Zenitsu is a coward is well, bcuz his super hearing, he literally hears the breathing, the heart beats etc. Etc. In the first season, spider arc thingy, he could hear the screams of the other slayers, their breathing everythint ofc he's scared, but I can't and won't defend him of his perv behaviours :3

The thing is do not sleep on zenitsu he is a good coward or representation of a coward and he does have an upcoming important reason on why he is a demon slayer coming up when the new season comes out

Very interesting video I will say as a general recommendation if you’re interested in looking more into the idea of hard magic systems is Brandon Sanderson. He is one of the most popular modern fantasy writers today but he is know for his magic systems specifically in the fact that they are very hard magic systems and in general he has thought up of rules he follows called Sanderson laws of magic. I think it is a very well thought out look into magic systems in general and what makes hard magic systems so interesting.

Stark for me has the qualities of both Eisen AND Himmel. He is a scaredy cat warrior who will do what he must when it counts. His heart is pure and soft, with no intention of gathering fame, he always attract others to him. He is the kindest warrior with the softest soul.

What I want to know is how being annoying and being afraid is even a comparable talking point worthy of a video explaining why both are different

that and also zenitsu LITERALLY NEVER STOPS SCREAMING OH MY GOD SHUT THE FUCK UP ZENITSU PLEASE

Literally Courage the Cowardy Dog does everything better than Zennitsu. He's always afraid but its justified, he grows in small ways, we know why he continues to push forward despite never loosing fear. And he doesn't need to be unconscious.

What is the music that keeps playing in the background? It's so quiet and soft but hits all the right notes for me to dive into the video like I'm drowning and getting lost forever in its depths. ...And then the video ends, the music stops, and my soul is jolted back into my body.

Will you ever cover Fern's character? I enjoy your videos greatly and wanna share one with my friend who hates Fern for a nonsensical reason but I'm not eloquent enough to prove him wrong lol

Zennitsu well... he's not just annoying he can make the entire show entirely unwatchable. That kind of writting is well its not for me but thank you for explain why he's so unbareable to tolerance as just a cast member in a story 😩 As a character he's so annoying but to have him basically operate in such a way that you have to suspend all disbelief just for his character is so absurd. Wich honestly i wouldn't mind if he wasn't so annoying of a person. I already didn't like Demon Slayer that much cuz it started to loose what made it interesting early on but when Zenitsu got introduced it just destroyed any incentive to keep watching.

The thing with demon slayer is its story and Characters are just both clique and mid the only reason its even popular is because of the animation and the fact those cliques are "enjoyable"

I am so so SO happy that I’m not the only person who feels their nerves being grated on by Zenitsu! I genuinely dislike him as a character exactly for the reasons stated in this video, yet I was never really able to vocalize it or find the correct words to describe exactly how I felt. I also can’t stand the way he acts around Nezuko (p.s. I really liked this video and will definitely check out the series, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on the “pervert” archetype in anime/media in general)

Free rent can be your angle or your double

I think a great example of this trope in a much more subtle way is Aang from atla. In much the same way, he runs away from his problems and has to overcome his fears. But not only are they grounded in a very realistic way given that he's 12 and given the weight of the world, it takes a lot of time for him to grow past that. And when he does, it isn't just one and done. He achieves multiple new skills, and does it by completely changing his perspective on himself and the world around him. I feel like its also more easy to enjoy this trope when it's not the characters defining trait. Most of these well written cowards have multiple aspects that draw you in. Cowardice is their flaw you root for them to overcome.

As someone who has come from the future, I gotta say. The critic is valid but becomes void during the final arc due to his character development.

The thing is they have a reason why he’s in the corp cause of his grandpa figure and he changes after his death so they have both a change and a reason to not walk away

Ye zenitsu is a dogshit character I pretty much skip every scene hes in just to protect myself from disappointment and cringe Usopp felt annoying sometimes but never to zenitsus degree, because instead of adding nothing to the story usopp actually used his fear to overcome far stronger people than himself through tricks and traps Zenitsu just blacks out and becomes strong. No effort

The yellow one is also very annoying

zenitsu can be annoying sometimes but hes still goated in my eyes😔😔

This is a fascinating look at the demons in Frieren, but your general idea that all media, including media aimed at adults, needs and has to have a moral is...odd. Adults already know SA/etc is bad. We already know, so we don't need to be told it is, either by the characters, the narrative, or the author, because if we didn't know that, there are MUCH bigger problems with the reader than the author. That's the biggest difference between children's media and adult media. Not the themes portrayed, because children can already have been exposed to 'adult things' in real life. It's whether or not the media assumes you already have developed a sense of right and wrong enough to not need to be told it. Just like sometimes the curtains are just blue, sometimes there is no moral, and recognizing that is part of media literacy.

Idk how to explain how I dislike Zenitsu. He's annoying but idk what kind of type of annoying. Usop is indeed a coward, but he is actually normal-clear-headed character at some point.

I don't get Zenitsu's coward character as well, I think they tried so hard to show the audience his cowardliness and strength which ultimately failed as it is just overreacting. King from One Punch man is another anime character that did the correct way of displaying the cowardliness.

Zenitsu is the reason why I quit Demon Slayer after watching season 1.

I interpret Zenitsu's whining as way of coping with what he has to do, as someone who may scowl and complain but will also try to live up to my responsibilities. Rather than bottle his fear and frustration in a more manly way, he has a fit but then does the thing anyway. I'm not saying the writing in Demon Slayer is top tier and probably other characters of this archetype are written in a way that appeals more to general audiences, but I find myself fond of Zenitsu despite his outbursts and whining because he does the work, he sticks around until the end, and he ultimately proves his selflessness in the face of adversity. He doesn't find the courage to do this through any motivation from a personal cause or vendetta, but because it feels like the right thing to do. I think that's a relatable and realistic struggle.

could not help but think about the current arc in JJK for this video. succinctly well put, pey!

//This is a rant, a long one for some reason, I'm sorry for it, but Ive been holding it in since the end of the manga in 2020. I will always say this about Demon Slayer and its that it felt rushed, especially in the manga, sure I felt sad and I cried when people died or left but there was so much to be left unknown or in the air which is probably due to its writing being not the best. Huge character growth always occurred at the end of their story, their regrets, emotions, desires all revealed at the end and as a reader it felt like a excuse for how they turned out at the end. The anwser or cover up to why they are getting better without showing it, I hated that the wind hashira, mist and snake hashira ends where written exactly for this reason (also why I liked that the anime added more of them, and made them more likeable), all their reasons being revealed at the end of their tale and an excuse to why we should feel sad for them. The Water Hashira and Butterfly Hashiras reasons are actually mentioned before, we actually get to know them a little more, the water hashira having the most on screen growth for a secondary character, the reason in my opinion is just rushed writing. Demon Slayer is a REALLY short manga ending with about 80 chapters, if youve read manga before you might notice why this is bad especially with how much it tries to tell, 80 chapters is so short in my opinion that it gives the obvious anwser why all these characters have barely any growth, Zenitsu's growth being revealed as something that occured off screen at the end is awful for his character, because it tells the reader yeah it occured, yeah he realised it, but we decided to not show you. Demon Slayer is a fast read you can read for fun and reread a few chapters to remember stuff but if you reread it completly you might just realise all the gaps and missed opportunities lost. Demon slayers main character Tanjiro isnt a badly written character due to him being a main character we see the prespective of, and yes there are other pretty good written characters in Demon Slayer because we get to see their prespectives as well during the seasons, and they continue to grow through the series either by the actions or behavior changing in the background, which is something Zenitsu lacks, when he interacts with other characters in the background he always acts like the first time we meet him, scared or forced, and as we see in the most recent season he finally actually locks in, WHICH IS SHOWN OFF SCREEN. Considering the changes in the anime the author themselves is probably aware of the missed chances to explain or show more of that growth, I really wish we had been able to see Zenitsu lock in, but at least we got more screen of Wind snake and mist so we got more growth of them before the end. Also another huge disadvantage for Demon Slayer is that alot of scenes with their growth or change in behaviour, such as gun shooter themselves is that its done in small sketched up comics at the end of the manga volumes, little scenes that could key us in on their growth put in little drawings in the middle or end, it isnt bad for the manga thats great, the anime though, the anime will usually cut it out. Also alot of extra content is anwsered in QnA, Art books explaining the manga. I just we got it shown to us instead of told it happend. (Is it to hard to ask for more Zenitsu on screen growth, I READ IT HAPPEN, THE NARRATIVE TOLD US JUST SHOW MEEEEEEEEEEE), sorry for this badly written rant about Zenitsu lack of screen time, even inouske who lacks just as much screen time has more growth because he has background growth we can see pig boy act a bit more differently as the story progresses, act more caring about the people around him.

I can't believe he didn't just binge One Piece for this video. It would have only taken a month or two.

What also does not help Zenitsu is that he's the type of coward that screams annoyingly loud all of the time with a voice that does not help. No one likes a character that is just annoying to listen to when he's on screen, let alone one with poor character development. When it comes to Zenitsu that always bothered me is how the heck he was even trained as a demon slayer in the first place. Even if he has the potential, he remained a coward who could never face demons properly until the very end of his training, let alone fight them. You would think that common sense dictates to find a different pupil to pass the techniques on who is willing to face the demons.

If you want to talk about realism, if you experience something every day that is life threatening, eventually you are going to go pretty numb to it. Or at the very least, you're not going to freak out and scream your head off every time.

I feel like I interpreted zenitsu's character arc differently. I don't think he's ever been a coward just because that's how he is. His fear comes from his lack of confidence in a world filled with monsters that are stronger than him, or at least, he believes they're stronger than him. Zenitsu's training consisted of failing to ever learn another form outside of the first form of his breathing style, already something to make someone feel like a failure, add on top of that, that he had a brother training with him who consistently put him down and told him how weak he was. His fear and cowardice is born from trauma suffered, and he does actually grow in confidence as the series goes on. Obviously trauma is a difficult thing to get through, during the first season he mostly lacks a lot of confidence, has effectively none in him self. But already into the second season, we see him willing to stand up to a hashira because his friends are with him, yes he is still scared, but he doesn't just back down. We even begin to see that fear becoming resentment, finding more anger than fear against the hashira. By the third season, zenitsu is healed up faster than tanjiro and off on missions on his own, mostly fine. He'd built up a lot of confidence by this point and as far as we know, he stopped sleeping to fight. At the end of this most recent season, stop reading if you haven't watched it, Zenitsu is falling through the infinity castle and is completely calm and focused which even the hashiras have a look of fear on their face. Manga spoilers, he even defeats an upper moon by himself, without freaking out, completely awake. I personally think Inosuke is the worst written out of the three. As for why he stayed a demon slayer, there are three main reasons for why Zenitsu never leaves the corps. The first and most obvious one, is his friends. Inosuke and Tanjiro have become like brothers to him, he trains all the time with them, he's been through multiple life and death situations with them. This includes tanjiro's sister who zenitsu is in love with, all people he would never get to see again or grow along side if he quit. Second reason, Zenitsu has the closest thing to family to him, in the demon slayer corps, the swordsman he trained alongside and respects who he also saw as a brother. Lastly, the guilt he would feel for throwing away the hard work his gramps went through to teach him the breathing style, he'd essentially be telling him that he's wrong if he quit because his gramps believed in him and always told him that. Words coming from someone who means so much to you, especially from a former hashira, hold a lot of weight.

going back to Gabe Newell, he might;ve written or atleast helped write one of the best cowardly characters in all of video games, The Scout from team fortress 2. Scout feels the need to seem fearless, being the youngest of 8 mean brothers, he needed to really excercise his mouth to have anyone be afraid of him without knowing about who his brothers were. So naturally as a man in his late 20s, scout still feels this need to talk about himself and how great he is even when he doesn't even believe it himself. Scout despite having confidence in his own ability to fight against basic enemies that he comes across, snipers, engineers, or other scouts, shows signs of fear in his voicelines when faced with classes that would be something akin to scouts older brothers as a kid, demoman, pyro, soldier, and heavy. 3 of the classes tower over scout, with Scout not being exactly small himself, 5 foot 11 and a half, the only one he's taller than is pyro who is half an inch shorter, but the other 3 make scout look tiny, especially when factoring in scouts naturally hunched posture,, Soldier is 6 feet tall on the dot, Demoman is 6 foot 1, and Heavy is 6 foot 4 and a half or 6 foot 5 depending on how you wanna measure him. Scout in many valve and fan made shorts is shown to constantly be afraid of these classes when he doesn't have the element of surprise or any immediate weapons. Pyro scaring him due to his chaotic nature, Soldier's constant willingness to be brutal to enemy and ally alike, Demoman's drunken rampages, and Heavy just being a big stoic strong man. At first you'd think "Well everyone's afraid of these guys, how is scout the coward?" But you'd be wrong, the other classes only fear Pyro naturally, the other 3 are only feared when they are about to kill the class that's afraid of them. Scout is also scared of things that should really not scare an adult man. Sure I can justify scout being afraid of the yeti that just snapped Soldier's spine in half, but the other classes show no fear, actively attempting to kill it with melee or ranged weapons, scout is also afraid of Saxton Hale, a 7 foot 200 pound bodybuilder that runs the company that employeed him, and not in a, "I'm afraid of my boss cuz he could fire me" kinda way, more in a, "Crap he's big, oh my god." kinda way. Scout becomes realistic though in that he attempts to hide his fear behind this mask of being to cool to be scared, even when multiple times he is seen jumping at noises that he should've expected to be there. So scout represents a comedic and realistic type of coward, one who swears he fears nothing when things that his line of work should've prepared him for give him nightmares.

Another archetype of coward I personally enjoy seeing is someone who suffers under major imposter syndrome but never lets anyone know. It might not be an anime example but, a character who fits the bill well is Ciaphas Cain from the warhammer 40k universe, a quick tldr for his situation. He is a Comissar for the main military of the imperium, which is a dictatorial and religiously zealous regime governing all of humanity across the stars, Cain as a Commissar serves the function to inspire and motivate the troops to fight on and not desert. Problem is he himself is a major coward, but despite that he doesnt show that side of his major fear for any dangerous task he is always assigned to, because if he would, he would lose the reputation he built as a fearless soldier of the imperium, and by large would be reprimanded or worse killed if that came to be public, according to him. Though despite his self doubt and major fear of the horrors of the galaxy that he has to face, he never breaks to reveal his paralyzing fear he has for what is in front of him, and despite it, he overcomes the danger, because deep down he is skilled and a strong fighter, everyone around him sees that side, its just he never can, due to his self doubt from imposter syndrome and fear that if he expressed it that he would be punished for it. All of this is described by his memoires, which initially might make someone doubt the validity of his actions, but editorial notes from people who read them and also were working personally together with him, confirm that he is only doubting himself, and that he actually should give himself more credit for the actions he does. All in all this video showed me again that, the bravest people in a story usually are those who start as cowards, because bravey isn't about feeling no fear in the face of adversity, its rather braver to feel that instinctual need to run, but for whatever circumstance to decide to stay and fight back.

They can never make me like you zenitsu 🙏

hello pey i have binged watched a few of your videos on this channel and your peythewriter channel. I struggle focusing a lot but videos like yours keep me so enganged. I love when people do deep dives of writing in media like shows. thank you for these videos. keep up the good work 👍👍

Zenitsu is annoying

I think you're both right ans wrong and it hinges on the viewpoint. The vs nature ist really fitting here. The demons are not an absolute evil. They act upon there view of the world and there values. From this prespective, there are absolutiley normal. But, to the stories told, evil is not the abcent of malitious acts, but the abcent of good acts. But the lack of recognizing another view/believ/values in and of itself is evil. Not the not accepting, but the not recognizing. An the demons in frieren are the most evil creatures you can think of, not because of theyre actions, but because of there view of humans. They act out evil deeds, but thats not what makes them evil. They are only as evil as a psychopath: While not being at fault, they are still not tolerable to a society, more so detrimental. So, in my opinion, the genius here is that you can't hate the demons, for they are only action upon there nature, while being able to hate them for the actions and reasons for there actions.

One thing I always dislike about these takes is that it ignores one very simple factor: Zenitsu is a fan favorite in Japan. No one ever bothers to try to understand why. They just ignore that little aspect and focus purely on their own biases to act as if they're some kind of "voice of authority" on the matter. I don't enjoy watching Zenitsu. I can tell you why I don't enjoy watching him. Does that make him a bad character? My friend hates Lord of the Rings. Does that make it the worst film trilogy ever made?

good video.

I understand why people despise Zenitsu but.. Idk man, I always find myself rooting for the underdog (despite how weird he is around Nezuko/women alone). His backstory also gave me a reason to want to see him prosper and I hope to see him do some pretty cool stuff in the movies because his fall into the Infinity Castle was so cold.

i always say i prefer the demon slayer manga because i dont have to listen to zenitsu's annoying ahh voice

8:24 he does change and lose his fear but it happens very quickly he gets told his master died cause his disciple became a demon all of a sudden zenitsu is no longer scared then he gets revenge and demon slayer is over and he makes a book saying he’s the Mc and did everything his character is pretty lame :/

Imma just say this. Somebody gotta keep zenitsu 1000 meters away from a school. 💀

I’m not a big fan of Frieren. It feels like they’re making all the characters, aside from some villains, bland and reaction less for “realism” or “complexity” or something when really the characters are just bland. They have character traits and story arcs that are serviceable, but everything they do is undercut by a layer of disinterest that makes it hard for me to care. Then there’s the fact that they’re never met with any actual resistance. There are hard won fights and the like, but really all the characters are OP and never really lose a fight. It’s hard for me to care when the characters hardly care. I like some of the directing because it gives moments time to breath. A lot of shows fail at this and I’ll always appreciate it, when the show gives time to moments. Anyways, I have no idea why every single main character is bland and straight faced constantly. I never liked that kind of character. I like casual characters like Kion from the melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya a ton, but they actually care and are expressive sometimes. There’s nothing realistic about being bland and expressionless all the time. I’m probably one of the most bland and expressionless people I know and I emote way more than the characters in Frieren. You don’t have to be emotive to be a well written, interesting character, I know, but it’s kind of hard to engage myself in the story when I’m constantly being reminded that I’m watching cool anime characters that show no emotion and have an unshakable facade so strong that all of their fear, anguish mirth, embarrassment, and almost every other emotion can safely be hidden behind it. Maybe if it was only one of the characters and the show had a theme about breaking that facade, but it feels like the show is trying to tell me this is how normal people act or something. I don’t know. I feel like my lack of interest in the show is more complicated than that, because that’s honestly not that big of a deal, but that’s the only thing that comes to mind right now. It’s like episodic with a general theme of revisiting and learning to appreciate the past, but the exploration of that theme is very slow and spaced out and the episodes themselves are serviceable, but they don’t stuck out as particularly novel or interesting in concept or theming. I don’t know. I’m usually more interested with what a show is trying to say and how well it comunicates that idea than cool factor or anything like that. I have a friend who’s tastes are kind of alien to mine because of that, but I can respect the mindless fun he has, while I’m stuck picking apart ideas and hoping that the narrative has some value. I’m not saying he’s dumb, I’m just saying that we value different things and though we both can appreciate proper theming he doesn’t need it to be happy with a show. He’s fine with just cool concepts and characters and they don’t have to serve some sort of theme for him. With my brain I have to pick things apart. I don’t care about what a character is. I care about what a character things. What are their opinions and how do they respond to certain things? Do they have nuanced or subversive ideas? When I see stark, I see a character that’s stronger than he knows, is full of fear, and hardly expresses anything he feels. Those first two traits are used in the narrative almost immediately after they’re uncovered and aren’t really meaningfully explored again (as far as I’ve seen anyways. I’ve been meaning to finish the show, but I haven’t yet) the last trait is shared by everyone else and is basically benign because it’s never explored in any way with any of the characters, aside from maybe highlighting Frieren’s continual lack of consideration for those around her. I don’t think Stark is an interesting character at all beyond the cool factor of guy who’s afraid is actually really strong, which is why people make the comparison to Zenitsu in the first place. Yay he faces his fears head on, but so does Zenitsu, it just takes him longer to get there, which makes his arc more engaging, in my opinion, it that I think either of them are particularly good showcases for this theme. I actually don’t even like the theme in the first place. It’s much more interesting when an actually powerless character grapples with their fears. Like Subaru in Re:Zero or countless other stories. You know where the character goes “if you want to die go ahead, but I’m staying out of this” and then they swoop in to save the day, sometimes dying at the end. It’s a cliche for a reason. Yay, it’s interesting if the reluctant coward is actually as dangerous as the threat they’re facing, but you need the narrative backbone to make that fit. Like in Tales From Earthsea where he spends the whole book running away from his shadow and the mistakes of his past, letting all of his mistakes define him until he grows into himself and finally faces the threat he unleashed. He always had it in him, but his fear clouded him and defined his whole existence for so long. Stark just happens to be afraid. Nothing really comes of it. Maybe there commentary surrounding his willingness to work past that, but there’s never a strong narrative connection to it. It’s just not interesting to me. I don’t know.

A truly fantastic show 👌🏼

Zenitsu's character makes a lot more sense when you think about how each character is a representation of human will to survive. Zenitsu is the unconscious survival instinct we all have. The fight or flight response taken to an extreme personification. It makes no sense for him to overcome his paralyzing fear until the very end of the story when he finally is able to confront the cause of his trauma and the reason he considers himself weak and unworthy of the lightning style. That is the one moment he is awake and unafraid during a fight because it isn't about survival then. It's about saying the things he's held in his chest and being acknowledged by the person he looks up to but also getting justice and vengeance for his master. Surviving that fight is just a luxury for him.

Never watched demon slayer. Something about it just told me it was bad and overhyped. Then the confirmation bias kicked in once more people started saying it was bad.

As someone who did enjoy Demon Slayer for the most part, emphasis on the most part, I never grew to give a damn about Zenitsu. I thought he was just a waste of space and that the story would have lost nothing of value if he had never existed. Now if there had been more scenes and buildup of Zenitsu gradually learning to overcome his fear without having to lose consciousness, I may be singing a different tune. But as it stands, especially from having read through the entire manga, Zenitsu did nothing but disappoint me. For that reason, he will always be the dead weight of Demon Slayer to me.

I love this video and understand the points you made, i was actually pretty disappointed how the series ended with zenitsu but i feel like your view of him will shift but never truly be satisfied due to how short demon slayer is, but you'll understand why the sudden change happened at the end of the hashira training arc once the manga is animated, i don't promise anything beautiful but you will see why he is a demon slayer for so long, and be able to at least feel something different about him, like i said, satisfying, depends, explains him, definitely.

Also zentisu is realky gross with harassint women and specislly nezuko And even his design is annoying I know he doesn't die but I really really gonna be on the edge of my seat hoping it happens

these 3 arent the same type of character. this video is a stretch...