During an information panel at the Jump Festa '21 event, Luffy's voice actress Mayumi Tanaka read out a message from the creator of the One Piece literary franchise, Eiichiro Oda. Part of the message included an effusive praise for the successful manga written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge, Kimetsu no Yaiba. The message expressed:
"Hello Jump Festa viewers! I'm sure it's been quite a troubling year, hasn't it? I'm sure there are many people who were strongly affected by COVID-19. It felt like something out of a dream and yet, in the midst of all that, people from many industries worked hard to make people smile. I want to applaud those people. That was the kind of year I feel this was.
At Jump, Kimetsu no Yaiba was really amazing. I enjoyed how he was able to rescue the feelings of so many people. That's how I like it when it's a manga, somehow it moved me!
Koyoharu Gotouge began publishing the manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in February 2016 and completed it in May 2020. The publisher published the 22nd volume of the compilation on October 2, and the 23rd and final volume on December 4. The work recently reached 120 million copies in circulation and the final volume exceeded 2,855 million copies sold between November 30 and December 6, 2020, breaking the overall record of Oricon in its history.
The manga inspired a 26-episode anime adaptation produced by Ufotable Studios, under the direction of Haruo Sotozaki and scripts written by the studios themselves, released in April 2019. Subsequently, a film entitled Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen, was released in cinemas in Japan on October 16.
Synopsis of Kimetsu no Yaiba
In the Taisho era in Japan, Tanjirou Kamado is a kind and intelligent boy who lives with his family in the mountains. Tanjirou has become the head of his family after the death of his father, making constant trips to the village at the foot of the mountain to sell firewood and charcoal.
However, his life changes when one day, returning home after a night out, he discovers that his family has been killed by a demon. Tanjirou and her sister Nezuko are the only survivors now, but she has been turned into a demon, although surprisingly she still shows emotions and seems to have a sense of reason. After an encounter with Giyuu Tomioka, a demon hunter; Tanjirou decides to become a demon hunter to hunt down the killer of her family and find a way to bring Nezuko back to normal.
Source: Mainchi Shimbun's Mantan-Web
© 吾峠 呼世晴 (著) / SHUEISHA 集英社
