All aboard the thriller “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train”

By Nick Vanburen

May 11, 2021

With movie theaters reopening, people need to know if there's anything worth watching. How about “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train'?' an animated movie by ufotable. With its beautiful animation and excellent writing, it's surely worth watching.

“Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” is a continuation from the first season of the Demon Slayer anime. The movie starts off with our main characters of Tanjiro Kamado (Zach Aguilar), Zenitsu Agatsuma (Aleks Le), Inosuke Hashibira (Bryce Papenbrook) and Nezuko Kamado (Abby Trott) hopping on a train they were assigned to. There, they meet up with Kyojuro Rengoku (Mark Whitten) to get their mission, to defeat the demon that had been taking people from the train.

After finding out about the mission, a demon appears but is quickly killed by Kyojuro Rengoku. Satisfied, they all head back to their train cart. But it turns out all is not well and that everything that happened was all a dream that the demon put upon them. Now Tanjiro Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma, and Inosuke Hashibira must all find a way out of their dreams before the demon kills them and all the people on the train. Will they survive, or will the demon find its prey?

The art and animation in this movie is stunning. The art and animation is so good that the opening frame looked photo realistic. Everything from the train to the trees looked like a one to one copy. The animators also took the time to correctly draw traditional Japanese clothing and made it look stunning. The single handed best art in the whole movie is the use of traditional Japanese art. The use of it in the fight scenes truly sets the battle scenes apart from the dialogue scenes. The fighting scenes are smooth even with the quick movements and large strikes. It's clear the ever frame of the movie was carefully drawn and made sure it's all fit coherently.

Koyoharu Gotouge, the writer for the film, excellently moved the story at a good pace. It never felt like the story was dragging on. Not only that, but the writing hits you surprisingly deep, especially at the end of the movie..

Animated movies are often hard to get right, but this movie succeeds. It has the perfect balance between action and dialogue. The serious bits are fitted perfectly in so they hit you when you're less expecting it. This movie will make you cry, laugh and make your heart race from excitement.

“Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” an animation by ufotable, was rated by the Motion Picture Association of America to be rated R. Run time: 1 hour 57 minutes, four stars out of four.