The Phantom Train arc distills everything Blue Exorcist does best into 110 minutes of animation that actually deserves to be called beautiful. Rin's rage has weight here because the film stops playing it as shounen theatrics and lets you sit with what it costs him to be half-demon, half-human, fully responsible. You need the series context to feel the full hit, but if you've been there from the start, this movie earns the festival setting by making you mourn what Rin can never have at one.

Rin Okumura has his hands full when True Cross Academy gears up for its grand festival, an event that only comes around once every eleven years. As excitement builds across campus, exwires and exorcists work to drive off any demon that threatens the celebrations, and Rin is assigned to subdue the Phantom Train, a soul-devouring demon, together with his brother Yukio and Shiemi Moriyama. When the train breaks free of its tracks and starts tearing through the academy, Rin crosses paths with a demon who looks like a small boy. He names it Usamaro and forms an unlikely friendship with it, though Usamaro's powers may prove far more dangerous than Rin suspects. The result is a supernatural action fantasy set against the backdrop of the festival.