Demon Slayer (Anime, Shonen/supernatural)

Since I know that the Demon Slayer movie was a big box office hit, even here in the US, I doubt there are many of you who haven't at least heard of it. I'm going to review the story, reveal my favorite character, and talk about the show juxtaposed with the movie since they did the Mugen Train arc in show form as well. I have started the source material (manga) but have not gotten very far into it so I will not be touching on how the show follows or deviates from the manga.

The story: it's your typical shounen plot, weak boy has a goal, trains to be stronger, fights bad guys and almost loses many times but pulls out of it sometimes by pure strength of will, sometimes with the help of friends or loved ones. I felt that this story differed from most other shounen stories in that it gives sympathetic back stories to most of the villians (although certain ones, My Hero Academia comes first to mind, also do this) and that the protagonist, even though he has to kill them, mourns their passing like he would any human death. It also has a strong sibling relationship at its core. The protagonist is basically a morally perfect human being. He's kind, strong when need be, sympathetic, hard-working, loyal and dedicated to finding a cure for his sister's condition.

Characters: Although the story introduces new characters in each arc, several characters remain constant. Some of those characters are simply archetypes (such as the swordmaker who provides a little comic relief in his exasperation with Tanjiro for losing or breaking swords that he has provided him). Not a lot of female characters with any amount of development or consistency. That's a bit of a let down, but not all that uncommon in shounen anime. Nezuko probably has the most sussed out personality of any of the female characters we've met thus far and she never even talks. So, in the absence of strong female characters, let's focus on the regular male ones. The villain's name is Muzan and he is a shapeshifting demon who is basically the father of all demons who pulls the strings behind the scenes. He'll be the final boss, but none of them have had to try fighting him yet. Muzan lives in disguise within the human world, presenting in various different forms, sometimes as a woman and sometimes as a young boy, but his primary form is that of a man who looks remarkably like Michael Jackson in his heyday. Muzan is the strong and ultimately evil villain who you love to hate. He mistreats his subordinates who are all afraid of him, and he is responsible for bringing new demons into the world and probably personally responsible for the massacre of Tanjiro's family in the first episode. Although Muzan himself is the ultimate evil, a lot of his demons have unique backstories and are more than simple monsters. They have interesting insights on what it means to be human and what it means to be a demon and you can't help but sympathize with them even knowing how many human lives they had to have taken to get as strong as they are. My favorite character is Zenitsu and I am well aware that he tends to be hated by the fandom because a lot of people find his initial cowardice and girl-crazy attitude to be offputting. There are a few reasons why he's my favorite. Firstly, he is insanely powerful and doesn't even realize it because he has so much self-doubt and self-loathing that he can only fight after being knocked unconscious. Second, he is kind in his own way and brave in his own way. Regardless of how he feels about a situation, he eventually pushes himself to keep up with his friends, so he doesn't let them down. This leads to substantial character growth. Third, he is loyal to Tanjiro and Nezuko especially, but also to Inosuke to a lesser extent. Fourth and finally, he's not perfect but he tries. Even though he is scared, he doesn't let that stop him from doing the right thing. Even when Inosuke is beating the crap out of him, he protects the box because Tanjiro made a comment when it didn't even seem like Zenitsu was listening that what was in the box was more important to him that his own life. Even as he's fleeing the house, he protects the boy from harm as they fall, taking most of the damage himself. He may be a little whiney because he's scared, but he has such an interesting and complex personality. The only other characters with that amount of complexity in the show are demons. Honorable mentions: The female doctor demon who is trying to help Tanjiro find the cure for Nezuko's condition. I loved the addition of her character because it showed that there was a way for demons to not follow Muzan and to be good, even if that meant that doing so would make them have to live with giant targets on their backs.

What I find problematic: Obviously, the lack of strong female characters. Even though Nezuko is technically stronger than Tanjiro, he is constantly protecting her. As a human, Nezuko was the embodiment of what might be considered the ideal woman. She was meek, selfless and basically the ideal housewife material because she took care of kids and cooked and cleaned and sewed. As a demon, Nezuko is able to grow a little more as a character, but there is still the implication that she is a weak woman in need of protection. In fact, most of the female characters are treated like that, which is extremely disappointing to me. I understand that the show is set during a time when women were expected to take on a more subservient role, but it is still possible to make strong female characters within such an environment (look to dororo for an example of this in anime). I just don't see that displayed very well in Demon Slayer. That is my problem with a lot of Shounen anime, actually. Even when the female characters are really strong they always seem to have an eventual need of rescuing by a stronger male character who they inevitably fall in love with. Characters like Uzui Tengen (a hashira known for his flashiness) are allowed to treat women like objects and then they are rewarded for it by admiration or by having multiple wives. (I really don't like his character and loved how Zenitsu tore into him even if it was only in sarcastic thoughts). However, this is not just a problem in Anime, but in a lot of other media as well. I see the same thing in various types of fantasy fiction as well as various western shows and movies. Every time I see it, I hate it. It has become less prominent as media becomes more "woke", but it is by no means gone. I know. I know. I sound like an angry feminist. I'm not angry, not really. But I am a feminist and I won't apologize for it. I believe that changing the perception of gender and gender roles starts by having strong, capable women portrayed in media and that society can only benefit from this change. That's just how I feel.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you enjoyed my insights and hopefully you'll watch Demon Slayer if you haven't seen it. Even with problems, this is one of the better shounen shows that I've seen.

"This is Us" TV Show review

If you like powerful, character driven stories. This is definitely the one for you. The story focuses on a family as they live their life in the best ways they know how. They are all pretty rich, so there's none of that pesky poverty stuff (except in the flashback scenes of their parents who did have some of those struggles), but they all have their own issues.

Randall is adopted and has just found his bio-dad at the age of 36, only to learn that he's dying. Kevin is a pretty famous TV star who wants to be a serious actor but finds out that quitting your comedy show while you're still under contract has some pretty serious ramifications. And Kate is morbidly obese and has been struggling with her weight her whole life. The show vacillates between the past (the three growing up and what their life was like as kids, babies, and teens) and the present (what their life is like now, the show starts at their 36th birthday).

The past scenes mainly focus on how the parents are dealing with important issues, but they also allow us some insight into the children's struggles as well. The parents are Jack and Rebecca. A couple who both had pretty messed up families growing up and didn't really want kids at first, but eventually got to the place where they did. The show starts off on Jack's birthday as a very pregnant Rebecca greets him, it then shows his three adult children in their lives now. Becca goes into labor and they rush her to the hospital where they find out that the doctor who knows about her high-risk pregnancy is in surgery for an appendectomy and they have to meet the doctor who will deliver their babies (Dr. K) between contractions. He tells them he's no newcomer and that he's been caught up to speed on her pregnancy. Then he tries to talk to them about the risks, but Jack won't have it. He tells Dr. K that nothing is going to go wrong because it's his birthday. Of course, something does go wrong, very wrong. One of their babies dies. Dr. K tells Jack as he's processing this information that he went into the OB-GYN business because he and his wife lost their firstborn during delivery. His speech about turning the sourest of life's lemons into something resembling lemonade becomes Jack's mantra and he does end up taking three babies home from the hospital that day. Randall (who was left on the doorstep of the fire station by his own father who was a junkie) was brought to the hospital by the fireman who found him and Jack took that as a sign.

Jack (played to perfection by Milo Ventimiglia) is a great man, a good husband and an even better father. As the story progresses I fall more and more in love with his character. This is not the first time Milo has played an empathetic character that I fell for immediately. In Heroes he played Peter Petrelli, a character so empathetic that he literally absorbed other people's gifts. This also made it a good twist when it turned out his character was indirectly responsible for the Armageddon that everyone was trying to avoid for the entire first season. Becca is played by Mandy Moore. She's a bit of a bitch sometimes, especially in the decisions she made concerning Randall, but she's a complex character and I like that about her. Randall is sweet and caring and hella smart, but he's too kind sometimes. I think he tries too hard because he always felt somewhat unwanted. His relationship with Kevin is especially strained and always has been. The show hasn't really dug too deeply into his relationship with Kate. A lot of Randall's problems in childhood stem from his race. As an adult, a lot of his struggles relate directly to his bio-dad and the fact that he's already dying before Randall really has a chance to get to know him as a person. Kevin is a famous actor who wants to be taken more seriously since he's really only famous for playing a goofball on a comedy show. His problems revolve around his acting career and his relationship with his sister Kate and brother Randall.  Kate's problems mostly revolve around her weight, something that she's been struggling with since childhood and her relationship to her mother and brothers. Kate is the child who was always closest to Jack, so it's no surprise that she would take his loss the hardest.

The show has a lot of cameos in it, some of them playing themselves since Kevin is supposed to be a big deal in Hollywood. Ron Howard and Sylvester Stallone, for instance, play themselves when Kevin gets his first big movie break. One of the biggest struggles all of them face is moving on after Jack's death. The show doesn't reveal right away that he died, but you know pretty quickly that something must have happened to him since he's not shown at all in the present scenes. I have watched the first two seasons. Season one was really powerful, Season two did reveal the truth about Jack's demise, so it was powerful in that way, but I think Season one has been the strongest and most emotional for me so far. I really enjoy getting to know Jack's character more through the flashbacks, for the most part the guy's a freaking saint. 

Some characters I loved besides Jack: Dr. K (the OB-GYN who delivered Kate and Kevin) Beth (Randall's opinionated but super loving wife), William, (Randall's sensitive, artistic bio-dad) Toby (Kate's funny romantic partner), Annie (Randall's youngest, she is the cutest), and Sloane (my favorite amongst Kevin's women, although she was a relatively short lived character).

Some of my favorite moments in the show so far. The original opening night of Kevin's play. When Jack borrows money for the house. Beth and William eating brownies. Randall and William's road trip. Deja's school project. Dr. K's lemon speech. Randall's hallucination at the cabin. Jesse's introduction at William's NA meeting. 

I look forward to watching the rest of the six seasons available and hope they are all as good as the first two. I also hope that if you haven't seen it yet, you'll check it out. It is available currently on Hulu. Thanks for reading, catch you next time.