Okay. My heart is literally trying to punch its way out of my chest right now. I feel like I just ran a marathon while chugging five energy drinks and I haven't moved from this couch in two hours. It's 2:23 AM and I just finished *Demon Slayer: Mugen Train* on Crunchyroll and my brain is just… static. Pure, colorful, high-octane static.
I started it because I needed something to fill the void, you know? Just scrolling through the options, and the poster for this was just screaming "WATCH ME." So I did. I plopped down on my couch, propped my feet up on the coffee table, and hit play. My cat, Mochi, was sleeping on the armrest, completely unprepared for the auditory assault that was about to happen. About twenty minutes in, during the first real fight, he shot me a look of pure betrayal and stormed off. I don't blame him. The sound design alone is enough to make your fillings vibrate. But the visuals? Oh my god, the visuals. It’s like they took a painting and injected it with pure lightning.
I was leaning so far forward during the fight scenes I think I permanently messed up my posture. I was gripping the remote so hard my knuckles were white. There’s this one moment, this one single shot, that is just seared into my brain. It’s Rengoku. Flame Hashira Rengoku. He unleashes his final technique, and the screen just… erupts. It’s not just fire. It’s this swirling, majestic, solar flare of a dragon made of pure orange and blue energy. The camera spins around it, the music swells into this epic, gut-wrenching orchestra, and for a second, everything stops. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in an animated movie. Ever. And it’s so sad. So incredibly, heartbreakingly sad. Why can't I stop thinking about it? Because it wasn't just a cool attack. It was a promise. A sacrifice. It was everything that character was, distilled into one blazing, final moment. I literally gasped. Out loud. In my empty apartment. Like an idiot.
Honestly, I thought I loved everything about it. The pacing, the animation, the story… but now that I’m typing this, I’m starting to question things. Is Tanjiro… a little too perfect? I mean, the kid's main motivation is just "I want to save everyone! And be nice!" And I was cheering for him, I really was. But was it actually kind of dumb? Is his unshakeable optimism a strength or is it just… boring? I don't know. I thought it was inspiring at the moment, but now it feels a little… flat. Maybe I'm just cynical. It's 2 AM, cynicism is my default setting.
And the villain, Enmu. The Dream Demon. His whole thing is putting people on a train and lulling them into these beautiful, peaceful dreams so he can eat them. It's messed up. But it also reminded me of this one time I took the train from Chicago to New York by myself. It was a 19-hour ride. I spent most of it just staring out the window, watching the country go by, and I fell into this weird trance-like state. My mind was just drifting, thinking about old memories, things I wished I'd done differently, people I missed. It was… peaceful. Kind of like Enmu's dreams, I guess, but without the whole soul-devouring part. I remember the rhythmic clack-clack-clack of the wheels on the track and it was so hypnotic. I felt like I could stay on that train forever, just lost in my own head. Never mind. It's not the same thing at all. Not even close.
But the experience of watching it at home… it’s so weird. You have this epic, cinematic battle of good versus evil, a literal clash of gods, playing out on my laptop screen while I’m sitting here in my pajamas. I had to pause it halfway through to go make a bag of popcorn. There I am, in my kitchen, waiting for the microwave to ding, thinking about a Flame Hashira fighting a demon on a train. The juxtaposition is absurd. I came back and spilled some butter on my sweatpants. It felt wrong, somehow. Like I wasn't giving the movie the respect it deserved. This thing deserved a massive screen. It deserved surround sound. It deserved to be seen in a dark room with a hundred other people all gasping at the same time. But here I am, on my comfy couch, with the ability to just… stop it. To get up and pee. It almost feels like cheating.
And don't even get me started on the emotional gut-punch at the end. I was not prepared. I thought this was gonna be a fun, action-packed anime movie. And it is! But it's also a devastating story about legacy and duty and finding the strength to keep going even when everything is hopeless. I felt a lump in my throat the size of a fist. I tried to hold it back, I really did. But then Tanjiro started crying, and I was done. Just… done. A full-grown 28-year-old man, crying over an animated character on his laptop at 2 in the morning. What has my life become?
So yeah. My mind is blown. My emotions are shredded. I feel like I need to go for a run or something to burn off all this energy, but I also feel like I need to lie down in a dark room for a week. I don't know what to do with myself. I keep seeing Rengoku's flame dragon behind my eyelids every time I blink. This movie is a beast. It just grabs you by the face and doesn't let go for two straight hours. And I loved it. I think. Yeah, I definitely loved it.
9/10. - banger
-alex