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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHere\u2019s a movie I didn\u2019t expect to be reviewing two weeks ago. I didn\u2019t know how this anime movie from a franchise unknown to me had managed to get such a plum positioning in theaters, but it was sure to lose to \u201cMortal Kombat\u201d in its opening weekend and the horror movie \u201cSeparation\u201d this past weekend. \u201cMortal Kombat\u201d did indeed win the films\u2019 opening weekend – $23 million domestically to this film\u2019s $21 million, on twice as many screens. I have no doubt that this movie could have pulled a huge upset in just a few hundred more theaters. This past weekend, that upset occurred. Not just over \u201cSeparation\u201d (I saw it, don\u2019t bother), but over \u201cMortal Kombat.\u201d \u201cDemon Slayer: Mugen Train\u201d is the #1 movie in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should be noted that I am not the best person to be reviewing this movie. I\u2019m not a fan of anime in general. I think the animation invariably looks like some sort of rough draft that should have been cleaned up before the comic or cartoon was released. And again, I was not even remotely familiar with the \u201cDemon Slayer\u201d franchise before going into what is essentially \u201cDemon Slayer: The Movie.\u201d I know that \u201cPokemon,\u201d \u201cDragonballZ,\u201d and \u201cNaruto\u201d have huge fanbases and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if a movie based on one of those was a hit, but to me, \u201cDemon Slayer\u201d came from out of nowhere and expected me to jump in somewhere in the middle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From what I\u2019ve been able to gather of the plot, the series follows Tanjiro (Natsuki Hanae) as he tries to avenge his family against the demons who killed most of them, save for his sister Nezuko (Akari Kito), who was turned into a demon and now has to travel around caged in a suitcase. He is assisted by his friends, the cowardly Zenitsu (Hiro Shimonu) and the headstrong Inosuke (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka). Inosuke, who wears the head of a boar as a mask as a tribute to the pack of boars that raised him, is clearly the most popular character in the franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The movie sees the group hop on board a train so they can meet up with famed demon slayer Kyojuro (Satoshi Hino) and hopefully become his apprentices. Kyojuro is happy to take them on, as he is happy about everything in life. He expresses appreciation for each individual bite of food as he chows down. But the train is secretly under attack from wannabe demon Enmu (Daisuke Hirakawa), who wants to destroy our heroes\u2019 souls through his ability to trap them in good dreams. Tanjiro dreams he is back with his family and wants to stay there forever, but he\u2019s needed in a darker place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The movie takes forever to get to its action sequences, and even when it does get to them, the characters\u2019 powers are so poorly defined that I could never be sure of who was winning. There\u2019s also a second antagonist who shows up later in the movie, and is very out of place in what had up to that point been a surprisingly tight-knit story. There\u2019s a battle sequence that is admittedly impressive, but keeps going after it appears to be over, then restarts after another false finish, then restarts again. After a while, I found myself unable to trust the movie to give me a finish at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m happy for \u201cDemon Slayer: Mugen Train\u201d for achieving its level of success. It\u2019s fun to see an occasional surprise at the box office, especially when the competition is so crummy. But this movie didn\u2019t manage to make me a fan of \u201cDemon Slayer\u201d and its pacing is all out of whack. Remember though, this opinion is coming from a non-fan of the entire anime genre. It is likelier than usual that opinions will differ from mine, especially for fans of the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDemon Slayer: Mugen Train\u201d is rated R for violence and bloody images. Its running time is 117 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver Here\u2019s a movie I didn\u2019t expect to be reviewing two weeks ago. I didn\u2019t know how this anime movie from a franchise unknown to me had… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":48539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[235],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}