On New Year's Day, major cinemas across Japan opened their doors early in the morning.
Various promotional posters and three-dimensional displays had been set up in the theatres the previous day. Among them, without question, the promotional material for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba occupied the absolute centre of every cinema lobby.
On the posters, the two Upper Ranks, Doma and Kokushibo, were prominently featured.
Demon Slayer fans understood well enough that the remaining two films of the Infinity Castle Arc would be direct, relentless battles from start to finish. They had come to the cinema with exactly that expectation.
Although the premiere was at ten in the morning, large numbers of fans had already gathered at cinemas around eight. In the core areas of some major cities, certain theatres had arranged small comic convention events in their lobbies in advance, attracting well-known cosplayers to participate.
The online forums were even more lively.
"Demon Slayer's pre-sale box office has already exceeded four billion yen. The pace is remarkable."
"This year's New Year holiday season has a total of seven films releasing, including five live-action and two animated. It's the largest number of simultaneous New Year holiday releases in Japan in recent years."
"It's not that many more than usual. In previous years around four or five live-action films released in this window. Shirogane-sensei's animated films simply added two more. Demon Slayer is clearly the strongest contender for the holiday box office champion, and My Neighbor Totoro isn't bad either. It already has 800 million yen in pre-sales early this morning, ranking fifth among the seven films."
"Only fifth?"
"What more do you want? My Neighbor Totoro has no romance and isn't battle-oriented. It's a fantasy adventure depicting family and friendship with an art style that skews toward younger audiences. It's a film purely targeting the family-friendly holiday market. These pre-sale numbers are already very strong for what it is."
"This pre-sale already surpasses the first film by quite a bit. I hope the second Infinity Castle Arc can break the previous box office records."
"It will. The question is whether any dark horses emerge among those five live-action films."
Shiori Matsuda stood in the theatre lobby looking at the Demon Slayer poster in the centre of the hall and the group of cosplayers positioned around it. Shinobu Kocho and Kyojuro Rengoku, both already gone from the story, alongside the still-living Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. The ACGN atmosphere in the lobby was thicker than at any dedicated convention she had attended.
The audience members who had come early to watch live-action films had become a clear minority, squeezed to the edges of the space by the crowd of fans. They watched with curious expressions as several socially fearless male cosplayers in the centre of the lobby held prop swords and called out technique names, "Water Breathing, First Form!" and "Flame Breathing, First Form!" before rolling across the floor, getting back up, and striking final poses.
"Cough..."
Shiori watched until her face went red. She had a strong sense of empathetic imagination. Although the teenagers in question were clearly having the time of their lives, she had already projected herself into their position and was burning with second-hand embarrassment on their behalf.
"I've already graduated from university. I'm well past the age for this... otherwise, otherwise I would genuinely want to join them."
Shaking her head, she checked the time. 9:40 AM.
As the premiere approached, the lobby filled further. Ten minutes before ten, cinema staff organised the crowd into queues for ticket checking.
The entering crowd divided into several lines. Besides Demon Slayer, there was also a queue for My Neighbor Totoro. The difference in queue lengths was obvious. Even though both were animated films produced by Shirogane, the genre and art style directly determined potential audience size.
But if the word-of-mouth for Totoro is good, after Demon Slayer fans finish their viewings over the next couple of days, they might move into Totoro in large numbers during the later days of the holiday period, Shiori thought as she waited.
She had already booked a Totoro ticket for ten o'clock the following morning.
She entered the theatre with the crowd. Looking around, every seat was taken. The large-format screen hall was packed even at this hour of the morning.
"Drink less water. The second Infinity Castle Arc film is over two hours long. You don't want to be holding it in."
"Finally this moment has arrived. I'm so excited."
"So many people this early. Unbelievable."
The voices of the surrounding crowd drifted over her.
Then the lights dimmed. The noise stopped as one.
Shiori's heart rate quickened as she looked at the screen.
For the second part of the Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Arc, Rei had made the decision during production to include no opening or ending songs. The plot volume was too large, and spending additional minutes on OP and ED sequences would compress the story's capacity.
On the screen, therefore, there were only a few vivid brush-stroke characters: Demon Slayer: Blood Moon Corridor, written by the renowned Japanese calligrapher Ishida Yukio.
The camera pulled back. Scenes of the Infinity Castle assembled. Then the perspective plunged into a particular corridor within it.
A BGM featuring a low female chant, slightly unnerving in its tone, began to play.
Shiori saw the cliffhanger that the first Infinity Castle Arc film had left behind. The confrontation between Kanao, younger sister of the late Shinobu Kocho, and Upper Rank Two Doma.
On the other side of the Castle, echoing through the corridors, the crows of the Demon Slayer Corps were carrying the announcement that Tanjiro and Water Hashira Giyu had slain Upper Rank Three Akaza.
In a distant section of the Castle, Kokushibo could not have imagined that even Akaza had been defeated.
After a quick sequence of cuts, the film did not delay. It moved directly into the battle between Kanao and Doma.
The dialogue between both sides that unfolded during the fight, particular to the language of Japanese manga, was of course indispensable.
The film wasted no time depicting Doma's character.
He said directly to Kanao's face that Shinobu Kocho's flesh and the Flower Hashira's flesh had tasted completely different, and that they had not tasted like sisters at all.
He told Kanao that the reason Akaza was not strong enough and had been defeated was that Akaza refused to eat women or kill women. Even though consuming female human flesh accelerated a demon's growth in power, Akaza had maintained that particular conviction to the end.
Less than five minutes into the film, Shiori was already deeply uncomfortable.
Male audience members watching this character might register him primarily as irritating.
Female audience members only then fully understood the specific nature of his repulsiveness. The vocal quality, the smile that perpetually looked down at whoever it was directed at, the tone that performed compassion while containing nothing of the kind.
At the thought of Shinobu Kocho having been consumed by this person, Shiori felt genuine anger rising.
After the dialogue, the battle continued.
Before her death, Shinobu Kocho had given Kanao hand signals telling her never to inhale the cold crystals released by Doma's fans during the battle. Those ice crystals, capable of freezing the lungs, were a natural counter to Demon Slayer Corps members who relied on breathing techniques to fight.
As the battle between Kanao and Doma unfolded on screen, Shiori blinked.
Is Kanao really this strong?
In terms of pure physical combat, Kanao's fight with Doma was clearly somewhat more manageable than Shinobu Kocho's had been. Of course, Shinobu had relied on poison to attack demons and was not specialised in direct physical combat, but that lack of specialisation was only relative to the other Hashira.
True. Even Tanjiro has reached Hashira-level strength by now. Kanao was originally the most outstanding of Tanjiro's generation in the Demon Slayer Corps. It makes sense she's grown to this level.
The battle progressed. Although Kanao was formidable, she was clearly not sufficient to take on Doma alone. As she gradually fell into a disadvantage, Inosuke, one of the three central figures of the series, appeared and pulled her back from the edge.
"Shinobu Kocho... sigh." Shiori felt worse the more she thought about it.
Why had no one been able to reach Shinobu Kocho while she was struggling? Upper Rank demons could not be defeated in solo combat, that much was clear. For Upper Rank Three Akaza, it had taken both Giyu and Tanjiro together.
As for the senior disciple that Zenitsu had defeated, that was only possible because Kaigaku had just been promoted and occupied the lowest position among the Upper Ranks. To genuinely fight an Upper Rank demon, working together like Kanao and Inosuke was necessary.
Then came the demon flashback sequence that had become a defining characteristic of the Demon Slayer anime.
Here, after Doma noticed Inosuke's face, he thought for a moment and mentioned that the religious cult he had founded years ago had taken in Inosuke's mother. After she discovered Doma's cannibalism, she fled the cult holding the infant Inosuke, but her escape failed. She could only throw Inosuke off a cliff before she died. This was the reason Inosuke had been raised by wild boars and had been an orphan since childhood.
"I liked your mother very much. I even ate her bones clean."
Doma said it in a gentle voice.
The theatre went completely silent.
Shiori's eyes went slightly red.
Every fan in the audience knew the anime had arranged this sequence deliberately to work on the audience's emotions. But what difference did knowing that make? Shiori fell for it completely anyway, her chest filling with anger.
Among the Upper Rank demons, every one of them carried both hateful and tragic dimensions. Their histories made them complicated to despise cleanly.
Not Doma.
Even if Muzan had never turned him into a demon, Doma had been a cold-blooded and thorough beast from the start.
Despite the spectacular battle sequences, Kanao and Inosuke's combined effort was gradually being suppressed as time passed. Both had sustained serious injuries.
Then, at the critical moment, Doma's eyes fell from their sockets. His body began to dissolve.
The film shifted to a flashback. The conversation between Kanao and her sister Shinobu Kocho before the final battle.
"To defeat Upper Rank Two, the primary condition is that I must be devoured and die." Shinobu spoke softly.
"According to records, an Upper Rank demon is a match for at least three Hashira. If I am defeated in battle with him, based on what I know of him, he will definitely eat me. So a long time ago, I started ingesting Wisteria poison into my own body."
Wisteria was a substance toxic to demons beyond what any blade could carry. The amount of poison Shinobu's blade could hold was strictly limited. But her body, over years of careful and deliberate accumulation, could hold far more.
Shiori's mouth hung open. Her eyes became liquid with tears.
So in the first Infinity Castle Arc film, had Shinobu Kocho intentionally allowed Doma to eat her?
Realising this, Kanao called out to Inosuke to prepare to take Doma's head. But the Ice Bodhisattva construct summoned by Doma's Blood Demon Art kept preventing them from reaching his body.
At the decisive moment, Kanao activated Flower Breathing, Final Form. A technique that placed such extreme pressure on the eyes that using it would likely result in blindness, but granted the user extraordinary visual capability in that final moment.
This allowed Kanao to navigate through the Ice Bodhisattva's attacks. With Inosuke's physical power, she decapitated Doma where he stood, too eroded by poison to remain upright.
As his head fell to the ground, Doma's thoughts in those final moments were ones of genuine incomprehension. Even Akaza had been capable of overcoming decapitation. As Upper Rank Two, how could he be dying?
Akaza had been sustained by a powerful personal conviction. His death had ultimately been a choice, because his warrior's spirit could not endure the fact that he had been genuinely defeated yet was regenerating through a mechanism that felt like cheating. Having recalled his human memories, Akaza could not bear the knowledge that across the hundreds of years he had spent without those memories, he had betrayed the promise he had made to his wife and become what he was.
But Doma. What did he have?
No human desires. No fear of death. He had simply followed Muzan's directives, eating people and growing stronger, eating people and growing stronger, imitating human speech and performing the appearance of emotion.
He had the theoretical capacity to overcome decapitation. But did he possess the will to survive that would actually carry him through it?
The screen shifted to Doma's memories.
"I have never had a moment of sadness or loneliness. Human emotions are, after all, irrelevant illusions."
Then a familiar voice.
"Great. You're finally dead."
In the spiritual space, Shinobu Kocho appeared and lifted Doma's disembodied head.
Shiori's vision blurred.
Had part of Shinobu Kocho's will remained inside him, waiting to witness this moment?
"This way, I can also pass away in peace."
Doma looked at Shinobu Kocho's expression. Peaceful. Serene. Without a single regret in it.
He let out a sudden shout.
Shiori blinked. Doma was moments from disappearing. What was he doing?
"What are you shouting about?" Shinobu smiled.
"Just now, looking at you... that heart which no longer exists seems to have started beating again. Could this be the feeling of love?"
Shiori's eyes were red. She was barely holding back.
Then laughter broke out across the entire theatre. She couldn't help but join it.
Shirogane-sensei. You really do have a way. You can even find room for a joke at a moment like this.
And Doma. You were truly pathetic to your very core. The last human emotion you experienced in your existence was falling for the girl who had poisoned you by sacrificing her own body. The demon who had eaten her biological older sister.
Doma's face went slightly red, like a young person experiencing something for the first time.
"So this is what human emotion is. It actually exists. If that is the case, then could the Heaven and Hell that humans speak of not be fabrications either?"
"Shinobu-chan, come to Hell with me."
"Just hurry up and die already, you scum." Shinobu Kocho said it with the most brilliant smile of her life.
The laughter in the theatre faded.
What replaced it was a particular, encompassing sadness.
A girl that everyone had known was gone for two years. Shinobu Kocho, in the second part of the Infinity Castle Arc, had delivered the most emotionally overwhelming sequence of the entire film.
Inosuke's joy at having helped avenge his mother.
Kanao, her vision nearly gone, searching through the pool for the last thing her sister Shinobu Kocho had left behind. Her hair ornament.
A sorrowful BGM began.
Kanao found it. She held it against herself.
At that moment, the two sisters she had lost to Doma seemed to reach out together and stroke her hair. Kanao looked up. There was nothing there. But she also seemed to see them, the Flower Hashira Kanae Kocho and the Insect Hashira Shinobu Kocho, holding hands and walking away through drifting flower petals.
Shiori could not hold back any longer.
The laughter a few minutes ago had been the last small mercy Shirogane had placed in this chapter of the story. The sadness washing through her now, and through everyone in the theatre around her, was the truest and most unguarded emotion this film had been building toward.
She had known before coming to the cinema that the second Infinity Castle Arc film would be devastating.
But who could have anticipated it would cut even deeper than the first?
...
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