It took me a long time to actually get around to reading Demon Slayer, even though I kept on hearing such great things about it. If you’re not familiar, then the story follows Tanjiro, who becomes a demon slayer after his family is brutally killed by a demon. Tanjiro and his younger sister Nezuko survive the attack, although Nezuko is turned into a demon in the process. Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps, going out on missions, while at the same time searches for a way to turn Nezuko back into a human.

For me, this was the perfect set up for a manga series and I was hooked from the first few chapters. The art all the way through is fantastic, and I really liked most of the characters. Tanjiro quickly shows that he has a lot of promise at being a demon slayer and he meets other demon slayers who help him along the way. Inosuke was my favourite character, he was raised by boars and wears a boar mask most of the time to hide his face. His instant reactions normally turn violent and he’s really funny.

The art style is great all the way through and the character designs are really well done. Sadly, some of the action is very manic and it’s not always clear what’s going on in the fights. I was a little lost at points and just waiting for it to slow down again. The first half of the manga is almost perfect. It’s pure Shonen fun, that’s completely entertaining. The second half is a little weaker.

I do think about half way through the Entertainment District arc the pacing becomes an issue. It feels like there’s not enough time between battles, and then the battles take too long. Saying that though, the final battle arc, which takes almost a quarter of the entire series, is epic and the final showdown with the big bad demon, Muzan, is brilliant. The ending is good, but it doesn’t quite match the brilliance of the first half.

Overall, I would recommend Demon Slayer if you haven’t read it already. It’s really fun. I do think there are better Shonen series out there, but it’s still really solid.