Demon Slayer’s Swordsmith Village movie felt low-quality compared to Mugen Train. It is a clear indication that anime films don’t have the right episodes.
Spoilers for Demon Slayer are contained in the following: To The Swordsmith Village. This movie is now playing in select movie theatres
The new Demon Slayermovie acts as a bridge between anime’s “Entertainment District”, and its brand-new “Swordsmith Village” series. The Mugen Trainfilm was an excellent continuation of Season 1 and helped prepare fans for a new era of Demon Slayer. But To Swordsmith Village is quite different.
Mugen Train was solid and flowed well as a feature-length animated movie. It told a story with a start, middle, and end. The new Swordsmith Village movie had only two episodes. Credits and all. One new episode was added from the next season. It’s an experimental new method that fails miserably.
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The Demon Slayer: The Movie About Swordsmith Village’s Failed Formula
Anime movies tell stories in a different way than individual episodes or entire seasons. As with any movie, they have tie-ins, a beginning, a middle, and an end. It is not accurate to refer to them as supersized anime episodes. An episode of a TV program is often a fragment. This means that it begins exactly where the next episode ends or has a cliffhanger. Although self-contained episodes can tell a complete story (anthology shows, “monster of week” tales), this is an exception.
Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village tried out the anime movie concept but was unsuccessful. Not just was it a scam for people to pay to watch older episodes again, but also because they were being put into a movie with them is a bad idea. Even if Swordsmith Village had completely new material, and it was comprised of the first three to four episodes from the next arc, it wouldn’t work. It would have been a great movie if it had an original beginning, starting with the premiere episode. However, the middle would suffer.
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A movie, anime tie-in or not, cannot be the first piece of a larger storyline. There won’t ever be a clear conclusion. If Demon Slayer had done this for the “Entertainment District” series and put all four episodes together in one movie, the viewing experience could end with Tanjiro starting to fight Daki. It was too long for a movie. But adopting a small portion of the arc doesn’t work. Combining the “Entertainment District’ arc’s final two episodes with the “Swordsmith Village’ arc’s premier, the movie began with a climax and ended with a buildup. This is completely backward.
The Swordsmith Village movie aimed to bridge two anime seasons. It crammed three episodes together, which was against all of the basic principles of film theory. It did not have a true ending. It stopped abruptly, there was no resolution and there was no payoff. It is very similar to Mugen Train. This had a significant payoff with Enmu losing, and Akaza retreating, and that marked the end of Kyojuro Rengokus’s life.
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Demon Slayer Doesn’t Need A Second Movie
Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village’s chilly reception is more than fans’ general dislike. Statisticians tell part of this story: Mugen Train has a 98% Rotten Tomatoes, while Swordsmith Village is 68%. Fans can decide to stop watching it and steer clear of it as a scam. Worst of all, the Swordsmith Village movie didn’t need to exist.
Even the most popular and highly successful anime series doesn’t always require a tie-in to the movie. Some anime films can add depth to the original franchise’s story, while others are there simply for that reason. Some franchises have both. Fans know when a movie just wants to make a buck and not add any value to the story. Swordsmith Village doesn’t even come close to being a slasher — it barely offers anything.
Mugen Train was part of Demon Slayer lore. This was a neat way to connect the two anime seasons. Then, it appeared again in Season 2. It’s not a good idea to make tie-in films just for the sake of it. Swordsmith Village – which has nothing new — is even worse. The movie wasn’t necessary to be made. Fans could have waited a month for Season 3 to begin. Demon Slayermovies wasn’t a huge hit. Mugen Train was an exceptional anime film experience.