This year’s 31’st issues of Weekly Shonen Jump revealed that the “Kimetsu Gakuen Valentine-hen”, the spinoff anime short of Demon Slayer will get its own manga. As reported by Anime News Network, the manga titled “Kimetsu Gakuen!”, will be published in Shueisha’s Saikyō Jump magazine from August 4th and will be written by the creator of Hell Warden Higuma, Natsuki Hokami.
The original shorts “Kimetsu Gakuen Valentine-hen” came out on February 14th. The first three episodes were aired on Aniplex’s official YouTube channel, while the fourth and final episode was streamed during the Kimetsu Matsuri Online: Anime 2nd Anniversary Festival.
Even the creator of the original Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga, Koyoharu Gotouge provided a special illustration, featuring Tanjiro and Nezuku in similar school uniforms.
The spin-off manga “Kimetsu Gakuen!” is not tied to the original Demon Slayer manga or anime, instead, it will be a comedy, featuring the same characters in a high school setting. The character designs are more caricaturish with exaggerated body features.
The original manga of Demon Slayer started its publication in 2016 and ended in May of 2020. Even after its end, it stayed at top of the sales charts. It even scored first place in Oricon’s half-year manga sales report. The anime adaption of Demon Slayer was also a worldwide hit. The movie adaptation even became the highest-grossing anime of all time.
With Season 2 on its way and the success of the franchise, it was only a matter of time before fans would see something from the same franchise. But spin-off comedy manga was not what most fans were expecting. With original manga doing so well, the expectations are high and it will be interesting to see, how the new project will perform among fans.