After a long two months since the movie dropped in Japan, it finally reached the United States on September 12th. Even despite having to wait a while, it was certainly worth the hype. I fully believe this movie is anime at its peak, with amazing animation and action-packed.
As usual, I’ll be getting into spoilers on the movie. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you doing here? It’s an amazing experience you don’t want to miss in theatres.
The Setup
We start the movie right where it leaves off from the finale of the hashira training arc. There’s a brief scene where Gyomei speaks with their master, Kagaya. He’s the only hashira aware of this plot to use him as bait for Muzan. It works, coming at the cost of his, his wife, and two daughters’ lives when the estate blows up. When this happened, Kagaya’s son, Kiriya, took over as head of the demon slayer corps at just 8 years old. He is instrumental in aiding the demon slayer corps during the movie due his memory in mapping the castle and using the crows as their eyes.
Everyone falls into the infinity castle and find their footing, as it’s an ever-changing chasm, encountering lesser demons on the way. Tamayo temporarily stops Muzan with her poison. However, Muzan is slowly absorbing her, and he has cocooned himself during the course of the movie. You don’t see much of him in this movie as he’s not the center focus just yet.
Shinobu vs Doma
One of the first fights we experience is Shinobu encountering upper rank two demon, Doma. She realizes he’s the one who killed her sister years ago. He was the reason she pressed on to become a hashira despite her small stature. She wanted revenge for her fallen sister. You also get a hint of Doma’s previous life, though since he is alive at the end, I imagine we may get more in the next one.
After an incredible fight between the two, ultimately Shinobu is the first casualty of the infinity castle arc. I will disclose that I have read the rest of the manga, so I know how the series goes. However, for the sake of this review and keeping it spoiler free, I will not divulge those details. This fight ends for this movie when Kanao encounters Doma as he’s absorbing Shinobu into him. This enrages Kanao.
Zenitsu vs Kaigaku
Zenitsu came into the castle knowing exactly who he wanted to target. In the final episodes of the previous season, he receives a letter. Once he encounters Kaigaku, we know why. It’s because they were both successors of thunder breathing and when Kaigaku became an upper rank 6 demon, their master, Gramps, commits suicide out of shame. It’s tragic, as Zenitsu held Gramps in high regard and even respected Kaigaku when they trained together. He even says they’re sorry excuses of successors when he could only do the first form and Kaigaku can do all but the first form.
This fight is the shortest of the three major ones we see in this movie, but it has one of my favorite moments. When all hope seems lost for Zenitsu, as he falls, he stops himself on a wall. He pulls an incredible feat of having created a new thunder breathing form and beheads Kaigaku, who becomes the first upper rank casualty.
There’s a sweet, emotional moment too when Zenitsu is unconscious after the fight and Yushiro rescues him. He sees Gramps on the other side of a river and apologizes to him in an emotional outburst. The only words Gramps tells him is that he’s his pride and joy. This concludes Zenitsu for this movie as he’s rendered unconscious.
Tanjiro and Giyu vs Akaza
This fight takes up the biggest bulk of this movie and for good reason. It showcases incredible moments and fights, while also showing backstory for Akaza. We learn in his human life he was a tough kid who stole and fought anyone all to obtain medicine for his father. One day, after being beaten again for stealing, his father took his own life. Akaza is banished to another village where he meets Keizo and Koyuki. Keizo teaches him martial arts using only his hands, which we see him using as his fighting style as an upper rank demon.
He fell in love with Koyuki and they became engaged. However, a rival martial arts studio, out of anger, poisoned their water well and the two died. Akaza, who was trying to live an honest life, succumbs to his rage and kills the rival studio. He became a demon to continue becoming stronger.
Eventually, after Giyu and Tanjiro are completely beaten, because Akaza associated Tanjiro with Keizo, he remembers his past. He ultimately kills himself, wanting it all to stop and reunite with his family once again. Tanjiro and Giyu by the skin of their teeth defeated upper rank 3, Akaza, and are unconscious by the end of the movie.
Final Thoughts
I thought this movie, as much as I loved the Mugen Train arc, blew it out of the water. They really upped their animation for this movie with stunning visuals and fights that I was completely engrossed in. The soundtrack was amazing, and even watching it in theatres, I really appreciated the efforts for the sound effects during the movie and how crisp it all was. Despite knowing what happens, I was emotional during a few scenes.
There were complaints saying that the pacing for this movie was off, but I don’t believe they could’ve done any better. I thought it was well paced and the different backstories gave us a break from an otherwise intense movie. Akaza got a huge focus in this movie that I didn’t expect, but I welcomed it. Especially since he killed Rengoku and Tanjiro understandably wanted revenge for it.
We don’t see Nezuko much in this movie except a brief scene with Tanjiro’s master, caring for her while Tamayo’s medicine runs through her. This makes me excited as she has a later scene in the series that I can’t wait to see animated.
We also see the rest of the demon slayer corps and hashiras in brief scenes, just to confirm they’re alive and for what the next movie will lead into. As I said, I won’t spoil it as it’s not revealed who fights who in this movie. However, I can promise that we can expect a crazy showdown between the rest of the hashiras, Inosuke, and others vs the rest of the upper rank demons in the next installment. If I think this movie is anime at its peak, the next one might be even better.
There’s no official release date for the second movie of the trilogy but if it’ll be anything like this first movie, I know it’ll be incredible. If I had to make a generous guess, based on the releases between the last season and this movie, I think we can anticipate a late 2026 or early 2027 release, but only time will tell when it’ll officially drop.
