As “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’s” critically acclaimed narrative draws to a close, the movie opens a new start to a successful anime trilogy. Its fate is already ensured, as “Infinity Castle” has quickly become the highest-grossing Japanese film ever, at $555 million earned thus far. By 2030, it is likely the “Demon Slayer” franchise will become a staple of pop culture for future generations.. However, that begs the question, does this franchise, and movie in particular, deserve to be this widely praised? “Infinity Castle” is an experience sure to leave an impression. The film is beautiful, powerful and exciting, although there is some poor pacing and mishandled writing. Still, that serves to remind you how good everything else is. 

Visually, this movie is gorgeous. The animation, done by the studio “Ufotable,” is sharp, fluid and flashy. Fight scenes in particular, which make up about 70% of the movie, are especially astonishing. While fast-paced, the choreography is consistently creative enough to keep the audience focused amidst the fast and fluid action.

Unfortunately, once the dialogue sets in, the rollercoaster you signed up for is halted by expositions that linger for several minutes. If the exposition presented to the audience was well written enough on its own, I wouldn’t consider this an issue with the movie. Sadly, characters often just trauma dump until they are motivated enough to add more emotional investment into the battle scenes. Now, I, unlike some, do not hold the opinion that “Demon Slayer” has bad writing. I actually think it’s quite good; although, the author’s approach to the plot may be off-putting to the viewers. Often it goes as follows: Small banter before a fight, fight until someone gets hurt, backstory, a little more fighting, more important backstory, then last hit. 

I really don’t mind the classic “flashback to save the day” trope, but when a movie has it back-to-back in a film such as this one, it begins to feel like the writer didn’t know how to make this character win, so they just came up with something, which feels dishonest. Again, the storytelling potential is there. The emotion is palpable in almost every scene, it’s just the way in which the writing is presented that can feel repetitive. “Infinity Castle” has good content, but definitely breaks the “show don’t tell” rule a lot- which results in the experience feeling a little wordy at times.

This is still a fantastic movie; it is powerful, flashy, and filled with emotion. I highly recommend to any fans of the show go and see it while it’s still in theaters. While yes, I do have my issues with the writing, if you just want to see a movie with spectacular action that may or may not make you cry, “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle,” is a great choice.