Koyoharu Gotouge - Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)
Koyoharu Gotouge (吾峠呼世晴), born May 5, 1989, is the author of the Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) original manga series. Increasing in popularity, the manga was first serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in February 2016. The popularity of the series has grown exponentially especially after the animation adaptation made its debut on April 6, 2019. Not much is known about the author, besides that fact Gotouge uses a self portrait of a crocodile wearing glasses to identify with the audience and prefers to keep his himself private and a mystery.
History
Gotouge participated in the 70th Jump Treasure Newcomer Manga Awards in 2013 at the age of 24, with the work Kagarigari. Kagarigari is a one shot vampire-slaying manga consisting of 45 pages that was released in April 2013. The next year in 2014, Gotouge published his debut works in the Jump Next 2014 Vol.2 with a 45 page oneshot manga titled Monju Shirou Kyoudai. Later that year, he created a 46 page oneshot titled Rokkotsu-san which was published in Weekly Shonen Jump 2014 issue 39. The oneshot was part of the entry #3 of Jump's Golden Future Cup. Gotouge created a new one-shot, Haeniwa no Zigzag, released again in Weekly Shonen Jump 2015 and the 21st year, the next year, 2015. The plot is about a guy who has a curious ability to remove curses, but not out of good will.
Gotouge launched his first manga serialization with Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer), in the 11th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump 2016 that would turn out to be his big break.
Work
Kimetsu no Yaiba Series - Based on the adventure, dark fantasy, and martial arts genre manga by Koyoharu Gotoge, serialized and debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine Volume 11 of 2016. The anime adaption of Kimetsu no Yaiba Demon Slayer is an award winning series that aired from April 6 to September 28, 2019. Running for 26 episodes, Demon Slayer is licensed by Aniplex of America. Announced in the 27th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump and adapted by Ufotable, the show has won several awards including “Best TV anime”. The English anime dub premiered on Cartoon Network Adult Swim’s toonami on October 13, 2019.
About Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)
Set in a world not too different from the Edo period in Japan, Tanjiro is a cheerful boy in charge of the family business selling charcoal living a humble yet happy life. One day as usual Tanjiro departs into town by foot to sell charcoal however, is unable to make it back home by nightfall. He returns the next day to find his entire family recently murdered, apart from his younger sister.
Having transformed into a Demon herself Nezuko is unable to recognize her brother. Tanjiro not entirely sure as to what has occurred, the two are soon confronted by a Demon Slayer named Giyu Tomioka.
After Tanjiro resolves the conflict with the Demon Slayer, Giyu instructs Tanjiro to seek out a former Demon Slayer named Urokodaki on Sagiri mountain. Searching for answers and overcoming obstacles, during his journey Tanjiro is met by a stern old man in a tengu mask. After the old man reveals himself to be the former Demon Slayer Urokodaki, Tanjiro tests his conviction. How far he is willing to go to protect his sister, to avenge his family. Intent on hunting the Demon responsible for the murder of his family in hopes of finding a cure for his sister Nezuko; Tanjiro moves towards the path of the Demon Slayer.
Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) Manga Release
The manga illustrated and written by Koyoharu Gotouge, Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) is an adventure, dark fantasy, martial arts manga. The English version of the manga is digitally published, translated, and printed by Viz Media. Shueisha started releasing the series concurrently on Manga Plus in English and Spanish in January of 2019. First Serialized February 15, 2016 in the 11th issue of the Weekly Shōnen Jump.
Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) Light Novel
Demon Slayer Light Novel - Demon Slayer: Flower of Happiness is a light novel based on Koyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. Aya Yajima wrote the first novel for the franchise on February 4, Kimetsu no Yaiba Shiawase no Hana. The second novel in the series titled Kimetsu no Yaiba: Butterfly with one Wing consisting of 224 pages released on October 4.
Reception
The Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) manga series had 3.5 million copies in circulation globally in February 2019. This increased dramatically to over 10 million copies by September 2019 and further 25 million copies as of December 2019. To date the manga series has over 40 million copies in circulation in all forms of media including digital versions.
In addition it has received accolades such as being the best-selling manga in 2019 and also being the first series to take all top 10 positions of Oricon's weekly manga chart. In 2020, the release of Volume 19 showed exactly how popular the series has become as in the first week of release, 1.378 million copies were sold. The Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) manga series is the third series to ever sell more than 1 million copies in the first week of release of a single print volume. The other two series are classic and fan favorites One Piece and Attack on Titan.