#Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train had an extremely successful box office opening, and the movie continues to break records in Japan. As is common with my anime movie reviews, I watch the movies in question without watching the anime series nor do I read much of the source material. However, since Demon Slayer is so popular, it was hard to avoid spoilers. I don’t know if this affected my experience, but I knew about the ending long before the movie’s release. Regardless, I still wanted to know if the movie was really worth the hype and box office success.

The movie covers the manga’s Mugen Train arc, which features Tanjiro Kamado traveling with his sister, Nezuko, and his companions, Inosuke Hashibira and Zenitsu Agatsuma, on the Infinity Train. They team up with one of the Demon Slayers’ most elite swordsmen: the Flame Pillar Kyojuro Rengoku, to investigate and find out the true cause of the train’s mysterious disappearances. Along the way, they encounter demons — including an especially sinister one who wants to climb the demons’ ranks.

Mugen Train has a fairly straightforward premise: the Demon Slayers fight demons on the Infinity Train. It is mildly reminiscent of Hollywood action films with its exciting action scenes. However, the plot doesn’t flow quite smoothly with its jarring transitions between the first and second half and its lack of explanation of events. The characters seem to drop in from nowhere, which made me question their purpose in the movie.

As much as I liked the characters, the movie doesn’t feel like it emphasizes the main four at all. Even during tense scenes, popular characters like Inosuke and Zenitsu are mostly there for comedic purposes instead of having more substantial character development. Zenitsu dreams of running around a peach orchard with Nezuko, a hilarious exaggeration of him chasing after girls, while Inosuke ends up exploring a cave with an animal version of the gang to fight the train. Additionally, Nezuko does not get much growth, and is only present to further Tanjiro’s emotional development. Only Tanjiro gets a bulk of the movie’s development out of the four of them, and he learns to slowly let go of his guilt over not being able to protect his family.

Rengoku, the main focus of the movie, left the deepest impression on me. At the beginning of the movie, Rengoku is the quirkiest person on the train with an equally flamboyant outfit. He’s able to consume at least seven bento in short order, proclaims “Delicious!” with every bite of food, and wants his juniors to refer to him as “older brother.” However, he’s every inch a real Pillar: he’s astute, passionate, highly-principled, and protective. His upfront desire to care for the juniors and Nezuko is genuine, and he strives to live up to his words of being a protector of humans with every ounce of his energy. His backstory of why he pushed himself to become a Pillar reveals a more vulnerable side to him, which made me shed tears at the end of the movie. 

Despite the lack of plot and character development, Mugen Train does have its good points. The movie excels in its action scenes. Every small action flows like water and the larger-scale animations, such as Rengoku’s blazing techniques and Tanjiro’s fight against Enmu, are executed perfectly. The movie depicts Enmu’s attacks impressively with sound waves booming out from his hand. You can literally feel like you’re being blown away with each attack.

The music is what really enhances the movie. Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina, who are well known for their other works, composed suspenseful soundtracks that amplify the danger and intensity of the battles, especially during Rengoku’s solo fight and Tanjiro’s battle against Enmu. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen and didn’t realize how tightly I was gripping my seat. Even in the movie’s more mellow moments, the soundtracks remained suspenseful enough to maintain the overall mood, tone, and pace of the movie.

In retrospect, Mugen Train is an enjoyable movie that caters more to fans than a first-time watcher. It falls flat when it comes to the plot and character development, which proves that Mugen Train is not meant to be an introductory piece into the Demon Slayer franchise. There is plenty of action and the visuals are gorgeous, but the movie’s wow factor is largely felt in the moment and becomes easily forgettable when those moments are over. Simply put, Mugen Train doesn’t quite live up to its hype, and neither does it do the box office numbers justice. Despite all that criticism, I have to acknowledge that Rengoku left a strong enough impression to linger in my mind long after leaving the cinema. He, as a great illuminating flame of life, blazed his way through the movie to etch himself in my memory.