A Demon Slayer Defense: Exploring the Depth of the Worldwide Phenomenon
- boricuadesiree
- Sep 15
- 39 min read
I’m not much of a fan of doing “in defense of” style essays. Everyone is, after all, allowed to dislike things I like or even love, just as I am allowed to dislike what others like or even love – sorry to fans of Singin’ in the Rain and Christopher Nolan. So it isn’t the existence of people disliking things I love that irks me, but rather, the lack of empathy provided when it comes to understanding why people at large may love something.
I like Star Wars, though I wouldn’t account myself as a superfan – that would be my beloved big little sister – I’ve only seen the movies and some of the shows. Controversially one said show was The Acolyte, which even more controversially I enjoyed.
This admission baffled my Lyft driver, who had picked me up from the airport and conversed with me for all forty-five minutes between said pick up and drop off about various geek related things. It was my fault really, I should have never acknowledged the Deadpool comics sitting in his backseat next to me.
This isn’t a screed against that man, it was an awkward experience sure, obnoxious at worst, but I worked years in a comic shop, I’ve been through far worse. Shout out to the man who once asked me if I could teach him Spanish on the weekends.
No, what is notable, and relevant to this conversation was when the topic of Star Wars came up – because of course it did – this man adamantly announced his hatred for The Acolyte. It was impressive the derision he had for the show, but even more impressive was the fact he hadn’t actually watched it. As I learned when I mentioned I actually did enjoy the show well enough to his befuddlement.
Now Star Wars is not a hill I’m going to die on, let alone The Acolyte. I’m not interested in defending my stance on the fact that, yeah, I don’t think The Last Jedi was that bad a movie – visually it’s far more stunning than anything JJ Abrams did with his two tries but that’s neither here nor there – or explain in detail why I enjoyed how The Acolyte challenged some jedi ideals.
What is instead notable to me, is the befuddlement he had, even more so considered he hadn’t watched the show himself. He was truly shocked by the idea I could like A Thing so many of his circle had lambasted – whether his circle was friends, internet pals, youtubers or otherwise I don’t know only that he “was told” by various fellow Star Wars fans the show was a crime against the canon.
It was truly a case of “how could you possibly like that?” When the show was clearly so bad, so middlingly, so poorly rendered? Why would they? How could they? Do they just lack good taste? Or the current favorite buzzy term, media literacy?
I am not a Rey/Kylo shipper by any means, my hottest of hot takes for the new trilogy may be the fact I find both characters – yes Rey and Kylo – mind numbingly boring. Which is a shame, I could’ve become a best-selling author by turning my non-existent ao3 Reylo fanfic into an original novel. Alas, missed opportunities.
Jokes aside, it is very easy to understand why people like the two characters both separately and romantically together. What the appeal of them is for fans follows plenty of familiar tropes, and patterns seen in other characters and popular fictional couples.
In the same way I can understand why people adamantly disliked The Last Jedi, particularly the film's depiction of Luke – my beloved pen pal is one of these people and magically, we have been able to discuss our disagreements regarding the film without clawing each other's eyes out. It’s true; I even double checked for this essay.
There’s lots of things that I’m not into, or don’t like but can still see the appeal of, and others not at all – what is skibidi toilet? I’m better off not knowing – that I just shrug my shoulders at. Fiction is weird, vast and varied. I'm less interested in judging what other people like – though admittedly not immune to doing so at times I am after all only human – and more interested in understanding the why.
Maybe that’s what I would like to see more of and less of screeching befuddlement if not outright aggression of “how could anyone like that?”. Perhaps we need more earnest passionate exclamations of why you love the thing you love. Maybe the conversation with said Lyft driver would have been less awkward and felt much safer if they were open to actual conversation on why I enjoyed a show they hadn’t even watched, but their favorite youtubers told them was woke garbage disparaging the good Star Wars name.
Maybe it’s ‘cringe’ to be sincere and sincerely love something, and earnestly share that love, but well, I don’t mind being cringe.
Dr. Martha Deiros Collado, a clinical psychologist in a quote given to Vice in their article, "To Be Cringe is to Be Free" had this to say, “All of us can be cringe at some point – absurdity is just a part of what makes us human. If you can learn to appreciate the cringey sides of yourself, laugh at them with others and accept it’s just a part of you – you’re more likely to land in a place of joy and contentment than embarrassment and shame.”
So like, embrace the cringe of loving something wholeheartedly without shame. Embrace the emotion even if feeling something sincerely may be uncomfortable. Or at least attempt to understand why others resonate with something emotionally, even if you don’t.
That’s why I’m here about to passionately, cringely, and in annoying detail outline why I love Kimetsu No Yaiba aka Demon Slayer. All while trying not to spoil too much in the process.
Who knows, maybe you’ll give the show and/or comic a try after this. If you do, maybe you’ll love it, maybe you’ll hate, maybe it won’t speak to you the same way it has me. But at least you’ll know why myself and others do love the series.
Why am I even bothering with all this? After all I did say I don’t mind when other people dislike things I like and love right? Which, okay sure, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be annoying about it all the same. If folks are allowed to dislike something and make 2 hour takedown videos on everything wrong with The Little Mermaid (2023) then I’m gonna do the same just in reverse. Just without the Youtube monetization because I don’t know how to edit videos.
There’s often a certain level of disparagement that comes forth whenever something gets really popular. When anything reaches a certain level of seemingly baffling hype and notoriety others will check it out perhaps even against their better judgement and then reel back at the fact they don’t like it. Or that it wasn’t “as good” as the hype suggested.
Demon Slayer, in my experience, often suffers from a certain level of this. Within anime circles online, it will often get many comparisons to other well liked – particularly well liked by American fans – series such as Jujustu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, or Solo Leveling. From outside of anime fan circles, there can be the thick stench of xenophobia because anime is a foreign product, or a general benign ignorance because the series is animated, and animated features are often treated as a lesser than medium (whether they are anime or otherwise, see Oscar voting for many years).
For the former, this is just typical fan behavior. We all want our favorites to be The Best. The best at what? Who knows really. Art as a whole isn’t about being “the best” or at least at its core it shouldn’t be. It's about expressing something, connecting with others, building bridges between humanity, encouraging curiosity about the world around us and empathy for the people within it.
But an AI can’t regurgitate all that in mass produced quantities so instead fans will treat art, whatever it may be, as a means of “winning” More of a sports match where your favorite team wins the Superbowl and you riot in the streets in celebrated validation than something to engage in thoughtfully and emotionally.
Just to cut this line of thinking off, obviously not “all fans” participate in fandom like this. The creation of popular fanfiction site ao3 wouldn’t exist if that were the case, and CLAMP, who got their start drawing boys love fan comics of characters from Captain Tsubasa, wouldn’t have become the now renowned manga creators they are today.
But some fans do participate in fandom like this, as a series of wins and losses to chart out and tally. So, fine, by this metric how does Demon Slayer fare?
Suffice to say, calling Demon Slayer popular in Japan feels like saying James Cameron’s Avatar films have “just” made a few billion dollars. It’d be underselling just how popular the series is in not only Japan but worldwide. Buckle down for some data.
According to Oricon Monitor Research, who did a study on the series in Japan, found that 97.8% of participants were aware of the series, with 40.5% indicating they were “very familiar” with the series while the other 57.3% were “familiar with the name”. Of the 40.5% a majority answered in the positive in regards to how they viewed and felt about the series. When asked for particulars 76.4% said the biggest positive was the story, followed by the worldview and time setting, and finally that they emphasized with the characters.
In another study done in 2024 by The Alpha Generation Lab – a research facility that studies the impact of digitalization on the lives of generation alpha aka children born after 2010 – Japanese children from Gen Alpha ranked Demon Slayer as their favorite anime/manga with a total of 40% of the votes, almost half the entire survey size.
Demon Slayer is one of the best selling manga series of all time to date with 220 million copies thus far sold. In 2020 with the release of volume 23 – the final volume of the series – Demon Slayer set the highest weekly sales record of all time, selling 2.9 million copies. It sold out of volume 23 in a single day, going immediately into reprint.
This is especially impressive considering the various series that rank above it such as: Dragon Ball, Naruto, Golgo 13, Doraemon, Detective Conan and One Piece, all started their series runs in the 80s or early 90s (Golgo 13’s run started in 1968). While Demon Slayer began its series run in 2016, and is the only series in the top ten to be from the last decade.
Attack on Titan, arguably another juggernaut began its series run in 2009 and currently has 140 million collected copies sold. Other series that had released within a similar time period such as My Hero Academia and Jujustu Kaisen – which began their series runs in 2014 and 2018 respectively – have sold only half what Demon Slayer has thus far accomplished. All three series have completed their current runs in Weekly Shounen Jump, with Demon Slayer having been completed first in 2020 while the latter two series have only just completed their runs in 2024.
In 2019 Demon Slayer had become Shueisha’s second highest-selling manga after One Piece, selling a total of 10.8 million copies in 2018 to 2019. The final volume sold a whooping 5.17 million copies to date, an Oricon record. Oricon data also shows that the average number of copies sold per volume – not in total but per volume – is around 6.52 million. This pushes Demon Slayer above industry giants such as One Piece and Dragonball in terms of copies per volume sold. A truly remarkable feat considering Demon Slayer is both much newer than its contemporaries and that no other series since its release in 2016 has managed to accomplish similar figures.
According to statistics provided by Netflix, all five seasons of Demon Slayer rank in the top ten most watched series, culminating in 153,200,000 views between January 2023 and June 2025. A number that will surely only continue to increase with the release of the newest film Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle. Demon Slayer was the most watched anime in 2023 topping the list five separate times in Japan. According to reports the finale of season 3 of the series, Swordsmith Village Arc, crashed Crunchyroll servers.
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train released in late 2020, when COVID was still swinging and restrictions were only flexing a small bit, and many territories were shut down due to the pandemic yet the film still grossed a worldwide total of over 500 million. The film also won various domestic film circuit awards for music, direction, and animation. It currently sits as the highest grossing film in Japan beating out classics like Spirited Away, cultural resets like Your Name and popular series such as Jujustu Kaisen 0 and One Piece Film: Red.
The newest release of the series, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle broke records opening to $70 million in U.S and Canada making it the top opening animated title of 2025, as well as the biggest September animated debut of all time. It’s coming in just shy of the $76 million Disney’s Thunderbolts opened in May, and is doing better in Asian markets than WB’s Superman. It has also become Sony’s top-grossing domestic title to date in 2025.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has remained number #1 in South Korea since release, even beating out newer releases like the current juggernaut that is The Conjuring Last Rites – which is also doing fabulously at the box office as of this writing – and has been setting records in other territories such as India, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, and Hong Kong.
With the way the film is currently tracking, it could, possibly, enter the top ten highest grossing films of 2025, potentially beating out big Hollywood blockbusters such as: Fantastic Four: First Steps, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Captain America: Brave New World and Superman.
So when it comes to those sports fannish metrics? Demon Slayer is fucking slaying the battlefield. No, I won't apologize for that pun. I don’t share all this jargon heavy data just for bragging points or the like. I know very well that popularity doesn’t equate quality. As a proud lover of garbage you have to be self-aware enough to know that.
No, I share this information for two reasons. 1) I want folks who may not know – and there are plenty who don’t – to understand just how vastly popular Demon Slayer is as a series. 2) To have folks ask the question, why is it that popular? What is it about the series that is resonating with people so thoroughly?
The inspiration to write this at all came from the repeated declaration that Demon Slayer was only popular – if it was even as popular and well-liked as fans claimed – because of its animation. Produced by Ufotable an animation studio that has also worked on series such as: Fate/Zero, Tales of Symphonia: The Animation Tethe’alla Episode, The Garden of Sinners, and have an upcoming deal to produce a Genshin Impact series.
Demon Slayer is, undoubtedly, their most popular and renowned series to date, justifiably so. The animation for the series is phenomenal. What Ufotable's animators, director Haruo Sotozaki and composers Yuki Kajiura, and Go Shiina have accomplished with the series is truly commendable.
But great, even amazing animation, can’t save a story if the story itself is built on nothing. Remember, in that study by Oricon Monitor Research, it wasn’t the animation that participants named as their main positive, it was the story.
I’ve watched many things with beautiful animation. Mamoru Hosoda’s work is always beautiful, but the animation alone didn’t rescue Mirai or The Girl Who Leapt Through Time for me. Makoto Shinkai has showcased some of the best animation in the industry at large, but while conceptually very interesting, Suzume lacks the cohesiveness of his previous work like Garden of Words, Your Name, and Weathering with You. Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell has some of the most influential animated sequences put to screen, and while his jaw-dropping direction carries over in Urasei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, didn’t make the story of the movie all that much better. And that’s just Japanese filmmakers.
The animation for American outings like Atlantis: The Lost Empire has such a textured and unique design especially in comparison to Disney’s other previous animated outings. It’s a very fun movie, with many now in hindsight wishing it had done better. Perhaps that tinge of nostalgia also prevents us from seeing some of the holes in its story – truly how did nobody in Atlantis know how to read their own language? Similarly, Strange World featured some really amazing animated images – I particularly really enjoyed the reveal of the turtle but I’m also familiar with the folklore about Turtle Island – but the film still has some fundamental plotting and pacing issues.
A film can be visually stunning and still emotionally weak, empty, or just blandly mediocre.
If Titanic was nothing but the spectacle of the ship sinking, would audiences globally be as invested in the film? Is it not the story of Jack and Rose holding everything together? The power of the human tragedy? Ryan Coogler’s directorial eye helps create some great visual moments in Sinners true, but isn’t it his combination of visual storytelling and strong emotional core of the characters that made the film resonate as such a surprise breakout hit? Ne Zha 2 has some of the most eye catching animated sequences to date, but as previously stated, it's not simply the visuals of the film that made it such a box-office blowout in China.
Therefore, it feels a bit shallow to reduce the quality of Demon Slayer and it’s, quite frankly, insane success to simply “well, it looks pretty”. It also doesn’t appreciate the direction Sotozaki provides nor how amazing the score by Kajiura and Shiina helps elevate the emotion of the series.
Kyoto Animation makes some of the prettiest animated series like Beyond the Boundary, but that series hasn’t become a cultural touchstone. The animation for series such as Attack on Titan and Jujustu Kaisen have also certainly aided in their overall success particularly given the rustic stylings of their source artwork. Yet, we don’t often hear their success is only because of their animation – personally I am not a fan of either series, Attack on Titan for personal reasons, Jujustu Kaisen for technical but regardless it is entirely understandable why people like them.
Spectacle is certainly an aspect that can aid in a piece of media’s popularity and overall reception. Michael Bay’s career can attest to this; his bread and butter is spectacle for better and for worse. However there is a ceiling for such things. Eventually people grow bored, the glut of such endless explosive material numbs the taste buds. How many skybeams and mindless destruction of cities can we eat before we simply grow full and bloated on the endless supply? How many screaming power-ups and shallow thematics about world ending threats and scene chewing antagonists can the audience take before that audience starts to seek fulfillment elsewhere?
If brilliantly designed and filmed spectacle were all it took to make a piece of media smashing global success, Zack Synder’s filmography would do better and I say that as an enjoyer of some of his work. What can I say, I liked Sucker Punch actually.
Prominent and beloved Japanese author Kinoko Nasu (The Garden of Sinners, Fate/Stay Night) said in an interview with Den Faminico Gamer, that when asked what his favorite piece of media was currently it was Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. He went on to say creator Gotouge-san’s sensibilities are “alive and well” within the series.
“So if you understand [their] values, what [they] want to say, [their] kindness, or [their] beliefs, then it’s bound to be interesting.” Nasu also explained that if the reader's sensibilities align with Gotouge-san’s then they will be hooked after the first volume like he was.
Nasu is right, it was the sensibilities of Demon Slayer hooked me from the get go. I had caught a viral clip of the series of protagonist Tanjiro Kamado fighting the spider demon child Rui. The sequence is animated brilliantly, but that wasn’t what caught my interest. Again, I’m – sigh – a bit of a weeb by any other name. I’ve seen lots of amazing animated works, Japanese or otherwise.
The scene made me curious, curious enough to absently put the show on Netflix – which I shared with someone before Netflix fucking kicked me! – and what I discovered was less of a standard underdog tale, or revenge saga, or fun-if-generic battle story and something with a lot more humanity and sincerity.
Nasu provides what is probably one of the best theses on the popularity of Demon Slayer as a story, saying, “There are authors who take that view of life and death a bit more seriously, entertainingly or even provocatively, but Demon Slayer doesn't treat death as entertainment. If you're slashed, you die, and if your family is taken away in front of your eyes, your heart dies. It's treated as something completely natural.”
Character death is a big part of Demon Slayer as a whole. While character death isn’t new to manga series, even shounen or shojo series aimed at teens, the execution of how it is done varies from series to series. Though this is true for any and all stories isn’t it? How a character dies, how it is handled in the aftermath, this all changes depending on whatever the creators goals are and whatever audience is being targeted.
In children’s media, death is often alluded to, or happens off-screen. It may be impactful but it is hardly ever viscerally violent. Scar’s murder of Musfasa in The Lion King is certainly an iconic moment in animated history specifically for the way Simba’s cries for his father adds an emotional weight because of its rawness. But we don’t see Mufasa get trampled upon do we?
We certainly don’t need to, the image of Scar pushing him off the cliff, the shock of his fall, the fear and terror in Simba’s eyes, are all we really need to witness. This also makes it appropriate for children to watch as well.
However, the core of what makes a character death like Mufasa work isn’t simply that it is well directed – and it is at that – but that it resonates emotionally.
What Nasu is describing in regards to entertainment, makes me think of series such as Dragonball Z and Jujustu Kaisen where characters dying are a part of the spectacle of the series itself. Shocking moments that make a reader's mouth drop open, motivational factors to power level up characters. They happen, and then they are moved on from, often forgotten. They don’t as often have thorough ripple effects on the world of the story or the characters. Fans have more so uplifted Marco Bodt as a singular character than Attack on Titan ever did within its own narrative.
That said, using death as a means of shock and entertainment isn’t always a “bad” thing for all audiences. While it may not be my preference, it can be effective in a story. Character death is like any fictional trope and technique, it can be used effectively or ineffectively.
Take the Final Destination franchise where the shock value of the character deaths are, quite frankly, part of the fun. What wild, ridiculous, and outright ludicious ways will the directors imagine to murder these characters in gooey-ooey glory? This is what made Final Destinations: Bloodlines so highly rated by critics; the embracing of the bloody brilliant spectacle of it all. Each death was more shocking than the last. What other franchise has given an entire generation trauma about driving behind a log truck due to the shocking violent opening of Final Destination 2?
Its this sort of entertainment that has made grindhouse and the more recent torture porn genres of horror mainstays of the overall horror genre. Though one's mileage may vary they’re undoubtedly fun for many film goers and/or horror fans.
Shocking deaths for entertainment are just another way to employ the technique of character death, but while the spectacle of death can be fun depending on the media it can also become exhausting or empty.
When character deaths are presented as moments to make the readers gasp rather than cry, there will eventually be a leveling off. The impact will decrease. If you eat enough spicy ramen, your spice tolerance will increase. The electric shock can only last and be effective for so long. This is why the technique can work better in films, which by design are much shorter, than long-running television series.
Series Full Metal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa employs a similar treatment of character death as Demon Slayer though more sparingly.
When the Elric brothers mother Trisha Elric dies it is not just that her death motivates them into breaking alchemy’s greatest taboo. It is also that they learn consequence, and the consequence of their choices informs their characters for the rest of the series. Similarly, when Maes Hughes and Nina Tucker die, these deaths linger over the characters for the rest of the series. It fundamentally changes who Roy Mustang is after Hughes is murdered. It isn’t simply motivation, it is the poison of hatred and revenge threatening everything Mustang wants to achieve and accomplish. It compromises who he is.
When characters dies in Demon Slayer they aren’t forgotten and your heart dies when you read about their deaths. This extends beyond the protagonists such as Tanjiro and his sister Nezuko. This ideology also extends to the supporting characters, the antagonists, and evil the one-arc demon characters as well.
When I went to watch Demon Slayer: Mugen Train with friends, I already knew how the movie ended. The former friend I went with didn’t, and by the end of the film we were both in tears. My former friend was both beside themself and baffled; so hardly are they moved to the point of tears over any fictional media. It happens very very rarely, though I have accomplished a total of two separate times of making them cry from a show I recommended. Is it a point of pride I made this friend cry? A little, but as terrible as that sounds it’s not because I enjoy making friends cry. Rather, the gift of being able to share a piece of media that I love dearly with others that they also find so moving to the point it brings tears to their eyes as well feels amazing.
[Needless to say however, I will not be wearing heavy makeup when I go to see Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.]
Taking place near the end of season one, Tanjiro and his group investigate a cohort of spider-demons in a mountain during this arc the audience get small asides dedicated to some of the demons themselves. These asides aren’t long, these demons after all are not the focal point of this arc nor the story. The pacing keeps things sharp while still allowing for silence, for quiet moments where the characters – and thus all of us in the audience – can reflect.
This is most notable in how Tanjiro kills the “mother” of the spider-demon family. We see in a flashback she is hardly the actual matriarch of the family, with spider-child Rui being the real mastermind and muscle behind the family. Her form is something he creates and forces upon her so she can “play” his mother. When she falters, and her disguise drops into her original demon form, she’s brutally physically abused by the “father” of the family. She fails in her assignment to kill the demon slayers on the mountain, and as Tanjiro’s sword is held high ready to release her head from her neck, she welcomes it.
“I’ll be at peace” she says, holding her arms out to Tanjiro welcoming the release of death. Tanjiro senses this change, and offers a painless death in return. “It feels like standing in a gentle spring rain. It doesn’t hurt. Not even a little. There is no suffering. It’s simply warm…I never expected such a gentle death.”
Following their death the demon looks at Tanjiro and comments on his “kind eyes”, she begins wondering if when she was human if someone looked at her with such compassion. We see an image of a man with no face, she cannot remember who this person is. She dies wondering what that person, the person who loved her when she was human, is doing now. The last image we see is of his hand, bloody, the implication that he was killed most likely by her when she became a demon.
That these moments are given to some of the demons of the series further emphasizes the point Nasu was making, how Gotouge doesn’t use death as entertainment, how they kill your heart.
What Gotouge imbues in their story is a deep sense of tragedy. The demons fought are not always evil for the sake of being evil – though some certainly are – they are as Tanjiro describes "pitiful creatures.” They were once human, they too once had families and loved ones just as Tanjiro and the other characters did. Now that they are demons they’ve lost their community and most importantly their humanity.
What is left is nothing but blood and violence; an endless selfish desire to feed on others encouraged by their singular master Muzan. They live forever, they can regrow limbs, and are physically stronger than humans. But in all their gains they’ve lost what made them human; compassion, love, connection. That is the tragedy Tanjiro sees within them.
We see this in the character of Rui after he is killed by Giyu, Tanjiro’s senior in the aftermath.
“Rui, what do you want?” asks one of the demons Rui has forcibly integrated into his pseudo family. “I couldn’t answer. Because I no longer had any memories from when I was human.” As he dies he regains those memories, we learn after he killed and ate his first human his parents tried to kill him and were planning to die alongside him as repentance for his sin of murder. Rui killed them, believing they actually hated him, only to now realize they loved him deeply.
“The stronger I got, the more my human memories faded…and the less I understood what I truly wanted.”*
In Rui’s final moments, Tanjiro, sensing his sadness lays a gentle hand upon his back. Rui laments, touched by Tanjiro’s compassion and acknowledging that after all the lives he’s taken, all the humans he’s eaten and slain, he’s going to hell. He still can’t be with his parents. Only for their spirits to appear, telling him no matter what they’ll join him even in hell.
I’m sure some will read this and feel Tanjiro is being “too soft” or that the story is a bit trite. After all, demons eat people! They kill and maim many many people throughout the story. They aren’t deserving of pity. This is something that Giyu tells Tanjiro outright, “It was a horrible monster that lived for hundreds of years.”
To which Tanjiro responds with a speech I believe really drives home the thematic of empathy so prevalent in the story as a whole:
“In order to soothe the spirits of those it killed and to make sure it claims no further victims…I will swing my blade and lop off the head of any demon without mercy! But I will not belittle those who regret their actions…and suffer over the things they did as demons. Because demons were once human. Because they were human like me. They aren’t ugly worthless monsters. They are pitiful creatures, once living and now empty shells.”
Gotouge kills our hearts by way of empathy. The deaths in Demon Slayer aren’t often framed as triumphant moments, even when the protagonists are triumphing. They are more often framed as a means to an end, an unfortunate avoidable fate, a tragedy that selflessness and violence have forced upon the characters.
Perhaps such sincere emotion is considered cringe, but fine, I’m okay with that. I embrace it wholeheartedly even. Nihilism is so prevalent, insincerity is used as armor to protect ourselves against the discomfort of vulnerability. Demon Slayer asks us to both condemn and emphasize with the demons. To not forgive their actions, but understand what caused and led to them. To see their humanity and what losing that can do to not only themselves, but the people around them.
I’ve spoken a lot – god and I’m gonna speak so much more you clicked the link – about the demons but what about the human characters? After all they’re our protagonists, how do they emphasize the thematics of empathy, and death?
On the human side of the characters, many jokes have been made about how often Tanjiro “sees” his family – and by extension his demon sister Nezuko also sees their family as well – and honestly I laugh at these jokes too.
However, for all the jokes there is a point to this device that connects to the larger thematics of the story. Tanjiro and Nezuko’s family aren’t just faceless plot devices to kick off the plot itself. They are not a chapter one spectacle, they are not a shocking one-off to subvert expectations. Once again, the goal is to kill your heart, to make one think of their own family and how far we would go for them. But once they are gone, what then? All that is left is their memory and the effect they had on us in life.
In my family, we have something called an ofrenda. If you’ve watched Pixar’s Coco you probably at least have some idea of what this is. Growing up, when a family member would die, we’d place a picture of them on the ofrenda. It would be decorated with prayer candles with pictures of patron saints, rosaries, and sometimes flowers. My uncle rests there, as does my abuela, and my papi. My paternal grandfather also had his own ofrenda where he placed his own rosary and a picture of my grandmother there.
Demon Slayer has a strong emphasis on community ties, whether they are biological family or found family and friends. The story also emphasizes generational community.
For Tanjiro and Nezuko, though their family is gone physically from the world, taken away in a violent act by Muzan, their memory lives on within them. Tanjiro’s father, who died of illness before the story begins, plays a pivotal role in the story. Growing up Tanjiro watched his father dance the Hinokami Kagura – translated to Dance of the Fire God – which Tanjiro ends up realizing can be reformatted into sword techniques.
These new techniques, this typical shounen power up, enable Tanjiro to become stronger. More than that though, this power up is connected to his community, his family and goes back to three generations of his family. It is a tradition, along with his heirloom Hanafuda earrings, passed down to each generation.
Tanjiro and Nezuko’s families are far from the only characters who die. Many other characters lose family and friends to demon claws and fangs alike. The story reminds us repeatedly that Tanjiro and Nezuko’s family has died because that pain is real, that grief still lingers on within them. Similarly with the other characters in the series, their grief follows them around, a scar on the soul.
I’ve lost all my grandparents, the last living one having passed on this year. I often think about all the things I wish I had asked them. How little I knew of their lives as they lived outside of being “grandparents”. The regrets I have of not seeing them more often, of how quickly and unceremoniously death can come even when you are expecting it you are never prepared for it.
You can not escape death. However, though death is inescapable, we can not treat it callously and without heart. When people are killed they deserve to be mourned and remembered, their lives didn’t just belong to themselves but to others. Others who will now live on without them, carrying nothing but their memories in their hearts.
That is what my family's ofrenda is for. And like our ofrenda, the characters of Demon Slayer carry bits and pieces of their deceased loved ones around. Giyu wears a haori that has two patterns, one half is dedicated to his sister who protected him from being devoured by a demon, the other half is taken from his murdered friend and fellow demon slayer apprentice Sabito. Shinobu Kocho wears her late sister, Kanae Kocho, haori. And so on and forth.
Demon Slayer never forgets to remind the audience that these characters are deeply connected to the people in their lives, those around them. And that when they are taken from us, it leaves a deep wound on our hearts.
“I once believed that the road to happiness continued forever and ever into the distance. When it was destroyed, I realized for the first time…that happiness lies atop a thin sheet of glass. And just as we were saved…there are those whose happiness hasn’t yet been destroyed. So I wanted to get stronger…and protect them.” – Shinobu Kocho, Volume 17
This ideal is a repeated theme within the story. While Shinobu is angry, deeply, visceral, she directs her anger into the pursuit of protection, and growth rather than mindless violence. Her anger is not simply regulated to what happened to her, but what has and could happen to others. The idea of others being killed, and as such their families and friends experiencing the same deep wretched pain, is unacceptable to her. That is why she joins the Demon Slayer Corp. and why she fights and works to protect others.
This theme is also prominent in the story of Sanemi Shinazugawa, another senior within the Demon Slayer Corp, and his younger brother Genya Shinazugawa who later becomes Tanjiro’s close friend.
When they were children their father was abusive towards them and their mother, Genya’s backstory tells us. A violent drunk who would beat their mother. What Genya remembers isn’t his father’s violence but his mothers protection, her compassion, her love for her children. He recalls how she used her “small, frail body” to shield them. There is admiration for her that makes the eventual tragedy of her becoming a demon – unstoppable, all-powerful, without any compassion, the exact opposite of who she was – all the more tragic. Especially when she murders all her children except for Sanemi and Genya.
There is a strong irony here that Gotouge employs. The admiration and love both Sanemi and Genya have for their mother and younger siblings is palpable. While we don’t get much time with either on page, we can tell that they were a loving family. There is a sense of hope after their father is killed things will get better for them. Only to have it cruelly ripped away when their mother is turned into a demon. Once her humanity is gone, once she murders her own children, what is left? What follows is a deep riff between the two remaining brothers that makes the reader long for some reconciliation. Those missed chances, missed opportunities driven deep by a family tragedy.
When Sanemi kills her Genya blames his older brother for her death. He, of course, regrets this which motivates him to join the Demon Slayer Corps in an effort to reconcile. Sanemi joins because he wishes to protect Genya though Genya doesn’t realize this.
The ending of their story is probably one of my favorite parts of the series. The final arc, which is now being animated into three feature length films, pulls no punches.
Throughout the series, every emotional beat is felt, and almost every character death that occurs is a tragedy even if it's a demon. It is not entertainment, it is not even shocking, it merely, as Nasu says, kills your heart.
Demon Slayer is not brave because of its willingness to kill off characters – main, secondary or otherwise – rather it depicts the unavoidable nature of death, the heavy weight of grief, and the perseverance to keep going no matter how cruel the world. Not for yourself, individually, but for others, your family, your friends, your community.
At its core, Demon Slayer isn’t a story of grandiose battles, villains and heroes, or the protagonist's quest for acceptance nor revenge; rather it is one of immense empathy. Which yeah, aligns a lot with my personal sensibilities.
I have grown up with various highs and lows of anime.
I’ve seen the bubble of manga pop when Borders pulled themselves – foolishly – out of malls and into separate brick and mortar stores. I watched Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura censored and uncensored, I was there when Yamcha died – and then Piccolo, and then Goku, and then Krillian, and then – Saturday mornings were filled with episodes of Pokemon and Yugioh. Afternoons with Dragonball Z, Gundam Seed, Tenchi Muyo, god even freaking Zatch Bell.
Nights were filled with Inu-yasha, Big O, Yu Yu Haskusho, Blue Gender, Outlaw Star, FLCL, Trigun and Cowboy Bebop. I recorded episode 23 of Neon Genesis Evangelion – the one with Kaworu – and wore the VHS tape out rewatching it. The amount of scanlations I read of doujinshi and unlicensed manga is shameful.
I own copies of Animerca, and Anime Insider and Newtype. I remember the lull in anime and manga after the bubble popped and Tokyopop went under, and I remember the resurgence when Attack on Titan first aired, when Free! Iwatobi Swim Club was just a commercial, and when Yuri on Ice took the world by storm.
I’ve read and/or watched many of the big shounen series to some degree; Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Hunter x Hunter, Attack on Titan, Jujustu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, and Soul Eater. And the popular if lesser known series like, Blue Exorcist, D-Gray Man, Fairy Tale, Rave Master, Fire Force, Assassination Classroom, Hellsing, Full Metal Panic!, Shaman King (both versions), Flame of Recca, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic and so, so many more.
I’ve read and/or watched big shojo classics like Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host Club, Paradise Kiss, Ceres, Celestial Legend, Fushigi Yugi, Skip Beat!, The Rose of Versailles, along with some smaller time series like Full Moon o Sagashite, Vampire Knight, Hana-Kimi, Marmalade Boy, Ao Haru Ride, The Gentlemen’s Alliance, Ultra Maniac, Tokyo Mew Mew, Hot Gimmick and way too many more to continue listing out.
I’ve read or watched series most people probably haven’t heard of but should read anyway like Red River by Chie Shinohara – the booktok babes would go wild for this one – Mars by Fuyumi Soryo, Kodomo no Omocha by Miho Obana, Legal Drug by CLAMP, Vampire Princess Miyu, Kizuna: Bonds of Love by Kazuma Kodaka, Saint Tail, Descendants of Darkness, Angel Sanctuary and Godchild by Kaori Yuki, and FAKE by Sanami Matoh. I’ve read currently running series that people probably haven’t heard of like A Man Who Defies the World of BL by Konkici, Honto Yajuu by Kotetsuko Yamamoto, and many of Ranmaru Zariya and Reibun Ike’s work.
This isn’t a long brag about how much of a “weeb” I am. Watching and reading a lot of anime and manga does not make me, nor anyone else, an “expert” in the field. Anime and manga, after all, are not genres, they are mediums.
“Shounen” by all technicalities isn’t a genre, but an audience quantifier. It's more similar to what American publishers would refer to as “middle grade” or “young adult” which are just targeted age groups with specific topics, tropes, and other requirements that make them appropriate and marketable to said age bracket.
Rather, this is all to say I know my way around anime and manga pretty decently. Whilst I’m no expert of the craft, or industry – even with my general editorial and marketing experience in American publishing – but I am decently familiar with both mediums. I also know I prefer BL, shojo, josei, and seinen series more so to shounen in general in my big age of 30-something.
[I couldn’t even get past episode 3 of Tokyo Revengers. I am simply no longer the target audience.]
So when I say Demon Slayer, for me, feels different from most shounen series I’ve engaged with, I mean that.
When American fans say “shounen” what they’re typically talking about or thinking about is a specific type of anime; the battle anime.
Death Note and My Hero Academia were both published in Weekly Shounen Jump but couldn’t be more different as stories in execution or genre. Typically in the general lexicon of pop culture when people say “shounen” they are thinking of series like My Hero Academia, Jujustu Kaisen, One Piece or Naruto and less so series such as Death Note, Cats Eye, The Promised Neverland, or Kimagure Orange Road.
Battle manga remind me most often of the American summer blockbuster in tone and goal. They are often stories of big bombastic battles, villains with cool hair and cooler outfits, heroes constantly getting power ups, typically a plucky underdog protagonist of sorts with a single minded goal. They value spectacle, emotional highs, and straightforward oftentimes simplistic stories. They often exist in worlds not at all similar to our own, giving the series a genre tilt where the reader is transported to a new world where the male characters can overcome anything through the power of perseverance and the female characters are sexy – and if we’re lucky, narratively important.
Demon Slayer as a singular narrative does not break this mold, not entirely.
Tanjiro Kamado is not be especially plucky, nor an underdog in the way characters like Naruto and Sasuke or Asta from Black Clover, Deku from My Hero Academia, or Hinata from Haikyuu, or Nagisa from Assassination Classroom, or Rin from Blue Exorcist, or Kuroko from Kuroko no Basket, or – you get the picture.
These characters usually have an internal motivation, Naruto wants to be Hokage, Deku wants to be the number one hero, Rin wants to become an exorcist, etc etc. And their motivations are typically emotionally rooted in a desire to be accepted by their community at large.
Naruto wants to be Hokage not for power but so he is no longer ostracized by his village. Rin wants to become a top exorcist for both revenge against Satan for killing his adopted father and so he can prove his own demon heritage isn’t a danger to others around him.
Rooting the protagonists' motivations in this desire to prove themselves to the world around them is a very relatable basis for characters meant to appeal directly to teenage boys. Teenagers often feel ill at-ease in their own bodies, in their schools, at home, therefore characters like Deku and Hinata will then resonate all the stronger for readers.
Tanjiro has an external motivation, his main motivation is not something for himself but rather his younger sister Nezuko. After the massacre of his entire family, Tanjiro’s journey is less about himself and more about others; his sister, his friends, and strangers on the street.
This is something noted by a former Shueisha employee, saying, “The story starts with an absurd massacre, and although Tanjiro is deep in despair, he's determined to save his precious younger sister.” With Jerome Mazandarani of Anime News Network expanding upon with, “Unlike traditional shonen heroes pursuing grand ambitions, Tanjiro's motivation cuts deeper: family restoration in a world.”
This core motivation from the series protagonists connects to the larger thematics of why Demon Slayer works so well for me within that traditional shounen framework. Why the series is so effective on an emotional level. Yes it is straightforward, there aren’t many plot twists, the art is a bit rustic as all new artists tend to be, there’s some pacing issues, and the story certainly isn’t overly complicated. However this all works to Demon Slayer’s strengths because its emotional core is extremely strong and thorough.
The fighting, the battles, as grandiose as they are, they aren’t the point. The story is simple in that there is a singular root cause for the demons, the main antagonist Muzan, but the messaging goes beyond “defeat Muzan”. Gotouge centers the story on the why. Why are these characters fighting? Why are they suffering? The story begins to unfold as less of a battle manga and more of as both a tragedy and celebration about life, death and humanity.
Empathy, community and generational connections are the key sensibilities that root Demon Slayer as something special to me. I’ve most certainly gotten emotional, even a bit choked up, even outright cried watching an anime before. Not often a shounen series, they don’t quite hit the same high emotional notes – sorry Ace from One Piece – but I won’t pretend like I’m not a baby back bitch when it comes to a good emotional moment.
It is in Tanjiro’s unshakable will, and his belief in karma and redemption. How he prays for a demon who ate his comrades to be reborn as a human when he senses the dying demons sadness and regret. The slightest scent of humanity returning to them makes Tanjiro reach out and hope that in their next life they’ll be better, they’ll find redemption, they’ll help others instead.
Tanjiro’s empathy beyond his swordsmanship, beyond his determination to get stronger, is his gift. His ability to feel for others, to connect with them, and build a community is what enables him and the demon slaying corps to win in the end.
This characterization of Tanjiro may be a factor in why in a survey, Japanese children from third to sixth grade said they admired the fictional character even more so than their own parents. The poll specifically asked them to rank their “most admired people” with Tanjiro coming out on top above “my mom” but Dads losing out to both Tanjiro, mothers, Shinobu, and their teachers. Gotta step it up dads. The others in the children’s top ten slots were also all Demon Slayer characters.
What the story emphasizes throughout is when people give up their humanity, when they lose their connections to their community, when they outright hurt others and abandon their communities, or when they are abandoned by their communities, they lose their connection to their humanity.
We see this especially in the Entertainment District Arc, with the antagonists Daki and Gyutaro. Their backstory details how they were the unwanted children of a sex worker, raised in the red light district. Gyutaro was born with deformities, and as such was mistreated by everyone, including being abused by his mother. His sister Daki was born beautiful, while Gyutaro was born strong. He became violent with others, only taking care of Daki as everyone else around them abandoned them. They lived destitute, with nothing more than each other.
Daki and Gyutaro didn’t choose to be ostracized, nor poor, they were just born into those circumstances, abandoned by their community and reacted accordingly to the trauma.
Daki is burned alive by a samurai after injuring him, the samurai and the owner of the geisha house attempt to bury her body when Gyutaro finds her body. The samurai then cuts down Gyutaro; then turns pleasantly to the house owner to discuss compensation. Gyutaro doesn’t die, he murders both the samurai and the house owner. As he drags Daki’s burnt body through town in the snow he internally cries out, why didn’t any one ever help them?
And who comes along to help them in their biggest time of need? A demon. Who then turned both Gyutaro and Daki into demons. Together for a hundred-ish years or so the two then go on eating humans, continuing the cycle of violence and death themselves.
The last scene of the two is Gyutaro lamenting what could have been. If he had been a better older brother to Daki how she could have been a normal girl, lived a peaceful life. Yet in the end Daki wants to be with her brother even in death, and together they walk into hell. Tanjiro and Nezuko pray together that in the next life Gyutaro and Daki will find peace, and redemption in their next lives.
We see the importance of aiding your community with Kyojuro Rengoku’s backstory during the Mugan Train Arc, how his mother makes him promise to use his physical strength to help others. And again in the Swordsmith Arc with Mitsuri Kanroji who was gifted with unnatural physical strength. Her backstory is interestingly much less tragic than other characters, more about how conforming to the standards of her society as a woman harmed her more than aided her. Learning the existence of demons she decides to forgo the predestined bindings of what she should do as a woman and use her “unnatural” physical abilities to help others instead.
If you have skills others don’t, or privileges others lack, it is your job to help those without. To uplift each other.
Then there is a character like Kanao Tsuyuru who is an example of what happens when someone who has no community to rely on, is given one.
As a child from a poor family, abused by her parents, she is sold to an older man. Shinobu and her older sister Kanae happen upon her, and seeing she’s been mistreated rescue her. They give her a home, they give her compassion and love. Still the trauma lingers, and it is with Tanjiro’s help and the help of others that Kanao continues to gain her self-autonomy and heal.
One of the big mysteries in the series surrounds the swordsman who invented “sun-breathing” , a powerful swordsmanship technique. He is believed to be the origin of the breathing techniques all demon slayers now use to battle demons. He shares Tanjiro’s defining hanafuri earrings.
What is most interesting about this character, however, is his backstory and how it subverts the chosen one narrative. This character in another story, would defeat Muzan in grand glory. But that neither happens nor is what he wants. Yet his effect in the past has ripples on the characters we are now following hundreds of years later. Not only in the teaching of techniques but in the way he passes down his knowledge not for violence but for celebration.
It's hard to describe his part in the story and how it emphasizes the thematics of the generational community without spoilers. Rest assured his connection to Tanjiro is important and that without him the defeat of the demons long after he’s perished wouldn’t have been possible.
A lot is made about “found families” in modern media and look, I love a good found family when done well. But a thing about found family in modern media is I find it so frustratingly modeled after traditional nuclear family paradigms. Peter Parker isn’t Miles Morales “dad” Miles has a dad! Peter is that white uncle who thinks pastales are too spicy but you love them anyway.
Demon Slayer has a found family slant to it, but it is much more about collective community. There are no “mothers” and “fathers” and certainly no children to look after. Everyone comes together for the betterment of the mission, the goal, and a better tomorrow.
When episode 19 aired it went viral online for its phenomenal animation quality and action sequence. This is fair, it’s an absolutely dynamic scene, Ufotable deserves every morsel of praise the studio gets for their work on the series. But what makes the subplot special, what makes it memorable isn’t just the bombastic animation.
However, all big battle shounen have an element of spectacle, it's simply necessary for a battle manga of any sort. Sports manga follow a similar pattern, just that the battles are sports matches. I should know, as we’ve established I’m a gross ass weeb or whatever. And while I don’t know a god damn thing about basketball outside of Space Jam, I am pretty sure it doesn’t work the way it does in Kuroko no Basket.
Still, the spectacle is the selling point, the appeal. You want the adrenaline, the blood to pump and your stomach to swoop like you’re on a roller coaster. Which is why I even understand, however much I disagree, why people think the animation of Demon Slayer is its main selling point and the main reason why it’s so popular.
There is a lot of spectacle given in the anime, a roller coaster ride worthy of Six Flags dancing old man to return center stage in joy. For some, I’m sure this is their individual reason for enjoying the series and I don’t begrudge them that. For me, however, the spectacle would be empty without the sincerity of emotion.
With the release of Infinity Castle trilogy which will mark the finale of the series all these thematics come together. It’s notable that there is only one battle that is a singular one on one. The others all have multiple demon slayers vs a singular demon and they face losses. Heavy losses. The final battle with Muzan, I've seen said, is anti climatic. Respectfully I disagree.
It is not as bombastic as other prior fights in the arc, but it is emblematic of what the story is trying to convey.
One person alone can not defeat the problem at hand, it takes everyone collectively not just those living, but also those who have passed on. The things we’ve learned from those who came before, the ones who moved the needle however slightly towards progress, who cleared even the smallest bit of pathway for the next generation after. We are not alone in our journey of life, our ancestors, the ancestors of others, the decisions we make and how they will affect those of the future, they’re all connected.
In the end, strength is not the goal, getting strong for oneself is not the goal, for the characters of Demon Slayer it is the protection of others, it is living a peaceful, normal life without war with you and your loved ones.
Demon Slayer is a unique series where the end goal is ending the fantastical aspects of the series itself. The ending entirely upends the status quo of the series, and reminds us normality is a happy ending, normality is a good thing. Suffering, oppression, selfishness off the backs of others, are not normal and they can not be our end goal, our forever world.
When Naruto ends, there are still ninjas and ninja wars to be had in cool outfits. At the end of My Hero Academia there are still heroes and rankings and villains. This is fine, this is how their stories operate, the goal of their stories wasn’t meant to change any major status quo within the world itself. Those stories are meant to be more escapist fantasies of bombastic worlds beyond our own.
For Demon Slayer, the status quo has to be changed, to achieve something greater: peace for future generations. Perhaps we, ourselves, may not eat the fruits of our labor, but the generations after us can and will. For them it is important we come together and fight to build something greater, even if it is terrifying even in face of sacrifice. A world where people don’t have to be so afraid, they can feel even a tiny bit safer, where they can laugh and smile. Where they know they are not alone.
Demon Slayer ends with all the demons slayed, no more epic sword fights or cool powers, because strength wasn’t the goal, building a better world together was.
I’d like to end this by quoting the epilogue from the manga which reads:
“To be born is a blessing. Please do not forget to smile. When you cry it’s unbearably sad. Do not look back in remorse. Just remember that we were here…fighting together and laughing together…like brothers and sisters, or like parents and children. Be proud. Meeting you was most fortunate…and it brought happiness.
Your existence saved me…and drove away loneliness. Thoughts of you…cause strength to rise from deep inside, like a fire. If possible, everyone would desire…to live and stay by each other’s side. But they had to make a choice. Live or die. Win or lose. But to have any choice at all is fortunate.
True suffering is like an avalanche. It swallows a person in an instant and offers no choice. They just wanted to protect others. Others' lives were more important than their own. Happiness isn’t about the length of your life. I want you to see the depth of this happiness I have. I have never thought for a moment…that I was unhappy.
We never gave up or ran away…and we kept the faith. And we always…gave it everything we had. Many strong feelings became an immense blade…and defeated the enemy. That was due to everyone’s strengths. Victory would have been impossible without even one of us. Life itself is a miracle.
You are precious. You are important. Please, live the best you can…my most beloved friends.”
*All quotes from the manga are taken from Viz Media translations
*Special thanks to my friend L who helped edit this monster of an essay
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