Welcome to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba. This week we take a break as our trio get to know each other, have some dinner and meet best sister Nezuko. Let’s get into it!
Right off the bat, I am rather split on this episode. Both in terms of production/animation and the actual narrative of it. There are things I really like and things I don’t for both. For instance, Yaiba did a really good job with the hand-to-hand combat animation! That was a pretty sick combat, and it was a nice change of pace from the swords and demons. Something nice and mundane. However, Yaiba also really overused the “comedy” style for my this episode. With the blank faces and really simplistic art style. It’s not the comedy itself, that was hit or miss and I will get into that later. It’s just the style. It works better on some characters than others, clearly. With the simple dots for eyes and round heads. For the most part though, I want to call Yaiba a success this week.
As far as comedy goes, this was easily the rockiest part of the episode. With some of the comedy working and some failing, though that is just the nature of comedy. For me, I enjoyed the background actions more than the foreground ones. Such as the grieving kids, Inosuke running into trees in the background, etc etc. These kinds of jokes, the ones that aren’t thrown in your face and rely on you paying attention, are more up my alley. When a joke is in the foreground, it feels forced to me usually. Like a sort of “laugh at this now!”, sort of thing. Some of these still worked with Yaiba of course, Zenitsu was actually rather fun this week. But for the most part I don’t really enjoy the “blank face straight-act” that Yaiba seems to prefer for its comedy.
Now we can finally get to Inosuke though. Personally, I found him rather boarish (heh) throughout the episode. I still find Yaiba’s style of taking a character trait and turning it up to 11 to be… problematic. However, like Zenitsu, once part of the group I thought he worked a lot better. The trio bounce off each other rather well. Curbing the worst aspects of their respective characters. Tanjiro redirects/offsets Inosuke’s pigheaded stubbornness with his good natured attitude, making him simply competitive. Meanwhile Inosuke brings out Zenitsu’s protectiveness and loyalty, which breaks up his cowardly screaming. Then both of them manage to make Tanjiro show more emotion than his standard “pasted smile” that he always wears. It’s almost impressive really, how Yaiba manages to make two characters I dislike better when together. I actually want to see where they go now.
For the episode itself, it was nice and rather laid back. Pretty necessary after the last few episodes really. We went from the city and Muzan, straight into this and meeting our new characters. It’s not my favorite kind of episode, I am an adrenaline junky at heart after all. But it was the kind of episode we needed. Perpetual highs without some calming lows just ruin the energy of the highs. This also gives our trio the chance to breathe. Which as you read up above, is for the shows benefit. Plus, we still got a fight out of it! A rather novel one in terms of Yaiba to. Giving us some hand-to-hand combat, and an idea of where each of our characters are in terms of power. Basically, it wasn’t my favorite, but it wasn’t bad either. Some good stuff in here.
Finally, lets talk Nezuko and Zenitsu. I love Nezuko, she is the best girl of her season. Only getting outdone by Ylva from the new season, because I love Vinland more than anything right now. With Tanjiro there to reign him in, I think Zenitsu’s antics with Nezuko could be a lot of fun. His whole shtick about trying to marry a girl and what not. His whole gag of overreaction to Tanjiro having her in the box in the first place was actually my favorite gag of the episode. Because it was play partly as a serious explanation/introduction of their characters, to a simple joke. I look forward to how Nezuko will change Zenitsu. Probably acting as the catalyst to make him more active in combat, where as before he just sort of fell asleep. Regardless, it was fun.
So all in all, how was the episode? I said it earlier, it wasn’t my favorite but it definitely wasn’t bad. I prefer more action/combat episodes, that’s just my taste. Either that or dramatic ones, with high emotions. These more calming episodes are necessary for the more emotional episodes of course. A lull in the action. But by their nature, it means I won’t be as invested in them. Still, Yaiba did good this week. Nothing big happening, but using the quiet to expand on the characters. Making me actually like and care about them. Establishing their relationships with each other. Really, that’s more than you can ask for I think. A lot of anime just do filler beach episodes and what not. Or some random encounter enemy that’s ultimately meaningless. For Yaiba to avoid both of these is a job well done I feel.
For me, this style of comedy gets grating after a while. It just seems ultra repetitive, like reiterating one aspect of the character’s personality again and again and again…. like most of Zenitu’s “comedy” is: he’s a scared cat, haha; Boardude is: he’s an uncivilized meathead. I’m not going to say it’s never funny, but you can only harp on the same points so many times. It is a bit better when they play off each other, and I think Tanjiro is a bit less one-note, but still the forced comedy generally does not land for me. On the other hand, the kind of comedy that naturally occurs in the scene or comes from the art I find more appealing (e.g. the stupid little moving head transitions were kinda funny, or some of the background stuff Boardude is doing while in the forest).
Seems we are in agreement on the comedy then. I found the comedy that was a natural result of the character or situation much better than the forced stuff. The background stuff also worked better because it was there for us to find I feel. Instead of being shoved in our face, as if there was a laugh track to accompany it.
Glad you also think they are a bit better as a trio though. I think they cover some of their worst parts when together.
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