Demon Slayer Season 2: Mugen Train Arc Premieres with 5.1 Million Japanese Households

Demon Slayer Season 2 premiered with its Mugen Train Arc on Japanese television on October 10 and despite its late-night slot of 11:15 pm, the original episode centered around The Flame Hashira Rengoku has managed to score a wild viewership.

According to Video Research Ltd., an estimated number of 5.136 million households tuned in to see Rengoku on their screens again. The premiere garnered a rating of 10% among all television households in Japan and was the most-watched anime episode of the week.

The second episode of this season only saw a slight decline in ratings with 8% TV households and 4.6% of total viewers still tuning in to the episode. The episode is estimated to have been watched by 5.786 million viewers among 4.1 million households.

The third episode which aired last week saw 3.59 million households tune in to it and had a rating of 7% among households. The episode saw a rating of 4% among individuals as 5.03 million people watched this episode.

While the premiere of the Demon Slayer Season 2 was the most-watched anime in Japan during the second week of October, Sazae-san took back first place the following week with 9.5% of television households tuning in to the show.

Although it should be noted that Sazae-san airs during the evening at 6:30 pm.

The other big anime broadcasts of last week included a marathon broadcast of Lupin III, which saw a rating of 7.5% during its first half-hour at its timeslot at 9 pm on Friday. While the latest episode of Lupin III Part 6 held steady at 2.9% on its initial broadcast at 12:55 am.

The third episode of Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon – The Second Act scored a rating of 4.1% with the fourth one which aired the following week dipping to 3.9%. The latest episode of Detective Conan also saw a slight dip from 7.2% households previously to 6.3% last week. Both these anime air on Nippon Television Network from 5.30 pm respectively.

One Piece came back after a hiatus week and held steady with a 4.1% rating among households. The episode was watched by 2.641 million viewers among 2.1 million households.

Recently on September 25, the movie Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Train was broadcast for the first time on Japanese television after its release on the big screens last year. The movie which has broken many records to date broke yet another record that day as it became one of the biggest anime broadcasts of the 21st century.

The Demon Slayer movie recorded a 21.4% audience rating across the nation and saw 10.992 million households tune in to the broadcast.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Train Arc is a seven-episode arc that is adapting the popular film with an original episode, 70 new scenes, new music tracks, new opening and ending animation, and new theme songs.​ It will all connect the Tanjiro Kamado, Unwavering Resolve Arc with the Entertainment District Arc. The first episode of Demon Slayer Season 2 was a never-before-seen anime original episode featuring our beloved Kyojuro Rengoku taking on a new mission on the way to the Mugen Train. LiSA has returned to sing the theme songs for the series, with the opening theme “Akeboshi” and ending with the theme “Shirogane.”

It is notable that the Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie grossed over half a billion dollars in the box office worldwide and sold over 41 million tickets.

The movie also sold 1.31 million copies with its home release in Japan within just five days and has already sold BD/DVD worth $75 million when we were last keeping track.

The new episodes of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Train Arc are streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation every Sunday. While the episodes are premiering in Southeast Asian countries such as India on Netflix.

This article was first published on my blog.