Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Movie Review

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of watching the much-anticipated Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle movie in theatres with a couple of friends. This is the first part of a 3-part movie trilogy. I had been looking forward to it ever since it was announced, and I was super excited about it. We ended up arriving late. I was disappointed that the movie had already started by the time we got there, but thankfully, we only missed some recap (I think). I could have sworn we arrived between the 20-30 minute timeslot that they show ads, but I could be sorely mistaken. Regardless, the movie has a runtime of 2 hours and 35 minutes, so I was pretty excited to see what they had in store for us.

I can say with confidence, I came in with high expectations and left with even higher expectations for the next two movies. The movie was absolutely amazing. The way that Ufotable Animations improve upon their work time and time again is simply brilliant. Not surprisingly, the art borders on realism at certain points in the movie, and makes you completely forget that you are watching an animated film at all. You might be surprised to hear that Demon Slayer is not even in my top 20 anime of all time, from all this praise I am giving it. This movie might have changed that. From the pretty colors flashing across the screen during the intense fight scenes to the well-rounded backstories that fleshed out the characters, Ufotable cooked up a record-breaking movie. I saw some complaints about the backstories being put in at random moments, which made the movie choppy, but I would have to strongly disagree. Anyone who thinks the backstories were unnecessary is unable to comprehend anime past, “ooo, pretty colors.”

The thing about Demon Slayer is, it does have a pretty simple story. It is nothing complicated in terms of anime, but that’s what makes the story good. It hits all the tropes of a good shonen, while simultaneously not being too complicated to understand. When I first watched Perfect Blue with my sister, I remember having to watch a YouTube explanation video afterwards to even slightly understand what I had just watched. To me, a story weakens immensely when it cannot be understood the first time around, or when it is so abstract that there are a plethora of interpretations out there. (IE: The Boy and The Heron, Suzume) You might have heard the saying, “popular things are popular for a reason.” While what is considered good is a highly subjective term, to be considered good by a vast majority of people is an honor. This weekend, Demon Slayer broke the North American Box office record for, largest opening for an anime film (accumulating a whopping $70 million). This is an even more impressive feat considering it was a long-standing record for 26 years. There were some pretty important highlights in this movie, some of which included Shinobu’s fight with Doma and Akaza’s backstory. Overall, the movie deserved all the hype that it received.

The next two movies will end the series and finish up animating the manga. They are rumored to be released in 2027 and 2029. It seems so long away, but it gives me something to look forward to. I am looking forward to getting Obanai’s backstory and seeing if they stay true to the rest of the manga. So far, Ufotable has done an amazing job at adapting the manga, and I might even say that the Demon Slayer anime is better than the manga.