By Barbara James
Thread 6
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Demon Slayer is currently heading toward its final arc with three films set to release in the near future. This trilogy is set to focus on the Infinity Castle arc of Demon Slayer, closing in on the final battle between the Hashira and Muzan who is known to have turned humans into demons, including that of Tanjiro's sister, Nezuko.
Demon Slayer is a unique experience that fortunately cannot be replicated. It is known for its beautiful animation, flashy choreography, emotional impact, and development of lovable characters. But for those who are witnessing the anime on its final run, many are wondering where to turn to next or what to watch while Demon Slayer enters its filming phase. Not to worry: while Demon Slayer is unique in its own right, many other anime feature an aspect or two that is similar to the anime that viewers have come to know and love. Sure, it may not be Tanjiro and the Hashira facing demons, but plenty of anime exist out there that include demon slaying, demon companions, action-packed battle scenes, and beautiful animation.
13 Hell’s Paradise (2023)
Directed by Kaori Makita
During the Edo period, Gabimaru "The Hollow" is a convict and the strongest ninja hailing from the Iwagakure clan where he was kidnapped as a child. Trained to be a killer, he is captured and sentenced to death. However, nothing seems to kill him, and executioner Sagiri promises to pardon his crimes, only under the condition he finds the supposed elixir of life. He and Sagiri, other death row convicts, and their executioners then go to the mysterious island Tengen only to realize that their lives are at stake as they are stranded with the island’s monstrous inhabitants.
Though not largely similar to Demon Slayer, Hell’s Paradise is a refreshing anime that offers exciting and gore-filled combat similarly to what Demon Slayer did. Combined with a story of love, life, and death and a complicated yet well-written cast of characters, Hell’s Paradise is a fun and exciting adventure to follow after catching up with Demon Slayer. But most of all, the epic fight scenes are a bonus, both thrilling and captivating to the viewer’s eye. Hell’s Paradise is the anime of 2023.
Hell's Paradise
TV-MA
Anime
Action
Adventure
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
*Availability in US
- Release Date
- April 1, 2023
- Cast
- Chiaki Kobayashi , Yumiri Hanamori , Alejandro Saab , Rie Takahashi
- Main Genre
- Anime
- Seasons
- 1
12 Solo Leveling (2024)
Directed by Shunsuke Nakashige
Hunter Sung Jin-woo is one of the weakest of his warrior comrades. Though he possesses supernatural abilities, he is incredibly weak compared to the others. Then, one day, when he saves his party from getting wiped out by a strong monster, he is selected by the Program, a magical system that grants him the ability to grow stronger. Jin-woo then rises to become one of the strongest hunters in existence, but that is not without its own personal stakes.
Solo Leveling was the most anticipated anime of 2024. It began first as a web novel of the same name and then as a webtoon, which popularized the franchise significantly. It might not contain demons, but it does involve ferocious and powerful enemies that can be absolutely devastating and clear to an entire cast of characters, similar to the strength exhibited by the demons and Muzan in Demon Slayer. Most importantly, both Solo Leveling and Demon Slayer follow the growth of a singular character, both of whom go from the weakest to the strongest through trial and error. The action-packed fight scenes will make any Demon Slayer fan hungry for more after watching Solo Leveling.
Solo Leveling
Anime
Action
Adventure
- Release Date
- January 6, 2024
- Cast
- Aleks Le , Taito Ban
- Main Genre
- Anime
- Seasons
- 1
- Studio
- A-1 Pictures
- Distributor
- Crunchyroll
11 Blue Exorcist (2011)
Directed by Tensai Okamura
Rin Okumura, along with his twin Yukio, is the son of exorcist Shiro Fujimoto. At least, that is what they were led to believe until he discovers that they are, in fact, the sons of Satan. After losing his father, Rin vows himself to become an exorcist and take down Satan. Rin, alongside his veteran exorcist brother Yukio and friends, begins his journey as an exorcist.
Though different in plot, the premise of Blue Exorcist is nearly similar to that of Demon Slayer, as both protagonists go on an adventure to become a veteran in the demon-slaying craft, demon slayer for Tanjiro and exorcist for Rin, to slay high-ranking demons and defeat the “father” or “creator” of all demons. This means defeating Muzan or Satan. Still, those who enjoyed the adventure of Tanjiro training to become a demon slayer will undoubtedly have fun tagging along with Rin as he trains becoming an exorcist and controlling his otherworldly powers.
Blue Exorcist
Anime
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US
- Release Date
- April 17, 2011
- Main Genre
- Anime
- Production Company
- A-1 Pictures
- Number of Episodes
- 49
10 'Black Butler' (2008 - )
Directed by Toshiya Shinohara
Ciel Phantomhive is the heir to the Phantomhive name and current head of the estate. In addition to running his own company and dealing with other political affairs, Ciel is also the watchdog for the queen of England, often doing favors for her. However, Ciel’s success is not his own to claim, as he has made a deal with the demon Sebastian, who will do anything and everything that Ciel asks of him, in exchange for his soul once Ciel obtains revenge for the murder of his parents.
It’s an interesting concept of demon and human working together for a common cause.
Black Butler is a political anime with fantastical elements involving demons, angels, grim reapers, and other supernatural creatures. It’s a story of revenge, similar to Demon Slayer, though instead of just getting revenge, Tanjiro is also focused on curing his sister. Ciel, on the other hand, just seeks vengeance, having lost everything, not to demons, but to humans. It’s an interesting concept of demon and human working together for a common cause, similar to Tanjiro and his sister Nezuko.
9 'Soul Eater' (2008)
Directed by Takuya Igarashi
Maka is one of many human students at Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA) collecting souls to train their weapons to become death scythes for Death—DMWA’s owner—to use. This anime follows a crew of students featuring Maka, Soul, Death the Kid, sisters Liz and Patty, Black Star, and Tsubaki. This anime oversees their adventures in collecting ninety-nine demon souls and a witch soul.
Soul Eater and Demon Slayer are similar in their own way which is still unique to their own story. While Demon Slayer is focused on a group of humans hunting demons and slaying them to protect them from imminent danger, Soul Eater focuses on the collection of evil human souls to create something more powerful. Moreover, Demon Slayer and Soul Eater both witness the increase in skill and power of a group of individuals, with the Hashira growing more powerful to defeat Muzan and DMWA’s students gaining more power to serve Death. Both are filled with brilliantly choreographed scenes that viewers will never get sick of rewatching.
Soul Eater
TV-14
Action
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
*Availability in US
- Release Date
- April 7, 2008
- Cast
- Laura Bailey , Micah Solusod , Brittney Karbowski , Monica Rial , Todd Haberkorn , Jamie Marchi , Cherami Leigh
- Main Genre
- Action
- Seasons
- 2
- Creator(s)
- Atsushi Ohkubo
- Writers
- Akatsuki Yamatoya
- Streaming Service(s)
- Crunchyroll
8 'Chainsaw Man' (2022)
Directed by Ryu Nakayama and Makoto Nakazono
Denji is a simple human taking odd jobs to merely survive and pay off his deceased father’s debt alongside his little devil companion, Pochita. That is until Denji is sold out by the yakuza and is ambushed by the zombie devil. Pochita enters a contract with Denji and gives him his own heart, thus granting Denji the ability to transform into the Chainsaw Devil. Devil Hunter leader Makima then decides to recruit Denji on the basis of keeping an eye on him as he works to defeat devils and fiends alike.
Though not an exact 1:1 ratio, Chainsaw Man and Demon Slayer both follow a youth whose life is changed traumatically at the hands of another, leading them to follow completely different life paths than originally planned. Along the way, both main characters make new friends in this new challenging world they have to traverse, developing a lovable cast in both Chainsaw Man and Demon Slayer while also maintaining a sense of real-world consequences that fan favorites face, with some of those consequences being death.
Chainsaw Man
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
*Availability in US
- Release Date
- October 11, 2022
- Cast
- Kikunosuke Toya , Suzie Yeung , Ryan Colt Levy , Tomori Kusunoki
- Main Genre
- Anime
- Seasons
- 1
7 'Dororo' (2019)
Directed bty Kazuhiro Furuhashi
Dororo takes place during the Sengoku era, where a feudal lord makes the ultimate sacrifice: the organs and limbs of his son in exchange for village prosperity. The child is then abandoned, at least until prosthetic doctor Jukai finds him and adopts him. Jukai then proceeds to give the child a prosthetic body, naming him Hyakkimaru. From then on, Hyakkimaru fights demons and learns that the more he defeats, the more of his body he regains. Hyakkimaru decides to go out into the world to reclaim the body he once lost, and along the way, he meets a young boy named Dororo who teaches him about living and fighting.
Hyakkimaru and Tanjiro are very similar in terms of character growth and development. Both characters journey to the bigger outside world in an attempt to regain what was lost. In Tanjiro’s case, he is attempting to reclaim his sister’s humanity. In Hyakkimaru’s case, he simply wants to reclaim the limbs and organs lost to his own father’s selfishness and greed. To do so, both characters go on a life-transforming adventure that puts what they cherish at risk, and both are willing to do everything and anything at all costs to protect those very things that they cherish. Viewers who enjoy watching a main character traverse through pain and self-realization will undoubtedly enjoy the character development that occurs in Dororo.
Dororo (2019)
Not Rated
Anime
Action
Adventure
- Release Date
- January 6, 2019
- Cast
- Jason Douglas , Rio Suzuki , Mugihito , Chaney Moore , Adam Gibbs , Hiroki Suzuki , Ty Mahany , Matsumi Sasaki
- Main Genre
- Anime
- Seasons
- 1
Watch on Amazon Prime
6 'InuYasha' (2000-2010)
Directed by Massahi Ikeda (1-44) and Yasunao Aoki (45-167)
High schooler Kagome Higurashi lives on the site of a shrine known as the Bone Eater’s Well. One day while looking for her missing cat, she is pulled into the well by a demon who wants the Shikon Jewel, a very powerful jewel that grants wishes, embedded in her shoulder. In the process of escaping the centipede demon, she awakes half-demon InuYasha who was asleep for 50 years, pinned to a sacred tree by former lover Kikyo. After the jewel is shattered during a kidnap, Kagome and InuYasha go against all odds to find the shards, including going against demons of all kinds.
InuYasha and Kagome’s friendship is nothing short of romantic in comparison to Demon Slayer, which has a central focus on family.
InuYasha and Kagome’s friendship is nothing short of romantic in comparison to Demon Slayer, which has a central focus on family. However, both follow the basic premise of slaying demons to achieve a common goal, and within InuYasha, there are also demon slayers, with one of the remaining ones traveling with InuYasha’s crew. For those interested in the varying types of demons, powers, and emotional telling of hope, InuYasha is a wonderful, old-gen watch.
5 'Jujutsu Kaisen' (2020)
Directed by Sughoo Park (Season 1) and Shota Goshozono (Season 2)
Yuji Itadori is a high school student who is in the Occult Club with a few friends. One day, using a severed finger, curses are suddenly attracted to the club and school, and Jujutsu sorcerer Megumi arrives at the school to exercise the curse. However, when plans fall apart, Yuji resorts to devouring the finger and ultimately hosts Ryomen Sukuna, an ancient sorcerer, in his body. Jujutsu sorcerers want to exercise the curse, but Gojo, Megumi’s teacher, wants to exercise the entity of Sukuna by having Yuji devour the remaining fingers and thus be able to eliminate the curse completely. In the meantime, Yuji has to battle to maintain control over his body.
Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer are both newer anime that have rightfully garnered the attention of many anime fans for their beautiful and stylistic animation and unique storytelling. After all, Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer feature very different concepts, with Jujutsu Kaisen focusing on curses and the latter focusing on demon slaying. However, the vibes presented in both anime are similar in nature: they feature dark storytelling with traces of humor to create an enjoyable read that also invites emotional vulnerability. Lives are thrown upside down when a singular incident occurs, leading to more death and violence than the unprepared protagonist initially foresaw. Those who enjoyed the emotional turmoil of Demon Slayer will also appreciate its distant new-gen cousin, Jujutsu Kaisen.
Jujutsu Kaisen
TV-MA
Animation
Action
Adventure
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
*Availability in US
- Release Date
- October 2, 2020
- Cast
- Junya Enoki , Yuma Uchida , Yuichi Nakamura , Adam McArthur , Asami Seto
- Main Genre
- Animation
- Seasons
- 3
- Studio
- MAPPA
4 'Goblin Slayer' (2018-2023)
Directed by Takaharu Ozaki
Goblin Slayer follows an armored man by the same name. As the name implies, this man makes a great deal of money slaying goblins. Then one day, he encounters a priestess who was on an adventure with others, being the sole survivor of an attack by goblins. The two then work together to take on goblins, resulting in the duo adventuring alongside each other.
However, while both anime feature a protagonist who goes on an adventure to slay a different kind of species, they both do it for different reasons.
Goblin Slayer and Demon Slayer are very similar in terms of premise and storytelling. While Tanjiro slays demons for his own cause, the Goblin Slayer slays exactly what his name implies: goblins. However, while both anime feature a protagonist who goes on an adventure to slay a different kind of species, they both do it for different reasons, with the Tanjiro slaying demons for a more personal cause and Goblin Slayer slaying goblins for a much more practical cause, and that is to make money.
3 'D. Gray-man' (2006-2008)
Directed by Osamu Nabeshima
Allen Walker is a new recruit of the Black Order, an organization of exorcists who defend humanity from the Noah Family. Allen works to defeat demons known as Akuma, who do the bidding of the Millenium Earl. The Millenium Earl in D.Gray-man serves as a creator, who revives the dead and turns the dead into demons.
Like a good deal of anime that focus on the core concept of demons and the violence that they bring to the world.
D.Gray-man features plenty of religious symbolism and imagery, especially in the premise of the plot itself. Like a good deal of anime that focus on the core concept of demons and the violence that they bring to the world, D.Gray-man also falls in suit of establishing demons as dangerous creatures that are brought to live to wreak havoc on humanity and destroy it, which is what makes Demon Slayer and D.Gray-man so similar. With Allen Walker taking the lead in this anime and defeating demons to save humanity, viewers who enjoy watching extremely talented fighters take demons head-on, such as Tanjiro and the Hashira in Demon Slayer, will also enjoy D.Gray-man for these exact reasons.
Watch on Crunchyroll
2 'Attack on Titan' (2013-2023)
Directed by Tetsuro Araki (seasons 1-3), Masashi Koizuka (Seasons 2 and 3), Yuichiro Hayashi and Jun Shishido (Season 4)
Attack on Titan follows Eren Jaegar as he transforms from a young child to a Survey Corps soldier after witnessing a Titan, a mindless creature that takes on the form of a gigantic human, devour his mother and destroy his life. Vowing revenge, Eren stops at nothing to try and wipe titans from the planet, even if that means having to become a titan himself.
Although both stories are different in plot and time period, both Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer share various similarities. Both feature larger-than-life enemies, with the large cast of characters dealing with said enemies in sometimes unstoppable hordes. Furthermore, both stories start with a simple premise: the main character is looking for revenge of some sort, though Eren and Tanjiro’s endgames are both different.
Attack on Titan
- Created by
- Hajime Isayama
- First Film
- Attack on Titan
- First TV Show
- Attack On Titan
- First Episode Air Date
- September 28, 2013
- Cast
- Josh Grelle , Bryce Papenbrook , Yûki Kaji , Yui Ishikawa
Directed by Yasuhiro Irie
Both Edward and Alphonse Elric are alchemists whose father abandoned them at a young age, and their mother passed due to an illness. They were inspired to pursue alchemy due to their father’s talent as an alchemist, and one day, once they learned more about alchemy from Izumi Curtis, the duo attempted to bring back their dead mother, which is considered taboo in the alchemy world. As a horrifying consequence, Al’s body is destroyed, and Ed loses a leg. But to keep his brother alive, Ed also sacrifices an arm and transfers Al’s soul into a suit of iron. The two then begin their journey to regain what was lost: their bodies.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood shares a very similar concept of a main character doing everything in their power to save their troubled sibling. As Tanjiro attempts to save Nezuko from life as a demon, Ed also attempts to save Al from dying due to their carelessness. It’s a story of sibling love, and both anime prove that nothing is stronger than that.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
TV-14
Animation
Action
Adventure
Drama
Fantasy
Where to Watch
- stream
- rent
- buy
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US
- Release Date
- April 9, 2009
- Cast
- Romi Pak , Rie Kugimiya , Shinichirô Miki , Fumiko Orikasa , Hidekatsu Shibata , Mamoru Miyano , Kenji Utsumi , Minami Takayama
- Main Genre
- Anime
- Seasons
- 4
KEEP READING: Your Favorite Anime Is Getting a Live-Action Adaptation
- TV
- Animation
- Demon Slayer (2021)
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