Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Slays Box Office with Another Cinematic Release
By Brady Lyons
Published November 14, 2025
This Article contains spoilers for the Infinity Castle movie. It does not contain spoilers for the unadapted remainder of the Demon Slayer Manga.
“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba” has gained traction as one of the most popular anime since its initial release in 2019, and the franchise’s most recent cinematic release, “The Infinity Castle,” has dominated the U.S. box office and crushed some of the summer’s biggest hits, including the new live action “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Superman,” in global ticket sales.
This movie is a standout and proof of the success of animated movies, and is also another towards the addition of anime movies into the cinematic mainstream.
Instead of making two or three more seasons, Studio Ufotable decided to finish the series off with a three-part movie event. They kicked the trilogy off with a masterpiece in animation, soundtrack, and storytelling.
To start, the movie gets straight into the action, resuming right where the TV show left off, with our main character Tanjiro and the Hashira being sucked into the Infinity Castle by Muzan Kibutsuji. The movie presents a stellar opening song from the returning artist Aimer, titled “A World Where the Sun Never Rises.” With a cast of over 15 characters and a lot of ground to cover from the original anime, the film opts to focus instead on just three main character groups throughout the film, with cameos from other characters throughout the movie.
I do feel the film struggled with its pacing as it switched between those three groups and character backstories, with certain events being rushed and the movie spending too much time on others. Backstories specifically stood out to me as a staple of the movie’s struggle to find a steady cadence. However, certain backstories did stand out as essential and very emotionally well done to finalize and continue some character arcs.
A prime example of this would be Akaza, an Upper Rank Demon who has been a staple in the plot since the last Demon Slayer movie. Akaza received an emotional, but lengthy backstory segment of the movie, showing his life as a human named Hakuji before becoming a Demon, which took up a hefty part of the third act.
As long as it was, the wait was worth the emotional impact of viewing his descent to hopelessness after losing his wife and mentor to murder and becoming a ruthless Demon exacting his revenge and losing his memories over thousands of years. After regaining them, he is accepted by his wife, who gives up heaven and joins him in being damned for eternity in Hell.
The emotional impact of this movie was incredible, finishing stories spanning the whole show into the beginning of this trilogy. Stories for Zenitsu and Shinobu both received phenomenal finales, with Zenitsu exacting revenge on Kaigaku for becoming a Demon, which resulted in his grandfather committing seppuku – killing himself.
Shinobu faced the Upper Rank Demon Douma, who killed Shinobu’s older sister. But Shinobu tragically died in her duel while giving it her all and left the fight to be finished by her apprentice, Kanoa. That fight will be continued for the next movie in the trilogy.
To me, this scene was very important for the trilogy, as it’s a heavy message that not every character will survive, and anyone is at risk of facing their final moments at any time.
However, all of these fights wouldn’t support their weight without their stellar animation and backing soundtrack. Each fight scene left me in awe and with my jaw on the floor. Each stood out on its own as a phenomenal work of art, especially the fight between Giyu and Akaza, featuring dazzling displays of art as they landed blows to one another.
The movie was backed by a stellar soundtrack, composed by Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina. An opening and closing song was created by returning artists Aimer and Lisa, writing “A World Where the Sun Never Rises” and “Shine in the Cruel Night,” respectively.
Overall, the film was a stellar beginning to the trilogy which ended on a massive cliffhanger, with Akaza defeated, Tanjiro and Giyu injured and passed out due to exhaustion, and the other characters roaming the castle in search of Muzan. I look forward to seeing if the next film can improve upon the trilogy’s strong start as the stories of our other favorite characters unfold.