Kimetsu no Yaiba has no chill or respect since it has all the time in the world to force feelings rather than earn them

spoilers for Kimetsu no Yaiba

It’s easy to be let down when your expectations are lofty. Unfortunately, disappointment is more than just a decent or lackluster product coming about after one anticipates a masterpiece. It’s perhaps even more frustrating when you set them accordingly and humble them, simply expecting the work in question to be a decent or entertaining action spectacle and time passer with some heart to it. It’s not quite the same as the phrase “I expected nothing and I’m still disappointed”, but it’s similarly annoying and deflating, since a work fails to even live up to the idea of being tolerable.

Kimetsu no Yaiba tries desperately to be the show pictured above, and there are glimpses of that potential. Unfortunately, the show is bogged down by a complex, interwoven series of issues that make the show downright insufferable. The worst part is that it’s not like the story itself is even that bad. Sure, there are certainly strange worldbuilding decisions and some aggravating ass-pulls, but the issue is more a matter of presentation, of the storytelling, as well as some of the characterization.

Before we tackle the complex web of issues that bog down the show, let’s examine the positives and what the show was trying to go for. Director Haruo Sotozaki and his team at ufotable did a pretty good job with the visuals. Sure, the 3D backgrounds can vary wildly in quality from relatively acceptable to Holy God Jesus Christ help help help, but outside of that and moments where said assets are pretty clearly reused, there isn’t a ton to complain about regarding the visuals. It does happen a bit too often and the colors can be a bit much, but barring those and the spinning CGI room fight in the middle of the show, the visuals are pretty vivid and stylish in a way that works. The action animation tends to be fairly fluid and both the various demon powers and sword breathing techniques are stunning. They’re all vibrant and unique, while not even needing the studio’s trademark lighting effects to make them shine. Everyone gushes over the explosive final sequence in episode 19 but even most of the other fights have gorgeous, bombastic attacks that are a treat for the eyes. It’s not exactly the studio’s best work or anything, but it’s another solid-looking show by one of the most reputable studios in anime nowadays.

The music is also a highlight, as Yuki Kajiura has decided to go with an eerie chanting approach instead of the bombastic choirs most of her work is littered with. It’s an interesting change of pace, even if not always the most pleasant, though the more standard orchestral tracks aren’t anything to write home about. This isn’t one of her best OSTs --not by a long shot-- but it is an interesting change of pace. The OP, “Gurenge” by LiSA, is a solid rockin banger that’s harder than what we normally hear from this artist. The ED, “from the edge” by FictionJunction feat. LiSA is more of a haunting yet still determined piece that’s befitting of the show’s sound and atmosphere. There’s also the special episode 19 ED, “Kamado Tanjirou no Uta” by Go Shiina ft. Nami Nakagawa. It’s a beautiful and explosive chanting and singing piece befitting of the most bombastic moment in the show.

With all that being said, it’s time to discuss what the point of the story was. On paper, it’s simple, what many would call standard shounen fare. Tanjirou’s family was killed by demons with his now demon sister being the only member he has left. He sets out on a quest to restore her while becoming a more proficient demon hunter, climbing up the ranks as he encounters various demons with varying ties to the ultimate demon they must defeat: Muzan.

What’s supposed to really elevate this idea outside of the cast of characters he meets along the way is the emotional storytelling that’s at the forefront. Tanjirou’s sister still accompanies him and protects him despite now being a demon, so he protects her as the only family he’s got left. He’s better able to show compassion to demons cuz he’s seen firsthand that they were once human, only now corrupted by an evil curse that leaves them craving human flesh and blood. He inevitably has to kill them, but not without learning about who they once were as most of them air out any final regrets or personal backstories from when they were a human or early on in their new lives as demons. In theory, this pathos-driven storytelling should make this series emotionally resonant. Have the demons’ pasts and motivations be carefully sprinkled out before the final burst of feels while having their current selves have even the slightest ounce of humanity and decency, and suddenly it becomes easy to feel for them as they’re finally put down. Sure, you’re never to root for them, but since Tanjirou’s an empathetic protagonist, we’re meant to empathize alongside him, feel the tragedy of how these people were turned demonic as they are finally put to rest on the journey to end this curse once and for all.

Unfortunately, this show doesn’t exactly like the idea of subtlety, knowing when to place backstory information, or respecting one’s emotional intelligence. Instead, every time a mustache-twirling puppy kicker motherfucker is on the verge of death, we spend several minutes on their sad anime backstory before they finally get beheaded and destroyed.

There are a few critical problems with this approach that makes the experience far more maddening than resonant. Pacing and characterization are forsaken for big sad plot twist backstories that do have some obvious signposting on account of the demons alluding to them, but nothing’s built up through clever environmental storytelling or having any surrounding folk familiar with any given demon allude to anything for the audience to piece together. We simply interrupt the fight or death scene to dump a sad anime flashback that can range anywhere from 2 minutes to over an episode long! Most of the time, these boss fights involve just pure evil monsters! While that can work fine for grunts we never learn about, it’s hard to care when for 90% of their screen time, most of these beasts are almost entirely one-dimensional baddies. It’s emotional manipulation at its most glaring, while being a tremendous pace-breaker.

The first time this happens is in the opening moments of episode 5, where a dedmon known for eating Tanjirou’s new master’s former pupils explains that he was sealed off in the land we’re currently fighting him in. Fucking really? We paused the fight for this and are suddenly supposed to give a shit? Tanjirou’s meant to empathise with this?! How about in episodes 12 and 13 where the bongo demon was a disgraced former 12 Kazuki member (i.e a disgraced member of the big bad organization of the series) in a couple of very intrusive flashbacks, only for Tanjirou to not fuck up his scattered writings so we can learn he was a disgraced writer, too? Isn’t this a little excessive and ridiculous?

Then there’s the spider family arc from episodes 15-21, where two backstories end up hurting the worst. There’s the spider mom who was a victim of abuse by the rest of her forcefully made-up family. She mentions this once or twice after the “son” threatens to have the “father” beat her up again. Therefore, when Tanjirou faces her and is ready to strike, she welcomes her demise with open arms, reaching for death so she can finally be free from abu-oh here’s the flashback where we see her getting beaten up despite us already knowing this and not needing it shown to us. Oh dear. The scene isn’t outright ruined by this, and it’s one of the two times this show managed to be effective in making a demon’s fate seem resonant and tragic. Still, this is more than a little intrusive.

Can’t be worse than the “son”, Rui! Skipping over episode 19’s epic scene since that has some core issues of its own that will be addressed soon, the bulk of 20 and 21 is spent on this cunt’s backstory. See, he used to be a frail boy who was enamored by a story of familial sacrifice as a father risked his life for his kid. Unable to capture that semblance of overwhelming love from his own family who sheltered him, he felt empty. Then, he was infected and became a demon, so his father tried to kill him. He killed the parents in retaliation, only for the mother to apologize for not birthing him with a healthy body in her dying words. Horrified by the realization that he killed his loving family and that his father was probably planning a murder suicide, he was able to be emotionally manipulated by Muzan and he infected other demons so he can “recreate” the family he never thought he had until it was too late. This is why he’s a foil to Tanjirou and his genuine familial bond with his sister. This is why he took an interest in the girl to the point of trying to force her into the “family” while trying to kill Tanjirou.

Did we really need several flashbacks over the course of 2 episodes to explain this...as he’s dying?! Fuck having pieces of his backstory carefully fed to the audience before a quick final reveal is had as he airs out his last regrets and thoughts. Let’s pad out the runtime and drag out every attempt at whoring out them tears for as long as humanly possible!

The middle portion as a whole is the perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with the series! We’re not even done here as the intrusive flashbacks that often pad out and emotionally manipulate instead of earning those tears, aren’t solely applicable to the demons! Tanjirou, and a certain yellow turd we’ll get to have them as well! Let’s go back to the fan favorite moment in episode 19. Tanjirou’s on the ropes against Rui before we flash back to a moment with his long-since gone father dancing with fire. Understanding this and using his water-breathing training, Tanjirou is somehow able to perform a PHOENIX BREATHING ATTACK that requires perfectly concentrated breathing. This comes outta nowhere with no semblance of foreshadowing or anything beforehand. In the same scene, his sister, Nezuko, has been bleeding out thanks to Rui entrapping her with sharp strings. Seeing that Tanjirou’s struggling in his final efforts to finish off Rui, she somehow manages to unlock a demon art involving blood, and uses that to aid Tanjirou and disarm the wires so he can land the killing blow. Well, that is until episode 20 revealed that despite Tanjirou’s epic decapitation fireworks display, Rui...somehow decapitated himself to survive, and he can just put himself back together.

Let’s disregard how when demons are decapitated, they’re supposed to just fuckin die after a bit as that’s the surefire method to kill them until this contradiction comes up. Let’s ignore how this utterly cheapens the already stupid ending to the previous episode by retroactively robbing Tanjirou and the audience of that (less than) earned victory so a Hashira named Giyuu can land the killing blow instead. This is yet another example of the show just pulling flashbacks outta thin air to justify something because Kimetsu no Yaiba isn’t interested in doing anything organically. It doesn’t care about anything being earned! As long as the tears are dragged out of those eye sockets of yours, let thou be BLUDGEONED and your precious scenes be interrupted! Akame ga Kill deserves a fucking apology at this rate, and that show’s even worse than this one!

Episode 17 is a particularly intolerable episode for this as well, but it goes about things in a different manner. Here’s Zenitsu. He’s the absolute fucking worst. He’s a coward, a pervert, a whining, screaming little pissant who never shuts the fuck up and gets in the way always until he’s knocked out so that the badass within can perform an epic thunder-breating style technique to save the day. We saw this once in episode 12, he mastered the technique and looked cool doing it. Apparently that wasn;t enough as the show has to drag out the 17th episode with flashback after flashback after flashback after flashback explaining that he has self-loathing due to his personal and combat failures cuz he’s a fuck-up, so he has to master this one technique and it’s supposed to be epic and moving when he does the technique we already saw him do 5 episodes ago but with extra movements and whatnot.

Fuck off!

Unfortunately, we still have the characters to deal with. We can ignore how weird it is that no one in Tanjirou’s family aside from maybe his dad even knew about demons despite them being a widespread issue. We can ignore how demon slayers aren’t officially sanctioned by the government despite citizens across several towns and villages dealing with demon problems on a widespread scale. We don’t need to focus on worldbuilding when the botched pathos and generally awful cast are more important issues!

Tanjirou himself isn’t a particularly bad protagonist. He’s pretty empathetic and sometimes that gets used pretty tastefully like when one of the demons dies a horrific death due to uttering Muzan’s name and his curse making her body turn against itself, so all he can do is hand her the temari ball she used as she’s fading away. It’s not particularly hard to root for him as he isn’t whiny or obnoxious, either. He’s just sorta safe and there isn’t much to him outside of being empathetic and driven to save and care for his sister. There are times, especially towards the end, where he becomes close to being a gary stu since he's never in the wrong, he moralizes like crazy and always wins that way, and can just shove off injuries like broken ribs like it’s nothing in the heat of battle. He also never shuts up when monologuing about anything in the heat of battle. Sure, sometimes it’s good to hear him internalize demon attacks and make strategies on the fly. It’s what any of us would do when facing a boss in a video game, except it becomes rather excessive here. The show loves being excessive about everything, don’t you know? That’s why most of the comedy is loud and obnoxious and the flashbacks and monologues are the way they are.

Nezuko is...an object and a plot-device more so than she is an actual character. Sure, she gets taught to treat all humans like family and there are a couple of funny and adorable scenes with her. Still, she gets shoved in a box for most of the show while being the object of admiration and affection by many. Obviously she can’t fight in the sun now that she’s a demon, but even at night, she only comes out when it’s convenient after episode 6 and oftentimes, is in an elongated slumber before only waking up when the next arc is about to start or when we need another emotionally manipulative victory lap like in episode 5. Great female deuteragonist treatment, guys!

Then we have Zenitsu. Fuck Zenitsu. He’s genuinely insufferable for reasons mentioned above. There’s almost nothing redeemable about this cowardly pervert who spends most of his time lusting after women and screaming at the top of his lungs over everything! Sure, there are a couple of moments when he shows actual decency and even tries to help Tanjirou and Nezuko, but most of the time, we’re left with an insufferable cunt whose screams and cries are close to early Black Clover levels of grating. Even his self-loathing which came out of nowhere in episode 17, isn’t even brought up again, almost like it was never meant to factor into his character at all and instead was only used to trick the audience into feeling things while the runtime got padded for like 10 minutes.

The final member of the main tetrad is Inosuke and he’s the only fun one. He’s basically a somewhat sadistic meathead who loves fighting and has only one brain cell. He’s stupid, earnest, constantly getting Tanjirou’s name wrong, and is the only one capable of allowing for some actual character chemistry that isn’t just idiots screaming and whining about everything. His stubborn pride and sense of violence are exploited in hilarious ways as well, like his refusal to accept that he’s injured several times before passing out. Pig mask man over here is just bonkers and he actively elevates the show almost every time he's onscreen. There are weird gimmicks they incorporate with him every now and then but otherwise, he’s an genuinely fun character who provides most of the comedy that actually lands in the show.

The only other characters that are worth mentioning are Shinobu and Muzan. Shinobu’s one of the few Hashira, i.e the highest-ranked demon slayers. She and Giyuu are some of the only remotely tolerable ones considering the rest are boring or aggravating upon their episode 22 introductions. She has this delicate air to her that’s contrasted by her maliciousness towards demons, making for a simultaneously cute and disturbing character who’s fun to watch. Plus, her heart to heart with Tanjirou as she encourages him to keep up his breathing training is nice. It also elevates Tanjirou’s character a tad when he senses unbridled anger within her that she generally keeps buried deep down after her dying sister expressed that she wanted to always see Shinobu’s smile. It adds more layers to her character than what anyone else has so far, and it’s regrettable that the show can’t have more down-to-earth moments where the characters can just breathe, talk, and engage in anything personal.

As for Muzan, he’s just a motherfucker who is so extra that he kills people in every single scene he’s in. He’s in control like when Tanjirou tries to strike him down in public only to see the man’s wife and kid before the dude takes advantage of Tanjirou’s stunned horror and confusion to turn a random passerby into a demon while the family isn’t looking. There’s not much else to him so far, but every scene he’s in becomes fun and amusing with how brutal this man is. Every time he shows up in-person, his body count increases. There are other characters who are sadly rather obnoxious like the dude in episodes 8-11 who constantly simps for his demon doctor lady, but said lady herself is one of the few remotely interesting and likable characters here. It’s a shame most of the cast leans towards the boring and obnoxious side, and that they and many others are constantly bogged down by these intrusive flashbacks that are often meant to define them.

So, yeah, the show’s incessant usage of flashbacks that constantly drag out episodes and interrupt fight scenes to justify stupid bullshit for the sake of epic reddit twitter moments and MUH FEELS is actively insulting. There’s way too many of these, making an otherwise fast-paced experience slow down to a crawl! It completely cheapens the story and any semblance of pathos since almost nothing ever feels earned and so much time is wasted to meet that 26 episode quota. While a lot of shounen such as One Piece and Naruto are notorious for their adaptations having slow moment to moment pacing, the fact that KnY manages to do this with a short episode count after the first 9 episodes starts becoming even more grating since it’s not like the show was drawn-out from the start. It really feels like they were stretching and padding to reach episode and runtime quotas. Even the cast and humor suffer from this on top of both often being obnoxious. It’s a shame since there are a couple of fun and engaging characters, but we have to put up with Zenitsu, and all the flashbacks and whatnot. The fights can be somewhat entertaining every once in a while, and there are some moments that truly are resonant. However, apart from these, the music being solid, and there being a couple of downright gut-busting moments with Inosuke, this show is a wash.

Kimetsu no Yaiba has no chill or respect since it has all the time in the world to force feelings rather than earn them. It’s hard to understate how this approach to storytelling and presentation utterly kills the show. The writing outside of that isn’t even particularly broken. There aren’t a ton of plotholes or asinine moments and mechanics that don’t make sense. Outside of a few asspulls, it’s not like the story on its own is terrible. It’s all just bogged down by the myriad of intertwined bullshit bogging the show down. This review may seem a bit too harsh, all things considered. However, it is that way because the show presents these moments of beauty and potential, only to squander the bulk of all that while being loud and obnoxious. That’s why the first 4 episodes are the best part, as the show only really became unbearable after episode 5 hit. The last 4 episodes are also relatively bearable outside of a few sticking points, but that’s like ⅓ of the series that isn’t constantly annoying or maddening. Thankfully the movie would come along and show what this series is truly capable of, but that’s a story for another time.