SDCC ’25: Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Hall H sneak peek wows

5 days ago 4

The excitement was palpable in Hall H on Saturday as Crunchyroll unveiled the first 13 minutes of the action-packed Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba–Infinity Castle. This cinematic marvel from director Haruo Sotozaki and director of photography Yuichi Terao showcases striking mise-en-scène, striking realism, and expressive artistry.

“I paid very close attention to the lines, kind of thickness of the lines from the manga. I wanted to make sure that information was preserved when we took it from manga to anime,” explained Sotozaki. “So, it took a lot of trial and error playing with the thickness of the lines in the anime itself with my director of photography to finally land on the anime visuals that you see.”

Sotozaki drew inspiration from traditional Japanese ukiyo-e artwork for the film’s water scenes, creating waves with 3D models and layering them with 2D key frames to achieve the final visual effect. Watching the film, the ukiyo-e influences are unmistakable—and breathtaking—in motion.

Terao addressed the challenges of balancing CG and hand drawn animation.

“We were going for the most epic and gorgeous anime you could get,” said Terao. “Nevertheless, when you try to make the imagery too gorgeous and you put all these effects and colors on top of it, some of the original lines that the animators had draw get kind of blended into the background, and they don’t stand out.”

Joining Sotozaki onstage were voice actors Natsuki Hanae (Tanjiro Kamado) and Aleks Le (Zenitsu Agatsuma). Hanae teased possible developments for his character, Tanjiro.

“I can’t really tell you what’s going to happen in the movie,” said Hanae playfully. “You know, maybe Tanjiro is going to go up against Akaza. In Mugen Train, Tanjiro couldn’t do anything, so it’s going be a spectacle to see how much Tanjiro has grown since the last film.”

Le, who recalled starting his career around the time the anime began, elaborated on the potential arcs for his character, Zenitsu.

“He’s very extreme on all ends, he’s very extreme on the comedic side and on the focus side. We’ve seen these two sides of him. What we haven’t seen yet is his more vulnerable side. I feel that this film is going to bring up a whole new version of things that nobody is prepared for.”

Lisa also took the stage to perform two songs from the anime’s soundtrack, including the theme song “Shine in the Cruel Night.”