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Dated 6 May 2019: I like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, but there's probably going to be a lot of shounen jive

Tanjirou
Hey, wait a minute.

I wasn't originally planning on watching Kimetsu no Yaiba, but it is a ufotable show, so I basically needed to at least give it a try out of general principle. Not that Kimetsu no Yaiba bears much resemblance to the sorts of shows ufotable animated before they started doing all Fate all the time. As it turns out, though, Kimetsu no Yaiba is pretty entertaining, despite containing a fair amount of shounen tropes that I generally dislike. I suppose you could regard my enthusiasm for the series despite my typical disdain for such conventions as an indication that Kimetsu no Yaiba has a lot going for it.

Nezuko
They really missed the boat by not using a harmonica for Nezuko's bit.

I do get the feeling Kimetsu no Yaiba is going to run for a really long time. Based on the sort of progress made in the first five episodes, this is going to take a while. Of course, the source manga is still ongoing, so even a two cours anime is probably going to have a non-ending ending. Still, the series is easily in my top three shows of the Spring 2019 anime season so far. Whether it will remain there will probably depend on how much the coming episodes balance scenes of Nezuko booting deadbeats in the head vice how much the show spotlights various irritable boys being angry.

Dated 1 October 2019: I wish Cop Craft looked as good as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Tilarna
Literally a still frame with a voice over.

Cop Craft and Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) didn't really have much in common aside from airing during the same season. As far as their respective stories went, I was more interested in Cop Craft than in Kimetsu no Yaiba, but there is no question the latter was a better show. This despite the fact that Zenitsu (that panicky orange-haired fucker who shouted all his lines) was annoying as all Hell. Frankly, overcoming that is a testament to how good ufotable can be. Kimetsu no Yaiba looked amazing. It's hard to believe some of its sequences were even possible in a TV anime. Conversely, Cop Craft very much looked like television anime, and one that was constantly pressured to meet timelines. Nearly all of its action sequences had an unfinished quality to them pretty much all season long, and there was a recap episode inserted between episodes nine and 10. Based on how these scenes actually played out—with various shortcuts to substitute for missing animation—you get the sense that Millepensee at least had high ambitions, initially. (See also Wake Up, Girls! New Chapter.)

Nezuko
Pretty much anything I tell you about this would be a spoiler.

Would Cop Craft be better than Kimetsu no Yaiba if its animation looked as good? I don't think I can claim that, but I suppose potentially in the eyes of viewers who enjoy police stories with odd-couple crimefighters forced to work together. As far as the Demon Slayer story goes, I'm certainly not intrigued enough to seek out the manga now that the series has ended (although there will be a movie to cover the next arc). The fact I enjoyed it as much as I did is another testament to ufotable's anime adaptation which remained consistently good during its 26-episode run. At a minimum, episode 20 contained probably the best sequence I've seen all year. (I'm referring to the scene that basically everyone else who was watching the show went nuts about.) Unfortunately, the following episode did diminish the impact a bit with what I like to call "bullshit shounen jive," but I'm blaming the source material for that one. ufotable at least kept us astounded for the week.

Dated 23 November 2021: Demon Slayer's Mugen Train arc is better as a movie than a TV series

Nezuko
Nezuko gets to do something.

I enjoyed the first season of Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) and also thought its Mugen Train movie was good. I'm hardly alone in having this opinion, as the series proved hugely popular, resulting in enormous sales for the manga on which it is based. Similarly, Gekijouban Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen did extremely well in theaters, surpassing Spirited Away to become Japan's box office champion. The movie follows the events from the first anime season, and there was initially some concern the second TV season would pick up from where the movie left off, thus making it required viewing from a continuity standpoint.

Tanjirou
You sure about this?

Instead, the Mugen Train movie is being spread out over the first nine episodes of the second season of Kimetsu no Yaiba. After this arc concludes on Saturday, the entertainment district arc will reportedly begin, although I'm unsure how many episodes that will run. Re-watching the movie as television episodes has not been ideal. It doesn't seem as if there are major edits or changes to the ordering of scenes to accommodate the time constraints of television episodes, but the experience seems flawed.

Rengoku
These are some eyebrows.

As far as I can tell, the reason for this effect is because of the weekly interruptions breaking up the impacts of both the narrative and the action scenes. It's a fairly obvious or at least foreseeable consequence of repackaging the movie into a different format, but more pronounced than I anticipated. Nevertheless, I don't think it would have made sense to re-create the entire arc with the television format in mind, so this probably was the best option. Besides, it's not as if the arc is actually bad this way—it mostly just fails to match its own standard.

Dated 28 December 2021: I think I'd like Demon Slayer more if I had more interest in shounen jive

Tanjirou and Inosuke
Y'all are unconvincing girls.

Now that the second season of the Kimetsu no Yaiba anime is past its Mugen Ressha-hen (Mugen Train movie repurposed as TV episodes) arc and has aired four episodes of the Yuukaku-hen (Entertainment District) arc, I'm afraid my interest in the series remains well below the heights reached during the anime's first two cours. It's fine, but I feel as if I'm the wrong target audience.

Daki and Tanjirou
I do appreciate Sawashiro Miyuki's addition to the series.

This is not unexpected, since my interest in Demon Slayer has always been something of an outlier for me; I don't typically watch or read popular shounen properties. I presume my disinterest with the current arc is because it is building up to its next big moments and it is complementing its narrative journey with the sort of flourishes and gags that I don't care for. I don't know how many episodes remain in this second season, but I believe it is continuing uninterrupted into the Winter 2022 anime season. I'm definitely still going to watch it, and not just because I don't currently have a lot other Winter 2022 shows on my radar. It's just unfortunate I'm not the right person to fully appreciate the series.

Dated 15 February 2022: The End of Demon Slayer ~Air/My Purest...wait, it's not over yet

Zenitsu
Can we just keep Zenitsu unconscious the whole time from now on?

There sure is a lot of shouting and crying in Kimetsu no Yaiba. I don't really have much more to add to my last Demon Slayer post except maybe to be sort of incredulous that we got such an extended backstory for the season's extended-episode epilogue. Not that I should have been surprised by that, as these sorts of delayed backstories have always been part of the show's formula.

Nezuko
Don't try and tell me Nezuko ever brushes her teeth.

Judging from the fan reactions this season, the Yuukaku-hen (euphemistically localized as "Entertainment District Arc") portion of the series was very well received. I can understand why, as the animation was amazing, and the fights hit all of the sorts of beats the people who enjoy shounen jive like. I continue to appreciate the show for what it is, and I do intend to watch Kimetsu no Yaiba: Katanakaji no Sato-Hen (the "Swordsmith Village Arc" of Demon Slayer), whenever that comes out. I wonder if Nezuko will still be biting down on that piece of rope by then, or if she'll have a new bamboo harmonica to play. That rope would get so nasty so fast!

Dated 25 April 2023: I'm not enjoying Demon Slayer very much this season

Nezuko
Counterpoint: I always enjoy Nezuko kicking deadbeats.

I've enjoyed the Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) anime for most of its run, but I've certainly not been a fan of all of it. In particular, I only have so much patience of the shounen jive that's just part of the territory when it comes to these sorts of shows. People who actually like shounen anime and manga may appreciate those tropes and styles, but I could do without a lot of it. However, with regard to the current Katanakaji no Sato-hen (Swordsmith Village Arc) season, the actual problem is my disinterest in Tanjiro as a character. I mean, he's fine, but I mostly liked him before because he wasn't Zenitsu or Inosuke. He might not have the charisma to carry this season alone.

Genya
Wait, he has a gun. Are demon slayers allowed to use guns instead of swords?

This wouldn't be an issue if the other characters in Kimetsu no Yaiba: Katanakaji no Sato-hen had more going for them. So far, I don't give two shits about the swordsmiths, and the other demon slayers don't seem to have personalities at all, aside from just sort of being assholes in general, even if they're not especially malicious about it. And I guess unless you count Yelling as a personality. They've got that going for them, too, but that's true of a lot of Demon Slayer characters it general. (Specifically, WAY TOO MANY of them.) Honestly—and I say this with utmost sincerity—I'm praying for a lot of scenes with the weird-looking Hanakana-voiced girl with the fucked-up hair.

Mitsuri
No pressure.

I don't know what her deal is, but the OP and ED to these Swordsmith Village Arc episodes clearly indicate Mitsuri is one of the three main focus characters. Through the first three episodes, she has done absolutely fuck all, but now that The Fighting has begun, I expect she'll start getting more scenes. Just to be clear, I'm rolling the dice here. All of my previous impressions of this character throughout her various appearances in the series thus far have been mostly negative, but Demon Slayer this season doesn't seem to have a lot going for it, so I'm hoping she'll save the show. She can still be weird. In fact, probably the weirder the better.