Highlights:
* Demon Slayer changed mainstream anime by urging studios to push out better-quality anime.
* Demon Slayer Season 1 had cinema-quality animation and looked good consistently.
* Demon Slayer inspired MAPPA and Toei Animations to push out better shonen anime.
Demon Slayer changed mainstream anime back in the day when it was first released- all thanks to Ufotable and their talented crew of animators. And the reason can be attributed primarily to its animation quality but also its overall production. Let’s break it down and see how Demon Slayer changed mainstream anime.
- Also Read: Top 10 Best Short Anime Series
Demon Slayer Changed Mainstream Anime By Pushing Standards
Back in the day, the only animation that used to get any attention was some of those out-of-the-blue seasonal shows with good clean animation and some fight scenes in mainstream shonen anime here and there. Demon Slayer on the other hand was consistently good-looking with clean animation even in its slow scenes.
The animation in Demon Slayer was so good that it skyrocketed in popularity- even going so far as to bring in outsiders to the medium anime. It was a gateway anime for many in the new generation and for good reason. Not only that but it pushed its manga sales to go toe to toe against industry King- One Piece.
Demon Slayer as a manga is subpar- it’s the same generic story with bad to mediocre art at best but the anime was so famous- people bought the original manga regardless. It surpassed One Piece manga in sales that year. This explosion of popularity of one anime pushed other studios to also make great-looking cinema-grade anime.
Result of Demon Slayer’s Influence
Demon Slayer changed mainstream anime to give us the current Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, One Piece’s Wano and Egghead Arcs, Hell’s Paradise and Chainsaw Man. MAPPA and Toei are the main studios that stepped up to the challenge.
MAPPA in turn pushed Studio Pierrot to give us the iconic Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War anime and even Wit Studios or Madhouse stepped up to give us some modern masterpieces- not just with clean, cinematic animation but also great OSTs and overall high-budget production.
If you don’t believe us, then you can check out Kaiju No. 8 which is one of the most hyped anime airing this Spring 2024 season. Production I.G. cooked with the animation in Kaiju No. 8 and that’s not even mentioning the talents they have working on the music and OSTs for the anime.
