KIMETSU NO YAIBA: YUUKAKU-HEN

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionKimetsu no Yaiba
ANIME ActionKimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen (TV)
MOVIE ActionKimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen
ANIME ActionKimetsu no Yaiba: Katanakaji no Sato-hen

REVIEWS

• 

  Alicemagic18

  45/100
  If there's the power of friendship, nothing ever beats the power of family

  THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS

  "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" - nonstop screamings of the characters

  Oh boy…

  There are two sides of a coin if you’re talking about Kimetsu no Yaiba;

  • Either love and enjoy it for the animation.

  • Or dislike it for the bad characters, cringe comedy, and the poor storytelling

  Animation is one of the main factors of an anime. However, how can you enjoy the anime if the plot or the story is poor? This leaves these two words that wise men always said; “Does the animation triumph a mediocre writing?”. “Can you ignore one to enjoy most of them?”. One of the confusing parts of the anime community is that if a franchise really sold well to the viewers, they will claim it a “masterpiece”. And Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of them.

  Kimetsu no Yaiba: Entertainment District Arc is the sequel to the first movie of the franchise. The fans massively loved it for the “great story”, “great characters”, and for the animation that always triumphs. Hard-core fans always love to jump into the hype train and easily claim it as the “new-gen anime” and “masterpiece anime of all time”. If you’re new to anime, you will absolutely love it. However, if you see most of the shounen animes, you might criticize them for the poor elements and plot inconsistencies. Before I discuss the pros and cons of anime, I have to say a few things about the hard-core stans. Read and understood first my review before you attack my profile. So here it comes…

  Pros

  1. Animation
     The animation of this show is superb, as expected from Ufotable. The viewers have always praised this show because of the art of this anime. The combination of 2D and 3D animation makes the whole show move more fluid. The cinematography and fight choreography are always fire. But I think it’s always Ufotable’s forte of animating things. The direction was pretty handled well but I always want to see some of its fights under the daylight. The amazing flashy things are always seen under the moonlight but I guess it’s because the demons are active during the night.

  2. Sound
     The BGM was always good to the ears, as expected from Yuki Kajiura. She blended the traditional Japanese music and the thrilling action sounds for the action sequences, which is so great. The OP was catchy and it’s my first time to appreciate Aimer’s voice. The ED was good but I prefer more the OP than the ED.

  Cons

  1. Story/Pacing
     I will discuss this as a former fan of the manga. Ever since the ending of the Mugen Train, the next story arc followed this formula; There’s a demon invasion in a certain place, a hashira pillar will investigate it, the three characters will join the hashira, discover the world, find the demon, fight sequences, some flashbacks, and then boom! ending. I saw it many times in some story arcs in the manga and it was almost repetitive. In this anime adaptation, the pacing was slow and awful. The first episode of the anime that had 45 mins long, consisted of the epilogue of Mugen train, and the prologue of Entertainment District. The pacing of the anime was slow because of additional view scenes as a visual-feast. This arc from the manga had a nice pace but it seems the anime was just full of action sequences, in most of the episodes. No character developments were seen throughout the entire season. The useless monologues of Tanjiro were shallow and repetitive, in almost most of the story arcs. He just repeated himself that; “I can do it!”, “I have to break the neck!”, “Stand up! Stand up!”, etc. like the viewers might react, “We got you already, dude. You said that for the nth time already…”. The fact that they were always bringing his dead family, as his “motivation to fight” was utterly repetitive.

  2. Comedy
     I get it that most of the shounen have comedy, except AOT and D Gray Man if I may remember. The comedy in this show awfully sucks. I don’t know if they are trying to kill the intense mood of the series or just comic relief. The scene where one of the wives of Usui helped Inosuke from fighting the demon and then one of his wives just pulled a joke because she was scared of death was frickin’ horrible. Even the other parts of the season weren’t great either. The comedy was 3x worse than FMAB’s and it absolutely cringed.

  3. Characters
     I’ll keep this short and straight to the point. The characters are annoying as their finest. The entire season was just full of action sequences and no character development whatsoever, just like what I said earlier. The three main characters were just being them, and no development and progress. Tanjiro was always relying on and bringing back his dead family as a motivation for fighting the demon. And then after that part, boom! Powered up to the next level! Inosuke and Zenitsu were just a comic relief after all. Usui got a little bit of development but not enough to make him a great character.

  4. Ass-pulls and Plot Armor
     This element made me why I absolutely dislike this show. I get it that most of the shows have these two but in this show, it was countless times and getting out of hand. It’s just they are not humans, more powerful than the villains. I mentioned that Tanjirou always brings back his dead family, right? That was one of the ass-pulls I’ve ever seen. Many horrible plot armors I’ve seen in this show like when Usui got his arm chopped but didn’t die of blood loss and was capable of moving faster, Inosuke could frickin shift his heart while he was stabbed in the chest, Inosuke was capable of catching up Zenitsu after that poison, Zenitsu capable of escaping the building, and Tanjiro being alive after those massive injuries. I mean, how the heck did they survive all of that? They are just humans, right? Try those for yourself, let’s see if you can survive all of that.

  Kimetsu no Yaiba isn’t a bad nor a great show. It’s because the hard-core fans are always claiming it as a masterpiece and flawless, which makes the show obviously bad. I really want to enjoy this show, but it seems it’s hard to turn your brain off while watching this. This show is obviously for entertainment only and visual-feast. Some animes have a high level of animation but the story was bad or generic like GoH, Takt. Op. Destiny, MHA, etc. However, I don’t seem to understand why fans don’t consider Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of them. But that’s just me and I don’t care for anybody else.

  So that’s it folks, my review for this season. I’ll give this a solid 4+ because of those plot inconsistencies. But I do admit that I somewhat enjoy this show and its direction. As an anime fan, who always seeks a great story over animation, I could give this a 3 or lower. But it seems I’m generous this time. As a wrap of this review, I’ll quote this statement for the massive fanbase of this show, “Most of the people understood why people love Kimetsu no Yaiba. It’s because of the animation. However, can the fanbase understand why most of the people are criticizing the show and calling it a mid?” Who knows? You might know the answer.

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• 

  V4Watcher

  100/100
  Beautifully crafted story, animated down to the finest detail, with the right sprinkle of humour, emotion and action

  WARNING: This review is gonna be FLASHY!!!! Without further ado, onto the review (I’ll mark from where the spoilers start, so don’t worry. Continue reading this with the same amount of confidence that Zenitsu gets when he starts sleeping.) What do you get when you mix an amazing plot and harmonious soundtrack with unreal animation? You get Demon Slayer. I believe I don’t have to explain how much hype there was for Season 2, and I can confidently say Ufotable delivered more than expected. The animation was a blessing for the eyes, containing some of the best battles animation has to offer. The fluid fights resonated with every atom of my body, making it pump out that adrenaline faster than Muzan could get pissed at his demons. Hopefully even the haters can agree, the animation is straight up amazing. Huge thanks to Ufotable for making this gem. Now, onto the story…. A delicate yet wonderful mesh of emotional moments, humorous dialogues and stimulating fights, this Season is packed with beautifully animated scenes. One scene you’ll be bawling your eyes out, the next laughing uncontrollably, and the next cheering for whoever you like. Perfectly paced, it slowly prepares you for what’s coming next, then explodes your mind with more than what you expected. Every scene is interesting, and not a single moment is wasted. This is one of the few anime, where not even a single scene has bored me. Even the music, especially the OP song was really good. Our not so smooth (I’ll tear your guts out if you slightly piss me off) criminal Michael Jackson gets some screen time briefly too, so that’s a plus. Now about the characters (Spoilers start from here. So for those who haven’t watched it yet, go watch it after mentally preparing yourself for an amazing journey.) Tanjiro – We once again meet with our good boy Tanjiro. What’s not there to love about him? Someone deeply relatable to us; a human trying to find their way in the world while struggling to hold tight and not let go the few precious things he has left, his sister and his friends. I have no siblings of my own, yet I could still feel the strong bond between Tanjiro and Nezuko. His passion reached the heart of Rengoku’s father, and he wrote letters to Senjuro without losing touch with him. These two scenes were short, but their impact was immense. It goes to show how much Tanjiro cares about others. His attitude, where he keeps going even when things look bleak, and pushes himself to the max, pretty much inspired me too. He’s no Saitama, but that will never stop him from trying harder. Uzui Tengen – Has one of the funniest entrances I’ve seen so far. Calls himself God of Festivals, and when Inouske called himself God of Mountains, he found him weird lmao. Has a pretty interesting backstory, and knows the value of life. When in danger, prioritise your life first, that way you can survive to fight another day. Nezuko – New power up was sick. Plant Nezuko looked really nice, while baby Nezuko was adorable. Zenitsu – Speed hax. Love how during all the important fight scenes he was asleep. Inouske – Rearranging internal organs and dislocating joints to move like a worm; I wouldn’t be able to make abilities like this even if I was overdosed with sake. Daki and Gyutaro – Tanjiro and Nezuko but evil. Their synergy was great and both of them really put up a good fight till the end. Their backstory in the last episode really hit me in the feels. Michael Jackson – I gotta say he’s one of the coolest and cruellest villains I’ve seen. The way his overwhelming power was shown blew me away. Basically my summary of this is - An amazing series having a beautifully crafted story, animated down to the finest of details, with the right sprinkle of humour, emotion and action. Before I go, always remember- Set your hearts ablaze and be FLASHY! ;)
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• 

  Fotsuan

  14/100
  Kimetsu no Yaiba: great animation and terrible writing

  THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

  Before I start with my review, I want to congratulate ufotable for their wise choice. By making an anime adaptation of Kimetsu no Yaiba, the studio gained:
  -a big audience of anime newbies who get surprised by great animation and overlook bad writing
  -an even bigger audience of teenagers who enjoy well-animated fights and drama, even if it is nonsensical and forced
  -reputation
  -money

  Not that it is important - because we are the minority - but ufotable lost us fans who look for more than that in a TV series. We want a plot that takes itself seriously and a good character writing. Animation comes second and always will, if we are not satisfied by these two. I'm writing this review for this kind of people, and I'm about to point out most of what went wrong in Yuukaku-Hen. Enjoy your read!

  Ufotable did it again. After an amazing Mugen Train arc of shallow writing, the studio most of us love from Kara no Kyoukai and Fate/Zero continued their work on Kimetsu no Yaiba; a.k.a. the worst shounen anime I've ever watched, in terms of writing. The animation was great, but everything else was far from good. Yuki Kajiura didn't care to make a great soundtrack like she always does - this time she knew how bad this season is. Even the voice acting was annoying at times, with demons screaming and acting like psychopaths for the sake of making us hate them more. But there's much more than that to comment.

  

  At first, Yuukaku-Hen starts with the introduction of Tengen Uzui; a Hashira with a flashy appearance who, let's say, slaps an underage girl's butt in the first scene. He also has three wives, and that's because Kimetsu takes place in the Taisho period, but it is clear that this anime uses polygamy as a way to promote a character's "badassery" and give more fan service to the audience. The wives are just there with their "hot" character designs, forgettable and with just a small, low effort backstory. Excuse me, but this kind of fan service is one of the things that encourage me to give this show a 1/10 even if I like ufotable's animation.

  

  Tanjiro has some development and we get to know more about the Sun Breathing technique - though some things don't make sense. Inousuke is being Inousuke, and Zenitsu, thank god, stops screaming because he is sleeping for the most part of the arc. The villains in this season are two problematic demons; the one has inferiority complex and seeks power to feel better, while the other one is an insane sadist who enjoys making people suffer. Don't be surprised if you see characters fighting while sleeping, turning their opponent's attacks into music sheets, stopping their hearts temporarily by moving their blood elsewhere or getting out of others' bodies. I'm not kidding, it's possible that some of these might happen in a Kimetsu no Yaiba arc.

  

  Anyway, these 12 episodes are just a task our protagonists have to do; to defeat two demons who dominate the "Entertainment district'. You might see some comedic elements, most of them being repetitive and cliché, and when things get serious you will see a long, well-animated, hardcore fight to death with lots of contrived plot twists and nonsensical badassery. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's like a Dragon Ball Z movie.

  

  Well, there's Aimer doing a fine job with the opening and ending songs. The OP song is experimental for Aimer and not a typical song of hers, but it's surprisingly catchy. The ED song has vibes like LiSA's ED from season 1. The inserted soundtrack is composed by Shiina Go and Yuki Kajiura, like in the previous seasons. It looks like Yuki Kajiura is not putting much effort this time and, to me, it sounds worse than before.

  So even the soundtrack isn't that special this time, which makes the animation the only noteworthy thing Yuukaku-Hen has to offer. The prevailing colours are red, purple and brown. They mix well in fights and they can be spectacular at times. Sadly, the character designs don't help and worsen the optical experience, and well, there's the terrible storytelling and the crazy villain's screaming that may turn some of the audience off even in those eye-catching bad written fights.

  

  In the end, I don't want to make people unlike Kimetsu and I respect different opinions, but guys, if you're here for something more than supposedly badass good-looking fights, you're not going to have fun. It's just friendly advice with no hate towards anyone, and I'm only noting some of the things that annoyed me and made me dislike this anime so much. For the fans, I'm wishing with all my heart that you're having fun watching this show, and to those who understand me, this review is just a brofist to you guys. You're not alone here.

  Let's hope for great things from ufotable on Mahoutsukai no Yoru and their next works. Thank you for reading!

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