41. Review of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Dir. Haruo Sotozaki, 2020) (+ My Return to the Cinema)

Through all of the lockdowns and tiers, one of my most missed activities has for sure been attending the cinema - expected as a film graduate, I guess. Therefore it should come as no surprise my excitement when theatres reopened, especially when I realised that the highly anticipated Demon Slayer Movie was going to be having a limited UK release, and booked tickets for the first showing near me.

Things didn't start off great, as it had slipped my mind that all of the rabid anime stans have also been locked inside for the past year or so with one of their only weeaboo outlets being TikTok, and thus putting a group of them in a dark room together was probably not the best idea. The amount of "SHEEESH"es and "Eren Yeagers" and noise that came out of the other cinema goers as the film began was enough to make me cringe into my seat as it was. 

But then we realised that the subtitles were cut off. After many sounds of complaint and a few minutes of the projector being adjusted and zoomed in and out to fit the subtitles on the screen, I was made to sit through all of the "SHEESH"es and "Eren Yeagers" once again, with the film now ever so slightly out of focus.

Despite the initial setback and cringey behaviour from those around me, I went into watching with high expectations. Demon Slayer is an anime that I really really enjoyed and I had been waiting excitedly to see Mugen Train for a long time, so excitedly in fact that I had coordinated my outfit to match my replicas of Tanjiro's earrings in advance. 

My high expectations were sadly not met. 

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy most of the film. I thought that the main narrative arc of them boarding a train which also served as a demon hotspot was super interesting, the overall art and animation was stunning, and it was fun to see the characters on the big screen rather than a little one.

However, I felt that the film tried to fit too many things in, was way too on the nose at certain points, and tried to force the audience to have an extreme emotional response to characters that had only just been introduced, who lacked character development and connection to other characters throughout. I felt as though the film could have been stronger if it was instead a part of a series arc, using episodes to flesh out the characters more and lead into the next arc without feeling rushed. 

Another thing that annoyed me (which ties into the point of trying to force the audience to be emotional) was the over the top, guttural crying - it went on for way too long at points and actually made me feel annoyed, as it made no sense for the characters to be having that reaction.

On a more positive note, it did feel comforting to be back in the cinema and I did like some aspects of the film. Hopefully the upcoming season of Demon Slayer impresses me more than the film has done.

~ Paige Nicole