 On today's episode we're going to talk about reviews for 23 volumes of Demon Slayer. I think, probably not. Either way, stay tuned. Hey everybody, welcome back to Wicked Geekdom, Geo here, and finally I get to talk about Demon Slayer on this channel. So what do I think of this series? There's a lot to unpack, but I'm going to keep this video spoiler free and concise to a proper review of the series. Maybe down the line I can do a stream or a discussion video. Maybe have some friends on board to talk a little bit more in depth about it. But for now, let's keep it tight and concise as to what I thought of a Demon Slayer. We follow the character of Tanjiro. He is, I believe he's working at the start delivering coal up in the mountains in Taisho era Japan and his one faithful day, almost all of his remaining family gets murdered by demons. Now in this series demons run amok throughout Japan and they eat people and it's sort of like vampire-esque monsters if you will, but the mentality that they're going to eat people and drink blood and get powerful that way. But the concept is sort of there, a vampire action, even though I know they're oni, they're demon-based, all that stuff. And there is the Demon Slayer Corps who's tasked to eliminate the oni threat led by Muzan Kibutsuji, I hope I pronounced that right. But Muzan is this ancient foe of the Demon Slayer Corps, this ancient evil demon who's amassed great power in the millennia and the many years that he's been alive. I can't remember right now the exact date, but he is extremely powerful and commands of legions of followers who look up to him but also fear him and they secretly want more power but they recognize how terrible and how frightening of a villain this guy is and how obsessed he is to, one, be able to eliminate his weakness which is sunlight. So they operate during the night or in the shadows which coincides with the whole vampire thing that I said earlier and he seeks to eliminate that. Now one of the demons raided Tanjiro's home and killed his mother and almost all of his siblings except Nezuko who got turned into a demon. Now the funny thing, the coincidence of the story is that Nezuko is turned into a demon and Tanjiro recognizes that she's still there and her human self is there somewhere and he's going to do every possible thing to revert that and transform Nezuko back into a human and along the way he meets a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, spares his life, spares their lives I should say and sort of kick starts Tanjiro's journey into becoming a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. So what happens after that is basically a story of Tanjiro acquiring more strength, meeting more characters, becoming the badass that he is when he fights and learning about the secrets of his family's history that somehow help in defeating the main bad guy and also learning everything that he can about Nezuko's condition as a demon and how he can turn her back. Now along the way he meets other characters that a lot of people like Zenitsu, Minosuke and a bunch of other kooky crazy characters. We meet the Hashidas which are the elite Demon Slayer Corps members sort of like the top lieutenants if you will or captains if you want to go with standard Shonen tropes. They represent the pillar strength abilities of the elements like water, fire, glove, sound, wind and all that stuff. I'm missing a few like stone for example and that's sort of the gist of the manga. It's not a very long story again only 23 volumes I think it was 208 or 207 manga chapters correctly if I'm wrong on that and for the most part it's a very linear story it doesn't deviate too much from the formula. Something happens to Tanjiro and there's a reaction and he moves forward from that and it's sort of it keeps escalating the plot keeps building and building until you get to this climax where we get this epic confrontation and fight and you know unlike other manga that take forever to get to that point Demon Slayer is actually pretty quick about it. One peculiar thing that makes the series a little bit different from everything else is the fact that I know a lot of people are going to be upset because that's just the way the internet is but I don't care. I think Tanjiro is one of the best Shonen Jump leads that we've had. He displays a wide range of emotions and sympathy and empathy for his enemy and for his fellow Demon Slayer core members and I think it teaches a valuable lesson for kids for a younger generation a younger crowd to look up to and realize that that is something that is sorely missing in today's world. Today's climate is filled with such negativity and violence and just hatred and just evil things towards fellow human beings to our brothers and sisters and there's no empathy there's no caringness for the plight of others and I see a shining beacon of hope when I read Demon Slayer when I look at Tanjiro's struggle and when I look at his empathy for the villains and yes he recognizes that they're doing terrible things but he learns about the bad guys's story and what they're going through and can sort of see or maybe slightly understand where their pain and struggle and actions come from. Now that's not justifying that these evil doers are that they get a free pass but it makes you a better person when you understand the perspective of the other individual and that is something that I wish a lot of people would get. We live in such a hectic frenzy of a world where there's always a competition there's always prejudice and racism and just a despise for what's different out there and again when I see stories like this when I see a character like Tanjiro it reminds me that they're still good out there and I wish for a younger crowd that will read Demon Slayer or maybe watch the anime not everybody's gonna read everything to take note of the character of Tanjiro and his perseverance throughout the story. He has a very humble origin and he's put Destiny's hand into this incredible situation that would otherwise defeat anybody else and you wouldn't have the fortitude to move forward but we have a character who does move forward who realizes that he has what it takes or even if he doesn't he's going to try and find a way to make it happen because he believes he has this conviction that he can save his sister from this peril from this dangerous transformation where she's now a demon the very entity the very type of creature that destroyed his family and it's through his determination his willingness to find an answer to find a cure uh his willingness to move forward because there is a promise of a better tomorrow that's what makes him a worthy awesome protagonist not to mention he's a badass when it comes to fighting he's able to pull off these crazy moves and it just looks spectacular in manga form all of this high crazy action sometimes can be a little bit chaotic and hard to follow but for the most part the fights are very visceral rapid fire with a lot of intricate splashes of uh speed lines of characters swinging their swords around and creating all this ruckus with special abilities and stuff like that and they're quick and to the point and like i've said earlier this manga doesn't really overstay it's welcome now one of the things that a lot of people like to point out when they're doing criticisms of a demon slayer is the pacing of the story uh it can be quite hectic especially when it comes to the fights and the transition between arcs isn't necessarily the smoothest because sometimes you'll finish off this epic uh arc and this epic battle only to like a chapter and a half later throw everybody into another frightening scenario but there is a crucial point in the story after the um after the fight in the forest with the two demons the one with the uh octopus and and urns and stuff that i'm totally forgetting the name of right now if you've read it you know what i'm referring to i don't want to spoil anything just in case but when that ends things sort of just escalate dramatically and they're turned to an 11 and we go into the final fight into the final confrontation against the main bad guys and i kind of i was kind of used to the idea of classic shonen jump series where we have to wait a while for that to happen especially if a manga is successful by that point the anime had already begun on tv if i remember correctly so the hype was there and you could have i mean they could have easily stretched out the story and you know got into more hijinks and uh world building aspects or uh detailing the adventures of a certain character or a villain or introduced new elements but instead we jump into the main conflict because the mangaka knows that this is not a long story this isn't your uh i don't know my hero academia or a one piece or whatever where you can just continue to build on that stuff because the threat is there and it's not going to evolve it's hungry demons that want to kill eat and consume people and that's about it i mean aside from that you got muzon's journey to be the strongest bad guy so it's not like he has this complicated plot to take over the world and keep in mind it's supposed to be based on our world it's not an alternate reality and stuff like that sort of like historical fiction with fantastical elements thrown in and so i i understand the reasoning behind ending the series uh early there's not a lot of room there for character development especially on uh the demon slayer core members because we don't really get to see have too much of a downtime with them they go mission to mission and in between we have brief snippets of of characters relaxing and healing up their bodies and training but we don't spend a whole lot of time in the in those segments because we're thrown into the next thing because there is an urgency to destroy the main bad guy so in that regard the progress the evolution the progression of characters happens through fights which can be a little cliche for a battle shonen and all that stuff but i'm used to it by now i don't mind it it's a it's a trope that i don't mind because the fights are exciting to have that samurai aspect to it with the swords this code of conduct and the abilities and the mysticism behind the the breathing techniques and the you know the pillars of the you know the hashitas themselves with their abilities and it's it's over the top and crazy but it still retains that elegance of the time period the art for the most part i know a lot of people that don't read the manga might complain like oh i prefer the anime because a beautiful table and uh they're wonderful art but go today i really um at first i was a little bit iffy when i started reading the manga but the art just kept getting crazier and and better for me i really enjoyed it i really enjoy when the characters break out into the chibi mode with the funny facial expressions very um simplistic or minimalistic and when stuff gets serious oh they get serious so overall i really enjoyed it i thought it had a really intricate beginning with nice solid characters a nice foundation for a lead character to progress through the story and evolve beautifully into a really exemplary uh manga shonen lead that i think uh a younger crowd can appreciate and enjoy the side characters are great some are hilarious others can be a little annoying but that's part of the charm as well and you have probably one of the most beautiful aspects of the series which is that bond between the uh nesuko and tanjiro even though she's not able to speak even though she's not able to communicate all too well because of her condition she's a demon now and she can't verbalize aside from aside from grunts and and uh yelling and all that stuff by that love that sibling love is there and you just kind of admire uh tanjiro for going all out to save his sister and the the commitment and sacrifices that he makes all throughout the series if you like uh shonen jump series it's pretty friggin motivational man it's pretty badass to see that journey and kind of emotional too there are some beautiful messages from the mamika that i really took to heart and every every volume there is a little um paragraph letter at the at the opening of the book where go to get sensei is talking uh to us the readers and i really enjoyed all the messages and at the end the final volume i i really wanted to uh uh read it for you guys here it does um hit close to home with um what's mentioned mentioned here and i i kind of wanted to you read it uh not everybody is going to collect the series physically so they might not check this out i don't know but basically um go to gays thanking everybody for uh reading the manga and supporting the show and anime and all that stuff and at the end it says here uh tales from hundreds of years ago exist in the present and after the passage of decades and centuries the events of today will become stories of the past grandfathers and grandmothers fathers and mothers everyone experiencing a time of childhood a time that leads to the present you yourself are part of that great flow and as you overcome times of hardship the years passed by the very moment that you think all is lost is the moment when you must stand firm and not stray from the path i hope you will be strong in difficult situations and harsh circumstances but it's also not good to push yourself too hard uh so take things at a reasonable pace keep your eyes fixed forward and find your own bliss i thought that was uh really beautiful and um i've gone through some really crappy stuff uh in um in past gear as of me making this video so i really needed to read that uh and it sort of gave me like uh reinforced my own mantras to keep moving forward so i i think go to gays sensei from the bottom of my heart and this is a story that will stick with me because it does have a very clean nice strong protagonist with determined uh determination sorry strength and great values that you can admire and uh he's just a bundle of joy and he's such a positive person that i really relate to that because i am a positive person myself i try not to hate i try not to get angry and i try my best to keep moving forward like tanjiro so overall yeah i was a little bit all over the place uh thank you for hanging in there i know it's a long video but i really wanted to sort of talk about demon slayer with you guys uh keep it as spoiler free as possible and hopefully share my enthusiasm and excitement for that series and i know not everybody's gonna like it that's awesome you're entitled to that uh there are a lot of people stuff that people love that i'm not necessarily a huge fan of that's all right we're we're human we like and dislike things uh but i really enjoyed it and if you've never uh if you've never read it or if you haven't watched the show do check it out it's a lot of fun and action packed with memorable characters and specifically a fantastic duo of characters and a beautiful sibling uh relation that reminds us to keep moving forward and fighting the good fight in good faith uh with friends and family rooting for you uh and obviously being uh uh sharing that empathy towards your fellow man regardless of what they may have or may not have done so thank you everybody for tuning in thank you for liking commenting subscribing being a part of a week in geekdom let me know down below what you thought of demon slayer keep it spoiler free just in case i hate for the story to be ruined to uh newcomers out there so thank you everybody for tuning in god bless stay safe out there i will catch all of you on our next video