I really sympathise with my parents’ decision to catch some major league Zs back in the days when they took us to see Pokemon and Digimon movies at the Reading cinema. ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁(ᴗ_ ᴗ。) Like, what is goin’ on? Not to say that I didn’t find this particular joint intriguing, it was just kind of difficult to get a handle on the plot with the endless battle scenes and constant flashbacks. (O_o)’
There must be something going on though, judging by the records Demon Slayer has, um, slayed the box office both in Japan and overseas in the US. I think this film’s part of a television series. Anyway, I didn’t really know who was who. Lots of angry folk with revenge on their minds. But it was nice to be able to watch a film with subtitles and not a silly dubbed version. I think my cinema had a dubbed version available, but nah. I’m going for the original here. And I don’t really trust dubbing, especially from dubbed clips I saw from Squid Game. Original language ftw. You just have to spend a bit more effort looking at the subtitles. It’s not too hard. ●‿●
I knew this film was going to be a bit of a chonk before I sat down. 155 minutes? Heck. ( ˙༥˙ ) Even Nolan doesn’t go that far. So naturally, I thought this running time was going to warrant a lot of hefty plot material. But it doesn’t really. I think the creators could’ve chopped off at least 30 minutes if they’d cut some of the extended battle scenes with the demons and the demon slayers. Y’know, moments where the demons appear to be defeated and then they wake up and turn into their next form. Then they get defeated again. Then they come back again. Rinse and repeat. It did make me sympathise with my folks thinking about dragging them along to see stuff like pokemon movies when I was a kid. Sure, we got our free legendary pokemon cards at the door, but they probably still suffered having to watch thin plotting with Mewtwo getting moody at peeps and getting really perplexed when it looked like the film was going to end but then another big battle started. I think that big battle was one of the Digimon films. Not sure, tbh. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Demon Slayer’s general pacing threw me off, but I also had to bear in mind the fact that I’m a major league anime noob. Yes, I absolutely loved Blue Eye Samurai and I’ve watched a few good Studio Ghibli joints, but all of those focused on a central character. With Demon Slayer you’ve got multiple characters with multiple vendettas and such like, and my tiny mind just couldn’t comprehend it all. I could maybe do with a bit more knowledge of anime TV shows in general. But anyway, it was still refreshing that pretty much all of the trailers beforehand were advertising upcoming anime stuff instead of the usual stuff (I’m sick and tired of that damn trailer for The Roses, goshdarnit). ಠ_ಠ
Overall, I still don’t understand why this film was so successful at the box office, but hey, it’s all good for keeping the general cinema business fresh and up to date. I didn’t understand most of what was going on, but those fancy visuals were nice and cool. (☉‿☉✿)