The Correct Order To Watch Demon Slayer

“Demon Slayer” is one of the most popular anime currently running. It’s a cultural phenomenon that’s crossed into the mainstream; a franchise that made the leap from the small to the big screen and broke box office records, surpassing even a Christopher Nolan movie to become the highest grossing film worldwide in 2020.

Now, at the height of its popularity, the story of Tanjiro Kamado — who fights a horde of demons in an attempt to cure her sister (who was turned into one of them) with the help of the elite Demon Slayer Corps – is coming to an end. While writing about the correct order to watch a TV show may seem redundant, or unnecessary, or even silly, the fact is that, in recent years, it’s become harder to keep track of anime stories thanks to the trend of movies that are actually canon to the series’ narrative and, thus, required viewing.

That means that if you want to get into one of the biggest animated shows on the planet before it ends, you should know where to start and where to go from there. This is what you need to know about how to watch “Demon Slayer.”

“Demon Slayer” is part of a new trend in seasonal anime releases where the shows are organized less by their seasons and more by their story arcs. It makes sense; after all, each season is adapting a specific story arc from a manga (or a part of a story arc). Still, it means there’s no simple numerical order to things. “Jujutsu Kaisen” is also guilty of this, whereas shows like “My Hero Academia” and “Attack on Titan” stuck to just having a season 1, season 2, and so on.

When it comes to “Demon Slayer,” the only correct watch order is the release order:

• “Demon Slayer” Season 1 (2019)
• “Demon Slayer – Mugen Train” (2020)
• “Demon Slayer” Season 2 “Entertainment District Arc” (2021) 
• “Demon Slayer” Season 3 “Swordsmith Village Arc” (2023)
• “Demon Slayer” Season 4 “Hashira Training Arc” (2024)

After this comes the trilogy of films that is set to end the story.

Alternatively, you can actually skip the “Mugen Train” movie. However, if you do, you’ll have to watch season 2 in its entirety, as the first half adapts the “Mugen Train” storyline with some added scenes, including an entirely new episode.

That said, this is the only correct way to watch “Demon Slayer” as the story is linear and serialized — showing protagonist Tanjiro Kamado’s progress in learning to become a Demon Slayer, his encounters with demons, and his power-ups as the threat of the leader of the demons, Muzan Kibutsuji, increases

In addition to “Mugen Train,” there have been two other “Demon Slayer” movies. First, there was “To the Swordsmith Village” in 2023, and then “To the Hashira Training” in 2024.

Though “Mugen Train” was a proper and complete adaptation of the manga story arc of the same name, the other two movies were actually just compilations of the finales of the previous seasons plus the premiere of the following season, released online. This approach might’ve played well at the box office, but if you can already watch the entire season online, then it doesn’t make much sense to separately watch a finale and a premiere stitched together, does it? 

The idea of adapting shorter story arcs as feature films seems reasonable, but these compilation movies released just a month or so before the episodes are harder to justify watching — particularly months later when the entire season is streaming just a click away.