Discussion What is something you did not like about the manga?

[Amarax]

KNY is an enjoyable manga but it has it's fair share of flaws such as pacing, plot holes, rushed storylines, etc.

What was one thing thing you disliked/wish was different about the story?

 

[Mirage]

I wish the world building was better. The ending was also garbage.

 

[Demonspeed]

That final arc was really too rushed.

Inosuke and Zenitsu should have had better fights, the Demon Tanjirou thing had potential but the timing and the execution made it weird. That chapter could have been used for something else.

 

[Gallon]

Yoriichi's level of strength.

 

[Demonspeed]

Yoriichi's level of strength.

Works perfectly with your avy . I think it was fine since he was a character from the past.

 

[HereNThere]

The pacing was to fast for its own good after a certain while.

It's commendable that Gotoge had a story they clearly planned out and wanted to tell, but they zipped right through to the major beats without giving it time to breath or expand upon certain elements.

The story even left itself moments where these additional elements could've been explored. Such as the literal weeks to months characters had to recover.

During the time Tanjirou was out if commission, we could've used this time to follow Zenitsu and Inosuke on their missions with other Slayers or Pillars. We could've met Zenitsu's Teacher before he killed himself and Zenitsu could've went on a small mission with Kaigaku before he turned.

Inosuke could've went on a mission with Shinobu and we could've probably met with his father (don't remember if Douma killed him in the extras) and got hints about his mother. The details of where she fled to could've tipped Shinobu off to who it was who killed her.

Muzan also could've benefitted from this. He needed at least a few chapters to himself to get more from his character aside from his single minded goal.

We never even learned why he was living double lives. Was it to further his goals? Was he bored? Did he subconsciously want to experience lives he couldn't live due to him being a demon? Even if you didn't make him sympathetic, he could've had more facets to him.

He also could've used a more interesting Blood Art. At the very least, his shape shifting abilities could've gone beyond "Whip It Good". He had complete control of his cells. Let him have different forms with different uses. Strength form, speed form, Anti Yoriichi form.

Speaking of Yoriichi, he kinda introduced a number of elements that didn't quite make sense. He's a cool character, but he needed a once over to make things a bit more consistent. At the very least, they should've leaned more into the "born enlightened" aspect. It might have been better if they just said he was a demi god in human form. Reincarnation and Hell exist, so why not?

That's about it from me.

 

[Gallon]

Works perfectly with your avy . I think it was fine since he was a character from the past.

To be honest, Muzan and Kokushibou were immensely threatening initially, but seeing them get completely overwhelmed in seconds left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The guy was stronger than all six Upper Moons combined, or all nine Pillars.

 

[Kitsune5]

Well, I'll try explain myself the best I could:

-I wanted more about muzan's past and his powers. I mean, he is the king of all demons he surely had more techniques apart from the tentacles and the sparks.

-Nezuko under the sun, more fights with her and powers. Also I wanted to see, before she took the medicine, if they tried to teach her human things, like how to talk again (beside the "good mornig inosuke"), Tanjiro telling stories about the family to see if she remembers things or reacts to them, etc.

-The process to find the cure, shinobu is the scientist of the demon's slayer, I would have liked to see her knowledge (not only from the cure but all the poisons she makes) and how she worked with yoshiro.

-I'm with Demonspeed about the fight with demon tanjiro, zenitsu and inosuke.

-The live in the demon's slayers headquarters besides all the training and that kind of stuff, I would have liked to see more interactions between the hashira and other members. How they lives with all the fights and the lost lives.

There are probably more things but these are the ones I remember for the moment.

PD: sorry if my english is not good ><

 

[Murata]

Personally, I hope the manga would have been more amazing if the story had gone this way:

1. Tanjirou should have killed more demons before he encountered Kyogai. Although Kyogai was a former Lower Moon Six, his power was still tough for Tanjiro, a new Mizunoto recruit. This way, Tanjiro's character development will be more logical.

2. The gang should spend more time together and kill demons before receiving order to enter Rui's mountain. It will show how they build their companionship.

3. During the final arc, Nezuko was abandoned. Actually, I had high hope that Gyokko (Upper Moon 5) somehow survived and located her hiding place so we could see her and Urokodaki in action. It would be a good twist. Among Kizuki, it seems only Gyokko was good at spying and collecting information.

4. Sanemi should die instead of Genya. This will make more sense because Sanemi always loves and wants to protect Genya. His death will emphasize his purpose strongly. Moreover, we can see the 5-sense gang fights Muzan. Let imagine how strong Genya will be if he eats a piece of Muzan. Additionally, Sanemi's wound is more severe than Obanai and Mitsuri. For instance, he lost fingers and his organs nearly fell out during the fight with Kokushibo.

5. No explanation how Tanjiro's ancestor, Sumiyoshi, could mimic exactly Breath of the Sun (forms and breathing technique) from Yoriichi by watching only while other skilled swordsmen including Kokushibo did not.

6. No Muzan's flashback or at least his punishment (souls of his victims torture him during the way to hell). Actually, the most symbolic thing I wanted to have in chapter 203 is that he saw the Blue Spider Lilly blossoms at dawn. It will torment him more because the flower he sought for 1,000 years only blossoms under sunlight.

In the end, only the author can decide how to develop the story. Besides, the series ended so we cannot suggest anything. I hope the adaptive novels will fill the gap that the manga could not.

By the way, we do not know who Koyoharu Gotouge is. Despite of KNY's popularity, paparazzi cannot snap a photo of the author. I just wish to see the author's face.

 

[kkck]

To be honest, I think this series just works, up until the final battle. I don't really have any complaints about anything that if "fixed" wouldn't hurt something else that I enjoyed. I suppose it would have been nice to see tanjiro fighting one or two more non demon moons but I don't feel the story would have overly benefited from that.

I do take issue with most of the ending. The fight with muzan was.... lackluster but in turn its fairly clear the author put a lot of thought into it. The themes work and muzan's character makes perfect sense. As in, muzan getting treated like kokushibo wouldn't have made sense. What takes a lot from the fight was the fact that tamayo did so much with her magical drug. As in, she made a drug that would... sort of do stuff IF an originally planned effect didn't work. That's not a drug, that's a glitch in the matrix and a cop out.

And then... the ending is just crap. I hate it. I hate it with passion. I hate it as much as fairy tail's last arc. Rereading it makes me hate it more. The muzan fight was not great BUT it made sense and was a nice setup for a passable ending. But the ending we got was just a disservice to most characters. We see the gang having dinner at tanjiro's house and then.... Boom, one hundred years into the future and the cast is dead and we see a bunch of assholes we don't know or give a shit about. No real closure with the main cast except the least interesting ubuyashiki.

Also, we saw the final hashira meeting... And sure, zenitsu, tanjiro, inosuke and shinobu weren't yashira but.... Why weren't they there? Give them at least an honorary recognition as hashira if you are going to disband the whole thing. Also, tell us how these kids with no real life skills didn't starve during their first winter as jobless demon slayers. Also, why didn't yorichi get reincarnated?

 

[Gladiolus]

• Zenitsu and Inosuke barefly felt like main characters after the Red Light District arc. They dissappeared for a whole arc, and when they returned and fought again, I had the feeling Croc-sensei rushed their battles to have their fans satisfied then moving on to other stuff. It's sad when both could have had character arcs who would have served as built-up for their battle in the Infinite Fortress (Zenitsu with Kaigaku and his master and Inosuke with Douma and his mother, also fleshing out his relationship with Shinobu). In the last arc, it felt like the Pillars were the actual main characters.

• Nezuko, other than her utility in fights, was a plot device from the beginning to the end.

• Tomioka went from a badass able to solo Rui in seconds to a guy with emotional issues that needed the other demon hunters to carry him through his fights in the last arc. I also think that, for the Pillar who was closest to Tanjirou, he didn't have that much screentime.

• The whole final battle, that has been discussing enough many times already. Muzan was a disappointing antagonist (both during battle and personality-wise) and the whole twist with demon Tanjiro didn't go anywhere, between others. I'm also really disappointed that Muzan's last scene was him trying to grab Tanjiro from afar. At the very least, I would have love to see his face of despair as his goal crumbles to nothing.

• Other than Shinobu and Daki, the females from the manga were overall lackluster.

• I get what Gotouge wanted to do with the epilogue, but it was still a weird move, not gonna lie.

• The comedy in some cases was... not very funny.

• This is not a very big flaw, but I would liked to see more of Nakime. She intrigued me, and at the end she was quickly killed without revealing anything of her backstory.

 

[Shadowlord123]

Urokodaki's face, oh wait.

Jokes aside, I agree with most of what has been said. I would also add that the ex-Hashiras didn't do anything pretty much. I would have liked to see them in action and to know more about them. They're supposed to be really strong guys too, but Gotouge just kept them in the sidelines for the whole series. She could have used them in the final battle against Muzan to make the survival of the protagonists until sunset more believable instead of just having, you know, a half death Tanjiro and a half death Obanai somehow surviving more time than all the Pillars together. It's true that Muzan at that point was weakened by the plot convenience drug and wasn't at full strength, but it was still ridiculous nonetheless IMO.

 

[kkck]

Honestly, one bit I did not like was inosuke's connection to upper moon 2... That was entirely random and uncalled for. It seemed like a desperate move to give inosuke a shred of relevance. I also feel like the manga largely ignored inosuke's sheer talent. Her pretty much raised himself in the woods and taught himself breaths with no help... He wasn't born with a demon slayer mark or see through world but otherwise that's some yorichi level shit. I get that inosuke does not like to train but come on, he was absurdly talented anyways. realistically speaking he even evidenced more talent than tanjiro....

 

[levi12]

Ending is crap and destroy everything I like about series

Muzan final battle was shit

--- Double Post Merged, Jun 22, 2020, Original Post Date: Jun 22, 2020 ---

To be honest, I think this series just works, up until the final battle. I don't really have any complaints about anything that if "fixed" wouldn't hurt something else that I enjoyed. I suppose it would have been nice to see tanjiro fighting one or two more non demon moons but I don't feel the story would have overly benefited from that.

I do take issue with most of the ending. The fight with muzan was.... lackluster but in turn its fairly clear the author put a lot of thought into it. The themes work and muzan's character makes perfect sense. As in, muzan getting treated like kokushibo wouldn't have made sense. What takes a lot from the fight was the fact that tamayo did so much with her magical drug. As in, she made a drug that would... sort of do stuff IF an originally planned effect didn't work. That's not a drug, that's a glitch in the matrix and a cop out.

And then... the ending is just crap. I hate it. I hate it with passion. I hate it as much as fairy tail's last arc. Rereading it makes me hate it more. The muzan fight was not great BUT it made sense and was a nice setup for a passable ending. But the ending we got was just a disservice to most characters. We see the gang having dinner at tanjiro's house and then.... Boom, one hundred years into the future and the cast is dead and we see a bunch of assholes we don't know or give a shit about. No real closure with the main cast except the least interesting ubuyashiki.

Also, we saw the final hashira meeting... And sure, zenitsu, tanjiro, inosuke and shinobu weren't yashira but.... Why weren't they there? Give them at least an honorary recognition as hashira if you are going to disband the whole thing. Also, tell us how these kids with no real life skills didn't starve during their first winter as jobless demon slayers. Also, why didn't yorichi get reincarnated?

So agree big thump about what you say in about the ending

 

[Orion]

Just finished the manga, and have to say thoroughly enjoyed this till the end. I guess that this might qualify as a hot take here. *Note; I did binge this, so might be where the difference lie

As for what I didn't like:

In the final arc, not a fan of how Douma was handled. From his debut, he was someone who caught my attention and had high expectations for. The fight was nothing special and his death basically propped Shinobu to greater heights.

The Akaza-Rengoku fight: As someone who went from anime to manga and seeing the movie trailer, I heard a lot of hype about this. But, it was just one chapter of panels. Was pretty salty and even more so after seeing the fights of other hashira against the upper moons. I thought this could've been done better.

I agree with on the point about Inosuke. He was my favorite of the trio and I wish there was more done on his background, like how he developed his breaths and the boar life before final selection.

Also, some thoughts on previous points raised

The final fight: Like everyone else, I was not a fan of Muzan's fighting style being a carbon copy of one of Youpi's abilities from HxH. Certainly expected something more interesting from the progenitor and liked eefrit's idea of various forms, strength/speed. However, I still enjoyed the fight, especially from the demon slayer side. This was the culmination of a hunt spanning centuries. After Kagaya's sacrifice, this was the best chance they might ever have. As a reader, you could feel the determination, desperation, and will power. Most of the fighters had exhausted/injured themselves fighting upper moons and yet they were willing themselves to perform their breaths just to hold Muzan for an additional second. The time notices were good and you notice how through the team effort, it was adding up and getting closer to sunrise. Additionally, there were nameless slayers being meatshields and sacrificing themselves. The stuff near the end to prevent Muzan from tunneling in the ground. Almost everyone made a contribution. I don't think Muzan's one-note fighting style should take away from this. Despite the rapid aging and other effects, he was still a monster for the most part in comparison to the joint effort.

As for demon Tanjiro, once he survived and got that tumor, I kinda expected something like that to occur as a fail safe. But, the situation it occurred in, basically meant there weren't many options besides the one we were given to defeat him. Instead of a last ditch suicide desperation move you usually see from villains, Muzan basically achieved perfection. But, I did like Muzan begging him, he finally realized his thousand year dream through Tanjiro, and it slowly slipping away was satisfying. Would've been more epic with what Gladiolus said. So, I'm kinda neutral on this.

The pacing; It's certainly different from shounen going 350+ chapters, but I enjoyed the change of pace in comparison. Would I have preferred an additional arc, specifically one for Douma and Inouske, yes. But, I feel Gotouge executed her vision.

The ending: I felt chap 204 was sufficient enough for me. The journey is over, Muzan is dead and Nezuko is human. The various interactions amongst the characters were good. And now free from demons, Tanjiro can be with Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke. I didn't need to see anymore. Chap 205 just felt like an extra, didn't really have any impact on me nor leave a bad taste on the series.

 

[Franz]

I didn't really appreciate the fact that the DS ranks were abandoned.

 

[levi12]

People hyping out For Mugen train. Yet obliviously doesn t know how trash KNY become after Kokushibo is defeat. Especially Muzan battle

How many characters are not use for their full pontential. waste of pontential.

I should stop reading this manga after kokushibo is defeat too be honest. I regret reading further after that.

 

[strawhatcrew]

I just finish the manga coz of the hype anime and seeing the ridicolous 100m sale and its blockbuster movie. I just dont understand why this is so popular. Its generic for me. The pillar seem like copy of bleach captain to me. The villain is not memorible enough for me except the 1st uppermoon. The main char tanjiro is good but seem generic for me except that he doesnt hesitate to do the job done. Idk why, but i think japanese just like sword, battle manga and ancient japan setting i think. The char backstory sometimes annoy me coz all have bad childhood and just scream to me to cry there lol. Its enjoyable i admit but its not series that i would read a 2nd time. Enough rant. lol
tldr its a generic shonen battle manga with sword in ancient japan