Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man has convinced me that anime can never return to the bad old days of non-canon movies

The twin successes of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc can't simply be measured in box office dollars.

While their record-breaking runs are certainly eye-catching, both the Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man movies laser in on something that has long frustrated me with anime – the scourge of non-canon movies based on popular shows.

But it wasn't always like this. In fact, 1997's End of Evangelion – the final act of the mind-melting Neon Genesis Evangelion series until the 21st Century's Rebuild movies retold and reshaped the story in increasingly meta fashion – saw Japanese audiences flood to cinemas in their droves.

Far from repeating the trick, the anime boom of the late '90s instead opted for adventures that operated around the fringes of their main series. 1999's Pokemon: The First Movie may have been the most successful anime movie of all time on US shores until it was dethroned in 2025 by Infinity Castle, but it proved a precursor to cinematic anime adventures being a side dish to the main TV course. Worse still, those events may as well have not happened at all, with how rarely – if ever – they get brought up in the mainline series.

The likes of One Piece and the majority of Dragon Ball and Bleach movies each tiptoed down the non-canon route, with only a few real attempts at weaving films into the narrative that preceded them. Even one of my favorite anime movies, Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, feels like something awkwardly shoehorned in towards the end of the series for the sake of bringing Spike and the Bebop crew back for one last jazz-infused rodeo.

The two decades that followed almost exclusively involved anime's focus being on TV and not film. But 2020's Demon Slayer: Mugen Train and 2021's Jujutsu Kaisen 0 offered a continuation and canon prequel, respectively, giving a chance to fill out character backstories and enrich the anime, rather than merely being a lavish advert for it. Each also offered ample proof that if animation studios delivered the next step for these sagas on the big screen, there would be a serious appetite for them.

So, that thinking – only aided by other canon efforts such as the wonderful final bow of Violet Evergarden: The Movie – bore fruit in 2025 with Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, an industry-shifting one-two punch if I've ever seen one.

Movie magic

Of course, their achievements aren't down to story continuation alone. Each involves richly drawn characters and even richer animation, yet I really think their secret weapon ties back to their status as movies that are unashamedly canon.

You wouldn't expect an anime called Chainsaw Man to tug at the heartstrings, let alone slice through them. Reze Arc achieves that handily, bolstered by the knowledge of seeing where Denji has been and being assured by the fact that we'll witness those ripple effects play out for years to come.

Demon Slayer, too, feels tailor-made for the big screen in a different way. While the emotion is writ large in the same way as Chainsaw Man, here it is of the guttural, exhaustive variety. It may be apples and anime oranges compared to Chainsaw Man's intimate portrait of a lovesick teenager's burgeoning crush, but each has snugly found its home on cinema screens, particularly on IMAX.

It hasn't hurt their box office, either, that these movies are no longer ancillary materials, but essential.

Another positive knock-on effect for the industry won't reveal itself for some time: fans will be trained to become more patient.

Waiting two years for a movie is fine and can build hype, and that lack of urgency can extend to all sorts of anime production. In an industry, unfortunately, buried in crunch, a more relaxed schedule with a bigger project to focus on can only improve the health of those bringing us the goods. That's a win-win, no matter how you look at it.

It remains to be seen if Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man have crystallized anime movies as the new normal in theaters, but it's a welcome change and finally a step in the right direction for a major anime bugbear of mine – making its movies matter.

Drill deeper into Reze Arc's finale with our guide to the Chainsaw Man movie ending and Chainsaw Man movie post-credits scene. Not sure where to go next? Here's what you need to read in the manga after watching the Chainsaw Man movie.