April is the cruellest month, just like the title of the first episode, Zankoku(Cruelty). With many still recovering from the terrifying tale of human sacrifice from the ongoing Winter 2018 and Spring 2019’s highly praised anime, Dororo, prepare for more heart-wrenching moments again in this spring’s new Shonen Jump anime, Kimetsu no Yaiba or Demon Slayer.
Kimetsu no Yaiba delivers the essential blood and gore to save this rather anaemic anime season. Featuring man-eating demons, the anime brings back the almost non-existent demon slaying trope and historical genre into the field, saving viewers from the recurring isekai (entering into a new world) and a slice of life genre. The anime tells the story of Tanjiro who becomes a Demon Slayer after his entire family was killed by a demon. A rather typical shounen genre plot and many would have probably expected the anime to be driven by the idea of revenge for his family.
Unfortunately, that’s not true.
What makes Kimetsu no Yaiba appealing is its surprising twist of the shounen trope. The mangaka, Koyoharu Gotouge cleverly adds the element of paradox into the storyline by introducing Nezuko, a surviving family member to revive not as a human but as a man-eating demon who surprisingly was able to maintain a portion of her humanity. The pairing of Tanjiro, a Demon Slayer and Nezuko, a demon in later adventures is surprising due to the rarity of having a shounen hero to have his sidekick from his enemy’s race. Tanjiro is also not driven by revenge but by his strong desire to help Nezuko to be human again.
The anime opens with a depiction of a happily ever after scene of Tanjiro with his family in the snowy mountains that induces a frightening premonition of tragedy where everything turns upside down and sets the plot. Episode 1 heavily plays with the emotions of the viewers, weaving the feelings of love, sadness and fear into a premiere episode powerful enough to strike the chords of many new fans and fans of the manga series. The tear-jerking sentiment between the siblings, Tanjiro’s plea for survival and Nezuko’s emotional response heightens the sympathy and empathy of the viewers, luring them further into the story.
Based on the first episode, the characters are nicely intriduced with the accurate and precise usage of monologues which helped viewers to further understand the feelings of the characters, especially of Tanjiro when he rushes down the snowy mountains to save a dying Nezuko. In particular, I am rather intrigued by Nezuko’s character who I expected to be the usual docile shounen heroine. However, she breaks the stereotype by having her own will and agency, having no hesitations to kill any enemies of her brother. Her feral nature is very captivating.
Kimetsu no Yaiba’s bleak and frightening world is contrasted greatly with Tanjiro’s gentle and caring personality that provides a balance in the series horror and humour elements. This is an important aspect in character design and I must admit the creator of the series, Koyoharu Gotouge did a wonderful job in the characterisation because it avoids the creation of flat characters, a weakness in many Shonen Jump anime and manga.
Produced by Studio Ufotable, an animation studio infamous for their extremely high budget and high-quality animation, Kimetsu no Yaiba certainly reeks of the Ufotable magic. The vivid colours of the character’s designs provide a pleasing contrast with the white snow throughout the whole episode. The action scenes were really smooth and clean in exception of the oddly placed CGI in certain moments. Nevertheless, the animation was fluid and natural from the act of running to sword slashing to sipping tea.
It relieves me that the Ufotable has done a marvellous job of transitioning into the mangaka’s art style which maintains the uniqueness of Gotouge’s drawings and enhances the series. As a fellow manga reader, I personally think that the manga has been adapted properly by the anime studio. It captures well not only the emotions of the characters but also Gotouge’s idea of humanity and family bond that is prevalent in the storyline.
The casting of the voice actors was perfect as each of them was able to match correctly with the character’s personalities. Credit goes to Hanae Natsuki whose vocal quality was able to bring alive the character of the optimistic and stubborn Tanjiro. Natsuki had definitely improved a lot in his voice acting from his previous role as Inaho Kaizuka from the widely acclaimed anime, Aldnoah.Zero. I personally like the way he voices Tanjiro in the scenes where he begs for Tomioka Giyu to release his sister. I could definitely feel Tanjiro’s fear and sorrow in every word spoken out.
Kimetsu no Yaiba’s music is composed by Yuki Kajiura, the composer of the soundtracks for many popular anime series such as Sword Art Online and Fate Zero. Kajiura’s evocative compositions heighten the qualities of the anime’s mysterious world filled with danger and despair. The music from the fight scene brings a myriad of emotions between Tanjiro and Giyu with the violin accentuating the tension along with the heavy rhythm of the drums and keyboard. The vocal of the music is provided by Chiaki Ishikawa and has a very traditional Japanese music style that further enhances the atmosphere and brings an ethereal as well as mystical feeling to listeners, fitting to the emotional spectrum of the anime.
With Suhara Takashi as the episode director for the series, the anime would definitely fare pretty well in charts as Takashi is the director for major and highly rated Fate series, Kara no Kyoukai and Tales of Zestiria. However, Takashi tends to be inconsistent in his episode storyboards where there will be several episodes of the characters spending most of their time discussing on philosophical ideas which confuse viewers, hinders plot development and slows the pace. It would be interesting to see how Takashi would fare in Kimetsu no Yaiba because the last time he attempted on a historical anime was in 2017 with Touken Ranbu Katsugeki, a visually stunning anime but with a weak plot.
Being in the historical genre, the anime does not have many contenders in this season apart from the legendary Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo which provides Kimetsu no Yaiba an upper hand in attracting attention in comparison to others. With its masterful animation, sentimental evocation and strong plotline, Kimetsu no Yaiba is guaranteed to mesmerize a variety of viewers and provide a good challenge with this season’s highly anticipated Shonen Jump anime, One Punch Man Season 2 and Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3. I highly recommend Kimetsu no Yaiba and I look forward to more action-packed yet emotional episodes of this series.
Cloud of Muses Ratings (as of Episode 1):
Story - 8
Art - 8.5
Characters - 8
Total - 24.5/30
Watch the trailer of the anime here!
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