I know I got the sword thing wrong, my bad I forgor. Anyway, if you liked the video make sure to like it, and if you want more check out this video on the incredible writing of Vinland Saga kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b5uHpNRl27WwgIE.html

The REAL critique is how demons are actually vampires but nobody’s ready to talk about that 😤

Tanjiro just breaking swords constantly forever would be funny. He could make lots of blacksmith friends that way.

Tnajiro's family dies: Copyright protection squad: 🕺🕺🕺

I'm surprised he didn't mention when Inosuke got stabbed in the heart with a poison dagger but through the power of plot armor he lived cause he "grew up in the woods and is immune to poison AND he can re-arrange his organs"

When I was reading Demon Slayer, the one thing that I kept feeling is, that Demon Slayer is trying to speed run to end the series as fast as possible. Every single down time the cast get to rest or get to know each other is skipped with "X months passed, we all improve. Now we need to move to the next arc quick quick quick!"

One of my main issues when reading the manga was I always felt Nezuko was treated more like a plot object than a character. Like she could be changed to a desirable vase with few major changes

You got me thinking about how suffering makes the demons so cruel, and I think a cool way that could factor into Nezuko's character is that she lived a life with supportive and loving people. Any suffering she had was shared with her family, who looked after each other and taught one another to care for the world and the people around them. That could explain why she doesn't want to kill her brother and learns to be gentle. Generally, Muzan and the demons who chose to make new demons target those who have been beaten down because they could be molded into killing machines with no care for human life. When someone does care for others, they will resist this urge, at least to a certain extent. This would allow the themes that you brought up to genuinely affect the world-building and story direction, and give Nezuko more of a purpose. I have always believed that she is the most criminally underused character.

Imagine if Genya, the only character that can turn himself into a demon, hunting after the footsteps of his brother, a Hashira, who has problems controlling himself while being a demon, and also has severe character flaws (being an asshole, refuses to communicate or work as a team, etc) was the actual main character. HE HAS A FUCKING SHOTGUN

Imagine how amazing it’d be if Nezuko constantly fought the demon inside her with her own love and maternal strength instead of being hypnotized to make her a mindless baby half the time. Then, she and her brother could actually talk to each other, mourn their family or squabble like actual siblings.

I just realized that if Genya and Nezuko worked together they would be unbeatable, because he could just eat a small part of Nezuko, fight with them, rinse and repeat and be unbeatable.

I've shown to a friend who didn't know Demon Slayer a picture of both Muzan and Kokushibo, and asked him to guess who is the final boss of the series. His words were: "Are you seriously gonna tell me that this Mickael Jackson doppelganger is the final boss over this guy with spider eyes?"

The problem with demon slayer is that when things happen we are expected to accept it and not ask questions

It's been over 30 years, and JoJo still has the coolest breathing ability

Talking about Shinobu and character writing/conflicts, I think it'd have been a lot better if Shinobu chose Insect Breathing and poisoning not because she's too weak to cut a demon's head off, but because she's grown to hate demons so much throughout her life that she actively refuses to cut their heads off, just so she can see them suffer for as long as possible.

Inosuke and tanjiro had more chemistry than their actual end love interests.

Sanemi Shinazugawa should have been the protagonist honestly. He has a nearly identical backstory as Tanjiro but has flaws that hold him back. Tanjiro could have worked if his flaws weren't played for laughs instead of something that affects the story. • Tanjiro is sometimes overly aggressive when offering help after someone says no, but it's seen as a joke. • Tanjiro cannot lie to save his life, but it's played off as a joke. • Tanjiro is overly protective of his sister (understandably) but it doesn't hold him back. • Tanjiro is reckless with his sword, but it's the blacksmith’s fault. • Tanjiro acts like a second parent to the other boys, but once again it's for some goofy scene.

nezuko could literally be tanjiro’s pet dog sidekick and nothing would change about her besides the fact that she wouldn’t end up married to one of the most annoying side characters.

My favourite part of demon slayer is the "Backstory no jutsu" that happens every time someone is fighting.

I dropped this show when they were like "By the way, while you were gone I took the liberty of hypnotizing your sister so that she's forced to put herself in extreme danger to protect others" "Cool, what's for dinner?"

You have massive balls for ridiculing a series this popular

Its funny to think about how Tanjiro was so incompetent that literal dead people had to come help him.

a way to make Zenitsu's "falling asleep" thing work is that a method he uses to overcome his fear is to close his eyes. And this time, it actually has drawbacks: HIS EYES ARE CLOSED. it could also make his fighting style stand out more from other breathing, as he takes a "blind swordsman" style compared to others

Demon slayer had so much potential, it pains me to see how it actually deserves the popularity it has if the author just decided to add more than just tanjiro saying "Oh no! I cant move my body" for 5 mins"

Demon Slayer is amazing at making you feel like you've missed several episodes without actually missing any

Demon Slayer is absolutely an animation carry. It's also hilarious how it outsold the entire American comic industry, lol.

The worst part about Demon slayer is not its enormous tone of flaws but how easily they could have been turned into strength with a simple consideration for the question "whats the point of this ?" every time the author has an idea.

To be honest, the only thing I ever seem to praise about Demon Slayer is the animation, and I just realized that was the case. I agree with everything you've said, I watch Demon slayer mostly because I need a distraction and just, awooga pretty animation. I hope Ufotable moves on after Demon slayer to something with better writing perhaps? Their animation is incredible for real.

25:36 What annoys me about this is that the demons said that they’ve disposed of multiple hashira by the point Tanjiro made it to them. So, why didn’t they think “Wow… So many hashira seem to keep disappearing in this district. We should probably investigate this by sending at least three hashira.”

Nezuko is in my opinion the biggest waste of a character in Demon slyer and perhaps in any anime I've seen. Nezuko had the potential to be a character who wrestles with her humanity constantly having the urge to eat humans but also wanting to help them and from that we'd see her inner monologue of this the whole time. Instead we got Nezuko being nothing more than a dog. She's cute when she needs to be, she'll can attack who ever she needs to, and can't speak. She could've been an amazing deuteragonist but instead can't even be called a character as she just isn't one. I know that at the end of the latest season she learned to speak but I doubt anything will be done with that.

I literally never got the "no one knows about demons" thing. Why the hell don't they tell people about demons? It would be so much easier for the demon slayer corps to operate if people knew who they were and what they were doing.

Omg I thought I was legit going crazy and missing smth HUGE for literally not caring about Rengoku's death, like...he was such a non-character to me, barely knew the guy. I never understood why people would legit say his death wrecked them???

My guy, where's the Nezuko section? Because when I started DS I was so excited to see a girl in a mainstream/popular shounen series go into sicko mode and kill some enemies. But I stopped watching at the end of the train arc because that singular arc made it glaringly obvious Nezuko was never going to kick ass and that she had no character other than being a distraction for the enemies at best and being a cute *silent* mascot for the boys at worst. Her "writing" is atrocious and misogynistic to boot.

One bit I do think that was done well with Rengoku is that after his death, he doesn't stop existing and we don't stop learning about him. We discover other connections he had within the corps. We learn about his family (his father was and still is an asshole), that he's actually mentored other Hashira before (he trained Mitsuri in Fire Breathing before she modified it to better suit her own needs). A lot of people don't really do that. the character dies and suddenly the world forgets about them except maybe during an important speech or at the very end when totaling the body count. So, props for that.

Y'know something funny, you explained Genya's ability and limitation and my first thought was "Why isn't he the protagonist?"

Demon Slayer straight up is a mediocre shonen manga that got adapted by arguably the best animation studio in Japan lol. Ufotable took a mid series into a fucking art piece lol

The worst sin of Demon Slayer is going too fast and too slow at the same time. Oh you want to power-up Tanjiro fast? Make a 6 month timeskip in the first episode of the story. Oh you want to get to the higher ranked Demons but there are some lower ones yet? Write them out of the story. Oh you want to develop many characters but you still want fights to appear frequently? Just get them a falshback before their death 10 minutes after introducing the character. Abusive timeskips to heal or power-up characters make me lose faith in the world building, and jumping to higher and higher threats by skipping some "power levels" entirely is wrong (And yet I like that story, It's still a good time, even in the manga, it just deserves less attention from the media and public)

Crazy how the ufotable knew that demon slayer is poorly written so they knew they had to start cooking up a storm with the animation.

As someone who likes to look at different perspectives of media that i enjoy/love, i entirely agree with this review. Now, that said, i still really love demon slayer, but i can absolutely agree that it is deeply flawed. I always look for videos like these so that i can view shows in a well rounded manner and be educated on what makes something truly special, and it never ceases to amaze me what i dont think of, and the similar things that i do think of, while im actively watching something, especially when i havent finished all of whats been released yet. I really appreciate this because i have had some really big questions that you helped answer, and it helps clarify things for me. I cant wait to watch Berserk based on your glowing review, and these video essays truly help me to open my mind up and think, what does this mean? Why are they doing this? Is this character REALLY written well? Etc.... so yes, while its great to agree with other viewpoints, i hope no one actually watches stuff like this and then feels like oh since he said this and i realize it now, i shouldnt be a fan, and then is sad and tries to dislike it. And i surely dont think thats what our guy is doing either. So just because theres a different POV of something you love that you agree with, DOES NOT MEAN that you cant or shouldnt still like/love said thing! So thank you for this amazing review, you really cleared some stuff up/ helped me clarify what i should be asking myself when it comes to the shows, movies, and even music that i love, keep an open mind guys!! Much love❤❤❤

I think this is an exercise in showing that amazing animation can make even the worst stories extremely popular.

I think the absolutely simplistic plotline is partly why it's so popular. I sat down to watch Mugen Train with my little brother (he's really into the series) and my parents decided to join us. Neither of them had seen the first season and it only took a minute to catch them up with a summary. No one had any problems keeping up with the story and my mother cried her eyes out over Rengoku. The action kept my father engaged (a crazy feat as he isn't much of a television person) and the humor had my brother rolling. It's not the peak of storytelling by any means, but it can keep an audience entertained and engaged at multiple age groups, which is a strength all on its own.

My first introduction to Demon Slayer was watching Mugen Train in theaters with my friends. I loved it, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, and I adored Rengoku. Except... one problem: I made the mistake of assuming Rengoku was an established character, and I wondered about all the character building I had missed by jumping into Mugen Train. I was really disapointed when I actually started watching Demon Slayer, and Rengoku only had like... 3 lines.

I love when Tanjiro says “It’s Demon Slayin’ time!” And Rengoku’s all over Muzan.

I'm now obsessed with "HE'S JUST AWAKE BUT WITH MORE STEPS"

The best way to put it: The manga feels incomplete. There are things that feel like they were supposed to be developed later on.

I think you're the only person I've seen address how Rengoku (and other Hashira) went from wanting to kill Tanjiro simply for sheltering a non-violent demon to being perfectly buddy-buddy afterward without any on-screen development. It was so weird and jarring to read, and before the Demon Train arc I had no idea why Rengoku could possibly be so popular.

You can see how little they care about any other character ASIDE from Tajiro in how Rengoku, Tengen, and most other characters dont even KNOW or SAY Zenitsu's or Inosuke's names. When Rengoku is giving his big speech, he literally refers to Tanjiro by his name but the other two as "yellow haired boy" and "boar masked". I get that the boy is the main character but COME ON. A main character means nothing if he doesn't have good supporting characters. The author is basically telling us the other side characters aren't worth remembering. In the world of demon slayer, everything and every person revolves around Tanjiro's existence. You even see this with Tanjiro forming better developed relationships with other characters than literal siblings or friends within the show. Like Aoi and Kanao, and Kanao and Shinobu are basically sisters, but it's Tanjiro who helps Aoi realize she's important? It's Tanjiro who helps Kanao gain her voice? (Manga Spoiler) Even during Shinobu's death, she considers Tanjiro's words before even thinking about Kanao, and when she does think of her she thinks of her in a very general sense. The other characters are so clearly made to be friends with Tanjiro alone that relationships within the show that aren't related to him are completely disregarded. The reason why shows like FMAB, Jujutsu Kaisen, even Haikyuu are good is because you see characters that arent the mc growing individually and creating relationships unrelated to the mc, many times even better developed relationships. You're allowed to focus on one character but when that single character is all that exists there becomes no world outside of them. It's the equivalent to some disney channel show where everything revolves around the star and all other characters exist to adore them or hate them.

Funny how SAO and Demon Slayer have pretty similar heck exact same problems. But one is a "MASTERPIECE" while people shit on others.

My biggest issue is that they want to portray the demons as once being human and not entirely evil, but they wait until the very last moment and only use a backstory to do it. Why not show Ume and Gyutaro being siblings and make them a parallel of Tanjiro and Nezuko? Maybe the main cast can lead Daki into a trap and bait Gyutaro into coming after her because he cares more about his sister than he does about himself? That would give a good point of tension in Tanjiro's arc as well, he had to exploit someone's love for their family in order to kill them both. Thats a fucking awful thing to have to do and maybe because of that the show can examine what humanity is. If we're willing to do bad things for "good reasons," how blurry can the line be to just doing bad?

Honestly, I found a lot more enjoyment in watching Demon Slayer when I treat it like watching an episode of WWE. Characters getting introduced with some slight backstory to their gimmick and then being thrown into the ring to do cool fights, all building up to the season finale where we see who becomes the new champion. Works pretty well for me

I honestly feel like My Hero Academia is beginning to suffer from a lot of the same issues that not just Demon Slayer, but damn near every modern made shonnen suffers from. Speed running through any meaningful character writing, introducing characters that are supposed to be super strong but just die flaccidly after 20 minutes of screen time, and all the characters are beginning to all feel like half baked caricatures rather than characters with any sort of relatability

2:38 ok this is actually insane. So many other Mangaka would have deserved that way more than Gotouge.

Man, i always thought "wouldn't it make Inosuke's character much more interesting and the power dynamics also if he's more physically capable than the main three?" You could have him be more in tune with his body through his wild upbringing and while he may start out more skilled (he's ripped, yet that doesn't make any difference whatsoever) Tanjor could level the playing field more as he's able to adept his strategy rather than relying on brute force and talent. But alas, Inosuke is quickly just another bystander to Tanjiro doing all the heavy lifting, who's clearly the strongest and most important overall

My big problem with Demon Slayer is they have a whole system of different powers, but Tanjiro solves all his problems with "But what if I TRY HARDER?" Like, Jojo started that way, then Araki realized that was boring so he changed it from "but what if I TRY HARDER" to "But what if I use my air magic karate ghost to make pure oxygen that freezes the poison slime that other guy's poison snail karate ghost uses to make my hands invisible, and then I can punch his stupid face?" And like, I'm a sucker for the hero trying harder, but you can do BOTH (cough cough steel ball run cough)

In my opinion, it was season 2, where all of the potential of an interesting story died. It is not the worst season or saga chapter, but it was where all of the elements of shock value, ultimate plot armor, and the death of character development were the most prominent. There were many points of potential for character arc and development, and it was either missed or contrived. From Zentisu suddenly becoming a white knight when he does nothing but harass women, Tanjiro being completely stupid when he picks a hopeless fight with a dangerous demon instead of being smart and trying to defuse the situation before innocent people get hurt. The biggest example for me is Nezuko vs Daki, because instead of Nezuko being forced to use some intelligence and strategies for her fights, she's just given a unearned power boost with no buildup or effort and just wipes the floor with an experienced Upper Moon demon with a much more integrated power set. It was just a bad fight. The emotions for certain scenes were lacking, again, with Nezuko. She's too hollow to be invested in and too perfect and privileged to feel bad for because, just like Tanjiro, she is just flawless. The villains were probably the best and only characters in the story. I liked Daki and Gyutaro alot, and I appreciated seeing actual personalities in a demon and how circumstances can shape a person. But they were just too stupid to be realistic in the end. Don't get started on Gyutaro being an idiot at the end for no reason. Tengen should have died. His survival makes no sense. He should at least have died after the battle. Inosuke should be dead. His survival was just stupid. The Yoshiwara destruction should have had some major consequences. Like the Demons and Demon Slayers being exposed. Tanjiro should have learned of the Daki and Gyutaro’s backstory somehow, so his perspective on humanity could be tested. (Doing something like Tanjiro's nose can smell memories or something. I mean he can smell feelings and actions, so smelling memories shouldn't be.)

And I was called crazy when I said Demon Slayer was not all the hype when you really pay attention to it. Subscribed ✅

The facts that the first Upper Moon had to be killed by Tanjiro gets even more outlandish and funny, considering that *21* Hashira got sent to kill them before and all failed 💀

I’ll be honest, Rengoku’s death got a little emotion out of me, not because of Tanjiro and his friends wailing. But solely because his crow was crying. That’s it. The bird shedding a tear was more than enough for me lol

Did I watch this entire video and agree with every point? Yes. Am I still going to watch the series? Also yes.

actualy, I've heard that there is ONE female (side) character that doesn't use a feminine breathing style it's aoi. yes, the girl from the butterfly mansion that's inosuke's love interest to the fandom. you might then think "well, why isn't she a demon slayer with the rest of the cast??".... it's because she got insecure after seeing muichiro fight demons so easily during the final selection... I am so mad about that.

I promise you if studio DEEN was the one animating demon slayer not a soul would care

Another quick thing is how lacking Muzan is as the main antagonist I just feel like you’re supposed to fear him, you’re supposed to feel like he’s the big bad but it’s just underdeveloped bc he’s not involved in the story enough especially since he doesn’t directly interact with tanjiro that often

You nailed the problem with Tanjiro. I was cringing everytime he had felt super sad about killing the demons who themselves killed dozens if not HUNDREDS of people! I swear, dude could kill Hitler and still feel bad about it

Genya and Nezuko are both utterly fascinating character concepts that their author somehow managed to underuse and do horribly wrong in Nezuko’s case. You can’t argue that Nezuko retains more of her humanity than the other demons when he actually shows less depth

RE: the suggested change to Rengoku's death: Imagine if he clearly defined himself by protecting People, and establish that he does NOT see demons as people, just monsters. Then when he sacrifices himself for Nezuko, he could repeat a line about how he protects people. And so we have an indirect method, via the repetition of a line with new meaning, that he now recognizes her as a person, not just a demon.

The immense popularity of Demon Slayer owes itself to the gorgeous animation. Strip that away and it's a simplistic but decent story with some heart (a brother tryna save his younger sister).

Holy.. this was the critique I've been looking for. I couldn't understand what I was missing that everyone was praising it for(aside from animation, but even then it wasn't always amazing in that department either). Almost felt like the world around me was 'gaslighting' me into thinking this is actually well written fiction when I KNOW it's not. I'm surprised there was no mention on how convenient Nezuko's powers are

You said that you won't really change someone's mind, but i have to say I've absolutely changed my mind about demon slayer. I finished reading manga quite recently, and i really couldn't point my finger at the specific things i don't like, but you managed to summarise them extremely well and easy to understand. Great job, man, keep this up!

I'm half-way through and holy crap, Rengoku is doing a bang-up job staying alive and talking to Tanjiro while sporting a hole in his chest that not even a Terminator could cause.

One of my biggest problems with demon slayer is that the Hashira and the main gang seem like the only demon slayers. There are tons of others that you see just constantly dying like canon fodder and seem like they can't use breathing at all and contribute nothing. This is explained as people either quickly die or become powerful but you never see anyone rise up to near Hashira levels besides Tanjiro and all the Hashira just seem to be complacently waiting around for their arc. Like, HOW did these nine become Hashira in the first place? It feels like some are just Hashira because there need to be powerful people to fight with Tanjiro but even by the end of the series Tanjiro never meets their level of skills and power.

what I can't stand about demon slayer is how they have the characters (mainly Tanjiro) explain everything that is happening to them. Someone is running towards Tanjiro and he goes "Oh no! He's running towards me!" like yes dude we see it

The most interesting implication for a character in this story is that one kid who’s descended from the OG sun breath user. He uses fog breathing or something, and everyone’s like “he’s descended from that one guy!! That makes him important!” And then Tanjiro shows up and he’s just some guy. That can sun breathe. Like, imagine being fog boy.

The thing about the Hashira not teaming up is a glaring plot hole. I don't think they'd need a territory to be stationed at if you have so many ranks of demon slayers Y'all are at war, these fights should be 3+ Hashira fighting an upper rank in all fights

I never considered the big bad a fedora-tipper, but still couldn't stop feeling like the dude's gonna do the moonwalk and go "Hee-hee!" any moment...

I remember watching Mugen Train and when I reached the end of it I thought to myself “Was I supposed to cry just now? Am I heartless?” Turns out it was just poor writing🤦

I read all of Demon Slayer in the span of about a week or so, probably about two years ago. For the longest time, I literally could only remember Tanjirou, Nezuko, Inosuke, and Rengoku’s names. I could not remember anyone else’s. Demon Slayer’s characters just do not have that memorability for me, and have almost zero staying power. The only ones above whose names I could remember were due to main character and main character’s sister, funny boar man, and ridiculous hair guy. Inosuke was the only one that had a real personality, silly as it was. My reaction when finishing it was “yeah it was ok”. Compare to Bleach, which had more memorable characters that I still think back to sometimes. Excellent analysis!

It starts so strong but the ending feels like the author was totally done with the story. Absolutely speed ran the moons. Also never really developed Tanjiro in any meaningful way.

I am a roleplayer (yes ik weird) and I originally thought the demon slayer writing was decent until people had started asking questions (this was a group roleplay) and I started doing research and I realized there was little to no info on ANYTHING, a lot of the plot points just happened because IT D I D

As an amateur writer myself, I sometimes watch critique videos like this to try and fish out some points to flesh out on. Either I'm too tired to use my brain right now, or I'm not finding anything really worth building off of. Cheers man, great video :D

I enjoy Demon Slayer, but never really took it too seriously. I already had some of the same criticisms that you mentioned like lack of set up/ characters looking all the same age and babyish/no real difference in breathing techniques. And you pointed out more that I do agree with. However I’ll still watch cause at least pretty colors and nice music 😁

As an illustrator, I come back to Demon Slayer specifically for the art. But goddamn it feels like a chore to get through any of the storytelling in the show.

Here's how you fix sun breathing. It's the most powerful breathing form against demons because it gives the user the intensity of demons' weakness, the goddamn sun. But it has a massive drawback. Because it has the power of the sun, it can easily kill the user and takes very intense training to master. Even in the training, many trainees have died, which is why there are so few sun breathers. Because Tanjiro is a water breather, even the basics of sun breathing are difficult because the sun literally evaporates water. Imagine a training arc where you're constantly on edge that Tanjiro will die and fucks up his body in the process, and if other characters actually died training sun breathing. And imagine how rewarding it would be when Tanjiro finally masters sun breathing and defeats a powerful foe. See how easy that was?

how the fuck genya is not the protagonist? their story sound way better than plainjiro. how a missed opportunnity

demon slayer is hard carried by its animation, its so beautiful but the story is so bland and boring

You know what? You kinda changed my mind about this show. I still like aspects of it, but you were able to put into words many things I didn´t find sense in while reading the manga perfectly, that helped me see better why I wasn´t satisfied with it all. Thanks for the video lmao

I always found it so silly that Nezuko is basically just a mascot for the entire series. When watching the anime for the first time I was confused why Tanjiro never really tried to communicate with his sister beside some small comedy moments and when they literally hit pause on the whole nezuko thing by purtting her in a coma so that Tanjior can have his training arc I knew that Nezukos character would never be anything else than motivation and gimmick for Tanjiro since he is obviously the important main character. The start of the series sets up a somewhat compeling dynamic between the two and then proceeds to do literally nothing with it. Like they could have even solved the issue on why Tanjior is special and able to defeat demons no one else can with his cooperation wit Nezuko and their teamwork instead of just giving him secret magic powerup.

We needed this

Genya is the best character for 1 reason GUN

"There is not a single female character that doesn't use a feminine breathing style." Welcome to Japan.

This genya segment make me realise just how much cool he would have been if he was the main character , imagine the sheer despair he would feel that he can't be at all a demon slayer because he can't use breathing technique , the story we could tell how he discover he can eat demon to gain stronger and how much it tell about is willpower , the shame he must feel about is brother , the potential of conflits with demon because how how much can resemble them in a fight , damn i want this story NOW.

Long story short, Demon Slayer has good animation and an average plot. _I’ve seen this trope before…_

bro, the way you re-write Rengoku... why didn't they thought about that?

As a fan of the show, I thank you for broadening my perspective. One issue that I've had with demon slayer is the lack of character to character interactions, it always feels like the opportunity is there for the characters to share their perspectives or information on how their breathing styles work or how the Hashira mesh with other Hashira but whether the story is going mach 10 or if they want to immediately jump into demon fights, it just feels wasteful to the story at large for so many characters to exist but give barely any words to each other. By the way, one thing I don't get about Genya..., what got Tanjiro to the front door step of the Master was his allyship with his sister Nezuko the demon. At the time, most of the Hashira bucked at the idea but in comes Genya, someone who can literally become a demon, and that doesn't get any attention...? I don't know if it gets a spotlight later, but its been sitting at the back of my head for quite a bit as like a massive unaddressed yet similar conflict of interest.

I'm so happy you brought up the Rengoku example. I watched S1 after it ended cause everyone was hyping it up. I thought "ok, regular shonen elevated by the visuals". Then I waited for S2 to come out in full. I watched the train arc and I just could not get into it. The delivery was so below mediocre, but every single second I could feel the show telling me how I'm "supposed to feel" about Rengoku and it felt kinda insulting to me as a viewer. And then other people online were crying out how sad it was and I started thinking I had gone crazy. It didn't help that while I was watching it, my gf came into the room, watched for like 3 minutes and she goes: wow, these people sure do monologue a lot. That line broke the mirage for me. I started noticing that for every 10 second of sakuga, there's like a 4 minutes poorly written monologue that's just un-needed explanations, exposition or emotional propaganda. I couldn't stomach the show anymore.

Great video. Now I know what NOT to do

Another critique to add that branches off the point you made about misogyny is how Nezuko is treated in the narrative. She’s the only female main, yet she’s basically just a cute mute mascot that they literally shove into a box until it’s convenient. She has times of being powerful, but again, only when convenient. After becoming a demon, she’s basically mentally reduced to a toddler. We know nothing about how she feels about turning into a demon, or even about her entire family being killed *while she was there.* Her entire existence is what drives the plot, so she should have more relevance than just “cute demon sister”

I like its story, but the animation is definitely the selling point

Ngl, that Genya section just made me realize he should’ve been the protagonist. He had a very tragic backstory, a good motivation, Sanemi(his older brother, scar hashira dude for the uninformed) as a sort of roadblock. Hell, Tanjiro could’ve been a perfect foil, the kid with the strongest breathing style and a good relationship with his demonic sister while Genya has a shitty one with his human brother. I recently saw a comic where Genya bonded with Shinobu(poison breathing hashira) because they both had deficiencies as demon slayers and I think that would’ve been fucking awesome to see in the actual series

this series is a shounen speedrun. the novelty people are enamored with is that it isn't 600+ chapters when the issue is that it didn't get to make anything really happen with its extended cast. basically lol2short

Demon Slayer is basically the Michael Bay Transformers of anime, looks pretty cool and entertaining but the story is nothing deep and no relatable main characters.