Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki admits Demon Slayer series is his ‘rival’
By Diana Nosa
The anime Demon Slayer has gone on to become one of the most popular shounen anime series of the 21st century, and it is extremely evident that the unprecedented excitement towards the anime is not slowing down any time soon.
The series, originally adapted from Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga series Kimetsu no Yaiba, is adored by all its touching yet heartbreaking story of Tanjiro Kamado, a boy who lost his entire family to a powerful demon but is trying to become stronger to prevent others from suffering the safe fate.
With a beautiful premise and even more beautiful yet tragic stories held by such profound characters, it is clear that Demon Slayer sets the pace for other new generation shounen anime series, like Jujutsu Kaisen, to follow. Nevertheless, the greatest feat that Demon Slayer managed to achieve in record-breaking time was releasing a history-making film after only one season.
Shortly after its October 2020 release, Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train skyrocketed in the box office, shattering records on its way to the top. Once the film surpassed the critically acclaimed 2016 film Your Name, it started to become evidently clear that the film was aiming to take the number one spot held by the Academy Award-winning film, Spirited Away.
Achieving such a formidable goal may have taken time. Nonetheless, Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train executed its objective flawlessly.
Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train dethrones Spirited Away as the highest-grossing anime film worldwide
Releasing the film in American theatres this past April seemed to have had a large role to play in the film eventually surpassing Spirited Away‘s global earnings of over $395 million.
Since its Spring 2021 release, the Demon Slayer film went on to acquire an impressive $34 million in the United States theaters, which, in addition to the film’s highly successful Japan release, allowed the film to globally earn $500 million–$105 million more than Hayao Miyazaki’s greatest masterpiece.
In speaking of the sage Japanese animator, Hayao Miyazaki did not refrain from informing the world of how he feels about this $105 million defeat caused by a certain green and black haori wearing young boy.
Hayao Miyazki admits the Demon Slayer series is his ‘rival’
According to CBR, Miyazaki acknowledged while on Fuji TV’s Bokura no Jidai that Demon Slayer is a series that is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with when he was given a brief overview of the anime’s many accomplishments thus far.
“Well, you know, to me, Demon Slayer is my rival”, Miyazki expressed. “An anime like that [will] be a success”. He may be a man of few words, but his recognition that the anime is on its way to becoming a robust powerhouse is certainly not a minuscule appraisal.