One of the many struggles brought on by the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic was financial hardship. Many businesses were unfortunately forced to close because of it, but Japanese drink company Dydo DrinCo was able to stay afloat, and they credit it to a collaboration withDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
Crunchyrollreports that Dydo DrinCo’s business was actually doing about 6% worse than in 2019 throughout most of 2020, as most of their purchases are through vending machines and convenience stores and people were, of course, staying home for the majority of the year. However, whentheDemon Slayercollaboration was releasedin October, they sold 150% more than the previous year, and their business actually increased by close to 80% compared to 2019.
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This isn’t the first time thatDemon Slayerhas made the news for its popularity in recent months.Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Trainhas been breaking every box office record since its release at the end of last year. It recently unseated Hayao Miyazaki’sSpirited Awayas the highest-grossing film in Japan and went on to becomeJapan’s highest-grossing film of all timeon a global scale as well. The film has had a very limited American theatre run in Florida, which was very successful and also renders it eligible for Academy Awards nominations.
Demon Slayertakes place inTaishō-era Japan. It follows a boy named Tanjiro Kamado and his sister Nezuko, who are the sole survivors of a demon attack on their family. Tanjiro joins a demon-slaying group called the Demon Slayer Corps and begins a quest to become a demon slayer himself, avenge his family, and rid his sister of her own demon curse. Currently, theDemon Slayermanga is one of the best-selling mangas of all time and the series is said to have generated a minimum of $2.6 billion in sales in Japan.
Throughout the course of 2020, over 1000 businesses had to close due to the pandemic. Anime collaborations have, of course, existed for a long time and brought many businesses a lot of success. However, something aboutDemon Slayerseems to resonate with the Japaneseand worldwide public, and with another season coming it’s likely that the series will continue to break records.
Season 2 ofDemon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaibais set to start in 2021, with a game adaptation also scheduled to be released onto PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms this year.
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