The Rise of Canon Anime Movies: Exploring an Industry Trend

Article at a glance:
Anime movies used to just be recap films, filler side stories, or standalone works like Shinkai’s.
After Demon Slayer: Mugen Train blew up in 2020, canon movies adapting real manga arcs became the new trend.
Now, almost every big series has at least one movie that’s required viewing if you want to follow the story.

This article idea popped into my head when I was watching the Chainsaw Man movie earlier today. In the past 5 years or so, the trend of “canon” anime movies has been on the rise. Before Mugen Train absolutely blew up in the theatres, anime movies used to fall into 3 categories: recap films, anime-original side stories, and original works like Makoto Shinkai’s movies. But now, we have almost every major ongoing series with movies that are paramount to their narrative. As in, we have started to adapt whole canon arcs from the manga into movies.

To make myself clear, I don’t hate this shift. This trend brings both pros and cons, and I will talk about those. But I just wanted to comment on the recent rise of canon anime movies because I find this trend very interesting. So let’s get started.

Where it all started

This trend was undoubtedly kick-started by the INSANE success of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie. If you think otherwise, I am sorry, you’re just wrong. This movie dropped in 2020, and everyone instantly realized just how much earning potential “canon” anime movies could have. You could basically take any major event in the story and turn it into a whole moment if you release a movie for it instead of an anime.

And now, basically the whole Infinity Castle Arc of Demon Slayer is split into 3 movies, CSM’s Reze arc movie just dropped, Jujutsu Kaisen 0 was adapted into a movie, etc. The list keeps going. Even some smaller series like Seishun Butayarou are a part of this trend now. As I said, though, this trend brings both pros and cons. So let’s talk about those real quick.

The Pros and Cons

Let’s start with the pros:

Better budget since studios don’t have to work on individual episodes and just have to concentrate on one project/release instead of bracing for a tight weekly schedule.
Better production quality since we have more budget and just one product to focus on.
Less work for the studios because of the aforementioned reasons
Potential for MUCH higher income than whatever the anime would make airing on streaming services/TV, since movies are more directly monetized than subscriptions.

It is basically a win-win situation for both the studio and the audience. They get a chance to make more money, and we get better productions than what you’d see in a standard TV anime.

But as I said, this does come with a few cons:

A little harder to access than an anime series because your country or city may not screen the movie in question. This has happened to me before.
If you, by any chance, miss the movie in the theatres, you will have to wait a few months for the Blu-ray copy to launch if you want to watch the movie legally
A lot of times, people could actually just miss the movie. If there’s a movie connecting Seasons 1 and 2 of an anime, there’s a chance that people may just miss it

So you know, there’s all that to consider as well.

That is all for now

Ultimately, I am not against this trend or anything, I just wish you didn’t get punished as hard for missing the movies in the theatres if you wanted to watch them legally. If we can shorten the delay for the Blu-ray release or put the movies on streaming services after a month or two of screening, I think that would solve all of the problems I listed. But yeah, let me know what you guys think in the comments. I will take my leave here. See ya!

Also, check out our full guide for the upcoming anime season here!