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  • Acclaimed Flop: The French edition of the manga (titled Les Rôdeurs de la nuit, or "The Night Prowlers") bombed spectacularly and was stopped after 3 volumes, due to the Invisible Advertising and Panini Manga's reputation as a notoriously incompetent publisher. After the anime's simulcast on the Wakanim platform met a huge success, it became clear that the manga's failure wasn't due to negative reception, and Panini announced they'd restart the series… under its English international title, much to the dismay of early fans who liked the French title.
  • Adaptation Sequence: Manga Pilot (Kagarigari) —> Manga Serialization —> Anime —> Anime Movie (Canonical) —> Stage Play —> Video Games
  • Adored by the Network: From just the initial good reception of a special theatrical cut of the first 5 episodes in Japan, the series aired in more than 20 stations at first, and when its gargantuan success had been solidified Fuji TV who initially rejected the series, thinking it wouldn't be any special, had to beg for the series' broadcasting rights, airing on a prime time slot, getting great results in its rerun; after that, constant reruns became common.
  • All-Star Cast: The Japanese, English, and Latin American Spanish casts have big names for both major and minor characters. However, there are too many to list due to the number of characters. This is actually pretty noticeable in the original Japanese cast: going through the casting list in the Characters page, a whole lot of the supporting cast and even one-shot characters are voiced by veteran seiyuu. Hell even the main characters (except for Akari Kitou, who had her Star-Making Role as Nezuko) were voiced by already well established seiyuu.
  • Breakthrough Hit: Koyoharu Gotōge had published several one-shots in Shonen Jump before, but this was their first ongoing series and it proved to be a major Sleeper Hit.
  • Cash-Cow Franchise: The brand has been so successful through the anime that Aniplex holds the license close to its heart, to the point they personally oversee and publish all the first ventures in the expanded merchandising efforts, video game adaptations sticking out in particular since Bandai Namco Entertainment had pretty much secured almost all licenses to publish anime based video games but here Aniplex do it by themselves. As of October 2021, the series reached 900 billion yen in merchandising.
  • Completely Different Title: In Spanish, the manga series is known as Guardianes de la Noche ("Guardians of the Night"), albeit the anime includes the Japanese title as a subtitle. In France, the series was initially called Les Rôdeurs de la nuit ("The Night Prowlers") before it was discontinued and then rereleased under the English title.
  • Children Voicing Children: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Hanako Kamado is voiced by then 10-years old Bonnie Miuller, and Kotetsu is voiced by the at-the-time prepubescent Jorge Rafael.
  • Content Leak:
    • In April of 2021, the Mugen Train movie was briefly made available on the PlayStation Store before its intended digital release in June of that year. The film was delisted from the store three hours later and Sony offered refunds to anyone who purchased it during that time.
    • In February 13th, 2022 the final 11th episode for the Entertainment District Arc was leaked online roughly 4 hours before the official broadcast on that same day; a less harmful leak in retrospect compared to the movie.
  • Cross-Dressing Voices:
    • The first databook confirmed Ukogi is a male sparrow, but since the series pushes him as a cute pet, his sparrow sounds are done by female voice actresses who make him sound more adorable.
    • Despite taking the form of a woman at the end of the first season, Muzan in his female guise is still voiced by his usual male voice actors.
    • Played straight in the English dub where Kotetsu is voiced by Jeannie Tirado, but averted in the original Japanese version where he is voiced by Ayumu Murase and the Latin American Spanish dub where he's voiced by Jorge Rafael.
    • A child Kyojuro is voiced by women in both the original Japanese version and the English dub.
    • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Senjuro is voiced by Ileana Escalante.
    • Tanjiro is voiced by a female in the Taiwanese Mandarin dub.
  • Defictionalization: At the end of the series it is mentioned Zenitsu chronicled his life and that of his friends in a personal memoir book titled Zenitsu-den / The Legend of Zenitsu, with contents of said book implied to be heavily dramatized and biased towards making Zenitsu more heroic than he ever was in reality, also making his friends look less impressive while at it. In an art gallery exhibition called Koyoharu Gotouge Exibition which started its tour in Japan in October, 2021 a partial version of Zenitsu-den was produced for attendees to read in the exhibition, it contained a few full chapters of the book written from Zenitsu’s perspective and a table of contents, with titles for all 25 chapters The Legend of Zenitsu ended up with as Zenitsu finished writing it in his elderly years.The Table of Contents in Zenitsu-den . In his elder years Zenitsu grew wiser and chose to dedicate the last chapter of his book to telling the historical truth of what transpired in his life and of that his friends.
  • Demand Overload: The day the final chapter was released, Twitter crashed because of too many fans discussing it.
  • Development Gag: In the one-shot that predated Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kagarigari, the protagonist was a demon slayer who passed the Final Selection at the cost of his right arm. He bore a resemblance to Giyu Tomioka in both appearance and personality. By the end of the series, Giyu loses his right arm in the final fight against Muzan, adding to the resemblance.
  • Died During Production: Philece Sampler, the voice of Rokuta Kamado in the English dub, died as the second season was being produced after suffering a fatal heart attack. It remains to be seen if the role will be recast; her last dialogue as Rokuta was in Tanjiro's dream begging not to leave.
  • Directed by Cast Member: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Marc Winslow, besides being the ADR director, is also the voice of Giyu.
  • Inspiration for the Work: After the series’ immense popularity had reached all kinds of curious interested parties, many have claimed the story and characters share similarities with some popular contemporary Shōnen Manga; a Viz Media interview with Gotouge’s editor doesn’t hide it, Bleach, Naruto and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure were cited as being some of Gotouge’s favorite series and clear inspirations for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
  • Invisible Advertising: While Aniplex of America always makes official announcements of their English dubs, this was not the case of their first Spanish/Portuguese dub on Demon Slayer, leading to a Content Leak due to its dubs being debuted outside of their actual target three months before (see Late Export for You below).
  • Kids' Meal Toy: In Japan, the series received tie-ins at McDonald's twice. One run featured stickers of the cast dressed as McDonald's employees.
  • Late Export for You: The Latin American Spanish and Portuguese dubs debuted exclusively on the American (including Puerto Rico) and Canadian Netflix feeds on January 22, but only debuted on the rest of Latin America three months later (April 1st, and launched 1 week before on the LA feed of Funimation), very likely due to Aniplex's policies regarding the distribution of their properties in the American continent. And as the very first Aniplex title directly dubbed in languages other than English, in almost 10 years working in Latin America, this sounds more like an unintended pre-release.note 
  • Meme Acknowledgement: Kimetsu Radio eventually caught wind of Giyu's Memetic Loser status. While they were polite about it, they still went ahead with joining in on bullying him about being a loner.
  • Newbie Boom: The manga was a modest success by the later part of 2016, its debut year in Japan, growing to sell around 130 thousand copies per volume in a month by late 2017, early 2018, a certified stable series by normal metrics; then the anime happened in 2019... and the series exploded to an insane degree in Japan by the time broadcast reached Episode 19, Season 1, generating tidal waves that resonated all the way to the west. Demon Slayer went from selling close to 130k per volume in a month to selling 1 million and a half copies per week in 2020 at the height of its anime generated hype, this sales insanity lasted for weeks, months, more than a year without end, propelling the series to break all sorts of sales records with the humongous numbers of new fans that sparked in Japan, and the world. In just 4 years of publication, mere 23 volumes in length, the manga sold 150 million copies, an outrageous milestone that no other manga in history has ever accomplished before in that exact timeframe, beating out One Piece's best selling year (2011) two times over during its peak in 2020.
  • No Export for You: The matter regarding side publications like the Fanbooks/Databooks and Light Novels vary from region to region, some have them, some don’t, some are starting to get them; however, the one thing no region outside Japan has officially got as 2022 is the official digital colored manga edition, this version was exclusive to Japan as a push towards selling the digital version of Weekly Shounen Jump at the time, it has no physical edition as of yet, and it is also incomplete, Shueisha only hired a digital colorist to work from Chapter 140 to the series’s end at Chapter 205. Time will tell if Shueisha will hire a colorist to work from the series’s beginning to Chapter 139, completing the color edition, and if by then other regions would license it as well.
  • Otaku O'Clock: The manga ran in Shonen Jump, whose anime adaptations typically air during the day since they're aimed at preteen and teenage boys. However, the series' marketing strategist was very adamant about airing the anime adaptation late at night in order to preserve the levels of violence present in the original manga, since it had become increasingly common for Shonen Jump anime adaptations to tone down violence and other suggestive content to varying degrees over the years. This decision proved to be one of the many reasons the anime became a gigantic success.
  • The Other Darrin:
    • In the Latin American Spanish dub, due to the death of Osvaldo Trejo as Genya Shinazugawa, he is replaced with Luis Fernando Orozco in the next season.
    • Due to Laura Post severing ties with Crunchyroll, it's currently unknown who will voice Tamayo in future seasons.
    • Due to Philece Sampler's passing in 2021, it's currently unknown who will voice Rokuta Kamado in future seasons.
    • Toshikuni's adopted mother is voiced by Emi Lo in the Entertainment District arc before being replaced with Vivian Lu in the Swordsmith Village Arc.
  • Playing Against Type:
    • Bryce Papenbrook as Inosuke is very different from his usual roles, sporting a much deeper and raspier voice.
    • Lucien Dodge as Akaza is different from his Adorkable roles.
  • Pop Culture Urban Legends: The closing events in the Natagumo Mountain arc, in which Giyu incapacitated Shinobu to prevent her from carrying out her intention of killing Nezuko at first, has been so widespread in its fan edited format (where Giyu slaps Shinobu's butt) that it has surpassed meme status, where a good amount of people actually brought up the Mandela Effect, believing the fan edited butt slap to be real and the actual real scene, without the slap, to be some sort of TV edit or censorship.
  • Real-Life Relative: For the Latin American Spanish dub of Mugen Train, Enmu is voiced by Arturo Castañeda, while his parents Mario Castañeda and Rommy Mendoza voice Shinjuro Rengoku and Ruka Rengoku, respectively.
  • Recast as a Regular:
    • Lucien Dodge first voiced Kazumi before going on to voice Akaza.
    • Similarly, Erica Lindbeck voiced Spider Demon (older sister) before being cast as Daki.
  • Reclusive Artist: Despite the series' wild popularity, author Koyoharu Gotōge has never made any public appearances, their Author Avatar (an alligator) betrays no hints of their actual looks besides wearing glasses, and official sources avoid even specifying their gender. Their only known personal information is their birthdate (May 5, 1989).
  • Referenced by...: After reaching its certified Manga and Anime phenomenon status in Japan, several series started making clear cut references to it, some of them being:
    • A spoof gag scene in Osomatsu-san has Ichimatsu wearing Tanjiro’s outfit and mimicking his Water Breathing techniques.
    • Chika Fujiwara in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War looking forward to hear more of LiSA’s music after she watched the series.
    • Some Manga Soprano episodes make references to this anime. In fact, this early episode has the entire main cast attending Comiket cosplaying as the show's characters; the protagonist even learns a Breathing Style through his kendo skills.
    • In Vol. 5 of The Dangers in My Heart, there's a bonus sketch of Anna Yamada doing a very cheap cosplay of Inosuke, wielding two rulers with a bag over her head that has a doodle of his boar mask.
  • Sleeper Hit:
    • The series as a whole is a particularly extreme example. When the manga began in 2016, it had good but not particularly outstanding sales numbers (by Shonen Jump standards, at least) and didn't garner much conversation until its anime adaptation was announced. But near the end of the anime's run around August-September 2019, the manga's sales exploded, every single volume making it to the top 50 of the Oricon sales ranking for more than a year straight. In November 2019, Demon Slayer became the first manga in more than a decade to outsell One Piece during the year (12 million copies against 10 million for One Piece). By May 2020, just as the series ended, it had sold 45 million more copies, obliterating One Piece's yearly sales record of 38 million… in only half-a-year, and with only 19 volumes at that point. Theories abound about what caused such an unprecedented boost, but many point towards episode 19 of the animated adaptation, which was praised for its stunning production and music, even more so than the rest of the anime, and trended on social networks.
    • Given the manga and anime's popularity, the Mugen Train film being a success wasn't a surprise — less expected was just how much of a smash hit it was. Released in 2020 amid a dearth of blockbusters during the COVID-19 Pandemic, it blew past all expectations and swiftly dethroned records long held by Spirited Away as the highest-grossing film ever in Japan and the biggest anime film worldwide. It then dethroned the Chinese blockbuster The Eight Hundred to become the highest-grossing film of 2020, becoming the first Japanese film ever to top the worldwide yearly box office. When the film was released in the United States in April 2021, it crushed the past non-Pokémon anime opening record set by Dragon Ball Super: Broly, in spite of the pandemic, and gave Mortal Kombat, released the same day, a shockingly close run for the weekend box office championship — and then won the US box office the following weekend, an extreme rarity for a non-English language film. Combining the box office revenue from its domestic revenue and international revenue, Mugen Train is the highest grossing film released in 2020.
  • Star-Making Role:
  • Torch the Franchise and Run: The series ends about as definitively as it can: Over 95% of the cast dies in the final battle, the demonic threat is permanently ended through the death of Muzan, and the withering of the Blue Spider Lily, which is the origin of said threat. Furthermore, just to erase any lingering possibilities of a continuation, the story's final chapter flash forwards 100 years into the future, showing the lives of the surviving cast's descendants.
  • What Could Have Been: Before Demon Slayer became serialized, Gotouge Koyoharu made a one-shot that set the foundation of the final story's premise. Kagarigari, released in 2013, featured a lone demon slayer who greatly resembles Giyu in appearance and personality fighting against prototypical versions of Muzan, Tamayo, and Yushiro, alongside a demon who never made it to the final story. Kagarigari was a more serious horror mystery, a kind of manga that Gotouge's then-editor didn't have much faith in running in Weekly Shonen Jump. With a new editor years later, Gotouge reworked Kagarigari into Kisatsu no Yaiba ("Demon-Killing Blade"), gave the demon hunter a goal in finding a cure for his demon sister, and added levity and humor, with a colorful cast of characters to bounce of the now optimistic protagonist. With Gotouge changing the name from Kisatsu no Yaiba to Kimetsu no Yaiba ("Kimetsu" being a made-up word Gotouge felt the audience would remember better), the Demon Slayer manga as we know it was born.
  • Word of Dante: This reddit post which headcanons the Upper Rank's opinions and thoughts on each other has been mistakenly spread around the fandom as fact, especially by Demon Slayer content creators on Youtube.
  • Word of Saint Paul: The exact extent of how acquainted Giyu and Shinobu really were is not so straightforward. After their initial team-up, both Hashira are never seen together again, going strictly by what just the original manga shows. At the same time, the second fanbook states that Giyu and Shinobu enjoy talking to each other (as per Gyomei's observations), Giyu worries over Shinobu's complexion, and Shinobu wants Giyu to talk more. Furthermore, the canonical spin-off manga, anime staff and voice actors spend time showing the Hashira duo being close. The Giyu-Gaiden manga shows Shinobu partnering with Giyu on a mission despite being off-duty while Ufotable has run a few promotional materials with the duo together and specifically told Shinobu has advised Giyu on how to properly dress himself. Meanwhile, in the original manga: As Shinobu was about to die, she only remembered her hatred and what she had lost. Giyu, on other hand, despite expressing shock at Shinobu's death (he did not show emotion towards the passing of any other Hashira), lives on and eventually has descendants (though due to Japanese customs, it's not clear which pathway Giyu took to have descendants in the modern era. He could have adopted a kid as his heir or had kids through marriage).

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