Demon Slayer Compilation Specials Will Recap Season 1, Feature New Art

Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV has announced that it will air five Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba TV specials over the course of nights, beginning on Sept. 11.

The five specials comprise a re-edited, condensed version of the original 26-episode first season of the Demon Slayer anime, which originally aired in 2019. While the specials will feature no new story content or animation, they will feature new art during the special's "eyecatches," which are illustrations shown before and after each commercial break, as well as new clips of behind-the-scenes material.  Animation studio Ufotable, which has produced all of the animation for the franchise so far, released new posters on Twitter to promote the specials.

The specials are being aired to lead up to the first TV broadcast of the Mugen Train movie, which was originally released in 2020 and is still the highest grossing anime movie of all time. An international release for the specials has not been announced at this time.

Demon Slayer was created by Koyoharu Gotouge and was first published in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2016. As of February 2021, the manga has achieved over 150 million copies in circulation, making it the newest series to crack the top 10 list of the best-selling manga of all time. The manga concluded in 2020 with the publication of its 205th chapter. The second season of the Demon Slayer anime is scheduled to air later this year, and will adapt the manga's acclaimed Entertainment District arc.  Funimation has announced that they will simulcast the new season in English as it airs in Japan.

Gotouge's shonen manga has evolved into a multi-billion dollar franchise that is estimated to have generated over $2.6 billion USD in revenue for the various companies involved in its production. The composer of the anime's theme song, "Gurenge" (literally "Red Lotus,") recently revealed that the popularity of the song has made her into a millionaire. In addition to the manga and anime, Sega will publish the first console game based on the series this fall, entitled The Hinokami Chronicles. The game is being developed by CyberConnect2, who previously worked on many of the Naruto games published by Bandai Namco.

The series tells the story of Tanjiro Kamado, a kind young man whose world is shattered when he returns home to find that most of his family has been slaughtered by demons. His sole remaining family member, his younger sister Nezuko, survives the attack but is slowly transforming into a demon himself. After convincing a wandering demon slayer to spare his sister's life, Tanjiro takes up the sword and joins the Demon Slayer Corps., a group of powerful human warriors who wield katanas made of special alloy and utilize techniques known as "Breathing Styles" to give them the supernatural powers they need to fight back against the demons.

The first season of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba is available for streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Funimation. The Mugen Train movie is currently exclusively streaming on Funimation.

Source: Twitter