Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba - To the Hashira Training

If you are a huge fan of Demon Slayer, and want to see it on the big screen - a theater experience, then this is something you might want to watch. If you casually follow Demon Slayer, you probably shouldn't see this.

As literally EVERY SINGLE PIECE of advertisement and marketing information has thoroughly explained EXACTLY what this movie would be showing, there is absolutely zero reason for anyone to be surprised or feel "scammed" by what they saw.

This movie covers a short 5 minute recap of every season thus far, with the ending theme to each subsequent season playing over it; followed by Episode 11 of the Swordsmith Village Arc. The movie then finishes with the 1st Episode of the Hashira Training Arc - an early screening for a season that won't be out until Spring.

How exactly are people deciding to watch this movie without understanding the chronology of the anime? How are you not watching trailers or reading a simple excerpt from an article - or the literal movie description? You're upset that you're rewatching content you've already seen, yet it could just as likely be the case that you've skipped content and just got spoiled by watching this movie since you've failed to even check what the movie is about.

Please do yourselves a favor and utilize, at the very least, the tiniest bit of brain power you can muster, so that 1) You don't waste your precious time and money on a product you don't like, and 2) I don't lose brain cells having to read through these 1-star, angry reviews that shouldn't exist in the first place.

Media literacy. Learn it.

I felt like it strayed from the main plot quite a few times, it also felt like I had spent an eternity watching the movie, I would have preferred it to have been a season/arc than a movie.

I'm not that much of an anime fan, but I watch it for my sister.

I had hopes that it would be a really good movie compared to the other one (which are wonderful) But the only thing I saw was filler and more filler and then it went back to the main plot and it deviated again, it came back and the movie was over, Personally, I felt it was a waste of time and money.

But hey, it's my opinion about this movie, if you have another opinion that's fine, but this is my opinion.

Tanjiro and his friends saved the swordsmith village and defeated two upper-ranked demons. While Tanjio is recovering, the Hashira are meeting to discuss Nezuko's recent ability to withstand the sun and Muzan's next move.

This movie is the next part in the Demon Slayer series and takes place right after the Swordsmith Village Arc. Unlike the Mugen Train movie, this one is more of a filler. The movie spends the majority of the runtime recapping the Swordsmith Village Arc. The remaining runtime does not expand too much on the story, and by the end, it is just a setup for the next arc. The movie is worth a stream for diehard fans and completionists, but it can be skipped for casual fans.

My daughter and I recently watched Demon Slayer: To the Hashira Train (2024) in theaters. The storyline follows brother and sister demon slayers Tanjiro and Nezuko, who encounter a demon that helps unveil new powers for Nezuko. A super demon, envious of Nezuko's abilities, hunts them down to steal these powers. We also get introduced to the Hashira Demon Slayers core, witness their powers, and they're sure to play a role in current events.

Directed by Haruo Sotozaki (Demon Slayer series), the animation and action scenes are absolutely elite. The first-person perspective in the run scenes felt three-dimensional, and many action scenes are captivating and impressive. The depiction of melting skin, display of powers, and cut scenes are brilliantly done. The demons and gore add to the overall experience, and the character interactions are magical, blending some nice comedy into the circumstances. While I'm still uncertain about loving the villain, I'm eager to see where the story goes. I do wish these movies weren't open-ended and essentially previews for upcoming series.

In conclusion, Demon Slayer: To the Hashira Train is a fun kick-off to the upcoming Demon Slayer series, featuring elite animation and character evolution. I would score this a 7/10 and recommend waiting for the entire series to be released.

Now it's probably my fault, but I should have remembered after watching "Swordsmith Village" last March that this isn't a film at all, but the tail episode of a series (I hadn't seen) used to introduce the first episode of a new season (which I won't watch either) and so it didn't really make much sense. The ongoing training of "Tanjiro" as he seeks to become Hashira is mixed in with the continuing search for "Nezuko" and "Ubuyashiki" by the increasingly frustrated "Muzan". As with any serialisation, each episode is just a conduit to the next, so this film delivers very little by way of plot development. A tiny bit of closure is soon subsumed into an whole new set of challenges that will beset them as the next slew of episodes follow. Sadly, that means there's precious little story for us to get our teeth into and so we are really just left with some stylish and accomplished animation that we have all seen many, many, times before. As with last time, they didn't even bother to sew the episodes together properly, we get a credit roller amidst the thing. There are loads of interesting characters here but this film relies way too heavily on your having followed the strand elsewhere. As a stand alone piece of cinema, it's watchable, but pretty meaningless.