This Weekend the Demon Slayer Movie, Mugen Train was released in Cinemas across Japan, officially debuting on the 16th of October. Despite being released in the middle of a pandemic with Cinemas across the country having to implement safety measures such as spaced seating that limited many to only half capacity, The movie would go on to smash records.
On it’s opening day/night, Mugen Train would earn 1.2 Billion Yen (roughly $12 million) breaking the record for opening day releases. Mugen Train would then go on to take another 3.3 Billion Yen over Saturday and Sunday totalling a huge 4.5 Billion Yen (roughly $44 Million), breaking the record for opening weekends.
The new record has steamed rolled the previous record which was set by the Studio Ghibli classic Spirited Away which took 3.8 Billion Yen in it’s opening weekend. The highest weekend earning live action movie in Japan was the Titanic back in 1997 earning a total 1.4 Billion Yen.
Mugen Train is part of the Demon Slayer Anime and Manga Franchise, with the movie directly linking to the recent Anime series, taking place just after the events of Season 1. This is a very different approach by Aniplex Shueisha and Ufotable as many films based on an Anime Franchise are typically original works. Demon Slayer is based off of the Manga written by Koyoharu Gotōge and published by Shueisha Inc the series ran from Febuary 2016 to May 2020, the anime was produced by Ufotable and was first released in April 2019.
The series follows Tanjiro Kamado a young boy who one day returns home to find his family has been killed by a demon, however he finds one of his sisters still clinging to life. Unfortunately, although she seemed to have survived the attack she had become infected and was turning into a Demon. The boy can not bring himself to kill his sister as she still shows signs of humanity. After meeting a demon slayer and lots of training, the boy and his sister set off to find a cure and destroy all of the demons.
The film is due to be released to western audience starting in North America early next year with Aniplex of America and Funimation distributing. Unfortunately there hasn’t been any news on if or when it will be released in the UK yet.
The Great British Otaku
Andrew More
Kuru Collections/Media