Demon Slayer is probably my favourite series at the moment…let alone my favourite anime. I originally watched The Mugen Train movie, and that was my first introduction to the anime and the characters. And even with no prior knowledge, it engaged me right from the start.
This movie had much higher stakes than the previous two I’d seen, and since I had seen quite a bit of the anime by the time I saw this movie (for the second time now), I was much more familiar with the characters and the storyline…and found myself on the edge of my seat even after having seen the movie once already.
It was really great to see all of the demon slayers and the hashira. I really liked seeing Tanjiro and Giyu fighting alongside each other…and, of course, Akaza made an appearance in this movie, along with Doma. Doma is perhaps scarier than Akaza, since he comes across as really charming and almost kind…while brutally murdering people. Akaza, at least, never pretended to be anything other than what he was.
What was good was being able to see both Akaza and Doma as they had been as humans. With Doma, it didn’t really do much to humanise him. Even before becoming a demon, it seemed like he didn’t have any real empathy towards other people. For Akaza, though, learning about his past as a human was heartbreaking. By the time the battle between him, Giyu and Tanjiro was over, I actually had tears in my eyes. It was enough to make me hope that the demons who’d been able to return to their humanity would find some sort of peace in their next lives.
I also really liked the fact that Zenitsu confronted Kaigaku, and was actually awake during that battle. Prior to watching this movie, I’d seen Zenitsu only able to fight when he was sleeping…which was a really unique idea, even if he was annoying when he was awake and constantly freaking out. But in this movie, he showed a much more serious side to him, and it was actually really great to see.
I hated the fight between Doma and Shinobu, even though it allowed me to learn more about Shinobu…and to a lesser extent Doma, even though he was still obviously a bad guy. Just very charming with it, which left me with very conflicted emotions about how the battle was going.
I will say that I am Not Happy that I have to wait even longer for the next movies to come out. Okay, maybe it’ll give me time to watch the whole anime in its entirety, but I still don’t want to be waiting so long for the other movies!

