Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Corps Records Mini-Review | An Essential for Fans and Newcomers

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of the most iconic, successful manga and anime franchises ever made. This is an impressive milestone, especially when you recall that the series hasn’t even been out for a full decade. With such a successful series, its fans are bound to flock to the wonderful artwork and expressive characters, and even enticing newcomers in the process. Here is my mini-review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Corps Records, thanks to a complimentary copy courtesy of VIZ Media.

A Demon Slayer Guidebook With Impressive Depth and New Content

While it’s tempting to make these post-mortems more of a clip show to cash in on nostalgia, Demon Slayer’s guidebook shows care and love in every part of its presentation. Yes, there’s an assortment of iconic moments, and the 2-paragraph summaries of critical moments in the series, “100 Legendary Scenes” can feel like there’s not much.

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But beyond those relatively quick pages, you’ll see character bios, clan details, and even details on the epilogue along with bonus chapters. Corps Records is a Demon Slayer guidebook with impressive depth and new content.

These bonus chapters might be familiar to some, but there’s one standout feature that’ll draw in the fans: an assortment of short manga stories that touch on different aspects people love about the series. There’s “Face to Fate!! Interview with the Demons in Hell”; “An Update From Tanjiro”; and “Kimetsu: Behind the Scenes.”

The first small chapter gives brief anecdotes like how the demons felt when slain by various Demon Slayer and Hashira techniques (Insect Breathing, Stone Breathing, and Love Breathing being particularly fun).

The second chapter was the biggest fan-pleasing chapter, in my eyes, as it focuses on a proper epilogue instead of a time-skip, and how not everybody had the same happy ending. Zenitsu overcoming his teen angst was a highly amusing part of this story.

Finally, there’s the emotional expression of gratitude from Koyoharu Gotouge, in a beautiful tribute to their editors and everybody who helped make Demon Slayer a success. In many ways, this is a fantastic collection of art and stories for Demon Slayer fans, but it might be laden with spoilers for the newcomers. This is a narrow-minded approach to the book, however.

Corps Records Should Be in Any Demon Slayer Collection Whether You’re a Fan or a Newcomer

Even if you don’t want the story spoiled to you as a newcomer to this series, you’ll be able to use it as a resource digitally or physically as you go along. It’s remarkably detailed and fans will appreciate it for the additional content. Corps Records should be in any Demon Slayer collection whether you’re a fan or a newcomer.

The physical version costs a bit more but in this case, it’s justified as the quality of the book and its presentation are superb. It feels like a far cry from the more simple paperbacks from back in the day for manga collectors. There’s nice gold lettering as well to make the book pop, and the all-important spine looks fantastic. In a way, the book is almost too pretty to read for fear of damaging it. But that didn’t stop me from diving headlong into its wonderful contents, and I suggest other readers do the same.

_{This review was made possible by VIZ Media, along with a complimentary copy of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Corps Records, available physically and digitally as of September 26, 2023.}