Demon Slayer has been a record-breaker ever since the anime was released in 2019. The source for many best-selling light novels and even the highest-grossing anime film Mugen Train, the work by Koyoharu Gotouge generated a million yen in revenue by 2020.
The story based in Taishō era Japan features the sole survivors of the Kamado family, Tanjiro and Nezuko, in their mission to exterminate all demons. Ufotable’s five-star animation of the engrossing storyline skyrocketed the anime’s popularity.
Contrary to popular belief, Demon Slayer manga was equally popular as the animated version when it was first serialized in 2016. It took only seven chapters for Gotouge to leave a lasting impact on the manga industry.
The Surreal Run Of The Demon Slayer Manga
The first volume of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was released by Shueisha in August 2016. Consisting of only seven chapters, the manga received moderate success as it laid the foundation for the story. Tanjiro and Nezuko arrived at Giyu Tomioka’s residence to search for answers about his family’s deaths by the end of the volume.
Demon Slayer had a slow start in Japan and it didn’t reach the likes of Bleach or the top-selling One Piece. In fact, the American audience played a major role in making it a worldwide success. The English sub manga was released in 2018 and by the time the Season 1 anime ended, it had published eight volumes in English and over 100,000 copies were sold within two weeks.
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Then began the domination of DS in the global market. The sales of the manga jumped from 40 million in February 2020 to 120 million by the end of the year, making it the second manga series to sell over 100 million copies after One Piece in 2012 as per Oricon records. The circulation had grown 43x after the debut of the anime.
Anime News Network reported in 2021 that the first volume in the Demon Slayer series became the first to sell a cumulative total of over 5 million copies. Following the release of Volume #19, the franchise sold over 40 million copies and was already setting new records. The trendsetter Volume 1 was complemented by the success of the last serialization, Volume 23, which sold over 5 million copies in just a year.
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What Inspired Koyoharu Gotouge To Write Demon Slayer?
As is the case with most mangakas, Koyoharu Gotouge has avoided the limelight. Not much is known about their personal life because they aren’t very active on social media accounts. What we do know are the mangas that inspired Demon Slayer.
During a ‘twitcast’ interview, Gotouge revealed that the three biggest manga influences for them are Bleach, Naruto, and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure among many others. The interaction dated 2016 is one of the few revelations from the mangaka about their interests and inspirations.
If analyzed meticulously, the Hashira in Demon Slayer is similar to the Gotei 13 in Bleach. Similarly, Gotouge took ideas about swordplay and other fighting techniques from famous shonen classics like Naruto and JBA. The main villain in their work is also inspired by Dio from Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure.
