Now I am not a crazy fan of Demon Slayer like others, so I feel I am able to give a much fairer take on the film compared to a fanbase that is super defensive over any criticism regarding it. Demon Slayer season 1 was a fine season with issues. The main ones being its story, writing and characters.

Sadly, this doesn’t get much better in a film format. I have to question what the thought process for this as this should have either been the first arc of season 2 or an OVA. This film feels like a crash grab. So, what is exactly wrong with it? Well, let’s jump into that.

First off, let’s talk about the good of this film. The main calling card for Demon Slayer is its art and animation. This film doesn’t drop the ball here. There is no bad shot here at all. Everything is so well done and polish from an animation standpoint. I think the strongest aspect of the animation is moment to moment usage throughout the film. Factor in really good directing and framing of all shots you can really the size, scale, and feel of all shots. You are given enough time to let everything you’re seeing sink in.

If you’re a fan of the animation of Demon Slayer season 1, I don’t think you will not be mad here as Ufotable knocks it out of the park. This is easily one of the best aspects of the film. The attention to detail this series takes with everything is a joy to watch.

Up next, let’s talk about the English voice acting. I feel everyone has shown great improvement from season 1. I see a lot more comfort from everyone in their roles. They’re really getting the hang of what they want to project. I think the standout performances for this is Bryce Papenbrook as Inosuke and Mark Whitten as Rengoku. I think both men did an excellent of not only being funny but good with the material they were given. They really sold you on their characters the most in my opinion.

Since I bought up his English voice actor, I should take time to talk about how Rengoku was my favorite character in the film. He had a good character arc and the film felt more about him at times than others. I also think his fighting style was cool too.

Lastly, I think the soundtrack and fights throughout the film were amazing. I think both teams in charge of these just knock it out of the park. Good fights are a requirement of a Shonen anime so not having good fights can really hurt the overall enjoyment of a viewer. The same goes with the soundtrack each piece of music really hits all the notes to get an emotional reaction out of you. The timing and placement of the music is really good too. Nothing feels out of place.

Now onto the bad, sadly, there is a lot to talk about here as a common criticism from more critical critics of Demon Slayer is its writing and characters. The writing has been criticized for lacking in depth, detail, and being overall lackluster. Demon Slayer struggles greatly with defining goals and rationales for both its heroes and villains. The most you can get from either side is, “We must kill demons and keep everyone safe!” From the Demon Slayer core and for the villains you get, “We wish to feast on human blood and wipe out the Demon Slayer core!” Some of the lower-level demons just looking to move up to the upper rankings by piling up enough dead bodies to please their master.

Well, this carries into the film with Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu with the aid of Hashira Rengoku being sent to figure out why humans are disappearing from the Mugen Train. That isn’t a bad start, but it gets bad as our main three characters: Tanjiro, Inosuke, and Zenitsu have zero-character development. While I like one of the characters in our main lead Tanjiro, I have a very low opinion of Inosuke and Zenitsu. To simply put, I think they suck as characters and add nothing to story while disrupting the serious tone Demon Slayer desperately tries to maintain. Both Zenitsu and Inosuke are equally annoying in differing ways. Zenitsu just cries a bunch and can’t shut up. Inosuke is just a worse version of Bakugo with swords. I can say that Inosuke is slowly becoming better but I doubt he will ever go through any meaningful change.

Another issue with the writing is the number of plot holes and extreme use of deus ex machnia. A number of things go unexplained as it feels like there was a setup and conflict created but no one thought out how our heroes would overcome the power of the Lower One. Those powers being the ability to use his blood to spend people into a deep sleep giving them dreams of their greatest desires before feasting on them by destroying their spirit cores. Sounds good, right?

Well, it’s not as you are only given a reason as to how Tanjiro got out of the dream while Zenitsu is moving and attacking while still being asleep, Rengoku breaks it just because he is a Hashira I guess, and I don’t even know how Inosuke broke the spell.

Now the third act gives us a good fight and okay conclusion to the story, but it doesn’t save what is a film that could have been better serve an OVA. There is a number of plot holes here to make the ending and what Tanjiro says at the end worth while as this can be seen as a major lost for the Demon Slayer core. I wish that was handled better.

The last thing I want to bring attention to this section of the review is just how bad the villain was. His English voice actor was good, but he doesn’t really talk about anything important. On top of getting a weak motive for his actions, you can only see this villain as just a jobber for our heroes to defeat. He is not a threat at all. He is just, “I am gonna kill these humans to get more blood from the master so I can become an upper-level demon!” There is nothing else to him. He is extremely one dimensional. He is just evil for the sake of being evil.

The ending of this story is okay as they are able to save everyone and Rengoku gives his life saving all of them, but it gets ruin with Tanjiro’s speech calling a demon a coward. It doesn’t really make him, or the Demon Slayer core look strong as they lost one of their best fighters. While I’m happy there is no force happy ending, the speech really doesn’t help things for the Demon Slayer core. I also feel killing Rengoku off just as he was getting good as a character felt lazy.

In conclusion, Demon Slayer Mugen Train is an extremely poorly film that is carried by its art, animation, soundtrack, sound design, and English voice acting. This film was extremely overrated and overhyped by its fans. I was extremely disappointed by this film. I spent over 21 dollars on this film, so to say I have a little bit of buyer’s remorse is an understatement. This is a good film if you are a crazy fan of Demon Slayer but if you are not this is something you will watch once and forget about it as nothing much happens until the end. Not a bad movie, but not a good one at all either.