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Funimation, Aniplex USA to Release Demon Slayer Film in N. American Theaters in Early 2021
posted on by Alex Mateo
Funimation and Aniplex of America announced at their New York Comic Con Metaverse panel for the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba series on Friday that they will screen the Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train (Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-Hen) film in theaters in North America in early 2021. The film is the upcoming sequel to the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba television anime series.
The film will open in Japan on October 16. The anime will begin screening in all 38 IMAX theaters in Japan on the same day. The film will be the first Japanese film opening this year to screen in IMAX theaters. Theatergoers will receive a "Rengoku Volume 0" manga volume, which is limited to 4.5 million copies. Original manga creator Koyoharu Gotouge drew the manga, which shows Rengoku's first mission.
The main staff members of the previous television anime are returning for the sequel film. TOHO and Aniplex are handling the film's distribution in Japan.
Gotouge's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga inspired a television anime that premiered in April 2019, and aired its 26th and final episode in September 2019.
Aniplex of America describes the television anime's story:
It is the Taisho Period in Japan. Tanjiro, a kindhearted boy who sells charcoal for a living, finds his family slaughtered by a demon. To make matters worse, his younger sister Nezuko, the sole survivor, has been transformed into a demon herself.Though devastated by this grim reality, Tanjiro resolves to become a “demon slayer” so that he can turn his sister back into a human, and kill the demon that massacred his family.
Aniplex of America shipped the anime's first limited-edition Blu-ray Disc volume, which includes the first 13 episodes, on June 30. The second limited-edition volume, which will include episodes 14-26, will ship on November 24. Aniplex of America is partnering with Funimation to distribute the anime's standard-edition Blu-ray Discs. Funimation shipped the first standard-edition volume on September 29, and it will ship the second volume in January 2021.
The manga debuted in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in February 2016, and ended on May 18. Shueisha shipped the manga's 22nd compiled book volume on October 2. With this new volume, the manga has 100 million copies in circulation (including digital copies). It is the eighth manga title from Weekly Shonen Jump to reach 100 million copies in circulation (not sales).
Ryōji Hirano will launch a short spinoff manga titled Kimetsu no Yaiba: Rengoku Gaiden centering on the Flame Hashira character Kyōjurō Rengoku. Shueisha will publish the spinoff in this year's 45th and 46th issues of Weekly Shonen Jump on October 12 and 17.
