One of the seismic cultural shifts of the pandemic era has been a migration into fantasies. Some of them are troubling, such as the conspiratorial pre

“Demon Slayer”: The Viral Blockbuster from Japan

submited by
Style Pass
2021-06-18 21:00:05

One of the seismic cultural shifts of the pandemic era has been a migration into fantasies. Some of them are troubling, such as the conspiratorial prejudice that has fuelled QAnon and the recent surge in violence against those of Asian descent. Others are restorative: the immersive worlds of books, the virtual realities of video games, the hypnotic lull of binge-streamed television series.

Many of the escapes that we use to nourish ourselves originated in Japan. The stunning success of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which sold thirty-one million copies worldwide last year, is a striking example. Now we have another, in the form of an imported anime with a mouthful of a title: “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train.” It débuted in Japanese theatres in October of 2020, then arrived in American ones in April. It quickly set records for the highest-grossing opening weekend for a foreign film, as well as the highest-earning R-rated animated film. All of this has conspired to make it the planet’s single top-grossing film of 2020.

This success might seem surprising, as anime has long been considered a fringe subculture, but the film’s momentum was presaged by the enthusiasm of its reception in Japan. When “Mugen Train” opened there, pandemic-weary audiences flocked to see it in theatres outfitted with socially distanced seating. By the end of the year, the film had emerged as more than simply a coronavirus phenomenon. It had done the unthinkable, unseating Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 epic, “Spirited Away,” to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history. What Miyazaki’s beloved film had earned over the course of nineteen years, “Mugen Train” surpassed in just three months.

Leave a Comment