Warning: Revealing the contents of Season 1 of Demon Slayer: Blacksmith’s Village: Not a lot of series opens the season with the protagonist in a coma, but demon slayer not most sets. In fact, this huge difference in approach is a key factor in what makes Demon Slayer always feel fresh and unique in modern anime.
Season 3 of Demon Slayer begins with Tanjiro in a coma – in fact, he was in a coma for two months before waking up. Tanjiro isn’t the only one either; It is also revealed that Inosuke has been hospitalized for almost as long, only waking up a week before Tanjiro. The injuries the two suffered during the fight at the climax of the Amusement Park are pretty serious, but instead of dismissing those wounds and moving on with the story, the Demon Slayer actually takes the time to point out. Consequences of being a hero. As it turns out, fighting demons with superhuman strength can actually affect one’s body.
Demon Slayer’s brutal battles have even more brutal consequences
In many shounen films, it is common to see the main character simply overcome any wounds they have suffered. Think about every time Bleach’s Ichigo gets stabbed, or how often My Hero Academia’s Deku breaks a bone. While some series deal with the long-term effects of these injuries better than others, the fact of the matter is that essentially no shounen anime treats these injuries as seriously as they should be. see in real life. In the case of the two aforementioned series, the problem is alleviated somewhat by the abundance of magical powers in their world, allowing for superhuman healing. However, no such thing exists in Demon Slayer. Every brutal blow Tanjiro takes in Demon Hunter is a wound that he will have to heal in the traditional way, and that means taking time for it to heal properly. When he doesn’t, the wounds will hinder his ability to fight, making him more likely to sustain serious injuries and these injuries can develop into long-term problems when they are not treated.
While the added dose of realism is certainly appreciated, there are other benefits to this approach. Instead of switching from one battle to another quickly, the need to recover from these injuries forces the Demon Slayer to take time to blow off steam between epic bouts. This allows for character moments, interactions, and self-reflection, all of which provide much more insight into who Tanjiro and the others are, and why they are willing to suffer so much to fight the demons. Each time, it forces the heroes to reconsider whether they want to keep fighting—and deciding to do so is exactly what makes Tanjiro a hero.
While this isn’t the first example in Demon Slayer, it’s a good reminder that being a hero isn’t an easy road. Tanjiro’s struggles to do the right thing are what made him so loved by the audience, not an unrealistically perfect performance in battle or victory after easy victory. easy. Other shounen series would do just fine to take a page from demon slayertheir books and treat their heroes’ wounds with the severity they deserve.
