Reminiscent of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Superman story, For the Man Who Has Everything, the enormously successful Demon Slayer - Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train traps its Shonen Jump heroes on a living train that has lulled their party, and all the other passengers, into a tranquil slumber designed to massage their digestion. Series lead Tanjiro Kamado dreams of his life before demon slaying, a time of modest routine when his mother and many headstrong siblings were still alive. Crucially, this recollection isn't picturesque or idealised, the family are snowbound and dirt poor. Tanjiro's father is elsewhere, leaving his sickly looking mother to crush up stale leftovers when prepping treat meals. Tanjiro's nostalgia then is rooted in the reality and, quite apparently, the love that underlined these moments - a more powerful tonic than naked wish-fulfilment.
Trespassing in this private realm is an assassin, a sleepless commuter enslaved by the steam-powered monster, looking to hack and slash their way beyond this fantasy construct into a metaphysical space where Tanjiro and his demon slaying friends are especially vulnerable. As a weekly comic lead Tanjiro is, naturally, possessed of a staggering intuition, able to recognise the trap he finds himself in, explain it to the audience, then counter the incoming attacks. The method by which Tanjiro liberates himself is unusually ferocious though - repeated, grim episodes in which he is required to cut his own throat, over and over again. Tanjiro's enemy quickly recognises this suicidal routine, unleashing scattershot sleep blasts against the swordsman in an attempt to trick Tanjiro's somnambulistic reflexes into a ruinous self-harm. The cruelty of these assaults is exacerbated by Tanjiro's sensitive, childlike demeanour. We're not watching an expert effortlessly overcome challenges; like many of his Jump stablemates, Tanjiro is an innocent forced down a path of repetition and physical reconfiguration.
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