Culture news Demon Slayer: 2 excellent episodes do not make a good movie. ‘Road to Pillar Training’ is pure fan-pleasure at the cinema
Demon Slayer has become a true international phenomenon in just a few years. This manga, intended to cross the Weekly Shonen Jump without making waves, took over the world of Japanese animation in just one season. In 2024, the adventures of the slayers continue with a season 4 awaited like the messiah by fans. To keep them waiting, the Japanese studios Ufotable offer them a “film” which is not really one. Two excellent episodes do not make a feature film. “Road to Pillar Training” is pure fan-pleasure at the cinema.
A new fashion has taken over the successful sagas of Japanese animation, that of feature films intended for cinema. The interest is twofold: to create an event in theaters and to destroy the box office. Demon Slayer is clearly not the first franchise to do this. Dragon Ball is the perfect example with no less than 21 films projected on the big screen, not counting the 6 specials and other OVAs. Chainsaw Man will also do the same with The Movie: Reze Arc, without forgetting Jujutsu Kaisen 0 to name just some of the most recent ones.
Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: The Infinity Train proved that this strategy is paying off with 507.1 million US dollars collected in theaters for an estimated budget of 15.7 million. This cinematic epic by Kamado Tanjiro even rose to the top of the box office in Japan by dethroning Spirited Away from Studios Ghibli. Aware of the growing impact of the franchise, Japanese studios have created an unidentified film object, a hybrid work halfway between film and animated series. “On the Road to Pillar Training” is not a film, but it is nonetheless a pure fan pleasure to see in theaters.
“If I exist, it’s because I’m a fan”
It is appropriate to clarify a “slight” detail before continuing. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – On the Road to Pillar Training is actually the end-to-end combination of double episode 11 “United at Daybreak” of season 3 and double episode 1 of season 4. This format is therefore primarily aimed at fans of the franchise wishing to (re)discover the animated series on the big screen, then to see a preview of the new adventures of Kamado Tanjiro and his allies.
Certainly, this feature-length event film lasts as long as a cinematographic work (including the summary), but is in no way constructed as such. The three (sometimes four) act structure specific to cinema is not respected. Even worse, the apotheosis of “En Route Vers L’training des Piliers” takes place right in the middle of the session, that is to say at the very end of season 3. The rest is ultimately only a context (or a taste) of what awaits us in season 4. Fortunately, a masterfully orchestrated sequence with two protagonists who have remained in the shadows for too long comes. blow a pyrotechnic wind over the session.
However, it is never good to be more royalist than the King. I obviously did not shy away from my pleasure in front of this new “film that is not one” labeled Demon Slayer. Seeing again the fierce struggle that our hero leads against the fourth upper moon Hantengu was a pure treat. The staging and purely visual qualities of the anime are even more evident once projected on the big screen. Ufotable has nothing more to prove in this area, but still manages to surprise its audience with a total and absolute mastery of its art.
Furthermore, A “Demon Slayer” preview generally begins with a happening that lives up to the event. In the large room of the “UGC Normandie” cinema located on the Champs-Elysées, the actor Hanae Natsuki (Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War, Dandadan, Mashle) who vocally plays Kamado Tanjiro graced us with his presence and lent himself to the question/answer game before making way for a Japanese singer. Milet sang the opening of season 3 “Kizuna no Kiseki” composed in collaboration with Man with a Mission (unfortunately absent) after presenting one of the titles from season 4.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – On the Road to Pillar Training may not be a film in the first sense of the term, but remains an event not to be missed for fans of the saga and other Japanese animation enthusiasts.