After the last season of the anime adaptation, the “Hashira Training Arc”, fans have been waiting for the highly anticipated trilogy of the final season of “Demon Slayer”, the “Infinity Castle”. The first movie, which came out on Sept. 12, 2025, has gained popularity and great reviews from most of its viewers. The heartbreaking backstories, amazing animation, and insane promotions made this movie worth the wait.
As a brief recap, all of the Demon Slayers, special swordsmen who fight evil creatures called demons, were taken into the Demon King’s Lair, the Infinity Castle, to annihilate them all. The Demon Slayers were scattered around the Infinity Castle to pick them off one by one, with the main character, Tanjiro Kamado, facing off against the 3rd strongest demon with the Water Hashira, Giyu Tomioka. According to NBC, the Demon Slayer Movie made 70 million dollars on debut and is the highest grossing anime movie to ever release in theaters. Many places, like Japan, had huge promotions for the movie, including rice fields carved for the characters and gas stations full of Demon Slayer themed snacks and drinks. Additionally, according to Essential Japan, a promotional popcorn bucket exclusive to Japanese theaters was widely received by the public and many people across the world traveled to Japan for the popcorn bucket alone. The movie theaters in America received a lot of backlash for having cheaper, less detailed popcorn buckets, like a popcorn bucket with a picture of the characters on it which, when compared to the “infinite popcorn bucket” in Japan, featuring LED lights and an illusion, is pretty lame.
The movie itself was a heartbreaking, yet amazing movie as viewers get to see many sad backstories and lore to the characters in the anime. Fans went through an emotional rollercoaster throughout the two and a half hour movie. According to IndiaToday, the compelling, humanized backstories of the villains made many fans lose their hate for said villains. From the demon backstories to the Demon Slayer backstories, the movie balances both sad and happy scenes very well.
While fans were frustrated at the wait times between each movie in the trilogy, the quality of the animation in the movie made it worth the wait. Many fans did not understand why the movie took so long to make, but when it came to the theaters, their questions were answered. The animation production made the movie more real and made fans feel like they were a part of the movie itself. With the first movie doing this good, I am excited to see the next two of the trilogy, and how they will do in the near future.
