How Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai shaped Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, inspiring Hikaru Kondo’s intense, high-stakes anime epic.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle is a tremendous achievement that required an unfathomable amount of work and skill from the team at Japanese anime studio Ufotable. Not only was Infinity Castle a blockbuster hit that showcases anime’s foothold in America, it’s also a highly entertaining story. For Ufotable co-founder and Infinity Castlelead writer Hikaru Kondo, that last part was perhaps the most difficult to pull off — until he remembered a story about the creation of one of Japan’s most revered films, Seven Samurai.
Infinity Castle thrusts series protagonist Tanjiro Kamado and several of the Demon Slayer Corps into their final, most desperate battle as the Demon King, Muzan Kibutsuji, lures them into the labyrinthine castle. With our heroes scattered across shifting battlegrounds, the film centers on a series of high-stakes, one-on-one confrontations against the Upper Rank demons, testing each slayer’s resolve, bonds, and limits.
Kondo knew he had to pick and choose what to adapt from the manga for the sake of runtime. But he also had to keep the same intensity and impact from the source material to serve his devoted (and nitpicky) audience.
