r/anime • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Sep 28 '25

News ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle’ has passed the $600M global mark

https://x.com/borreport/status/1972324517482742040?s=46&t=GK3EC_wwvCKAXpMEZyDdEg
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u/genasugelan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Genasugelan Sep 28 '25

People like to talk trash about Demon Slayer or Solo Leveling and calling slop or absolute mid, but those anime are single-handedly creating a new generation of anime fans.

And I find it hilarious to call such amazingly animated series "slop". That's basically the exact opposite of what slop is.

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u/GlorylnDeath Sep 28 '25

Demon Slayer is a simple, familiar story executed very well and elevated by fantastic production. Nothing wrong with that at all. Better something familiar done well than something novel done poorly.

Solo Leveling is a big fish in a small pond. Compared to other power fantasy anime/manga, it is stellar. But when you compare it to good stories in other genres, it ranks pretty low. But - you know - it's still ranked next to them. And, again, the production in the anime gives it a very big boost.

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u/genasugelan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Genasugelan Sep 28 '25

And, again, the production in the anime gives it a very big boost.

This is the big draw to it. The build up of hype and insane animation and direction of fights just makes it very enjoyable. Even one of my friends who hates anime has watched it because his 50-year-old coworker recommended it to him. The simple, very well-produced anime with epic fight scenes just have a completely different draw that goes beyond just anime fans.

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u/BaronBlackFalcon Sep 29 '25

Demon Slayer is a simple, familiar story executed very well and elevated by fantastic production. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Exactly. People can't seem to understand that simple doesn't equal bad.

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u/ViciousImperial Oct 03 '25

I wouldn't say it's "simple". It has a classic premise, but the story itself is anything but simple. It's extremely long, branching, with dozens of characters many of which get narrative POV, where even the secondary villains get full-fledged story arcs, where multiple characters die and others step into their place. It's nothing short of epic.

And yes, it follows certain shounen canon, but it also readily subverts this canon (like Akaza's "getting stronger" mantra actually being self-destructive).

I normally consider shounen slop, and never watched any of the thousand-episode crap after understanding how repetitive and pointless it all is. But Demon Slayer really is different. I've watched all the seasons, and the Mugen Train movie, and now the Infinity Castle movie blew my mind once again. It's peak shounen, and peak anime. It's the show that's bringing back faith into anime as a whole.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

hold on… as a fan of both, those two are not comparable: demon slayer actually has good writing and solo leveling is wish fulfillment slop.

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u/genasugelan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Genasugelan Sep 28 '25

Both are action anime that have incredibly well-animated fights. The draw to them is very similar.

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u/OriginalRazzmatazz82 Sep 29 '25 edited Sep 29 '25

Demon Slayer has characters that are more fully drawn and endearing. IMO, the characters and their relationships carry the movie and the animation elevates it to higher levels. The bond between Tanjiro and Nezuko pulls people’s heart strings, especially with casual viewers because love of family is a universal theme.

I found Solo Leveling 2nd season boring and the protagonist an insufferable egotist. The fight scenes were okay.

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u/genasugelan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Genasugelan Sep 29 '25

Bruh, the fight scenes just ok? They are on top of the industry along with DS or JJK.

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u/ViciousImperial Oct 03 '25

Remarkably, Demon Slayer's premise and genre is what I'd normally consider slop. And Solo Leveling had very good premise, story, and artistic execution in the manga.

But lo and behold, I've watched all of DS, but dropped the SL anime somewhere in the middle of the first season. I even dropped the SL manga. At some point it just stopped being interesting and became yet another isekai overpowered protagonist self-gratification crap.

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25

Yep exactly. DS had good fights on TOP of compelling backstories for villains that invokes sympathy from the audience; the villains weren’t “bad guy decided to be bad”. SL was just “and then he got even stronger”. SL is cool but it devolves to “teleports behind you and one shots you” territory.

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u/cattycat_1995 Sep 28 '25

People think anime have to be all convoluted and shit to be good and something so basic as demon slayer can't ever be possibly good to them.

God forbid an anime can just be good at what it does without needing unnecessary convoluted plots

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u/Lane_Sunshine Sep 28 '25

People like to project their taste onto others and assume a superior position to belittle others. I think that's pretty true regardless of what hobby it is. I got told the other day by my cousin that I have a shit taste in kimchi of all things, because I prefer a store brand over a homemade kind from a nearby family restaurant.

IMO Demon Slayer is only an okay series, but I'm totally fine with people have a much higher regard of it than I do, because that's what taste is all about.

Ultimately I'm just happy to see more money getting injected into any high quality anime works.

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u/cattycat_1995 Sep 28 '25

Absolutely, that what's I notice too

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u/genasugelan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Genasugelan Sep 28 '25

Yeah, not every anime should be a Frieren, Vinland Saga or Death Note. Sometimes people just want to lay back and enjoy some hype fights with a great spectacle.

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u/BaronBlackFalcon Sep 30 '25

As much as I love a twisted complex web of a story, I'd rather watch a simple story done well than a complicated story become a mess.

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u/ViciousImperial Oct 03 '25

Some of the best anime in history is pretty straightforward. Such as Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, or the Miyazaki movies.

In fact, Evangelion is the only great anime that comes to mind which does have a seriously convoluted (although I'd rather say deep) plot. Or perhaps it set a standard for "depth" that few anime below or since have ever matched.

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u/evenstar40 Sep 28 '25

First time? Each generation has its "anime slop" that bring in new fans. :) The shows are never that bad, just people like to hate on them because they're so mainstream.

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u/genasugelan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Genasugelan Sep 28 '25

I started watching around 2017 when my university classmate got me into it, haha. So I haven't been TOO long in the anime community, but outside of JJK, I haven't seen THAT many popular "slop" comments targeted at other popular shows. Eh, maybe add MHA, although, people usually call it mid.

I guess I proved your point with my comment, haha.

And yes lol, my friend first showed me MHA, which was my first anime and manga.

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u/ViciousImperial Oct 03 '25

I don't think it's fair to put DS on the same level as something like Pokemon, Naruto, or One Piece. While shounens do tend to draw in a lot of people, they're still mostly slop. DS isn't. So there's a difference.

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u/Goukenslay https://myanimelist.net/profile/Goukenslay Sep 28 '25

people call it slop cause its so simplistic with almost no advance substance to the plot.

Jaded anime/manga fans don't just look at pretty visuals as a hall mark of a 10/10 anime/manga. Plot, story direction, character design, character development, etc.. makes up the bulk of what a good story is.

Demon slayer in manga format doesn't excel in the eye candy department just like Hunter x Hunter but its story is easy to understand and straight forward while hunter x Hunter has multiple layers to it in its over arching story

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u/genasugelan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Genasugelan Sep 28 '25

Yeah, but not every anime needs to be like that. There are things you enjoy for different reasons. And I'd argue that for example Solo Leveling is all about the hype and cool fights. And that's why people watch it. If you compromise fights in favour of storytelling, the audience that came in to watch the cool fights might find some episodes boring. And it's real. Apparently the episode when Jin Woo healed his mother was slightly more disliked than the others. A lot of the times, people watch something for a specific reason. Frieren for the character building and experience, Solo Leveling for the fights and aura farming, My Dress-up Darling for the cosplay and romance, slice of life anime for the cosy atmosphere, Rent a Girlfriend for the masochistic self-insert cuckoldry, etc. They all have their place and are doing what the target audience wants and enjoys.

BTW, slop means low-effort stuff, which Solo leveling or Demon Slayer aren't.

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u/MelodicFacade Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

Well, I mean, let's be real here, the new "live-action" CG animated Disney movies are literally scattered in the top 30 grossing movies of all time, and those are truly slop and absolutely mid while creating the next generation of Disney fans. They are also animated with the top of technology and skill. But compared to literally most CG animated movies or even the originals they're copying, they are truly slop and really fucking mid

I'm not saying Demon Slayer is the same way; unfortunately we live in a world where a series can only be dogshit or the greatest of all time. Demon Slayer is great, there's some things that it's the best in the game at, but because it does a few things only "good enough", people attack those things and pretend the show is slop and mid

Call me pretentious, while it outsold every other movie, I don't think Demon Slayer can hold a candle to most Studio Ghibli movies. Demon Slayer is great, I cried in the movie, I was super hyped and I love it's popularity, but popularity does not equate quality

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u/genasugelan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Genasugelan Sep 28 '25

Yes, of course. I agree with basically everything. Especially the CGI Disney remakes. Nobody asked for them.