Walking into the theaters on the opening night for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle, my expectations for the newest movie were already above the limits of what one should have for a movie; certainly as someone who had watched the Demon Slayer anime just earlier this year and has yet to read the manga (source material).
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba is a japanese anime that is centered around Tanjiro Kamado, voiced by Zach Aguilar (English voice) and Natsuki Hanae (Japanese voice), and his younger sister Nezuko Kamado, voiced by Abby Trott (English voice) and Akari Kito (Japanese voice). After the Kamado siblings face a tragedy, the series follows them as Tanjiro chases after the demon king Muzan Kibutsuji, voiced by Greg Chun (English voice) and Toshikio Seki (Japanese voice), to force him to reverse his actions of turning Nezuko into a demon.
This final arc of the series is being made into a trilogy with this movie being the first installment, and the next two are predicted to be released in 2027 and 2029. On opening weekend, Infinity Castle breaks box office records by making $148 million across the globe. This sets a record for the biggest anime opening across North America.
The movie opens with Tanjiro free falling into the Infinity Castle — a shelter to Kibutsuji and his horde of demons that infinitely expands created by one his upper ranked demons, Nakime — taking place mere seconds after of which the finale episode of the Hashira Training Arc takes place.
The first battle that the audiences are met with is between Insect Hashira Shinobu Kocho, voiced by Erika Harlacher (English) and Saori Hayami (Japanese), and Upper Rank Two Demon, Doma, voiced by Stephen Fu (English) and Mamoru Miyano (Japanese). The entire fight is a poignant moment as the audience has learned Doma was the demon that originally killed Kocho’s elder sister, Kanae, and her hatred for him and all other demons fuels her drive to keep fighting the entire time. The voice acting given by both actresses is remarkable as it perfectly portrays the emotions held by the Insect Hashira.
This fight is especially a top moment because the voice acting given encapsulates the emotions the character is feeling. In the dubbed version, Harlacher’s voice adds anger and resentment towards the demon and towards the things she failed to do in her life while Hayami’s voice makes her sound more mournful and reminiscent of not being able to do anything she wanted. Despite being hated by most of the Demon Slayer audience, her characterization is phenomenal and is a great characterization and representation of feminine that isn’t seen much through the shonen anime genre.
Expectedly, most of the movie consisted of fights with three different fights: Zenitsu vs. Kaigaku, Shinobu vs. Doma, and Tanjiro and Giyu vs. Akaza. Each fight had beautiful visuals, especially in the fight between Tanjiro and Giyu vs. Akaza.
The final fight took up most of the movie which included Akaza’s backstory, voiced by Lucien Dodge (English) and Akira Ishida (Japanese). His backstory lasted around thirty to thirty five minutes which was a significant portion of the movie, though it was beautifully written as it explored his memories as a child and prior to being turned into a demon. Not just the writing of the story was beautiful, but the visuals throughout were equally stunning.
It was a great experience to go to this movie. The only flaw that could be brought up was the length of Akaza’s backstory, though it was not a bad story whatsoever. Also, the AMC that I visited to view the movie had sold out of the exclusive cups and popcorn buckets which I was looking forward to purchasing. Besides those two things, the movie is definitely a worthwhile watch and Demon Slayer is a great series for anyone to enjoy.
