‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’: Crunchyroll Bosses Want Oscar Voters to Consider the ‘Beautiful Art Form’ of Anime
Is this the year anime dominates the animated feature race at the Oscars?
Crunchyroll’s “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” shattered records when it became the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time, earning $682 million worldwide. The film won fans over, but now Crunchyroll bosses have the Oscars in sight. And rightfully so, the film’s score, production design and craftsmanship are dazzling.
“Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” follows Tanjiro Kamado (dubbed by Zachary Aguilar) and the Demon Slayer Corps in a battle against Muzan Kibutsuji and the Upper Moons inside his hideout, known as the Infinity Castle. The Crunchyroll team targeted the demographic of life-long anime fans and newcomers to the artform in rolling out the film.
“We needed to be authentically Crunchyroll [in marketing]. We have a great deep connection with our fan base and a wonderful relationship with them, and we needed to create moments for them to unveil pieces of the movie,” said Mitchel Berger, EVP of Global Commerce during a Variety Screening Series conversation moderated by Variety’s Senior Artisans Editor Jazz Tangcay. “We needed to create experiences [at] San Diego Comic-Con with a booth that we did with a VR experience. [The fans] knew the characters, they knew the story. A lot of them knew what was gonna happen because they had read the manga. It’s drawing them into the world and letting them see what’s there.”
“It’s tapping into all the other things that [Crunchyroll] built over the years for this IP. Voice actors are a great example,” revealed Rahul Purini, President of Crunchyroll. “Japanese voice actors are really popular with fans around the world, and so are all the other English or other language actors. Bringing them into the journey with us and to help them connect their fandom and music was a big part. Being able to work with artists like Lisa who perform and using that [opportunity] to connect and talk to the fans around the world. It was all of those things like tapping into every one of those things that makes anime fans of ‘Demon Slayer’ so passionate about this IP.”
Aside from the film’s box office success and driving audiences to movie theaters, the company is running a full award season campaign. Both Purini and Berger are hopeful that the anime medium be taken seriously by not only fans, but with Guild and Academy voters.
Two anime films, “Spirited Away” and “The Boy and the Heron,” both by Hayao Miyazaki, have taken home the Oscar for best animated feature. The team stand on Miyazaki’s shoulders and hope voters will consider “Demon Slayer.”
Purini said, “We are working on making sure that this new audience that we are talking to with the FYC are part of it.” He went on to say, “It’s important for them to pay attention to and be part of and consider it seriously. But the other thing I will say is, going back to be being in a privileged position, we have some giants that have taken anime to the Oscars that we get to build off of Miyazaki, Makoto Shinkai, with his last movie ‘Suzume.’ We are building on the work of those legends.”
Berger added between stop-motion, traditional 2D animation and CG animation, “Anime is one of those ways of telling a story.” He went on to say that being a part of the conversation was a way of elevating the art form. “It’s a beautiful piece of artwork. The craftsmanship, the care, and the love that goes into this, just to be able to expose people to that, is a wonderful thing.”
The pair also discussed the decision to make “Demon Slayer” into a movie versus releasing another season of the much-loved franchise on the platform.
Berger credited Ufotable, the animation company. “What they realized immediately and, and delivered on is, is this is a story that deserves to be told on the biggest stage, the biggest visual with the best sound. It just feels cinematic to begin with. They made the decision, this was the right way to tell the end of the story.”
Berger later said watching the series on the platform versus seeing the movie in a theater didn’t need to create conflict. “It’s all about giving people a chance to make an emotional connection with a piece of content in different ways. And there’s ways for it to happen all over the place.”
Purini added, “Fans want this theatrical experience. They want to come to theaters, they want to watch these movies on big screen with friends and family. We are committed to bringing them that. We are committed to theatrical experience. We have the connection with fans, and we can bring them to theaters.”
“Infinity Castle” is the first film of a planned trilogy to be released. While they’re “eager to bring” the next two films to fans, no release dates have been set.
Berger reflected on the film’s success. “It sounds a little cliche, but it was really a privilege to be a part of this,” he said. “We were able to play a part in bringing something to a global audience that really resonated with a fan base in an incredible way, and the box office shows. There’s no better feeling in the world.”
Watch the video above.
