Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

"I do. It’s quite strong horror, but the format makes it much more palatable. Parents and librarians seem to be happy for their children to read it, and I think it’s a lovely way into horror. I love manga and anime , and Demon Slayer was the first one I tried because my oldest son loves it. As your children get older you have fewer things that they want to talk to you about. He had constant enthusiasm and passion for all these anime he was watching so I thought I would try it and then share it with him. Demon Slayer instantly draws you in. It’s really frightening but the characters are so strong. Characters in most manga are so well drawn; people are quite extreme and the main character in Demon Slayer , Tanjirō, is so brave and so kind. He’s your Luke Skywalker classic, you know he will always do the right thing, will always be brave, totally reliable, a loyal friend, just that lovely character that you absolutely want to succeed. Straight away from the first episode you are with Tanjirō, and then you’re desperate to find out how he gets on. I started on the anime and now I’ve got a growing collection of the books. It has really opened my eyes to a whole world of a different kind of storytelling, which is so interesting from a writer’s perspective. With manga, so much of it is kind of stream of consciousness stuff, so you’re inside the characters’ heads. That took a bit of getting used to. I’m hearing their thoughts and they’re telling me what they’re going to do before they actually do it, which is different to the way that novelists write stories, where you’re supposed to show not tell. But it’s really interesting how they make that work in manga and once you’re used to it, it becomes quite natural. “If you like stories, there’s a whole world there that’s just waiting to be explored” Whenever I speak to children age 9-12 or 13, so many of them are loving manga and it’s definitely getting more popular. For a lot of them their favourite is Demon Slayer , it just really appeals. It’s so simple in the way that it’s good and it’s evil, but Tanjirō is such an empathetic character and even with the demons that he destroys, he sees what happens to them in their lives, what made them become demons, what made them be so evil. It’s such a lovely way of seeing the world through Tanjirō’s eyes. The characters are amazing, and it’s funny. I think all manga have a lot of humour in them. Well, all of the ones that I’ve been through so far apart from Attack on Titan , that’s just horror, but amazing. Demon Slayer is funny, the characters are lovable and you’re with them on those adventures and battling those demons. It’s brilliant storytelling. I am very excited about Demon Slayer and manga. It feels very magical because it opened up a world of stories to me that have brought me so much happiness. It’s really comforting as well and got me through tricky times when things have been difficult. On school visits, it’s lovely to be able to engage with children about things that they love. You get that connection with them, and then when you tell them about your books they are far more likely to be interested because they know that you understand the things that they like."

"In America the Demon Slayer anime is so popular that it has become synonymous with anime. In Japan the film has broken a lot of records. The manga came first and the anime is quite true to the manga. The anime has a paint-like feel to it, very blocky. The manga has a darker feel to the art style. It’s about Tanjirō who had his family massacred by a demon while he was out, except one of his little sisters, Nezuko, who got turned into a demon. Tanjirō tries to convince himself that his sister is fine, he is in denial. Then a demon slayer comes to kill his sister but he convinces the demon slayer that his sister is human. The demon slayer gives Tanjirō a pep-talk, and Tanjirō decides to become a demon slayer and kill the demon who massacred his family, who happens to be the leader of the demons. The demons are very clever, like killer humans. There are a few special demons that act more human-like than others. Tanjirō finds a master to train him in water breathing, which is a technique to kill demons. He enhances his sword with the power of water, passes the test and sets out on a quest to kill all the demons. The relationships between the characters are deep, not just between the brother and sister but also among the demons, and with the demon slayers who go with Tanjirō. It’s a revenge story with a pretty basic plot, but the characters have a very in-depth feel to them. It’s quite violent and dark but not gory. I think this manga is for children age 11 and up unless they are very sensitive. It depends. It’s usually quite predictable what happens so it’s not too important, but if they are long series with arcs it might get confusing, and if the story is good why would you want to skip it? But you can check a fan page and find out if an arc isn’t as good as the earlier part of the series, and they often have recap chapters towards the end of an arc. With shōjo manga the arcs are often shorter. With seinen it’s more important to read the books in order because the story is more developed. The criticism is fair, I suppose. Almost all seinen manga are absurdly violent, which is not the same for josei manga. But it’s really easy to ignore it and just focus on the story. About the stereotypes, for me it’s an added layer of comedy, I just think it’s stupid if there are stereotypical characters and dialogues. I prefer the ones with demons. There are a lot of manga and anime that only serve to fuel the author’s fantasies, so you have to make sure you don’t pick those. There are sites that have manga and anime sample chapters and episodes and a lot of reviews, so that helps to filter out bad ones. In shōnen it’s very similar to a Marvel film, it’s violent but not blood-spattered. And there are different types of girl. When Naruto says “let me protect you”, Sakura beats him up and says she doesn’t need his help. When I read One Piece I didn’t care if the dad left his responsibilities at home to join pirates, it’s only for the character development and story later in the series. I don’t actually think he sets an example to be followed in real life. But you shouldn’t have young children reading seinen manga, because many of them are a bit extreme in lots of ways. So parents should realise that just because it looks like comics doesn’t mean it’s for a child at all. Sign up here for our newsletter featuring the best children’s and young adult books, as recommended by authors, teachers, librarians and, of course, kids. One of my favourite manga is Tokyo Ghoul but I didn’t recommend it as one of my five best manga for children and teenagers because it’s a seinen. It’s a manga for people in their mid to end teens and adults, because it’s horribly gory. Like The Promised Neverland , Tokyo Ghoul has layers and layers and there’s always action and a lot of character development. I like the constant keeping on your toes. But I wouldn’t read this manga if I worried about my mental health because it can be a bit depressing and the characters go through huge depression. If you feel down then Pokémon is great. For mid to end teens Attack on Titan is another good manga. Jujutsu Kaisen and Naruto are popular manga for readers in their early teens, and Assassination Classroom and One-Punch Man as well. One-Punch Man is a parody of overpowered superheroes, it’s really funny. Dr. Stone is for kids around 8-12, it’s a more educational manga series. Dragon Ball Super has lots of fighting, it’s like Naruto but more child friendly. I never paid too much attention to the love arc when I read it. Like Pokémon , Dragon Ball has lots of iterations. Bleach , Naruto and One Piece are often called the big three of manga or anime, they set a lot of culture for later ones. They have more sexist parts because they were early ones, but you don’t focus on that when reading. The fighting is the most important part."