A Review of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
William Shakespeare famously suggested that our destiny is in ourselves, not in the stars—a sentiment one might contemplate on a more deliberate trip to the cineplex. In the case of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, a film I had no intention of watching, destiny appears to arrive on the back of a spare ticket, generously offered by a friend whose planning for the event was, by comparison, far more predetermined.
The film serves as the explosive beginning of the series’ final arc, first in a trilogy I hear. For those who are new to the series and its long history, the story plunges the Demon Slayer Corps into the twisted and bizarre world of the Infinity Castle, the enemy’s main lair. Here, the characters find themselves trapped in a series of life-or-death battles against the most powerful and terrifying demons. While it’s the climax of a long-running story, the film is designed to pull you into the action with such force that a lack of familiarity with the particulars hardly matters.
The animation, from the studio Ufotable, is a masterwork. The way the Infinity Castle’s architecture seems to defy all laws of physics is a spectacle in itself, but it’s in the battles that the visuals truly shine. Each fight is a fluid, beautifully choreographed dance of skill and ferocity, rendered with such a painterly quality that it might just convince an onlooker they have wandered into a particularly active art exhibition.
But the film’s brilliance goes beyond its visuals. It devotes a surprising amount of time to exploring the pasts of its main characters and even its antagonists, giving a human dimension to the intense fighting. Every strike and moment of desperation is deeply rooted in personal history, or so my friend tells me. This commitment to genuine, heartfelt storytelling proves that an action-packed film can still be profoundly sincere and moving.
For all its accessibility, the film does have an unusual structure. Instead of a clear, linear story, it feels more like a collection of highly intense, interconnected episodes. The pacing jumps from one major battle to the next, building on a foundation of lore that may feel at first a bit unclear to the newcomer. This isn’t a flaw so much as a stylistic choice—one that suggests the film is less interested in telling you the whole story than in giving you enough reason to go home and watch the rest of it.
The film’s final accomplishment may be its most subtle: it succeeds as both a grand finale for the initiated and a compelling introduction for the outsider. In a masterful balancing act of spectacle and sincerity, it manages to transform what might have felt like an exclusive world into something that felt, for a brief two hours, like a universal language.