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Demon Slayer Orchestra Concert Brings Down the House

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba celebrated its sixth anniversary with an orchestra concert in LA's Peacock Theater at this year's Anime Expo. I'll admit that I'm the furthest thing from a hardcore Demon Slayer fan, but I am a rabid fan of music, and when I found out that I was fortunate enough to cover another concert, my interest was piqued.

The orchestra that performed on stage that afternoon was a modest one, equipped with nothing short of the usual instrumentation: a variety of violins and violas, a double bass, a flute, and a few backup singers for good measure. However, upon a second look, I noticed that one of the members wielded a guitar, and another an entire drum kit. Because of course. This is anime after all, and if you're going to bring out some symphonic flair to a convention, then you might as well add some guitar solos and pummeling drums to add some kick. Truly, traditional stylings of Japanese music and Western classical collided together with the teeniest (but certainly not subtle) sprinklings of hard rock for a few pieces. It might not have been anything new, but it was still captivating in its own right.

What made it more engaging was how iconic moments from Demon Slayer were projected onto a screen in the background as the music played along. It gave the entire performance a very AMV-y feel, and it left the audience cheering when some of their favorite scenes came up.

Pieces like "Nightmare” played alongside the tragic scene from the first episode, where Tanjiro discovers his family was murdered by demons. Listening to this arrangement over a large projection of the scene serving as the show's catalyst gave it a more elegiac timbre that you couldn't quite get from a television screening alone.

The next piece, "To Destroy the Evil,” served as the previous's brighter sounding antithesis, showing Tanjiro's fight against that one guy who's trying to slay the now demonized Nezuko. It took on a dramatic and action-packed tone, and I especially liked how the guitar was mixed in so seamlessly towards the climax. It gave the piece a neoclassical metal flavoring, almost like I was listening to a Japanese Nightwish instrumental.

However, my favorite moment was when the orchestra played the piece "Confrontation with the Twelve Kizuki," which had every section feel so in sync with each other that it had the vocals, drums, and strings all wonderfully built up to a most triumphant ending.

Tanjiro's voice actor, Natsuki Hanae, would also make his way onstage to recite some dialogue accompanying the scenes and music. The audience was completely eating it up during these moments. I went to the Demon Slayer panel last year, which also featured Natsuki Hanae, and every answer to the interviewer's questions, along with every little line of dialogue was met with cheers and screams equivalent to the teenagers screaming when they saw The Beatles get off the plane. This year wasn't too different, as the end of his performance was met with the same deafening enthusiasm.

Zenitsu's voice actor, Aleks Le, also made his way on for a few moments during the track "Zenitsu Agatsuma" to belt out some comic relief lines in English. Natsuki continued to read his lines in Japanese, but everything was still in sync and without a single word lost in translation. Making a surprise cameo was a pair of costumed and mascot-style versions of Tanjiro and Nezuko making their way to the stage to wave to the audience.

After the performance was all over, a promotional reel showcasing the arcs of Demon Slayer was shown onscreen, as well as a trailer for the upcoming movie, set for release on September 12, 2025.