(THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle)
On September 12, 2025. The first of the three part Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba movie series of The Infinity Castle Arc was released in theaters around the world in both English and Japanese language. The movie received a 4.5 out of five on popular anime streaming app known as Crunchyroll, as well as receiving a score of 8.6 out of ten on IMDb. The movie began, showing a brief recap of the end of the season finale titled The Hashira Training Arc where each current member of the Demon Slayer Corps was dropped into the Infinity Castle by the demon king, Muzan Kibutsuji where they would face off against all of the demons and six of the twelve Kizuki, also known as the lower and upper rank demons. The first fight begins as Zenitsu, who seems to have a vendetta against Upper Moon Six, known as Kaigaku, who trained alongside Zenitsu, under the former Thunder Breathing hashira Jigoro Kuwajima.
The two Thunder Breathers viewed each other as rivals because Kaigaku, under his training of the breathing style had managed to learn all but the first form, meanwhile, Zenitsu had only managed to learn only the first form of Thunder Breathing. While confronting each other, Zenitsu, no longer in his typical anxious behavior, confronted Kaigaku, scolding him about becoming a demon to gain strength which had led Jigoro, their teacher, to end his own life because of the fear that he was not a good enough teacher to him. During the fight, Zenistu fell unconscious after receiving an attack from Kaigaku, where he is shown a vision of Jigoro, who tells Zenitsu, “Listen to me lad, you are my pride and joy.” Once Zenitsu regained consciousness, using his own made up form of Thunder Breathing, called Flaming Thunder God, he managed to win the fight, cutting off Kaigaku’s head.
The movie continues, showing the Insect Hashira, Shinobu Kochō arriving at a large palace in the Infinity Castle, where she approaches Upper Moon Two, Doma, who she also seems to have a personal vendetta for after finding out he was the reason that her sister Kanae was murdered by the demon, as the fight continues, the Insect Hashira is badly hurt and is later confirmed deceased by her crow companion, who flies around the maze screaming “Kochō Shinobu is dead!” After the sequence of events, including the victory of Zenitsu and Shinobu’s death, we later witness a scene where the main character, Tanjiro Kamado, and Water Hashira, Giyu Tomioka are confronted by Upper Moon three, Akaza.
As the fight between the three of them commences, Tanjiro discovers that Akaza can only detect Demon Slayers by sensing their “fighting spirit”, which Tanjiro manages to exploit by entering a seemingly tranquil state known as the “Transparent World” after recalling teachings from his late father. Tanjiro then managed to land a fatal blow on Akaza, leading Akaza to become impressed as we are given a brief backstory of Akaza’s human life when he was known as Hakuji, as we see these flashbacks we see Hakuji and his late wife Koyuki, showing that the two had met after Koyuki’s father entrusted Hakuji to protect his daughter, where it later shows Hakuji being influenced by Muzan Kibutsuji into becoming a demon, becoming the demon known as Akaza. As Hakuji is confronted by his past, he sees a vision of his wife who tells him to come back to her, where Akaza then returns to his battle with Giyu and Tanjiro where ends up attacking himself, and preventing himself from regenerating, which later leads to the ending of the first movie, now we must see how events will continue in the next movies, what tragedy will the slayers go through next?
