Back in the old days, when I eagerly watched five or six new anime series every season, if I heard of a new series that sounded promising I would watch the first three episodes. I found that the first three were usually a good indicator of whether it was for me or not.
These days I don’t have the time to watch a number of anime series, and I must be honest here - not many of them appeal to me that much. Maybe after sixteen years of being a fan, the repetitiveness of some plots and character types is finally sinking in for me (lol).
I thought that I should watch at least one of the major series that has come out in the past few years, if only to keep up with what’s popular now. I just have enough spare time to watch one series, though.
So I chose two wildly successful recent shonen series, watched the first three episodes of each and then made my choice.
I don’t keep up with new anime as much as I did before, but I would’ve had to have been hiding in a hole not to notice Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) and its insane popularity. The Demon Slayer movie, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Mugen Train, grossed $313 million in Japanese theaters in December 2020, breaking Spirited Away’s record and becoming Japan’s highest-grossing film of all time. The manga was also the best-selling manga series in Japan in the same year.
So what’s Demon Slayer about?
In what appears to be the late Edo period, a teenage boy named Tanjirou supports his widowed mother and young siblings by selling charcoal. One night, after being warned about flesh-eating demons in the woods, he reluctantly spends the night elsewhere, intending to return home in the morning.
The next morning, he comes home and finds his entire family has been slaughtered by the demons - except for his sister Nezuko, who has been bitten by a demon (or who otherwise somehow got exposed to demon blood... I didn’t catch how it happened) and who has now turned into a demon herself.
Tanjirou is accepted into a group of humans who fight demons - the Demon Slayer Corps. While Nezuko lies in a comatose state, he begins his training to become a demon slayer with the intention of returning his sister to being human.
And... about as far from Demon Slayer as you can get in terms of tone and mood... there’s My Hero Academia. ;-)
Izuku Midoriya (later called Deku) is a middle-school student in an alternate universe modern-day Japan in which the majority of the population is born with “quirks.” A quirk is an ability that is basically a superpower of some sort, like breathing fire or manipulating objects. So Japan is filled with superheroes who rescue people night and day from crimes and disasters.
Izuku worships superheroes, especially All Might, a ridiculously overmuscled, overpowered Superman type of superhero, as he waits for his own quirk to make itself known. But one day the doctor has some very bad news for him. Izuku is unfortunately one of the minority of people who was born without a quirk, and so he is destined to be one of the rescued in life and not the rescuer.
He almost gives in to despair until a chance meeting with All Might himself, during which Izuku discovers that the biggest superhero has a weakness. He was gravely injured in the past and can only sustain his superpowered self for limited periods of time.
After watching Izuku attempt to rescue someone - Bakugou, a former friend who later turned to bullying Izuku for some as yet unrevealed reason - from the clutches of a monster, despite having no quirk and thus facing certain death... All Might reveals something more. His quirk is unique in that he’s able to pass it on to someone else. And he’s chosen Izuku with his big heart and courage to receive his superpower.
Basically, Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia are like apples and oranges. They’re too different to compare fairly.
Demon Slayer reminds me of my early fascination with Edo-period samurai anime when I first became an anime fan. Being at that time ignorant of my ancestors’ culture and history, the whole setting of that time period entranced me. Interestingly, in the first episode we see power poles. I don’t know when electricity came to Japan, but I imagine this would place the story sometime in the Meiji era. Of course, it’s an AU Japan setting, so who knows, but it surprised me because otherwise it appeared to be set much earlier than that.
My Hero Academia was recommended to me by a friend, so it had the edge from the outset. Again, to try and compare it with Demon Slayer is almost nonsensical because they’re so different. While they’re both alternate-universe Japan stories, one has that wonderful samurai period feel and aesthetic while the other is modern and comedic.
Both series - I think it’s fair to call them franchises at this point - are wildly successful with the anime audience. At this point, after three episodes, while I liked both, honestly neither feels like an immediate must-see to me. The two protagonists are very likable and the story universes are engaging enough that I can see why both series are popular. And maybe three episodes really isn’t a fair trial, especially for Demon Slayer, which looks like it’s going to take some time with its exposition.
The one I chose is... My Hero Academia. It’s fun and moves fast, and with my schedule I could use a show that feels lighter and has more comedy in it.
But Demon Slayer is definitely on my to-watch list, for that possibly mythical future someday when I have more free time in my life for leisure pursuits again. ;-)
