Demon Slayer is Extraordinarily Incompetent

I feel like a crazy person sometimes you know there are so many incredible under appreciated series out there you had all anyone wants to talk about is whether or not Tundra wants to marry his sister Demon Slayer is a masterpiece the glory of shonen's newest Masterpiece Demon Slayer just set a new standard has it has it really what has Demon Slayer done to earn such praise because from my perspective all I see is a derivative uninspired and incompetent manga that manages to fail at the most basic standards of writing I know right away that some people think I'm just trying to be a contrarian or that I'm dunking on Demon Slayer because it's easy to hate popular things but that isn't the case I don't go into any new series wanting to dislike it I don't want to waste my time on something that I won't enjoy but after reading Demon Slayer I just felt genuinely confused about what exactly people enjoy about this series and then I saw the anime okay foreign there it is pretty animation go Burr look I like good animation as much as the next guy probably more actually I could make a whole video about why I love animators and think they're insane but good animation is only worth so much if the story that it's attached to isn't of the same quality incredible fights don't hit as hard if there's no narrative weight behind them well-directed character moments don't make you feel anything if the build up to that point is non-existent so yes I need you to forget the flashy animation for a moment because today we're talking about the writing behind Demon Slayer and the many ways that it simply doesn't work and yes there will be Demon Slayer spoilers ahead disclaimer throughout this video I mistakenly refer to the author Demon Slayer by masculine pronouns only to find out during editing that they prefer gender neutral pronouns I am very sorry about that that was my mistake I'll be more careful in the future Demon Slayer is a Shonen manga created by Goyo Haru gotoke which was first serialized in weekly Shona and jump to say the Demon Slayer was gotoke's first big success would be an understatement in fact it's been so successful that gotoke was included in the times 100 most influential people list the first mangaka to receive such an honor you know who didn't receive that award the late kentaru Miura the brilliant author of Berserk which was in a massive inspiration for other manga creators and artists the world over the author of One Piece a manga that is eclipsed to Batman in comic sales Demon Slayer is set sometime in Japan's Thai show era and follows the story of tanjiro kamado tanjiro is just a normal kid from a small remote Village very normal not special at all he cares deeply for his large family but chapter one plot twist They're All Dead killed overnight while Tanja was away no killer in sight Ro acts fast realizing that his sister nezuko may still be alive can't have the primary love interest die too quickly now he rushes to get her to a doctor but chapter one plot twist she's a demon in the world of Demon Slayer demons are monsters with superhuman strength and abilities that feed on humans in order to grow stronger demons can regenerate almost any damage they take but they die in the sunlight so they can only hunt at night they're a lot like Reddit mods in our world the only way for nezuko to become a demon would be if Tundra's family was attacked by a demon but that's not important right now what matters is that nezuko is a demon meaning just like a woman from Alabama she wants a piece of her brother tanjiro fends her off and tries to plead with her until a man with a sword tries to kill nezuko in order to protect tanjiro this man is a Demon Slayer what's that you might be asking oh God I hope you aren't asking hey man did you beat Max Payne yet uh no I've been playing Demon Slayer Demon Slayer what are you doing that [Music] demon slayers slay demons [Music] funny sword man is here to kill nezuko but not before having a lengthy conversation with tanjano about how he's a beta male that can protect his sister this leads to tanjito attacking the man and impressing him with his natural affinity for combat before ultimately getting knocked out Nesco escapes the man's grasp but chapter one plot twist she protects tajiro instead of trying to attack him stunned by this turn of events the man knocks nezuko out instead of killing her he realized that nezuko and tanjiro are built different given that nezuko shouldn't be able to resist her urge to eat humans when they wake up he directs tanjito to go meet an old man living in the mountains this is a rokodaki he's a man that trains people to become demon Slayers tanjito is going to become a Demon Slayer in order to search for a way to make nezuko human again so it is okay to kill demons but only the demons that aren't his sister there's zero chance that any other demon is morally ambiguous no this will not be a plot point you'll remember that demons have regenerative abilities so they can't be killed by normal means the only way to kill a demon is to expose them to sunlight or to cut off their head with a special kind of sword what makes this sword special and why can it kill demons wow these swords are made from metal mine out of volcano which has the power of the sun contained in the earth and I'm just [ __ ] with you there's no reason it's never going to be explained so just don't question it urokodaki teaches tanjito the basics of swordsmanship and then tells him he has to cut a big rock if he wants a chance to take the test to become a Demon Slayer tanjito struggles with how to approach this issue until he meets rokadaki's other students sabito and makomo for the next six months they train tanjudo in urokodaki's Stead they teach tanjiro about total concentration breathing the main weapon a Demon Slayer utilizes by breathing a certain way demon Slayers can give their blood and muscles extra air allowing them to move faster and stronger this breathing gives them strength analogous to the Superhuman strength of a demon but is very taxing on the body so it takes Tundra a while to learn it about six months in fact after six months of training tanjiro and sabito dual and tanjito wins only to find that he's managed to split the Rock in half meaning he's now ready to become a Demon Slayer before setting out tanjiro asks orokodaki to thank sabito and makomo for their help rogadaki then questions how tanjito can know the names of his dead students that's right they were dead the entire time killed in a plot relevancy accident 30 years ago you may have noticed me reitering that six month timeline kind of a lot problem with this plot point higher time do you really expect me to believe that over the course of six [ __ ] months it never came up a conversation that tanjito was training with hirokadaki's deceased students it's absurdly convenient to say the least not to mention that their involvement in the story not only establishes that ghosts are real but also that they can have a tangible effect on the world of the living was even able to injure tantino I don't have a problem with the whole ghost thing because that's pretty consistent but you will never again see one actually do anything besides talking to people that were important to them when they were alive with that being said though this is hardly the biggest problem with Demon Slayer it's just one of many let's talk about that total concentration breathing from before since it's the primary power system in Demon Slayer you would think from the description that there is only one special way of breathing to strengthen a Demon Slayer but no there are in fact many different ways to breathe they're breathing everybody I just want to make that clear something that I've been doing is wearing my CPAP even when I'm not sleeping sabito specifically taught tanjito one form of breathing water breathing this means that when he attacks it appears as though water is rushing out of his sword but don't be fooled as far as I can tell this is just visual Flair for us as the audience to enjoy in reality he's just swinging his sword around there's no actual water not that I would blame you for thinking otherwise given that it is research before this video I wasn't able to find a solid consensus on whether or not that's true it's just my own interpretation at this point why give clear indicators of plot information when you can just not answering important questions is just so much work there are other breathing Styles such as flame breathing and thunder breathing which give off the appearance of their title my main problem with breathing comes from a lack of differentiation now I know at first that may not make any sense given that each style is very visually distinct but what I'm talking about is functionality functionally speaking most of the breathing types are exactly the same when you create different forms of the same ability there needs to be strengths and weaknesses to each of them now on the surface this does exist Thunder breathing is much faster than the other forms in a technical sense but in reality each style of breathing has the same or similar abilities to every other form meaning they're all functionally the same there's never a moment in this series where tanjiro is at a disadvantage because he's a water breather there's never a moment where two characters trade opponents in order to get a better matchup it's completely meaningless flash with no substance if you think I'm wrong then tell me the difference between the following attacks sound breathing fourth form water breathing fourth form turbulent and Beast breathing fifth bang the answer is that there is no difference they're each representative of multiple slashes in multiple directions meaning that there is no real difference between them besides how they're presented visually this is a common theme across every form they all share attacks let's imagine that you made an MMO for a second in your MMO you made a bunch of different classes people to choose from each of those classes fills with primary role tank healer or damage but even then there are differences between classes filling the same role you've got a damaged class that's better for crowd control and one that's better for single Target damage one tank that's better at taking damage and one that absorbs damage well these different strengths lead to different play styles Demon Slayer is what would happen if every class functioned exactly the same why would you even waste time making different classes at that point every class is going to give the player the exact same experience rendering the choice between which one to use meaningless and by the way can we talk about the blatant misogyny in this power system there are so many different forms of breathing there's Stone breathing wind breathing missed breathing but what do the female characters use insect breathing flower breathing love breathing there is not a single living female Demon Slayer that does not use a feminine breathing Style so you want to be a Demon Slayer again well you're gonna need to choose a breathing style although since I see you've got a pair of fatty tissue sex these are your own the actual options but since it is women's history month for limited time only you can try having a job breathing and all this comes before we question how exactly breathing a certain way enables different abilities it doesn't make any sense and there's never an explanation for what the actual difference between each of them is there are exceptions such as shinobu kocho's insect breathing which utilizes poison instead of actual blade attacks to take down enemies because she's too weak to decapitate demons the girl is too weak it's cut off a demon's head would it be so hard to make each style of this distinct am I asking too much actually I don't think I'm asking enough let's talk about you know it was poison for a second shinobu's poison uses wisteria flower a type of plant that demons are weak to even if the demons don't die from this poison it does render them weak and slows their ability to regenerate so why the [ __ ] doesn't every Demon Slayer coat their Blade with this [ __ ] that sounds like a pretty useful debuff to carry around really good way to level the playing field it's not even established that Wisteria flowers are particularly rare there shouldn't be any reason the other demon Slayers can't use it when you write a power system into a series like this the audience needs to understand the basic rules behind it so they can determine the capabilities and limitations of each character gotoge doesn't want you to understand breathing because then he would actually have to put some thought into writing this crap speaking of things that don't have a lot of thought put into them let's talk about tanjito I don't like tanjado and it's for the exact same reason that I think a lot of other people do like him tajiro is a very good boy that's pretty much his entire character I would describe tanjito as a character that is designed to be liked now obviously most characters are designed for the audience to like them but the problem with Tundra is that he's designed to be liked first and designed as an actual character second something I've talked about across every manga video I've ever made is that writing a good character means writing them to be human and to be human is to have flaws you want your character to have flaws because you want the audience to be able to relate to them you want them to look and say hey this character struggles with anxiety that's something I can relate to now I can empathize with their struggles doesn't have flaws he's a perfect ray of sunshine that does no wrong his personality does not conflict with the other characters once they get to know him they all just get along and when they all get along there is no room for character conflict which is an incredibly effective writing tool that can make a story more interesting and push it forward genuinely trying to list tanjito's weaknesses as a person is like Michael Scott listing his weaknesses for David Wallace what do you think your greatest strengths as a manager why don't I tell you what my greatest weaknesses are I work too hard I care too much and sometimes I can be too invested in my job okay now with that there is room for tanjano to have a weakness that still makes him look good when orokadaki first meets Tanja his first thought is that tanjito is too kind for his own good which makes him hesitate to kill his enemies he hasn't hate so much that the sun comes up and kills the demon before tanjito can in this story Karen too much could be a really big weakness for tanjito because it would prevent him from killing and dangerous enemies quickly yet after training with the rokadaki that side of his character disappears entirely don't get me wrong he's still kind but it doesn't hold him back in could call this character development but it isn't it's resolved too fast it doesn't affect the plot at any point doesn't actually go through the steps of developing it just kinda happens it's like giving a limbic Runner hopped on a golf cart drove around the track and then crossed the finish line just because they cross the finish line doesn't mean they ran the race and they definitely don't deserve an award for it there is one other example of a potential flaw for tundra that gets negated entirely throughout the story during his tough battles tanjiro repeatedly breaks his sword now I actually really like this at first because the fragility of katana style swords was brought up and explained very early in the series so I saw tanjito breaking his sword over and over as a major flaw in his ability to fight that he needs to overcome but no after the third time it happens Tanja goes to the swordsmith village and they explain that it's not his fault his blacksmith is the one to blame for making swords that break so easily he'll never change he'll never change ever since he was 15 always the same couldn't stop breaking his swords but not our Tundra couldn't be precious tanjito and he gets to be a Demon Slayer what a sick joke [Music] so for this reason I find tanjiro to be an incredibly boring character he has no character growth or development and he really doesn't struggle throughout the story Beyond struggling in a fight mind you I don't think every character needs to be written as a piece of [ __ ] to be engaging you can write lovable characters that are still flawed but writing a character with the intention of making them universally likable rather ironically makes them the least likable character of all because they don't Inspire any kind of emotion what's engaging about a character that doesn't have to struggle or change they're just boring tanjito is boring and not only is tanjito boring so is how he is utilized in this story I'm going to say something that some people might have a problem with but I need you to hear me out before you get all up at Arms tanjudo is a Chosen One now you might immediately disagree with me because no tantro is never referred to as the chosen one in this story nor is there a prophecy for telling his exploits which is how a lot of Chosen One stories play out but in terms of his exploits and how he affects the world tanjudo is absolutely the chosen one so to set the stage for this explanation we need to understand some of the lore behind Demon Slayer all the demons and Demon Slayer were created using the blood of a single demon that demon is muzon kibutsuji and he's creating other demons in order to try to find a way to negate his weakness to sunlight the strongest demons under muzan's control are known as the 12 kizuki and they're ranked from strongest to weakest with the weakest six being known as the lower ranked kizuki and the strongest ticks the upper rank kizuki this is really important for us to know because at the time Demon Slayer takes place it has been more than a hundred years since an upper rank kizuki was killed within the Demon Slayer core there is also a ranking system based on strength there are 10 different ranks a Demon Slayer can achieve and this is something you do not need to remember at all it has literally zero impact on that plot and very very rarely gets brought up the only reason I'm even bringing it up is to make fun of how lazy and pointless it is what you do need to know is that there is one additional rank not included on this list and that is the hashira the hashira are the strongest demon Slayers in the Demon Slayer core during this period there are nine hashida so over the past hundred plus years not a single hashida has managed to kill an upper ranked demon that's important because it shows that muzan's demons and the Demon Slayer core are not equal in strength until tanjito joins that's an upper rank Damon and that's his head being removed thereby killing him so that's pretty huge huh first upper ranked demon to go down in over a century how did we get there over the course of his adventures tanjaro made some friends he met zenitsu a thunder-breathing user who is the worst character in this series we'll talk about that later and he knowsuke who is funny I like enosuke funny Boar Head man make me giggle tanjito is joined by zenitsu inosuke and the hashida uzui in battling the weakest upper ranked demon which is actually two demons who need to have their heads cut off at the same time to kill them at this time tanjo and his friends are Conaway meaning they're the fourth out of the 10 ranks this is literally the only time in the story that Tundra's current rank is ever brought up so don't get confused into thinking this matters but I'm glad we have it so I can establish where we're at and his friends are still in the bottom half of the ranks you've got three 4 out of 10 Slayers one demon and one hashira fighting an upper ranked demon level pair now it could be argued that tanjano is actually stronger than his current rank would suggest and I would argue that he is the reason for that is because before this battle tanjita awakened to a new power [Music] this is the hinokami kagura later revealed to be sun breathing Sun breathing is the first and strongest form of breathing which was passed down in tanjito's family line in the form of a ceremonial dance now I have a question about Sun breathing why is it the strongest well more specifically why is tanjito stronger for being able to use it it's established that sun breathing is the first form of total concentration breathing and that every other form of breathing is an offshoot of sun breathing that was developed for demon Slayers that found Sun breathing too difficult to utilize now this could be a decent explanation for why it's so powerful but it really isn't one reason you could give is that some breathing is the strongest because it negates the weaknesses inherits in every other lesser form but we've already established that each type of breathing is functionally the same with none of them having any major drawbacks so what we're left with is the explanation that some breathing is strong because it's hard to do which is a pretty terrible explanation you know what else is hard to do getting through Demon Slayer without clawing my eyes out but am I a stronger person for being able to do it apparently not this also seriously calls in a question the actual strength of the hashida because it stands to reason that a novice or even intermediate level Sun reading user would be weaker than a master sounding user yet which one of these [ __ ] lost an arm in this fight I don't think tanjito is stronger than uzui at this time for the record but this will feed him to a point I'm gonna make later so we've got tanjano Awakening to a long lost powerful form of breathing that no one else is capable of using that's chosen one indicator number one shockingly Sun breathing Is Not the Only Magical Power buff that tanjaro suddenly [Music] this is the mark oh hi Mark the Mark is explained pretty vaguely but the basic idea is that manifesting the Mark just makes you stronger it's demon slayer's version of Super Saiyan and just like super saiyan it stops being special pretty quickly see the interesting thing about the Mark is that it can only be manifested if the user has been in contact with someone else who has already manifested the mark so that begs the question how did tanjudo manifest it well tanjara was born on the first full moon during a summer equinox in the 20th century making him I'm just [ __ ] with you there's no reason it's established that the first Mark user was born with it already on his face this is not the case for tanjido as is established that the scar in his face came from an injury no explanation for why tanjiro gets the Marcus ever offered he's just special that way I guess and as just explained after tanjito manifest the mark so do some of the other demon Slayers allowing the demons their core to grow in strength thanks to tanjido so now we have tanjiro Awakening another long-lost powerful ability inexplicably which allows other people to be stronger just by the very nature of tanjiro's existence Chosen One indicator number two finally we've got the fact that tanjiro defeated an upper rank demon at all I'm sorry but this Victory just does not make sense we've got three weaker than hashita demon Slayers one hashita and one demon that doesn't contribute to the fight much it makes even less sense when you consider that the demons wield a poison that every characterist for some reason immune to the poison is supposed to at least weaken them but they still managed to win if not one upper ranked demon has been killed in over a hundred years then the fact that they managed to do it here just makes me think that the Demon Slayer core wasn't trying very hard even knowing that tanzo had to awaken two power Buffs to pull it off what this Victory says to me is that over the past Century not one person in the Demon Slayer core thought teamwork would be a good idea it took three Conaway and one hashida to take down an upper ranked demon there are nine hashidah are you really telling me that none of them ever thought to work together to take down an upper rank there is a possible defense here it stated at some point I can't remember when that the hashid are each busy because they cover a territory that they protect from demons so maybe an explanation is that they simply can't get the hashida together at the same time to fight an upper rank but this is [ __ ] for a number of reasons number one they all Gather in one spot twice a year to meet with the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps number two if that is the explanation then it's indicative of very poor strategic thinking on the leader of the demon Slayers that they can't organize other demon Slayers to cover the hashidus territory while they hunt the upper ranks and number three if the hashida can't get together then why not make a requirement that each hashita has four or five high-ranking demon Slayers working with them at any given time in case they encounter an upper rank the problem here is an issue of convincing the audience the idea that it has been 100 years since an upper rank was killed is a huge bar to clear it suggests that even several hashida would not be enough to take one down so that means gotoge needs to put in the work to show that tanjiro and his friends are strong enough to change that and what we have now is just not very convincing remember the lower rank kizuki the sixth weakest out of the 12 strongest demons tanjaro fought only two of these and seriously struggled with them before taking on the upper ranks after that gotoke just wrote them out of the story completely this was a huge mistake tanjaro should not have defeated an upper rank until it was shown that he could single-handedly take down a lower rank with relative ease because that would be great evidence of his growth instead they're treated like worthless cannon fodder by muzan which just makes it harder to believe that Tundra can take down an upper rank since he struggled so much with the lower ranks the reality is that there is no valid explanation for why not a single upper ranked demon has been killed over the past hundred years and this is the final and greatest indicator that tanjito is the chosen one this is what I like to call the center of the world protagonist writing method the idea behind it is that the entire world is stagnant and unchanging until the protagonist becomes a part of it at which point the world suddenly starts changing and moving forward I have never seen an example of this writing method being used that works it is always bad because it suggests that nothing can happen in a story's world without the involvement of the protagonist the best stories in writing display a living breathing world where things happen that affect the protagonist and their story without them having to be directly involved in those events the worst stories do the opposite it is not impossible to write a character as a chosen one and have it be good but this is not one of those examples speaking of being the chosen one did you know that I have a patreon if this video didn't make you hate me then for just five bucks a month you get access to all kinds of behind the scenes and extra content such as Early Access to new videos and weekly progress updates your contributions help me buy new equipment to make my videos better that I wouldn't be able to afford otherwise and I really appreciate that because I want to make more great videos for you guys if you can't afford the patreon liking the video is always very appreciated because that tells YouTube people want to see this stuff thanks again for your support let's get back to dunking on popular anime number 413 the character writing in Demon Slayer is atrocious hell it's a bit insulting to other writers to even call it character writing I should say the caricature writing in Demon Slayer is atrocious these characters have no depth they are obnoxious and I can't stand them this is zenitsu I hate zenitsu his two characteristics are that he is horny and a coward his character does not have any depth beyond that he gets scared and cries and screams constantly or he tries to sexually assault the female characters that's it that's all there is to him now the Cowardly part of zenith's character could be and should be thought of as a personal flaw for him to overcome given that as a Demon Slayer he is too scared to fight demons you would think that would hold him back and make him a liability leading to an internal conflict and a desire to change but that's not what happens you see instead of having to overcome his personal flaw and change to be a better person zenitsu just falls asleep and that allows him to fight while asleep are you trying to piss me off I can accept the whole only able to fight while a sleep thing as Quirky anime [ __ ] but here's the problem with it this is not a limitation for zenitsu because functionally there is zero difference between zenitsu being awake or asleep other than that he is less annoying while asleep zenitu is still capable of rational thought and we can hear his unconscious inner monologue which is a total oxymoron he's even capable of speaking and communicating with other characters and strategizing with them so he's just awake with more steps it's just quirky for the sake of being quirky it's a complete waste of character writing there is a way to write this and have it not Sun it could be that while asleep he loses the ability to tell the difference between friend and foe thus making him a threat to the others or maybe while asleep he fights recklessly because there's very little thought behind his actions thus making it very dangerous for him both of those scenarios would make this facet of his character a limitation and therefore something he could overcome hell you could even do something as simple as giving him a scenario where he wants to fight but can't overcome his fear and can't fall asleep forcing him to deal with one of those limitations but nothing like that ever happens neither of these things hold him back zenitu is also supposedly a total [ __ ] up each of the different breathing techniques have a number of specific techniques for some reason is a user of mouth breathing's Thunder breathing which has six forms but zanito is only capable of using the first of those six forms which you would think would be a big deal but no not only does it not hold him back at all he also never overcomes this limitation so this is really character writing one-on-one when you write a character with a flaw or limitation that flaw or limitation should cause problems for that character if it doesn't then it isn't really a flaw or a limitation it's just wasted writing gotoge wants to have it both ways he wants to have a funny coward character and he also wants a character that can pull off cool Feats however because of the ways any two is written he fails remarkably in both areas he's obnoxious as a comic relief character and his Feats lack weight because of the lazy way he's written but okay Mac I hear you typing in the comments zeny2 is an easy target you cherry-picked this example to back up your point sure that's a fair statement I think a lot of people who actually like Demon Slayer can admit that zanito is pretty [ __ ] so why don't we take a crack at a fan favorite in fact Ren Goku is so loved by the community that when I asked chat GPT to tell me why he sucks as a character the AI refused to do it out of fear of being canceled luckily I have no such fear so I can say in plain terms that run Goku is a terribly written character Ren Goku is introduced alongside the rest of the hashida he's immediately introduced by talking about how nezuko is a demon and should therefore be killed without being given a proper chance and that tanjiro should also be killed for protecting her after that we don't see rangoku again until tanjito and his gang gets sent to a demon slaying job on a train where renok immediately makes a complete 180 by being very friendly towards tanjito and his friends now credit where credit is due one of Ren Goku's characteristics is that he's a very direct character he doesn't hold back when he's talking so you could chuck this up to that aspect of his character but we're also going to see that he's an extremely kind and caring person wanting to kill tanjito without giving him a chance to explain himself kind of goes against that listen Tundra I think you're a great guy and I'm sure you have your reasons but as you can clearly see in the Demon Slayer handbook he broke the dress code policy so I'm gonna have to kill you in your entire family [Music] now in terms of rengoku's character writing he's really not that bad he's not good either he's an incredibly boring character he's a generic good boy a lot like tanjito in many ways but I don't actively hate him like zanitsu the real problem with rengoku is how he is utilized in this story renuka's primary involvement takes place during the Mugen train Arc where the crew has to fight a demon that has melded with a train and Jesus look at that Demon Slayer really does have Peak animation quality throughout the arc Ren Goku puts a lot of faith in tanjano and his boys while Ren Goku focuses on protecting the humans riding the train that is until they defeat the demon and the train derails spelling gallons of toxic chemicals none of this would have happened if the demon had prioritized rail safety over its bottom line tanjaro inhaled some of the vinyl chloride so he's out of commission when suddenly the third upper ranked demon appears this is the first time an upper ranked even appears in the story so of course he has to make an impression Ren Goku is on his own to fight the demon at least at first and he puts up a pretty good fight the demon clearly has the upper hand but Rengar knows he can't back down or tanjudo and the other humans will die so he fights on for as long as he can but the strength of one human only amounts to so much [Music] I'm sorry I meant the strength of one human only amounts to so much when they aren't the main character as rangogu bleeds out of his donut hole he thinks back to his childhood he remembers a lesson his mother taught him about how people who are born strong have a duty to protect those that are weaker than them with his remaining strength he tries to kill the demon but it isn't enough the demon escapes as the sun rises because it sure would be inconvenient if the demon could still fight after killing Ren Goku before kicking the bucket for good Ren Goku offers some advice to tanjito and his friends he tells them not to give up and to keep fighting he tells them that he believes in their strength and he knows they'll be able to become hashida themselves someday finally he sees a vision of his late mother and asks her if he was able to use his strength well she tells him he did giving him a feeling of relief as he breathes his last breath [Music] here's why rendoku's death doesn't work we did not know rengoku long enough for his death to be meaningful what gotoge is trying to do here is to introduce a character right before they get killed and then try to convince us that their death is Meaningful because he wants tanjiro and his friends to find motivation the death of someone they cared about without having to kill off an established character I mean gotoke isn't going to kill off zany to God forbid where would the series be without sanitsu so instead we get Ren Goku and it's [ __ ] because rengoku was written to be missed what do I mean by that I called run Goku a generic good boy earlier and that's what I'm talking about we as the audience are supposed to see Ren Goku and say oh my goodness he's such a sweet boy he cares so much about people and he believes in tanjiro that way when he gets fisted we're supposed to react with no not Ren Goku he's such a sweet boy he cares so much about people and he believes in tanjo he's written so that we as the audience are sad about his death but this is a terrible approach Ren Goku like tanjudo is a Flawless character which means he's boring for the same reasons Kratos Walter White guts what do all these characters have in common they are incredibly flawed characters that the audience loves despite their imperfection because flawed characters are relatable you as the audience can relate to Kratos self-hatred or Walt's selfishness or gut's rage and even though they sometimes do terrible things you root for them because you want to believe that they can overcome their flaws because that means you can overcome your flaws Flawless characters are not relatable because people are not flawless if the audience can't relate to a character then how on Earth are we meant to be sad about their death I said before that rengoku's death doesn't work because we didn't know him long enough but that's not really the problem after all I praised the writing of himeno and Chainsaw man and she died in even fewer chapters than Ren Goku the problem is that rengoku is written as an incomplete character he has no flaws he has no relationship with the other characters and we did not learn what he lived for what his motivations were and no I don't count his desire to protect people as a motivation because his mommy told him to is a super weak reason for that desire since that relationship wasn't fleshed out it is possible to have run Goku exist and have his death be meaningful one easy way would be to make run Goku an [ __ ] when rangogu was first introduced he had no faith in nezuko and wanted to kill tanjano let's keep that then when they meet on the train and the demon attacks have Ren Goku tried to kill nezuko because he's convinced she'll attack the civilians make him a hindrance on timezone and his team because Ren Goku's priorities aren't straight then gradually have him realize that nezigo is trying to help and have him begrudgingly put his faith in her after the train derails let's have upper Rank 3 appear and try to abduct or kill nezuko while she's incapacitated and let run Goku die protecting her because he realized she's on Humanity's side then we can have his last words have a lot of weight renyago can admit to tanjiro that his way of thinking was archaic and wrong have Ren Goku realized that he and his old ways can't defeat muzon and teletanjo that it's him and his new ways that will finally end this fight he believes in him and kicks the bucket this scenario serves three purposes that would improve this story first it makes renyoku a relatable character while maintaining his likability because he comes around at the end second it displays character growth that is sorely lacking in this series and third it gives a reason for why tanjano is capable of breaking the stalemate between humans and demons it establishes that tanjito and his new way of thinking will change the Demon's their core and give them the ability to win is it a bit generic yeah absolutely but it's better than the feeling of indifference I get from renkooku's actual death at least in my scenario we can imagine the potential for change that rengoku has and in that knowledge we can miss who he could have become that makes his death mean something Ren Goku is not a bad character he's just incredibly sterile and boring as a result I can't feel bad about his death which means his death does very little for the story all right one more example let's talk about genya because boy oh boy do I have some things to say about this lad is possibly if not the single greatest missed opportunity in this entire series genya is a character that is introduced very early in the series all the way back during tanjudo's test to become a Demon Slayer back then he was immediately introduced as a total piece of [ __ ] he was impatient and wanted his sword right after passing the test he hit the girl running the test and he had the gall to express a negative opinion about a popular anime on the internet I don't really like Demon Slayer I've had a good chuckle over that one I'm coming after you after that he disappeared for a long time only to show back up during the swordsmith village Arc genyon was again shown to be a total [ __ ] by being very rude to tanchido but we learned a lot more about him in this Arc such that he has Brothers with this stupid scar guy from the hashidah they aren't on very good terms either Kenya just wants his ownichan to notice him but scar man once again need to [ __ ] off there's also one huge thing about Kenya that is the ultimate example of the complete lack of focus in this series Kenya cannot use breathing techniques for some reason that will never be explained see this is a predictable problem I mentioned earlier that if you're going to have a power system like breathing techniques that every character uses there needs to be a better explanation for how it works than what we're given it is literally just breathing a certain way yet for some unexplained reason genya is incapable of breathing apparently the only reason we're given for why breathing could possibly be inaccessible to Some Humans is that it's apparently very taxing on the body so all you need to do in order to explain why genya can't use breathing is to tell me he has respiratory problems or something he's got a medical exemption and he can't wear a mask to the grocery store that's enough for me at this point but we don't even get that in fact it's even worse than that you might be wondering how someone like genya is capable of surviving as a Demon Slayer given that breathing techniques are how demon Slayers level the playing field in the face of a demon's strength well genya has a unique ability he can eat the Flesh of a demon in order to temporarily gain access to their powers including their regenerative abilities so that raises the question how is that possible well genya has special digestive organs oh I'm sorry did you think that was a transition into a more detailed explanation yeah well I did too but no that's it his tummy is special and that means he can become a demon for a bit it's also established that he is literally the only person that can do this genya's inclusion in this story is a huge mistake on gotoke's part because genia's existence rather ironically deconstructs tanjito as a protagonist I mentioned earlier that one of the things I find frustrating about this series is that tanjito's very existence manages to break a century-old stalemate between the demons and the humans as soon as tanjaro becomes a part of the Demon Slayer core things suddenly start moving in the direction of defeating moves on the one and only defense that I can think of for this aspect of demon Slayers writing is that tajiro is special he has the mark on his face that increases his physical abilities as well as the ability to use Sun breathing which is inexplicably stronger than the other breathing techniques these abilities are what set tangento apart from the other demon Slayers and it's that edge that arguably allows him to break the stalemate so what the [ __ ] the [ __ ] the [ __ ] can literally use the power of demons against them yet he's been unable to achieve the same Feats as tanjito oh Kenya's abilities are theoretically better than tanjinos it's established upon their introduction that breathing techniques are used to Grant the Demon Slayer demon-like physical abilities well Kenya's demonification does the same thing on top of giving him demon-like regenerative abilities Kenya is capable of fighting demons on a More Level Playing Field than any other character in this story yet you'd be shocked to find out that he does not do anything notable to break the stalemate the way tanjano does Kenya having special abilities does not automatically allow him to be stronger than the other demon Slayers so his existence in this story puts a massive Spotlight on the flaw of writing that is tangento as a protagonist and lastly to add insult to injury after tonjo and genya fight together genya suddenly stops being the massive ass ladies shown to me he's just a nice guy all of a sudden that is not character development he was never given a reason to change in order to go through the process of changing ganya is by far the worst written character in Demon Slayer and yet unbelievably genya is the rule not the exception a caricature is an art form in which the artist takes the notable features of their subject and exaggerates them to a comical degree and that's why I call this caricature writing earlier these characters have one or two characteristics that are exaggerated and thrown in your face constantly despite what you may think I don't expect every character to have an Ocean's level of depth but these [ __ ] don't even have puddles these characters are the Basin in a desert that used to be an ocean millions of years ago but now you just find nothing but dust to choke on what you see is what you get they are service level they are boring and obnoxious it wouldn't be so bad if gotoke wasn't trying desperately to convince you that these characters are deeper than they appear he does this by making sure that legitimately every [ __ ] character gets a backstory the good guys get backstories the bad guys get backstories the barely relevant characters get backstories it's a goddamn backstory Battle Royale where they're all competing to be the least relevant now I know this is Rich coming from me because but having a lot of backstories is not in and of itself a problem the issue is that none of the backstories are used in a meaningful way you can do a lot with a backstory you can use it to explain why a character is the way that they are or to explain events that led to the situation the characters are in or simply as a World building tool gotoke mostly uses them to throw Exposition about characters at you which isn't necessarily A Bad Thing the problem is a matter of relevance to the story and characters this is used for every single demon that tanjo defeats before they die each of them has to recount their sob story of how they were abused as humans and what led to them being demons in the first place now I've actually seen a lot of people praise this aspect of the writing but I don't really understand why a theme throughout Demon Slayer is that every demon was once human and that at heart they might not necessarily be evil for example during the backstory of the first upper ranked demon that tonjo and his friends defeated you learn that they mostly did what they did to protect each other but what does knowing that change for us as the audience how does that knowledge recontextualize their actions again I understand the desire to humanize the demons but the problem is that nothing is done with that concept let's talk about World building which is something that Demon Slayer is sorely lacking in there is nothing done to establish those State Of The World At Large outside of the limited sphere of the Demons there core and their battle against the demons I say limited because the existence of the demons and therefore the demons their core is not even general knowledge demons are few enough in number that they're seen as urban legend so that begs the question what is going on outside this limited sphere if we're in the Thai show era then how is World War One affecting the demon slayer's ability to operate what's the state of the common people and how does it relate to the Demon's threat to humankind these are questions that are not and will not ever be answered hell even a basic explanation of where in Japan all this is taking place is not answered nor is there any kind of explanation as to how each location in the story relates to one another it's like levels in a video game you're at Demon Slayer HQ then you're at the butterfly Mansion then you're at the Entertainment District without any idea what it took to get there this is terrible Demon Slayer wants us to believe the demons are a threat to humans without showing us how large of a threat they are or if they even impact daily life for the average person now what does this have to do with backstories well I mentioned earlier that backstories can be used for World building and there's an excellent missed opportunity to do that here there is one common theme across every backstory in this world and that's cruelty nearly every demon in this story had humans do straight up awful things to them before they were demons many of the demon Slayers were also treated cruelly throughout their lives so let's use that to build our world grew up in a small closed Society it would be very easy to write a scenario where tanjaro is ignorant to the ways of the world outside of his small village it could be that upon going out into it tanjiro realizes the world is not as kind as he would have imagined this would contrast well with his kindness as a character it could then be bolstered through learning the backstories of the Demons he fights tanjito could start his story with the naive belief that ridding the world of muzan and his demons will make it a better place only to slowly realize that humans are just as cruel to one another that realization could lead to tanjito recognizing that muzon still needs to be defeated but that the world won't be fixed if that happens it would give him a motivation to make the world a better place even after muzan's eventual defeat as it stands the question of what the [ __ ] tanjanoi would do with his life after beating muzan is unanswered which isn't a good thing is it a bit cliche to go for the whole humans are the real demons all along thing yeah a little but again it gives meaning to those backstories where currently there is none as it stands it's not even like tanjiro learns the backstories of his friends or enemies they exist purely for us as the audience yet they also ironically don't do anything for us right now they only serve to explain where certain characteristics come from such as why is any two is such a [ __ ] up or why genius brother hates him he doesn't actually the question becomes how many of those characteristics really need to be explained and the answer is often that they don't now you may be confused because a lot of my problems with Demon Slayer come from a lack of explanation yet here I am saying character quirks don't need to be explained the problem is when a lack of explanation creates holes in your ability to understand the story I don't need to know why snake man wears a mask because he is a side character with very little plot relevance spend less time on that and more time fleshing out breathing telling your audience that this is just who they are is often enough and while I understand why people enjoy the demons being humanized through the backstory it's ultimately meaningless if nothing is done with that information so they don't actually add anything to story and they don't need to exist now the biggest thing the Demon Slayer has going for it is its action segments the anime is done by UFO table who also works on a lot of the Fate anime and yeah they're pretty good at what they do the action scenes are great to watch however I read the Manga and the action scenes in the manga are very poorly executed it's really important for the art in an action manga to convey what is going on from one panel to the next so the reader can follow what is happening some standout examples that do this really well are Sakamoto days and Jujutsu kaisen it's so easy to understand the flow of combat there are parts of a scene that you can use to orient your understanding of the scene and recognize the character's relationship to one another as they Clash this is not true of Demon Slayer the action is severely weakened because it often becomes near impossible to follow what's happening take a look at this great page where the onomatopoeia actually blocks the action so you can't see anything or this page here if you're seeing this page for the first time without any context please do me a favor and take a guess at what is happening in the comments look art is subjective in fact all of this is if you're thinking of leaving a comment at some point informing me that all this is my opinion then congratulations you're right you stated a fact that does not counter my arguments or disrupt my points while you're done by the comments you want to hit that like button but more than anything else art is extremely subjective so I don't want to talk about this too long but I can't stand the art direction of Demon Slayer the action fails so hard to visualize what an attack is supposed to do that gotoke feels the need to explain all of them rather than just showing you more often than not attacks simply lack weight because there's no clear idea of what effect it's having it's funny because this is not true at all in some cases oftentimes Sun breathing attacks are very impactful other times I can't even tell if the attack did anything like with many water breathing attacks and Jesus the character designs are awful what is this ripped off a teenager's deviantART page this guy is supposed to be the main villain I'm supposed to be intimidated by him he looks like he's about to tip his Fedora to milady he looks like on a redditor thinks looks cool I look like a jackass look at that and why do they all look like kids like every single character looks like a child some of them are Tundra's only 15 but this dude 27. he looks like he just got to high school even the old characters look like children dressing up like adults if your story is going to be so remarkably incompetent can it at least be pretty the last thing I want to talk about is how Demon Slayer wraps up plot lines which means you enter the territory of anime only spoilers so if you don't have the ending of this mess spoiled please skip ahead to the following time code to hear my final thoughts Demon Slayer has an absolutely abysmal method of setting up and resolving things gotoge will set something up and then either instantly resolve it or not take the proper steps to make the resolution mean something I mentioned earlier that zanitzu never gets past the hurdle of only being able to use one form of Thunder breathing but that was only partly true he does get past it but I'll let you decide the validity of that resolution in the final Arc of the story which is a huge battle between all the remaining demons and all the demon Slayers they need to single-handedly battles the new upper rank 6 demon who also happens to be his old rival now you might be a bit confused because I never mentioned zenitsu having arrival well needed as the manga not really anyway this character is briefly shown in zenitsu's backstory his name is kaigaku and he chastises zanitsu for being such a [ __ ] up they're both students of the same teacher and both users of Thunder breathing now this could have been really good kaigaku gets introduced very early in the story so a final battle between him and zinitsu could have been really strong but it falls completely flat because there is no build up to this moment kaigaku is not mentioned or shown a single time between his backstory and his final battle his existence is barely even alluded to right before their final battle zenitsu gets a letter informing him that kaigaku became a demon this is the motivations and itsy needs to finally train and become stronger completely off screen my question is why couldn't this have been done throughout the story instead of right before it needed to happen why couldn't zenitsu constantly have kaigaku in the back of his mind someone stronger that he looks up to that inspires him to fight then when kaigaku becomes a demon it could shatter any two leaving him heartbroken that kagaku could do such a thing while also giving him the ultimate motivation to fight winzanitsu and kagaku fight it's revealed that zenitsu has gotten over his fear and no longer needs to sleep in order to fight and ultimately zenitsu defeats kagaku by using a new Thunder breathing form a seventh form that zenitsu created so he got past his fear and his one move limitation but both of those things happened with zero build up so they have absolutely no weight it's like I talked about earlier with Tundra we're getting character development that skips the actual development process not to mention that zenitsu getting past these limitations means nothing if he was never held backed by them in the first place I mean the idea that zanitsu can invent a new move but is incapable of learning the established ones is itself pretty ridiculous you know what would have worked better in the beginning zenitsu only knows the first move then throughout the story he slowly Masters the other five forms allowing him to grow stronger and overcome his limits then in this final battle he pulls out his new move it would be the ultimate indication that zenitsu has actually grown stronger and become a thunder-breathing master as it stands we have payoff with no build up and this is common for Demon Slayer this is how many plot points are handled there are scant few examples of character developments or plot twists that are handled well one good one is Tamayo Tamayo is introduced very early in the story as a demon that does not eat people she resents moves on and wants to find a way to turn Demons back into humans because of this goal Tamaya and tanjito's goals are linked because tanjiro wants to make niziko human again to this end Tamayo asks tanjano to collect the blood of one of the twelve kizuki this is something that is on his mind and referenced across multiple battles until tanjiro finally manages to do it after battling upper rank 6. that blood is then used to not only make a demon curing medicine but also make a poison to destroy muzon in the final battle that poison is what weakens moves on enough for tanjito and the others to ultimately defeat him this is all great Tamayo and her Gore introduced early then referenced frequently throughout the story then the payoff of that setup is Meaningful this stuff isn't hard guys all of it should look like this the ending of this mess is barely worth talking about from an art directions perspective the entire thing is a mess of random attacks there's no flow or choreography whatsoever everyone works together to defeat muzan a bunch of people die in his dying moment moves on makes tanjaro into a demon they use the medicine to turn him back and everything is fine the most offensive part of the ending is the last chapter where for some dumbass reason it cuts to modern day and shows how all the characters descendants turned out like why just to confirm some ships this doesn't do anything it doesn't add anything to the existing story and let's not forget that there would have to be some serious inbreeding happening for all these characters who look so much like their ancestors I mean Jesus they even have matching scars the ending is stupid it doesn't leave an impact it doesn't pay things off in a meaningful way and as one last [ __ ] you it's revealed that tanjado's family can inexplicably become demons that are immune to being killed by sunlight chalk it up to generations of incest or something Chosen One indicator number four ultimately the main and biggest problem with Demon Slayer comes from a lack of focus Damon Slayer wants to overload you with useless information instead of fleshing out the things that matter he wants to show you every character's backstory but not do anything with any of them it wants you to be sad about rengoku's death but refuses to take the time to make you care about him it wants you to believe demons are not inherently evil but doesn't want to do anything with that premise it wants you to believe tanjano can shift the tides of War which shows you again you can't do the same it wants you to believe Sun breathing is the strongest form of breathing but doesn't give a valid explanation for why a lot of the answers to the questions I post throughout this video can be answered by saying because gotoke said so I'm breathing is strong because gotoke said so genya isn't special because gotoke said so rendoku's death is sad because gotoke said so gotoge does not take the time to flesh out any of these ideas because of a severe lack of focus he just wants you to trust him and not ask questions I read that Demon Slayer can't be when one of goto Gay's editors suggested that he writes a story with an easy to understand theme and it seems to me that he took that to mean write a story that is so brain dead you and a four-year-old can understand it you can write a meaningful and deep story that has an easy to understand theme the message of every single one of my favorite series can be summed up in a single sentence but unlike Demon Slayer they still manage to be competent pieces of writing that are deep and meaningful throughout the course of writing this video I can't realize that many of the things I criticize about Demon Slayer are not things that I feel the need to criticize in other manga that's because I do not expect the things I read to be perfect every series has flaws and it isn't fair to expect them not to but with other series that I am not so critical of they all have things that make them incredible that allow me to give them a break where they aren't perfect I can forgive lacking World building if the character writing is strong I can forgive mediocre character writing if the action is engaging and I can forgive boring action if the World building is incredible the problem with Demon Slayer is that it doesn't do anything particularly well and it does many things very poorly so I can't accept the demon slayer's flaws because there is simply no Silver Lining to point to at least in the case of the manga I think I understand why a lot of people watch Demon Slayer they watched Demon Slayer for the same reason that I watch Kitchen Nightmares I watch Kitchen Nightmares a lot while I'm editing or gaming but I know it's not a very good show it's trashy reality TV the editing is atrocious the format is predictable but I still enjoy watching it because funny Angry British man I like to imagine that most people enjoy Demon Slayer for a similar reason I want to believe that they know the writing is atrocious World building non-existent and generally lacks Focus but they enjoy watching it nonetheless because they finally animated fights enjoyable it's something to just turn your brain off and watch that's what I want to believe at least but then I see all these video essays calling Demon Slayer Peak fiction or saying it's redefining the Shonen genre or I watch it consistently top manga sales charts or a movie releases and becomes the highest grossing anime movie ever made and I really have to question that assertion are our standards this low that this derivative garbage can become a generation defining piece of media you cannot expect the things you read or watch to be perfect you cannot expect them to have no flaws but for God's sake people have higher standards than this ultimately I know that this video won't change anyone's mind but agree with me will praise the accuracy of my arguments while the people that don't will find any number of straw man Arguments for why I'm unfit to criticize it at all but here's the thing at least when I watch something like nisekoi I can find enjoyment in laughing at how absurd it is at least when I read one piece I can feel inspired and uplifted despite its flaws but with Demon Slayer despite the hyperbolic delivery of my criticisms throughout this video I end up feeling nothing I'm left feeling indifferent and to me inspiring indifference is even worse than inspiring hatred because at least when I hate something I am feeling something thank you so much for watching this video I really appreciate that if you would do me the honor of pressing the like button if you liked the video or leaving a comment letting me know what you think I would really appreciate that I want to give a massive shout out to all of my patrons over the cats and Mac patreon especially my Gamers true and Lucy Ray gear and small Game Dev who joined after I filmed this what an absolute gamer and all of my simps Victor Mesa Roja ramun nerd ninja Des Skippy Jimmy B degenerate David D Bill Nye The Bounty guy belgara and marzak the mad they are all amazing and I love them oh so much remember patreon is only five bucks a month and you get access to all kinds of behind the scenes and extra content and it really helps me out so maybe head on over if you want to I'm going to try really hard to make sure I get more than two videos out this year and we're going strong already we're only halfway through the air we already got two videos out so I'll see you guys in the next six months hopefully and if you have suggestions for things I can cover in the future let me know in the comments or just let me know what you thought in general I appreciate it as always you guys are the best I love doing what I do thank you for 25 000 subscribers by the way what the heck I'm just gonna skip right over that what's wrong with me that is a huge milestone that it did not everything I would hit I thank you so much that is incredible and I'm going to keep working to make the best videos that I can for you guys I can't wait to show you what I got up next I got all kinds of ideas in my head but there's always room for more so again whatever suggestions you got I'm always open to hearing them thank you so much for watching I hope you have a fantastic day and I'll see you within the next six months for sure maybe even more than once I'll do my best also I live stream here on YouTube so join me then you can see me a lot there so love you bye [Music]

Channel: Captain Mack

Views: 330,708

Keywords: captain, mack, manga, anime, video, essay, deep, dive, analysis, demon, slayer, is, extraordinarily, incompetent, terrible, derivative, shonen, jump, tanjiro, inosuke, zenitsu, rengoku, genya, mugen, train, infinity, swordsmith, village, entertainment, district, funny, comedy, character, writing, critique, criticism

Id: XX4v8cvrMqs

Length: 67min 54sec (4074 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2023