Category: Kimetsu no Yaiba

With this episode, Kimetsu no Yaiba has cemented this as the best arc of its run. For those that don’t want to read 1,000 words: It was great. I loved it. I’m going to gush about animation for the next 10 minutes. Let’s freakin go.

Right off the bat, be prepared for 3 paragraph or so of this, Yaiba looked phenomenal. Eat your heart out Fire Force, because you no longer have the best animated fire of the season. Now for the sake of coherency, let’s break this up into 3 sections. Pre-dance, mid dance and money shot. Pre-dance, Rui’s threads were fantastic. I loved the impact of these tiny little flashes of light, really selling the power. The best shot pre-dance for me is no doubt Rui just obliterating his “sister” and the effects behind it. This isn’t to say the rest were bad, it just had the most “weight” to it. Also managing to sell Rui’s mental issues with the scenes before and after it. His emotional distress and such. Enough about all this though, you want to talk about that. Head below the break, and we will do just that.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 19 [Hinokami]” →

Welcome all to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba! If last week was Zenitsu’s, this is Inosuke’s! As he comes to learn the value of friendship, Tanjiro meets the big bad and the Senpai’s show up to save the day. Let’s dive in!

Starting off, I wanna talk water, because damn did Yaiba’s water look good. I’m not even talking the water sword effects, as those are highly stylized. No no, the actual riverbed that was entirely CGI looked really good. From the splashes to how they layered the 2D characters and environment in with it. A lot of effort and physics simulations clearly went into getting it right just for this scene and it paid off. Really, this arc in general has looked really good. From Zenitsu to Shinobu, the butterfly woman’s entrance, to this water and the demons. Ufotable chose a really good arc to end on and pull out all the stops at, because it’s building up for a better finale than I was expecting for a long running Shounen that’s still in print. Enough vague clues though, onto details!

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 18 [A Forged Bond]” →

Welcome to Zenitsu week on Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week we get a flashback, Zenitsu goes super saiyan and we meet 3 more of the demon family. Lets jump in!

Now, I could talk about a lot of things here in production. I could mention the hit or miss CGI spiders, and how the quality varies by scene. I could talk about the comedic faces and what not. But no one cares about that. Infact, people only care about one thing in particular this week, and thats Zenitsu. Because the simple fact is that even if he hadn’t gotten a decent backstory this week, I wouldn’t care. I want Yaiba to keep him around, hell show more of him, just so Nozomu Abe can do more of what he did today. With an entire episode building up to a single cut, the man and by extension Yaiba knocked it out the park. I just… I can’t explain how beautiful this scene is. Sound, animation, pacing. Screw Tanjiro’s water effects, make this the Zenitsu show just for more lightning!

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 17 [You Must Master a Single Thing]” →

Welcome one and all to one of the more tragic episodes of Kimetsu no Yaiba. This week a Demon falls, Inosuke becomes a dating sim and Tanjiro makes googly eyes at someones mom. Let’s dive in!

Right off the bat, this week makes up for last in terms of production. Not even talking about the animation, which I enjoyed, this week Yaiba had some fantastic scenes. There were some legitimately beautiful shots, mostly near the end, but that doesn’t negate their effect. Narratively they don’t make the most sense, I have some niggling questions behind them. That Yaiba went for style over substance in some instances here. Now, considering that Yaiba is a fun Shounen romp, this isn’t a death sentence by any means. Rule of Cool has existed for decades, and it’s a rule I love. Kabaneri for instance existed on that rule. It is however the sort of thing that holds a series back. Keeping it as “good” instead of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood “Great” and “genre defining”. Still, hard to complain about getting something “good”.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 16 [Letting Someone Else Go First]” →

Another week, the start of another arc in Kimetsu no Yaiba. This week our trio start to grow, we meet some new villains and some old characters make a return. Hope your not afraid of spiders, cause we have whole host to get through. Lets go!

As far as production goes, I think this was one of Yaiba’s weakest weeks. Part of that is just that there wasn’t really any combat. There was some basic sword swinging, but no true fights. So there wasn’t anything for Yaiba to really go all in on. This isn’t to say it was bad, I still enjoy Yaiba’s artstyle. The thick black lines is right up my alley, helps make things pop and make it clear between objects. Yaiba also had some interesting CGI segments. From the first person walking through the mountain to Inosuke’s Beast Breathing. These were both interesting, thought obviously CGI, but Yaiba did a good job here I feel. CGI works well for detailed environments, its just character models that anime still seems to be lagging on. Still, enough about boring production. Lets get onto the actual story.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 15 [Mount Natagumo]” →

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.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 14 [The House with the Wisteria Family Crest]” →

Another week, another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba, though not a great one. Zenitsu gets less annoying, and the fights are fun, but the pacing is off and the narrative is questionable. That said, let’s get into some details and jump in!

Starting off, like always, production. Animation wise, Yaiba was fine. The rotating room was still great, but it wasn’t as strong as last episode. It felt like Yaiba almost got too ambitious with the whole thing. Leading to some weaker angles that didn’t work. For the most part though, Yaiba looked fine. I still quite enjoy its style, the thick black lines and heavy contrast. Reminds me of some comics. No, the big question for me was narratively, specifically the pacing of it all. Yaiba just felt really weird this week. With a few repeated scenes, or odds timings. For example, at the end, as Tanjiro just stands there for upwards of 2-3 minutes. Or basically repeating Kyogai’s backstory twice, along with his whole defeat. Yaiba has been moving at a fast pace for awhile now, and normally it works well. But it seems to be catching up with itself.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 13 [Something More Important Than Life]” →

Welcome all to what is, for me, a very conflicted episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba. Filled with fantastic animation, some well thought out fights and a character I loathe no matter how great his scenes look. Let’s dive in!

Starting off, Yaiba looked great this week. I don’t think that’s really up for contention. I have a good deal off issues with the episode, but they are all related to 2 characters in particular. Everything though was just awesome. From Zenitu’s whole lightning sequence to the rotating rooms and 3D environments. Could you tell it was CGI and that Tanjiro wasn’t really hitting the walls as cleanly as 2D animation? Yes. Was it still fantastic to see him roll around the screen with the changing environment? Seeing this well lit set spin around, all on model, as the camera sweeps through following our lead? You know it! Pessimists would point out every little thing, or whine about Ufotable’s overreliance on filters. Me? I am just gonna enjoy some well directed action scenes as Ufotable constantly tries something new in every shot. Sadly, this episode wasn’t all perfect animation fun.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 12 [The Boar Bares Its Fangs, Zenitsu Sleeps]” →

Welcome to another episode of Kimetsu no Yaiba! This week we finally meet the rest of our leading group, find a new Demon and deal with some… odd tonal issues. Lets dive in!

Starting off, Zenitsu. I have to say, whatever Yaiba is planning with him, so far I am not impressed. The man was just so incredibly… annoying. Right off the bat I am not the favorite of this cowardly archetype. Yet Yaiba did what it does and dialed him up to 11. With the entire first half just being his whiny voice ad-nauseam. Simply put, Zenitsu was way over-done at the start of the episode. Really putting me off him. It’s sad to, because there are definite hints to more around his character. With Zenitsu splitting the food Tanjiro gave him, or actually fulfilling his role as a Demon Slayer when he could run at any time. Yaiba makes it clear there is more to him. Yet because of the opening 11 minutes, both his character and the episode as a whole, suffer.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 11 [Tsuzumi Mansion]” →

Welcome to another week of Kimetsu no Yaiba, where we finish up another little arc. This time we get a lot of monologues and some brutal deaths closed out by some wholesome Nezuko. Let’s dive in!

Like always, Yaiba looked nice this week. Some may complain about CGI and such, but I think Yaiba is pulling it off quite well. It’s still obvious but Ufotable is leaning into it. In particular I enjoy the smoke effects and such, they work without being to campy. However Yaiba’s big problem this week in my opinion were the monologues. They really hurt the pacing, cutting between moments of action. Combined with last week, it feels to me like they could have combined most of the two into one. Cutting out a lot of the spurious dialogue for the same net result. Because what surrounds it is good fun mostly, I can look past it for the most part. However it does show that Yaiba isn’t free of all the usual Shounen tropes. That said, onto the contentious meat of the episode.

Continue reading “Kimetsu no Yaiba – 10 [Together Forever]” →