Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is nearing the end of its legendary anime run from Ufotable. To celebrate the conclusion of the series, the grand finale will be a three-part movie trilogy. While this sounds epic, there is part of me that wishes the Demon Slayer Infinity Castle movie trilogy was just a new season of the anime series.
For starters, there is the fact that this franchise has already dabbled in movies in the past, including the highest-grossing Japanese movie of all time in Mugen Train. So, from a financial perspective, I completely get it. But Ufotable still turned around and converted that film into a TV series version. As such, I presume they will eventually do the same with this new trilogy.
Since that is likely to be the case, I would prefer to see the TV version first. In fact, it makes more sense to me to release the TV version first and then a compilation of movies that sum up and perhaps add a bit more at the end in terms of an epilogue in theaters after that. My main reasoning behind this is I just enjoy this franchise as a series more.
Sure, the epic grand conclusion of this series includes some of the likely best battles in anime history, but if anything needed a movie version, it was the recent Hashira Training Arc. That one dragged on way too long and had little going for it, so shortening it into a lightning fast movie would’ve at least trimmed the fat.
Then there is the fact that a movie trilogy is likely to lose some of the context and detail that a TV series would have. For instance, let’s imagine that it takes 24 episodes for a final season of Demon Slayer Infinity Castle. That would equal to roughly 480 minutes of the series, and that is if they are only 20 minute episodes each. Presumably, one or two of them would go longer.
Alternatively, even if all three movies are two hours long, that is only 360 minutes of content. Sure, I think the end of the manga can work this way. But that is a whole lot of time that a TV series version would be able to adapt better. This would allow for the proper time for some of the fights between the Hashira and the demons that non-manga fans are not ready for.
Not to mention, there is something generally special about waiting each week with the community. Everyone waits impatiently to find out what happens next. And I can already predict some of the great cliffhangers they might leave us on.
Sure, this can and will happen with the movie trilogy, but there is a problem here. We have no idea when the movies will release. We only know at this time that the first movie is coming in 2025. There is no guarantee that all three will release in 2025. In fact, I think it is a bit delusional to expect that. At best, we get two films in 2025 and a third in 2026.
At worst, though? We could see a new Demon Slayer Infinity Castle movie every year until 2027. That would be an excruciating wait. This is doubly so since we’d presumably get the full final season in 2025. Even if the series did half of the season in 2025 and the other half in early 2026, it would still likely beat out the movie trilogy version.
This is also because movies have a stigma with them. An anime studio needs to go all out with even higher quality animation and details. You basically have to have the “finished product” so to speak in a theater. On the other hand, sometimes TV series have a bit of a roughness to them that can be addressed in a future Blu-Ray or movie release.
Furthermore, Ufotable arguably has the best overall animation quality in the industry. They don’t need to go any bigger or better than they already do. That just unnecessarily puts more strain and stress on the artists who are already overworked and underpaid enough.
Having the Demon Slayer Infinity Castle movie trilogy be a TV series instead is just the better option. It would allow everything to come out slightly sooner without the quality expectations a movie would require. In addition, a movie trilogy compilation release could still happen after the fact with extra content for fans. Regardless, I still look forward to watching the first movie in theaters in 2025.
The Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle movie trilogy will release the first film in 2025. You can watch the main series on Crunchyroll right now.
Published: Dec 26, 2024 12:00 pm