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On the Right Track A look at the remarkable success of Japan’s blockbuster hit Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train. By Michael Mallory
G
iven its phenomenal success in Asia and Europe, the anime epic Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train (a.k.a. Gekijō-ban Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-Hen) might persuade one to believe that mugen is the Japanese for “gravy” (purely for the record, mugen means “infinite”). Since its release in Japan last October, the feature film has already racked up an incredible series of box office records. In its first 10 days, Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train — which is slated for release this year in North America through Funimation Films and Aniplex of America — took in $100 million, making it the fastest film ever to reach that milestone. It went on to become Japan’s highest grossing film of 2020, the second highest grossing film ever for that nation and 2020’s sixth highest grossing film on a global basis. Perhaps its most significant and startling achievement is that with a box office take of $267 million to date, it is now poised to surpass the success of Japan’s highest grossing film ever, Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 masterpiece Spirited Away. While the filmmakers behind Mugen Train seem to make a point of not talking about their work, no less a figure than Miyazaki himself has weighed in on the prospect of his losing the top place in the record books … with characteristic calm. “I don’t think it has anything to do with me,” Miyazaki said recently. “As long as the workplace they make is peaceful, and
they’re doing their best, that’s all that matters.” The workplace at the Tokyo-based anime studio ufotable, which produced the film, may be peaceful, but the predicament of the characters in Mugen Train is anything but. The film is a
direct follow-up to the television series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, which began airing in Japan in April 2019. That, in turn, drew its inspiration from the hugely popular manga by Koyoharu Gotōge. The show’s director Haruo Sotozaki, who
Pandemic Pastime: At press time, the blockbuster hit Demon Slayer the Movie had amassed over $301 million. The pic is poised to pass Miyazaki’s Spirited Away as the highestgrossing movie in Japan.
www.animationmagazine.net 14
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february 21
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