Yesterday I went to theaters and watched the new Demon Slayer movie. The movie was phenomenal and I left the theater wanting more. Here is my spoiler free review.

Disclaimer: I will try my very best to keep this review spoiler free. That being said, to keep it spoiler free there are parts of the movie that I would love to delve into to review but will refrain from doing so. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as I can for the movie but I will warn you now that I may spoil the the first season of the anime that was a lead up to this film. Also, I normally watch the dub but I can also appreciate subs and did have to watch this movie subbed due to no dub tickets being available. With all that said let’s get into it.

The movie going experience.

This will be a section that is unique to me but I wish to share it anyways. I found that the movie was only going to be airing in theaters until there was a blue ray release and decided I was ok with going to theaters to watch the movie. I bought some tickets online only the day before the movie and planned a whole day around the trip. None of my local theaters were airing the movie anytime soon from what I could tell so I had to drive to a town that was 44 minutes away. This meant a foreign area I had not been to so I bought a friend a ticket and took her with me to the theater and ended up leaving several hours earlier. When we arrived we had roughly an hour to kill so we walked around the park that this theater was situated by and just discussed our hype and expectations for the movie. During the drive there and the wait I had to fill her in on the series because she had not watched or read Demon Slayer at all. I gave her my sparknotes version of the show and finally it was time. We got snacks and soda and it was a recliner theater so we got comfortable and sat through a ton of ads that aired when the movie said it was scheduled to air.

The animation.

The animation of the movie was beautiful. The anime itself was already stunningly animated and the same animation team did work on this movie. Aniplex always surprises because whenever I find they were a part of the animation project of a series, I am always blown away by the quality. Sure SAO may not have been considered good, but the animation during that series done by Aniplex is always visually stunning. It is very clean and smooth and it doesn’t do many still shot action sections and actually fully animates all the combat scenes that are important. The animation budget of a movie helps make the animation of the water and fire attacks as well as the thunder look really great. The movie is mostly traditional animation but it does have come CGI thrown in, but it is not very in your face or takes you out of the movie. There are some who are picky about CGI, and I would say that although I am not picky about it there are some times where it looks so out of place but not in this movie.

The story.

Don’t worry I don’t plan to spoil the story of the movie. With that said I want to talk about one of my favorite aspects of the movie. When the anime series ended it left off with the trio on a train seeking out Rengoku, and I love that the movie not only picks up from where we left off but that it included a very clean and smooth recap. It literally just redoes the last minute or two of the anime which jogged my memory of where the anime ended. It brought me right back to speed with info I knew, yet couldn’t remember without a narrator like the classic dragon ball z memes. Also, because the movie was part of the canon to the series, you get completely sucked into the movie. When you watch a non canon movie in a series it usually doesn’t feel like you have a stake in it because it won’t leave a lasting impact on the series with the events that happen, but not here. They leave you on the edge of your seat making you wonder where the story is going next from where you left off. This was something that really enhanced my personal experience with the movie itself.

The characters.

Most of the characters are returning characters, so there is not too much of a surprise on the protagonist front. Like I said the movie picked up with Tanjiro and crew going on a train to meet Rengoku, hence the name of the movie Mugen train. With that being said we learn about a great new character Rengoku, who we met very briefly at the meeting of the Hashira. They flesh out his character in this movie as you would expect them too, as well as introduce a couple villains and some one time side characters. As far as side characters go, I loved them all. I felt that they really added to the events that happen in the movie and have just enough depth for how short their screen time is. The main villain was an ok main villain, nothing to write home about but the spider demon in the ark before this I felt was written better. He gets a lot less build up and we learn a lot less about motivations besides being evil just because he is. Though the main villain does the job when it comes to bouncing off the main characters and giving them more development.

Soundtrack.

To be honest, looking back I can’t remember much of the soundtrack. I believe they used the same background ost’s that are in the anime and we are not treated to that amazing, yet memed opening from the franchise. I think that the soundtrack did a great job of setting the mood and not being in your face too much. It did not command the stage too strongly but it also ran the risk of being a bit forgettable. I feel soundtracks to set the mood always run that risk of being forgettable, but great in the moment and there are few who set the mood correctly, but you can also remember and jam out too after the fact.

Closing.

Those are my thoughts on the Demon Slayer movie. It definitely had to be one of my favorites if not my most favorite anime movie that has been tied to a franchise. I would rate it a 10/10 in the sense of a franchise movie. I rated the anime about a 9/10 and I think that in the sense of Demon Slayer it stays that course. It was so good it convinced my friend to watch the anime, and as a series lover it really just hit a great sweet spot and made me long and itch for the second season already.

With all that said, if you enjoyed this post please go ahead and read more on my site. Also like and follow me here and twitter to get more content from me and leave a comment if you like. I will always try to reply to every single comment I get and I can’t wait to write for you all again tomorrow!