Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen

I can't give it a high score because this is, except the first episode, a recap of the film. The animation, sound, art, story, and Rengoku himself is great, I love everything about this, tho I'm disappointed the wasn't any additional content apart from the opening (with I liked) and some different dialogue and camera angles and the fact that i had to wait 7 weeks to find out there wasn't some sort of a teaser for season 2 of Demon Slayer.

If you didn't see the movie I sincerely recommend watching it. But if you seen the movie watch the first episode and don't waste ... your time.

THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

After being absolutely amazed by the Movie, i was very excited when i heard that Ufotable re-airs Demon Slayer:Infinity-Train with additional scenes. I know a lot of people where dissapointent that the start of the Entertainment District Arc got delayed, but you have to accept the fact that there were still a lot of people who haven´t watched the movie when it was out in cinema. Now that i rewatched the movie in TV-Format i can safely say that it does a fantastic Job at refining the Action of the original film.

Story - 8/10

The story starts out simple and gets more ... intense as the arc goes on. The idea of manipulating dreams has been done before, but the way Demon Slayer does it was still very appealing. I wasn´t sure how they were gonna put such a small fragment of the manga into the show without stretching it, but the Pacing was really good and the story builds up the tension perfectly. The final fight is definitely one of the most epic battles that i have ever seen! An other great thing about this arc is that it also works really well as a drama with some heartbreaking sequences.

Animation - 10/10

I have seen a lot of beautifully animated Shows and i have given only 6 out of 170 Shows a perfect score in this category. The only Anime that can be compared to Demon Slayers animation are Studio Triggers "Promare" , Makoto Shinkais "Weathering with You" and Ufotables own production "Fate/stay night : Heavens Feel". This is without a doubt one of the best looking anime of all time. The camera work is outstanding, making excellent use of the Train setting of the film. The effects animation for the different breathing techniques are like candy to the eye and every fight is dynamic and fluid. Ufotable has definitely earned it´s reputation as one of the most consistently great studios in existence and i´m really looking forward to how they will top this Movie in the future!

Sound - 9/10

The soundtrack from this movie can truly be described by the word "epic". The Opening "Akeboshi" from the TV-Edit serves as a wonderful entry into the show. Every character theme in this movie is fantastic, with my favorite being Insoukes Theme. There is also a nice piano version of the legendary "Tanjiro Kamado no Uta" . The Sounddesign is also great with a really bass-heavy style.Truly a feat to the ears!

Characters - 9/10

The biggest reasons why i gave a 9 for the characters is Kyoujurou Rengoku. During the short timeframe of this arc he established himself as my favorite character from Demon Slayer for now. I love his way of showing emotions and how fearless he charges into battle. I also think his desing looks awesome! Tanjiro is likeable as always and a protagonist who you find yourself rooting for instantly. Inosuke and Zenitsu make their return as sidekicks and although they can get annoying, i think they worked well in this movie, especially Inosuke. Nezuko is of course back and is as cute (and frightening) as ever. We also get introdued to a completely new anthagonist who i am really interested in seeing again in season 2.

Enjoyment - 10/10

This Movie was a thrilling ride from start to finish. The last third was an emotional rollercoaster.The TV-Verson enhanced the final fight beautifully, making it one of the best in anime history. I think that this is an Audiovisual Masterpiece and a must watch for every Shounen Fan!

- Marco_Yooo

FINAL SCORE - 9/10

This is essentially a TV re-run of the Mugen Train movie. But the first episode actually provides a bit of context for the Flame Hashira before the movie takes place. It's a nice little wholesome story, and explains the odd behaviour of the Hashira at the start of the film. Other than that it's just the movie but edited differently to lend to advertisement/episode breaks. It's redone in a tasteful manner but I don't think this story works well through multiple episodes, the closed setting and such lend to a movie experience. It's alright, but I would just recommend seeing the first episode and googling ... whatever differences and extra scenes they added on top of it. Bit of a boring rewatch considering I had seen the movie soon before watching it perhaps, that could be an unfair bias at play. But I do think it's a little worse than the movie, but still great, an 8/10 to be exact.

At first, this rating seems a little high. But, I promise you (future me included) that it well deserves it.

It keeps building on the story, which I wasn't the biggest fan, but wow, the final few episodes alone make this arc so amazing. The only way I can describe it is on the same level as the end of the chimera ant arc of HxH. It really hits you that hard (It's also like 10x shorter than the chimera ant arc which is something I appreciate).

It definitely earns the 10 out of 10, and if you ever need a hit in the feels, ... come back to this.

So I am writing this review as a mixture of emotions because it is a good story but an absolute waste of time if you saw the movie. I had hopes that is would expand and perhaps give more to the movie, but no.

This to me was a lost opportunity of being able to build on a great movie by giving us behind the scenes or even expanding storylines.

If you have seen the movie you can skip this.

If you have not seen the movies, then I would say this is a great story arc and you will fall even more in love with the ... characters.

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen

Split up the movie and make a series out of it? In itself, this idea is not reprehensible and I would not see this differently. The pacing suffered and the first episode of the season was completely unnecessary. Not only was it very boring, but also completely meaningless.


Demon Slayer is a shounen that has relatively little plot, so most of the action is fighting and the rest is background and drama.

The problem with this little season is that we didn't see much of the characters here, and the first episode didn't build up Rengoku's character or show anything relavant. ... But only the fight between him and Mr.Speedo Boring.

Even if it was a visual work of art, that was it.

The final fight between Rengoku and Akaza was visually beautiful and likewise the speech by Tanjirou, was quite interesting and hard-hitting full of facts. Why don't shounen show something like that? Why does Demon Slayer have to show you how to give the protagonist a real will and perspective?



Conclusion

Better watch the movie, then the Red Light District arc.

[Enjoyment 6]

I find this pretty unusual. This Saga is only 7 episodes considering the first was 26. So its really short. Its called the Train saga and as its name says it focuses around the train. Story wise not a lot happens in terms of advancing the plot. Its just about them Riding the train together with The Flame Hashima who is pretty tough. Pretty much the highlights is him vs one of the upper 3. Otherwise not much happens or progresses. No character advancement either.

Characters are pretty much the same from the last season. The only change is we have Rengogu the flame Hashima with ... the 3 boys and Nessaco this time.

Art and animation just like the first are really good.

There really isnt much to ad to all this since its like I said at the start. Its just 7 episodes taht dont advance much. Thats not to say i didnt enjoy it but not as much as the first season.

I debated on giving it an 8 but with the lack of any real progression I knocked it down to a 7.

Hopefully the enxt season we see some progress forward and this doesnt go to 100s of episodes. I dont wanna be waiting 10-20 years to see how this ends.

It's been a while since I've watched really good animation, so when I watched the Mugen Arc of Demon Slayer, I was stunned once again the beauty of this anime. The artists have to be proud of themselves. All that said, I gave it a very high ranking of 9/10.

Plot: We have our typical crew going on a journey to stop a train, where they meet up with a Hashira by the name of Rengoku. They are there to solve the mystery of the train and slay the demons. It's a good solid plot. There are also ways in which it allows us to peer ... into the history of our characters, which I really liked. 8/10, nothing special or unique, but it works.

Characters: We get more development and insight with Tanjiro, as well as our the new character Rengoku. Well, mainly Rengoku, but with Tanjiro there's a lot of sadness, let's just say. I think it's a good building arc for his development as it strengthens his resolve even further. Sadly, there's not a lot of development for Zenitsu or Inosuke. But that's alright. I'm sure that's for the future. 8/10

Art: As I stated in the beginning, just A+ stuff really. So much beautifully drawn animation, the motions are so fluid, the colors are exhilarating. Compared to a lot of animes I've watched recently, I hate how dull it makes the rest looks. 10/10

Music: OP is good, but it's "that tune" that is so good. I won't spoil it, but I love it. Always brings me to tears. 9/10

Should you watch Demonslayer Mugen Train Arc? HELL YEAH. It's freaking amazing. If you watch season 1, this is a must.

Now I know what you're thinking: This is just a rehash of the movie.

Yes.

But it was a really good movie. In it's short runtime it had the monumental task of making you the audience emotional attached enough to Rengoku that *spoilers* when he dies you actually feel it. That's not an easy thing to do in a series that already has it's core cast established with a relatively fringe character who didn't have much screen-time in the season prior. The benefit of this series is that it doesn't have to cram all that into one movie, it can trickle it out over a few months ... episode by episode to give the audience more time to get invested.

The additional content in the first episode is clearly there to do just that, make you care about Rengoku more by letting you spend more time with him. It sounds sadistic but it's so effective from a writing standpoint to make everyone care about a character that you know you're going to kill off later. You want to give emotional weight to that moment you need to give it time to build.

I think this series does an excellent job being exactly what it set out to be, an adaptation of the content of the film into the first half of a proper second season. Is it maybe pointless when you could just go watch the whole movie again? Sure, but if you're watching the series from the beginning I could see either option being just fine. I give it a 9/10 because for all the gripes people can have about it just being a rehash, it was good the first time, so why would it be any less good now. Deal with it.

Here the story starts to get a little more interesting, but the problem is that it's still the same anime, completely non-logical characters, there's no way to feel charisma for any of the characters, because they simply all have an extremely forced personality that seems to have been written for a child, the problem is not just the lack of depth of the characters, but the point is that the characters are so uninteresting that you don't want to know about them, it's like

1- Good character who will do everything to save his sister, has no chance of dying, and will always develop something at ... the right time.

2- Character who doesn't think and just goes forward, his goal is just to fight like an animal

3- Character who wants to marry all women, and has a hidden personality in which he begins to fight well

4- Very nice character who inspires others to fight and says the right words at the right times.

The characters don't break out of these stereotypes at all, but despite that, it's relatively better than the first part.

The graphics are still excellent in my opinion, the sound too, the story develops, getting cooler and cooler, despite being shallow.

A step up from the first season in terms of character depth, felt as if each lead character got to show a variety of emotions rather than being incredibly one dimensional. As to be expected of this series the artwork and animation look absolutely beautiful, every frame is packed with immense detail and the animation is ridiculously fluid. The soundtrack wasn't anything to memorable, the opening was quite a jam but as for the tracks that played during the episodes, nothing really stuck out. As mentioned earlier it felt as if each of the lead characters had more emotional range and each one's personality was ... able to shine through. Overall this arc is slowly turning my opinion of this series to be more positive

Don't let the negative reviews mislead you.
The curious case of this sequel is that it was basically a rehearsal for the massively loved and successful movie that adapted the Mugen Train arc, with this having some tiny scenes here and there, plus a completely new first episode that expands more on what led the parties gather up on the Mugen train in the first place. With this out of the way, let me expand on this more.

I, unlike many people, fell off early on the first season, the content was just that generic at best to me, the characters did not interest me in the ... slightest and the power system, while pretty, did not tingly anything inside of me, and the biggest miss was the finale of the first season, we get introduced to so many new characters that even the ones we spent an entire season with didn't even warm up to me for me to care about any new faces, HOWEVER, Mugan Train changed everything.

This arc was sort of a re-introduction to the whole series, I got to appreciate Tanjiro and the trio more for what they arc, not only that, but Rengoku went from a nobody to one of if not the best characters in the show in the span of one arc.

As this was basically a chopped-off version of the movie, the animation and how breathtakingly glorious it was persisted its quality, with some new direction changes introduced as additional camera angles and slight touches here and there, it did not fall out of the place. If the second season segmented this franchise as an eye cake, this sequel added more topping.
I must also talk about the opening and ending theme songs, never disappoint Ufotable, never disappoint.

Overall: 8.2/10

Where to start, this story is really interesting. I initially thought this show would be a trap anime where people like it because of the amazing animations and not for its plot. However, after watching all of season 1, I became a big fan of the show. The train to muzan movie was also amazing. This season continuing off from this point makes it a really interesting. As someone who did not read the manga, I have nothing to expect. However, the season did not disappoint. The animation continue to be great and the story is expanding as well.
Honestly, the only thing that distracts ... me from making it a 10/10 is the fact that there are small moments where they make scenes less emotionally investing by making it a comical with the art (you know if you watch the first episode of the show of this season). However, it is just a small gripe. Aside from that, there are tons of unique characters and designs. The pacing is also quite good where it does not feel too slow or too fast for me. Every episode, we learn a lot and we get beautiful animations to supplement it.
I'd definitely recommend this show to any one even if you don't watch anime often.

Turning a movie into episodic format is always challenging. It might result in a good series, enriched with a lot of extra content, but there is also a risk of an episodic series getting washed from the charm that movie had, without offering much more. What's the situation with Infinity Train arc's TV series? In general, in my opinion, it is an alright example of turning a movie into several episodes long TV series. It is not free of flaws, but manages to be as much entertaining as the movie. At least it was in my case.

I will try to make this review good both ... for people who have already seen the movie version of this show, and for people who have neither seen the movie nor the TV series based on it.

What do we get with the Infinity Train arc in TV format? Most of all, it offers brand new, Rengoku-centered filler episode, showing what was happening shortly before the movie action had started. It was a nice one and it was good to see an episode only about Kyoujurou Rengoku, one of the main characters known from the movie. I had fun while watching it myself. What comes after the filler episode is basically the movie divided into six standard-length episodes, enriched by extra cuts. Here is where the TV series "slipped". From what I noticed, many people are still using it as an argument justifying Mugen Train TV as an inferior experience to its movie predecessor. It's simply because the flow offered by the movie was weakened by a feature-length show getting turned into episodic format. It shouldn't be a problem nowadays, though, especially when somebody plans to binge watch the whole series. However, while watching this show weekly (I did it this way back when it was still airing), I remember that around two last episodes felt as if they had to be ended abruptly, in maybe not random, but weird moments. The transition felt off and unnatural. I assumed the reason behind such approach was to simply fit certain portion of content into around 20 minutes long episode, which required sometimes resolving to such measures as abrupt cuts almost in the middle of a scene. Can it be considered as a con? Of course. It lowers the overall quality of the whole show, after all.

Speaking about the quality, both versions of Infinity Train arc present very high audiovisual and production quality. Beautiful art, top-notch animation with very smooth and detailed action sequences, vibrant colors, brilliant voice acting, good direction. Everything you'd expect from ufotable and awesome Japanese VAs. From that point of view, it really depends on you which format you prefer more, because in terms of the elements mentioned in this paragraph, those two installments of Infinity Train arc are pretty much the same.

Going back to the extra content dedicated exclusively for the TV series' version of that arc, I greatly enjoyed the new opening and ending themes, especially the former. "Akeboshi" by LiSA has become my favorite Kimetsu no Yaiba opening, no matter if we speak about music or its visuals.

Some people recommend watching the first episode of Infinity Train arc's TV series, and then just switching to watch the movie. Well, it is one of the options to choose, yes. But I will say this: why not watching both? This arc is not that long, and the TV series is not that much longer than the movie. Experiencing both versions of this show might be a good idea to have the full image of how Infinity Train arc's anime adaptation was handled like.

First things first: there is no need to watch both this and the movie, and if you're going to watch one of them I would choose this. It has some expanded scenes, and the opening and endings are nice as well. That being said, you could definitely watch the movie if you wanted and not lose anything.

Mugen Train arc is a very short arc of only 7 episodes that frankly does very little to advance the plot. Some enemies and allies appear, some are defeated and some survive, it's hard to pinpoint any momentous shift in the narrative because there isn't one. What this arc ... does do is what Demon Slayer always does, which is gradually advance the plot and the character development in a very tight story that doesn't concern itself with unnecessary things.

Our intrepid and heroic trio which was firmly established by the end of the first season is now ready to go on more adventures in earnest, and now they have one of the strongest Demon Slayers along with them. An enemy close to the Big Bad Muzan also appears, and of course this is no simple train ride from one point to another.

The story doesn't do anything besides what is required, and that can leave it feeling a bit bare-bones at times. For example one of the characters appears to be conscious of their actions but they are a servant of a demon for reasons that are obviously blackmail, but it's never explained what those reasons are. In fact, there are a few minor antagonists that do a decent job filling their role but afterwards they basically disappear. It's unknown whether they remained in service to the demon, repented, went to jail, we just have no idea. I wouldn't be hard about this, and I'm not, but it seems to be a pattern with Demon Slayer to introduce things and then just leave them in the background forever.

The characters are probably what makes this show amazing. The slow development, their little quirks, their relationships with each other, it all trickles out in a very satisfying way that doesn't reveal too much or too little. In this arc we once again learn a little bit about them, and we also see them become very emotional in different ways. Loved the emotions and the characters and the moments between them.

The visuals are stunning, not much to say there. This is next tier, current era shonen for the modern audience and it shows. The soundtrack like most of Demon Slayer is lackluster but does the job that it needs to do.

This would've gotten an 8 out of 10, but the ending hit me surprisingly hard. By the time I usually would be looking to see how much of the movie is left I found myself completely invested and mirroring the characters emotions. Demon Slayer has an indefinable quality that makes it a cut above the rest despite being fairly generic on paper. If I ever find out what that thing is I will be sure to make a note of it, but until then just enjoy the ride because it just keeps getting better!