Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
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Seiya0890
 Posts: 185 |
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The 9th episode has one of the best animated fighting scene I have ever seen.
I hate animes that focus on relation between siblings (hopefully I am not going to see some stupid incest), but I just can't stop this one. |
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3011 |
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If there was one problem I had with the latest episode 9, is that they clearly had a point they wanted to end it at (spoiler[Tanjuro beheading the arrow demon], but it felt like they didn't quite have enough manga material to do that smoothly. So the flashback to the "you need to collect the blood" scene from just the last episode plus the repeated scene before and after the flashback felt like they were straining to stretch and just get a little more runtime for the episode, and it hurt the pacing of the fight a little.
Aside from that, a fun and interesting battle. |
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MiloTheFirst
Posts: 429 |
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I enjoyed the spectacle of episode 9 as much as any other guy, but we can't just ignore all the flaws it had. what's up with the 3 or even 4 recaps we got from stuff that even happen during this same episode, seeing it made me feel as if they got issues in the production line or as if they were desperate to pad the run time to end at a specific point. Yushiro's infatuation shtick this episode fell flat and completely off-tune, dragging down what would have been an otherwise pretty competent script, who thought that scene needed comedy relief? and if it did what happened to the director who otherwise had been doing a pretty good job at setting the tension for each battle. even the Villains dialogue felt dumbed down, dragged out and redundant.
Did I enjoy this episode? yes, plenty. was it a joy to watch? absolutely. but was it 4.5/5 good, not at all. the two previous battles felt more cohesive and better directed than this. |
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MiloTheFirst
Posts: 429 |
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wait, what? that came out of nowhere. Gee, thanks for making things weird James. but seriously though, I don't think that is what anyone came to this show hopping to see. not that there is anything wrong with those kinks but the show hadn't do anything so far to suggest we should stick around for that kind of content. and for the record, I do like dominant ladies myself yet didn't found Susamaru titillating at all, in fact I would go all the way around and give Ufotable props for not using the camera direction to sexual her, she felt dangerous like a psycho should, not sexy at all, because, why would she? that's not the feeling the scene should be aiming to induce on the viewer. |
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James_Beckett
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 279 Location: USA |
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Yeah, I noticed that too. To be honest, I think the reliance on flashbacks is a huge issue I see in a lot of Japanese media, so I've almost forced myself to tolerate all but the most egregious examples - otherwise I'd be complaining about it in a majority of my reviews  Attack on Titan does it way too much, too.
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bleachj0j
 Posts: 925 |
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James_Beckett
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 279 Location: USA |
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I appreciate you
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ZiharkXVI
Posts: 366 |
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Alexis.Anagram
 Posts: 278 Location: Mishopshno |
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Thank you for pointing that out, because clearly MiloTheFirst couldn't tell that was the case and it's definitely not possible to find a joke made in poor taste objectionable. We all know that Monster Girl porn is a thing, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that (no kink shaming here), but, while I can't speak for them, there are two reasons why I can definitely understand where MiloTheFirst was coming from and why this comment rubs me the wrong way as well. First of all, the Demon Slayer manga is authored by a woman, and given the way that Susamaru is drawn and framed throughout this episode VS how villainous women are often depicted in shonen anime, it seems like there was an intentional decision made not to sexualize her and instead to focus on her physical strength and intelligence (as well as the cruel kind of joy underscoring her intentions). So making this kind of comment in spite of that effort is pretty reductive, and that leads into the other problematic aspect to this, which is that shonen anime in general (and Demon Slayer is no exception) rarely make room for truly "badass" women with a great deal of physical prowess; typically whatever "powerful" traits they have relegate them to supportive roles as healers and the like (even Sakura ends up just being a really strong "medical ninja"), which forces them to play second fiddle to the male-led, action-dominated landscape of the genre, typically resulting in weaker characterization due to a lack of notable presence and participation in the major events which shape these kinds of stories. So here we have a pairing that turns that on its head, with Yahaba's skill (and personality) acting as the balance to Susamaru's, and while to James's credit he does allude to that, the fact that he felt compelled to turn around and make a sexually charged aside about Susamaru anyway is just kind of a weak way to summarize the value of that dynamic. We all get that it's meant to be "funny," but that's only because it leans into the cultural expectation that women will be sexualized in media, and the ensuing cultural attitude that it is somehow inherently funny to sexualize women in media-- and the message it ultimately sends is that, no matter what you do, your female characters are ultimately fodder for porn. So yeah, it's a crude joke intended to aim below the belt for an easy round of laughter from the reader, but stating the obvious really isn't all that funny and there's a reason it induces more of an eyeroll from those among us who might have picked up on the way the show actually presents Susamaru, like the way that she immediately picks up on Tanjiro's strategy for deflecting her blows and adjusts for it, or the way that she's totally unphased by his initial breakthrough. You know, the kind of stuff that actually makes her seem compelling as an antagonist. She does have a killer hairstyle though. As for the show itself, it still looks really good but the story still sucks pretty bad. There's no consistency to how anything is accomplished because there are no rules guiding any of the conflicts, which means that the stakes are never clear. So Tanjiro is just going to take out two of the Big Bad's elite officers ten episodes into the series and we're supposed to expect that any demon going forward is a legitimate threat to him? I'm reminded of the line where he refers to Susamaru's arms growing back "faster than any of the Final Test demons" which just made me laugh because we only ever saw him fight one. More to the point though, the fights despite being exceptionally directed are just kind of dreary because neither Tanjiro nor anyone else is developed as a character through them. At least in the early episodes of Naruto fights were used as a way of building a dynamic between characters that carried through when the fights weren't happening, but Nezuko is just a glorified attack dog and the villains are all one-offs with no real narrative grounding so there's nothing to latch onto there. It's flashy when Tanjiro swings his word but god is it dull when the laser effects turn off. |
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MiloTheFirst
Posts: 429 |
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What kind of joke doesn't have a punchline?, James just narrated an opinion without any follow up sentence that would suggest he was kidding or making a reference to some sort of obscure Reddit meme (I am assuming that's what it was, if you are to insist it is a joke) |
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steelmirror
 Posts: 342 |
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I enjoyed the joke, James! I aint gonna kinkshame you.
I've complained about the show before, but I really think it has hit its stride since going to Tokyo and expanding the world to include the demon side of things. In fact I'd go so far as to say that the show really felt like it started in that scene where Ki...Kibut...the big bad demon guy turned that random dude in the crowd into a monster. All the early episodes felt like a ridiculously extended backstory dump by comparison, and hopefully the show will continue to be this fun going forward! I still agree that Nezuko is woefully undercharacterized, but at least the current plot trajectory and side characters give more promise that she can be developed in some kind of interesting way. And thanks for the reviews as always, James! |
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Birriaman
Posts: 94 |
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haven't read the manga so dont really know what to expect, but I get this feeling that Nezuko will become much more than the tool she is right now, but they are really taking their time with her character development...
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ThatMoonGuy
Posts: 364 |
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Taking their time is the key word here. I like this series a lot but it's true that it can be pretty slow, specially those early chapters, but also be strangely fast at times like.woth the swamp demon investigation. Things will settle down a bit more soon enough, however. spoiler[Although it will be a while before Nezuko regains more of her agency, sadly.] |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11416 |
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I got the impression that it takes some time to weave, which she didn't really have when both opponents were still in the game. She was kept pretty busy regenerating body parts and tending the injured. And things needed to be a bit calmer for the necessary discussion to take place. Also, while Tanjiro was out there in the middle of the battle, her spell would harm him too. I'm not even clear on what the spell actually did - just make her drop her inhibitions against saying his name out loud? It didn't seem like it actually made her say it. What I want to know was what happened to his broken leg and ribs? He seemed to heal up completely in the short time it took tamari girl to die, and minutes later he's walking down stairs like it's nothing, and shortly after that, they're on the road. Was "I've got a broken rib and leg" a mistranslation of "It feels like I've got a broken rib and leg"? |
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MiloTheFirst
Posts: 429 |
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my thoughts exactly, how come he went from having to drag his crawling body through the yard to casually walking downstairs without so much as panting in less than an hour? |
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