[Spoiler-free review] Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is a visual masterpiece

Some anime sagas aren’t built for the big screen. One Piece, for all of its critical acclaim, thrives on sprawling world-building and ongoing subplots that don’t condense neatly into a two-hour format. Some, on the other hand, are born for it: cue Demon Slayer, a 205-chapter manga with little filler and emotional gut-punches built into every step.

That formulaic efficiency has translated into staggering numbers: it’s the seventh best-selling manga of all time with over 220 million manga copies sold, while a previous movie adaptation, Mugen Train, grossed about USD 506 million globally and was also the highest-grossing film in Japanese box office history.

Unlike most of its peers, Demon Slayer’s arcs serve well as self-contained cinematic events with a straightforward plot, emotional resonance, and a visual spectacle that appeals to fans and newcomers alike.

Infinity Castle continues that trend. It’s the first of a final trilogy of movies — a Star Wars: A New Hope moment, if the manga is anything to go by — to conclude the Demon Slayer series, and it is breaking records again, opening in Japan to ¥7.31 billion (SGD 63.6 million) in just four days.

Straight into the fray

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle picks up where the anime series left off, when the hashiras (highest-ranking demon slayers) are trapped in the demonic Infinity Castle while pursuing the demon king, Muzan Kibutsuji. The action kicks off immediately with our major characters getting their calling card moment in fending off waves of demon minions.

Although all active hashiras were present in the Infinity Castle, the movie is centred on three arcs: Shinobu Kocho’s vengeance, Giyu Tomioka and Tanjiro Kamado’s long-awaited rematch with a nemesis, and Zenitsu ‘Chadnitsu’ Agatsuma’s ‘glow-up’ battle against a ghost from his past.

Shinobu instantly gets into the thick of things with Upper Rank Two (second-most powerful demon under Muzan) Doma, and we’ve barely just hit the 15-minute mark. Despite the relentless pace from the outset, Demon Slayer excels at interspersing chaotic action with backstory to contextualise what’s at stake, which helps newcomers considerably.

Each arc is framed through the same lens: duty in the face of tragedy, and the unspoken, heavy burden placed on the young. Demon Slayer’s winning formula of tapping into universal archetypes of family, redemption and sacrifice over dense lore creates instantaneous emotional payoffs for new viewers while still rewarding manga readers and anime followers. The only downside is that this exposition-dump style of storytelling can get a bit repetitive, and the pacing of the movie starts to stutter in the second half.

A technical showcase

But even if you don’t understand what’s going on, the animation quality alone is worth the ticket price. Bottom line: it would be a shame to watch this off a computer. While Ufotable’s other standouts — Fate/stay night: Heaven’s Feel III and the Tengen Uzui vs. Gyutaro showdown in Demon Slayer Season 2 — set a high bar for cinematic fights, Infinity Castle surpasses them entirely.

Infinity Castle’s impossibly vast architectural expanses and constantly shifting spaces form the perfect backdrop for Ufotable’s animators to show off their technical brilliance, blending lavish CG seamlessly with their trademark 2D flourishes — flowing water, blooming fire, dazzling lightning — turning the big screen into a series of stunning set pieces.

Traditionally, complex anime action scenes run the risk of turning into a blurry mess, but you get none of that here. With clean lines and dynamic choreography that constantly shifts perspective, the battles in Infinity Castle unfold with a fluidity that turns every exchange of blows into tense, high-stakes moments. They become frenzied, visceral dances to the death that seize you by the throat and keep you on edge — yet remain easy to follow despite the chaos. This is as close as anime comes to blockbuster-level special effects.

For the fans, there’s probably never a better example of manga panels coming to life. Even compared to The Elusive Samurai — renowned for its painterly stills — Demon Slayer edges ahead in how it moves, not just how it looks.

Start of an epic trilogy

I have to be honest: I have a long-standing dislike for Demon Slayer because I feel it epitomises vanilla characters, generic shōnen (action-driven manga and anime for young males) tropes, and ’emotional vending machine’ writing. But even with my personal bias, Infinity Castle had me genuinely hyped — it’s a feat of technical brilliance that slashed cleanly through my pettiness.

Splitting Infinity Castle into three films was not only a shrewd commercial decision; the manga’s pacing practically demands it, giving each major battle room to breathe without rushing or crowding out its emotional rhythm. Most importantly, it gave Ufotable the budget to do the action-packed final arcs justice and redefine the pinnacle of anime action in the process.

Despite its flaws, few can match its mix of spectacle and heart. Whether you’re here for the choreography, the emotional beats, or both, this is Demon Slayer at its peak — and there’s a chance it gets even better.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is rated NC16 and opens in cinemas on 14 August 2025.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is currently available to stream on Crunchyroll.