Tag Archives: Demon Slayer

My Brief Thoughts on the 2023 Crunchyroll Anime Awards

March 5, 2023 Jack Scheibelein 2 Comments

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

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Whether bringing together people in community or mockery, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards have been a pillar of the community since their inception back in 2016. The now infamous award show often has some…controversial takes in their various categories. These often involve a very obviously popular show winning big swaths of categories without much rhyme or reason.

Of course, this is particular problem is not unique to the anime awards. The same can be said of the Oscars, Grammys, as well as various other awards shows. This is because many of these show thrive off of big ad campaigns and sometimes even direct donations to judges. Thus, the integrity of award shows has always been a bit of a mute point. Still, it is fun to look and see where the majority opinion for X group has landed, So, here are some of my takes on the Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

The Triforce of Anime Awards

I mentioned above that Crunchyroll Awards tend to get dominated by a few shows, and this year was no exception. Attack on Titan, Spy x Family, and Demon Slayer‘s second season dominated the categories and brought home the vast majority of awards. Jujutsu Kaisen, along with a few other scattered series, took the remaining spots.

Normally this would be the part where I talk about how undeserved most of these wins are, except…well, here’s the thing. First, I do not have the technical knowledge to say for sure whether or not the big winners actually deserved their wins or not. Second, I actually do think they deserve a good amount of representation. Attack on Titan and Spy x Family were genuinely good, and season two of Demon Slayer was fairly well received.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners Deserves Anime of the Year

2022 was an insane year for anime, and will likely go down among the best in term of high quality. Unfortunately, some of the bigger contenders from fall, primarily Chainsaw Man and Bocchi the Rock, were left out of the running due to the award’s strange rule change. Still, even out of the remaining series, there are a lot of greatness. However, despite that fact, Cyberpunk Edgerunners still feels like an appropriate choice

Not only is the series incredibly produced, from the animation and direction to the wonderful sounding soundtrack, it is a show that feels incredibly relevant in its story and messaging. David Martinez is ultimately forced down a bath of no return because his environment left him with no other choice, detailing a capitalist hellscape that seems less fantasy and more reality with each passing day. So yeah, for my money, it feels like a good pick.

Kaguya-sama Where?

As a totally unbiased and reasonable commentator-

No, but seriously, aside from my own personal enjoyment of the series, Kaguya always seemed like the type of show that other critics and judges would eat up. After all, despite being a rom-com, it has the more cerebral elements that make people feel smart when they get the joke, and manages to balance that with some genuinely down to earth and relatable characters. Yet, it only won in the romance category.

Part of this, I think, comes from the noticeable absence of previous categories like Best Boy/Girl, which felt more biased towards those cuter, more relatable characters which rom-coms, and Kaguya-sama especially, do really well. Looking at the categories for this year, I could see it having won the Japanese voice performances had it been nominated, but realistically, outside of that, not much else. Well, that and Best Comedy, but honestly Spy X Family does legit deserve that one as well, so I cannot really be mad.

How did you all feel about the Crunchyroll Anime Awards? Let me know in the comments below.

If you are interested in reading more from me, check under blog to read my most recent stuff, or look below for some related posts. Also, if you would like to support Animated Observations, consider donating on Ko-fi or through paypal, or pledging on Patreon. You can even support by just liking and sharing this post.

As always, special thanks to Jenn for the support on Patreon.

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

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Anime/Manga, Opinion

A Comprehensive List of What I (Might) Watch for the Winter 2022 Anime Season

December 15, 2021 Jack Scheibelein Leave a comment

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

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The Winter 2022 season is basically here, and thus it is time to look over the seasonal offerings and find out what will be worth watching. Compared to the last year of anime, which has honestly been one of the most stacked years in recent memory, this Winter is looking kind of dull in comparison. Still, that does not mean there are not a few fun things to look forward to.

Demons Slayer Season 2

Getting the obvious one out of the way, yes I will more than likely be watching Demon Slayer‘s second season. What can I say? Though its first season was not a masterpiece, it was still highly entertaining with enough story to keep me interested in its high-impact action sequences. I do not actively keep myself updated on the arcs themselves, but I have already seen quite a few memes about the episodes that are out, and it does look to be just as exciting as what preceded it.

My Dress-Up Darling

I wish I could credit the specific user whose video introduced this series to me, but unfortunately, I did not save the video. Still, shout-out to manga Tik-Tok, they are doing a lot of great work. As soon as I saw that video, I knew I was going to be hyped about this series. Does it look like a typical seasonal romance anime? Yes, but it feels like the romance anime that have been adapted recently are coming from a newer, more real strain of writing that does away with the will-they, won’t-they nonsense and gets to the heart of what makes a good romance. Now, I could still be wrong, but My Dress-Up Darling has the potential to be absolutely fantastic.

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In the Land of Leadale

I am almost never hyped about Isekai series in the same way I am about other shows, but I am certainly interested in In the Land of Leadale. Most Isekai series released nowadays tend to get told from the perspective of a male main character, so I usually find it of interest when that is not the case. This is not to say that having a female main character inherently makes a story more interesting, only that it provides a different change of pace. So, yeah, while I do not expect much from this series, I am hoping it will at least provide a unique perspective.

That, my friends, is the list. What? I said it would be comprehensive, I never said it would be long. The reality is, while new shows are always exciting my backlog is inevitably getting longer and longer, and I have yet to make a dent in it. Thus, as part of my new year’s resolution, I will be trying to strike a balance between covering new things and re-visiting old series.

What are you watching this season? Let me know in the comments below.

Special thank you to Jenn for continuing to support us on Patreon. It means the world!

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

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Anime/Manga, Observation Deck

Final Thoughts: Demon Slayer Movie Mugen Train

May 12, 2021 Jack Scheibelein 1 Comment

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

I apologize again for the uncharacteristic break in content, this semester just ended up being incredibly stressful for no reason. On the bright side though, we’re almost at 400 followers on WordPress! That is absolutely insane and I just want to thank everyone whose followed me up until this point, especially those in the last month or so. With that being said, man the “Demon Slayer” movie was really good, huh?

I know I am extremely late to the party, but it really only became safe to actually go and watch the film in theaters where I live recently, and I had a lot of other priorities in the mean time. However, I managed to catch it with a couple of friends, and after watching it in the original Japanese, here are my final thoughts.

The Animation is Great…duh

I talk often about how my approach to criticism is trying to go into any piece of media with fairly neutral expectations, if any at all, because I feel as though things should be judged on individual. With that being said, I would have been quite surprised to find out that the animation ended up being subpar. One, because its UFOTABLE, and two, because movies generally tend to have a higher overall production value than TV anime.

Luckily, though, those higher than usually expectations were met and exceeded over the course of the film. Not only do the action scenes stand out as being incredibly expressive, but the slower moments are handled with care as well. One scene in particular that represents this fairly well is the part where Tanjiro begins to realize he is in a dream, and his clothes become surrounded by flames as his demon slayer costume comes back. While their isn’t much action here, the flames create a sense of realization and urgency, both in Tanjiro and the dream versions of his younger siblings, that feels both powerful and also frightening.

The Story Continues

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While I have yet to read the “Demon Slayer” manga, this film definitely feels like it did the arc justice in a narrative sense. One of the things that I really enjoyed is that the movie really put a pretty big emphasis on Rengoku, who was left as being a kind of looming figure at the end of the first season. Admittedly, he did come off as being kind of annoying in the first 15 minutes or so (certainly and interesting directorial choice). Ultimately, though, I would say that he was one of the best parts of the film. His backstory was definitely sad in a way that I think is relatable to a lot of people. Not to mention, his fight with Akaza was raw as hell.

A lot of the film also focused dreams and looking back to the past, which I think makes sense given where “Demon Slayer” is at in its storyline, as far as the anime goes anyway. Mugen, whose power gives him the ability to control people’s dreams, buts Rengoku, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke. For Tanjiro, of course, this is cathartic, given what happens to him at the very beginning of the series. Rengoku is forced to live out the rejection of his father when it comes to becoming a Hashira.

As weird as it might sound, the only thing I did not like about this part of the film was Zenitsu and Inosuke’s dreams. Look, I get it, they are supposed to be the comic relief, so it make sense to use their dreams to alleviate some of the heaviness coming from the other two. Still, it feels like there was a real opportunity to grow them as characters. After all, they spent the first 30 minutes of the movie acting like idiots.

Mugen

I don’t know if this is entirely fair to say, but as far as villains go, Mugen felt…meh. Like, the whole fusing with the train things was cool and all, and the action scenes that resulted from it were some of the best in the series, no doubt. Still, I feel like his motivation is a little underwhelming. Given that his options were “succeed in killing the demon slayers” or “die,” I guess it kind of makes sense.

Conclusion

Most importantly, I do not want people to come away from this post with the impression that I think the movie is bad, far from it. In fact, I would be willing to say that it is among the best anime films to come out in the last few years. Absolutely, 100%, no question. However, I do think there were some odd choices as far as story and character writing goes, and a few things that could have been cleaned up to make the film that much better. Also, next time can we maybe not concentrate all of the screaming at the very beginning and end of the film. It got really annoying really fast.

Regardless, fans of “Demon Slayer” who have yet to see it should absolutely do so.

How did you all feel about the movie? Let me know in the comments.

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

Anime/Manga, Observation Deck

Final Thoughts: Demon Slayer

December 6, 2019 Jack Scheibelein 1 Comment

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

One of the reasons I stopped watching seasonal anime, aside from an increasingly busy schedule, is because following all of what is popular all of the time is kind of a chore. This is not some hipster statement meant solely to ridicule what is popular, but it is to say that only following something because other people are can shift a person’s perspective on that anime. Demon Slayer is a show that, had I been watching it week by week, I probably would have enjoyed a lot more than I did. This is not to say that the show is bad, but rather that some parts of it could have been executed differently. Here are my Final Thoughts.

UFOTABLE: Busted!

It is hard to argue that Studio Ufotable has a bad track record when it comes to animation. After all, they have the Fate/ series, along with other projects like Garden of Sinners, under their belt. Now, most recently, they have Demon Slayer, the animation of which is indeed a cut above most of the other shows that aired this year. Not only do the more static moments of the shows still look good, but the action scenes show a level of care and quality found rarely outside of studios like Ufotable.

One of the best examples of this comes near the end of the series, in the fight between Tanjiro and Rui, where Tanjiro almost manages to beat Rui by himself. Not only does the this scene in particular have an incredibly unique color pallet, the movement of the animation is on par with the rest of Ufotable’s best.

A Fun Supporting Cast

Anime like Demon Slayer rarely ever work without a fun supporting cast backing up the main character, and even then sometimes they still do not. Luckily though, Demon Slayer’s supporting cast is pretty great. Zenitsu, while occasionally being pretty annoying and distracting, brings a lot to the table as a comedic relief. Zenitsu also has a lot of potential as a character, in that his backstory is one of most interesting out of all of the characters in the show so far. Inosuke, too, is a great character. While not as interesting as Zenitsu, he still shines through as unique, in that he does not think to much but still responds to Tanjiro with a level of respect that almost crosses him over into Tsundere territory.

Tamayo, the demon doctor who appears near the beginning of the series, is also pretty compelling. She serves as Tanjiro’s first bit of new evidence that not all demons are bad, and that there are those who are even willing to help those in the human world, as she was once a demon herself.

Tanjiro and Nezuko

My biggest gripe with the series as a whole really comes down to Tanjiro as a main character. While certainly a lot better than other protagonists, his development over the series leaves a lot to be desired.

At the beginning of the series, the show gives us Tanjiro’s origin story. He leaves home for a day only to return to his family slaughtered and his sister turned into a demon. However, Tanjiro’s single-minded focus on revenge for his sister becomes a bit boring after a while, as it feels like that is one of his only character traits. It is not until Zenitsu and Inosuke are introduced a little later on that it feels like their is a significant change of pace in the story.

Nezuko falls into a similar boat. While admittedly cute, she does not do a whole lot outside of acting as the catalyst for Tanjiro’s journey to become a Demon Slayer. It is not often she contributes to the story outside of being Tanjiro’s sister who was turned into a demon.

Conclusion

I do not think it can be said that Demon Slayer is bad, because it is not. It has a lot of great moments, a ton of stellar animation, and enough in main story that makes it worth sticking around. However, part of me still feels like there is a lot more to learn about both Tanjiro and Nezuko and I hope more of that comes out as the series progresses.

How do you all feel about Demon Slayer? Let me know in the comments below.

Also, if you would like to support Animated Observations, consider donating on Ko-fi or through paypal. You can even support by just liking and sharing this post.

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friendos!