Demon Slayer does many things better than other
Shonen and if your first thought on the topic was animation, you're absolutely right! Even
without comparing it to anything else, this is a work of art that can be paused at any time and
still be perfect for a picture frame. However, there is more to the show than meets the eye,
so let us dive a bit deeper. Hello comrade, my name is Mahis! Come, get yourself a beverage
and sit down with me, we got a show to praise. For starters, there is our bestest boy Tanjiro kamado
as much as people criticize him for being the Mary Sue of the story - a fictional character without
flaws and Too Perfect to be true. He has this one thing that separates him from the likes of Naruto
and other Talk-no-Jutsu enjoyers. Tanjiro gets the job done. Boy is missing his Onii-chan? Cut!
She just wanted to play ball? Cut! Dude likes to play drums and write poetry?.. You get the
idea. No matter what sad backstory a demon has, if they harm humans, they get a Nichirin Sword
right up in there without any lubricant. We rarely see shonen protagonists straight up murdering
sentient beings regardless of all the atrocities they've committed. What about strawberry boy?
He only clapped Ginjo's cheeks in cold blood, but he came back later like many others. Gon?
Now we're talking, chimera ants definitely had it coming, although he is not exactly a good role
model as he's a borderline psychopath with a very twisted sense of morality. Tanjiro on the other
hand is a pretty good example of what kindness is supposed to be - indiscriminate and well-armed. He
understands perfectly that destroying a demon is the best course of action for everyone involved.
People are saved and the demon soul is freed, sometimes getting a closure in the process.
For example, during their encounter with the spider mommy, he realized that she welcomed death
with open arms, so he delivered the least painful punishment he could, despite seeing her cruelty
firsthand. Tanjuro's benevolence certainly stands out even among the nicest anime characters. Still,
he doesn't let it get in the way of his work and I have nothing but respect for that. Speaking
of respect, it has been a long while since I've seen an anime that had such a good cast of
female characters, and before you get pitchforks and torches... Yes, they are all exceptionally
pretty and I'd take this girl out based on her eyes alone. However, Guy Crimson goes both ways
and so does the Demon Slayer. Men are also quite sexualized here and that's not even mentioning
their age, so let's leave the art style choices to the author and focus on what's important. Women
in this series are orders of magnitude better than in most other shonens in terms of their
personalities development and roles, Take Shinobu, she has been on screen for only a few episodes,
yet I can already tell that she is capable based on her unconventional fighting style, which
compensates for the lack of raw strength. That she is loyal to the boss and has her incentive
justice because of her altercation with Giyu, and that she's a very caring person in general. Okay,
sure! Insect hashira does have a few screws loose but that's practically in their job description,
so nothing's wrong here. Quite the opposite actually - it adds to her flavor along with what
our boy noticed during their conversation on the roof. There is anger inside and she tries her
hardest to put up a façade that is now glued to her face like some wicked wax mask. Again,
that was just 6 or 7 episodes of development. How many did it take for Sakura to become anything
other than "Sasuke-kun"? Another good example from Kimetsu is Aoi. She does call herself a coward
for giving up after the final selection, however, not everyone is built for fighting and it was a
very wise decision to stop as she would have ended up dead pretty soon. Instead, Kanzaki dedicated
herself to treating/training other Slayers and she's pretty damn good at what she does. It is
absolutely commendable and she reminds me a lot of Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist, who is arguably
one of the most well-written anime women ever. Next I'd like to address something that most
people overlook as it can be too stressful for some of the weenies out there - a sense of danger.
Yes! I like my shows the same way I like my music - when it grabs me by the balls and doesn't
let go until it's over... Metaphorically. I hate when serious moments are interrupted by comic
relief. I'm sick and tired of the entire scene sequences having no impact on the end result, and
I absolutely despise when everybody lived happily ever after following a catastrophic event. It
doesn't work like that. Fighting cracked out, men eating, super powered blood suckers means
that some people will die in the process and thank God the Demon Slayer doesn't shy away from
murking our beloved characters, because otherwise two things will happen. Firstly, lack of stakes
will result in the lack of Interest as you will always know that the heroes you like will live
and, secondly, villains will appear incompetent, boring and inconsequential. Making the
good guys feel underwhelming as a result. Look at Mugen train arc. The whole Enmu situation
might as well have been a prologue for Akaza's arrival and could have been replaced with
uh... train's engine exploding, with little to no changes to the plot! He literally didn't
do anything to our squad other than tiring them out. A f@#$% conductor is better suited to be a
Kizuki for getting a jump on a Inosuke and almost fatally injuring the sun breather! Luckily, the
show went back on track within minutes and we got reminded that people are indeed mortal, as
one stripy boy decided to open a pastry joint. Anime-only comrades might want to cover
their sensory organs for the next 10 seconds. Out of all the named corps members in the show,
barely a few will survive the onslaught that was the Muzan vs Slayers conflict, and none will
escape unscathed. It is very refreshing to see this kind of story unfold, since we, viewers, are
unsure of what will happen next and how much more time we have with a specific character. In Naruto,
again, used as an extreme example that everybody is aware of, in a span of 425 canon episodes,
only six OG good Hidden Leaf characters die. There is no sense of danger whatsoever, it
disappeared after Sasuke's retrieval Arc, to the point where Neji's death was more annoying
than sad. It's imperative to have the audience sitting on the edge of the seat every once in a
while. Of course, the main character in 99% of the shows will not die, not until the last episode
or so and it's totally normal. Tanjiro is going to defeat Muzan one way or another, as per definition
of the genre, and the sole question is - who else will be left standing next to the MC, after the
dust settles. To help our boys get to the final fight in one piece, this series offers them a
variety of activities and a power system that has some relevance to the real world. You see, quite
often we have some otherworldly abilities, cosmic resources like mana or a combination of these
two. It gives a lot of freedom to the creator, which sometimes leads to an outstanding result
such as Nen - an intricate and versatile system from Hunter X Hunter. Butt slayers... sh*t...
But slayers are built different and rely only on themselves through training their bodies and
learning how to properly breathe. Sounds a bit meh, until you see an entire lightning current
coming out of a sword and slashing through whatever was unlucky enough to get in its path.
Here's what makes Demon Slayer better than other shonens - training takes a significant amount of
time and happens throughout the entirety of the show. For example Kamaboko Gompachiro has spent
two years grinding just to attempt to become a member of the core. Moreover, every time he
went to recover from injuries, he tried to expand whatever skills he got during the fight
and learn new ones by taking on progressively more complicated gigs. At first, he was breathing
exclusively during the strikes. Then, upgraded to breathing constantly, harder and combining
the different techniques together. A very straightforward and logical progress, unlike some
conveniently placed power-ups within the story that is based around random new spells appearing
in one's floating book... The most interesting thing to me, is the emphasis on working out their
own bodies rather than some imaginary vessel. There are weights, flexibility exercises and
cardio featured in the show, and the only other ones I can think of that do that are - my Hero
Aka and that gym scene from Hunter Hunter. Big props to Demon Slayer for depicting a balanced,
realistic, slightly exaggerated training routine. Lastly, we got to give credit to the Demon
Daddy and his role in this fabulous tale. He is an obvious end goal, no ifs, ands or buts.
What's so special about that, you ask? Well, when was the last time we had a final boss revealed
within the first season or two, let alone in the first few episodes? Yes, quite often it's either
a perpetual escalation of villains or leapfrogging between Shiggi, All for One, Shigaraki again, then
a fusion-confusion... It can get pretty chaotic, especially with the log running series. However,
Demon Slayer sets the bar early on and it helps us get a rough estimate of what we're up against.
Think of it as a castle that we need to breach, except it's located way over there, surrounded by
forest and with multiple watchtowers blocking our way. Right off the bat, there is no telling what
kind of force is required to take over the castle, but the closer we get and the more challenges
we overcome, the clearer the castle is. Demon Slayer gives us a pretty solid hierarchy for
the enemy forces and it doesn't take a triple digit IQ to figure out that Tanjiro and company
will face progressively stronger opponents on their way to the big bad of the show. Is this
a dumb move from Muzan's perspective? Of course it is! But we aren't watching Lulu taking
on an entire world, so who, other than me, cares about how utterly stupid everyone is.
Regardless, this straightforward formula has a few significant advantages. Number one is the
power scaling. We get a pretty good idea of what the ceiling is and we are not going to break it
by throwing entire galaxies at each other. Number two - there is not going to be a Frieza situation,
when a new villain made the entire cast obsolete and required the a*spullest of a*spulls to even
threaten his reign. Alright, you can say Kimetsu had that moment with Akaza, except Rengoku wasn't
at 100% and he was definitely not the strongest of the corps members. On top of that, it was said
in the end of the first season, that the upper ranked members haven't been replaced in a long
time, so it's reasonable to assume that our squad will have to come up with something new to defeat
them, as opposed to what we've been seeing up to this point. Demon Slayer indeed does many things
better than other shonen, and even if I have a lot of complaints about its plot, shallow world
building and thick as a brick boss villain, I give credit where credit is due and enjoy watching the
show when my brain is on the power saving mode. It was I Mahis, teasing Muzan into the microphone.
Check out Discord and Patreon in the description if you like, otherwise, have a great... whatever
time of the day you have. Until next time, cheers.
