10 Most Questionable Storylines in Demon Slayer (2024)

As one of the most popular shōnen anime series in the current age, Demon Slayer dazzles with its unique art style, inspirational characters and amazing fight scenes. Tanjiro’s quest to restore Nezuko’s humanity after Muzan Kibutsuji turned her into a demon and slaughtered their family has resonated deeply with anime fans the world over.

Yet not all its narrative beats, character idiosyncrasies and storytelling decisions hit home. Some of its more questionable choices — such as Zenitsu needing to be asleep to tap into his full power or Inousuke having a stunningly beautiful face underneath his boar mask — give viewers pause as they wonder why such an element made its way into the show.

10 Zenitsu Can Only Fight When Sleeping

Season 1, Episode 12 "The Boar Bares its Fangs, Zenitsu Sleeps"

The cowardly and fearful Zenitsu often travels with Tanjiro, Nezuko and Inosuke, fighting demons for the Demon Slayer Corps. As a disciple of the Thunder Breathing technique, Zenitsu moves with lightning-fast reflexes and sudden cracks of strength, slicing through demons with the ease of a hot knife through butter.

In one of Zenitsu’s best episodes, viewers experience the ferocious power of the Thunder Breathing technique as the demons of Tsuzumi Mansion close in for the attack. The amazing display, however, comes with a peculiar caveat: Zenitsu can only use his power when asleep. Having one of the key characters only fight while unconscious is an unusual choice and a questionable decision for a shōnen series.

9 Nezuko’s Lack of Agency Feels Awkward

Season 1, Episode 1 "To Defeat Muzan Kibutsuji" and Season 1, Episode 6, "Swordsman Accompanying a Demon"

After Nezuko and her family were attacked by Muzan Kibutsuji, she turned into a demon and began hungering to consume humans. Through a strong force of will, she resisted the starving impulse to devour her brother Tanjiro, earning a rare display of mercy from Giyu, the Water Hashira. As Tanjiro sets out on his training to become part of the Demon Slayer Corps, Nezuko joins him.

The danger she poses as a demon can’t be discredited, but many of the steps taken to limit that danger also diminish her agency as a character. Nezuku is given a bamboo muzzle for her mouth and placed under hypnotic suggestion by former Water Hashira Sakonji Urokodaki. While these steps might be warranted to safeguard the humans Nezuko interacts with, these measures shrink her will — arguably the element that kickstarted the entire anime — and cripple her agency as a character moving forward.

8 Tengen Attempts to Kidnap Aoi During his Introduction

Season 2, Episode 8, "Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui"

As Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke return from completing missions, the three swordsmen witness Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui attempt to kidnap Aoi for a mission in the infamous Yoshiwara red-light district. Tengen explains that he’d been working in tandem with his three wives, who’d gone undercover to help find the demon preying on the district, and now needs a female Corps member to infiltrate the last known locations of his wives.

Viewers have come to expect a certain kind of strength and nobility from the Hashira, especially when the previous season concluded with Rengoku’s untimely death. As the flashiest of all the Hashira, Tengen defies all those preconceived notions, and for most of his introduction, appears more as a villain than a hero by trying to take a noncombative member into a dangerous situation. It’s an interesting storytelling choice to make, especially when his character is fleshed out more and audiences come to see that he’s truly heroic at heart.

7 A Mountain Full of Trapped Demons Feels Like a Catastrophe Waiting to Happen

Season 1, Episode 4, "Final Selection"

Before Tanjiro can join the Demon Slayer Corps, he must undergo a rigorous test known as the Final Selection. Former Water Hashira and trainer Sakonji Urokodaki prepared Tanjiro for this task by having him learn Total Concentration and Water Breathing forms, so that he might survive the Final Selection. Once Tanjiro masters these techniques, Urokodaki gives him leave to attend this final test.

When he arrives at the testing location, Tanjiro and the other aspirants learn that their final test involves them surviving for a week on a demon-infested mountain. The test proctors explain that the wisteria keeps the demons confined to the mountain, as they bloom year-round. However, questions still abound, namely what happens to humans who might accidentally stumble onto the mountain or why the other trainers aren't taught breathing techniques to help them survive.

6 Nezuko can Slip Into a Coma Whenever the Plot Needs it

Season 1, Episode 3, "Sabito and Makomo"

Tanjiro spends long periods of time honing his skills, training and practicing to eventually reach the point where he can stand on his own strength. He sometimes spends months at a time undergoing these training exercises, working diligently to improve his form, technique, or physical prowess.

While Tanjiro spends his time undergoing such crucial training, Nezuko simply slips into a long, contracted coma. The narrative reason explains that she does this instead of eating humans to replenish her strength, but the ease with which she drops in and out of these extended slumbers — and how they coincidentally align with when Tanjiro begins and ends his training — leaves audience members wondering if this element is more plot-necessary than storytelling.

5 Sabito’s Tragic Death Defies Giyu’s Memory of Him

Season 1, Episode 1 “Final Selection” and Season 4, Episode 2 "Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka's Pain"

The ghost of Sabito helps to train Tanjiro during his early stages of his demon slayer training, standing in as a personification of the level Tanjiro needs to achieve before Urokodaki will allow him to take part in the Final Selection. If Tanjiro wishes to join the Demon Slayer Corps ranks, he’ll need to complete this ultimate trial, as the other demon slayers have done before him.

Later on in the anime, Giyu reveals that he and Sabito trained together under Urokodaki as well, learning one of the most powerful breathing techniques, with Sabito the stronger of the duo. Unfortunately, he fell to a demon during their Final Selection, with Giyu barely surviving. The dissonance between Giyu’s memory and Tanjiro’s own interactions leaves audiences questioning the true power and strength of Sabito.

4 Eating too Much Desert Caused Mitsuri Kanroji’s Vibrant Hair Color

Season 3, Episode 10, "Love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji"

Mitsuri Kanroji earned her place as one of the strongest Hashira thanks to her unusual body composition. Stronger than the average person — and with a voracious appetite to match — Mitsuri first attempted to lessen herself to fit within the small box society built around women and their roles. Unable to exist in such a relegated and stifling situation while still remaining true to herself, Mitsuri joined the Demon Slayer Corps to give purpose to her strength.

Her character design is widely recognizable thanks to her vibrant green-and-pink hair. While such a hair color palette is far from unusual for anime, the traditional and historical-based world of Demon Slayer needed a reason for the odd coloring. And thus explained it as the result of Mitsuri eating too many sakura mochi as a child, making it one of the more unusual details in the series.

3 Inosuke’s Face Underneath the Mask is too Beautiful

Season 1, Episode 14, "The House with the Wisteria Family Crest"

Inosuke’s boar mask has become an iconic staple of the Demon Slayer universe, similar to the headbands from Naruto or the straw hat from One Piece. Even anime fans unfamiliar with the show can recognize the boar mask as belonging to Demon Slayer, just through how proliferated it’s become.

Yet these anime fans might not realize that underneath the mask, Inosuke’s face is uncharacteristically beautiful. It’s a trait that served him well in going undercover during the Entertainment District Art, but otherwise feels like such a questionable detail to include in a show about demons, swordsmen and finding a way to restore a young girl back into a human.

2 Tanjiro Stumbles Upon the Most Hunted Demon by Accident

Season 1, Episode 7 "Muzan Kibutsuji"

All demons in Demon Slayer originate from just a single, solitary demon: Muzan Kibutsuji. For this reason, the Demon Slayer Corps and the Hashira search tirelessly for him before he can enact his end game plans. As the head of the proverbial snake, the demon slayers believe that ending Muzan could result in all demons being obliterated, thus finally ending their mission and establishing peace and safety in Japan.

Quite early into his demon slaying career, Tanjiro runs into a disguised Muzan white traveling to a mission in Asakusa by accident. With a vast and well-outfitted network of slayers actively looking for Muzan, this accidental meeting seems unlikely, if not downright questionable.

1 Nezuko’s Fan Service Goes Too Far

Season 2, Episode 13 "Layered Memories"

At the start of Demon Slayer, and when she’s turned into a demon after the slaughter of her family, Nezuko is only twelve years old. Years pass between this tragic moment and the beginning of the Entertainment District arc, making Nezuko fourteen years old physically, while still stuck mentally at twelve.

When Nezuko fights Dabi in the Yoshiwara red-light district, she achieves a more mature physical state in her Awakened Form. This allows her to go toe-to-toe with Dabi, putting her on more equal footing with the Upper Six ranked demon. The increased physical state causes her clothes to become tighter and more revealing, dialing up the fan service to a questionable amount, especially when viewers remember that she’s actually fourteen with the mentality of a twelve-year-old.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

TV-MA

Animation

Action

Adventure

Release Date

January 22, 2021

Cast

Natsuki Hanae , Zach Aguilar , Abby Trott , Akari Kitō , Yosh*tsugu Matsuoka

Main Genre

Animation

Seasons

4