Greg Shannon, Staff

Header Image: Aniplex of America

Season two of “Demon Slayer” is also referred to as “Demon Slayer: Entertainment District.”

In 2022, it’s almost impossible to not find a new anime to try since every season it seems like there are at least 50 new ones coming out. With so much content being produced, it’s hard for something to gain popularity, let alone be greenlit for multiple seasons. However, if there’s one new-gen anime that’s proven it’s here to stay, it’s “Demon Slayer.” After an impressive first season that broke the internet, garnering notable reactions from the likes of popular streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins and Panic! at the Disco’s Brendon Urie, as well as a movie that is now ranked as the highest-grossing anime movie of all time, they got right to work on making the second season. The second season debuted in 2021 and just finished up on Feb. 13, 2022.Here are my thoughts on the most recent season of “Demon Slayer.”

To start off, I like that they give a lot of screen time to the secondary characters this time around. In the first season, they focus mostly on the main character, Tanjiro, obviously since he is the protagonist. In the movie based on the series they give some shine to other characters, but still most of the focus is on Tanjiro. However, this time Zenitsu, Inosuke and Tengen, the cast of side characters in the show,all get a lot of time to shine and it really builds on their characters. Even the two big bad villains get a good amount of screen time and a backstory episode that really gives us a chance to appreciate and care about them a bit more. 

I can’t tell you the amount of fun I had watching them get so much screen time and play such a pivotal role in this part of the show. Almost every scene that had my favorite side character, Insokue, in it, had me out of my seat cheering for him.  Now when it comes to the supporting character Tengen the shinobi, there was honestly so much that grew on me. I tried my hardest not to get attached to him because he died, but they made it so hard to hate him. Everything about this guy is just cool- he’s a ninja, is referred to as the god of festivals, had some of the cleanest animation, and did I mention that this guy is really f**king cool. 

Then, there’s the animation quality. If there’s any selling point for “Demon Slayer” it’s that the animation quality is always phenomenal. Thanks to the help of an increased budget from the success of the movie and first season, the animation for this season was turned up even more than the last. This can especially be seen from episodes five and onward. This is where all of the big action scenes really start to kick in and my god is it beautiful. Every fighting technique, every slash-cut, etc., was just beautiful. When you look at how well-animated the episodes, like “Never Give Up” are, it’s clear to see why it’s so beloved by fans of the series. 

This season of “Demon Slayer” really showed just how much potential this series has. With the show hitting the halfway point, one could only imagine how much better the second half of this show will be. The main antagonist was still extremely menacing while only getting a little bit of screen time, the demon for this season had some extremely creative abilities and the protagonist got a lot of development  as well. If you haven’t seen this season or this show please give it a watch. It truly is one of the stand out anime of the newer generation. I give this season a solid 8.5 out of 10.