Here we go again. Another year has passed since Aniplex’s probably spectacular success of ripping off naïve Demon Slayer enthusiasts with their release of the not-movie To The Swordsmith Village (that I called “a quick money-grab”) to produce even-less-exciting-sounding To The Hashira Training. Yes indeed, it is the same scenario where two unrelated long episodes are jointed once more into a supposed “cinematic experience”. It’s not a movie. Say after me “this is not a movie”.
To give credit where it is due to Aniplex, this is what they have said about it, it will be an opportunity for fans possessed by madness to see last season’s denouement from the Swordsmith Village on the big screen before witnessing the first episode of Hashira Training that would have been broadcasted six weeks prior to April 5th premiere date as scheduled. Now I am not the biggest fan of Demon Slayer I think it had its moments, I loved most of season one and Mugen Train film though there are some glaring weaknesses in the source material as well as such thin adaptation. This movie in my opinion only exists because demon slayer prints money; hence this approach made sense because money was all that mattered here. There was nothing artistic or story telling worthiness to how demon slayer was presented in this strange disjointed way.
Firstly, here is what I wrote about The Swordsmith Village’s final double length episode when it aired first in June 2023.
In spite of excellent animation and smooth kinetic fight scenes, my attention repeatedly wandered away from the screen. Without compelling emotional stakes around which everything revolves, all sound and fury signify nothing else but that one fact alone. I actually fell asleep during some really long battles that were particularly awful at points through much duller than normal ending episodes sleeping through some of the worst overlong fights ever done by the show. The last episode, however, has a good emotional dilemma; its poignancy is just destroyed by an absolutely ponderous pace that turns a tragic moment into something utterly hilarious in its stupidity. So I guess this approach to Demon Slayer prints money, and I anticipate the next arc will be twice as long as it needs to be too and just as bassy with the previous season. For some reason, Demon Slayer continues to be unbelievably successful.
This is how this non film was presented to the audience last time in 4DX. For me, that was a single evening showing on Friday at my local cinema. I have never been to a 4DX showing of anything in my life and was unimpressed by the fact that ticket prices were twice as much as usual. But why spend all this money? You may rightly ask why you should part with your cash for this reason? And why pay for it in the first place, you might wonder? Because I write an anime blog which has a policy of covering every UK theatrical anime release and so it would be strange if I didn’t cover a major event like this one. Additionally, not all anime movies released in the UK get shown in my city (for instance, we never got “Blue Giant” here, though luckily I saw it in Edinburgh during Scotland Loves Anime last November.) My hope is that through supporting bigger releases like these, it will encourage my local cinema to show other smaller titles from Japan in future. However improbable it may seem but let me keep such an illusion.
For those who don’t know what 4Dx cinemas are. They are basically movie theatres mixed with roller coasters. The seats shake and move roughly throwing water or air at viewers from behind and below whenever necessary, loud whining mechanical systems drop flakes similar to snow from above while releasing weird artificial chemical odours unrelated to whatever is going on screen into sensitive nostrils. In other words, such effects detract from the impact of stunning visuals and make audiences feel battered and bruised after watching action-packed scenes as most part of half not-film contains just those ones.
Cinema is a focused sensory experience where sound blends with image forming new meanings, however, based on my solo brush with 4dx so far, it comes across as a gimmicky uncomfortable irritating distraction which waters down and spoils such an occasion. If I wanted to be jostled around until I hurt, I’d have gone to a fairground or started a fight with some random drunken bums. And besides, this was a made-for-TV episode for the love of Christ. It can be presumed that it did not factor in this gimmickry. Did it? Is not it strange how far ahead Aniplex thought about this?
Well, Demon Slayer’s first few story arcs are briefly summarized in an opening sequence played without words through LiSA’s popular Gurenge again they never fail to get you pumped up these themes are just as exciting and awesome as ever. The summary is also confusing as wrong choice of the dullest pictures possible that make no sense at all. Also, now apparently the first season is called “Tanjiro Kamado, Unwavering Resolve” Arc throughout its entire length, which is new information to me. In addition, there is also a recap which flits through different fragments from Mugen Train, Entertainment District and Swordsmith Village arcs so that we find ourselves catching-up mid-action with Tanjiro and his gang on the trail of some short demon guy running through a thick forest at great speed.
ufotable’s action artistry is so overpowering on the silver screen, one can be forgiven for thinking they should have been worth the ticket money. They need to do more TYPE MOON stuff soonest lest we glorify it too much but their movie version of Witch on the Holy Night cannot come soon enough, I just can’t wait. To pay the bills though, they have to make Demon Slayer and I’ll grudgingly admit that before beautifying this simple show they will also have to do the same for other deserving material.
This final episode of the Swordsmith Village Arc is generally pretty good, as long as you’re not bored by the very extended fight scenes. He is such a good boy that you really want him to succeed in spite of anything else, and it becomes even more difficult when his sister’s life hangs in balance between sunlight that would burn her alive or a demon that will eat away at swordsmiths hiding behind him who are about to run away; Nezuko struggles against saving Tanjiro from any danger but gets rid of him like he was nothing though he stays impossibly suspended in air for such eternity which turns out to be more amusing than pitiful. That was probably not what was intended here.
The enemy this time is the utterly despicable and manipulative Hantengu. In this case Tanjiro must once again “level up” while using a new “breathing technique”, Zenitsu’s “thunder breathing” because his leg has been damaged, thus he needs to move faster than light towards his opponent. After cutting off its head again, we see another low resolution flashback illustrating how he came into existence as an abnormal creature. But rather than trying belatedly to generate sympathy for the demon as in every other arc till now Demon Slayer instead reveals that Hantengu was disgusting all along. The thief and killer managed to always blame someone else for what he had done, refused to take responsibility and even complained when others treated him unfairly; he had it coming. The writing of Demon Slayer is never subtle but this particular enemy’s conduct seemed interesting at least from a psychological perspective.
Then, we somehow discovered Nezuko has ceased being affected by the sun and is fine. Is there an explanation for this? Nezuko is said to be “the first demon to conquer the sun” but nothing more is told about her. Now, Evil Moonwalker Michael Jackson (Muzan Kibutsuji) will be after her to make him a daywalker too. Then he can take over the world! Bwa ha ha ha ha! At last, we have some background of who he’s been or why all that has been happening but explanations are rare in supply here. There is something about a shady doctor using ‘blue spider lily’ medication for demons. Unfortunately Evil MJ killed his doctor in a fit of anger before learning the secret. That was clumsy of him. I don’t feel like there are ever going to be any clear definitions of demons in Demon Slayer other than them being described as bad medicine tantamount to magic.
In this way, half way through it becomes mostly entertaining except for one extra long “comedy” scene where everyone is hugging and crying and happy music and laughter and tears. I’m gonna puke. Demon Slayer comedy has always sucked such an odd juxtaposition between its ultra violence (a “15” rating if it were ever made in UK) and its very immature humor Funny faces every now and then may be alright but when it comes to humor, Demon Slayer only has crude slapstick, weirdly distorted faces that are meant to entertain, or jokes about food consumption or sexual harassment jokes on women Quite often during these comedy “interludes,” I feel like clawing at my eyes until they bleed while cursing god.
Unfortunately though, the majority of the second part consisting of the unnecessarily double-length Hashira Training Arc Premiere episode does little more than slowly build up towards what follows next with much cliché humour besides Tanjiro remaining in bed throughout the episode as he is nursed back to health and various minor characters have long, boring conversations I couldn’t follow. It’s sounds cool when you read of several demon slayer side characters fighting an army of demons at some haunted castle or something but apart from that it’s a sleeper. And Zenitsu comes back and immediately becomes the worst character ever in animation history. Nezuko also had a great moment on stage where she forgot Zenitsu’s name and instead called him Inosuke. I loved that part. Continue belittling him Nezuko, make him feel pain too.
Aniplex’s choice of an adaptation here myself I must ask must be one of the most uncinematic episodes in this series. It doesn’t help either that the first half had a visual downgrade compared to the second half where Hashira Training came off so pixelated, obviously seen on my huge screen. You would think someone tried (and failed) upscaling their blu-ray to 8K. At least with the slower pacing there wasn’t much opportunity for the deranged person responsible for programming 4DX movements to abuse his poor audience any further. However, some worldbuilding elements in it were interesting; and it could have done this in half the time. That’s what’s wrong with Demon Slayer as an anime it is beautiful (mostly), but exceedingly padded.
If you’re a rabid Demon Slayer fan with too much money and not enough patience, then To the Hashira Training is exactly for you. Aniplex adores you and its shareholders also do. Sometimes, it’s good to feel wanted. For anyone else, this can be completely skipped over. There is nothing new here which hasn’t either been shown on TV already or will be in six short weeks’ time anyways. The only redeeming feature of this series is its first part since even though it drags itself out too long, at least its background looks full-blown theatrical only during this period of time alone . Do not be like me save your cash for something worthwhile rather than another vacuous artwork that shamelessly intends to empty your pockets again.
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