2025 has changed the anime industry for the worse

This article contains spoilers for the Demon Slayer series.

2025 is proving to be quite a successful year for anime, and much of that is due to the release of the biggest anime film of the year, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1 — Akaza's Return. This movie was such a financial success that it has already broken many records, and it has brought in millions in profit. The success of Demon Slayer was absolutely massive and its franchise, along with all the staff that worked on it, really deserve credit for what they achieved with it. However, one factor that is often overlooked is the effect it will have on the anime industry in general.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle maybe just changing the anime industry, but for the worse. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle showed how profitable a good movie can be, and many studios and series will try to follow suit and make canon anime movies adapting entire arcs more common. This might sound good in theory, but fans should brace themselves as an anime arc can now take years to properly adapt if movies are favored over seasonal anime.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle's success could hurt the anime industry

The film's success will prompt many others to follow the same formula
Anime Arcs can take years to adjust

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1 — Akaza's Return has become the biggest film in the franchiseeven surpasses the Mugen train's record. It has also become that the greatest anime movie of all timeand that certainly says a lot. Infinity Castle Part 1 is just the beginning, as it will be followed by two more films to conclude the story of the Demon Slayer.

Tanjiro in Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba

It would be unreasonable to say that Demon Slayer Infinity Castle was not amazing. The movie was absolutely incredible from start to finish and fans are obsessed with it and eagerly waiting for the remaining two movies, but a big problem comes with the success of Demon Slayer. The massive success of Infinity Castle will definitely make it more appealing for studios to choose to adapt arcs into movies instead of the usual seasonal anime, and that's a big problem. Instead of waiting a year or so for an anime season to cover all the events of an arc, fans may now have to wait several years for a collection of movies to break up the story. If that ends up happening, it would be pretty slow, and the wait will be unbearable for many fans. Demon Slayer, for example, will cover Infinity Castle over 6 yearswhich is diabolical. Waiting over 5 years for an arc to be fully customized, like Demon Slayer, will definitely do that change the anime industrybut for the worse.

Demon Slayer Season 1 to 4 took 5 years to adapt Arcs

The Demon Slayer film trilogy will take the same amount of time for an arc

image: akaza in demon slayer infinity castle poster.

Demon Slayer's Infinity Castle movies will drag the story for quite a few years. With Part 1 has been released in 2025fans should not expect the second film before 2027 and the third before 2029. All things considered, the conclusion of the final stretch of Demon Slayer will take at least 5-6 yearsall for a single arc.

In comparison, Demon Slayer season 1 came out in 2019and in 5 years until 2024, the series sent out four high-quality anime seasons, an all-new movie, and a remake movie. The studio showed that it could cover many arcs in the amount of time it would take the studio to finish one arc in a movie format. If other anime choose to follow this model, anime arcs would take years to finish and the entire industry will be changed forever.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is out now. Fans who don't want to wait for the movies to release can check out the manga on Manga Plus. Meanwhile, for the anime, the series currently has 4 anime seasons. These anime seasons can all be found on Crunchyroll. However, the remaining episodes of the series will be animated into films, which fans will have to wait for the theatrical release to see, depending on their country.