People who like Demon Slayer, what's so special about it except its animation?

the enjoyment of watching it. actually wait, check this link and it'll tell you why I love it so much

oh shoot nvm, I'm just talking about the animation. well I like the characters too

oh, boy, how has this thread not blown up yet? If no fans thoroughly explain, I'll defend the show on their behalf.

Well, most shounen anime follow more or less the same tropes so I can't really argue if you find it generic.
But I can say that the characters are really unique. You can really tell apart who is who not just by how the look but also by the way they behave, for example I like the way Tanjiro acts WAY too goody two shoes (though I know some people hate him for that). Another "generic" shounen that does this even better is Fire Force.

p.s. i would still watch it because i don't have standards

Let me start by saying that I don't really like either fantasy,demon or battle shounen anime.I actually liked the first episodes of the show, the premise was pretty interesting and it was at least kinda good. Then I liked it less and less until I almost dropped it when Zenitsu and Inosuke appeared. I didnt manage to like it after that, but ep19 was kinda good I guess. I also dont care about animation quality at all, I rated most Ufotable shows rather low anyway

What would be so good about the show if its animation was bad?

Well first off, the animation isn't bad. And I don't think there's a problem with watching a show just because it's pretty.
Than I, personally, really appreciate the details of the demon slayer techniques, the way they move, the way they move their sword etc. I rarely see this amount of details in anime.

The story may be generic, but for me, the animation and the attention to details move it to a new level.

at first,we cant judge an anime by just 4 episode,yes, i thought that it is just a normal anime and i thought its story is likes AOT but after some episodes i got it's wrong to judge an anime with a few episodes.

and second
the Unbelievable great art
a good and exciting story
great actions
great voice actors
they all make this anime a very good anime

but i have some problems with that
and that is
we really don't need backstories of demons when main characters like inuske doesn't have a good and believable Characterizations when he has no logical act ,so we need a characterization that explain us about inuske more to make his act believable
or about nezuko,she has no characterization
or about zenitsu,yes he has backstory but i cant really believe this behavior just because of what anime showed us in backstory

but at all i like this anime and it is great

Well, it's a battle shounen with entertaining fights and a decent amount of feels for most people. How much fun you have just depends on how tired you are of the tropes honestly. Demon Slayer does nothing new but it does enough things right imo

If you aren't having fun with Demon Slayer by episode 10ish I'd probably switch off battle shounens and watch other stuff

Nezuko

designs are cool

I'm not saying that Demon Slayer is not generic (and that would still be arguable), but the "most generic ever"? Are you sure on that?

Also, personally I don't think that simplicity per se makes a story bad.

And also no, Demon Slayer is not one of my favs.

I'm a sucker for a good soundtrack and action. Twas enough for me.

Great animation and sound tracks, unique character design, easy to follow plot, characters motivations are pretty simple and you don't have to think about why a character did, what he did. It is a kind of anime that newcomers can understand easily, also battle shounen is most popular genre in anime.
Also lot of people just jump on hype train

Nezuko is cute, The animation is great, and the story is good. I absolutely LOVED watching it. Would I like it
as much if it had bad animation? Probably not.

The characters are likeable, the story is simple, fun and animation is God-tier. I'm not a huge fan of show myself but i can see why people would like it.

I am not a huge fan of this anime. I dont even consider myself as a fan. Its kinda overhyped stuff. Some people just go insane while watching it. I have watched many clips like that. People just screaming out of joy and not even paying attention to the story or whatever.
Its like any other anime. I mean, yeah its good ngl but not worth the hype at all.

I honestly like the characters and the plot

I don't think I would be able to watch Demon Slayer were it not for the fantastic animation.

The characters were pretty annoying (especially Zenitsu) and they lacked any interesting features. Tanjirou was acceptable I guess, but he was pretty uninteresting throughout. The main villain looked pretty interesting, but we didn't get to see much of him in the first season.

The story was pretty generic hence it failed to really grip me. The 'Natagumo Mountain Arc' (the spider arc) was probably the best part of the show. The theme of what it means to be family was explored pretty well and the main villain that arc was pretty decent. Of course, the animation was fantastic in episode 19, but I kept getting distracted by the flashbacks they incorporated into the fights. I don't know if they have more flashbacks within fights in this show than in other shounen anime, but it certainly distracted me the most while watching this.

The first half was pretty boring but the second half was a lot more interesting. It failed to really shine in my opinion, but it certainly had its merits. The animation is the main reason why I gave it a pretty acceptable rating (6.5) though.

Edit: I certainly do not think Demon slayer is a bad show by any means, it just didn't pique my interest.

the story isn't amazing but it isn't bad either the really good animation carried the decent story that's why it has so many fans. people shouldn't give it soo much heat

Demon Slayer isn't genre-changing. It has a generic story with cliche characters. It doesn't reinvent the wheel. But it doesn't have to to be a good show.

I think that sometimes we forget that tropes exist because they have been proven to work over and over again. To me, where Demon Slayer really excels is its execution of these tropes. It cuts out everything that hindered preceding series—overly long stories, problems with power escalation, filler etc.—streamlining the shounen formula and leaving only the components that work well. Then, it embellishes that story with touching moments that may strike an emotional chord.

There are many valid criticisms of Demon Slayer. For example, having only watched the first season, I think the humour is hit-or-miss and the side characters are one-dimensional. But I did enjoy the show, and I don't think that its only redeeming factor is the animation.

Why do you need something else besides the animations? Not every anime needs to have super deep stories and characters

i said i'd do it, so here i go. this one is for @SushiiiWithSoysauce and anyone else i'm following that has Demon Slayer as one of their favourites. I've spent a lot of time defending shows on anilist, but this is the first time i'm defending an anime despite kinda agreeing with the person raising a case against it.

Demon Slayer benefits from 3 things: popularity, simplicity and familiarity. The first is a result of the second two.

You called it generic. I hate that word, but fair enough. Many of Demon Slayer's characters fall into archetypal roles and its plot points and story beats are no different from most of the other shounen jump manga/anime. While you might see those as flaws, many don't. Some people grew up with these 'generic' stories and have grown to love them. If you love something, why wouldn't you want to experience it again with the extra perk of some of the best animation in the industry and an excellent soundtrack?

Demon Slayer as a series doesn't do anything new, but it doesn't necessarily do anything wrong either. Demon Slayer is an easy series to love for casual watchers, anime newbies and longtime fans of shounen or Shounen Jump. It's familiar, therefore it's an attractive story.

To further explain the simplicity part: Demon Slayer isn't a story with the dramatic twists of AoT, the mind games of Death Note, it isn't as niche as Beastars and it isn't as long as One Piece. Starting Demon Slayer isn't a big commitment. To follow the story doesn't require you to pay attention to every background detail. There are no confusing philosophical concepts or commentary on societal issues (at least up to the movie) at play here either. It's easy escapism entertainment.

Of course there are things that make it stand out. The visuals you seem to want to disregard play a big role in people's enjoyment. Demon Slayer is extravagantly animated with amazing CG usage and bold and vibrant character designs (a wetdream for me and other artists). Notably, some of the Demons are surprisingly well written and unique. People who have grown accustomed to shounen character archetypes will love the protagonists and people who want something they haven't seen before will love the antagonists. The character interactions are enjoyable too.

I said that it's popularity is due to its familiarity and simplicity. There is something in Demon Slayer for a lot of anime fans. Even if you've watched 1000 anime, Demon Slayer has something to offer. Maybe the art or the music or the nostalgia its familiar story provides. Its simplicity can make it a really good comfort anime as well. One's bound to find something enjoyable even if they think the writing isn't the best.

I think that's all. Hope I helped explain why people love the show. This is long, but i don't think a tl;dr would do my points justice...

nothing else ig :)

i loved it when I watched it, but now that I look back on it, i can hardly find any good point about it except the animation lol

Sometimes a show doesn't need to reinvent the wheel to be good.

Demon Slayer is not a game changing, it's not a revolucionary manga or anime BUT what it makes, it makes it very well.

It has good battles, good coreography and it lets you to empathize with the characters, even the worst ones.

It's not the best shonen ever made, but the manga was a solid standalone before Ufotable's anime.

It's a good series, not the best (no one is), just keep it reading/watching, and if you don't like it, nothing happens, it's not for you and it's not your fault.

Tbh it wouldn't be a bad show if it didn't have the 3 useless characters next to Tanjiro, and if Tanjiro would be a tad bit more interesting and had slightly less asspulls. But those 3 characters completley ruin the experience.

it would probably still be popular if it wasn't carried by Ufotable but it wouldn't be anywhere close to rivaling one piece in sales like it did in 2019. Imo, without the animation it's just the picture perfect example of an average shounen. characters are average, story is average, plot is average. would I still watch it? Probably. Would I pay money to go see mugen train in theaters? definitely not

There are some really good moments but a lot more tedious moments. For good moments, I'd say the training arc and some of the main character's fights.

The Michael Jackson reveal was great. At first I thought it was just a cameo.

Ppl often tend to forget what "anime" actually is and what's the difference b/w anime & manga!

It's hella generic.
that's why i like it .-.

its a shounen, not much to expect. whenever i watch shounen i just turn my brain off and enjoy. if animation was bad i definitely wouldn't watch it.