Hi, I generally lurk this thread but took a particular interest in the current discussion since KnY is one of my favourite series in Jump alongside Act-Age. But in regards to claiming KnY is some mediocre, bare bones story about a boy trying to turn his demon sister back into a human that is only selling as well as it is because of the animation of Ufotable is really disparaging to Gotouge and her work.
If you read something with surface level, shallow attention to what's happening, then you'll surprisingly enough, come away with a surface level and shallow interpretation of it. Totally missing how KnY looks at issues in society and with human nature. Instead of realising how the story is about a quest for humanity and love in a cruel world that seemingly has none and the struggles of corruption people can face in different forms, one can instead come away with the basic interpretation that the story is simply about a boy trying to cure his demon sister and beat a big bad demon, and nothing more than that.
It's easy to give an empty summary of any series. "One Piece is about a pirate looking for treasure who goes to islands and fights bad guys, repeat 900 chapters". But when you have such a shallow outlook on series that clearly have lots more deeper subtext and undertones, what's even the point in talking about them?
Whilst it's very clear that the anime's quality of adaptation is what triggered this boom in popularity, it's simply doing the job of an anime in giving the manga greater exposure. People act as if Ufotable is the first studio to produce a great adaptation. As if there is no other studio capable of adapting a manga to a high standard. Yes, Ufotable enhanced the weakest parts of the manga, but the manga itself HAS to have a special charm to do what it's doing otherwise only the anime would be popular, instead of the entire franchise booming and the manga breaking records.
The anime isn't making up the story, the characters, the abilities, the fights. That's all stuff from the manga that has simply been adapted well and enhanced due to the nature of animation. The beauty of the breaths, the fluidity of the fights, the general aesthetic of the manga...That's all stuff that is truly captured to an even greater extent when animated when you can experience all the factors at their best, not restricted by the limits of the manga medium.
