This film is one of the highest grossing films in Japan, and to be entirely honest, I’m not completely sure why. Well, that’s not entirely true. The series was really amazing, so I think most of us expected the film to be just as good.

In my opinion, they missed the mark. I won’t share any spoilers here, only my personal thoughts on how the film was put together.

First and foremost, I think this film was too long. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that the majority of the film takes place on the Train to Mugen. It pretty much all just takes place on that train. Sure, they tried to take us elsewhere, but it was mostly on the train. You have to be really careful when making a film that stays entirely in one location. You need a really strong story to pull that off, and I don’t think they quite managed it. I didn’t find the villain very engaging or memorable.

The fact that this movie takes place on a train means it probably shouldn’t have run much longer than an hour, but it went well beyond that. I found myself losing focus several times while watching, and had to restart it twice to catch most of what happened.

The characters are hunting a demon on the train, and in my opinion that portion is drawn out too much. Towards the end of the film things pick up considerably, though even that section felt a bit lengthy. It was far more entertaining and kept my attention throughout. There was also a moment near the end that genuinely caught me off guard, though I’ll leave that without spoilers.

Overall, I enjoyed the film, but I think a tighter runtime would have made it a better experience. They spent too much time on the train and it lost momentum. I’m a bit surprised it performed so well. That said, I do look forward to the series returning, since I genuinely loved it. How things played out in this film was unexpected, and not entirely in a satisfying way.