Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

From Fanlore
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Fandom
Name: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
鬼滅の刃, Kimetsu no Yaiba (lit. "Blade of Demon Destruction")
Abbreviation(s): KnY
Creator: Koyoharu Gotouge
Date(s): Manga 2016-2020
Anime 2019-
Mugen Train film 2020
Medium: Manga, anime
Country of Origin: Japan
External Links: Official site (JP/EN)
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a popular shounen manga by Koyoharu Gotouge. In Japan, it was serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump. Viz Media is the publisher of the English translation of the manga in North America. It has also been adapted into an anime by fan favorite studio Ufotable, the first season of which aired in 2019, as well as light novels, a video game, and a stage play.

The series has achieved popularity and acclaim abroad, and it is notable for its record-breaking sales and popularity both in its native Japan.[1][2]

Canon Overview

When Tanjiro's entire family is killed by demons, except his younger sister Nezuko who is turned into a demon, the boy sets off to become a Demon Slayer and find a way to retore his sister's humanity.

Major Characters

Reception and Popularity

According to a 2020 internet poll conducted by Oricon Monitor Research, over 90% of the Japanese public is familiar with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba; 40.5% said that they were "very familiar", 57.3% said that they were "familiar with the name", indicating that 97.8% knew the existence of the series. Of the 1,558 respondents who said that they were "very familiar", 1,182 respondents "like" or "very liked" the series. To the question of "what part of the series do you like?", the series' story was the most popular aspect with 76.4% votes, followed by the setting with 49.3% and the relatability of the characters with 45.3% votes. 31% of the fans said that they owned the manga, and of the 66.1% of those fans said they owned every volume. According to multiple respondents, the series helped them treasure and connect with their families and allowed people of different generations to connect even in the workplace and beyond. The poll was responded from November 18–24 by 3,848 members of Oricon Monitor Research, ranging from people in their teens to their sixties.[3]

[...]

The series helped to increase internal tourism, with many tourists traveling to similar spots to the ones featured in the series.[4][5][6][7]

[...]

Prime minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga quoted the series at a House of Representatives Budget Committee in the National Diet in November 2020.[8][9] Some politicians in Japan used patterns and logos from the series in their campaigns in 2021.[10][11]

KnY ranked 7th in Tumblr's Year-in-Review Top Anime and Manga List in 2020. [12]

Meta and Community

It’s an action-packed series meant for preteen and teen boys and it certainly delivers on the action but the male cast, which is the majority by far, are quite a few handsome men of varying tastes, who manage to stay beautiful either when delivering major and gruesome beatdowns or being on the receiving end of one. With that, the series is very popular with female readers in Japan, resulting in most of the fan works being primarily about the handsome dudes being even more fabulous to flat out being Yaoi pieces. At the other end of the spectrum, there are beautiful female characters as well; while they're generally outnumbered by male characters, their fan works (especially Nezuko) are still quite ubiquitous. Tanjiro being a genuinely kind and emotionally mature male lead in a genre not typically known for that is also a huge draw. Then there's Nezuko, who is a great subversion of the Damsel in Distress, actively assisting her brother on his missions instead of being passive motivation for his quest. And on top of that, their relationship is genuinely one of familial love, without any Incest Subtext that plagues a lot of brother-sister stories throughout various manga genres.[13]

Fanon and Tropes

The KnY fandom is generally chummy with the fandoms of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Dororo. A common fandom AU is a Role Reversal between Tanjiro and Nezuko, where Tanjiro is turned into a demon and Nezuko becomes a demon hunter. Modern AUs are also very common in the fandom, being the second most popular Additional Tag on Archive of Our Own with 1584 uses as of April 2022. This is due to the fact that there is a canon Modern AU in the form of Kimetsu Academy, a spin-off that depicts the characters as modern Japanese high school students.

Relationships

Communities

Selected Fanworks

Fanfics

Fanart

Fanvids

Cosplay

Zines

Resources

References

  1. ^ 2020 MANGA SALES COMPARATIVE GRAPHIC. 寿 三井 @Josu_ke. Twitter. 30 November 2020. Accessed 16 September 2020. Archive link
  2. ^ Lok, B.K. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Total Manga Sales Smashes Records with Over 100 Million Sold. That Hashtag Show, online publication. 10 December 2020. Accessed 16 September 2021. Archive link
  3. ^ Morrissy, Kim (December 14, 2020). "Oricon Poll: Over 90% of Japanese Public is Familiar with Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba". Anime News Network. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  4. ^ 「聖地巡礼」も変えた鬼滅の刃　作品に出てないのにファンが〝認定〟 町おこしにつながるヒントがありました。. withnews (in Japanese). The Asahi Shimbun. December 31, 2020. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  5. ^ 観光・地域創生専攻NEWS(2020年度)-vol.5 『アニメツーリズムについての事例研究 －「鬼滅の刃」の魅力と観光への影響の考察－』 (in Japanese). Reitaku University. January 29, 2021. Archived from the original on March 17, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  6. ^ ＜サブカルＷｏｒｌｄ＞（１）鬼滅の刃　あるわあるわ、全国に「聖地」. Tokyo Web (in Japanese). Chunichi Shimbun. January 26, 2021. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  7. ^ 【鬼滅の刃と聖地巡礼】実在しない舞台、盛り上がる太宰府・宝満宮竈門神社、コラボ商品も続々ヒット！. tokusengai.com (in Japanese). Makino Publishing. October 27, 2020. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  8. ^ 菅首相「全集中の呼吸で答弁」 鬼滅の刃、ついに国会へ：朝日新聞デジタル (in Japanese). The Asahi Shimbun. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  9. ^ Morrissy, Kim (November 3, 2020). "Prime Minister Suga Quotes Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba in National Diet". Anime News Network. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  10. ^ Harding, Daryl (February 7, 2021). "Japanese Politicians Get in a Mess For Using Demon Slayer Designs on Campaign Posters". Crunchyroll. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  11. ^ Baseel, Casey. "Japanese politician piggybacks on 'Demon Slayer's' popularity by exploiting copyright loophole". Japan Today. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  12. ^ Tumblr’s Top 20 of 2020. fandom.tumblr.com. 4 December 2020. Accessed 16 September 2021. Archived link
  13. ^ https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba
Retrieved from "https://fanlore.org/w/index.php?title=Demon_Slayer:_Kimetsu_no_Yaiba&oldid=2662167"