Manga Review: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge

---

Synopsis:

In Taisho-era Japan, Tanjiro Kamado is a kindhearted boy who makes a living selling charcoal. But his peaceful life is shattered when a demon slaughters his entire family. His little sister Nezuko is the only survivor, but she has been transformed into a demon herself! Tanjiro sets out on a dangerous journey to find a way to return his sister to normal and destroy the demon who ruined his life.

Learning to slay demons won’t be easy, and Tanjiro barely knows where to start. The surprise appearance of another boy named Giyu, who seems to know what’s going on, might provide some answers…but only if Tanjiro can stop Giyu from killing his sister first!

---

My Review:

I started Demon Slayer after seeing it crop up on Netflix. I binged the show but needed to know how it ended. I noticed it growing in popularity over on Bookstagram too which may be linked to its appearance on Netflix. I’m usually a shoujo reader so this was an interesting departure from my usual reads.

The story follows Tanjiro, a hardworking kind-hearted boy who grew up in the mountains selling charcoal for this family to help them buy food. One day he returns home to find them all slaughtered by human-eating demons. All but his little sister Nezuko, who has been turned into the very monster that killed their family. Tanjiro gets a new mission, become a demon slayer, cure his sister and annihilate all demons.

This is action-packed and there is a lot of sword action which can be brutal at times. An interesting element in this manga is the demon lore. It’s quite extensive which I didn’t expect from an action-packed manga. No two demons are the same! Not only are the main characters and demons well-developed, but so are the hunters. I found Inosake hilarious albeit occasionally annoying. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t connect with Agatsuma, I just found him a little too frustrating.

This manga does contain various story arcs. My main gripe was that sometimes I wanted it to stay in one scene more. We don’t see much of his actual training before he’s thrust into the world of killing demons… and they wonder why they keep losing slayers!

I enjoyed the artwork of the manga and I felt the artist did well bringing the story to life. Each character is unique, and I never found myself trying to work out which character was which (something I do occasionally have to do in some shoujo I’ve read).  There’s a lot of detail put into the action scenes that make them easy to understand what is happening.

Overall, I enjoyed this manga, and I am pleased that I picked this up. The author does well at building tension, developing characters, and progressing the story. The overarching theme of family is what I really enjoyed. I loved the sibling relationship between Nezuko and Tanjiro and how their relationship contrasted against the Shinazugawa brothers, Sanemi and Genya. I also enjoyed that no character was safe from the chopping block which you’ll soon learn should you ever pick this series up!

---