(The series kicks off with a demon killing Tanjiro's mother and all his siblings except for Nezuko, who turns into a demon herself).Īnd, to his credit, Tanjiro's voice actor, Zach Aguilar, does an amazing job portraying the character. Tanjiro's dream is the most heart-wrenching because, for the first time in years, he's back with his family, and everyone is alive. A demon named Enmu hijacks the train, puts everyone to sleep in a hypnotic dream where they're supposed to be very happy and then tries to eat all the passengers. The story in "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" feels original. They aren't quite as annoying in this movie, but that's mainly because there's two hours to fill, and the spotlight has to stay on Tanjiro and his superior demon slaying officer, Kyojuro, who is actually fleshed out well in this film. A friend who has read ahead in the manga promises me they'll get better, but I don't see it happening. I wish they were written to be less annoying. But they are so insufferable that they make me want to bang my head on my coffee table. Like Tanjiro, they also travel the country slaying demons. I almost quit watching the television series because of Tanjiro's whiny companion, Zenitsu, and his obnoxious companion, Inosuke. While I love following the adventures of Tanjiro and his demon sister Nezuko, the two side characters that tag along with Tanjiro are enough to make me grind my teeth. "Demon Slayer" certainly has an oddball sense of humor. The story takes off like an actual train and never ceases to be exciting. The action in "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" was enough to make my jaw drop multiple times. It's not just the backgrounds that benefit from the animation quality being upgraded from TV series to theatrical film release. We're talking about a level of lighting and texture that gives Pixar a run for its money. One simple half-second shot of leaves and grass as the train passed by was detailed enough to make me gasp and move forward in my seat. Most of the story for this movie is set on a train, and whenever the audience is shown outside shots of the locomotive, it's polished and beautiful. The TV series is already full of beautiful animation with lots of flowing water whenever Tanjiro swings his sword and very fluid movement for the characters when they're fighting.īut the animation for "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" takes that stunning level of art and dials it up a few more notches. But it does make this movie difficult to recommend for casual viewers who didn't watch all 26 episodes of the first season. As a fan of the series, I'm fine with that because I typically dislike filler. "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" - opening theatrically today - is unique in how it picks up the main story directly from the first season finale of the TV series and runs with it. It also allows people unfamiliar with the main story to hop in and just casually watch the movie without missing too many puzzle pieces. You see this all the time with movies from "Naruto" and "Dragon Ball Z." It just gives the main characters a separate adventure to go on. Lots of movies that are adapted from popular anime TV series tend to be what's called "filler." The writers will come up with a story that's largely unrelated to the plot of the TV series or manga. My wife and I picked up the series kind of late, waiting until it hit Netflix, but once we started it, we liked it well enough to binge the show to completion. I'd say "Demon Slayer" is right on the cusp of hitting that point for American audiences if it hasn't already. You know an anime has reached that point when stores like Target and Walmart start carrying merchandise from it - T-shirts, DVDs and action figures. These are shows like "Dragon Ball Z" or "Naruto" or "My Hero Academia." The story follows a boy named Tanjiro as he hunts demons and tries to find a cure that will change his demon sister back into a human.Įvery few years it'll seem like one anime gets so popular it almost becomes mainstream entertainment, to the point even people who know nothing about Japanese animation will have heard the name. "Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train " is an anime that, like so many other series, is being adapted from an ongoing Japanese comic (often called manga). Like American animation, it has ups and downs, but anime is far from monolithic. I've been watching anime since "Sailor Moon" first came to the U.S. Japanese animation (often just called anime) will always have a soft spot in my heart.
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