THE STORY – The Demon Slayer Corps are drawn into the Infinity Castle, where Tanjiro, Nezuko, and the Hashira face terrifying Upper Rank demons in a desperate fight as the final battle against Muzan Kibutsuji begins.
THE CAST – Natsuki Hanae, Akari Kitō, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Hiro Shimono, Takahiro Sakurai & Akira Ishida
THE TEAM – Haruo Sotozaki (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 155 Minutes
It wasn’t long ago that being a big anime fan was a verboten pleasure, treated as a vice that’s best enjoyed in private. Those days are past, and it’s partially thanks to ocean-hopping anime like “Attack on Titan,” “Jujutsu Kaisen,” and the wonderfully successful “Demon Slayer” that those barriers have fallen. Unlike other anime of its type, there’s a surprising flow of empathy alongside the bloody carnage, giving rare heft to a series with a hack n’ slash namesake. The latest feature film in the “Demon Slayer” saga, “Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle,” brings that characteristic quality back to theaters, reaching for gusts of emotion it only sometimes earns.
For the uninitiated, “Demon Slayer” follows the wistfully caring hero Tanjiro on a quest of justice alongside his demon-turned sister Nezuko after demons murdered their family in medieval Japan. He joins the Demon Slayer Corps, a specialized group of fighters, as he searches to restore his sister’s lost humanity. It’s an easy premise for an anime outsider, at once tender and action-packed, leading to levels of popularity that has made it normal (at least here in Chicago) to spot “Demon Slayer” garb in public.
Directed by Haruo Sotozaki, “Infinity Castle” kicks off immediately after the “Hashira Training Arc” Season Four cliffhanger, which saw Tanjiro and his Hashira allies plummeting into an Escheresque lair ruled by Mazan, a demonlord fashioned in dark locks and a fedora; it’s the final showdown of the series, and they’re finally on his turf. As the posters promise, a wide range of characters return from the earlier seasons, sporting colorful costumes and phantasmagoric abilities (one lets a snake burrow around his shoulders, and thus when he fights, a super-sized sorcerous snake slithers through waves of attacking demons). In a series known for imaginative 4D action scenes, “Infinity Castle” doesn’t disappoint, delivering a spectacle worthy of cinema screens. Fights erupt through an ever-changing jigsaw of Jenga-towered arenas, where the spires of Mazan’s never-ending castle are in a constant state of collapse or expansion. Meanwhile, arcs of popping flame ripple from Tanjiro’s katana as his abilities level up once more.
Some may be disappointed, then, that in the first of three planned “Infinity Castle” films, rather than an epic dash towards Mazan, the plot is limited to a triptych of three battles. First, the Hashira Shinobu faces off an Upper Rank 2 demon, while Tanjiro’s friend Zenitsu fights a demon from his past. Finally, Tanjiro has a rematch against Akaza, the chief villain from the earlier film “Mugen Train.” Each is delivered in the familiar “Demon Slayer” format, where climactic fights pause for humanizing flashbacks that give each major demon a tragic, sympathetic backstory. At the series’ best, Tanjiro relates to each monster he’s fighting, turning his killing blow into an act of mercy rather than pure violence. In one of “Infinity Castle’s” most moving moments, there’s an inspired connection between Tanjiro’s duty of (demon) care to a revelation in the past.
Yet, what works as an episode to episode series struggles to support a long sit of two and a half hours, and the constant intermingling of past and present interrupts the high notes “Infinity Castle” reaches for. Tanjiro’s arc is predictably the most effective, and the extended flashback around Akaza and his ruinous past – it almost works as a film within a film – is one of the series’ strongest to date. But these strengths also provide no resolution that gracefully connects to the prior two battles, nor does it give a satisfying conclusion as a feature film. It’s a film without a true beginning, middle, and end, tunnel-visioned into three multiphased arcs that might be typical of a “Demon Slayer” season of television, only clumsily woven together.
Many have forgotten it was “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train,” the debut feature film of the franchise, that helped reopen cinemas in 2021 as the pandemic began to wane. Just as Zenitsu can blast off with the thunderous speed of lightning, “Mugen Train” was the first anime to surpass “Spirited Away” at the Japanese box office, the first non-American film to top the global box office, and is the second-highest grossing anime in the U.S. ever, only after “Pokémon: The First Movie.” That stratospheric success wasn’t just pent-up energy after closed theater screens – it worked as both a standalone supernatural action epic and tear-jerking melodrama, where the inspiring fire Hashira sung themes of self-actualization and acceptance in the face of death; it was among the first movies I saw once theaters reopened, and by the end, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
The series has always been strongest when Tanjiro is at his most introspective and caring, the action dynamic and evolving, and weepy demon backstories genuinely sympathetic. “Infinity Castle” self-consciously tries to repeat “Mugen Train’s” blend of operatic anime action and pure emotion, hoping quantity – more demon backstories, more flashbacks, more quiet-then-loud fight sequences – will outweigh quality. “Infinity Castle” doesn’t feel like a movie so much as a wobbly, but often entertaining, first third of a season of television. Mileage will vary if we should grade on a curve knowing it’s the first part of a planned trilogy, but for my money, if you pay for a movie ticket, you deserve a movie ticket ending.
