‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ Director Aims to Deliver Nonstop Action in Groundbreaking Anime Film

Chief director Hikaru Kondo set out to do something he says he had never seen on screen before with the Japanese anime film Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle: create a feature-length movie built almost entirely around relentless, back-to-back battles.

“I was trying to find examples or other films that were similar, that had a similar kind of composition or format,” Kondo told Reuters. “I couldn’t. So this could be perhaps one of the first films that exists that has this type of structure and narrative. It’s back-to-back-to-back combat.”

That bold approach paid off. Riding the already massive global popularity of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise, Infinity Castle became the highest-grossing international film ever released in the United States and topped the Japanese box office. The film also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Film.

Released in Japanese theaters last July, the movie adapts the “Infinity Castle” arc from the manga, which ran from 2016 to 2020 and was created by Koyoharu Gotouge. It serves as a direct sequel to the fourth season of the anime television series, produced by animation studio Ufotable and streamed internationally on Crunchyroll.

The Demon Slayer story follows teenager Tanjiro Kamado, who joins the Demon Slayer Corps after his family is killed and his younger sister Nezuko Kamado is turned into a demon. In Infinity Castle, Tanjiro and his allies face their most dangerous challenge yet as they battle Muzan Kibutsuji, the first and most powerful demon, along with the forces he unleashes inside the shifting, trap-filled Infinity Castle.

Kondo said structuring the film was one of the hardest parts of the process. He recalled spending three weeks almost entirely indoors, focused on figuring out how to connect the film’s action and emotional beats in a way that would keep audiences fully engaged.

“I wanted to astonish people,” he said.

By the time the cut was complete, however, the movie had grown too long. Kondo stressed that careful editing was essential to maintaining momentum.

“When you lose the groove, the audience becomes detached from your journey,” he said. “Then immediately, I think they’ll just be disengaged and shut down.”

The final version of Infinity Castle runs 2 hours and 35 minutes — a length Kondo believes preserves the intensity of its nonstop combat while keeping viewers fully invested from start to finish.