Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Graphic Novel Volume 1 cover image

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba is a shonen manga (comics for teen boys) from creator Koyoharu Gotouge.  VIZ Media is publishing this manga as a series of graphic novels both in print and digital form.  Demon Slayer follows a boy's quest for revenge against a demon that murdered his family and transformed his sister into a demon.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 7) opens in the Taisho era of Japan (1912 to 1926).  The story introduces Tanjiro Kamado, a kindhearted boy who sells coal in order to support his mother and four siblings.  After one particularly taxing trip to sell coal, Tanjiro returns to his home in the forest to find his family slaughtered.  He discovers that a younger sibling, his sister Nezuko, has herself been transformed into a demon by the unknown demon that killed his family.

Tanjiro and his sister leave their home, but they meet a demon slayer, Giyu Tomioka, who wants to kill Nezuko.  Now, Tanjiro also wants to be a demon slayer, but can he survive the cruel tutelage of Lord Sakonji Urokodaki, a trainers of swordsman?

THE LOWDOWN:  The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba manga is the latest in a line of fine titles that VIZ Media has released in the last year.  Some others high-quality titles include the supreme Golden Kamuy and The Promised Neverland.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Graphic Novel 1 is one of Summer 2018's best comic book debuts.  What makes it so exceptional?  It is Demon Slayer's ability to convey power in simplicity.  Koyoharu Gotouge's art is nice looking, but is not overly detailed, nor are her compositions crowded.  The dialogue and exposition are straight-forward, which makes for graphical storytelling that advances with conviction – relentless like Tanjiro's quest for revenge.

Gotouge's characters are also immediately likable.  There is something universal in Tanjiro's quest; we can feel his pain.  Gotouge presents him to us as a boy full of love and focused on his family.  We can like him for that, so when he wants to cure his sister of being a demon and to slay the demon that destroyed his family, we not only buy into his quest, but we also want to follow him.  There are several good characters in this first volume, but Tanjiro is the star of this excellent manga.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of demon-fighting heroes will want to read the Shonen Jump title, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba.

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9 out of 10