Fanbook - Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)
Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer): Kisatsu Kenbunroku (鬼滅の刃公式: 鬼殺隊見聞録) is the first fanbook of the Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) franchise. It contains a wide array of extra material drawn and written by Demon Slayer’s author, Koyoharu Gotouge, and is published by Shueisha. It was first released on July 4th, 2019 in Japan.
Being released the same day as the 16th volume of the manga, the contents and information are much more up-to-date than the anime series, which ha adapted up to the 7th volume, with a movie Demon Slayer: Mugen Train expected to be released in 2020 which would cover the totality of the 8th volume of the manga.
The title is a reference to the Demon Corps. Each character is presented according to their respective rank. Although other characters like Demons and secondary characters also make an appearance, the focus remains on the Demon Corps.
Contents
This Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer): Kisatsu Kenbunroku fanbook contains information regarding the characters, such as birthdays, hobbies, among other personal details. Additionally, there is a complete recording of three episode’s worth of Demon Slayer’s predecessor (unpublished) work, Demon Slayer Style (鬼殺の流).
The cover art of the book features the two main characters, Tanjiro Kamado and Nezuko Kamado holding hands against a traditional shouji door, a common theme in the manga’s cover art. Wisteria flowers, which hold a special significance in the story, can also be seen in the background. Everything from the cover art to all that can be found inside the fanbook was drawn by Koyoharu Gotouge.
Kimetsu Gakuen, a high-school parody of the original drawn by the author in the manga, is featured in the fanbook. It features 9 pages of the Kimetsu Gakuen(Original title: Midaka Highschool! Kimetsu Gakuen Story). with never before seen content. The premise of the story is that of a typical japanese high-school setting, but with characters that appear in Demon Slayer, both main and secondary characters. Typical high-school manga stories are features, most popularly a story taking place during Saint Valentine’s day.
Also featured in the book is fan-oriented content such as character settings, original hand-drawn sketches by author Gotouge, full-color illustrations, and stories related to the main Demon Slayer plot. It also contains a mini-illustration penned by Koyoharu Gotouge, Taisho Kosokoso’s gossip.
News
The first week of its release physical copies of the Demon Slayer fanbook were sold out. This resulted in a great sales boost for digital publications of the same book, as well as a spike in sales of resold books, which came to be valued at almost double its official price upon release.
As of February 2020, an official English translation of the fanbook does not exist. An English release date has not yet been announced neither by Shueisha (the original publisher, which offers an English version digitally) nor by Viz Media, the official licenser publisher in North America of the manga.
During 2019, in the one-week period where the Demon Slayer manga occupied all top-ten spots on Oricon’s weekly manga chart, Demon Slayer’s fanbook (Demon Slayer: Kisatsu Kenbunroku - 鬼滅の刃公式: 鬼殺隊見聞録) went from the #43 ranking to #21.
A digital version of Demon Slayer: Kisatsu Kenbunroku is available in Japanese. It can be purchased on several different platforms, such as Amazon (for Kindle), Rakuten, etc.
Initial reviews from fans and buyers are good, although with some criticisms about the font size being too small to properly read it on digital devices, and becoming distorted (pixelated) upon zooming in. This indicates a problem of digital quality, which can be fixed in future updates. Despite these minor issues, buyers claim to be happy with their purchase.
Publication of the fanbook led to an increase in manga sales. Being that most Demon Slayer fans became so in 2019 upon release of the anime adaptation, the fanbook, which is one of the most sought-after pieces of merchandise for fans, is impossible to read since it would contain many spoilers from the manga.
Availability
The official Demon Slayer fanbook is not yet available in English. Although there isn’t yet an official word on whether the fanbook will be translated or a tentative date of release, the 16th volume of the manga is set to be released in November, 2020. Since the fanbook came out the same day as the Japanese version of this volume, there is speculation regarding whether the fanbook could be released on this day.
This volume can also be found in Japanese, online. Resold at much higher prices in international markets, individual Japanese sellers make a profit by shipping worldwide as well as locally.
While there are several other products advertised as "fanbook", Demon Slayer: Kisatsu Kenbunroku (鬼滅の刃公式: 鬼殺隊見聞録) is the only official publication -authored and illustrated by the original author- in circulation. (February, 2020)
Specifications
- Content: 216 pages
- Release date: July 4th, 2019.
- Publisher: Shueisha.
- Author: Koyoharu Gotouge
- Language: Japanese
- Book dimensions: 4.4 x 0.6 x 6.9 inches
- ISBN-10: 4088820436
- ISBN-13: 978-4088820439
- Weight: 0.16 kg