2019 will undoubtedly go down as the year belonging to Koyoharu Gotoge’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Although the anime began a lot more quietly than one would expect when it initially premiered as part of the Spring anime season, the Summer was a great time for the anime as it became one of the most talked about shows of the year overall. This huge jump in popularity not only was fruitful for the anime series, but the original manga as well as sales of that series have greatly increased. But it turns out it’s not limited to just those two mediums either.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Shueisha has announced that two of the novel spin-offs of the main series, Flower of Happiness and One-Winged Butterfly, will reach 700,000 copies currently in print by December 10th. This is the fastest a series has reached this printed amount from Shueisha’s JUMP j BOOKS.
Written by Aya Yajima, these novels are part of Shueisha’s efforts to spread their franchise to stories in other mediums such as light novels. The first novel, Flower of Happiness, released in Japan on February 4th, and the second, One-Winged Butterfly, was released on October 9th. Given the time between initial release and printed copies, this means these novels are flying off the shelves at a pretty fast pace.
According to Crunchyroll, Shueisha noted that one of the reasons behind the novels’ popularity is, “the fans can read the episodes that are not introduced in the main manga story with illustrations by the original manga author. In particular, the story of the manga in the latest tankobon and Weekly Shonen Jump issues have become very serious, so the novel series that has heartwarming episodes can give the readers some fresh air.”
If you wanted to check out the original Japanese run of the anime for yourself, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba‘s first season is now complete and streaming on Crunchyroll, FunimationNOW, and Hulu. It’s the perfect time to start up the series from the very beginning too as it’s currently airing new episodes of the English dub on Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block.
Originally created by Koyoharu Gotoge, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba first debuted in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in February 2016. VIZ Media fully licensed the series for an English language release, and they officially describe Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba as such:
“Since ancient times, rumors have abounded of man-eating demons lurking in the woods. Because of this, the local townsfolk never venture outside at night. Legend has it that a demon slayer also roams the night, hunting down these bloodthirsty demons. For young Tanjiro, these rumors will soon to become his harsh reality. Ever since the death of his father, Tanjiro has taken it upon himself to support his family. Although their lives may be hardened by tragedy, they’ve found happiness. But that ephemeral warmth is shattered one day when Tanjiro finds his family slaughtered and the lone survivor, his sister Nezuko, turned into a demon. To his surprise, however, Nezuko still shows signs of human emotion and thought… Thus begins Tanjiro’s request to fight demons and turn his sister human again.”
via Crunchyroll
