Kiang Carina

The Kimetsu Boom—A Brief Study of Demon Slayer’s Socioeconomic Impact

Without a doubt, almost any pop-culturally relevant Japanese person will

know about Demon Slayer, or Kimetsu no Yaiba 鬼滅の刃 . This anime, and also the
subsequent movie conquered Japan in a perpetually unprecedented way, Japanese
from all walks of life were captivated by this “hot-blooded” anime. Soon, its popularity
had also spread to anime fans or “otaku” all over the world. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu
no Yaiba’s influence goes far beyond what will be mentioned in this report, yet due to
the restrictions in length, we can only have a panorama of the situation.

Kimetsu no Yaiba had in fact raised a lot of discussions about whether it was
‘worth the hype’. For some people, they consider it to be simply a cliche JUMP
manga, with an ordinary plot. Indeed, the plot of Demon Slayer follows the traditional
Hero’s Journey, as proposed by Joseph Campbell (1949). Elements such as the call
to adventure, or meeting a mentor can all be found in Kimetsu no Yaiba. Moreover,
the plot is quite consistent with the “Story Circle” theory that was proposed by Dan
Harmon. For instance,our protagonist Kamado Tanjiro 竃門炭治郎 is not at all familiar
with the world of demons at the beginning of the story, and lives with his happy
family, which matches the first stage suggested by Harmon, that a character is in a
zone of comfort. But within the first act, everything has changed abruptly, the entire
Kamado family is slayed by a demon, except for his sister Nezuko who becomes a
demon herself, this reflects how the protagonist enters an unfamiliar situation.
Throughout the story, Tanjiro then learns to adapt to this situation and continues to
grow stronger, in the very end, he returns to the familiar situation transformed. As
Dan Harmon mentions, many best-selling movies uses this Story Circle structure, this
is especially true for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. It is quite evident that Demon
Slayer’s plot itself is in line with conventional popular story frameworks, such as the
“Hero’s Journey” and the “Story Circle”. Sometimes, it is the simple stories that can
really reach the hearts’ of the audience, Kimetsu no Yaiba is precisely the type of
anime that can give the audience laughter and warmth, but also sorrow and tears.

In order to examine how Kimetsu no Yaiba influenced Japan and even the
world, let’s start with some big numbers. According to CharaBiz Data (2021), Kimetsu
no Yaiba, or Demon Slayer, which is the name international fans are more
accustomed to, is the highest grossing franchise in 2020. It had defeated other very
popular franchises, like Anpanman, Pokémon, Mickey Mouse or Peanuts (Snoopy). It
was estimated that Demon Slayer earns a revenue of ¥1 trillion ($8.75 billion) yearly,
starting from 2020 (Matteo, 2021). At the height of the Kimetsu Boom, one can find
Demon Slayer goods basically everywhere in Japan, from kids’ stationary, candy,
figures to perfume, JR train and airplanes, if a company wants their products to sell,
a collaboration with Demon Slayer is quite a good choice. The series generated
tremendous revenues in the sales of goods, video games, manga, music, stage play
and even in tourism. It was said that the appalling sales of the Demon Slayer manga
books actually saved the entire Japanese printing industry indirectly (Zhao, 2022). Of
course, Demon Slayer’s contribution to the Japanese economy and society was
absolutely profound, one knows immediately just by looking at all the Kimetsu collab
goods that are available.

To talk about the huge success of Demon Slayer, one cannot avoid talking
about the 2020 movie, Demon Slayer The Movie Mugen Train 『劇場版「鬼滅の刃」
無 限 列 車 編 ). The movie was released in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic,
however, it did not have any trouble bringing viewers to the cinemas. According to
Kogyo Tsushinsha’s data, the movie was the highest grossing Japanese movie ever
to be made, with a domestic box office revenue of JPY¥40.43 billion. It had also
gained a global box office of USD$507.1 million, making it the movie with the highest
revenue internationally in 2020, making it the first ever non-Hollywood movie to
obtain this title, according to The Numbers. Viewers all over the world were touched
by the movie, especially by one of the main characters in the movie, Rengoku
Kyojuro(煉獄杏壽郎). The movie provided a lot of emotional value to the audience, a
lot of people even wept watching the movie. The emotional value given to the
audience was a major factor that contributed to the huge success of the series, and
the enormous revenue made by the movie.

Since the film obtained the domestic revenue of over ¥40 billion, or 400 億円,
in Japanese, Rengoku Kyojuro then became affectionately known as ‘the man of 40
billion’ (400 億 の 男 ). Oricon News quoted the remarks given by some fans,
‘[Rengoku] is not just the 40 billion man, he is now the face of Japan’ (2021). From
this, we can see that in the eyes of fans, the success of the Demon Slayer movie has
already become a source of national pride. In some sense, considering the
unprecedented USD$507.1 million international box office of Demon Slayer The
Movie Mugen Train, an achievement never accomplished by any Japanese film , one
can hardly say that it is an exaggeration to call Rengoku Kyojuro the face of Japan.

Furthermore, Demon Slayer had also contributed to the revitalization of

traditional theatre and crafts, such as kyogen noh and kabuki. Demon Slayer had
already been adapted into kyogen noh play, which will be able to attract young
audiences to theatre. There is also news that it will soon be adapted into a kabuki
play as well. Viewing the official website of the kyogen noh play (https://kimetsu-
nohkyogen.com/), we could also see the image of Tanjiro wearing traditional costume
on many official merchandise. One noteworthy good is the kyosensu 京扇子 , a form
of Japanese traditional craft, produced by the Tomatsuya, sold at the price of ¥25000
each. In recent years, there has always been a lot of discussions about the decline,
or even demise of traditional arts and craft in Japan. The kyosensu example actually
gives traditional craftsmen a lot of insight as to what they can do to boost their sales.

In addition, the pop-culture tourism, or what is often referred to as 聖地巡礼 in

Japanese, generated by Kimetsu no Yaiba should also be taken into account. Pop-
culture tourism, also known as location tourism is when fans of a certain movie, TV
series, or ACG visits a certain location featured in the works, according to Wikipedia.
Across the nation, there are dozens, or even up to hundreds of sights related to
Demon Slayer. Some spots have scenery that are very similar to what is shown in
the anime, such as the Ashikaga Flower Park あしかがフラワーパーク in Tochigi,
others may just have a name that is associated with characters or names that
appeared in the anime. Shrines across Japan with the name Kamado 竃 門 , the
surname of the protagonist, had experienced a significant increase in worshipers
since the boom of Kimetsu no Yaiba (Nikkan Sports, 2020). This kind of pop-culture
tourism or “pilgrimage” is very beneficial to the domestic economy, as tourists not
only have to travel far to their destination via public transportation or driving, they
often need to pay the entrance fees to the attractions as well. And the other types of
spending, such as food and souvenir also amount up to a considerable sum. The
revenue generated by this type of pop-culture tourism should not be neglected.

As aforementioned, Demon Slayer is not only popular for the Japanese

people, its influence is global; it was the first-ever non-Hollywood film to have
become the annual international box office champion. On the New Yorker, Alt
referred to the Mugen Train movie as ‘the Viral Blockbluster from Japan’ (2021), and
that it proves that anime is now no longer part of the peripheral subculture (of
America) but has made its place to the mainstream. Indeed, Japanese anime had
been quite popular on this planet for decades already, from the era of Ultraman and
Kamen Rider, to the recent works like Demon Slayer, or Spy x Family. Yet, the
popularity of Japanese anime in the West has always been considered as a type of
subculture, and non-Japanese people in the West are often stigmatized as ‘weebs’
or ‘weeabo’. But in recent years, more and more Euro-American youngsters are
fans of anime, in places like Ikebukuro or Akihabara, we can easily find foreign
tourists who travelled to Japan because of Japanese ACG. Moreover, foreigners
learning Japanese due to ACG is very common around the globe.

For centuries following the rise of Europe on the global stage, the world has
taken Euro-centrism and Americanism as the norm, no one finds it odd that
everywhere on this planet, so many people are eating McDonald’s and watching
Hollywood movies. Nevertheless, with the increasing popularity of Japanese ACG,
manga, kpop, and even the more recent budding of the Chinese manhua; one might
begin to wonder, is our world changing? While hard power is dependant on many
factors and may lead to an aggressive national image, soft power is the one that
can ‘conquer’ the hearts of people. However, without any hard power, no country
can speak of soft power at all. To further explain this, if a country is so poor that its
people are starving, it has no resources to even speak of things like CCI. With the
increased importance of East Asia on the world stage, this part of the world might
have increased influence in the mainstream entertainment industry in places like
USA or the EU.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has an all-reaching and deep impact on the
various facets of the Japanese society and economy, from its record-high box office
records, revenue from the franchise, effects on traditional Japanese culture, to the
boost in tourism. Nevertheless, the effect of the series is not just domestic, but
international. In the future, we may be able to see more of East Asia and Japan’s
presence on the international stage.
References

Alt, M. (2021, June 18). “Demon Slayer”: The Viral Blockbuster from Japan. The New Yorker.
Retrieved June 4, 2023, from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/demon-
slayer-the-viral-blockbuster-from-japan

Campbell, J. (1949). The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Princeton University Press.

『CharaBiz DATA 2021(20)』5 月末発刊決定！ 今年で 20 冊目となるキャラビズ資料集の決

定版.CharaBiz.com. (n.d.)
https://web.archive.org/web/20211203202441/https://www.charabiz.com/book_detail.php?
article_id=12007 Archived from the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved June 2, 2023.

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-Hen (2020) - Financial Information. (n.d.). The Numbers.
https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Kimetsu-no-Yaiba-Mugen-Ressha-Hen-(2020-Japan)

Mateo, A. (2021, October 15). "Toyo Keizai: Demon Slayer Franchise's Merchandising Is in
900 Billion Yen Range". Anime News
Network. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-10-15/toyo-keizai-demon-slayer-
franchise-merchandising-is-in-900-billion-yen-range/.178485

Pineda, R. (2021, May 9). "Demon Slayer Is Now the #1 Film From 2020 Worldwide". Anime
News Network. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-05-09/demon-slayer-is-now-
the-no.1-film-from-2020-worldwide/.172584

Pop-culture tourism - Wikipedia. (2012, August 1). Pop-culture Tourism - Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop-culture_tourism

Zhao, H. (2022). Research on marketing strategies used in Japanese anime industry taking
the demon slayer as an example. Proceedings of the 2022 2nd International
Conference on Enterprise Management and Economic Development (ICEMED 2022),
731–734. https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.220603.117

映画『鬼滅の刃』興収 400 億円突破でファン歓喜 煉獄さんが“400 億の男”から“日本の

顔”に. (2021, May 24). ORICON NEWS. https://www.oricon.co.jp/news/2194366/full/

「鬼滅の刃」の聖地？各地の「竈門神社」で参拝者増 - 社会 : 日刊スポーツ. (2020, October

20). nikkansports.com.
https://www.nikkansports.com/general/nikkan/news/202010190000733.html

【栃木】あしかがフラワーパーク、奇跡の大藤が『鬼滅の刃』の聖地として話題に. (2022,
April 22). Skyticket 観光ガイド. https://skyticket.jp/guide/459462

歴代ランキング - CINEMA ランキング通信. (n.d.). 歴代ランキング - CINEMA ランキング通

信. http://www.kogyotsushin.com/archives/alltime/. Retrieved 28 May 2023.

「能 狂言『鬼滅の刃』」. (n.d.). 「能 狂言『鬼滅の刃』」. https://kimetsu-

nohkyogen.com/