How Demon Slayer Dramatically Failed One of Its Most Promising Characters
The story of this hero's growth could be the most exciting in the whole anime, but the new season of Demon Slayer robbed fans of the opportunity to see it.
Zenitsu Agatsuma is a demon slayer and one of the main characters who travels with Tanjiro Kamado.
Zenitsu is cowardly and believes that he will not live long due to his dangerous work as a demon slayer, so he often pesters the girls he meets, begging them to marry him.
Zenitsu has low self-esteem, which makes it difficult for him to live up to other people's expectations as well as his own — when he senses difficulty or danger, he runs away, hides, or simply cries.
This often causes him to lose faith in his abilities, and even when it's obvious, Zenitsu denies that he has won the victory with his powers. He believes that his calling is to live a humble life, not to kill demons.
Of course, self-doubt and a certain amount of cowardice are Zenitsu's personality traits, but according to some fans, the anime creators made him too cartoonish, which even began to annoy the viewers.
"I just think he got shafted by the shonen anime/manga's requirement for a dedicated relief character which usually manifests as loud screamy boy. […] I think if he weren't reduced to 'screaming' + 'horny' for a lot of the anime/manga's rung he would be received a lot more warmly by western anime audiences," Reddit user ClockTate72 commented.
Many believe that the fact that Zenitsu in the anime seems to be made up of tears and screams wastes the potential of the character.
The anime creators could simply give him these not-so-nice traits but make him as multi-faceted character as Tanjiro.
Zenitsu is quite a strong character with interesting techniques, but in the anime he plays the role of a fool rather than a hero whose development would be interesting to follow.
"Zenitsu is wasted potential in general. Could have been so much more than a comedic relief. He could have been the "one-slash man" of the series and have a proper character arc," Reddit user KKylimos shared.
Many would be interested to see how Zenitsu fights his complexes, overcomes his fears, and learns to use a mighty power not only while sleeping, but also when his mind is clear.
However, this does not seem to be the case, at least in the third season, as the character Zenitsu will most likely not appear in this arc of the anime in the same way as he did in the manga.
Fans will be able to find out for sure on April 9, when the third season of Demon Slayer is released.