The Sound of Demon Slayer / Kimetsu no Yaiba

Animation is the art of movement. However as a subset of animation, Japanese animated TV or streaming series (henceforth anime) is more famous for being dialogue- and monologue-driven, often relying on various auditory settings to narrate a complex and longer narrative. Similar to standard episodic works (including live-action-drama series), its dialogue and monologue provide narrative information and forward the story; its music enhances a desired mood and emotion, and its sound effects establish a sense of reality for the narrative space through the foley sound effects (such as footsteps, props), and background ambience sounds (such as the bustling downtown or countryside). All these sounds play a crucial role in setting a rhythm, continuity and psychological cue for the audience to engage with the story. More prominently, anime series also rely on archetypes in anime voices and the cartooning of the sound effects accompanying the seemingly non-diegetic emanata (motion lines, sweat beats that emanate from a character) and imagery to deliver the anime experience. These acoustical norms and tendencies have been borrowed and in exchange with manga and other visual mediums over the years and function differently from the standard filmic auditory settings designed to immerse the viewers. Their usage often highlights the superficiality, pictogram play and momentarily part from the main narrative with a different tempo. This paper is part of a more extensive study interested in these aspects and uses Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime series (2019~) as a case study. This chapter looks explicitly at diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. It examines how their interchange can amplify the imagination and manipulate the viewers' emotions while systematically switching back and forth between immersive (into the narrative) and exaggeration (out of the narrative) to stimulate a unique anime experience with sound.

Citation:
Gan, Sheuo Hui. ''The Sound of Demon Slayer / Kimetsu no Yaiba.'' Global Anime Discourse: Body, Archive and Transnationalism, edited by Minori Ishida, and Joon Yang Kim, Tokyo, Sekyusha, 2022, ISBN / ISSN: 978-4787274519.