The Demon Slayer compilation films: should you watch them?

You go through the list of Demon Slayer films and come across two titles that look like season names: To the Swordsmith Village, To the Hashira Training. Are they sequels, parallel stories, essential films? The answer is simpler, and it will save you a few hours.

These two films are compilations, edits of episodes from the series shown in cinemas. Here is what each one contains, why they exist, and when they are still worth a look. The complete order of the seasons and films is on our page Demon Slayer in what order, seasons and films.

What is a compilation film?

A compilation film takes episodes already produced for television and puts them together into a feature film for the cinema. There is no new story: these are the same images, sometimes slightly retouched, run together without episode credits.

Demon Slayer’s have one feature that makes them more interesting than average. As well as the end of a season, they contain the first episode of the following season, shown in cinemas before it aired on television. For fans, it was a chance to discover the start of a new season on the big screen, a few weeks before everyone else.

These films were shown in Japan and then around the world during screening tours organised by the producer Aniplex and by Crunchyroll, with previews in several countries, including France. The aim was twofold: to keep audiences waiting between two seasons, and to bring Mugen Train viewers back to the cinema.

To the Swordsmith Village, 2023

The first compilation film was released in Japan on 3 February 2023, then in France at the end of February 2023. It opens with the last two episodes of the Entertainment District: the end of the fight against Daki and Gyutaro, then their past, one of the most moving moments of the series.

It then moves on to the first episode of season 3, an hour that opens in the Infinity Castle with the meeting of the Upper Moons summoned by Muzan, then follows Tanjiro to the hidden Swordsmith Village. This episode had not yet aired on Japanese television, which broadcast it on 9 April 2023.

The two Entertainment District episodes taken up in the film are those of the conclusion. The fight against Gyutaro and Daki ends at dawn, then the series goes back in time: two wretched children of the district, a sister burned alive, a brother who agrees to become a demon to save her. The last scene, between the two demons, is one of those fans quote most. Our page devoted to Muzan and the Twelve Kizuki places these two demons in the hierarchy.

The first episode of season 3, for its part, takes its time. Tanjiro wakes up at the Butterfly Mansion after two months of sleep, learns that his swordsmith has disappeared, and sets off to find him in the hidden village, where he meets Mitsuri Kanroji and Muichiro Tokito. The tone changes completely after the darkness of Yoshiwara, and it was this contrast that made the film so enjoyable in the cinema.

For anyone who had seen the Entertainment District on television, the appeal therefore lay in this first episode and in the pleasure of seeing the final Yoshiwara fight again in a cinema, with cinema sound. Our article on season 2 and the Entertainment District tells the first part, and the one on season 3 and the Swordsmith Village the second.

The final Yoshiwara fight highlights Tengen Uzui and his two blades, which you find on his 27 cm figure, presented in the complete Tengen Uzui collection, among the Hashira figures.

To the Hashira Training, 2024

The second compilation film follows exactly the same principle. Released in Japan on 2 February 2024, then in France in February 2024, it brings together the last episode of the Swordsmith Village and the first episode of season 4, the Hashira Training.

The last episode of the Swordsmith Village runs 70 minutes and ends on the most important turning point of the season for Nezuko. Seeing it again in the cinema, with what follows, made this film the better of the two for many fans.

The first episode of season 4, shown as a preview, opens the training: the Hashira gather, the Ubuyashiki family reveals to them what the mark means, and Tanjiro prepares to go from master to master. It aired on Japanese television on 12 May 2024. Our article on season 4 and the Hashira Training tells what comes next.

This first episode of season 4 also serves as a transition. It brings almost all the Hashira together in the same room for the first time since the trial in season 1, and makes you feel that the war is approaching. Our page on the nine Hashira of Demon Slayer presents them all, and our article on the Demon Slayer Mark and its price explains the revelation made that day.

Muichiro, who takes up a large place in these two episodes, comes as a 26 cm plush in the character plush toys collection and the complete Muichiro Tokito collection.

Should you watch the compilation films?

If you are watching the series in order, no, and that is the answer we give to everyone discovering Demon Slayer. Everything they contain already exists in seasons 2, 3 and 4, and watching them amounts to rewatching three or four episodes in a row. You will not miss any scene by leaving them aside, and you will keep those hours for the next season.

They remain of interest in two cases. If you like seeing the big moments again on a very big screen, a cinema re-release or a special screening of these films offers an experience television cannot replace. And if you want a two-hour block to rewatch the end of one season and the start of the next, they are the ideal format for an evening with friends.

The only real film in the series, in the sense of a story told for the cinema, remains the Mugen Train, and now the Infinity Castle trilogy. Our article on the Mugen Train, as a film or a series and the one on the first Infinity Castle film present these two features.

The Mugen Train, the only real film before the Castle

These compilations should not be confused with the Mugen Train film, released in Japan on 16 October 2020. That one was designed for the cinema: its story, Rengoku against Enmu then Akaza, did not yet exist on screen at the time of its release. The series version only arrived a year later, in autumn 2021.

It is therefore the first real Demon Slayer film, and the only essential one before Infinity Castle if you are not watching the series version. It tells a complete arc of the manga, chapters 54 to 66, and it broke every record in Japanese cinema. Our page tracing all the Demon Slayer arcs places this arc in the story.

If you are wondering where to start with the series’ films, remember this order: the Mugen Train after season 1, then Infinity Castle after season 4. The compilations, in between, are bonuses.

An older tradition than you might think

These two films are not Demon Slayer’s first compilations. Even before season 1 aired, in March 2019, a selection of the first episodes was shown in a few Japanese cinemas to introduce the series to the public. The practice is common in Japan, where studios use it to launch a season or keep fans waiting.

The success of the Mugen Train, in 2020, changed the scale. Since Demon Slayer filled cinemas, each new season came with a cinema release, and these screenings went around the world, from the United States to France. Our article on Demon Slayer’s box office records tells this success story.

This tradition also explains why the end of the story goes through the cinema. The studio ufotable saw that audiences were ready to follow the series in cinemas, and chose to tell the Infinity Castle there. Our article on ufotable, the studio behind the animation looks back at this choice.

And before Infinity Castle?

If you are revising before seeing Infinity Castle, the second compilation film is actually a good shortcut: the last episode of the Swordsmith Village and the first of season 4 set out two of the film’s stakes, what Muzan wants from Nezuko and what the mark costs. Add the rest of season 4, and you come to the film with the main bonds between the characters in mind.

The first compilation film, for its part, reminds you how the Entertainment District ends and how season 3 opens, with the meeting of the Upper Moons where Doma, Akaza and Kokushibo appear, three opponents in the Castle. Our article on what you need to have seen before Infinity Castle details all the useful episodes.

Where to watch these episodes again today?

The compilation films are not offered as such by the major French platforms, neither on Netflix nor on Crunchyroll. Their content, however, is available in the series: the Entertainment District, the Swordsmith Village and the Hashira Training are online on Netflix and Crunchyroll, with the French dub and in the subtitled original. Our article on the platforms where you can watch Demon Slayer details what each one offers.

If a compilation film is ever re-released in a cinema near you, at a special screening or a festival, go without hesitation: seeing the last Yoshiwara fight or the end of the Swordsmith Village on a cinema screen, among other fans, remains a special experience, even when you know the episodes by heart.

To recreate the atmosphere of a screening at home, turn off the lights, turn up the sound and watch the episodes back to back without a break, as in the cinema. The last episode of the Swordsmith Village and the first of season 4 work very well this way, in one evening.

For these evenings, the throw with four stares in extreme close-up comes in three sizes in the throws and wearable blankets collection, among the shop’s decorations.