An anime epic in which a teenager hunts down and beheads demons has become the surprise sensation of Japanese cinema during the COVID-19 pandemic and could soon be the country’s top-grossing film of all time.
Demon Slayer, a full-length flick based on the hit manga series, is threatening to dethrone Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, the fantastical 2001 tale that won an Oscar for best animated feature.
The story of Tanjiro, whose life transforms when his family are killed in a demon attack, has taken ￥30.3 billion (US$292.66 million) at cinemas since its October release.
Photo: AFP
At one screening in Tokyo, a group of female friends said that they had come to see the film because “it’s a hot topic” in Japan.
Drawing long lines around the country, Demon Slayer has dispatched Titanic from the No. 2 spot and looked on track to beat Hayao Miyazaki’s classic by Christmas.
However, this week, there was a plot twist: the Ghibli film’s total sales were revised upward to take into account a rerelease over the summer — raising its takings to ￥31.7 billion and staving off Demon Slayer a little longer.
The new film’s stunning success comes despite — and perhaps because of — the pandemic, with people in Japan urged to avoid crowds, putting most other forms of mass entertainment off-limits.
Kei, a 25-year-old who saw the film with his sister, said that he thought people with more free time was just one reason for its success, with its high production values a bigger draw.
“This movie is a big hit because the animation is very unique and beautiful. It’s very creative,” he said.
Japan has seen a relatively limited outbreak of COVID-19, with fewer than 2,700 deaths so far, although record numbers of new cases have been recorded over the past few weeks.
The country has not implemented the strict lockdown measures seen elsewhere and movie theaters have largely stayed open, although with restrictions including mask requirements.
A sophisticated marketing campaign, including promotions at shops and restaurants, and well-known actors voicing the characters have also helped boost the film — whose full title is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train.
Some have said that the relative dearth of other high-profile releases means that it might have faced less competition than in a normal year.
However, Yuka Ijima, an assistant professor at Tokyo’s Daito Bunka University who focuses on manga and psychology, said that Demon Slayer also taps into some particularly relevant themes, with its focus on family ties, and the battle between good and evil.
“In the past, the concept of a ‘demon’ was used to embody invisible, frightening threats, like diseases and epidemics including smallpox,” which could resonate with people’s fears during the COVID-19 crisis, she told reporters.
The film, set in Japan’s 1912-1926 Taisho era, began life in 2016 as a manga series published in the popular comic magazine Shonen Jump.
Its popularity grew when it was adapted into a televised anime series, and sales of the manga boomed this spring when the Japanese government urged residents to stay home to stem the spread of COVID-19
The movie’s spring release was pushed back to October, “at a time when there was a certain sense of security” as infections in Japan declined and people felt more comfortable going to the cinema, Ijima said.
Its success has been a rare bright spot in the economic malaise that has accompanied the pandemic in Japan.
One research institute estimated that the entire series has generated an economic impact of ￥270 billion in Japan alone.
Also, Demon Slayer fever is showing no sign of abating. Long lines formed outside manga shops earlier this month for the release of its 23rd tome, the final installment in a series that has sold more than 120 million copies overall and been translated into 14 languages.
The film has been distributed elsewhere in Asia, with releases in Europe and the US planned for next year.
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