DarkNova

Most of those films didn't affect the flow of the anime.

Even though some were cannon, they weren't a must watch in order to understand the series.

The new Dragon Ball is a special case. Super started as a movie. But it wasn't planned to be the beginning of a whole new arc. The movie was such a hit, that it was decided to turn it into a new series.

The freezer movie is canon, but its events were included in the traditional serialization so, unlike Demon Slayer, there is no need to watch the movie.

And, there's something very different between Dragon Ball and Demon Slayer's movies.

Dragon Ball movies are self conclusive. They have the pacing and scheme of a standard movie.

Infinity Castle is a set of anime episodes grouped together. It starts abruptly where the last arc left and ends abruptly, as if more episodes were to come soon.

When will we get an actual story and not only flashbacks during battles?

I haven't read the manga, but something tells me that Kokushibo's backstory won't be that surprising. The anime has already given many hints about Tanjiro having some sort of connection with him.

Attack on Titan isn't the one to blame.

Mappa didn't actually split the season. They were many seasons. Full anime seasons.

The editorial was requesting Wit Studio to finish the adaptation into a single season, preferably before the end of 2020.

Considering the amount of material which still hadn't been adapted, Wit refused. They'd have required an insane amount of budget.

It was impossible to do such a thing. No other studios were really willing to take the project under those conditions.

That's when Mappa offered to "rescue" the anime.

At first they announced that they would finish it within a single season.

But they were well aware of it being impossible.

So, they came up with the perfect idea to trick both the editorial and the audience: split the "season".

But that was just a marketing strategy. The anime was released traditionally despite the name of the seasons.

Demon Slayer is being milked differently.

The story is nowhere near as long and complex as that of AoT. Many arcs aren't enough to produce a full anime season.

That's why they released Mugen Train as a film.

And that's why the District 10 arc feels so dragged. There's not enough story to fill a whole season. It's the closest to what old shounen animes were like, in which almost nothing really happened during a whole season.

The katana smiths arc is probably the only one with a pacing worthy of a full season.

Infinity Castle was worth a 12 episode season. But Ufotable had already learnt the lesson left by Mugen Train.

People would watch it at the cinemas even if it's just some episodes glued together.

This is a harsh truth that Demon Slayer fans will find hard to admit.

Demon Slayer, as well as several famous modern animes, don't have an outstanding story or characters. They just happened to be lucky enough to have been animated with the best quality, as well as being released during the streaming hype triggered by the pandemic lockdown.

This comes hand in hand with the western cinema facing an unprecedented crisis. People aren't as interested as before in the most recent Hollywood films. Some works have even been a huge flop.

Naturally, anime became a great entertainment alternative.

A story as simple - almost absent - as that of Demon Slayer can't be easily adapted into a full season without the need for fillers. Therefore movies became a good alternative.

And that's when the game changed forever.

Mugen Train's theatrical release became a blockbuster. And it did it again when it was split into a mini-season.

Ufotable soon learnt the key to milk simple stories.

Other studios have realized that this is a good way to save budget when an anime is successful enough. Fillers - and all that takes to produce them - aren't needed anymore.

Instead of producing a 12 episode season, they can glue together some episodes into a single movie.

And this is Infinity Castle part 1.

It doesn't have the pacing of a movie, but that of episodes glued together.

After its success, other studios will follow.

This is the end of an era.

Same.

I personally feel disappointed in PaperGames.

I love the concept of their games, but their most recent launches have been terrible.

They're releasing unpolished new games, with lots of bugs and unoptimized, nonetheless, expecting to make lots of money out of them. However, on the other hand, they're neglecting their older games, mainly the global servers.

I'm so sad about the new Shining Nikki engine. They tried to imitate Life Makeover's rendering style and failed. They totally ruined the lighting and a lot of textures. The hair and clothes dying has a lot of unfixed issues. My Nikki looks awful no matter which settings I use. They don't seem to be interested in fixing it.