I Watched Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle – Here's My Honest Review

[00:02] people have kind of dipped off the going to theater train since the pandemic, but like even before the pandemic, I've rarely go to see movies. Anime films are necessarily because I don't want to see anime films, but historically just

[00:17] because they don't show up around me. No joke, the average anime film either does not appear in any theater near me at all, or if it does, it's this one all, or if it does, it's this one theater that is an okay distance away

[00:30] from me uh that I sometimes go to when, you know, I feel like it's worthy. cuz yeah, I could travel pretty far away and spend several hours on various forms of transit to get to the very downtown of Toronto in order to go to the the

[00:44] Eglundon Theater or the Scotia Bank Theater or whatever the heck they call it now. And usually most anime films are playing there, but I usually go with a more time on transit getting to the theater than it would take to watch the

[00:58] film. Say nothing of the return journey. So, normally I don't do that. And then when my good friend Miles was talking to me earlier this week and he was just like, "So, you going to go see Demon Slayer?" And I'm like, "No, why would I

[01:10] plan to do that? It's probably not even going to be in a nearby theater to me." To which he responds, "No, actually, uh, it's the widest release of any anime film ever." And I'm like, "Sure, Jan, because that normally doesn't apply to

[01:24] me." However, uh this particular time instead of only being available in the one theater at an okay distance away from me, it was available in five. So, I suddenly had far less of an excuse to avoid going and seeing it. And now,

[01:39] having seen the film, I am glad I did. It should not be a surprise that The Spectacle of Demon Slayer is something that fits very well in a theatrical setting to the point where if someone asks me, uh, should you go watch this

[01:53] film? The answer is well technically the answer is yes with an asterisk. That asterisk being have you seen Demon Slayer? Cuz I would not recommend this film as beautiful as it is to anyone that has never seen Demon Slayer before.

[02:08] This film is adapting essentially the end of the manga. This is a bad jumping on point and I don't think that that should be a hot take. Of course, if you if if you have seen like all the way up to the end of season 4, you should have

[02:23] already seen this film by now, unless you can't for some reason. But again, we can go back to the widest release of an anime film currently in history, at least for North America. But I will say there is probably some amount of people

[02:37] that have it in their heads being like, "Oh, yeah, but you know, when Muggan spectacle. Everybody said to go and watch that in theaters. And then they into like the first six episodes of season 2. So what's to say or what's to

[02:54] stop them from then making a season five and then just making that, you know, Infinity Castle? You're not wrong. And I know I've seen differing opinions on whether or not Muggan Train is better to be watched in a theatrical format or as

[03:08] season 2. Um, I generally would probably personally recommend just to watch first of all, and then also it just gets complicated. I am always down for less don't want to say, "Okay, well, go watch season 1, then go watch this film, and

[03:25] it was covered by I don't like doing that." It's just much easier to say, "Watch watch seasons 1 through four of Demon Slayer." Very easy, very quick. everything. I don't feel like you need to go and watch Muggan Train

[03:40] specifically when it is mostly covered by the show. I don't feel like you need to go and watch the compilation films because, you know, that's covered by the show. I don't know if I would recommend only watching the compilation films.

[03:54] That seems like a bad idea personally, but not having seen the compilation films specifically because, you know, I watched the show instead, um, I can't Infinity Castle is something that I

[04:06] would heavily recommend you to probably go and see if for no other reason. Even if they do come up with a season 5 and like rework a lot of this film into a new season, watching it on the big screen is worth it. You just got to make

[04:19] sure that you you trust your big screen, right? So, I had uh three options ahead of me technically. Uh, I could go to a regular showing, I could go to an UltraAVX showing, I could go to a VIP showing, or I could have done the

[04:33] aforementioned trip all the way down to downtown Toronto and watched it in IMAX, perspective, I kind of wish I did see it in IMAX, but again, I don't know if I would have been able to justify the time to get there or back. So, due to reasons

[04:46] uh, if you don't know what that is, what is a VIP theater? Uh, cuz you know, of doing things and taking your money. Nowadays, the VIP theater is a nice

[04:58] comfy cushy recliner seats uh with inseat food service and it is an 18 plus thing. So, no kids allowed, which has its pluses and its minuses. I've gone to its pluses and its minuses. I've gone to a VIP screening before and I will say uh

[05:13] people getting their food served to them while you're trying to watch a movie is hella distracting and not the biggest fan of that part. But, you know, after Minecraft movie and people going absolutely insane during a regular

[05:26] admittance showing, I can understand wanting to go to an 18 plus showing of virtually anything from this point on. It would just be a matter of make sure you try and find a theater that, you know, has a good projector. I can't

[05:38] speak too too much to the projector that I saw the film with, but I could swear that there was like this light black vignette around the edges of the screen and it kind of faded the colors a bit around that edge. Not like so

[05:51] people would notice, but considering I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to and unsuccessfully color grading my monitors. I'm a little bit could just be looking at ghosts and it's not a problem at all and I'm just making

[06:05] should go see the film. Um, especially cuz we're going to start talking about the film now. And if you haven't seen it, you should fix that. So, when it comes to my thoughts on the film, uh, the positives are very easy because it

[06:17] is a beautiful film. It is an absolute stellar film. It is the type that, as I mentioned, I understand why you would want to see it in a theatrical setting. It is very much geared for a theatrical setting, especially the first half. The

[06:31] second half, however, or maybe the the final third is probably uh a better way of describing it. Could have been an episode of the anime, didn't necessarily, I think, benefit from being part of a film. Just happened to be part

[06:45] adapting. uh that could have been done in the small screen and I don't think that there would be any loss of quality there but I think my enjoyment was going into the film which I realize is unfair to the film. Um I mostly put the

[06:59] blame on uh Sony uh Crunchyroll and probably Cinniplex. I didn't look up much about this movie going into it. I have not read the manga because you know I prefer watching it as an adaptation rather than doing the constant

[07:11] material. I can always read the manga later. And you know, knowing about Muggan Train and how Muggan Train was released and presented, I kind of went into this film with particular expectations. It wasn't until I got out

[07:24] of the film and looked it up that I realized in Japan, uh, this film is realized in Japan, uh, this film is advertised as a part one, which knowing that going in, um, probably would have made things better. I did not know that

[07:38] this was only going to be a part one. Had I known, had I read the manga, I probably could have assumed based on the amount of material for the final arc were fitting it all in one film without doing massive cuts. I didn't read the

[07:51] manga. I had no idea. And at no point did I get any indication that this was supposed to be a part one. Now, I'm sure somebody would just be like, "That's a skill issue and that's my own fault for not looking it up." But really, it

[08:04] should have been part of like literally the title. Crunchyroll and Cinniplex this because it is a part one. Part one of how many? I'm not entirely sure. supposed to be getting three parts, but you know, I remember how many parts the

[08:19] supposed to have, and that kind of ballooned exponentially. So, I don't it's only going to be three parts. It could be more. We don't know. We'll know when it's done. That's when we'll know. and not knowing that it was a part one

[08:34] going into it. I think especially again during that final third when we're getting all this really great story, this great backstory um for one of the assuming that you've already seen the film, but just in case I'm not going to

[08:48] spoil too too much, but we're getting all of this wonderful backstory and I'm sitting there thinking I've been here for at least 2 hours at this point. We're not getting to the final battle today, are we? And I didn't know this. I

[09:01] didn't like then when we get out of it and it starts doing its wrap-up and I'm just like, "Okay, no, we really aren't finishing off this arc today." I assumed we were. I thought I was going in to see a film that had a narrative start and an

[09:15] end and a kind of like a kind of finality to it. There is no finality to this film cuz it wasn't designed to have one. From that perspective, I feel like this would have been better as a show, as a season of anime rather than as a

[09:30] film. Cuz I know why they did it as a film is because the spectacle, especially of that first half, is so grand. It is worth having it in a theatrical setting. I get that. But then when we get to the backstory of things

[09:45] and the into the weeds of the characters and the narrative as a whole, I feel like it would have benefited from having a more episodic release. So, I kind of Muggan Train and turn Infinity Castle into season 5 cuz I feel like that would

[10:00] allow things to breathe a lot more than they currently do. Also, I feel like throughout the film, they used a lot of flashbacks. And I don't just mean flashbacks to like further showcase to you like things that you didn't know

[10:14] before about particular characters like their backstory. That's fine. But there was a lot of flashbacks from like content we've already seen as a hey, so you were reminded by the way this happened which is relevant to this

[10:29] moment. There was a lot of that. And I'm almost wondering, again, not having read the manga, how much of that was for a, hey, just in case you haven't seen all of Demon Slayer, uh, here's here's the the the important bits that you need to

[10:44] know to fully understand what is actually happening in the now. And I kind of wish they they didn't do that because from my perspective, who is that help people that haven't watched Demon Slayer. Honestly, they're lost anyway. I

[11:00] do not see a point in trying to help the people that have walked into this film only knowing a little bit about Demon Slayer to the detriment of those who have rather than just being like no this really is just a film for people who

[11:13] have seen up to season 4. Like that's how it should be. This very much should are. We should go in assuming you know who they are because trying to help the people that don't know is just going to

[11:27] make the narrative worse and a bit more disjointed because we keep doing "No, stop doing that. I don't need to know why these parts are important beyond the information that you haven't told us." Again, that's the difference

[11:42] when you show us things that we haven't seen before or show us angles of things or perspectives that we haven't seen to help build a particular scene or event that is happening. That is great. I love that part. It's the, "Hey, do you

[11:57] remember when this happened?" And I'm like, "Yes, I do. You don't need to I have certain gripes with from a narrative perspective. And I feel like this this film had a lot of that. And I kind of wish it didn't. And that's kind

[12:10] of the thing. I am torn then because it's like I agree that large chunks of this film benefited from being in a movie from uh potentially a theatrical budget. though knowing EUA table it doesn't really matter and it would have

[12:24] all looked the same anyway it was just the the the format to be able to watch things on the big screen with big sound to to have to be sitting in a theater with a sound system that makes your chair vibrate that's all great but then

[12:37] you get to the moments where I'm like I really wish we had more time to breathe and so it does it does make me question whether or not parts of this film were were designed with the knowledge of oh yeah no we're totally turning this into

[12:50] to an anime episode later. There were also moments, oh my god, there were multiple times during this film, right, where I was watching it and inwardly my mind was telling me and that's where the ending credits would be if this were an

[13:03] episode of an anime cuz it kind of had that level of buildup, but instead of, you know, getting the ending credits, we just moved on to the next scene. So, I I do worry, well, I worry I don't know if worry is the right word. I do wonder if

[13:17] a lot of this film was designed with the knowledge that it was going to be spliced up into an episodic format in future. And considering they did that with Muggan Train, there's precedent. So, if you look at the reviews though

[13:29] positive. And I understand why, especially like if you've been following Demon Slayer, you can understand why. Uh, from a general audience perspective though, I'm I'm questioning why the numbers are that high personally cuz

[13:41] table of uh on on the same level of Muggan Train. And like on its own, I don't think I would if for no other reason than again it's a part one. And I know that I am a crazy person who puts so much emphasis on the endings of

[13:56] things. And we haven't seen the ending of this yet. Um, which is why I would assuming they keep the Infinity Castle title for all three films, assuming there's only three films, assuming that those three films as a trilogy will

[14:10] probably be way higher than Mugan Train, but just part one, I'm like, no, Mugan but just part one, I'm like, no, Mugan Train as as a whole, as a film, as a contained bit of story, I think, was at a higher tier than this. Um, so to put

[14:23] this on the same level of that, I'm like, why why are you doing that? And marketing put behind this and you don't want people to think that they can skip if they're not going to make a season of it, you can't really skip this film. And

[14:36] if you want to see it in theaters, which would be the way to watch this film, you kind of need to go watch it now. Um assuming you're watching this video of mine uh when it's still in theaters and it's not out. I don't know how limited

[14:48] might have already missed the boat on that. To which I say I'm sorry. As far as like what I thought of the story itself, I mean, I don't feel like I haven't really talked about Demon Slayer much, have I? Um, I did a video on like

[15:02] that was like so long ago now. Oh, wow. And overall, I don't think my thoughts have changed largely. I mean, I can just say shownen is shownen is shownen. Um, but every big shownen, like all of the big shownen, have um individual variants

[15:15] big shownen, have um individual variants that make them exciting um over others. I definitely think that Demon Slayer is higher up on my list of greatest shownen that I grew up with. But at the end of the day, like I still look at shownen

[15:28] things? And I'm like, yeah, no, they were really cool. So is every other battle that they've done and also all of the battles in these other shownen. It's very hard for me to like rank what do I like about um all of these really cool

[15:42] battles cuz I do feel like a lot of the fights in this film are some of the best animated. They are really, really good. I do need to back up though because a particular thing that I thought of while watching this film, I feel like I need

[15:56] to mention this wasn't for the whole film. There are certain times where I was questioning the compositing of particular shots. So, the Infinity the film, right? You remember the Infinity Castle. Um, all of these like

[16:09] Japanese history. all of these buildings, Japanese style buildings, popping out of the world, uh, going in all directions and making this weird, all directions and making this weird, uh, fourthdimensional maze of places to

[16:22] go and things to do. Very, uh, Inception style, very Doctor Strange style, very Doctor Strange style of a world or a a dimension that style of a world or a a dimension that we exist within. It looks very cool. Um,

[16:36] the compositing and like the creation of the Infinity Castle I think is absolutely stellar. Where I sometimes had an interesting problem with it is when we had shots that, you know, pre-omposed the anime characters on top

[16:50] of that. And I feel like some of them gave off a an uncanny valley vibe. Honestly, uh, how I explained it to myself when I was sitting there watching watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I don't know if you've seen Who Framed

[17:05] Roger Rabbit. It's an 80s film, so potentially not. Uh, but Who Framed Roger Rabbit was this uh morph and combining of 2D animation and 3D liveaction. So, in that way, I kind of felt like the the anime characters of

[17:20] this at times felt like 2D animation on top of everything from the Infinity Castle, which felt like not realistic to a point, but it kind of bordered that to give this weird uncanny valley sort of thing where these characters existed in

[17:35] a world that they didn't really belong to. And I mean, you could take that and run with it and say that no, that's the point. But also like I don't know, it did drag me out of it a tiny bit. Um, it didn't help also that like Demon Slayer

[17:49] has moments of comedy where they move from like the super serious art style to the more uh comedicesque art style. I think I remember the mangaka of Demon Slayer saying on the one hand they were influenced by um like Naruto and Bleach

[18:04] and uh the shownens of old which make a lot of sense but that they were also influenced by like Jojo and Gintama. And you can see that especially when they try and hit the more comedic beats and then they move to the comedic art style,

[18:17] Infinity Castle. And there were times where I was like, "Okay, what is this bit. But then, you know, then the next scene would happen and it would look breathtaking and freaking amazing. And then Mamo Rumiano would just be chewing

[18:31] "Okay, I'm back in this now." That's all it would take, just Mam Rumiano chewing referring to his character by his actor's name, which I know normally I probably almost dock that in almost any other production cuz I'm like, "Hey, the

[18:46] actor's so bad. He's not really acting as the character. We just referring to who he is." But it doesn't matter cuz it's Mom and Romeo and he's chewing scenery. And I love it. I love that man so much. He can chew as much scenery as

[19:00] he wants. I don't care. Give him all the scenery he needs. But then also, I mean, I I think more on it and um the the deep emotional moments of that scene, um of that fight, uh I don't feel like I was able to properly digest and I really

[19:16] to avoid spoilers. I really shouldn't, but you know what I'm talking about if immediately move on to the rest of things. God, I wish there was a break there. I almost feel like that is kind of going to be my overall thoughts on

[19:31] this film is like you should go see it but also wait for the anime because I us time to breathe cuz think about that right if they had this and it was right if they had this and it was episodic you could have that fight where

[19:45] against Shaneobu. could have that fight and then at the end of it, you could and then at the end of it, you could have a whole week to sit with it before, you know, the next episode comes along. And then we move on to our next set of

[19:58] characters, our next big battle, our next fight, our next um revelation about relationships and family and and all of that. We could have all of that, but we not doing a Netflix model, my god, that would be terrible. Um, but you could

[20:14] have that and then once that's done, then we could move on after another break to to move on to the next group of characters and their fight and their backstories and all of that stuff. I do feel like the break between episodic

[20:29] feel like the break between episodic weeks helps so much cuz you get to the end of this film and then you're like, "Oh, right. That thing with Shobu and Mam Romeo." I'm still going to just keep referring to him as Mamariano. I don't

[20:42] No. Yeah, that did happen in this film, man. We didn't really get to process that, did we? Oh, well. And it sucks cuz it's like, it was really well done. Uh, there. And, you know, we're going to come back to it cuz that was kind of

[20:58] left as a hanging thread that's maybe going to be resolved in movie 2, I I don't know the order of operations of what they're going to handle of things. we get back to it. But that I think comes down to my thoughts. I loved the

[21:12] film. I liked going to see it. I had problems with the theater, but that that has nothing to do with like the the movie itself, the the creatives that created it or how good the film actually was. Those are all like meta problems.

[21:25] Uh that I can totally blame on the feet of of other people, not the creatives of this film. But what I can say for the creatives of this film is I get what you're doing. It's a very great spectacle. Season five win. cuz I want

[21:38] this as a show cuz I think that's almost like the best of both worlds to do the season after the film comes out cuz I think I don't remember Muggan Train a lot but I feel like they kind of just y

[21:52] the scenes from the film and you know you polish it up you change it around put that into the show and so you get the benefit of having the footage and having the the semi-presentation that was available in the theatrical version

[22:07] was available in the theatrical version but then you can have the pacing and the presentation and style of the episodic series. And I feel like that makes like season 2 of the anime that much better than it would have been if Muggan Train

[22:21] didn't exist. But Muggan Train needed to exist for that to happen first. So, I kind of get that here. And I kind of just wish maybe the reason why they haven't told us about a season 6, no, a season 5, sorry, maybe we'll also need a

[22:34] reason probably that they haven't told us about a season 5 is because they want you to go see the film. And I understand that, but it's like I'm very good at pattern recognition. I don't think many other people are that terrible at it

[22:46] writing on the wall and notice that there's a very high likelihood that we're going to get a season 5 that is just going to be Infinity Castle. Also technically because season 2 exists. Yes, feel free to go yell at me in the

[23:01] comments about how wrong I am and no, actually, you should go watch it for XY Z reasons in any way and then just deal with all the repeat footage, but that's that I went to go see it. I recommend that you should go see it, but also

[23:15] you should go watch the movie, especially if you've seen Demon Slayers seasons 1 through 4. If you haven't seen Demon Slayer season 1 through 4, uh watch Demon Slayer seasons 1 through 4, then go watch the film. Uh, crunchy roll

[23:28] and snow effect sucks for not putting part one on this thing. Uh, to let everybody know, hey, by the way, it's a part one, cuz that's useful information, please. The Japanese did that. Why didn't you guys? And I enjoyed my time

[23:42] despite constantly getting taken out of things. Um, both for like the compositing of just those couple of shots, but then also the the constant feeling that this should have been a show. And I kind of wish it was. I don't

[23:56] know if I will get over that tugof-war in myself of uh both happy that this was a movie because we got to see it in the theatrical presentation, but then also theatrical presentation, but then also wishing that we had the breathers of um

[24:09] of the movie that we had the breathers that are present in an episodic release format. I don't know if I'll be able to reconcile that. Did you guys enjoy the I'm I'm very interested. I haven't talked about Demon Slayer in a while, so

[24:22] audience are caring about it. Maybe they are mostly like me uh for a lot of other shownen and they don't really pay attention. Maybe there's a lot of Demon Slayer dieards that are going to rag at me for some minor inconspicuous thing of

[24:36] lack of praise, let's say, that I have uh laid upon this film. So, until next time, ladies and gentlemen, and others, watch more anime. Stay frosty.