Spring 2023 Impressions: Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc, Rokudo’s Bad Girls, World Dai Star

Demon Slayer: Swordsmith Village Arc

Short Synopsis: Tanjiro wakes up from a coma after the events of the last season, and heads to Swordsmith Village to get his sword repaired.

Lenlo: Let’s be honest here, this is Kimetsu no Yaiba, you know what you’re in for. Mediocre and ill thought out comedy, some cool fights, the occasional poignant story beat that hits far harder than it deserves to but never really lasts into something masterful. Even just this episode was a great microcosm of that experience. The ecchi humor surrounding Kanroji, as well as a lot of the Inosuke/Zenitsu jokes, just don’t land. They never have and at this point we just need to accept it as part of Yaiba’s style of humor. Yet on the flip side we also got some cool interactions between our villains, showing us how different they are, as well as an introduction to this mysterious swordsman, and all of that seems pretty cool. And as for cool fights? Well the entire Infinity Castle sequence was pretty awesome. Way over done in places, Yaiba needs to figure out that sometimes less is more and we don’t need the zoom/dynamic flying camera shot closeups of a dude sitting at a table. It was just a bit distracting, despite the otherwise cool parts of the sequence. I honestly think that if Yaiba could learn the meaning of the word restraint, it would really help the show. But this is Yaiba. We both know what we are in for. Personally? I’m going to have fun with flashy lights and pretty animation. And if it manages to give me more, then I will be pleasantly surprised.
Potential: 60%

Mario: My personal attachment to Kimetsu no Yaiba in general is pretty much in the middle. I find the production impressive and the narrative lacking, especially its “scream until it’s funny” humor which frequently puts me off. That being said, this double-length episode does a decent job of establishing the new setting and introducing new sets of woeful enemies. The episode takes its time setting everything up, which I appreciate. It allows the characters, especially Tanjiro, time to breathe and it provides a great opportunity for the show to focus instead on the swordsmith village’s background. This also means that there are more comic-relief moments than usual, however, which do nothing for me. We are going down the list of Upper Ranks now, with number 4 and 5 serving as the main bosses this time. I certainly expect spectacular battles down the line here, but on a side note let me just say it’s not a smart tactic of grand boss Muzan to kill his Lower Ranks (back in Mugen Train arc) and shrink his own manpower as a result. Just look at the sad number of devotees who show up at the Infinity Castle.
Potential: 40%

Rokudo’s Bad Girls

Short Synopsis: A high school loser becomes irresistible to delinquent girls after inheriting a mystical scroll from his grandpa.

Wooper: Did Rokudo’s Bad Girls get unstuck in time or something? Its plot, which concerns a boy who attracts women via supernatural means, feels like something out of an 80s OVA, with a script that establishes its ‘20th century fantasy for sexually frustrated teenagers’ vibe with gems like, “If you didn’t want me to look at your thighs, you should have worn a longer skirt!” The show’s sense of style is even more dated, with the main female character Himawari embodying sukeban fashion from the 70s, when girl gangs wore long skirts to combat the rising hemlines ushered in by the sexual revolution. Himawari wears a frightening amount of mascara (as do all the other girls in the show), and she also kicks a frightening amount of ass, brutalizing adults around town solely to blow off steam. She’d never lay a finger on Rokudo, though – in fact, she lets herself get beaten up after he commands her not to fight, because she’s just that hungry for his Rokudick. Honestly, I sort of enjoyed watching this premiere, since it just got more and more insane as it went on, and the character designs were so far removed from anything I’ve seen recently that it felt like a fresh experience. It’s not campy enough to watch the whole thing solo, but if you’ve got a group of friends who love to get together and shit on bad anime, this show should be prime fodder for hours of nonstop mockery.
Potential: 100% trash

Lenlo: Wooper hit the nail on the head here, there isn’t much more to say.. I feel like Rokudo transported me back in time, and not necessarily in a good way. The plot really is just “Bullied kid gets mind control powers over delinquent women”. Though unlike Wooper I didn’t end up enjoying my time spent watching it. It was fresh, sure, but fresh doesn’t necessarily mean “good” in my book.
Potential: I want a delinquent girl to beat me up/10

World Dai Star

Short Synopsis: A high school girl auditions for a theater troupe in a world where actors are idolized (what a concept!).

Mario: It’s the twist right at the end that bumps this up to 20% for me. Our main girl Kokona’s quest to become a top theatrical actress is something we see too often at this point. While I enjoy the world of theater, I’m certain that it won’t be another Revue Starlight where they do anything exceptional for the genre…that was what I thought until the final reveal that recontextualizes what comes before for the better. Now, there’s something going on within our main girl’s mind that makes her the perfect candidate for acting. Will this twist work more than once? I don’t think so but at least I can congratulate it for striking me when I was least expecting it.
Potential: 20%

Wooper: The twist that my co-writer referenced above went over my head at first – it was only after he pointed it out and I rewatched the final 60 seconds of the episode that I understood what the show was implying about Kokona, its main character. For honesty’s sake, I thought I should acknowledge that failure before delivering the following message: World Dai Star’s first episode was very boring. There was a bunch of table-setting narration at the start about an acting bug having swept the world (as though ‘actor’ wasn’t already a dream job for millions of people in real life), and of course our heroine wants to be the greatest actor of them all. She and the other two main characters were instantly forgettable: genki girl, possessive best friend, snooty foreigner. The one noteworthy thing about this episode was the sheer number of frames it put into its acting scenes, highlighting subtle movements in a way that, ironically, made them blatantly obvious. These scenes didn’t exactly achieve their intended effect, but at least the show tried something cool, and maybe provided some good practice for a rookie inbetweener or two in the process. Other than that, this premiere was a World Dai Snore.
Potential: 10%