Demon Slayer: Mugen Train
Director: Haruo Sotozaki
Writer: Koyoharu Gotouge
Cinematographer: Yuichi Terao
Production Companies: Aniplex, Shueisha, Ufotable
Distributors: Toho, Aniplex
Release Date: 23 April 2021 (USA)
Runtime: 1 hour 57 minutes
MPA Rating: R
Availability: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
Synopsis
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (original title: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-Hen) takes place directly after the first season of the anime series. First, a quick recap. Teenager Tanjiro Kamado (Natsuki Hanae) has become a demon slayer to avenge the death of his family and turn his demon sister, Nezuko (Akari Kito), back into a human. After killing a couple of demons, the siblings eventually team up with fellow newbie slayers Zenitsu Agatsuma (Hiro Shimono), the cowardly comic relief who turns into an unconscious badass, and Inosuke Hashibira (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka), a hothead who, appropriately, wears a boar head. By the season finale, all four are assigned to accompany the Hashira (i.e., an elite demon slayer) Kyojuro Rengoku (Satoshi Hino) on the Mugen train to find and eliminate the demon responsible for the disappearance of 40 passengers. Let the over-the-top fighting commence!
Analysis
To say this movie has superb animation would be a severe understatement. It easily has the most visually pleasing aesthetic I’ve ever seen from an anime. The world is a combination of vibrant, warm, and dim hues. The rich color palette employed and amount of detail paid make each element in a scene pop out. Thus, even tiny details like the look of the train seats or of tears streaming down a character’s face draw your attention. And watching action sequences felt like viewing a painting come to life. They consist of characters’ fluid movements, blows that emit a great variety of colors, and marvelous attacks that are impressive in both form and scale. This style made characters locked in battle appear to execute beautiful and dangerous dance routines. The unique way the camera moved around during sequences made them all the more mesmerizing. And seeing how beautiful the camera movement complemented the animation during action scenes felt like all of my brain’s neurons were firing at once.
I came out of this movie with a lot of appreciation for its two leads, Tanjiro and Kyojuro. While the first season does an excellent job of showing Tanjiro’s development as a demon slayer and his strong relationships with others, this movie reminds the audience of how much he’s overcome and what makes his spirit indomitable. The dream world the demon creates for Tanjiro is one in which his family is still alive. Having a peek at “what could have been” is a sad remembrance of how much he has lost. Witnessing how pained Tanjiro is to leave the world reveals the weight he carries with him every day. But regardless of how painful his departure is, he still has the will and determination to leave. And by the end of the movie, we understand that the reason he fights isn’t in the vain hope that doing so will fill the family-size hole in his heart. Tanjiro presses on so that their deaths and the deaths of countless others won’t go unanswered. This movie also does a good job demonstrating why Kyojuro is such a good demon slayer. Firstly, he is an expert fighter with an undefeatable spirit similar to Tanjiro’s. His fight scenes are easily the best in the movie, with the speed and scale of fire attacks making the screen explode with color. His perpetual can-do attitude and upbeat nature never read as parody. And Kyojuro’s most endearing trait is likely his unlimited capacity for caring for other people. Before he engages in any battle, his first priority is to ensure that everyone is safe. He also prevents Tanjiro and the other newbies from assisting him in a battle in order to protect them.
[***SPOILER WARNING FOR ENTIRE PARAGRAPH***] The sheer awesomeness of the third act’s climactic battle between Kyojuro and the upper-tier demon Akaza (Akira Ishida) makes the movie end on a high note. Blows exchanged between characters are exchanged rapidly, which is countered with drawn-out shots which allow viewers to dissect every detail of a scene. As mentioned before, color variety and excellent animation make each attack unique and amazing. And they’re not just for show either; fatal jabs barely missed, limbs sliced, and brutal injuries sustained put the viewer at the edge of their seat. The vibrancy and savagery of the combatants’ attacks, coupled with the magnitude of their auras, all reach a crescendo by the battle’s conclusion. And since I was already emotionally invested in Kyojuro, watching him continue to press on only to tragically die was heartbreaking. Still, I appreciated how the movie treated his death with great care and highlighted how he will have a lasting impact on Tanjiro in the future.
While none of the movie’s flaws were distracting individually, in total they tempered my enjoyment a bit. The first 2/3 of the film feels too humorous at times, which is odd for a series that has always struck a balance between humor, drama, and action. While genuinely impressive, the conflict that arises during the third act comes out of left field. The film pretty much has nothing for Nezuko or Zenitsu to do besides have one extremely brief action beat. And I understand this is annoying to bring up, but you absolutely cannot watch this film unless you have seen the entire first season of the anime.
Conclusion
I definitely recommend checking out Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. Despite minor faults, it boasts jaw-dropping visuals, successfully gets the audience emotionally invested, and has a genuinely epic third act. Can’t wait to see what speeches and demon hacking Tanjiro delivers next!
Rating: 4/5