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Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc
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spacedin
Posts: 44 |
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I get it, though; this is an action-comedy anime primarily written for an audience of middle-school-aged boys, so I'm not expecting the series ever to become high art.
Just curious: why not? Or a better question: if you think that works from genres other than action-comedy and targeting other demos than middle-school-aged boys are more conducive to becoming high art, it would be curious to know what those genres and demos are. |
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James_Beckett
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 283 Location: USA |
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The point is not that there are any genres or demographics that are incapable of achieving genuinely impressive artistry; the point is that Demon Slayer spends most of its time alternating between very loud, obnoxious comedy and over-the-top violence that feels designed primarily to entertain children, rather than aspiring to any challenging narrative complexity or thematic depth. This is not inherently a flaw, as I love plenty of similar shows and comics. It would be like if I said "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon from the 1980s isn't aspiring to high art" or "The Mario Bros Movie isn't aspiring to high art." It's not a condemnation. Just an observation. |
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Everlasting Coconut
 Posts: 316 |
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I agree that the Upper Moons meeting was unnecesarily dragged out and over-edited. It felt like an Indian soap opera at times, and the stuff in it was just not that interesting, spoiler[especially considering some of that stuff will never pay off, like the rivalry between Akaza and Upper Moon One or the mystery of the Biwa Woman.]
Episode two was a solid training episode. The puppet thingy was cool (and a pain in the butt to animate, I bet) and I like how it "rewarded" Tanjiro for his values instead of Tokito. I still think the execution of Demon Slayer's themes can be a little too kiddish, but it's overall okay. |
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nl_TvdL
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It seems to me people in general are too harsh about Demon Slayer. To the point when it's bad if it's not "really great". I actually enjoyed the premiere, even if it wasn't "transcending", it was a nice watch, like 4 outta 5. When i read these reviews and opinions, it screams "2 outta 5 max, dissapointing!" That's just not fair IMO.
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BurlySaiyanGod
Posts: 2 |
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Maybe because I binged watch the Entertainment District prior to the season premiere I thought the first episode was decent. After the conclusion of Entertainment District, and what our heroes went through, I thought the pace and tone was the right one. But I especially loved it when we got to see the Upper Ranks meet up in the Infinity Castle. I thought that was needed if we ever needed to get some context as to who these Upper Demons are, and how they need to come together. A much needed change if all we see is the protagonists journey (or Hashiras). But that is a strength of the series.
It was decent for what it was. But we do need some new characters and other angles. And so far, the writers still got some ideas up their sleeves. My opinion. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2110 |
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I wonder if Zenitsu's removal from the main story has to do with the attempts of making him funny to the point he needed to be asleep in several episodes to actually work with his teammates in the previous season. Still, I hate what they are doing with Nezuko. She is Tanjiro's sister and the heroine yet when we learn that Tanjiro has been in a coma for months and wakes up, we never see her in joy. In fact her screentime instead involved random gags with a Hashira who almost wanted her dead in season 1. It gets even worse when she finally took an overpowered form in season 2 only to be removed from the battle five minutes later.
It's like the author believes the main characters aren't appealing so she removed in favor of the Hashira similar to how Tite Kubo often does to Bleach to the point Sado became a joke while Rukia went from a damsel in distress in the Soul Society arc to one of the worst fighters in Arrancar with Grimmjow defeaing her twice in only one move. Then she disappeared in Hueco Mundo only for a brief fight and provide no impact into the story until Aizen's defeat which had to be the most rushed thing ever. |
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Kuzu
Posts: 149 |
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Let's see, we have complaints about Zenitsu being a terrible character and Nezuko not doing enough.
Yup, its another season of Demon Slayer alright. Now to wait for the inevitably well animated episode that all of Twitter will be talking about for a few weeks. |
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1305 |
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RIGHT? 
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L0ken
Posts: 81 |
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I don't think removal of Zenitsu and Inosuke for this arc is made for that reason (especially considering yellow boy is the most popular character in the series according to Japanese polls), it simply to narrow focus on Tanjiro, his connection to the past ancestors and small cast of characters that weren't given spotlight before, not only 2 Hashiras (btw Mitsuri never wanted Nezuko's dead, she was one of a few to be nice to them) but old characters like Genya and Haganezuka. Also dunno why you always expecting Nezuko to have significant screentime, her lack of focus and basically being support character that lot of time sleeping is fitting narrative punishment for being turned into a demon, I like it. Although I remember this arc in particular has more Nezuko moments then Entertainment district arc, probably the most in the series, so there is something to look forward |
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joac101
Posts: 62 |
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Honestly, I would rather watch the 15 minutes of the overdramatic scenes and visuals of the upper moon meeting in a trippy environment than 15 seconds of those obnoxious chibi "comedy" scenes. So I don't know why the first episode was praised less than the others. It's like when DS actually does something "interesting" for once it gets backlashed for it.
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spacedin
Posts: 44 |
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If it is not Zenitsu of DS getting criticized then it is Mineta of MHA. Sigh.
I am more interested in why/how "the comedic pervert" character came from in the first place, as it has been a pervasive part of shonen works for decades. The big 3? Jiraiya in Naruto. Kon in Bleach. Brook in One Piece. In Dragon Ball, 3 of the early main 4 male characters (Roshi, Oolong, Krillen) are perverts. And at times even the main character is a pervert like Ataru in Urusei Yatsura and at least half the protagonists in the ecchi shows that were real popular in the OVA era. Some of it may have originated with the famous Pigsy character in Journey to the West. But I have also seen a number of "monkey trickster" characters based on the Monkey King that are perverts too - which the original was not - so maybe it came from someplace else, and even the Pigsy character is a mere example of it? It is also different from the "ladies man" and "lover" character type that goes all the way back to Greek and Roman mythology (Zeus, Hercules etc) where the characters are depicted as promiscuous and amorous but not perverted. I guess it is something that would make for a really good Answer Man column, if it hasn't been asked and addressed already. |
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YourNameIsMitsuha
Posts: 66 |
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Okay now... to every reviewer criticizing the first episode of Demon Slayer: I'm getting a little sick of you guys acting like you don't know why this episode was extra long and a "a bloated, over-edited mess". Did you somehow miss that this was made to be played in a movie theatre after the end of the Entertainment District arc? Do you realize they have source material to work from, and have to schedule a target number of episodes? What did you want them to do here? You guys say that episode could have fit into a normal sized 25 minute premier, but would that really have done the villains justice? Would it have done the Kanroji fans justice? It felt a little long, even to me, but it was being shown first in theatres. Yeah, it makes sense that they would want to show off their technical GENIUS to a bunch of people in theatres who might not normally be watching the original series. Tell me what would have been a better premier, specifically. They had to introduce the remaining Upper 6, which is not enough for an episode on it's own, but which did need a respectable amount of time. What would the rest of the episode be, just getting to the Swordsmith Village? And the next episode would be what, him just settling in a bit and meeting the Mist Hashira? Sounds boring by itself. Then episode 3 would be in a real awkward place... The point here is, yes, it felt long, it's a bit unfortunate. But given where this was first being released, and that they have a lot of fairly slow set up to do before the Upper Rank demons show up in the Village, it's hard to imagine a better way to organize the original source material. If you're going to criticize it, I invite you to be specific as to what you would have preferred. For me, the only thing that really comes to mind is cutting out a minute of Akaza falling through the mansion and spend that time with Kanroji instead.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11583 |
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I really liked all the razzmatazz of zipping through Muzon's castle because it gave me a sense of just how creepy and bizarre the whole demon side of things really is, and provided a nice backdrop for the Upper Ranks' introductions.
I've never been a fan of the slapstick humor in DS, but at least it's a relief to not have quite so much screaming so far. My main issue with the second episode was that nobody, not Kotetsu, nor Tokito, nor even Tanjiro, noticed that the Type Zero was wearing Tanjiro's earrings. The fact that Muzon has made that a defining trait of his primary mortal enemy, specifically directing his minions to seek it out, must mean that it's not a design you see every day. You'd think Tanjiro at least would notice. |
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KarlFranz
Posts: 184 |
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Comedy came from their juxtaposition with the culture that they came from because people find the things that go against culture norm funny. For Japan, a culture where most people are suppose to be polite and reserve so Japanese comedy play up the opposite of those attributes. Like you can see this a lot when you watch Japanese traditional plays. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2616 |
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I feel mixed about how quickly the arc is to get into the action. The action is the part of the series that I love the most, but I also love the time that is taken to breathe in the world before everyone gets brutally sliced up.
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