Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia and Koyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer became two of the biggest and most popular action shōnen franchises of the mid-to-late 2010s. Needless to say, fans of the genre were more than happy with the fact that they could simultaneously enjoy two amazing series with engaging narratives, lovable characters, and epic action sequences.
However, people inevitably began comparing these two series in order to find which one is superior. While both of them are obviously very good and have made a huge impact on the industry, there are many things My Hero Academia does way better than Demon Slayer, and the following eight are just some of the most notorious examples.
World Building
MHA Actually Shows The Audience What’s Happening Outside Of Japan
While it’s extremely common for popular manga/anime series to take place in Japan (after all, that’s usually their main demographic), it’s a bit disappointing when one of these stories just refuses to show its audience what is happening outside that country and how their fictional elements are affecting other nations. For example, Demon Slayer takes place entirely within Taisho Era Japan, and both its power system and its visual identity are based on that setting.
Needless to say, Demon Slayer is a very enjoyable Japan-centric story with a lot of solid cultural representation, but it never actually explains what’s happening in other countries and/or if demons have even appeared elsewhere. Of course, My Hero Academia takes place in Japan as well, but at least it repeatedly shows its audience how the sudden appearance of quirks has affected other countries’ societies and even introduced a fair share of International Pro Heroes, like Star and Stripe, Captain Celebrity, Salaam, Big Red Dot and many more.
Protagonist
Deku Is A Much More Interesting Character Than Tanjiro
Both My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer marked a sudden shift in the action shōnen genre, as both works featured kinder and more empathetic protagonists instead of the more ruthless, sillier and more selfish protagonists of the previous generations (like Goku, Naruto, Luffy, etc.). This change was very well-received by general audiences, and both Izuku Midoriya and Tanjiro Kamado gained huge followings as a result.
However, when compared to each other, Tanjiro is just a lot simpler, one-dimensional and less fleshed-out than Deku. He’s certainly quite likable and a very nice person, but his character doesn’t really develop that much throughout the story, which puts a bigger focus on his training and his efforts to grow stronger to defeat stronger demons. On the other hand, Deku’s beliefs about what it truly means to be a hero are constantly challenged throughout the series, and end up drastically changing his personality and his actions. By the end of his story, Deku is still kind and friendly, but he has also grown to be much more mature and responsible.
Power System
Quirks Are Much More Clever Than Breathing Styles And Blood Demon Arts Combined
The popularity of an action shōnen series often depends on its power system, and these two series are no exception. Demon Slayer features breathing styles, which the characters use to manipulate their breathing in ways that allow them to unleash all sorts of powerful sword techniques. The slayers ultimately need to use this ability, because demons can wield Blood Demon Arts, which makes them highly dangerous and unpredictable.
These two power systems work well within this story (especially when they interact with each other) but they are ultimately quite generic, and they don’t seem to have a real effect on the world, outside the demon slayers and the demons who use them. On the contrary, My Hero Academia focuses almost solely on its power system: quirks, genetic mutations that give people different types of superhuman abilities. Quirks have not only directly caused the appearance of heroes and villains, but they also had a huge impact on the history, culture and politics of the entire world. Furthermore, quirks are a lot more versatile than breathing styles and their existence has allowed Horikoshi to experiment with a variety of different character designs and superpowers.
Character Designs
MHA Characters Usually Look A Lot More Distinct
In the world of My Hero Academia, quirks can not only give people superhuman abilities, but they can also completely alter their physical appearance. As a result, many characters in this series have fascinating and unique designs, especially those that are categorized as Heteromorphs, people with Mutant Type quirks that have permanent visible effects on their bodies. On top of that, since My Hero Academia is a story about superheroes, most of the main characters have really well-designed hero costumes that were inspired by classic western comic books.
Demon Slayer also has excellent character designs for the human characters, with some major standouts being Inosuke, Nezuko and Tanjiro himself. However, most of them can often feel quite generic and boring, especially because there’s no narrative element that can drastically change their appearance. Of course, this only applies to the humans, as most demons in this series look weird, distinct and intimidating, but they are still nowhere near as creepy as some of the most threatening My Hero Academia villains .
The Villains
MHA Spends A Lot Of Time Fleshing Out Its Antagonist (Before They Die)
Fortunately, both My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer have graced anime/manga fans with some of the best villains in the history of this industry, with some prominent examples being Tomura Shigaraki, All for One, Dabi, Toga, Rui, Akaza, Kokushibo and Muzan Kibutsuji. Both series do spend time fleshing out and humanizing their villains, but My Hero Academia is ultimately much better at this than Demon Slayer.
Simply put, Demon Slayer doesn’t really have enough named villains, as most of them are generic evil demons that are defeated easily and only a handful of them have proper development, not to mention that their backstories are usually shown when they’re about to die, so the audience doesn’t have enough time to fully enjoy these characters. In the world of My Hero Academia, however, the villains are almost equally important as the heroes, to the point that some of them even starred in their own story arc titled My Villain Academia. Antagonists like Shigaraki, Dabi or Toga have tragic backstories, clear motivations and had to get stronger in order to achieve their ambitious objectives. As a result, they feel like complex characters and have become as beloved as their heroic counterparts.
Real-Life Messages
MHA Actually Tries To Say Important Things About The Real World
Demon Slayer is a story about family, effort, hard-work and the true strength that humans are capable of achieving. This is all very inspiring and has made this series a lot more timeless than most of its contemporaries, but these themes can also feel quite simplistic and mundane, mainly because other popular sshōnenseries that came before have also tackled them in a much more nuanced and original way.
My Hero Academia also tackles many of these themes, like hard-work, friendship and heroism, but some parts of its narrative convey messages that reflect real-life issues, like the rampant discrimination that Heteromorphs suffer and the physical and psychological abuse Endeavor unleashed on his own children. Yes, it can be argued that it may not have done a perfect job at conveying these messages, but at least it's evident that Horikoshi tried to have an ever-lasting impact on its readers, which is not something that can be said about many other manga authors.
Length And Pacing
Demon Slayer Ended Way Too Soon
Despite the fact that Demon Slayer began its serialization in 2016 – two years after My Hero Academia had already started – and even though both series obviously shared the spotlight during the late 2010s, its final chapter came out in 2020, four whole years before My Hero Academia’s final chapter. This obviously means Demon Slayer is obviously much shorter, with 205 chapters in total, which pales in comparison to My Hero Academia’s massive final chapter count of 431.
Of course, being longer is not necessarily always a good thing, but those additional 200+ chapters have allowed Horikoshi to tell the entire story he wanted to tell without needing to rush its pacing at any point. Most Demon Slayer fans agree that, while the Infinity Castle Arc is very exciting and fun, many heroes and villains should have had more time to shine, either before or during it. After all, it’s quite odd that Rengoku, Uzui, Tokito and Kanroji got to star in their own story arcs, whereas the remaining pillars (like Himejima, Iguro or Shinazugawa) barely got enough screen-time in it and ended up feeling a lot less interesting than their peers as a result.
Supplemental Material
Vigilantes Is One Of The Best Spin-Off Series In The Industry
When a popular manga series becomes popular worldwide, both its creator and its publishing company almost immediately begin greenlighting several spin-offs that are written and illustrated by other authors. For example, there’s My Hero Academia: Smash!! And Kimetsu Gakuen!, both of which are hilarious and light-hearted comedic spin-offs that fans have been enjoying for many years.
But, when it comes to more serious, narrative-driven spin-offs, My Hero Academia definitely has the superior offering. Demon Slayer has a few short stories centered on Rengoku and Tomioka that are very interesting and do a good job at fleshing out these two characters, but they’re really nothing to write home about. On the other hand, there’s My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, a 126-chapter-long spin-off about the fascinating world of illegal vigilantes that introduced a new cast of lovable characters and brilliantly expanded the core concepts of the franchise. While the original Vigilantes manga was already very popular in and of itself, it recently received an excellent animated adaptation, which further cemented this spin-off as one of the absolute best ones in the action shōnen genre.
My Hero Academia
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- 2016 - 2025-00-00
- Network
- TBS, MBS, Nippon TV
Cast
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Daiki YamashitaIzuku Midoriya (voice) -
Kaito IshikawaManga Fukidashi (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
Demon Slayer
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- April 6, 2019
- Network
- Adult Swim
Based on Koyoharu Gotouge's shonen manga, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is an action anime set in Japan during the early 20th century. Seeking revenge for the murder of his family while also looking to save his sister, Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps as they try to eradicate Demons led by Muzan.