Japan's most successful film, Demon Slayer, has been submitted for Oscars 2021

One of Japan’s biggest cultural exports is gunning for big time accolades.

With Demon Slayer, initially released in 2016, has seen itself rise up the charts becoming the second most voted manga after One Piece.

Now, it has set its sights overseas.

Demon Slayer is one of the 27 animated films to be submitted to the 93rd Academy Awards to be considered for a nomination for the Animated Feature Film Award. 

This is not the first time the anime series has been submitted for an award. The first season of the anime won the ‘Best Anime’ award at the 2019 Newtype Anime Awards, but also the ‘Anime of the Year’ at the 2020 Crunchyroll Anime Awards. The movie itself has broken many Box Office records, so it’s no surprise that they have been submitted for this prestigious award.

Other feature films that have been shortlisted are Soul by Disney, Studio Ghibli and Goro Miyazaki’s Earwig and the Witch, and The Croods: A New Age.

The results of the nomination will be announced on the March 25, 2021. If nominated, Demon Slayer would be the sixth anime in two years to receive a nomination. The last time an anime was nominated for an Oscar was two years ago, nominating Studio Chizu’s anime film Mirai. It would also be the first anime film to win an Oscar. 

There was a change in the Oscars’ shortlisting process for nominated films in 2019. Now, there is no minimum requirement for the number of films released in a single calendar year for the category to be activated. Additionally, the Short Films and Feature Animation branch of the Awards are automatically open to members.

You can watch Demon Slayer now in cinemas and you can watch the first season of the anime on Netflix, Hulu, Funimation, and Crunchyroll. There are talks of the second season already beginning production and will be released sometime in October 2021.

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This article was first published in Geek Culture.