I’m of two minds when it comes to this film. On one hand, as a fan of the show, it’s a great continuation of where the season 4 finale left off with the production value going absolutely off the charts in its visuals. On the other hand, this barely works as a movie.

 

If you’re considering watching this without having seen the show or even the previous film, that would be similar to watching Avengers: Infinity War with no familiarity at all with Marvel. In fact, this may be more confusing than that because there’s simply no recap at all. Instead, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle picks up after season 4’s cliffhanger so immediately that I had to pause and watch a recap video to remember exactly why what I was looking at was so important.

 

So yeah, if you have no familiarity with Demon Slayer, don’t see this movie. You can watch the show in its entirety on Crunchyroll and Netflix, though note that it definitely takes a while to get interesting. In my opinion, though, season two is worth the watch purely for the animation.

 

For fans of Demon Slayer, do I really need to offer a review? Just watch the movie! It’s the first of the trilogy covering the final arc of the story. It’s all canon. Why are you even reading reviews of this?

 

Jokes aside, I definitely have gripes about this entry. Sure, you get 2.5hrs of some of the most jaw-dropping anime visuals put to screen, but the story is dragged out and intentionally incomplete. It’s kind of similar to how Across the Spider-Verse is only half a movie, but Across the Spider-Verse at least completes an arc with Gwen whereas Infinity Castle moves along like seven episodes stitched together for a binge event. There’s no sense of finality as the credits roll to satiate you until the next installment, instead you feel ready to click Play Next, and I think this will lead to some dissatisfaction.

 

Then again, anime fans and I don’t see eye-to-eye a lot. I love the ending of My Hero Academia and Erased, I dislike Jujutsu Kaisen, and I think the Chainsaw Man anime is significantly stronger than the manga. (And I think Chainsaw Man is Fujimoto’s worst manga. Fight me.) I can see hardcore Demon Slayer fans crying in the theaters and feeling hyped up at the ending in the same way I was with Across the Spider-Verse.

 

Which kind of begs the question: Who are reviews like this for? Again, if you don’t watch the show, you shouldn’t see this movie. If you watch the show, you’re going to see this movie no matter if it’s good or bad because it’s the finale. This is all I can really say as a critic: The visuals and action are the best in the series, the pacing feels slower than necessary, but it’s overall a really solid start to this trilogy.