7 Years Ago Today, Anime Fans Never Guessed Demon Slayer Would Be a Monster Hit

Seven years ago today, the anime adaptation for Koyoharu Gotoge’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba made its debut, and fans never would have guessed it would become the monster hit that it is today. Gotoge’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was already a quiet success within the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, but it wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire. The series had its fans, but even as it started to make its way through its final few arcs it was still buried by other louder successes like My Hero Academia.

That would change significantly in the years to come, of course, thanks to the premiere of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba seven years ago today, on April 6, 2019. It wasn’t as easy as that, however, as while the anime was still getting an audience, it took quite a while for it to catch on. On the cusp of the new decade, Demon Slayer rode a wave that hasn’t been recreated since. It was the first truly viral anime hit of the 2020s, and it was a surprise monster hit that no one really saw coming.

Demon Slayer Wasn’t a Hit When It Premiered 7 Years Ago Today

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba introduced fans to Tanjiro Kamado, a young boy whose family was attacked by a demon. This led to their deaths, and his sister’s sudden transformation into a demon. This began his journey to try and find a way to save his sister from this affliction while joining the much bigger war against the demons. But while the franchise has since gone on to have multiple seasons and record breaking feature films, the anime took quite a long time to even get that initial level of attention from fans.

Airing during a quiet Spring 2019 anime schedule, Demon Slayer did have some initial hooks for anime fans. Not only was it adapting a notable Shonen Jump franchise, but it was going to be produced by Ufotable, the same studio behind the incredible Fate/stay night anime releases. This wasn’t enough to get a ton of attention, however, as the first cour came and went without much fanfare around it. The anime had its dedicated fans, but it had yet to breakout among the rest of the Spring 2019 offerings.

It seemed like that was going to be the case for the rest of the season, but everything changed with Episode 19. This episode marked the end of Tanjiro’s fight against Rui, and saw him tap into the Hinokami Kagura for the first time. It was such an impressive sequence that the moment went immensely viral on social media platforms. Garnering the attention of not only anime fans who had yet to see any of the series before, but attracting a whole new wave of interest from those outside the anime bubble, Demon Slayer truly broke through into the mainstream Internet in a way not seen before.

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Demon Slayer Changed the Anime World Forever

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba essentially became the anime of the 2020s thanks to this viral success. It drove a huge wave of fans to check out the series, and it was just at the right time. The world would soon shut down not a few months later, and the anime was able to capitalize on all of that popularity with its debut feature film, Mugen Train, continuing the story. This helped raise the notoriety of the series to such a success that the film became one of the most successful releases in Japan’s box office history.

Demon Slayer continued to make good on that viral success of Episode 19, and then followed it up with a new movie, multiple seasons, and even a grand finale trilogy breaking even more records all these years later. The anime became the franchise for not only fans getting into the medium for the first time (especially thanks to COVID-19 giving the world much more free time to explore anime releases), but was the anime that brought a lot of fans back too. It broke through into the mainstream that anime hasn’t been since the 2000s.

It marked an entire generation of anime releases, and has yet to let go. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is now a monster hit with guaranteed success for anything it has planned for the future. But it’s wild to realize that this wasn’t always the case. No fan could have guessed that the anime franchise would grow to be the monster hit of the 2020s when it first started seven years ago, and looking back on it all, it’s clear that it’s going to be the marquee release of the decade.

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