Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why is Demon Slayer so popular in Japan?
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malvarez1
Posts: 2983 |
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I’m sure the comments are going to be very calm and level headed.
Seriously, I enjoyed the article and agree with most of the points, but I’m shocked that the animation didn’t really come up. Demon Slayer gets so much hate nowadays, that people ignore its positive qualities. |
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Ryuji-Dono
 Posts: 1311 |
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It's because of the rushed ending and/or because the latter arcs are a tough act to follow for many? |
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Brainchild129
Posts: 313 |
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I want to comment not on the column, but that unwelcome little addition at the top of Instaread.
Why do we need a computer to summarize the column for us? Especially if it cannot even promise to do that accurately? I clicked on the link because I wanted to READ the article. I do not want it READ to me like a child. And don't claim it's for the sake of accessibility because if it were for accessibility, it would be a service that would replicate all the text instead of summarizing it and do so accurately. To any staff members who might read this: PLEASE stop using Instaread. It's an insult to your writing staff and readers alike. |
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NeverConvex
 Posts: 2690 |
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Likewise---maybe because it's so obviously a selling point, and they wanted to try to focus on aspects that don't usually get as much attention? I'm not a huge DS person myself -- its cast and plot lack depth in ways that bore me a bit, despite that I like the general vibes, style, and atmosphere it aims for -- but it seems to be pretty universally acknowledged that it is easy on the eyes, particularly when the characters are in motion. |
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Jabootu
Posts: 417 |
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My favorite moment of the show (and there are many) takes place after Nezuko had saved herself at the meeting of the Hashira (which is quite possibly my second favorite moment). She falls right asleep in their room in the Butterfly Mansion and the deeply sore Tanjiro quietly begins to monologue to her. He must save her because, even if he lives an extremely long life, he will eventually die and leave the immortal Nezuko all alone forever. Of all the moments that demonstrate his great empathy, this is the one that hit me the hardest, a teenager already looking deep into the future and grieving at the thought of his sister suffering untold centuries of loneliness.
I was also taken by his rage in Mugen Train when the train demon sent him a dream of his dead family blaming him for deaths. Nearly any other anime hero would have been swept away by guilt at this vision. Tanjiro, however, is consumed with outrage at someone suggesting his loving family had been the sort of people who would blame the people they love for their misfortune. HIs absolutely faith in the love his family had for each other adn their essential goodness was just a wonderful moment. I will say that I have lost a bit of interest in the show as it steams towards it's climax, because the quiet moments are disappearing as the action ramps up and up and up. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 8212 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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I'm not sure why people would hate on Demon Slayers, but haters are going to hate given this is a mainstream-tier anime on the same level as any Shonen Jump titles. For me, I thought Demon Slayers is OK, it's not that compelling to me but I do get an Inuyasha vibe coming out of this anime because of the character fighting the demons, and that's all I have to say. There's nothing in Demon Slayers that stood out to me in my opinion. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 5343 |
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Also, the article isn't long. This reminds me of how every PDF I open in Adobe will offer to "summarize this long document" even when they're one or two pages. I could see uses for actual audio versions of articles, preferably read by the author, but something that sells itself as "Bestselling book summaries in 15 minutes" sounds a lot like those youtube channels that are just summaries of movies. |
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kgw
 Posts: 1532 Location: Spain, EU |
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I disagree with the "rushed" ending. If anything, it followed perfectly the spirit of the series. The Demon Slayer Corps' goal was slaying Muzan and the demons he created. Every step and chapter in the series was aimed towards that goal. In fact, when Tanjiro joins the corps, the Demons vs. Pillar battle is reaching their final chapters after centuries of strugglespoiler[: but without Tanjiro probably they wouldn't have won.] In fact, I appreciate that Gotoge didn't find another enemy to stay for years: they have a story to tell and it ended. Unlike Naruto or Dragon Ball or One Piece, where there was (is) always another baddie to defeat. While not a die-hard fan of the series, it bothers me a little when some people acts as if the series was boosted from 0 copies to millions due to the anime. That's simply not true: it was one of the best selling series of Weekly Shonen Jump. Tanjiro is a nice, compassionate human being. He don't fight for revenge or "justice" or being Hokage, no, he is fighting to achieve a goal and protect innocent people. He gets angry at evil beings because their actions, not because he hates demons "per se". Quoting an old writer: "In the end, the Devil might not be right, but he might have reasons and we should listen to them", and that's what he does: listen to the demons' grievances, no matter how petty they were. That makes him a likeable character, too. |
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Oggers
 Posts: 467 Location: Ontario, Canada |
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I'm no longer a fan of Demon Slayer (I lost interest in the series after season 2 of the anime), but I won't begrudge people who still like it since, as this article points out, there are reasons why it's as popular as it is even if I personally don't jive with it anymore.
The fact that Shonen Jump was oversaturated with western fantasy manga at the time it was first published was one reason I didn't know about, but it does make sense that Japanese readers would embrace a much more culturally Japanese manga. |
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ZiharkXVI
Posts: 449 |
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Yes, this is the article I asked for years ago when DS was first coming to prominence. I got hit with "it's cause it's covid and there's nothing else to watch" or "good graphics, mediocre story" at the time. I should go pull up my comment/request just as a thank you to ANN for finally doing this one.
In an era obsessed with morally ambiguous protagonists, Tanjiro's unwavering goodness feels revolutionary. "There is a serious lack of 'straight arrow' heroes in media nowadays," the artist notes. "Having a committed protagonist in a world of uncertainties is exactly what audiences are looking for." I think this is it. I've always said it's a lot like a fairy tale. Simple character with a desire to do good overcoming a crazy problem. Its not complicated, and that's what we miss. Like the old Disney movies. The world is morally ambiguous, but what we want is to keep true to a moral compass. Its why the story itself reaches and resonates so very well. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2457 |
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Yeah, Jabootu put it perfectly. Heroes like Tanjiro and Deku wrap me up in cozy warm feels and that’s just what I resonate with, even if the death flashbacks are starting to verge on the point of Naruto parody at times. The show can still punch me in the feels like nothing else. aTT__TT
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Top Gun
 Posts: 5289 |
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I try not to be a hater with this series, but in my 20-odd years of anime fandom Demon Slayer is easily the most overhyped franchise I have ever encountered, and I genuinely do not understand how in the world it's achieved such a meteoric rise in popularity. What's funny is that several of the reasons cited in this article are the same elements that have left me the most confused by its success. Its simplicity is a significant offender for me, because I don't see it as "simple" so much as..."empty." The overall plot, such as it is, consists of fight big bad demon -> recover and train -> fight big bad demon -> recover and train -> rinse and repeat, the most bare-bones expression of the battle shounen formula. The primary villain barely shows up at all for most of the series and doesn't do a whole lot when he does, and when we finally learn his backstory it boils down to "well he was always an asshole for no good reason." There's no real attempt made at doing any greater world-building; there's just one bad dude who created a bunch of other bad dudes, and the people who fight against those bad dudes. In the past I've somewhat derogatorily referred to it as "babby's first shounen," because that's the impression that it leaves with me: a series that seems fresh and amazing to someone that isn't familiar with this particular genre, but doesn't have anything of substance to offer to those who already are. I just hope that the fans it's created don't stop there and seek out some of those deeper entries afterwards.
My biggest gripe is really how the characters are handled across the board. They're one-note at best, and many of them barely even rise to that level. Yes, Tanjiro is a precious cinnamon bun who's an overwhelming force of positivity and compassion, but that's...pretty much all he is. He's never allowed to grow or expand beyond that. Nezuko is little more than an adorable mascot, and I think it's a massive wasted opportunity that she's never allowed to have her own voice and agency in the narrative. Inosuke and Zenitsu are my good angry pig son and one of the most infuriating fictional characters I've ever had the displeasure of knowing respectively, but love or hate them we know basically nothing about what makes them tick (or if we do it's revealed past what I've seen, and at that point why even bother?). Pretty much all of the Demon Slayer Corps members follow that time-honored annoying shounen side-character tradition of having exactly one character quirk that's their entire personality, more often than not YELLING REALLY LOUDLY because that's apparently comedy. The thing that really broke me was the massive amount of hype around Mugen Train, and Rengoku specifically. He's on-screen for more than 20 minutes, only has the requisite single character quirk, spoiler[gets all of one big flashy fight scene and instantly dies], and yet both the fanbase and the characters themselves treat him as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Like...did we watch the same thing here? And then there's that bad habit of attempting to give major villains characterization via flashback in their dying moments. Demon Slayer's hardly the first series to do it (looking at you there Bleach), but it always irritates me whenever it pops up, because it feels like a cheap blatant attempt at wringing out pathos after the fact. I didn't give a fig about these enemies when they were alive, what makes you think I'm going to feel sorry for them as they're taking their last breaths? And just to be clear, I have nothing against the idea of liking Demon Slayer. If you've watched/read the series and genuinely enjoyed it the whole way through, that's just fine, more power to you. What I've been stuck on is how the extreme level of hype and financial success it's generated doesn't feel like it's at all backed up by the substance (or lack thereof) of the series itself. There are any number of pieces of entertainment where I'm not personally a fan, yet can still see how they've achieved their popularity, but Demon Slayer continues to befuddle me. Honestly the real revelation to me in this article was the idea that at least some of its popularity explosion was due to its setting. I hadn't thought about it much before, but that one comment was right, there weren't really any popular contemporary shounen series with a traditional Japanese setting when Demon Slayer was taking off. That could certainly have given it a significant boost in Japan, but I'm not sure how well that would track with the international audience. Last edited by Top Gun on Mon Aug 25, 2025 10:01 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Helix91
 SubscriberPosts: 71 |
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I dropped the anime after the first season, mostly because I found the annoying characters (the coward kid and the boar-headed kid, not going to bother looking up their names) had too much screentime. Even beyond that, I thought the only exceptional thing about the anime was how beautiful it looked. The idea that it's story and protagonist are somehow breaking the mold for shonen...I just don't get it. Especially the idea that humanizing villains with death flashbacks is somehow reaching new depths of emotion. That's basically a cliche at this point!
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8627 Location: Penguinopolis |
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1. Takes place in Japan
2. Animation pretty 3. Nezuko cute |
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Top Gun
Posts: 5289 |
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Yeah, that confused the hell out of me too. Demon Slayer is about as bog-standard of a shounen setup as you can get. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that in principle, plenty of series have used that setup to achieve great things. |
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