!! Also was joking tax evasion is bad.

**Shounen is a genre targeted toward young boys. Not Shakespeare by any means but nevertheless entertaining.