Manga has been around since the late 19th century in Japan, while anime has been around since the beginning of the 20th century. Over the years manga and anime have grown extremely popular all over the world.
The release of the new Demon Slayer movie, “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle”, written by Koyoharu Gotouge and animated by Studio Ufotable, made many fans excited to see the end of one of their favorite anime. “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle”, is the first movie of a three part finale to the Demon Slayer story.
I walked into the theater with high hopes for the movie since I really enjoyed the series. Demon Slayer takes place in the Taisho Era of Japan in a world where demons hunt and feed off of humans. In order to save lives and get rid of the demons, the Demon Slayer Corps was assembled. Their main task was to kill the king of demons, Muzan.
What stood out to me in the beginning of the movie was how quickly the action started off in the movie. Off the bat, some of the demon slayers are fighting hordes of demons while other demon slayers meet and face off with some of the upper moons (highest rank of demons).
The movie picks up where the events of the series left off in May of 2024. The series left off on a cliffhanger where Muzan (the king of demons) showed up at the demon slayer base where he then launched everyone into an alternate dimension.
The movie takes place in the Infinity Castle, which is the home of the demons and while attempting to defeat Muzan some of the characters encounter powerful demons.
Throughout the movie there are 3 main fights. The first fight we have is Shinobu vs Doma, then we have Zenitsu vs Kaigaku, and finally we have Giyuu and Tanjiro vs Akaza. However, something that I didn’t like was that a particular character was killed too quickly during their fight. I believe they could’ve made their fight a little longer, but overall the fights were amazing.
The animation for this movie was some of the best animation I have seen. With a budget of $20 million dollars it makes sense why the movie’s animation is outstanding. The vibrant colors stood out and made the movie beautiful, the animation during fights scenes was smooth and made the fights flow smoothly. With an increased budget, the movie’s animation was higher quality and more detailed than that of the series.
The movie’s animation was a little different from the series. It was smoother and brought richer colors, especially during action scenes, compared to the series.
The composers who brought the heroic, peaceful, and upbeat music to the screen were Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina. The soundtrack consisted of purely instrumental music, which brought out the emotion in both the exciting and sad moments of the movie.
They also used older soundtracks from the series. The music was in sync with the movie and was upbeat and heroic during fights, peaceful during calm moments, and sorrowful in emotional scenes.
The voice actors for the Japanese version of the movie are the same voice actors from the show, so it was nice to hear familiar voices. The voice actors made the characters sound natural during intense scenes and did a great job bringing out the emotion of the characters.
Personally, I prefer the movie in Japanese rather than in English because it tends to be more natural. However, many people do enjoy the English version for its ease of understanding and quality voice acting. Some of the main voice actors were Natsuki Hanae who plays Tanjiro, Takahiro Sakurai who plays Giyuu, Akira Ishida who plays Akaza, Hiro Shimono who plays Zenitsu, and Saori Hayami who plays Shinobu.
The second movie is expected to be released in 2027 and the third movie is expected to be released in 2029. I would recommend watching the series then watch the movie to enjoy the great story. I give the movie a 9/10.
I am excited to see what Studio Ufotable will bring with the future Demon Slayer movies. If you enjoyed Koyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer, I would recommend similar series such as “Jujutsu Kaisen”, “Chainsaw Man” and “Kaiju No. 8”.