Illustration (Manga Yomitai)
If you just finished the first Infinity Castle movie and want the manga, pick up VIZ’s English Vol. 18 of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and start at the beginning of Chapter 157. Some guides point to Chapter 158 instead, but that chapter is in the same volume, so either way Vol. 18 is the book you need. Whether you watched the English dub or the Japanese audio with English subtitles, the book is the same.
This guide covers the first Infinity Castle film, the opening part of a planned trilogy, which opened in US and Canadian theaters on September 12, 2025. The official sources we checked don’t establish the exact cut between the movie and the manga. Opening at the top of Chapter 157 leaves room for some overlap with what you already saw. Vol. 19 is the next book on the shelf, but it starts at Chapter 161, so it isn’t where your reading should begin.
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Start With Volume 18 at Chapter 157
Illustration (Manga Yomitai)
Vol. 18 collects Chapters 152 through 160. On VIZ’s own chapter pages, Chapter 157 and Chapter 158 both lead to the same Vol. 18 digital edition when you look for the volume to buy. So the "157 or 158?" question you may have run into online never changes which book to get. It only changes where you put your bookmark.
Guides online split between the two chapters. Opening at 157 is the overlap-friendly choice: if the first pages feel familiar, you’re meeting the same events in a different medium, and that has its own appeal. A movie sets the pace for you. On the page, you decide how long to stay with a moment, and you can turn back a few pages to look again at how a scene was drawn. If you’d rather follow a guide that says 158, open the same book’s table of contents and go to Chapter 158.
The publisher listings give the paperback as 192 pages and the digital edition as 191. Because those listings differ, a page number someone quotes in a forum or video is a shaky reference point for your own copy. Chapter numbers are easier to check, which is why this guide uses them.
Vol. 19 starts at Chapter 161
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VIZ’s Chapter 160 page lists Chapter 161 as the next chapter, and Vol. 19 collects Chapters 161 through 169. If you go straight from the movie to Vol. 19 because it feels like "the next one," you’ll skip the end of Vol. 18. When the two volumes sit side by side, the number on the cover tells you which is which, and the chapter list inside tells you where each one starts. The English paperback of Vol. 19 carries ISBN 978-1-9747-1811-5. Its back-cover description covers events past the movie, so it’s worth leaving unread until you’ve finished Vol. 18. Once you have, Vol. 19 is the book to pick up next.
Want to relive the fall into the castle? Late Vol. 16
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Before the duels, there’s the drop. The film’s official materials frame Part 1 around the Demon Slayer Corps being pulled into the Infinity Castle, and the official English story for Hashira Training Episode 8, "The Hashira Unite," centers on the encounter at the Ubuyashiki mansion. The TV season builds toward that encounter, and the movie carries the story into the castle.
In the manga, that turn comes in the second half of Vol. 16, which collects Chapters 134 through 142. The two chapters to look for are 139 and 140: first the fall into the castle, then the start of the fighting.
What makes this stretch worth rereading, in our view, is the shape of it. The TV episode’s title is about the Hashira coming together, and the movie’s setup has them rushing to the mansion. Then the castle swallows everyone, and the film’s official promotional material shows the fighters facing separate opponents. A story that spent a whole season gathering its strongest people suddenly scatters them. Reading late Vol. 16 straight into Vol. 17 lets you watch that turn happen on the page, from a gathering to a set of separate fights.
There are two easy ways in, and both are reread options rather than a marked boundary with the TV season or the film. If you came to the movie through the Hashira Training TV season and want to feel the move from training to the castle, start at Chapter 139. If the battles inside are what you want back, Chapter 140 gets you there sooner. The English paperback of Vol. 16 is ISBN 978-1-9747-1477-3.
Which fight do you want to reread? Vol. 17 or Vol. 18
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The movie’s official materials confirm three matchups: Tanjiro and Giyu against Akaza, Shinobu against Doma, and Zenitsu against Kaigaku. In the manga, the Shinobu and Zenitsu fights are in Vol. 17, and the Akaza fight runs into Vol. 18. Each matchup rests on a relationship you can name: Giyu is tied to how Tanjiro started, Shinobu to her older sister, and Zenitsu to the teacher he shares with Kaigaku. That relationship is a good way to decide which book to open first.
Tanjiro, Giyu and Akaza (Vol. 18)
Illustration (Manga Yomitai)
Start with who’s there. Giyu is the Water Hashira, and the Japanese official profile identifies him as the one who first pointed Tanjiro toward the Demon Slayer Corps. Akaza is Upper Three, the demon who fought Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku. Giyu marks the start of Tanjiro’s journey and Rengoku a later stretch of it, so this fight brings both parts of his story to bear on one opponent.
That history changes the weight of the new fight. Akaza’s earlier opponent was the Flame Hashira; this time the Water Hashira is in the fight, and Tanjiro himself is one of the two facing Akaza. To revisit that earlier meeting first, go back to Vol. 8 and start at Chapter 63. You don’t need it to continue the story, but reading the two encounters close together makes it easier to see how much has changed around the same opponent.
The second thing that reshapes this fight comes from Tanjiro’s family. VIZ’s description of Vol. 18 has Tanjiro trying to reach the Transparent World, something his father taught him, as the battle with Akaza goes on. That detail changes what the fight asks of him. It isn’t only a question of whether he can match an Upper Rank demon’s strength; it’s whether he can reach a way of seeing that was handed down to him. The contrast between fighting strength and learning to see the battle differently is what this volume lets you follow at your own pace, and it’s the main reason it rewards a slow reread. The movie carries you through the fight at its own speed; the book lets you stop, turn back a few pages, and look again at how that effort is drawn.
If you want to reread the latter part of the Akaza fight before going past the movie, VIZ’s Chapter 152, the first chapter of Vol. 18, is the place to start.
Shinobu and Doma (Vol. 17)
Illustration (Manga Yomitai)
The official US character profile for the movie describes Shinobu as someone with deep knowledge of medicine who fights with a special poison, and Doma as smiling and seemingly frivolous. VIZ’s English synopsis of Vol. 17 adds two things: Doma resists her weapon, and Shinobu is driven by what happened to her older sister.
Put those facts together and the matchup turns uncomfortable. Shinobu’s way of fighting rests on what she knows, and the opponent in front of her is one that knowledge may not work on. What she brings is knowledge put to work as a weapon, and that is exactly what this opponent tests. She walks into the fight carrying something heavy and personal. The demon across from her smiles. That mismatch, between how much this encounter means to her and how lightly he seems to take it, is what gives the fight its edge. Vol. 17 lets you follow how she approaches a problem her main weapon may not solve.
Zenitsu and Kaigaku (Vol. 17)
Illustration (Manga Yomitai)
According to the Japanese official character profiles, Zenitsu and Kaigaku trained under the same teacher. VIZ’s synopsis of Vol. 17 has Zenitsu encountering a demon in the castle.
So Zenitsu isn’t facing a stranger. He’s facing someone who started from the same place and ended up on the other side. The question the matchup leaves you with is less "who’s stronger?" than how two people with the same beginning made such different choices. If that question stayed with you after the movie, Vol. 17 is where to go back.
Because both the Shinobu and Zenitsu fights are in Vol. 17, it’s the natural pick if either of those matchups is the part of the film you keep thinking about. The English paperback is ISBN 978-1-9747-1061-4.
How Many Demon Slayer Volumes Are Left After the Movie?
Illustration (Manga Yomitai)
Vol. 18 does two jobs at once. It holds the Akaza fight you saw in the movie, and it’s where the story moves on from the movie. How you open it depends on what you want. To continue the story with room for overlap, start at the top of Chapter 157, or at Chapter 158 if you follow that guide. To revisit the Akaza fight first, begin at Chapter 152. All three starting points are in the same book, so you don’t have to decide before you buy. If you saw the movie recently, Chapter 157 is probably enough to get your bearings. If it has been a while, starting at 152 brings the fight back into focus before you move on.
If you’d rather see what comes next on screen first, the simplest choice is to save the manga continuation until after the next film. Since the exact point where Part 1 ends in the manga isn’t established, there’s no chapter or page we can point to as a safe stopping place. Rereading the earlier chapters covered above is optional, with no promise that a given stretch of Vol. 18 stays within the movie.
Two Amazon buyers have shared reactions to Vol. 18. In a Verified Purchase review of the paperback posted to Amazon.com from the United States on December 8, 2025, Lin wrote, "I especially liked Akaza’s backstory". That’s one reader’s take, and the details are better left to the book itself.
In a Verified Purchase review of the Kindle edition posted to Amazon from Canada on October 20, 2025, Rajan Deol put it simply: "I can’t wait to read volume 19". It’s one reader’s eagerness to keep going, and a reminder that Vol. 19 is where the story continues once Vol. 18 is done.
Both formats are the same VIZ Shonen Jump edition. The paperback is ISBN 978-1-9747-1760-6, and the digital edition is eISBN 978-1-9747-2375-1. Pick whichever you’re comfortable with; the chapter numbers inside are your guide either way. If you already own Vols. 16 and 17 in one format, matching it keeps all your rereads in the same place.
As for how far you have left, the English series ends with Vol. 23. Counting Vol. 18, that’s six volumes to the finish. VIZ also sells a complete box set of Vols. 1 through 23 (ISBN 978-1-9747-2595-3), which collects the whole series rather than picking up after the movie.
Books that look related but aren’t the next volume
Illustration (Manga Yomitai)
Searching for "Infinity Castle" can turn up books that aren’t the numbered manga, partly because one of them shares the film’s own title. One is a Japanese movie novelization from JUMP j BOOKS, written by Aya Yajima, with original work credited to Koyoharu Gotouge and the screenplay to Hikaru Kondo. It adapts the first film in prose, it’s a Japanese-language book, and it isn’t an English edition or a continuation volume.
VIZ also publishes English side-story books such as One-Winged Butterfly and Signs From the Wind. They belong to the same world, but neither one picks up where the movie stops. If what you want is the next part of the story, look for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Vol. 18, from VIZ’s Shonen Jump line, by Koyoharu Gotouge, and match the ISBN.
The short version
Illustration (Manga Yomitai)
After the first Infinity Castle movie, open VIZ’s Vol. 18 at the top of Chapter 157. Chapter 158 is in the same book, and Vol. 19 begins at Chapter 161.
For rereading, late Vol. 16 (Chapters 139–140) covers the fall into the castle, Vol. 17 holds Shinobu’s and Zenitsu’s fights, Vol. 18 from Chapter 152 brings back the Akaza fight, and Vol. 8 from Chapter 63 is there if you want Akaza’s earlier meeting with Rengoku.
The illustrations in this article are AI-generated.