Continuing the adventures of our favourite members of the Demon Slayer Corps, Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train had a lot to live up to thanks to the demonic heights Demon Slayer has reached. Despite leaning towards more traditional shōnen archetypes, the Demon Slayer franchise exploded into popularity and naturally involving slaying demons, calling out their next sword techniques, and a lot of screaming at demons. But does Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train live up to Corps standards, or does fall before the Nichirin blade of a Hashira?
No matter how many lives the demons take, the one thing they can never crush is a human’s will
Kagaya Ubuyashiki
Picking up from where the first series of the Demon Slayer anime left off, Mugen Train follows Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke as they seek out the eccentric Flame Hashira, Rengoku, to assist him in his mission to deal with a powerful demon. After boarding the titular train – or “Lord of the land”, as Inosuke refers to it – they are pulled into a deep sleep, in which Enmu, Lower Rank One of the Twelve Kizuki, commands four child passengers to, rather rudely, intrude on their private, some a tad bizarre, dreams and destroy their spiritual cores. In exchange, Enmu will allow them to have peaceful dreams of their own.
Following the hype Demon Slayer has had in the manga and anime world, the anticipation for Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train has lead it to become the highest grossing movie in Japan. For all its reliance on familiar Shōnen Jump tropes in a sea of trope filled Shōnen Jump manga and anime, Demon Slayer continues to captivate audiences, so it is of little surprise that Mugen Train was highly anticipated by fans. Yet despite fan praise, Mugen Train felt somewhat lacking as a cinematic experience, feeling rather more like an extended episode, very clearly intended to bridge series one and two of the anime series. It is important to note that this is a film directed at those who have already watched the show and not meant to be viewed stand-alone as it revolves entirely around prior knowledge of the anime. Though arguably it also serves as a little fan service for fans of a certain Flame Hashira…
Tanjiro: Hinokami Kagura… the dance. I found myself doing it, just like my father used to. I was hoping if you knew anything about that dance, you’d be willing to tell me.
Tanjiro hoping to learn from the Flame Hashira, Rengoku
Rengoku: Certainly! But I don’t! I have never even heard of that dance, not once! Your father taking this Kagura and adapting it for battle is commendable
For those avid manga readers who have read ahead, it’s more or less panel for panel from the original Koyoharu Gotouge manga arc – which lasts maybe two volumes – and to its credit, unlike other shōnen movie tie-ins, it jumps straight into the plot with little-to-no recap of the events leading up to it. However, the plot rushed through scene to scene, where the emotional moments – and there are plenty of them – weren’t given enough time to linger. Which is a shame, because there certainly are tear-worthy moments, particularly towards the climax. If anything, rigidly trying to replicate the manga could be seen as detrimental and it might have served the film better if it was allowed to develop its own original ideas and diverge away from the source material a little bit, even to tell the same base storyline.
As far as action is concerned, however, Demon Slayer is quite the spectacle! Naturally, it is hardly lacking in Nichirin sword flurries, Breathing techniques, and Blood Demon Arts. For those Rengoku fans – and let’s face it, anyone remotely interested in Mugen Train is also interested in his flamboyant firey hair – will be in for a treat as he finally shows us, and Tanjiro, the true power of a Hashira. Like the series, the art style is consistent with Koyoharu’s manga style, and it’s clear a lot of the budget went towards some of the more intricate if adequately over-the-top shōnen fights, especially with Rengoku. You can expect a lot of swirling fire effects, explosive special moves and impossible sword swings as Demon Slayer’s bodies emanate with the extraordinary power they are gifted with. If anything, it’s a good excuse to add more exciting explosions and impossible swordplay on-screen, and it pays off.
Though it has to be said, while the use of CG and 2D animation are more prominently used together now, some of Ufotable’s CG animation used for Enmu’s gross tentacle appendages showed a dip in animation quality – showing once again how Mugen Train appears to be more like a long episode. Though this can be overlooked thanks to the expertly choreographed fight sequences, blinding Flame Breathing techniques, and use of massive swooping camera angles that helped build the hype for some of the more explosive fight sequences! It gives Mugen Train a heightened sense of cinematic design over the series, even when the brisk pacing made it feel like a drawn out episode otherwise lacking in cinematic feel.
It is a shame some of these more epic scenes were plagued by so much exposition dialogue, however. At times it felt as though every character had to have something to say at all times, even if that included narrating events while they were happening, lacking a vital “show don’t tell” mentality, only to be recapped shortly after anyway. Including while a character died a slow, painful, and painfully drawn out death, to such a degree you might end up finding yourself question how common this actually is in shōnen anime.
Everything’s set! The ropes which I created allow one to invade the dreams of whoever it is you’re tethered too! I always use the upmost caution when I engage in battle… Hasira or not, once asleep, you are no different from that of a new born. I will enjoy this savoury feast after I have disposed of the Demon hunters!
Enmu’s Demon Blood Art
Soon after meeting up with Rengoku, everybody’s favourite demon slaying husbando, Tanjiro and friends are put to sleep by Enmu’s Blood Demon Art, giving us an excuse to poke around their heads a little and explore some of the deeper aspects of their character. Or at least this was the case with Tanjiro, anyway.
While Tanjiro is clearly the main hero protagonist of the budding new Demon Slayer Corps members, it has to be said he gets an overwhelming amount of screen time, especially in the dreamscape where the other characters seem to flit in and out. Everyone’s favourite imouto, Nezuko, barely gets to do anything, and despite establishing that Zenitsu’s overwhelmingly powerful lightning abilities activate while he’s asleep during the first season of the anime… he surprisingly, perhaps conveniently even, doesn’t do anything to help during the final encounter where his speed and sleepy condition would likely have been a great help. We spend so much time examining Tanjiro’s trauma after the slaughter of his family at the hands of Muzan Kibutsuji, yet sadly don’t take enough time to explore the other characters aside from some comic relief moments, which seems to be Zenitsu and Inosuke’s primary role in Mugen Train.
Rengoku, meanwhile, does get some time to shine, including a very flashy climactic demon battle, complete with its own badass “boss battle” theme. Seeing him go all-out is as empowering as it is overwhelming, especially for our young fledgling swordsman, Tanjiro. Even with little screen-time before Mugen Train it’s clear our budding Demon Slayer trio look up to him, as they say, like a “big bro”. In this sense it’s a shame it also managed to feel like we were only being introduced to him for the sake of the film. That being said, his scenes are easily among the most memorable in Mugen Train’s runtime!
As you might expect, Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train, with all its extravagant shōnen action, features an adequately hard-hitting guitar heavy soundtrack that slaps in the right way. For one thing, if Rengoku’s enthusiastic appreciation for food wasn’t enough to make you love him, the chunky guitar riffs playing over his final duel towards the end certainly will! Conversely, LiSA returns for a more emotional closing track which will likely cause a few floodgates to burst thanks to Mugen Train’s climactic ending.
Inosuke! Let’s combine our strength. Once we synchronise our breathing, we’ll attack as one!
Tanjiro to Inosuke, as they fight Enmu, Lower Rank One of the Twelve Kizuki
Usurping Miyazaki’s Spirited Away as the highest-grossing film in Japan, and consistently peaking as a top-selling manga, Demon Slayer may be another shōnen series, but there’s no questioning its immense popularity. As a bridge between series one of the smash-hit anime and the upcoming second series, Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train sadly doesn’t stand up on its own, and even less so as a cinematic experience, where it suffers from feeling rushed at times where it could have benefitted from some restraining from trying mimic the manga so closely. Ultimately this is purely for fans of the Demon Slayer anime and it’s a fun shōnen, even if it suffers from poor structure and doesn’t feel like a true cinematic Demon Slayer experience.
