"Demon Slayer": The Viral Blockbuster from Japan

One of the seismic cultural shifts of the pandemic era has been a migration into fantasies. Some of them are troubling, such as the conspiratorial prejudice that has fuelled QAnon and the recent surge in violence against those of Asian descent. Others are restorative: the immersive worlds of books, the virtual realities of video games, the hypnotic lull of binge-streamed television series. Many of the escapes that we use to nourish ourselves originated in Japan. The stunning success of Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which sold thirty-one million copies worldwide last year, is a striking example.