Fans of "Demon Slayer" are worn out since the show has overstayed its welcome.
The Demon Slayer has been nothing short of a cultural phenomenon, with the anime developed by Ufotable making the series a mainstream success worldwide and the original manga being a smash-hit in terms of sales.
Fans have become weary of the series despite having a devoted following, piles of products, and record-breaking sales. Why?
The anime is overly extending the story despite its success
From February 2016 to May 2020, Koyoharu Gotouge's original Demon Slayer manga ran in Shonen Jump magazine. Its chapters were compiled into 23 single volumes, or tankobon. The manga series ended in 2020, with an expected yearly income of ¥1 trillion ($8.75 billion USD). It was an immediate hit. Hiroyuki Nakano, editor-in-chief of Shonen Jump, claims that as soon as the anime's first season ended, sales of the series took off.
This is very logical. The first season of Demon Slayer was almost perfect. The series had a trademark animation style from Ufotable and effectively introduced viewers to the primary characters, making it easy for them to get engrossed in their storylines. As such, it catered to a wide audience. The anime had one of the cutest interpretations of the "found family" cliché in the business, while being action-packed and full of terrible monsters.
The animated version of the Mugen Train arc, which is a feature-length film that stretched the limits of contemporary anime cinema in terms of animation quality, plot, and buzz, has also received recognition. The film turned into a huge hit, and people are still talking about the brilliantly timed beats that were used to showcase the crucial character of Hashira Rengoku. But after this, the anime began to face criticism for something unexpected: filler that was considered "canon."
The reputation of the series is being harmed by Demon Slayer's reliance on repeating story arcs
While there are many arguments about whether or not Demon Slayer succeeded in its final arc and criticisms of the show's shorter runtime, one thing is certain: the anime adaptation's heavy dependency on reusing content is a major issue that is leading to a great deal of fan fatigue.
As was already noted, the Mugen Train movie was fantastic. — but Ufotable returned by repeating the movie's story in the broadcast season that aired thereafter. The studio released an episodic "cut for television" version of the film after adding a prequel to provide more Rengoku material, which many series fans found enjoyable. This was a regrettable trend that continued into the Entertainment District and Swordsmith Village arcs, which saw the theatrical release of the final episode of the Entertainment District and the first episode of Swordsmith Village, which ultimately culminated in a compilation film. At the time, this was easy to ignore due to the addition of new content.
Fans started to become weary with the formula's approach to the anime's release, even while marketing efforts gave the impression that it was succeeding financially. This occurred once again with the first publication of the Hashira Training arc, which has unquestionably been the lowest point in the series.
The 'Hashira Training arc': Everything Wrong
The manga's Hashira Training arc is somewhat brief and serves as a quick montage that launches into the "Infinity Castle" arc, the manga's grand climax. The general view is that this is the lowest point of the Demon Slayer anime, and fans are tired of the program, even if the show has managed to retain a significant portion of its popularity because to audience investment.
The animation quality remains strong, but the storyline included a significant amount of filler to extend its duration, and there were an unprecedented amount of character exposition dumps that should have been trimmed to save time. It's unknown why the anime's creators took this decision, but gloomy rumors from viewers clearly suggest that they extended the show's runtime in order to make more money.
In addition, Demon Slayer is a simple way to generate money. The manga held the top 10 spots for a whole month, making it the first series to ever hold every single top 10 spot in Oricon's weekly manga charts. These types of figures are almost unheard of, even with the increase in popularity of manga and anime over the last ten years. The last arc, which will be divided into a complete feature-length film trilogy in true Demon Slayer fashion, will hopefully be faithfully adapted by the anime and win over its supporters. All we can hope for is that they can make it work and that the audience won't be let down when the series ends.
Crunchyroll offers Demon Slayer for streaming. Viz Media publishes the original manga in English.