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And everything happening this week for Future Fest!

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie - Infinity Castle has become a huge cultural phenomenon that extends far beyond the anime community. It has broken box office records and looks to extend its reign at the top of the cinema heap. Crunchyroll has a theatrical hit on their hands, and they aren’t in a rush to bring the experience home. In fact, Crunchyroll has confirmed that Demon Slayer Infinity Castle won’t be available on their streaming service until at least 2026.

Popverse talked with Mitchel Berger, Executive Vice President, Global Commerce, who oversees theatrical releases at Crunchyroll, to talk about the surprising success of Demon Slayer Infinity Castle. Obviously, Crunchyroll wants to see those box office numbers keep going up, so Berger gave a warning to fans:

“Go see [Demon Slayer Infinity Castle] in the theater because the theater is the only place you’re going to be able to see this film in 2025," he said. "If you want to see it, go see it in the theater because that’s the only place it’s going to be available.”

That is definitely a surprising move for Crunchyroll; they are, of course, a streaming service, so you would think that they would have the perfect platform for the biggest anime movie of all time. Even Superman came to streaming within a few weeks, after all. However, Demon Slayer fans will have to wait at least three-and-a-half months to watch the first Demon Slayer Infinity Castle movie at home.

If you haven’t seen the first Demon Slayer Infinity Castle movie in cinemas, you should probably fix that before you miss your chance to see it until 2026.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

• Aggretsuko vs Chainsaw Man: Two Wildly different anine with the same anti-capitalist message
• The Summer Anime season return of Kaiju No. 8, Sakamoto Days, & Dan Da Dan are forcing me to break my vow of watching less anime
• From Tomo-Chan to Oshi No Ko: How some of your favorite manga creators got their start in hentai
• Piracy is baked into anime's past, but, like Crunchyroll, we should move on from it
• Flying whales, mechs, and Miyazaki vibes: Inside Netflix's Leviathan anime with the people who made it
• How AI translations of manga continues the 'enshitification' of the medium, and why Japanese publishers are "less precious" about it
• I never wanted a Cyberpunk Edgerunners sequel, but God help me I'm going to watch it
• The Summer Hikaru Died delivers its cosmic horror at an agonizingly slow pace
• The one thing that Dan Da Dan does better than Demon Slayer ever did
• Studio Ghibli movies have never been as cozy as you think they are and that's what makes them magic