A New Gen Shonen Has Already Surpassed One Piece's Best Villains

This article contains spoilers for Demon Slayer and One Piece.

At the moment, Demon Slayer is easily one of the biggest anime series worldwide. Demon Slayer’s new movie, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1 — Akaza’s Return, has broken all records at the box office and become the most successful anime movie in the world. As the name of the movie implies, the star of the show was definitely Akaza, the Upper Rank Three Demon. Akaza was a major antagonist in Japan’s two most successful movies ever, and his presence alone makes fans flock to theaters. Akaza has definitely surpassed One Piece’s villains in influence, but it doesn’t mean he is any better written than One Piece’s antagonist cast.

Demon Slayer’s Akaza Has Become a Worldwide Sensation

Akaza is Featured in the Two Biggest Anime Movies Ever
Akaza’s Simple Presence is Enough to Hype Fans Up

Akaza, a major antagonist in Demon Slayer, made his first big-screen debut back in 2020 with the release of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. Akaza was the second main antagonist and he riled up fans as he was directly responsible for the death of the beloved Hahsira, Rengoku, at the end of the movie. Ever since then, Akaza has become an iconic character, but his popularity has only grown significantly over the course of this year. While Mugen Train was the biggest anime movie ever for five years, it was surpassed this year by Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1 — Akaza’s Return. This movie was named after Akaza, and much of the promotional material featured him. One antagonist making two movies such big hits is no small feat, and it goes to show how popular Akaza is. One could say he is, at the moment, the most popular anime antagonist. Fans will definitely have to see how the next two movies of Demon Slayer fare without Akaza.

picture: akaza in demon slayer infinity castle poster.

One Piece’s Villains Haven’t Had As Much Chance to Shine in Movies

Oda Still Created Many Interesting Villains

Kaido fighting Luffy in his hybrid form - One Piece

No series other than Demon Slayer has an antagonist that can attract as many fans to theaters like Akaza, not even One Piece. However, this doesn’t mean One Piece is lacking in villains in any way. Eiichiro Oda, the creator of One Piece, has created a large and appealing cast of villains in his manga, but sadly, these characters never really make it to the big screen due to Oda never wanting to make canon movies. Currently, One Piece’s most iconic villain would definitely be one of Crocodile, Doflamingo, or Kaido, Wano’s main villain. Oda will keep on creating even bigger villains, and fans have high expectations for the likes of Imu and Blackbeard.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is out in theaters right now. Fans who don’t want to wait for the movies to drop can check the manga out on Manga Plus. Meanwhile, for the anime, the series currently has four anime seasons. These anime seasons can all be found on Crunchyroll. The remainder of the series will, however, be animated into movies, which fans will have to wait for their theatrical release to watch, depending on their country.

Release Date: October 20, 1999
Network: Fuji TV
Directors: Hiroaki Miyamoto, Konosuke Uda, Junji Shimizu, Satoshi Itō, Munehisa Sakai, Katsumi Tokoro, Yutaka Nakajima, Yoshihiro Ueda, Kenichi Takeshita, Yoko Ikeda, Ryota Nakamura, Hiroyuki Kakudou, Takahiro Imamura, Toshihiro Maeya, Yûji Endô, Nozomu Shishido, Hidehiko Kadota, Sumio Watanabe, Harume Kosaka, Yasuhiro Tanabe, Yukihiko Nakao, Keisuke Onishi, Junichi Fujise, Hiroyuki Satou
Writers: Jin Tanaka, Akiko Inoue, Junki Takegami, Shinzo Fujita, Shouji Yonemura, Yoshiyuki Suga, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hirohiko Uesaka, Michiru Shimada, Isao Murayama, Takuya Masumoto, Yoichi Takahashi, Momoka Toyoda