Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)

Like what exactly is "popularity deserving of its overall quality?"

That it's as popular as it is good. Neither underrated nor overrated. Seconding Chainsaw Man, by the way.

That is subjective & vague as Hell.

Basically that Critics and Audiences love it alike, unlike Michael Bay movies which are liked by viewers but panned by critics or any Oscar Bait that gets critical accolade but barely an audience.

But there are stuff that gets only critical acclaim just to acquire an audience later, and stuff that was critically panned only for that to switch after time passes.

For the former, see Berserk and Vinland Saga.

For the latter, see Shakespeare.

Of course it's subjective, it's an opinion. I'm not the High Magister Arbiter of Objective Good Taste, my favorite movie is Kill Bill for God's sake. But typing out "This is just my subjective opinion guys it is not undeniable fact and you are allowed to disagree with this take" at the start of every comment was starting to wear out my keyboard.

Anyway yeah, MHA and KNY are both good but overrated.

Man overrated is one of those words that feels like a needle is being pressed into the part of your brain that controls pain.

Hey, Kill Bill as a favorite is objectively good taste!

Not yet, the demon siblings still boast the single biggest fight in the entire series: 17 chapters, the big bad man Muzan still has to catch up at 16 chapters so far. In retrospect the Upper-6 fight lasting as long as the final boss himself, is pretty divisive depending whom you ask.

This fight just feels longer because they've been in the infinite fortress thing for 40% of the manga.

I think confronting all the top demons at once in the fortress was a bit of a misstep. Also, did anyone else notice Kanao looks way older than when she first appeared?

Yes, Kanao's design has changed a bit, she got the hair gradient effect and now looks as mature as Shinobu, her skirt got shorter too.

Ever since Nezuko conquested the sun there no going back. It would be really strange for they to invade Muzan home and his top demons aren't stop them.

I didn't catch up on the series until the Muzan fight, thankfully, and I think the upper 6 being confronted at once worked pretty well when it's not read week-to-week.

I hope the same for the Muzan fight, but I honestly doubt its just a product of the weekly schedule because nothing really interesting is happening in it.

It's essentially been fight, flashback, fight, flashback. The snake dude getting his backstory in the final fight is a little silly.

A common suggestion I've seen is that Douma and his cult could have been the focus of an arc, which would give Shinobu, Kanao, and Inosuke more time to shine. And then there's Kaigaku, who came and went incredibly quickly, so him and Zenitsu would also be worth fleshing out.

I certainly think that the retired pillars guarding Nezuko should have gotten some adversary to show off against.

Edited by Eschaton on Mar 12th 2020 at 10:01:31 AM

Actually that's true, I forgot how rushed Zennitsu's stuff was. That definitely suffered for the decision to move into the endgame now.

Yeah Doma’s cult could have easily been its own arc.

It’s rather weird how sudden this whole thing happened.

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 12th 2020 at 10:22:26 AM

Maybe the author has a personal life deadline or something. Who really knows, with how mysterious they are.

Or maybe the author wants to end the manga on his/her terms and avoid any sort of Executive Meddling that could stretch it beyond its organic life.

Yeah that doesn't explain rushing it though?

Like I would fully expect the editors would want it to extend it and stuff, but I don't see the author needing to rush stuff like Kaigaku in order to prevent it becoming extended by editors. Those feel like different things.

Edited by Saiga on Mar 13th 2020 at 3:38:15 AM

Well probably he/she don't want a repeat of RLD since structurely a cult arc gonna be pretty similar. Once Nezuko gain sun immunity the momentum can't be stop or else both Muzan and the Demon Slayer Corp gonna look like a bunch of idiots since Nezuko at that point is the key to end the war. The plot already set in motion and then the author realize that he/she can't find a place to fit Zenitsu arc in anymore.

Keep in mind that Kn Y wasn't the behemoth it's today before the anime aired. And at that point it was already in the final arc.

It wasn't the monster that is today yes, but before the anime it was doing well, selling around 170k to 200k per volume at its peak, that shows a consolidated fanbase was formed in Japan before the anime broke the charts, in comparison that is pretty much Black Clover numbers.

Kn Y's peak pre-anime was 160K in 4 weeks.

Which is fairly good, but not something that would get a lot of pressure to get extended I think.

We getting a game next year.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-03-15/demon-slayer-kimetsu-no-yaiba-manga-gets-ps4-game-in-2021/.157499

Hopefully it’s not a cheap cash-in title.