Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, one of the best-selling media franchises of all time, is estimated to be worth a total of $9.3 billion in total sales between merchandise, box office, home release, book and music single sales. The manga specifically is the eighth-best-selling series of all time with over 150 million copies in circulation. It also has the greatest average sales per volume of all time at 6.52 million. With regards to Shōnen Jump series in particular, it's only surpassed in manga sales by One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto and KochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops.
At the rate things are going, Demon Slayer could soon reach Naruto levels of success. It certainly has the makings of a Shōnen Jump classic. Of course, there are plenty who will say the series is overrated and its popularity is undeserved. In order to truly ascertain the worth of Demon Slayer, it's necessary to look at its rise, positive and negative qualities and what's in store for the anime in the near future.
It's worth noting that much of Demon Slayer's success comes from domestic sales. The Mugen Train movie, for example, is the single highest-grossing anime film of all time at $500 million in box office sales, but less than 2/5 of that comes from overseas sales. According to Oricon polls, over 90% of the Japanese public is familiar with the series. There are even politicians who will reference their favorite characters and quote the series. Whatever Demon Slayer's standing in the rest of the world, Japan seems more than capable of ensuring the franchise is not soon forgotten.
Much of the franchise's popularity comes from its outstanding anime adaption, but it goes a little further back than that. In order to get a good adaption, the manga itself has to be popular. Sure enough, the Demon Slayer manga has a healthy number of color pages to its name, something artists are only supposed to draw when their manga consistently ranks highly in the weekly polls of Shōnen Jump. The Demon Slayer anime has as much effort put into it as is necessary to reflect the apparent quality of its source material.
As for the story itself, Demon Slayer has a good number of positive qualities to keep fans hooked. The characters are well-written, the action is intense and the comedy is surprisingly lighthearted under the circumstances. As far as stories go, it's certainly one of the Shōnen Jump catalog's better-told installments.
The anime not only faithfully adapts Demon Slayer but also significantly enhances it. The animation is beautiful, the music is moving and the voice acting is on point. An anime that surpasses manga is rare in the industry, which is part of what makes Demon Slayer so special.
It's worth noting that the anime's pacing is quick by many standards. Since it's a seasonal anime, it can focus on telling as much of the story as possible in as little time as needed. Furthermore, it doesn't have to pad the runtime or rely on filler to avoid catching up to the manga.
Naruto, in comparison, definitely has a problem with filler. For both the original anime and Shippuden, roughly 2/5 of the episodes contain material that doesn't happen in the manga. Between the two, a grand total of 426 of Naruto's 720 anime episodes are filler. When nearly 60% of an anime is made up of non-canon material, it can come off as a waste of valuable time.
Of course, as with any series, Demon Slayer has its own points of contention among viewers. The story and fights can be seen as somewhat generic by Shōnen battle series standards, but it gets a pass because it's still well-executed. A comparable series in this regard would be Black Clover, which heavily relies on the tropes of its genre but uses them to great effect. The character designs in the manga, while good, have varying levels of quality and can even dip below average. Luckily, the anime rectifies this mistake by making consistent character models with clean lines and proper detail. Such flaws are often emphasized by some who aren't as thrilled by the series as others, but they don't have to be what seals the franchise's fate.
If the Demon Slayer anime can maintain its quality from Season 2 onward, it will definitely go down as one of the biggest anime of all time. The series is already a cultural icon in Japan. It may have its faults, but they can generally be overlooked for how well it does everything else. If the franchise can rake in at least another billion dollars while it's still going, which seems more than likely, then that should successfully put it on par with the Naruto juggernaut in terms of success.
