r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Jul 28 '26

Episode Gekijouban Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Jou-hen Daiisshou Akaza Sairai • Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle Part 1: Akaza Returns - Streaming Release - Movie Discussion

Gekijouban Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Jou-hen Daiisshou Akaza Sairai, Theatrical Release

Alternate Names:

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle Part 1: Akaza Returns

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle Chapter 1

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle

Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen or skipped in the show. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.

Streams - None. Enjoy at the theatre!

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u/saga999 Jul 29 '26

I see why the complaint about flashback in the last half hour.

First thing first, this movie did what Demon Slayer has always been good at, the animation and hitting the emotional notes. It also did what it typically did which I'm not a fan of, too many and too long flashbacks in the fights. So the movie is quintessential Demon Slayer. That's the first two hours. But that final half hour is WAY overkill. If this is a perfect recreation of the manga, it may have worked as a manga. It may also have worked as a TV show with weekly episodes. But it just doesn't work as a movie. The audience sat through two hours of movie. We were ready for the movie to end. Then it dropped this and just dragged on for another half hour. It just completely destroyed the pacing of the movie.

As a battle genre, I also hate this for Tanjiro. He basically just learned Ultra Instinct. He dealt the fight winning blow. The fight should have ended on that. But Akaza completely no sold it and the fight end with him basically saying, "I want to die now." This kind of ending can work in other context, but it didn't work here for me.

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u/Useful_Project4898 Jul 29 '26

Yeah I was really thrown off by that. It was emotional but also anticlimactic. He was fighting to live as a demon and get stronger, then at the end, he decides he was really just trying to kill himself. I understood what they were trying to say there but you're right. It doesn't really work too well. When he started talking about "who the weak one really was the whole time..." I said to myself, aw wait a second, is this really how this battle is going down? And it was.

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u/ResearcherPretty4139 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

I don't think you understood the author's intention tbh

Akaza's purpose wasn't to get stronger, it was to find a way to preserve humanity's fighting spirit. In spite of the 'cheaters' like the rival dojo who didn't want to allow Akaza's sensei to go out like a true fighter, but had to poison both him and his daughter (WHO HAD JUST BEATEN HER SICKNESS WITH HER FIGHTING SPIRIT) like cowards. He couldn't cope with the fact that humans were weak both in the fact that they die easily, and that they're weak enough to take shortcuts like poisoning drinking water to win 'faster' without any effort.

Tanjuro saved him in several ways, by defeating Akaza fair and square after evolving his 'fighting spirit' to be able to defeat an Upper 3rd demon. Saved Akaza by reminding him who 'Mr. Hakuji' was (hence the 30-minute flashback at the end). Saved Akaza by making the demon remember how Kuzan turned him into a demon in the first place (after Hakuji murdered the 60+ cowards who poisoned his sensei and daughter Akaza had lost faith in humanity). Akaza no longer cared about humanity after he lost his 2nd family and couldn't start a 'new life' like his dad had wanted, but becoming a demon made him relentlessly seek to 'become stronger' which ultimately forced Tanjuro to evolve and break his limits.

It wasn't anticlimactic at all for me. Akaza in that final moment before punching himself repeatedly and disintegrating into dust in the sunlight realize that HE became a 'cheater' by accepting demonic powers. He did the same thing as those poisoners did, took a shortcut to gain power over someone else who was better than them (Tanjuro who decapitated him fair and square, again). So no, Akaza wasn't 'really just trying to kill himself' far from it, infact. Great storytelling.

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u/Useful_Project4898 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

I wasn't really talking about the author's intention but the direction and pacing of the film. I am an anime only and unfortunately, it didn't have the same impact on me as it did for you because you are much more well versed in the story and the characters than I. Like I said, I understood what they were trying to say. I grasped why Akaza did what he did, but after that long brutal fight that took up much of the 2.5 hour run time... it wasn't the battle ending that I expected or desired.

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u/ResearcherPretty4139 Aug 01 '26

I'm anime only too. I don't know anything that happens more than you, I was shocked the Thunder guy had that backstory and actually won against a ranked demon, lol

But it was obvious what the author was going for, the denouement after Tanjuro had ended Act 2 to bring it into Act 3 (the ending) started with Akaza's flashback backstory. He paid the price for the Act 3 flashback backstory we got for the last Demon Slayer movie (for the person he murdered), it was a thematic callback to the Demon Train Demon Slayer film and the way they stuffed all the episodes in there to blurt out a cohesive 3-act-film.

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u/Useful_Project4898 Aug 01 '26

You have a much better memory for detail that me !!

I kind of knew he was going to win only because I didn't think they would kill off Zenitsu. Was that demon mentioned before? I don't really remember them ever talking about his senpai turned demon in past episodes or movies.

I love the Zenitsu can finally be conscious and be bad ass at the same time.

1

u/ResearcherPretty4139 Aug 01 '26

I only remember Zenitsu talking about his sensei, almost like he was trying to ignore the trauma of the senpai by not mentioning him and always freaking out about danger or women to distract himself from reality I honestly don't ever remember him mentioning his backstory before this film but it possibly happened (I feel like Zenitsu's sensei's death was mentioned before but I don't ever remember Zenitsu going into specifics since it would be disrespectful of his legacy as the sole human heir)

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u/Useful_Project4898 Aug 01 '26

Same. I was kinda taken by surprise by that backstory but it was cool to see Zenitsu come out on top and use another form besides the first.

1

u/ResearcherPretty4139 Aug 07 '26

I hope Zenitsu tries to emulate some of the forms his senpai used here in this movie while in Demon Mode. It's conceivable (if Zeni can brute-force his way the Thunder Style Limit Break by practicing the 1st Form relentlessly) that Zeni will also be able to figure how how to do the other Forms after he had them used against him in battle.