Demon Slayer is the Decade's Most Influential Anime (& Not for the Reason Fans Think)

Summary Demon Slayer's success influenced the anime industry to adapt seasonal release styles for higher quality and more efficient production.

Mugen Train's success in combining manga arcs into canonical movies set a new standard for anime movies.

Other series like Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen followed Demon Slayer's lead in creating canonical movies, marking a shift in the anime film landscape.

It's no secret that Demon Slayer has been an incredibly successful anime, and as a result, a lot of other series have been looking to it for inspiration as to how they can succeed just as well. While the characters and the content of the story have a lot to do with its success, Demon Slayer's real legacy might be in how it's impacted the entire anime industry.

Demon Slayer's anime first began in 2019, a production by the studio ufotable. The effects work for the Breathing Styles used in the series was considered exceptionally impressive animation, and the series garnered praise for its style and beauty. However, the structure of the first season was like that of most anime--26 episodes long, covering as much of the manga as would fit in those episodes and stopping roughly at the beginning of a new arc in the manga. It was what happened with the next arc, Mugen Train, which suddenly catapulted Demon Slayer into the spotlight for real, however.

Demon Slayer's Canonical Movie Changed the Anime Movie Game

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When it comes to anime movies based on existing properties, these films generally use original content rather than adapting elements of the manga, leaving manga adaptation up to the series. A good example of this would be My Hero Academia; the series' movies tell original stories which only loosely fit into the timeline of the manga and anime series, and thus not seeing the film would have minimal impact on a viewer's ability to follow the series. However, this often has the effect of making the movies feel like they don't matter. If the events are never referenced again, did they even really happen?

When looking at the content of the Mugen Train arc, ufotable decided that the best way to encapsulate this story wasn't as a weekly series, but rather as an intense movie event. By evaluating on an arc-by-arc basis, the producers were able to capitalize on the part of the story most likely to be successful as a stand-alone tale. Production of the movie began before the anime's first season was even finished airing, but it was something of a gamble; if the movie didn't do well at the box office, it might become a problem for the continuation of the series as a whole.

Related Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Was a Bold Risk That Represents the Future of Shonen Anime Movies The incredibly successful and risk-taking Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie dramatically changed the future of anime movies for the better.

Of course, Demon Slayer: Mugen Train was wildly successful due to a variety of factors, including a lack of competition and the high quality of the film itself. This caused other anime producers to start paying attention: if Demon Slayer can turn the most exciting portions of its story into a box office juggernaut, why couldn't other series? As a result, other franchises such as Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen announced canonical movies of their own. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 saw some significant success, while Chainsaw Man's film has yet to be released.

Mugen Train's success marked a turning point in how anime movies were viewed; anime movies and series could now have proper continuity between them, and production studios could use the larger budget of a movie to really deliver on the most incredible action scenes.

Demon Slayer's Anime Series Revitalized Anime Production Schedules

Following the success of Mugen Train, Demon Slayer adapted the film into series form, just to ensure that no one who was unable to see the movie (because of COVID19 or other reasons) would be lost in the story when the series returned. However, production of Demon Slayer took on a different structure after this. They would continue tackling one story arc at a time, taking on a more western-style "season" of production, with as much time in between installments as was necessary to produce them.

This first came about with the Entertainment District arc, and later with the Swordsmith Village arc and now the Hashira Training arc. While older anime which ran non-stop, like Bleach or Naruto, would've featured heavy padding or filler to help reach a particular episode count as promised to the publisher, Demon Slayer's approach allowed it to tackle entire stories at one time, and instead of using filler, simply kept the episode count as low as possible while still featuring everything important in the story.

Other studios took note of their production style and began to change how they approached their own productions; Studio Pierrot, for example, has publicly stated that they intend to switch Boruto to a season-style production schedule, and publicly acknowledged that Demon Slayer's success without using filler was an influence in their decision. It seems likely that the 4-cour structure of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War's release may also have been influenced by Demon Slayer, and that has certainly led to great success for that series.

Demon Slayer's Influence Can't Be Overstated

The seasonal release style removes some of the stresses of traditional anime production, such as having to keep a tight release schedule for uninterrupted airing, meaning that studios can afford to dedicate more time and energy to creating the best product possible, and the only cost is that fans have to wait a little bit longer. Most fans would gladly wait a bit if it meant having the highest quality anime adaptation possible, so this change is really a win/win for fans and anime creators alike.

Between the impact on anime movies and the production schedule of anime series, there's really never been a series that has been so widely influential on anime production than Demon Slayer. It has proved that the days of filler are long behind us by producing high-quality, compact storytelling, and that fans are willing to stick around while anime is in production, even if it's not currently airing.

Demon Slayer's creators surely had no way of knowing how much their work was about to shake-up the world of anime production, but the series has nonetheless upended the status quo, changing things for the better. Hopefully, the Demon Slayer approach will also help to deal with crunch time and overworking of animators, providing improved working conditions for those who create these beloved series as well.