“Demon Slayer: Hashira Training Arc” was a great movie and is highly recommended to people who enjoy anime. The movie was a perfect fit to watch and it works for people haven’t watched “Demon Slayer” yet. It was released on Feb. 23, 2024 and featured the last episode of season three and the first episode of season four, which hasn’t been released fully yet.
The manga series “Demon Slayer” was originally written by Koyoharu Gotouge on Feb. 15 in 2016. The anime officially started in 2019 and is being animated by the company Ufotable. The last season of “Demon Slayer”, featuring the Swordsmith Village Arc, ended with a huge cliff-hanger for the rest of this series.
The movie starts by doing a small recap of the previous seasons for people who hadn’t watched the anime and then cuts to the final episode of season three. The episode begins with Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya chasing after Hantengu to land the finishing blow while Mitsuri holds off Zohakuten. They fight all night when the sun suddenly rises and Nezuko begins to burn. Tanjiro is stuck deciding who to go after and Nezuko makes the decision for him. He finishes off Hantengu and begins to weep for Nezuko. To his surprise, she conquered the sun and was still alive and now there was a target put on her head from the demon king, Muzan Kibutsuji.
After recapping that last episode, the movie continues on to the new episode for the upcoming season. It begins with two of the Hashira, Iguro Obanai and Shinazugawa Sanemi on a mission to save a girl from demons. Then it shows Hashira in a meeting discussing the death of Hantengu and Gyokko as well as the demon slayer mark. They then come to the conclusion that bringing your body temperature and heart rate up to a dangerous level allows you to get the mark and increase strength. They agreed to all work to train themselves and other demon slayers to acquire the mark.
The budget for this movie was grossed to about $48 million and it paid off. The animation was beautifully done and you could really see the contrast between how the characters and special effects looked in 2019 to now. The colors are so much more vibrant and eye-catching and the movements are very fluid. Some people still preferred the first season to the newest one because the style was changed a bit, but the new art really suits the characters.
The voice actors also did a brilliant job with it only being the first episode of the season. Most people would agree that the english dub was not as good as the original japanese sub in voice acting, but everyone has split opinions on that. The Japanese version just seems more emotional and heart felt than the english version. “Demon Slayer” also was very unique with how they chose to tease the release of the new season by making it into a movie. There have been anime movies before, but “Demon Slayer” is the ain one to use a movie with episode in it. Even if it was more of a catch-up type movie, there were still amazing discoveries made that will end up changing everything about the “Demon Slayer” story.
This movie didn’t have a lot of new development for the characters for anime only watchers, but it is perfect for people who enjoy “Demon Slayer” from the manga. This movie may not be for everyone who enjoys anime due to a little more silliness and humor, but for people who enjoy a story with amazing battles and emotion with a little laughable stuff on the side, this is perfect for them. It isn’t the greatest starter for people who want to start watching anime, but it should definitely be on a person’s watch list.