Is Demon Slayer The Best Anime Ever?
If you’re a fan of anime, you have heard of Demon Slayer. Most people will tell you that it is by far the best anime ever created.
Well, I am here to tell you…. I CANNOT DISAGREE!
Demon Slayer is one of those rare anime’s that once you start watching, you really don’t want it to end.
From the very first episode you will, without question, be hooked on the character development and the new and exiting twists the storyline takes.
Right from the get-go, you are introduced to Tanjiro, a simple boy that loves his family and is an extremely hard worker. He doesn’t fret about his difficult life living in the snowcapped mountains, instead, he deals with his life’s adversity with a smile on his face as he travels up and down the mountain peddling charcoal to the villagers.
The good-hearted Tanjiro also uses his very unique sense of smell to help out a local peasant boy from being accused of breaking a local villager’s decorative plate when in fact the culprit was a cat!
As his story progresses, that amazing sense of smell will come to aid Tanjiro more than he could have ever imagined.
One early morning Tanjiro sets down the mountain to once again earn some coin by selling his charcoal to the local villagers and things suddenly take a turn for the worst.
He was delayed in getting back to his small mountain top hut and traveling through the cold bitter darkness wasn’t exactly a good idea. A local villager offers to put Tanjiro up for the night and assures him it is a much better decision than heading back up the mountain during the twilight.
Tanjiro reluctantly agrees to stay the night and heads out at first light back to his family, who certainly are eagerly awaiting his return.
Unfortunately, this is where the story line starts to turn dark, really dark. Tanjiro will face some of the hardest times in his already difficult life.
As Tanjiro begins to make his way back to his meager mountain top home, he immediately smells blood! He rushes with all of his might back to his home and is met with a gruesome scene, his entire family has been slaughtered!!
At first glance Tanjiro tries his best to comprehend what on earth he is witnessing. He assumes it must have been a pack of wild animals that suddenly attacked his family. His Mom, his little brothers & sisters have all been mauled to death by wild animals!
Or so he thought….
As he goes to check on each of his family members frozen carcasses, he suddenly realizes, Nezuko is alive! His little sister has somehow survived the savage attack from whatever devilish beast attacked them.
It is now a race against time. Tanjiro must get his badly injured sister to the local physician as soon as possible. The trek down the mountain will not be easy, but he simply has no choice, he must use the last bit of strength he has and carry Nezuko down the mountain to get treatment before it’s too late.
One foot in front of the other, must … keep… going …
Suddenly, his little sister Nezuko begins to move! Unexpectedly, Tanjiro and Nezuko fall off the cliff into the soft snow. Fortunately, he is still alive! Nezuko is also successful in navigating her fall and swiftly is on her feet. Out of nowhere she begins to attack Tanjiro! He grabs his axe to block her attack, what in the world has gotten into Nezuko? Why is she attacking Tanjiro? Is she so badly injured she doesn’t recognize her own brother?
It doesn’t take long for Tanjiro to realize it isn’t the physical wounds to her body that are causing Nezuko to act this way, she has turned into a man-eating demon!!
Unexpectedly, a lightning quick swordsman shows up. The renown Giyu Tomioka has been in route to their location, but alas, it appears he has arrived too late to save Nezuko and the rest of Tanjiro’s family from the evil demons that hunted them in the cold, hostile, darkness.
Now Giyu Tomioka has one mission and only one mission…KILL NEZUKO!
Tanjiro begs Giyu not to kill Nezuko, he insists that although Nezuko may now be a demon, she would never actually harm him and hasn’t ever attacked another human. However, his pleas to save his sister’s life fall on deaf ears, Giyu has one job, to kill demons by any means necessary.
With ungodly speed, Giyu reaches out and stabs Nezuko in the shoulder with his sword, Tanjiro screams in horror as his sister is impaled with this stranger’s weapon. Although he has pure rage in his heart, he realizes he doesn’t have the skill-set to match Giyu in a straight up head-to-head fight. He quickly devises a plan to distract Giyu by throwing a rock at him while simultaneously launching his axe at the head of this legendary demon slayer.
As Tanjiro rushes at Giyu, the swordsman chuckles at the amateur attack of throwing a rock and swiftly knocks Tanjiro out! Suddenly Giyu realizes that the axe is not with Tanjiro, it is flying at his head!
With only a split second to spare, Giyu moves his head just in time to keep it on his shoulders. The axe lands smack dab in the tree that Giyu is standing in front of and the demon slayer realizes that the amateur attack was anything but, it was a cunning move by a brother willing to risk it all to save his sister.
As Tanjiro lay motionless on the snowy mountain ground, Nezuko leaps into action, pouncing in front of her big brother. Giyu is certain she is about to tear the flesh off of this young naïve boy but unexpectedly, she isn’t attacking him at all, she is protecting him!
Nezuko instinctively attacks Giyu to try and protect Tanjiro but Giyu knocks Nezuko out. When Tanjiro finally awakens from his short battle with Giyu, he finds Nezuko alive and with a bamboo muzzle in her mouth.
Deep in his soul Giyu feels there is something special about these two and instead of killing Nezuko he advises Tanjiro to take his sister and journey to Sakonji Urokodaki, a demon slayer trainer. He assures Tanjiro that Urokodaki will be able to help him prepare for his ultimate quest of tracking down the demons that killed his family and somehow find a cure that will return his beloved Nezuko back to her former self.
That was just a small sliver of the trials and tribulations that Tanjiro and Nezuko will face as the voyage towards the unknown.
There will be laughter and celebrations along the way, as well as sadness and heartbreak.
Tanjiro and Nezuko will meet plenty of colorful characters, friend and foe alike, as they stand shoulder to shoulder as big brother and little sister.
The larger-than-life twists and turns, the epic battle between good and evil and the continued quest to track down those that killed his family will keep you on the edge of your seat, begging for more, all the while cheering for Tanjiro and Nezuko along the way.
Demon Slayer has been recognized as one of the best anime’s ever made and for good reason. The storyline never gets dull, the introduction of new and exhilarating charterers keeps the journey fresh and a very special but often overlooked aspect of the plot is the backstory of the demons themselves!
That’s right! While they may be flesh eating demons from hell, they were not always that way and fortunately for us, Demon Slayer takes the time to dive into the history of the demons that Tanjiro, Nezuko and friends fight to the death. It may surprise you to know, at one point in time, these demonic creatures were once regular humans who often lived very difficult lives and were treated very cruelly by their fellow human beings.
Demon Slayer is without question a must have for anyone looking to add to their anime collection. Young or old, newb or veteran, you simply cannot go wrong picking up all of the Demon Slayer episodes.
Now, I must admit, there is one solitary thing I don’t like about the Demon Slayer franchise, the fact that it takes far too long for them to produce more of them!!
Anime & Ice Cream Gives Demon Slayer 5 Out Of 5 Cones!
