I must admit, this wasn't what I expected.... Demon slayer lived up to the hype way more than i expected, and i went in already a fan so my bar was already kinda high lol. like i had seen people online saying this was the best demon slayer content ever made and i was half expecting to be like "okay it's good but not THAT good," and nope, it actually earned the hype for me.
quick setup for anyone who doesn't watch the show .... it picks up right after the season 4 cliffhanger, tanjiro and basically the whole demon slayer corp get teleported by muzan (the big bad, basically the king of all demons) into this insane shifting fortress called the infinity castle. it's this recursive, reality-bending maze where hallways and rooms just rearrange themselves out of nowhere, and the hashira (the strongest slayers) end up split up and forced into these intense one-on-one fights against the upper rank demons while trying to survive long enough to actually get to muzan. that's basically the whole movie, just non-stop escalating fights with breaks for emotional backstory, no real downtime to breathe honestly.
and okay the animation. i need to talk about the animation because it's genuinely insane. like every single frame looks like it could be printed and framed as a poster, ufotable really said "let's just go all out" and did not hold back at all. the fight choreography especially is on a whole other level, there's fights in this that made me just sit there with my mouth open, like i wasn't even processing the plot for a second i was just watching colors and movement happen perfectly. the way they blend the hand-drawn animation with cgi backgrounds too is so seamless, i genuinely couldn't tell where one ended and the other started in some scenes, it just all flows together.
it's definitely a heavier, more serious movie than usual though. if you're used to the show having like goofy comic relief moments mixed in with the intense stuff, this one dials that way back, zenitsu barely gets any of his usual comedy and inosuke's mostly missing too, it's mostly just gritted teeth and life or death battles the whole runtime. kinda makes sense given where the story is at, but i did miss some of the lighter moments ngl, the show usually balances tone really well and this one leans almost fully into the dark, serious side. there were maybe like two or three moments the whole movie where i actually laughed, versus usual episodes where there's constant back and forth banter.
also it's LONG, like 2 hours 35 min-ish, and there's a decent amount of flashbacks sprinkled through the fights showing character backstories, which mostly worked for me emotionally (ngl i teared up more than once, this franchise always gets me with the tragic backstory stuff, there's one hashira flashback in particular that wrecked me) but i can see how the pacing might drag for some people since it keeps cutting away from the big fights to go into someone's past right when the action's peaking. i didn't mind it personally since i already care about these characters, but i could see a newer viewer getting a little impatient with it.
if you're not already caught up on the anime though i honestly don't think this is a great entry point, it assumes you already care about like 10+ characters and know their whole deal, so if you're new to demon slayer i'd say go watch the show first instead of jumping straight into this. you'll get way less out of the emotional beats if you don't already have history with these characters going in.
but for me, as someone who's been following the story for years? this might be my favorite demon slayer thing yet honestly. the stakes finally feel real, the animation is next level even for ufotable's usual insane standards, and it's just a genuinely emotional, exhausting, satisfying watch. can't wait for the next two movies in the trilogy tbh, especially after where this one leaves off.
Rating: 85/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/movies.
