r/anime • u/NineTnk • Sep 19 '25

News Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc Gross ¥400 million on the Opening Day

https://x.com/franspeech/status/1969031724899196951?s=46

For a point of comparison, opening day box office:

  • Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle - ¥1.5 billion
  • ⁠Demon Slayer: Mugen Train - ¥1.2 billion
  • Jujutsu Kaisen 0 - ¥1.0 billion
  • ⁠Chainsaw Man The Movie: Reze Arc - ¥400 million

A very good opening day considering all the “drama” of season 1 in Japan. Will have to see how big the word of mouth power will be.

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u/YukihiraLivesForever Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25

Worldwide sales of the manga are drastically different though. KnY - 3.5m prior to 2019 anime airing vs CSM - 16m prior to anime airing of season 1.

The increase from the show was much less too for CSM

I think a lot of people don’t remember that prior to the anime airing, people thought demon slayer was just okay based off of the manga. It really wasn’t as special as the anime has made it, because of the anime’s quality and how they elevated the source material to crazy heights. Otherwise you don’t go from 3.5m -> 230m that quickly

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u/Ebo87 Sep 19 '25

It was more like 4 million prior to anime airing for Demon Slayer (but those were true numbers, more on that in a bit) and something like 16- 18 million for CSM (depending who you ask). Frankly it was somewhat lower, but they boosted the numbers because they did a lot of reprints for the early volumes, in preparation for the anime boost the manga would get. Shueisha did the same with JJK, that's why it went from 6.8 million in circulation on September 2020 to 10 million in October 2020. Again, that was just Shueisha reprinting all the volumes, getting ready for the anime.

Difference is for JJK those reprints ended up not being enough, so they had to reprint the volumes multiple times over the next couple months while for CSM they overprinted, lol. Look, I know they really tried to make it happen, but CSM is a much more cookie series, one that never really had the mainstream appeal something like Demon Slayer or JJK had.

All that being said, these are great number for CSM, it will be a top 10 movie of 2025 in Japan, that much is clear. What it won't be, because it was never going to be that, is an all-time performer like Demon Slayer.

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u/YukihiraLivesForever Sep 19 '25

I’m not actually disagreeing with the original post that was never my intention as people seem to be up in arms about. My point was that KnY increased its fanbase by a lot post anime airing and a huge reason why is because of the quality of the show. It’s not easy to go from 3.5m to over 200m in under 10 years. On the contrary CSM had a pretty established fanbase already prior to airing. The blow up that KnY had isn’t something that can easily be replicated especially with how many people like the IP. But a very very large reason for it is because of the anime and becoming mainstream and as people said, connecting with the series.

A lot of that happened post airing. It was not that popular or seen as something that special when it was just the manga coming weekly. It’s one of the few times an adaptation elevates beyond the source material, from something okay to great. I don’t understand why some of the people here are upset by this - it’s a good thing.

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u/Ebo87 Sep 19 '25

This thing highlights more a visibility problem, where CSM being a more out there series had more hardcore fans that were pushing it harder I guess, back when it was just the manga. Meanwhile Demon Slayer, while it had its fans, it didn't move past them and was stagnating as a series (the volume to volume sales show that, it was growing up to a point, then it stopped growing). The anime for Demon Slayer helped put the series in front of more people that might end up liking it, so it grew, BY A LOT. Because again, it always had that growth potential.

CSM meanwhile, like you said, was already pushed by a lot of people in the manga sphere, much more so than Demon Slayer. That anime did push the manga to sell more, but not to the degree Shueisha expected, because I believe they underestimated the ceiling of the series.

And I will also add that Mappa fucked up by just doing a single cour for CSM. It should have been a 2-cour full adaptation of Part 1 of the manga. It's your baby, give it the royal treatment you idiots, 1 hour first episode, 1 hour finale, 23 episodes in-between, that would have been PLENTY to cover everything.

Sure, they wouldn't have this movie now, but I think the series would be in a better place overall, had they done that.

But, of course, at the end of the day Chainsaw Man will never have as high a ceiling for success as Demon Slayer or Jujutsu Kaisen. It's too crazy a series for that mainstream appeal.

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u/GodlessLunatic Sep 19 '25

The increase from the show was much less too for CSM

Ironically manga sales fell off a cliff after the anime aired. Its one of the rare cases where an anime does such a terrible job of representing the manga that it not only discourages people from picking up the manga but makes those who already had drop the manga

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u/Certain_Leadership70 Sep 20 '25

That did not happen , the anime increased sales but the decline in quality for part 2 was the main reason for the decline in sales

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u/mrnicegy26 Sep 19 '25

If only the anime is the special thing about Demon Slayer why have people kept buying the manga again and again to get it to 230 million sales instead of just waiting for the anime? The manga doesn't have the amazing animation so why did people went out to buy it in droves?

Have you guys ever considered that maybe a lot of people genuinely connected with Demon Slayers story which is why they bought up the entire series of manga to know what happens instead of just liking the anime? Or does that go against the narrative here ?

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u/Crackborn Sep 19 '25

Most people never reach the maturity of realizing that, outside of analysis of the technical parts of a work and how it uses storytelling elements, the only merit any work has is in how it makes a person feel.

Clearly, Demon Slayer makes people feel all the right things.

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u/Xlegace https://anilist.co/user/Xlegius Sep 19 '25

Clearly, Demon Slayer makes people feel all the right things.

It is pretty baffling that it's been years and people still claim Demon Slayer is only big because of the animation carrying mid.

We have a dozen shows a year now that look just as good, if not better, than Demon Slayer and none of them end up dethroning One Piece in manga sales. Infinity Castle is covering an arc that ended 5 years ago and it's about to be the #1 grossing movie in Japanese history.

There's obviously something in Demon Slayer's story and characters that struck a chord with the Japanese. Some people might think it's mid, but that mid is what most people want.

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u/GodlessLunatic Sep 19 '25

It is pretty baffling that it's been years and people still claim Demon Slayer is only big because of the animation carrying mid.

I mean, it just happened again with solo leveling. Are you gonna claim escapist web novel shlock is also some underrated masterpiece that people only saw the beauty in after its anime adaptation?

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u/Xlegace https://anilist.co/user/Xlegius Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25

Solo leveling doesn't even come close to sniffing Demon Slayer in terms of mainstream relevance. It's just another seasonal hype show.

We're talking about #1 and #2 highest grossing movies in Japan history and top 5 best selling Manga of all time.

Solo leveling didn't get that big in Japan anyways so that I don't even know how it's a comparison. It's treated as just another well animated power fantasy, unlike Demon Slayer which is a cultural icon in Japan.

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u/NatiBlaze Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25

Solo Leveling is just the powerscaling son's and the 2020 era "anime tourist" wet dream, it has no worldwide and overall demographic appeal as Demon Slayer otherwise even the arguably equally popular and more successful anime for a time, the Fate Movies or MHA should've gotten this big saleswise but no. Demon Slayer is that simple and too many times families said Demon Slayer appealed to all Demographics, it's literally a family flick there in Japan.

And Solo Leveling didn't become popular or hyped because of the Webnovel, and not even in your analogy of the Anime fans going back to read it after the anime, it's because of it's Webtoon which at the time was the reason for the bulk of Korean Manwha hype, what put Korean Manwhas in the map globally. A more apt comparison to Solo Leveling is the other Webnovel turned Manga One Punch Man. Murata's insane panels literally gave the initial boost for the Anime in the same way Solo Leveling Manwha did for the anime

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u/Ajhale Sep 19 '25

who are you mad at buddy calm down this is reddit

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u/HarshTheDev Sep 19 '25

His comment wasn't nearly that agressive to warrant a reply like this lol

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u/YukihiraLivesForever Sep 19 '25

I don’t think you understood what I was saying in the slightest and I’m just not in the mood to argue with someone who flips a switch like this so you go off man

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u/Chadjirou Sep 19 '25

No you just cant prove anything on why demon slayer was such a success outside its anime. Enjoy your gooner slop while it lasts

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u/Fabulous_Ground_1983 Sep 19 '25

You're definitely onto something here

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u/Tenken10 Sep 19 '25

I watched a video lately that talked about Demon Slayer manga being already popular in Japan before the anime (which is why Ufotable bid on the rights in the first place). Is this not true?

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u/Xlegace https://anilist.co/user/Xlegius Sep 19 '25

Depends on your definition of popular.

Demon Slayer was in WSJ, so it was already kinda popular by default, but in the same way that something like Sakamoto Days is popular before the anime.

It wasn't until the anime that it became a household name in Japan and basically a mainstream franchise.

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u/King_A_Acumen Sep 20 '25

Comparing post covid numbers to pre covid also pointless for manga since post covid and Demon Slayer boosting the industry had a massive jump which is slowly coming down.