I’d imagine some of the movie wouldn’t hit as hard without seeing the season you missed. And it definitely spoils the biggest event of the last season right out the gate. The season you missed is kind of filler, but it spends so much time building up all the characters and showing how far they’ve come that it’s important. And the final episode is heavy. Basically the season you missed is everything right up until the big confrontation at the end of a normal season. So Infinity Castle starts right at the start of that.

I enjoyed Inifinity Castle a ton, but… it’s like they took an episode or two leading into the season ending big fight, then weaved multiple season ending big fights together, condensed it all into the best parts, and then spent like four times their normal budget for a full season on it. Don’t get me wrong, that’s fucking great, might be the best shonen anime fight scenes I’ve seen, but it isn’t some sort of movie that I’ve found myself thinking back to too much. Other than to lament that it’s going to be so long until the next one.