Kimetsu No Yaiba (Demon Slayer) – Anime First Impressions

Studio: ufotable

Episodes: 4 (ongoing)

Director: Haruo Sotozaki

Genre: Action, Demons, Shounen, Supernatural

Summary

Tanjirou Kamado lives a poor but peaceful life in the snowy mountains with his siblings and mother. He is always thankful for his family and works hard every day to provide food for his mother and siblings. One day, he goes into town at the foot of the mountain to sell some branches to the townsfolk and return to his home only to find his mother and siblings murdered by demons.

His sister, Nezuko Kamado, is the only survivor of the massacre but unfortunately was turned into a demon. Follow Tanjirou as he finds a way to turn his sister back into human while killing off the demons.

What you need to know about Kimetsu No Yaiba

1. Although very much like any other shounen anime, this anime features a lot more blood and has a more grim theme especially towards the characters. As we progress, our protagonists will have to endure great suffering. Rather than a lively, happy ending, this story has a more mature theme with real life consequences.
2. The animation is like an action series or movie as each movement flows fluidly from one scene to another. There is a lot of care and details that goes into each animation as you can even see the snow falling in the background of a particular scene. The character design and surroundings are consistent – making the whole anime a beautiful watch.
3. The opening music and closing soundtrack emit a dreadful yet hopeful feeling as the protagonist, although cursed to hunt demons, is getting stronger and improving as the story goes on. While there is not a lot of high paced music accompanying the action sequence, the sound effect and soft music compliments each scene greatly.
4. The first few episodes are fast paced with not much exposition, thus each lore is shown and not told through dialogue. Even the first episodes have actions scenes which is followed by Tanjirou’s training in the second episode. The series seem to jump from one action scene to the next, but at the same time, let the scenes breathe with its beautiful scenery.
5. You can tell that we are bound to be introduced to even more characters and demons as seen from the mention of a group of Demon Slaying Corps in the initial plot. Plus, with the anime’s theme being more mature and somber than the typical shounen anime, we definitely can expect a lot more action scenes coming soon.

Trivia about Kimetsu No Yaiba

1. Originally published as a manga on 15^th February 2016 and the first episode of the anime was released on 29^th March 2019.
2. This anime is produced by ufotable, a reputable Company that have directed a lot of the Fate Series and is well-known for their smooth and crisp battle scene animation.
3. The series is expected to be 26 episodes for the first Season and will be streaming on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and FunimationNow.
4. The series takes place in old Japan with the Demons and the Demon Slaying Corps running back to before the Sengoku Period.
5. The Demons called Oni in the series have a lot of weaknesses whereby most of them will die under sunlight or when their neck is cut clean by a specially made sword. The Demons’ strength is also proportionate to the amount of humans they eat with some even acquiring Blood Magic when they have eaten more than enough humans.

Verdict: Watch it!

Ufotable’s anime are well-known to have great animation as proven by their Fate anime series and movies. Their battle scenes are outstanding and very well made which you can see in this anime. When Tanjirou masters the training and is later shown to fight demons, the battle scenes are beautiful and captures the manga really well. I, for one will be following this anime and I hope you do so too.