Contains minor “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” spoilers
Every anime worth its salt needs a strong, likeable hero, and right now “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” is the most well-known character on the market, in large part due to the franchise’s full-length movie “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train,” which just made movie history in the U.S.
It follows that its protagonist stands head and shoulders above the majority.
Beginning the series in a terrible situation, Tanjiro Kamado (voiced by Natsuki Hanae in the original and by Zach Aguilar in the English dub) witnesses his sister Nezuko (Akari Kito and Abby Trott) being transformed into another demon and the rest of their family being slaughtered by a very strong demon. Tanjiro decides to train to become a demon slayer in the hopes of curing his sister after having an accidental encounter with a formidable demon slayer and learning that Nezuko still has some humanity left.
This very straightforward quest for retribution has the potential to grow into a substantial story about the struggle between good and evil. Tanjiro gains a wide range of abilities during “Demon Slayer,” which aid him in his many conflicts. What precisely can the youthful demon hunter do, though? The abilities of Tanjiro Kamado are described here.
The anime series opens with Tanjiro surviving a fight with the formidable demon slayer Giyu Tomioka (voiced by Takahiro Sakurai and Johnny Yong Bosch), who tries to kill his newly possessed sister. Tanjiro is no pushover to begin with. Giyu, who is rightfully impressed by the youngster’s tenacity, instructs Tanjiro to consult Sakonji Urokodaki (Hochu Otsuka and Brook Chalmers), who agrees to prepare the lad for demon slayer training.
Tanjiro acquires the first of his several combat abilities while undergoing the gruelling training of Sakonji: a breathing technique known as Total Concentration Breathing (more on those in a moment). Tanjiro now has speed, strength, and resilience that are considerably above those of regular people. It’s a crucial component of his skill set because, if he’s not careful, performing his numerous battle breathing routines might leave him fully fatigued.
Together with Sakonji’s other lessons, Tanjiro gains what amounts to superpowers from this foundation combat ability, and by the end of “Demon Slayer” Season 1, he has improved Total Concentration Breathing to the point where he can sustain it while sleeping.
The titular slayers of “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba” frequently battle otherworldly beings who are exceedingly strong. They’ve developed a multitude of “breathing methods” to give themselves a fighting chance, of which Total Concentration Breathing is one. These swordplay techniques let demon slayers increase their physical prowess and combine mystical, elemental-based skills into their battle.
Tanjiro’s initial breathing pattern is fairly naturally the same because of his connections to the strong Water Breathing masters Giyu and Sakonji. His strikes may move like water and hit like a tsunami thanks to the fluid combat style of Water Breathing, and they are accompanied by a soothing water effect to emphasise the point. Tanjiro quickly becomes one of the style’s most skilled practitioners, and as “Demon Slayer” goes on, he masters it to the point where he is even capable of using its desired 10th form, in which his strike resembles a giant, watery dragon.
When water fails to solve the problem, use fire. Tanjiro discovers that his father secretly taught him the super-effective breathing technique known as Dance of the Fire God when he was a young child after a particularly challenging battle while having a flashback to his earlier years. He can now wield this extraordinarily potent family style as a demon slayer.
Tanjiro has access to both water and fire techniques since, as the style’s name suggests, the Dance of the Fire God is fire-based.
The Dance of the Fire God plays a significant role in Tanjiro’s battle with the spider demon Rui (voiced by Koki Uchiyama and Billy Kametz) in Season 1 of “Dragon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba,” who is resistant to the most potent technique in Tanjiro’s Water Breathing arsenal but struggles against the demon slayer’s newfound abilities.
The Dance of the Fire God is incredibly strong and stunning to look at, as fans of “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train” anyone current with the manga are aware. “Dragon Slayer” Season 2 will probably show us plenty more of the style.
Since the breathing techniques demon hunters employ are based on swordplay, many of their combat stances heavily rely on bladed weaponry. The same holds true with Tanjiro, however he doesn’t always require a sword to deal a fatal blow. In fact, he carries a weapon on his body, thus even when he doesn’t carry any other weapons, he is still well equipped.
Tanjiro’s skull has proven to be an incredibly powerful weapon in a pinch; it is so hard that a good headbutt is more than capable of rendering an opponent unconscious without harming Tanjiro. Tanjiro has limited experience fighting demons when he and Nezuko first face off against the Temple Demon (voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa and Ben Diskin), but he nevertheless manages to shift the tide of the battle with a few powerful headbutts.
Later, against the masked Inosuke Mashibira, Tanjiro employs a headbutt as a non-lethal finishing blow, showing that he is aware of the power of his rock-hard head (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Bryce Papenbrook). Even though Inosuke is a rather tough individual, the impact is more than enough to knock him out. More impressively still, Tanjiro employs the tactic later on—while wearing handcuffs, no less—against the formidable Sanemi Shinazugawa (Tomokazu Seki and Kaiji Tang).
One of Tanjiro’s most notable abilities isn’t really harmful, but it’s still very useful. Tanjiro’s senses are all greatly increased, as is customary for demon slayers, but it turns out that one of them is already quite potent. Tanjiro exhibits an incredibly superior sense of smell even as a young trainee, which enables his nose to function in a way that gives him a sixth sense of sorts.
Tanjiro’s olfactory skills are so well developed that he can use his nose to understand his environment to an amazing extent. He has the ability to smell traps when working with Sakonji, and after defeating the Hand Demon, he can actually smell its feelings.
Tanjiro’s sense of smell grows from its already amazing baseline condition as his skills increase. He can use his bloodhound-like nose to track demons as a demon slayer, tracing their scent across great distances and even foreseeing their assaults when they try to attack him.