I know some of you won't believe me when I say this, but I don't like to be so negative about Demon Slayer. The show is a hit when it hits. I still recall how energizing and thrilling that first season of the 2019 hit was. Since then, every subsequent story arc has been a case of diminishing returns. While I've been trying very hard to find the positive in this Swordsmith Village Arc, we've reached a point where I'm going to have to put on my Grumpy Critic Hat and explain why this show is missing more often than it is hitting lately. That said, I'm at least going to start with the positives, because Demon Slayer is still a perfectly serviceable action anime, even if it feels more and more past its prime with every passing episode.
For one, “Bright Red Sword” gives the new female Hashira, Mitsuri Kanroji, the most screen time she has been afforded yet, and I think she's pretty fun! Yes, her “bubbly romantic girl who pines for true love even as she whoops bad guy ass” is a very familiar cliché by now, but it's at least a fun cliché. Her victory line—“My heart would never flutter for those who needlessly hurt others”—would be gloriously stupid even if she weren't spouting it about a bunch of disgusting fish monsters that she just eviscerated with her nifty ribbon-dancing moves. It's moments like this where Demon Slayer feels like the most absurdly violent edition of Super Sentai ever created, with a cast of heroes and villains who are operating on exactly the wavelength that a bunch of sugar-addled fifth graders can vibe with, no matter how much gore and viscera gets splattered every which way. This is the version of the show I want to feel endeared to again.
It just isn't hitting right 80% of the time, though, and I think one of the episode's central set pieces is a perfect microcosm of why that is. About halfway through the episode—while Tanjiro is killing time until Nezuko can pull a brand new, power-up sword for him out of her hulked-out demon ass—Tokito and the two swordsmiths he's saved run into Gyokko the Pot Demon's whacked-out new art display. Gyokko has slaughtered a whole mess of their fellow swordsmiths, you see, and arranged their almost-corpses into a hideous collage of broken limbs and bloody entrails. Kotetsu and Kanamori are trembling with fear at this grotesque display of Gyokko's lunacy, and Tokito has to dig in his heels to prepare for his toughest fight yet...
And when described that way, the scene probably sounds fairly exciting—maybe even a little suspenseful! The problem is that the execution of the scene turns the whole thing into a total farce. It is completely impossible to take Gyokko's outrageous performance seriously, let alone the literal clown-show music or those goddamned stupid masks the swordsmiths are wearing. If Gyokko were a guy in a big ol' rubber suit, fighting a team of teenagers with attitude—and clad in bright spandex armor—then I could probably jive with Demon Slayer's narrative and tonal inconsistencies a lot more, but this is a certified ufotable Joint™.
I believe I've come to the conclusion that the series' biggest flaw is how ufotable approached adapting Demon Slayer. Many people will consider this to be heresy, I am aware of that. At a certain point, we have to consider the studio's signature production values and cinematic pacing, and whether they are actively working against the material. If we look at Demon Slayer's paper-thin story, and essentially lackadaisical approach to its arbitrary worldbuilding and lore, the whole thing feels like something that should be airing alongside old Rave Master and Fairy Tail reruns in the wee hours of Saturday Morning. The material isn't actively terrible, if you take it for what it is, but that is only because it is operating at the same level of unambitious functionality as a McDonald's Happy Meal. I'd be similarly baffled if a chef came out with a box of Chicken McNuggets and tried to gussy it up like it was some kind of Michelin-rated experience.
In short, at this point, I'm not even mad at Demon Slayer. I'm mostly just bored and occasionally confused by the series' increasingly silly creative decisions. The action is as shiny as ever (and just as shallow). While some new characters are obviously cool, it's only enough so long as you enjoy them in sixty-second bursts. The story has already devolved into self-parody, and we're not even six weeks into the season. I guess we'll simply see how much better/worse things can get from here.
Source: James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Swordsmith Village Arc is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
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