Forum - View topicREVIEW: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle – Part 1: Akaza Returns Anime Fi
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KayWhy
 Posts: 22 |
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Sounds like the movie carries over the same issues as the anime? A little unfortunate, but it looks incredible at least. I do think the next movie will improve on the pacing though; just looking at the source material, they’ll have less to cram into that one.
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Magpareddi
Posts: 14 |
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You might have made some good points. While I don't agree with your overall score of the story being a C-, I think it's at least nice to get an actual review for this series for once, rather than the seemingly troll ragebaits we have been getting
Last edited by Magpareddi on Tue Jul 22, 2025 6:08 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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ZiharkXVI
Posts: 449 |
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The entire anime has been in this storytelling format and the reviewer thinks this is somehow detrimental? I'd counter by suggesting that the viewers don't mind the mix of action, flashbacks and shifts in storyline. We don't need it to be in an episode to understand what's going on. If it was that confusing, audiences wouldn't resonate.
Aside from the obvious proof that it both works really well AND audiences are resonating with it, the reviewer says they think an episode would fix it, but if anyone had read the reviews from this very site they might recall the exact same complaint from the guy who watches the episodes (something to the effect that the flashbacks are too jarring at the end of the fights and would be better at the beginning of the fights). Its just not a very good critique. Putting something in 30 minute increments isnt going to magically fix uneven backstory reveals. Clearly this movie is like a long episode that has a story that's not finished. Mugen train had the akaza fight which really had much more to do with Rengoku than defeating the demon train (the main story). People unfamiliar didn't necessarily know why there was a random enemy waiting in the wings who would run off to fight another day. But that's okay. There's more story to tell. The big story in this one is Akaza and I presume that they got to the end of his particular tale (at good stopping point in the manga too if you needed to divide this up). Anyways I haven't seen the movie yet, so maybe im wrong and this movie is such a trainwreck of storytelling that it deserves to hover just above a D rating. I've listened and read some other reviews and apparently people are crying through the emotional parts and are amazed at the action choreography. I suspect a C- rating is probably a misleading outlier. But given the episode reviews of this anime over the years, im convinced ANN has some axe to grind against this franchise. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2696 |
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Having read the manga, I can see what is exactly the flashback that bothered the reviewer. The manga artist does not seem to find any issue with writing such a long backstory since he/she actually adds extra stuff for the omake set between chapters.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 5293 |
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It's not an "axe to grind" so much as that the series...isn't that good. It's Babby's First Battle Shounen. Its characters are one-note at best, its world-building is as shallow as a puddle, and it constantly tries to wring pathos out of characters long after the point that the audience has stopped caring about them. Every single thing it does narratively has been done far better by other past shounen series. About the only thing it unequivocally has going for it is its top-notch visual presentation. Mugen Train remains one of the most overhyped and under-delivering pieces of media I've ever seen, and I can only assume Infinity Castle will manage to one-up it somehow. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 19137 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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True, but it would help with other problems the reviewer mentioned. The cumbersome, inelegant handling of backstories in the middle of battles has been a knock against the franchise for some time now, so this complaint about the movie is unsurprising. Granted, Demon Slayer is far from the first shonen action series to be guilty of that; Bleach has also been notorious for it, and so have many other major shonen action series over the years. At this point, most veteran shonen action fans just roll their eyes over it and put up with it, because original writers don't seem inclined to change. |
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Nemu Asahi
 Posts: 33 Location: Iwate |
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The Japanese are LOVING every bit of it. Some of them were crying from all the emotions in the theater. Cultural differences?
The flashbacks didn't bother me at all. I'm used to them as an old shonen manga fan. The rythmn or the structure didn't bother me either as I knew the type of storytelling used from the anime already. I wouldn't put a C-, maybe a B+ for the quality of the spectacle overall as a casual viewer of the anime? I didn't feel the 2.5 hours. For a fan of the manga, it's definitiveley a A+++. |
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Sinxi and heylog
Posts: 207 |
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Like the other comment has stated, the story is just super shallow. Just like rengoku, the emotional moment was probably because of a "guys this is the time to cry" type of writing/scene. From the outside looking in, you would think that this movie or the other movies storytelling was something we have never seen before, but thats not the case. Ufotable just decided "how do we make a mid to bad manga one of the best adaptations in anime history" |
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ZiharkXVI
Posts: 449 |
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Except that the reviewer specifically said it was because in large part that these were not tv episodes. I suspect that they will make this movie into episodes at some point to re-release it. Here's my problem with the critique. Is this reviewer going to change their mind about the story and claim the story is great because now finally it's not one long movie? Its illogical. It either is or it isnt good. Id argue that it's nitpicky at best. I have zero problem with the storytelling. Flashbacks as an idea are either bad or good. They don't really have a place in the natural flow of anything (when was the last time any of stopped what we were doing for a 30 minute replay of a memory?). They are storytelling techniques and fairly common ones at that. Meant to feed an audience parts of the story that would not have worked in the traditional narrative OR simply were not important enough before. They can be poorly done, but I doubt they are as bad as the reviewer makes them out to be. |
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TexZero
Posts: 605 |
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The review is one of the most accurate on this site.
The pacing of the film is what kills it from the sense of it being a film. Had it been 4 or 5 TV episodes it'd be less of a problem. However the last 45 minutes of the film nosedive in quality both artistically and pacing wise. It's pretty bad to go from high action with detailed animation sequences to ostinably what is a slideshow. And yes i get it a lot of fans will not like that people are calling this out but it is without a doubt the worst aspect of the film. |
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Zefram
Posts: 136 |
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Pretty much guaranteed that the movie will be remade, some fillers added and converted into TV series, like all previous Movies were. Mugen Train was almost 2 hours - that became 7 episodes. This movie is more than 2.5 hours, expect at least 9 to 10 episodes.
Probably the reason why from what I hear next two movie are coming out not not on yearly basis but every two years, with movie #2 scheduled for release in 2027. Next year, they will release TV series from this movie. |
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SinisterOracle
 SubscriberPosts: 856 |
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I agree 100% with this review. Main reason I’ve hated Demon Slayer is because of the boring and repetitive formulaic episodes as well as the dull characters and their fizzling motivations. Yes, the fight scenes are the best looking in the business. But the story itself is middling at best. It’s only gotten big because of hype. Same as Solo Leveling. The next big thing will soon appear and people will move on from both of these anime.
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jr240483
 Posts: 4856 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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i doubt it. i mean the last eps of attack of titan didn't get that, so i can see these movies getting the same treatment! |
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ZiharkXVI
Posts: 449 |
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You hated Demon Slayer, but took the time to watch it upon release? Fascinating... At least I had the wherewithal to admit I've never seen the movie and my opinion is subject to change. Just gonna say since a few folks suggested that it is just a hyped show for "Babby's" to anime. I've been a manga/anime fan since the late 80s. All of this nonsense about it being just being shallow or too simple for the "refined" anime viewer is just that. If Demon Slayer is "middling at best", we're doing pretty good. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 20003 |
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It wasn't really my reaction to the material from reading the manga, but maybe I just didn't mind it. At least it's staying true to the source material!
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