‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle’ Review: It’s One Battle After Another in Japan’s Hit Anime Sequel

Do not underestimate Japan’s hit “Demon Slayer” franchise, in which a small group of trained fighters have reached the beginning of a multi-year, three-movie “final battle.” But also, do not get it confused with “KPop Demon Hunters,” the animated one-off that became a monster success for Netflix this summer, but is something else entirely — so different that fans of either might bristle at the comparison, which begins and ends with the word “demon.”

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A long-running manga series that became a popular anime show, which then developed a passionate enough following to support several blockbuster theatrical features, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” is something like a religion whose characters and rules one must already know to appreciate in any form. The first three movies were basically glorified TV specials to launch each new season (the last episode of one arc combined with the first episode of the next). Then came “Mugen Train,” which broke all records for the medium, besting “Spirited Away” as Japan’s highest-grossing film — and the world’s most successful anime feature.

Now comes “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle,” which amounts to two-and-a-half hours of battles and backstory, set in an elaborate, ever-expanding fortress — the Infinity Castle — a supernatural realm designed to shelter the franchise’s “big bad,” Muzan Kibutsuji. The demon king Muzan is heard but barely seen in the new film (he’s presumably building power for a future showdown), while his most powerful soldiers, the so-called Upper Ranks, face off against the Demon Slayers, who are shown sprinting along endless bridges or else plunging past skyscrapers’ worth of ever-shifting wooden structures.

Prior to “Infinity Castle,” it had been more than a century since a slayer had succeeded in killing an Upper Rank, which makes it kind of a big deal that audiences will finally get to see that happen (we’re warned at the outset that beheading such a powerful demon may not be enough to kill it). The movie opens with Tanjiro in freefall, as Muzan has whisked the Demon Slayer Corps to the eponymous parallel dimension, which looks like a cross between an M.C. Escher illusion and the surreal pocket universe Lex Luthor created in this summer’s “Superman” movie.

The architect of the Infinity Castle is named Nakime, AKA Upper Four, whose Demon Blood Art is the ability to create such spaces, which she can rearrange with each strum of her biwa (the sound that cues structures to spontaneously shift around our characters). Visually, “Infinity Castle” marks a significant improvement on “Mugen Train,” given how the new film’s setting — with its right angles and rotating horizons — lends itself to digital set design, against which the colorful hand-drawn characters pop.

The animation studio, Ufotable, took great pains to match the look of the original manga, which matters to the fans, since everything this film dramatizes has essentially been predetermined in pulp form: The manga wrapped in 2020, and the ultra-faithful films are basically catching up to them. That means fans already know where the story’s headed and are tuning in to watch their heroes in action, since the most obvious advantage of getting to relive these stories in animated form is the fighting — well, that and the voices, which bring added personality to the characters (U.S. audiences have their choice of hearing the original Japanese cast or an English-language dub).

Unlike the relatively cartoony “KPop Demon Hunters,” this franchise is ultra-violent and very, very bloody. It’s literally one battle after another, as characters who’ve spent these past few years training in various breathing styles — water, flame, thunder, etc. — get to put their most spectacular moves to work. There’s a clearly defined ritual to how these confrontations are supposed to go, with each side taking turns to attack, hoping to inflict mortal damage. Unlike a beginner-level anime like “Pokemon,” where the goal is to make the opponent’s fighter faint, these conflicts are nearly always fatal. And good guys die all the time.

“Infinity Castle” contains three major showdowns. The first pits young poison expert Shinobu against the fan-wielding Doma (Upper Rank Two). The dainty-looking Slayer — whose purple eyes lack pupils, making her look like a human fly — combines Insect Breathing with intense speed, making for some pretty creative attack: one that stings like a bee, stabbing Doma directly in the eye, and another dragonfly-style technique that attempts death by a thousand cuts. It’s the first time Shinobu has tried her moves on such a high-ranking adversary, but Doma killer her sister, Kanae, so this time it’s personal.

There’s also an emotional dimension to the second big clash, this one between rival Thunder Breathing swordsmen: golden boy Zenitsu (who knows only first-form techniques, or so he claims) and Kaigaku, a former disciple-turned-demon who trained under the same elderly Hashira. Though not related by blood, the two fighters could almost be brothers, and the battle has the tragic dimension of a family feud, as flashbacks reveal how Kaigaku was responsible for their master’s suicide. Zenitsu is seriously outmatched in this battle, though “Demon Slayer” loves to encourage underdogs, suggesting that humans refuse to give up — whereas daunting lower-level demons can be eradicated with one good slash.

After spending much of “Mugen Train” in a trance (the conceit of that film forced the various Demon Slayers to confront their deepest desires), Tanjiro dominates the final stretch as he and Water Breathing ally Giyu take on the mighty blue-skinned Akaza, whose gleaming copper eyes reveal his status as Upper Rank Three. “Infinity Castle” dedicates nearly half an hour to Akaza’s backstory, explaining how he got those markings — they’re not tribal tattoos but a common punishment for criminals in Japan’s Edo period. Akaza has a complicated past, and though learning what made him such an angry demon interrupts from all the fighting fans expect to see, this digression lends the film yet more emotional dimension.

For the uninitiated, “Demon Slayer” can be a tough sit. All that carnage can be exhausting, and it’s not immediately clear for whom newcomers should be rooting, beyond the obvious good-vs.-evil split. The film’s humor doesn’t necessarily translate, and the animation style doesn’t come anywhere close to the medium’s most artistic work. Beyond the sheer inventiveness of the movie’s made-up martial arts, that leaves the tragic elements, which can be disarmingly effective in giving audiences reason to feel invested in the battles — battles that have only just begun.

“Infinity War” is not a traditional narrative with a beginning, middle and end. It’s all middle, building on more than 20 hours of existing mythology, with a long, long way still to go. Without spoiling anyone’s fate, suffice to say the movie ends on a cliffhanger, as a favorite character teeters between life and death. “Don’t you die on us!” cries a crow — the only character who can make sense of the Infinity Castle’s ever-changing architecture … unless you count the manga’s fans, who already know where it’s all going.