Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle will have you reaching for your own nichirin blade before long

So if you’ve been out of it for a while like I have, Demon Slayer is a series that has been kinda big for a while now and is apparently the go-to sword anime reference for kids nowadays; much to my chagrin, I learned this the hard way as majority of my anime sword technique references in daily conversation are no longer relevant and/or understood.

Kids today and their shiny new anime.

Anyway.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, the first part of the anime series’ finale dropped on Philippine shores on August 20, and man is it a doozy. I was lucky enough to catch it on IMAX, and Ufotable’s animation shines here in particular; while they’ve always brought their A-game for Demon Slayer’s action, there was something particularly hype about seeing it on the big screen, especially now that we’re in the endgame of the story and the stakes are so high.

Spoilers start here friends, so if you haven’t finished the series and/or want to wait until you see the movie yourself, put this down now, go watch, and come back here when you have!

The movie picks up right where the series ends where series’ Big Bad Muzan has turned the tables on the Ubuyashiki residence ambush, where they manage to hit Muzan with the demon cure thanks to Lady Tamayo’s efforts and the combined Hashira do their best to pin Muzan down, but he pulls his ace and drops the Demon Slayer Corps into his secret lair: the Infinity Castle.

After a brief flashback as the series is wont to do, we jump right into the action where we’re treated to the castle itself in its full glory. A massive MC Escher-esque maze, the castle is both antagonist and obstacle in itself; keeping the Demon Corps from mustering their full force and keeping the Hashira from their end goal- Muzan himself. The action itself feels almost videogamey in itself, multiple boss fights going on while you try to puzzle out the maze itself, and the boss fights themselves are visual treats- one in particular for visuals and feels, and i’ll try not to ruin it for you folks who aren’t up to date but basically we finally get to see why Zenitsu is the way he is, and when our little anxiety Pikachu gets his moment in the spotlight you can’t help but cheer for him because MAN that is rough. Because beautiful action paired with lovely exposition and you can’t help but take that deep breath with him as Zenitsu finally comes into his own.

But what about our main dude Tanjiro, you might ask? Ehhhh. if you’re new to Demon Slayer this might be where the movie starts to lag for you, but if you’re a Demon Slayer series veteran this might be a bit more bearable (or not, because mannnnn) but it is a series staple that Tanjiro grows the most in the middle of the action and sheesh there is a lot of growing in this movie. I do not mean this as a compliment. For every one glorious moment of action and story we get three, maybe four of emotional pandering and sudden backstory reveal and to be honest if that’s your jam I’m happy for you, but this reallllly slowed down the narrative for me. I love exposition when it’s done well but there was so much of it in this movie that I genuinely feel like more than half this movie was everyone’s backstory and justifications and.. you know what? It’s actually par for the course for Demon Slayer, where we kinda get whole episodes of backstory but since this is a whole movie and you have to go through all of this in one sitting it CAN get a bit grating here. It’s not entirely a bad thing, but it IS kind of a drag on the pacing so you have been warned.

This movie is the first part in a trilogy, so while we do get some closure on some big storylines from the series, it does leave you hanging as some of the conflict introduced in the movie isn’t resolved by the end of it (which adds to the dragging feeling that I talked about. If we’d cut back on some of this backstory…) but I suppose that’s why this final arc was paced out as a three parter.

In sum, it’s a Demon Slayer experience as you’d expect; beautiful, artfully done action scenes, a metric crapton of flashbacks and exposition, and would I recommend you watch this in a theatre? Absolutely if only just to see these final showdowns unfold on the big screen. Absolutely prepare yourself mentally for the bits in between though (bring a snack, maybe) because while they initially tug on your heart strings, by the time you get to one particular backstory and flashback, trust me you’ll know which one, you might reach for your own nichirin blade to start doing some decapitating of your own. Oh and for you Inosuke fans, sorry- but you’ll probably have to wait for the next ones to get your boy doing his thing.

I give this movie 3.5 flashbacks out of 5. Demon Slayer Infinity Castle is out now in cinemas internationally, and in select cinemas in Asia thanks to Crunchyroll! Go check it out!