20.12.20: Mugen Train - A Great Follow-up to a Great Series!

(Very light, inconsequential spoilers!)

Mugen Train was for many, myself included, a long anticipated movie. Having seen the Demon Slayer series over a year ago, I was very much excited to see something with the Ufotable magical dust sprinkled over it. Even more so, given that it had been months seen I had last seen a movie in the cinema. Having since seen the movie, I can say that it definitely does not disappoint!

Mugen Train picks up exactly where the anime left off, with Tanjirou and friends rushing to board the train, which will be the setting for much of the movie. I have always loved movies and anime that took place on trains (ie any of Makoto Shinkai’s works – 5 Centimetres per Second, Your Name), and this is no different. Except this time the train is an old school steam locomotive from the Taisho era (the early 1920s).

The central character for the movie, made sufficiently evident from the many posters and artwork for the movie, is of course Rengoku. Rengoku is one of previously introduced Hashira (being the highest ranking members of the Demon Slayer Corps) whose character design can only be described as loud and incredibly shonen-esque. Not that I like his design any less. Rengoku is a fantastic character and the movie

gives his backstory and development a good amount of detail.

The movie also has everything that made the series so fun to watch in the first place. Great action and well-choreographed fights? Check. Comedic Zenitsu and Inosuke dialogue and antics? Check (I still can’t get enough of the badass sleep-fighting Zenitsu). Fantastic music? Check.

To sum it up, the new Demon Slayer movie is great. If you liked the series, you would definitely like the movie. At its heart, it’s a really cool, well done shonen series and movie. And it doesn’t hurt to have that a studio like Ufotable is making it as well.

- Hideyoshi