“Demon Slayer,” one of the most popular anime shows of this decade, recently released the first movie of its three-part finale, “Infinity Castle.” “Demon Slayer” is essentially an anime about kids learning swordfighting to slay demons (shocking) with their super special breathing techniques that give them magic powers. The plot is fun, but one of the main draws of the show is its art. The anime has a beautiful way of combining the 2D art style anime is known for with 3D fight scenes, and the movie did not disappoint. If you’re a fan of “Demon Slayer,” you should absolutely watch this movie, even with its lengthy two-and-a-half-hour run time.
Though I’ll do my best, it’s hard to summarize the plot of a movie like this without spoiling anything from the earlier installments — so look away if you’re not ready for that! The movie begins with main character Tanjiro Kamado (Natsuki Hanae) and his friends falling into an “infinite” maze prepared by the boss demon of the franchise, Muzan. This arc focuses on Kamado and company searching for Muzan to try to kill him once and for all.
While in the maze, they stumble across multiple demon henchmen. These fights are charged with tragic backstories, dramatic music and the culmination of character development. Though the ending doesn’t resolve the arc, it left me satisfied with this movie as its own story — and has me dying for more.
In terms of characters, only a few of them are relevant to the movie’s central battles. However, the movie does a good job of showcasing everyone in the large cast, even for brief comedic moments, while still allowing its main characters to shine.
The movie features the climax of multiple characters’ development throughout the franchise. Both Zenitsu Agatsuma (Hiro Shimono) and Shinobu Kocho (Saori Hayami) have turning points where they come face-to-face with a demon who hurt the people closest to them.
Agatsuma’s moment is handled extremely well, with a good mix between slow emotional confrontations and charged battle scenes (get it — because he has electricity powers?). These contrasts are made even better by the changes in music and the fight’s differences in the choreography. Small details like these really elevated this movie and made you forget how long it was.
However, not every moment hits this success. While Kocho’s battle against one of the top-ranking demons exposed an interesting side of her character, its pacing fell short. The scene draws out too long, with characters delivering redundant lines and music that conflicted with the emotional beats, disrupting the audience’s emotional investment in her arc. I was disappointed that in one of the movie’s main plot points the filmmakers push for length instead of quality.
The final character we need to mention is Akaza (Akira Ishida), one of the highest-ranked demons, who killed one of Kamado’s mentors in an earlier season of the show. Much of the movie focuses on Kamado and his companion, Giyu Tomioka (Takahiro Sakurai), battling this demon. Though it has copious amounts of flashbacks (a classic in anime), this battle was executed perfectly.
Not only did the battle showcase the growth of our two main characters, it also took an unexpected turn in the latter half to examine Akaza’s backstory. Though not an unfamiliar concept in anime, this shift really worked for the movie as it expanded on one of the main themes of “Demon Slayer” — that even demons deserve love.
Finally, the producers did not skimp on the art in this movie. Though there were a couple outliers wherein the 3D visuals looked a bit wonky — mainly scenes involving the big, bad Muzan — and a couple still frames that went on longer than needed, the movie’s art was stunning. Even the setting of the movie was beautiful, designed as a 3D shifting maze akin to M.C. Escher’s optical illusion paintings.
The amount of work put into the movie is evident in every battle as characters clash in a whirlwind of frames you can barely see. Watching the film makes you wonder how much art you’re missing; it makes you not want to blink. Each fight scene has a mix of 2D and 3D art signature to “Demon Slayer” that brings such visual intrigue to the movie.
Though I wouldn’t recommend seeing this movie as your introduction to the franchise, the new “Demon Slayer” movie, “Infinity Castle,” is absolutely worth watching. It’s action-packed, flushed with series-long character development and has the series’ signature amazing art style. It’s a satisfying beginning to the end of the series and has me so hyped for the next two movies.
