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[Bluray box art]
AKA: 劇場版「鬼滅の刃」 無限列車編
Genre: Shonen Fantasy
Length: Movie, 117 minutes
Distributor: Currently licensed by Aniplex of America (with FUNimation, for home video); Crunchyroll for streaming video
Content Rating: R (Violence, mature themes, horror elements.)
Related Series: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (TV), Entertainment District Arc (TV), Swordsmith Village Arc (TV), Hashira Training Arc (TV), Infinity Castle (Movie trilogy)
Also Recommended: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (original series)
Notes: Based on manga by Koyoharu Gotouge, published in Japan by Shueisha (and in English by VIZ Media)
Rating:

Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie: Mugen Train

Synopsis

Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu are assigned to assist a Hashira (hotshot demon slayer) named Kyojuro Rengoku investigate suspected demon-related disappearances on a train.


Review

Mugen Train carries on almost directly from the end of the original series- except for a brief visit to a cemetery, where production company UFOtable once again gets to show off its amazing background art.

The suspicion about demon activity is right on the money- and there's more than one of them on the train, too. This puzzled me a bit, for I'd think that demons, BEING demons, would get into squabbles over who had dibs on the passengers; and, again, demons BEING demons, they'd have trouble resolving this in a civilized manner. In any case, one of the demons proves particularly insidious (and intractable), and the struggle against THAT one takes up the bulk of the movie.

I was particularly impressed with Inosuke this time, of all people. He's simple-minded as ever, but his manic gung-ho manner, coupled with being less easily distracted than the other heroes at a critical moment (due to a unique circumstance), means that he and Tanjiro end up carrying the bulk of the fighting. Zenitsu, alas, is mostly in his cowardly whiny mode, though we see that he CAN summon his courage, and his own power, with the right motivation.

Tanjiro remains our struggling (but gifted) central character. He might not be as powerful with a sword as the Hashira think themselves (Rengoku here declares that Tanjiro might need "10,000 steps" before achieving their exalted rank), but his perspicacity more than compensates for that, and helps him make an early exit from a trap.

Rengoku, the Flame Hashira, is blaring both in voice and appearance, but since he obviously means well, I tended to forgive his booming voice (and his ego.) We get a little of his backstory, and it seems his parents were at odds about his career choice- and maybe not in the way we'd typically expect.

Mugen Train is a "safe sequel", in the sense that you get exactly what you've gotten with the series, though with a larger budget so we can have some fancy 3DCG, particularly with a monster that's massive, squishy, and of course tentacled (though NO tentacle rape; this has NEVER been that sort of show.) I might have been a bit happier if they'd given us something genuinely new. Aside from this, I think my only other complaint is that I'm not really a fan of those maudlin death scenes where the soon-to-be-departed gets to give us a final speech; my patience for this is in inverse proportion to the length of the speech, and Mugen Train, alas, has quite a lengthy one. I recently purchased the final volume of the manga (#23)- I HAD to find out how it all ended- and found that this is, indeed, a habitual thing in the original manga as well.

A continuation of the series that introduces one new character, has plenty of battle sequences, and gives us some more information about what's in the hearts of its principal characters- particularly Tanjiro. Familiar territory here, sure, but if you liked the original series- and I very much did- you might be pleased with this. And I very much was.Allen Moody

Recommended Audience: The Aniplex/FUNimation disk has a suggested rating of R. I would guess it's for the slicing-and-dicing, and horror elements. Suicide is a recurring plot element here as well, even if it’s technically not real. (You have to see the show to understand that, but it LOOKS “real” enough to possibly distress younger viewers.)



Version(s) Viewed: Bluray/DVD release.
Review Status: Full (1/1)
Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie: Mugen Train © 2020 UFOtable.
 
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