Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Movie 1 Review

Article at a glance:
I didn’t even want to review this movie at first, but to my surprise, there’s actually a lot to talk about.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Movie 1 delivers nonstop action, but it also leans way too hard on flashbacks.
The fights, animation, and soundtracks are absolutely peak Demon Slayer and make the theater experience worth it.

I kind of went back and forth about whether or not I should review this movie. But I decided to do it because content is content. The reason I didn’t want to review this film was that I knew there wouldn’t be that much here, given how it is just the first film in a trilogy. But to my surprise, there is surprisingly a lot of content here to talk about. So here we are with the review of Movie 1 from the Demon Slayer Infinity Castle arc trilogy.

Of course, there will be spoilers ahead. I can’t possibly review the Infinity Castle arc movies without getting into some major spoiler territory, this being the final arc and all. So yeah, please only continue if you have already watched the film, or just skip to the end to see my review scores for it. Oh, and if possible, please don’t miss the chance to check out this film in the theatres. The animations on display here are simply fantastic and must be enjoyed on a huge screen.

But yeah, with all that out of the way, welcome back to another review, and today we are talking about Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Movie 1! So let’s get started!

Plot

The Infinity Castle arc doesn’t really have a plot, lol. The whole arc is simply a bunch of awesome fights back to back, punctuated with character backstories and flashbacks. The only plot point here is to find and kill Muzan; that’s all. There’s never a big surprise at any point, and the story progresses as you might expect. Sure, some deaths will catch you off guard, but again, nothing too out of the blue that will just blow your mind here. And that’s fine, Demon Slayer isn’t really the sort of stuff you watch for the plot anyway.

One thing I found really annoying in this movie was just how many flashbacks there were. I know Demon Slayer has always been full of flashbacks, especially when someone is close to dying. But when it is separated by episodes, it doesn’t feel that heavy-handed. Here, though, in a movie format, we are constantly cutting back to flashbacks every 20 minutes or so. I think I counted 8 flashbacks in the runtime of 2 hours and 30 minutes. And the worst part is that some of these flashbacks weren’t even new content; it was just stuff we had seen in the earlier seasons.

Like bro, I don’t need a sob story every 20 minutes in my action movie. I wish they pulled back on the flashbacks a bit and tightened the pacing of the film overall because some flashbacks really felt like padding. You didn’t need to make it a 2.5-hour film.

Characters

Before I get into anyone else, I NEED to talk about Douma. Mamoru Miyano killed the performance. This has to be one of his best roles. We all loved Mamoru Miyano as Light Yagami, and now we get to see a totally different side of him as Douma. He dials up Douma’s creepiness to an 11. Don’t get me wrong, Douma made me uncomfortable in the manga too, but here he is a different beast thanks to Mamoru Miyano. I cannot wait to see more of him in the 2nd movie.

The character work overall remains strong. As much as I hated the constant flashbacks, a lot of them served to ground the characters. Akaza’s flashback, for example, was very good. It made an already interesting character better. But we didn’t need a flashback from Tanjiro and Giyu, bro, come on. But there were a lot of other things that made up for it, like the whole interaction between Shinobu and Douma.

I wish Zenitsu and the Upper Six got a bit more build-up. I feel like that was a very isolated, one-and-done. That whole thing felt like a missed opportunity. But still, the little time they did get, they made the most of it, and it was handled well. As far as Tanjiro is concerned, I like how he recalls his father’s words and learns from them. I really like how the Akaza fight portrayed the bond between Tanjiro and Giyu.

Animations and Soundtracks

Yes, we all know what I am going to say here. Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Movie 1 has amazing animations, and this is one part of the review where I can’t find a single negative thing to say.

The animations are insanely cool, and every single fight is awesome. You can’t take your eyes off the action, no matter what; the action always delivers, and it is beautifully choreographed. My favorite fight has to be Zenitsu vs. the Upper Six. I loved how they used different colors to represent different versions of Thunder Breathing.

The same goes for the soundtracks. The soundtracks are always compelling and just add even more flair to the action. I wish we could hear the OG Akaza theme from the Mugen Train arc again, but damn it, man, the soundtracks here don’t miss a beat.

Summing Up

Here are my final review scores for Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Movie 1:

Plot – 5/10
Characters – 8/10
Animations – 10/10
Soundtracks – 10/10
Enjoyment – 8/10
Overall – 8/10

But yeah, that is all for now. This movie was basically everything I expected it to be. The constant flashbacks hampered my enjoyment a little, but in the grand scheme of things, it is not that bad. Just typical Demon Slayer stuff. With that said, though, I will take my leave here. Gonna go play Dying Light with some friends. See ya!

Also, check out my thoughts on Silent Witch here!