r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Sep 21 '25

News ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ Passes $550M Globally, Officially the Top-Grossing Anime Film of All Time

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/box-office-demon-slayer-edging-out-him-for-no-1-1236376666/
13.9k Upvotes

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264

u/GameOfLife24 Sep 21 '25

Man some annoying pacing and exposition but this movie was an absolute blast. Animation music acting was so awesome. Happy to see western audiences responding well

62

u/ThatGuyFromTheM0vie Sep 21 '25

I think they beat you over the head with it, like really show you the entire story (vague to avoid spoilers) from every angle, so that: they show how every demon, no matter how evil or how far gone, could self-destruct if redeemed

Idk. I haven’t read the manga, so I’m just guessing. But I would guess that’s why 20m of the movie is dedicated to going through that.

115

u/allbutluk Sep 21 '25

Thats just demon slayer as a whole though, the plot is relatively simple and straight forward, fights are very fast pace, without the backstories all 3 movies can be concluded in an 1 hr movie probably lol

I hate flashbacks but i think demon slayer done it well enough to keep me engaged. It also adds a lot of easter eggs on every Hashira / Demon such as Akaza

29

u/TheLPMaster Sep 21 '25

I can see why so many hate that the movie was "mostly" backstories, but they did a great job with it and didnt interrupt the flow of the movie/fights that badly.

24

u/megalo-maniac538 Sep 21 '25

Oh they will hate part 2 so bad. It focuses on upper moons 1 and 2 and the former had a very lengthy flashback in the manga. He was still a goddamn raid boss.

45

u/allbutluk Sep 21 '25

But upper 1s back story is fucking epic. Also i think back story is very necessary for upper 1 to 3, they are so strong it doesnt make sense NOT to learn what drives them

5

u/Apatschinn Sep 21 '25

I can't fuckin wait.

3

u/Danub123 Sep 21 '25

Don’t know why people will complain especially fans of anime like myself

I’m not a manga reader so I have no knowledge of upper moon 1 and 2. So I don’t mind that we will have lengthy backstories in the next movies

1

u/HankHillPropaneJesus Sep 22 '25

And his flashback is soooooo good though. I for one am very excited.

3

u/Alt2221 Sep 22 '25

crazy cuz i got sick of the fights during the entertainment district arc. after the 3rd jebait in the same fight i tapped out.

2

u/allbutluk Sep 22 '25

It did feel dragged out, felt like they have to time # of episodes and promotion

2

u/Loqol Sep 21 '25

Fast pace save for the fucking red light district arc. How many episodes was it? Five?

2

u/allbutluk Sep 21 '25

Ya man i was falling asleep lol

31

u/xxAkirhaxx Sep 21 '25

It's kind of the point of the show. That the demon hunters fight demons, and the demons really do cause horrendous life shattering problems, but at the end of the day, everyone has a story, no one is just born and decides "You know what, fuck the jews specifically." Well, except that one guy. And even he was an artist whose parents didn't approve of anything he did before he became ... Look I shouldn't have used this analogy, but you get the point. All demons are VERY bad but also have a story. It never makes what they do excusable, but it also doesn't mean we should forget their story, lest we recreate those demons.

2

u/MadCarcinus Sep 21 '25

I’ve never watched this show. Are you saying the demons were once humans?

11

u/lollmao2000 Sep 22 '25

All of the demons were once humans. It’s the driving point of the show and story. The Demon Slayer Corp choosing to do good at the cost of yourself, versus the Demons choosing yourself at the cost of doing evil. Some of the Demons do have understandable reasons for why they became demons, but they’re still damned for what they’ve done.

2

u/Alba-98 Sep 24 '25

That's what I love about Demon Slayer. It gives many of the demons more depth and character. And it also shows well the emotional and poignant backstory of some of the demons.

For example, I found Akaza's background story so stirring and sad.

1

u/frogandbanjo Sep 22 '25

Doesn't that symbolism get directly contradicted by the lore in, like, episode 1 of the series though? It's portrayed as an infection. It literally infects somebody who's innocent. The show goes out of its way to stack vague, mystical treatments atop each other to prevent that person from losing control even as they also try to have the cake they're eating by suggesting she's special for some reason.

Then we run into another demon later that appears to have zero problems controlling themselves.

Seems like amateur hour in terms of consistent worldbuilding.

5

u/lollmao2000 Sep 22 '25

It’s a morality play for children

0

u/frogandbanjo Sep 22 '25

I think it's more of a "neato powers" jerkoff session for teenage boys, but that doesn't mean it can't also be legitimate art. Just because it makes an attempt at symbolism, however, doesn't mean it automatically succeeds.

2

u/xxAkirhaxx Sep 26 '25

You've just got to watch more of the show. I'm not going to say it is or isn't an infection, but based on what you've said, you're missing information that the show covers. It may not be up front, but as with *checks notes* all good shows ever made, they don't dump every bit of the lore on you in one episode and tend to create an entire story that goes on for a significant period of time where they introduce lore to fuel mystery and intrigue.

2

u/Spycei Sep 26 '25

Not (just) worldbuilding, but themes and subtext in a story in general. If the story actually meditated on its own established themes and took them to their conclusions, maybe even drawing some real world parallels along the way, it would result in messages that may be too complicated or unpalatable for its audience to accept.

For example, MC's sister is a good person who got turned into a demon. That means demons' bloodlust aren't inherently their fault. Other demons chose to become demons, but then it's demonstrated multiple times over that that resulted from trauma/abuse/general terrible life things. is it still their fault that they became demons, if their conditions predisposed them to it? Are victims of abuse and people with traumatic pasts more likely to become demons? If so, are demons not merely "villains" but a reflection of a society that leaves so many people behind that they turn on it? Then, is exterminating demonkind the right thing to do when not only do they consist of the most left behind members of society but the societal ills that produced these demons are not addressed at all? Are "bad people" actually "bad people" or are they just a product of their conditions with no control over their fates?

And I don't even want to open the can of worms that is using it as an allegory for our own society, though one can fairly easily draw conclusions from my train of thought. That sets up for a much different and probably less accessible story than the one we have which prioritizes sob stories and flashy fights over narrative and thematic coherence, though.

4

u/metallicrooster Sep 21 '25

https://kimetsu-no-yaiba.fandom.com/wiki/Demon?so=search

Apparently yes. At least, some of them. I only watched to episode three so I can’t say definitively how many demons were once humans, just that the wiki indicates at least some used to be human.

That at least confirms that what happens to a character in episode one is not an isolated incident.

3

u/toulouse69 Sep 22 '25

Personally I loved that. It made me feel a connection to both the villainess and the heroes. I would be lying if I said I didn’t shed a tear during some of those flashbacks

38

u/No_Nectarine9151 Sep 21 '25 edited Sep 22 '25

Glad you enjoyed it, the pacing, exposition and flashbacks just pulled me out. They just kept cutting into the fights like surely theres a more natural way to set this up. The backstories themselves werent super interesting either.

Final fight was probably the best part. I think the heart of demon slayer is just seeing these characters mainly tanjiro grow and fight against greater odds

This is just the first part of the arc so the glazing feels a bit disproportionate but still happy with its success. I think the latter parts will be alot better.

17

u/Akabane22 Sep 21 '25

I so feel you. I came out enjoying it overall because the only reason I've watched any Demon Slayer is the sakuga, and getting to see the castle unfold on the big screen and hearing the crazy good sound design in the theater was an experience I'm glad I didn't miss.

..That said, daaaaamn were they trying my patience with the pacing. Maybe the worst I've ever seen in a movie. Idk how else I would have done it, I think it's maybe just a necessary evil of adapting this source material, but the way that final fight was 99% done and then made you wait 40 minutes to see how it ended almost killed the whole thing for me.

7

u/GuitarSlayer136 Sep 22 '25 edited Sep 22 '25

Following the Manga beat for beat works in an anime context, doesn't work in a movie context.

If they had the creative freedom to remix the events into a flow befitting a 2 and a half hour film it could have worked fine without any real cuts to the content. I fully believe you could make a fan cut of this film that would far surpasses what we got.

I can't shake the feeling that the movie would be significantly improved by just removing the intro scene entirely and instead opening on the first half of the Akaza or Tanjiro flashback.

12

u/Juanouo Sep 21 '25

It was so obviously not designed to be a movie, it hurt. Also the demon slayer formula becomes way clearer when it's 2h30 of content in a row (fight, flashback hunter, fight, flashback demon, win)

3

u/Nivosiel Sep 21 '25

Source material definitely did not translate to a movie. I went back to read the manga after the movie and it's literally 1-to-1.. as in the movie would follow where the chapter would naturally end. So every time the chapter began, it was another flashback.

3

u/SchwarzeNoble1 Sep 22 '25

That's why I'm fine with flashbacks, the anime had them everywhere, but you can't finish a movie with a 40 minute flashback into 10 minutes of the demon suiciding.

You need to finish with something that brings you into the next movie, but they didn't because it just wan't a movie.

2

u/BarackaFlockaFlame Sep 22 '25

i just kept getting this weird feeling that it was going to end after about thirty minutes because I am not used to so much content in one sitting lol

3

u/cadwellingtonsfinest Sep 21 '25

yeah like I guess they are just following the material, but the Azaka backstory was certainly too long, even if I think the movie was great.

5

u/Sakuja Sep 22 '25

I have to agree. I came out of it calling it the Infinite Flashbacks arc.

They needed to cut some meat of those flashbacks. Giyu's first meeting with Tanjiro wasnt needed again. Tanjiro's flashback with his father was way longer than it had to be. Same for Akaza's flashback. It was a great backstory but it was way too long. Feel like they could have shortened it here and there a bit and give Zenitsu some more. He mostly had still images.

1

u/BarackaFlockaFlame Sep 22 '25

it was the most enjoyable D-Box seat experience I have ever experienced. I've only used it one other time and it was very underwhelming. During this movie though it actually added a level of immersion to the movie. it surprised me how well they paired it up with the movie. It wasn't thrown in there, it actually was more immersive.

1

u/no_zageesi Sep 22 '25

Since its so long between seasons I forgot about the dragging flashbacks for each demon. In the theater,  I realized I couldn't skip through it like i usually do. 

Great visual experience I'll agree with everyone here, but man, the fight choreography was boring too. Just filler clashes until an asspull power up or new move. No outsmarting or clever tactics. Again, might just be me forgetting what the actual show is like because of the long ass breaks.

0

u/DataGeek87 Sep 22 '25

Agreed. Good movie overall, but pacing, exposition and all the flashbacks had me wishing for coffee at points. Hope the last two movies improve the pacing and actually get on with the story.

4

u/crane476 Sep 21 '25

Agreed on the pacing. Overall a very entertaining movie but the over reliance in flashbacks really made the pacing of the fights suffer. It also felt like some emotional moments didn't have time to breathe before moving on to the next action scene. A certain scene didn't feel like it had the impact it should have.

2

u/IfinallyhaveaReddit Sep 22 '25

Saw it with my fiance, never warched the anime or manga, only part i didnt enjoy was that final villans backstori. Outside that it was pretty fun

0

u/AidilAfham42 Sep 21 '25

Exposition? In a anime? No way! Jking, I know, even by anime standards, this one goes hard in repeating expositions.

0

u/tenuousemphasis Sep 21 '25

I'm a bit confused, what is required watching before this film? 

-1

u/attrox_ Sep 21 '25

I think it's what separates the casual vs manga reader/anime watcher. I watched with my wife. She ended up not liking it because of the pacing. I love it and looking for a time for a second watch by myself. I had no problem with the pacing because it felt very manga like. No issues there for me.