Category: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Welcome to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba everyone! This week Nezuko discovers the power of family, Uzui shows us why he is the God of Festivals and we meet the true villain of the arc. Sound fun? Good. Then without further ado lets dive in!

Starting off I need to, as usual, praise Yaiba for looking good this week. Not just in the animation this time, though the blood blades, lighting and 3D camera work all looked good. Rather I want to praise it for something a lot of anime seem to ignore: Shot composition. There were some really good ones this week! I’m talking stuff like Daki sitting passively behind Uzui, always in the background after his entrance. Or the framing of her brother as he appears out of her back and takes up the whole frame. Uzui and the way he is suspended in the air while dodging blades and tossing out bombs. Yaiba usually looks good in movement, that’s what its known for. But I’m glad to see these slower, wider, epic shots like what we saw with the spider family last season make a return. They are the truly memorable ones.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 14 [Transformation]” →

Welcome back everyone! Apologies for missing last week, I didn’t have much to say and combined with the new year just put it off until now. Is that lazy? Yes. But this is a hobby so I do what I want! That said, this week and episode 13 were pretty eventful. So lets dive in and talk about those.

First, we have a lot to talk about regarding the production of these last two episodes. Had this post just been about episode 12, I wouldn’t be very positive. The CGI models, and their compositing with the backgrounds and other 2D characters, is starting to become very noticeable here. It isn’t a massive drain on the enjoyment but sometimes I’ll see a scene and think “Oh yeah, that stands out”. But it seems that is only because Yaiba was saving a lot of its best for episode 13. Like seriously, just look at this cut by Nozomu Abe after the break. Do the CGI cloth strips stand out? Yes. Do the fire effects and Tanjiro’s quick movements look so good that I honestly don’t care about the clothing? Also yes. And that’s basically the entire episode in a nutshell. Highs so good they make me not care about the lows.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 12/13 [Things Are Gonna Get Real Flashy!!/Layered Memories]” →

Welcome back everyone to a special double feature of Kimetsu no Yaiba! Apologies for missing last week, I caught the Covid and surprise surprise, it fucks you up pretty bad. I’m back now though, feeling fine and ready to talk about some demons! So without further ado lets dive in.

Starting off like we usually do, lets talk visuals. This should come as no surprise but, by and large, Kimetsu no Yaiba still looks good! The entertainment district still makes great use of Yaiba’s lighting and bright colors. Sure the CGI can still be off in a few places, mostly the wide shots with full-body models. But for every shitty one of those we get a first person sequence through a house, so its cool. The only real complaint I have is with last weeks episode which felt like it cut a tad to much. We were switching scenes all over the place, constantly cutting between characters and shifting the tension. Yaiba had to tell 3 different character experiences, I get that. But maybe just… let them linger a bit longer rather than constantly jumping, yeah? Otherwise though, looked good!

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 10/11 [What Are You?/Tonight]” →

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! Last week kicked off our new content but this week is what sold me on it. I have a lot of positive things to say so lets jump right in.

First the obvious: Kimetsu no Yaiba look good. I normally have a lot to say about Ufotable’s dependency on post-processing and after-effects, not all of it positive. They actually really over due it at times if I’m being frank. Just look at some of the recent Heaven’s Feel movies. But that very same love of after-effects and lighting lends itself really well to the nightlife of the entertainment district. The glow of the lanterns contrasting with the night sky, the colorful yukata, makeup and accessories everyone is wearing. I think it’s really nice, a veritable treat after the CGI tentacle fest of the last arc where the only light came from the train! That the entire arc is going to take place here is exciting and I’m looking forward to whatever bombastic fight they have planned.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 9 [Infiltrating the Entertainment District]” →

It’s here, it’s here, the next Kimetsu no Yaiba arc has arrived! Finally some new content. Sorry this took so long, I’ve had to tear myself away from Final Fantasy 14’s new expansion to get this out. Enough about fantastic RPGs though lets talk demons!

First up the obvious: This is a double feature! And it really didn’t have to be! Now to be fair, had this season started with this episode then I could see the argument. The movie released over a year ago and it’s been awhile, a small refresher to get us back into the mood is warranted. So I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt to Ufotable that they originally planned for that to be the case. But sadly it isn’t. Instead we got the entire movie in TV format, yes I know MAL and Anilist have it as separate entries and its stupid because the first episode is original content, for the first half of the season. So we’re already caught up. We don’t need a lot of this and the episode probably could have been condensed. That said? I did like some of the original content.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 8 [Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui]” →

We’ve done it everyone! We’re finally done with Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Train TV extended edition! Do you know what that means? That next week we finally get some new content! Before that though I need to do my due diligence and finish up this arc. So without further ado lets dive in!

Starting off: This episode should have been a double feature, merged with last weeks. Why? Well I’m going to use the P-word everyone probably hates, and I promise this is the last time but with Mugen Train ending I have to, pacing. This episode once again suffers from being cut into a weekly schedule. Its content, this long sustained fight, was not designed for a weeks break in-between. Like… I enjoyed this fight! Rengoku is great and once you get into the swing of things the hype is real! But because of the week long break, every episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba starts cold. We have to be re-introduced, re-heated, before we can really get into the fight and I think this episode is one of the clearest examples of that. Surely this isn’t just a me thing right? I’m not alone in how sudden the opening feels… right?

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 7 [Set Your Heart Ablaze]” →

I’m back from New York City everyone! That was a fun trip. Got to see the city, hang out with some friends, go to a weeb convention and spend way to much money on food. Even got to see Pompo the Cinephile! Alright movie. But that isn’t what you’re here for, oh no. You want some Kimetsu no Yaiba! So lets dive into last weeks episode that I’m many days late on.

This was always my favorite part of the Yaiba movie. It has issues, especially in the TV format which we will talk about. But at it’s core this section is just unadulterated hype. It’s one big fight that they poured their everything into. From big fire and wind effects to flashy lighting and large CGI environments, this is everything Yaiba is good at. And we are only half way done with the fight! There are some issues, sure. The camera gets a little wild and Ufotable completely ignore the 180 degree rule making it a bit of a mess to follow. On top of that the CGI fire lion was a bit to much if you ask me. These are both relatively small complains though and by and large I think this scene shows us what Yaiba does best: Set piece battles.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 6 [Akaza]” →

Welcome everyone to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week is going to be a bit of a shorter post, we don’t have to much to talk about. I’ll do my best to cover everything that’s important though so lets dive into it!

Starting off, animation! And like usual Kimetsu no Yaiba fares pretty well here. I especially like the elemental effects. These things continue to be gorgeous, I absolutely love the Ukiyo-e style water and fire effects. The thick, contrasting lines of white and black within these bright colors sets them apart from everything else. And because of how heavily saturated the colors are I find myself not caring about the lack of detail such as shading or how they are composited. Maybe its just my love for heavy blacks, but I think it looks really good and reminds me of cel-shaded animation and games graphics. And on top of all of that the 3D camera work is actually really solid! At least… as long as you ignore the poop tentacles. Yes, you read that right. Poop tentacles. And they look just as ugly as they sound.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 5 [Move Forward!]” →

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! We had a bit of a break there, partly for the show and partly for me, but thats fine more time for Ufotable to work on the second half. Or maybe… maybe even to work on this half. Because if my suspicions are correct, this isn’t just a reprint of the movie. Not entirely at least. Lets dive in and talk about it!

Starting off, if I didn’t know any better I would say there were some new cuts in this episode. Stuff that wasn’t in the movie! Really Kimetsu no Yaiba? You’re going to spoil me? And indeed, going by this post from reddit user “eitherism” there was a good bit added. From the falling scene with the young man in Tanjiro’s dream to making his suicide a bit bloodier as well as moving some stuff around to better fit these new scenes. Of course not all of it is great. Yaiba is still cutting out the occasional character or exposition scene it seems and causing some continuity issues. But ignoring what are admittedly very small issues, Yaiba has added more than it took out. As someone who expected this to be nothing more than the movie cut up and re-aired, that’s kind of impressive.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 4 [Insult]” →

Welcome everyone to episode 3 of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week we continue our rewatch of the movie in the long wait until December for new content. So without further ado lets dive in!

This week lets skip the production talk. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it, this is a movie, it looks good. I’ve also already mentioned the pacing issues. So instead lets go right to the crux of the episode: Dreams. I mentioned last week that this was a pretty clever way to explore the characters, and I stand by that. However that’s only true if Kimetsu no Yaiba chooses to engage those characters in that way. And sadly half our cast don’t get that kind of treatment. Both Inosuke and Zenitsu seem to have been relegated to comic relief in this arc and I think that’s a shame. This was the perfect opportunity to expand on both of their characters but Inosuke especially. The guy never talks about himself, he doesn’t really share his personal feelings, and the dream was the perfect opportunity to get around that. It’s a missed opportunity if you ask me.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba S2 – 3 [Should Have Been]” →