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The story
Why did “Demon Slayer” become a phenomenon that swept up even non-otaku audiences? That question sparked debate on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” board. The thread kicked off with personal stories of fathers who never watch anime — and even in-laws — watching every single episode and crying. Posters brought up “Housekeeper Mita” (a drama that scored huge ratings right after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake) to argue that in times of crisis, people crave classic, straightforward storytelling. Anime fans, meanwhile, offered a harsher take, calling the characters and setting “generic,” which clashed with defenders who argued that sticking to a tried-and-true formula was exactly the show’s strength. The gender split among viewers, and the fact that the sequel film raked in roughly 40 billion yen at the box office, also came up, with opinions remaining divided by the end.
What people said
The huge thing is it pulled in people who'd never read manga before.
Even if hardcore otaku would rate the content as, at best, mid-tier.
Good or bad, it's a dead-straight, textbook shonen manga through and through.
By the "otaku standard" Re: #26 is talking about, name a few manga that are actually more interesting than Demon Slayer.
Did go see Infinity Castle though.
Actually, the viewership is 60% male, 40% female.
Maybe during emergencies like that, people just crave some shared piece of entertainment.
The only scene I weirdly remember is the "take it off" line.
Other than that, all I know is the theme song.
Easiest way to put it is a baseball comparison: Demon Slayer is like the Shohei Ohtani of manga.
That's a great comparison.
"The Shohei Ohtani of manga" really nails it.
Both Demon Slayer and Ohtani just keep putting up results nobody can find fault with.
Those two skew way too hard toward teenage boys.
When I worked at a convenience store, everyone who came in for the Jujutsu Kaisen Ichiban Kuji (a lottery-style merch draw) was a woman, so that take doesn't hold up.
Nobody expected that five years later, a second movie would pull in 40 billion yen. Everyone figured the boom would be long over by then.
Funny how last year's movie made 40 billion yen, proving the boom was nowhere near over.
All that "the boom's over" talk was basically a scam.
There were tons of people bashing it with takes like this, and there still are.
What exactly makes being an anime otaku so superior anyway?
That's half right, half wrong.
First off, Demon Slayer's big hit happened in 2019, which is before the COVID era even started.
It's true that family love is one factor behind why it's loved by such a wide range of people, but it's not the only one.
The foundation the story of Demon Slayer draws on is the Bible.
That's why it easily transcends age, gender, and even national borders to become something universally loved.
Even after they activated a Buster Call, it still didn't take off. (Buster Call: a One Piece reference to throwing overwhelming force at something)
Name a hit Japanese film that isn't garbage, then.
Kokuho ("National Treasure")?
When one does, it's honestly just nice to have.
Really good.
It didn't transform into anything though?
Far from "transforming," it was already popular as both a manga and an anime.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Demon Slayer is a manga by Koyoharu Gotouge that has run in Weekly Shonen Jump since 2016, and its popularity took off with the ufotable-produced anime that aired in 2019. The 2020 theatrical film “Mugen Train Arc” grossed 40.4 billion yen, surpassing “Spirited Away” to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese box office history at the time. This explosive popularity actually began in late 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic had fully taken hold, which is why posters in the thread pushed back against the simple explanation that it was “because of the pandemic.” The 2025 film “Infinity Castle Arc” also reached roughly 40 billion yen in box office revenue within a short period, suggesting this was no fleeting boom. As for the gender breakdown of viewers, figures were cited in the thread, but since they come from 5ch without a clearly stated source, they shouldn’t be treated as official statistics.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Demon Slayer’s popularity boom was crazy, huh.”
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