Anime Movies Made It to My Small City Theater. Ray Still Wants Seasons.

We got into a real debate on episode four of Inside The Screen about anime movies versus anime seasons and I gotta lay out both sides, because Ray came in hot and honestly he had a point.

Ray's case

Ray is firmly against animes taking a season or an arc and turning it into a movie. His words were basically stop trying to milk people. He brought up JJK, Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan and the one that had him the most heated was Demon Slayer. The manga ended back in May 2020 and we're still not at the last fight in the anime because the Infinity Castle arc got turned into a movie trilogy. Part 1 came out and became the highest grossing anime film ever and there's still no official release date for the next one.

Ray was also the one who said the newest season of JJK is the same if not better quality than the movie, and he said that wasn't even an opinion, that's a fact. His middle ground was that side stories and milestones can be movies. JJK 0 was a side story so that's cool. He went out for One Piece Film Red and the episode 1000 premiere at Anime NYC. But the main storyline does not need to be a movie. He'd rather pay for Crunchyroll than drop $20 plus on a ticket in New York.

This next part ain't even my take

I told both of them I get what y'all saying. This next part ain't even my take but I think it's what the people making this stuff are probably thinking. One thing is this is probably really good marketing. There's people that are gonna hit the movie theaters consistently and you might get put onto a new anime at the theater that you wouldn't have normally watched.

And the numbers say the studios aren't stopping anytime soon. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train did about $486.5 million worldwide. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 did about $166.7 million. Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc passed $100 million worldwide in about a month. They even took the Shibuya Incident and the first two episodes of Season 3 and put them in theaters as a compilation called JJK: Execution. When that type of money is on the table you already know what the next decision is gonna be.

The theater is a whole moment

One thing for me personally, I love the theater experience. Like a fat screen and the surround sound booming. And if I was in a cooler city the whole community would be cool too. When I went to watch the Demon Slayer movie and the JJK movie it was a whole bunch of anime fans in there so it could be a whole moment.

I can tell you from real life experience. I'm in a small city and the fact that they had the JJK movie, the Chainsaw Man movie and both of the Demon Slayer movies here tells you everything. Which ten years ago you probably would've had to drive to a big city for, if they showed them at all. So yes they're gonna be a big part of the movie scene from here on out. Some of those legendary anime battles deserve a fat screen.

Where I land

You might be asking whose side I'm on. I'm somewhere in the middle and I'm cool with that. Ray is right that if the main story stops for a movie the fans who just want the ending are gonna be waiting longer. However the theater runs are doing something the seasons can't do, which is put a room full of anime fans together in a small city on a Friday night. As a fan I'm gonna keep going.

So I'll put it to you. Would you rather your favorite anime finish on a streaming service or get the movie theater treatment even if it takes longer? Pull up to the CXM Discord and let me know.