Popular animeDemon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaibais well into its Season 2, but ever since its announcement in early 2021, Japanese fans worry over censorship, believing the blood and gore in fights of theYukaku-hen (Entertainment District arc)will be toned down.
There are several levels to this discussion we’ll need to go through to explain whether censorship inDemon Slayer S2is a well-fonded fear or not.
Fuji TV and the timeslot change censorship debunk
Demon Slayer season 2was first announced on June 12, 2025. Later on, we first heard in May 2021 that Fuji TV would be airing the anime at prime time.
A good chunk of the Japanese fans of the manga shared their worries on Twitter. Japanese fans believed blood and gore would be toned down for this time slot. However, Fuji TV debunked the rumors and later announced a new late-night timeslot forDemon Slayer S2.
TheEntertainment District “Yukaku-hen"name false controversy
Long story short, people in Japan who don’t know aboutKimetsuthought it might contain inappropriate content for children seeing the arc’s title. Needless to say,Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaibahas nothing risque in its content. It’s originally a Shonen Jump manga for kids and teens, but it’s noTo Love Runor a rom-com series.
Following this controversy, Fuji TVstated in September 2021it “plans to broadcastDemon Slayer season 2without any changes”. Even so, you can still find several tweets of worried Japanese fans when searching “é¬¼æ» ã®å è¦å¶” (Demon Slayercensorship). So far, these fears were wrong. AndMugen Trainarc was uncensored on TV.
ExplainingDemon Slayercensorship & blood and gore in Japanese media
Before we move on, we need to explain this as well. I’ll oversimplify things a bit, but basically, in Japan, realistic gore is much less accepted than anime gore, where it’s clear the scenes aren’t real.
A popular example isResident Evilby Capcom. In Japan, newREgames always have a normal version and aCero Z version (18+ only). However, there’s censorship in Cero Z versions too. Most notably when it comes to dismemberment and beheading.
Violent anime then and now
These unwritten rules are changing over the decades too.Hokuto no Ken(1984) was broadcast on Fuji TV in the afternoon. And as Japan subculture specialistJulien Bouvardonce pointed out, unlike the popular belief of how it was widely accepted, a lot of parents actually complained about it back then. A series like that could only be aired as a late-night anime now. Or as a movie. Which isn’t bound by the same restrictions.
The December 2020 episode ofSegaNamaincluded a discussion on theDemon Slayermovie covering the major points I’ve just brought up. The now-defunct monthly stream with ex-Sega producer Toshihiro Nagoshi and Ayana Tsubaki was a gold mine for this stuff.
Nagoshi back then also mentioned how he obviously did think about leaving Sega several times during his 31 years at the company.Perhaps that was a sign. You should definitely listen to the full Q&A if you speak Japanese, starting at the 1:34:16 timestamp.
Demon Slayercensorship: Manga readers believe Daki fights & Episode 5 onwards can get censored
Demon Slayer Entertainment Districtarc Episode 4 ended with Tanjiro facing against the main villain of the arc, Daki,voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro.
Manga readers believe the upcoming fights could get censored. With how gory they were in the original manga. I won’t say much to avoid spoilers, but I believe these fears of censorship are definitely founded seeing how graphic certain upcoming scenes are.
There are cases of blood and gore censorship even in late-night anime. And I personally see it even more likely to happen on Fuji TV. With a series as mainstream asDemon Slayer. The only thing we can do now though is wait and see whether Fuji TV will keep its word or not.
If you’re a manga reader, you must have also noticed the scene in episode 6 with Daki destroying a part of the entertainment district was slightly toned down. In the manga, you could clearly see some people with their bodies cut in half, or worse.
The anime changed things a bit and made the scene slightly less brutal. Thankfully, this is a very minor change though, and hopefully, things will stay this way.
