A recent announcement raised concerns over the release of Demon Slayer Season 5.
The beloved anime adaptation of the manga just rounded out its fourth season at the end of June covering the events of the long-awaited Hashira Training Arc (read more about Demon Slayer Season 4 here)
Despite being one of the most popular anime on the planet, word of a potential fifth season of the hit Japanese epic has not yet been made public.
New Announcement Has Demon Slayer Fans Worried
Fans' worries came to light regarding the release of Demon Slayer Season 5 following a recent announcement from the hit anime.
As a part of Season 4 of the series coming to an end, it was revealed a trilogy of Demon Slayer movies is in the works, tackling the events of the Infinity Castle Arc from the Demon Slayer manga.
This has been a cause for concern amongst fans eager for a fifth season of the beloved show, as some believe this cinematic trilogy could severely delay or outright replace Season 5.
A common sentiment among these detractors is that the Infinity Castle Arc would be better served as a season (or two) of TV with a movie adapting the events that follow in the Sunrise Countdown Arc.
The comment section on the Reddit post for the announcement is littered with fans sharing their disdain for the decision.
Commenters like Used_Yak_1959 called the decision "unbelievably frustrating," pointing to the expected wait of "3-5 years to see all of one arc:"
"That's honestly so unbelievably frustrating. I don't want to wait 3-5 years to see all of one arc. We don't even know if this covers Sunrise Countdown.
The optimal way to go about this arc would've been a normal season and a movie for the Sunrise Countdown. Whatever, at least the animation quality will be top-tier."
This would be in stark contrast to something like Season 4 which adapted a single arc of the mange (the Hashira Training Arc) across eight episodes.
One of the usual benefits that gets brought up for an anime getting the big-screen treatment is that the production values and animation will be a notch above its TV counterpart.
While that is usually the case, fans like Less-Lifeguard-538 on Reddit have astutely pointed out that Demon Slayer as a series has become known for its incredible animation and production value, so the jump to a movie-sized budget may not have the same sort of effect (at least visually) as some may have thought:
"Make Infinity Arc like a 20-26 episode season and then make Sunrise Countdown a movie. That way we don’t have to wait at least 3 or more years for one arc. And everyone saying, oh well the animation and production will be better. It’s already pretty top-notch."
Thus far, Demon Slayer has typically been a mostly TV-bound franchise, with several interstitial movies coming to theaters ahead of new seasons, essentially serving as a sneak preview to the first couple of episodes of whatever season it preceded.
Will Demon Slayer Still Get a Season 5?
It still remains to be seen whether a new run of episodes could follow Demon Slayer's upcoming movie trilogy, but press material, at least for now, has stated that the movies will adapt the final arc of the manga.
This likely indicates that there won't be any room for story material to be adapted into new episodes. As this new movie trilogy will have the task of adapting the Infinity Castle arc exclusively though, there is a slim chance that the events after this plotline could be covered in an additional season.
The Infinity Castle chapter of the Demon Slayer story is the first half of what will become the show's final act.
It sees Tanjiro Kamado and the Demon Slayer Corps plunge into the depths of the Infinity Castle to take down the dastardly Demon King Muzan Kibutuji. While they do not succeed in taking down Muzen, the arc ends by revealing a new, more terrifying adversary.
This big bad reveal (a character who remains unnamed at the end of the Infinity Castle Arc) sets up what will be the final conflict of the Demon Slayer manga.
So, if Season 5 of the TV show were to come after this trilogy of Infinity Castle movies, then one can expect it will be this final standoff that will be at its center (known as the Sunrise Countdown Arc).
Season 5 would likely be the most dramatic yet as the Demon Slayer Corps give it everything they have got against their mortal enemy in Muzan and this new threat associated with him.
Demon Slayer is now streaming on Netflix and Crunchyroll.
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