Though it definitely hits best with fans, Demon Slayer's winning formula is just as effective on the big screen.
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Ok I think the shame around liking anime has gone away. Because not only is the latest movie in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise the #1 movie in America, it blew everyone out of the water with a $70 million opening and looks on track to be the first anime-film to break $100 million in the domestic United States. Does this being the beginning of the anime's final arc tip the scales? Sure. But not to this level.
However, the more I've thought about it, the more this makes sense. Because Anime is kinda filling the void that TV directed at teens used to. And it's more accessible than it's ever been with all of the released seasons of Demon Slayer being available on Netflix, Hulu/Disney+ and CrunchyRoll. Whereas, I can't think of a single live-action teen show that's being made right now. Now you've got possibly two generations of fans who might've followed a franchise from the beginning offered a chance to nerd out for 2.5 hours with their friends? Yeah that'll work.
And it also helps that Demon Slayer is perfectly suited to the cinematic treatment.
The Setup
Following the events of the Hashira Training Arc, Tanjiro and the entirely of the Demon Slayer Corps have been drawn into the Infinity Castle, the seemingly impenetrable fortress of the Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji. Now separated and pushed away from the King, Tanjiro, his friends and the highly skilled Hashira will have to fight their way through the Castle and against Muzan's most formidable fighters: the Upper Rank demons. The final battle has begun...
So one of the things that's so impressive about this movie doing this well at the box office is that, you shouldn't go into it blind. You can and maybe you'll be able to piece some stuff together, but having at least a groundwork for all of the characters, their motivations and personalities, and even who the hell Muzan is, is what makes the movie work.
Case in point, the primary villain our lead Tanjiro and his ally Giyu end up fighting isn't just a super powerful demon, he's also a demon who killed a well-liked character about two seasons ago. So much of this has been building for years, which makes it nigh impossible to review plainly as a movie, but as a continuation of the ongoing story.
However, this movie also highlights the main appeals of the series so let's start with those.
However, this movie also highlights the main appeals of the series so let's start with those.
Phenomenal Blended Animation Style
One of the newest visual styles rolling through anime right now is a blend of digital and hand-drawn visuals. For an easy example, the movie opens with one of the characters walking through a graveyard that's clearly a static background with digital snow added. But the character looks and moves in a hand drawn fashion including shadows.
So what's the advantage of that style?
There's a lot actually. One is contrast. The digital animation tends to be darker which means our hand-drawn looking characters stand out amongst the CGI elements. So if one character is running up a giant serpent, it's very easy to track them and their actions. So even as these characters fight and blaze through a bunch of buildings like they're paper, as long as the fighter is on screen, you know where they are. It also means that the visual flourishes that come with the attacks, they're almost all nature based and featured a corresponding visual element, those stand out as well.
Another is lighting. Hand-drawing light is a giant pain so if you have two fighters who both use lightning attacks, as this movie does, making that visually engaging is a lot better if you can dim the views on everything else and let the sparks fly.
And even though this isn't the end of the Demon Slayer story, if this is just a taste of what's to come in the final beats, the finale is primed to be out of this world.
Emotional/Story Arcs Within Battles
A lot of people might misunderstand that anime is just a series of teenagers fighting evil. While that's certainly how it might look at the surface, Demon Slayer is one of the best examples of making every fight mean something.
From a story standpoint, Demon Slayer has been working their way up to the big boss Muzan, who is the series' ultimate villain. He's the one who created the demons. He's the one who killed Tanjiro's family and turned his sister into a demon. He is responsible for every bit of death and pain basically the entire cast has been subjected to (either directly or indirectly).
As corny as it is to have the highly skilled sword wielder's known as Hashira literally count their way down Demons from Number 10 all the way to Number One, it works really well narratively as a countdown and emphasizing how stacked the deck is against our heroes. Because almost none of these Upper Rank Demons can be defeated by one person. It usually requires a Herculean team effort to get it done where everyone is grievously injured after the fact. It always feels like pushing a boulder uphill.
There's also the emotional element as well.
Most of the big Demon Slayer fighters feature two elements, Tanjiro's growth and influence, and backstory.
I've written up my love of Tanjiro before, but once of the things that makes Tanjiro's growth throughout the series so satisfying is that it is earned. He trains incredibly hard, enthusiastically pushes his body to the brink, and is a positive influence on everyone around him. He inspires everyone and over the course of the franchise has developed into a tactician who keeps figuring out new ways to use his blend of skills in battle. So seeing him go from weakling to "guy who can face Upper Rank 3" is really satisfying.
But there's also plenty of tragic back stories to be had.
As much as Demon Slayer is about sword-fighting demons, each battle comes with its own emotional baggage, either for the demons themselves or the demon slayers. On the slayer side, it's often piecing together each slayer's origin story or motivations. It's never really said, but basically no one joins the Demon Slayer Core without a tragic origin. So these fights function as a way for these characters to process this trauma. Whereas the demons might be sadder, because all of them are former humans who used to have understandable motivations before they were turned.
But there's also plenty of tragic back stories to be had.
As much as Demon Slayer is about sword-fighting demons, each battle comes with its own emotional baggage, either for the demons themselves or the demon slayers. On the slayer side, it's often piecing together each slayer's origin story or motivations. It's never really said, but basically no one joins the Demon Slayer Core without a tragic origin. So these fights function as a way for these characters to process this trauma. Whereas the demons might be sadder, because all of them are former humans who used to have understandable motivations before they were turned.
So even when they're defeated, there's either a sadness or a catharsis to it. Now...onto the nerd shit
For The Nerds...
The baseline appeal for fans of the anime to see this movie is...this is the beginning of the end. This has been introduced and primed as the final battle between the Demon Slayer core, Lord Muzan and all of his underlings, winner take all. Massive sacrifices have already been made. More are definitely on the way, and we finally get to see the full force of the Hashira unleashed.
There's also an awful lot of grudges being brought to the proceedings.
There's also an awful lot of grudges being brought to the proceedings.
They include:
- Shinobu Kocho looking to avenge her sister.
- Zenitsu looking to avenge his master and the betrayal of his lightning breathing brethren Kaigaku
- Akazan and Tanjiro finally meeting again after the events of Mugen Train with Tanjiro literally wielding a sword with Rengoku's guard (the flame Hashira Akazan killed)
- And the entirety of the Hashira wanting revenge and justice against Muzan for the death of their leader.
And we haven't even gotten to some of the parts that will be fun for fans including Akazan's back story (i.e. those tattoos are a holdover from his human life), seeing Hashira like Giyu go full out, the continuation of Tanjiro's evolving skill set harkening back to his father and much more.
If there's any qualm I have it's that the movie does run a bit long at 2.5 hours, but honestly it was an awful lot of fun to see this movie in the theater the breadth of the battles, that have only escalated over time, so much so now that single skirmishes take down entire buildings, is great on the big screen.
The Verdict: Exactly What The Fans Want
Though it definitely hits best with fans, Demon Slayer's winning formula is just as effective on the big screen. 8/10
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