Kamado Tanjiro

The family consists of his father (Tanjuro), mother (Kie), three younger brothers (Takeo, Shigeru, Rokuta), and two younger sisters (Nezuko, Hanako). Except for his father, who passed away earlier, and Nezuko, they all die in an attack by Muzan Kibutsuji. Later, Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps to turn Nezuko, who has become a demon, back into a human and avenge his family.

Similar to his younger brother, he has messy red hair that sticks up, with bangs that reveal his forehead, and clear, deep red eyes. When he first appeared, his original hairstyle was a long ponytail that reached his shoulders, but after Nezuko became a demon, he got into a fight with Giyu Tomioka, who cut his hair into a short style with his sword. Later, while training under Sakonji Urokodaki for two years, he didn't have time to fix his hair, so it grew long again, and before the final selection, he cut it himself with scissors, resulting in his current hairstyle.

Unusually for a shonen manga protagonist, he has a gentle impression with drooping eyes. Perhaps because of this, compared to other shonen manga protagonists who emphasize their strong and ambitious sides even with good personalities, his kind and gentle side is more emphasized. In the original work, due to the art style, he is depicted with sanbaku eyes, but in the anime and anime merchandise illustrations, he is often drawn with four-eyed eyes, which look somewhat eerie, except in some situations, which divides opinions. Some fans who don't like the original art style even prefer Tanjiro in the original art to Tanjiro in the anime art.

His most prominent features are the scar on the left side of his forehead and the hanafuda-shaped earrings. The scar on his forehead was caused by a burn when he shielded his younger brother Takeo from a falling brazier, and Tanjiro's father, Tanjuro, had a slight birthmark from birth.

Although he is depicted as quite cute or handsome in illustrations, he is not described as handsome in the work. According to the author, he is closer to being ugly. At best, he is of average appearance, and even then, the scar on the left side of his forehead is considered unsightly.

His attire consists of a dark red Demon Slayer uniform and a green haori with the Kamado family's characteristic checkered pattern, which he has worn since childhood, and white gaiters on his ankles.

As is typical for shonen manga, the protagonist usually grows not only in combat power but also in character, but Tanjiro's character was already complete from the very beginning. He is very warm-hearted and kind, and even felt pity for demons, initially receiving criticism from Urokodaki that he was unfit to be a Demon Slayer.

However, immediately after dispatching the Hand Demon, he abandoned his indecisiveness and solidified his attitude towards demons. While he ruthlessly punishes demons for their evil deeds, he prays for their happy lives after they have atoned for their sins.

In the Mugen Train arc, a young man who entered Tanjiro's subconscious was speechless at the incredibly pure and clean scenery, and when he reached the core of his mind, he collapsed and cried.

Incidentally, that person had entered Tanjiro's subconscious to destroy the core of his mind, and a person whose core of mind is destroyed becomes a vegetable. Tanjiro's subconscious, knowing that this man intended to kill him, helped him.

In the end, the young man, who had become worn out by a terminal illness, regained his original kind personality despite only receiving a part of Tanjiro's heart. Even demons were comforted by Tanjiro's actions, showing how warm and thoughtful he is.[21]

Tanjiro has healed more than one person in the series. However, many also react that they cannot empathize with Tanjiro's character because his goodness is too unrealistic.[22] For example, the mother of the Spider Demon family killed many people, and Tanjiro was furious, but when she was on the verge of death, she gave up resisting and offered her neck, so he sent her to nirvana with a gentle beheading instead of a sleeping cut.

Furthermore, he is so honest that if he tries to lie, he experiences a physiological rejection reaction where his face contorts, making it impossible for him to lie.

However, as the saying goes, 'When a good person gets angry, they are scary,' when he truly gets angry, his usual demeanor disappears, and he appears completely different, with an ominous atmosphere.

As the protagonist, his skills grow most dramatically in the series. Among Urokodaki Sakonji's disciples, he cut the largest and hardest rock, and in the final selection, he cut a demon that even Sabito, who had exceptional talent, could not cut.[1] Tanjiro was not more talented than Sabito, but through sparring with Sabito's spirit, he inherited his will, improved his own lacking skills, and ultimately filled the gap in talent.

He also receives favorable evaluations from the Pillars, who are considered the pinnacle of the Demon Slayer Corps, and is trusted to carry out missions together. Although it wasn't an evaluation of his skills, the protagonist trio was told by the Flame Hashira that he believed they would become the next Pillars, and they are recognized as potential future Pillars. Even if he is not a genius like Muichiro who immediately reached the Pillar position, Tanjiro's talent is highly regarded in the series. Tanjiro's greatest strength lies in his diligent personality, as he honestly accepts advice from others, is not ashamed to seek guidance, and grows through persistent and steady effort without giving up. This is the epitome of an ideal shonen manga protagonist, and it perfectly embodies Tanjiro's own message that there are no shortcuts to becoming stronger. Although he seems to grow rapidly in the series, the content reveals that he puts in tremendous effort during that time.

While he has high talent, Tanjiro's true strength lies in his pure perseverance and hard work. In fact, during the Total Concentration training, Inosuke and Zenitsu's growth was much slower than Tanjiro's because their personality was 'I hate steady effort the most,' and when combined with Tanjiro's anxiety about his growth and Shinobu's encouragement, they mastered Total Concentration in a shorter period than Tanjiro. However, the fact that he ultimately grows faster than them is remarkable.

He has good stamina, as he usually carries Nezuko on his back. In fact, even before becoming a Demon Slayer, he worked as a charcoal burner in the mountains, repeatedly going down to the village to sell charcoal and come back up, so his stamina couldn't be bad.[12] After being taken in by Urokodaki, he trained in a place with much thinner oxygen than the mountain he lived in, to the point of almost dying, and learned breathing techniques, so his physical abilities became much stronger than those of ordinary peers.[13] Also, when training with Gyomei Himejima, his upper body is exposed, and he is quite muscular.[14]

In the final selection, Genya, who passed with him, was overpowered by Tanjiro's strength and broke his arm.[15] Inosuke, who lived in the wild, learned breathing on his own without a teacher, and had keen senses, could not dodge Tanjiro's enraged punch and broke his ribs. In the subsequent battle between the two, Tanjiro was outmatched in speed, but he dodged all effective hits, showing that Tanjiro's combat sense was superior to Inosuke's. This bizarre physical ability began to strengthen further after mastering Constant Total Concentration Breathing.

After learning repetitive movements and receiving group training from the Pillars, he became strong enough to push large rocks, and after mastering the Transparent World, his speed increased, leading to even faster growth. After seeing Yoriichi's appearance through a memory vision and mastering the Sun Breathing, he became strong enough to keep up with Muzan's movements.

Furthermore, along with Nezuko, it seems to be a hereditary ability of the Kamado bloodline that their recovery through sleep is astonishing. Nezuko, his younger sister, has survived solely through sleep without consuming humans since becoming a demon, and her combat power has even increased over time. Tanjiro also experienced an increase in scars on his body over time, but he recovered his stamina through several months of sleep and became stronger than before. Both siblings have met their father in dreams and received help, suggesting that gaining energy from sleep might be a special ability of the Kamado family.

He has an incredible headbutt.[16] Tanjiro's mother was also known for her headbutts, having once chased away a wild boar with a headbutt, suggesting he inherited it from her. While it might seem like a gag, he has effectively used headbutts in battles so far, consistently landing effective hits on his opponents.

After Kyogai fell and escaped the mansion, Inosuke tried to kill Nezuko in the box, but he was hit by Tanjiro's headbutt, cracking his skull, putting him in a groggy state, and eventually causing him to collapse and faint. Even when headbutting demons, the demons feel pain. In the Mugen Train arc, he is hit by Nezuko's headbutt while asleep, but Nezuko's head bleeds, and even Sanemi, the Wind Hashira, is knocked down by a single direct headbutt and cannot get up for a while.

He can even perform応用動作 (applied movements), sometimes spinning in a spiral. Sometimes, it seems like his headbutt is his last resort.

As Tanjiro's core ability, his sense of smell allowed him to locate the progenitor of demons, whom even the Pillars could not touch. With a sense of smell comparable to that of animals, he can meticulously identify even the faintest scents. His sense of smell is not just good; it's superhuman, to the point where he can smell the faint scent of a cat left on a broken plate.[23] By smelling, he can read the thoughts of animals, which allowed him to read Nezuko's thoughts when she couldn't speak, and also to sense the anger of Shinobu Kocho, who usually doesn't express her anger outwardly. However, the accuracy of his reading and the extent to which he can communicate vary depending on the animal. With the wild boar he rescued from the mountains, he could only read its thoughts as 'wanting to repay,' and Tanjiro's words were not properly conveyed. It is particularly difficult to communicate with insects. On the other hand, he could communicate somewhat with Jyakutaro, likely because this sparrow is a member of the Demon Slayer Corps and possesses high intelligence.

During battles, this ability serves excellently for detecting demons and gauging their strength, further enhancing Tanjiro's combat prowess. Specifically, after learning the Total Concentration Breathing, the ability materializes as a "thread of the gap" connecting the opponent's openings, and if he strikes with his sword along this thread, he can almost always hit the mark. However, just because he can see it doesn't mean he can defeat them; if the opponent is too strong, the thread will disappear midway.

Meanwhile, due to his sense of smell, Tanjiro has a painful past where he always had to be the first to notice unfortunate events. It was young Tanjiro who first discovered the deaths of his grandmother and father, and he was also the first to notice and inform people when someone died in the village. This is why Tanjiro said in the first episode, "When happiness breaks, there's always the smell of blood."

Separate from mere talent, he has an incredibly good combat sense. Even when he knew nothing about combat techniques, he managed to surprise Giyu by throwing his axe upwards first and then feigning an advance with the axe, and he subdued a demon even when he didn't know much about them.

Although his straightforward personality might suggest a charge-first approach, he actually uses his brain significantly in this work. This is further highlighted in the Natagumo Mountain arc due to Inosuke's simple-mindedness; while Inosuke was flustered upon discovering the headless demon, Tanjiro calmly suggested cutting the shoulder at an angle to sever the neck. This intellectual battle truly shone in his fight against Akaza, as he constantly thought about Akaza's usual fighting spirit and figured out the abilities of his blood demon art to devise a strategy.

In summary, while he may not have exceptional analytical skills or be outstanding at planning strategies, he possesses a considerable level of emotional stability [31] and is excellent at identifying the key aspects for attacking opponents during a fight.

Additionally, his throwing skills are very good.

Water Breathing: A breathing technique Tanjiro learned from Sakonji Urokodaki. Initially, he couldn't use it properly because he didn't understand it, but with the help of Sabito and Makomo, he came to understand it and began to use it in earnest. As the name suggests, Water Breathing is flexible and has techniques that can be used with power even underwater.

While there are originally only 10 forms, Tanjiro also creates variations of the existing forms. For a while, he used it as his primary breathing style, but it didn't quite match Tanjiro's constitution, and he began to see its limitations when facing the Twelve Kizuki. He then began training in Hinokami Kagura, a breathing technique he learned from his father. However, since Tanjiro is not a chosen user and Hinokami Kagura consumes a lot of stamina, he uses it in conjunction with Water Breathing, and Tanjiro has no intention of abandoning what he has learned.

More precisely, like the first swordsmiths, he is optimizing Water Breathing and Hinokami Kagura by mixing them to suit his constitution.

As the story progresses, he mainly uses Water Breathing for defensive purposes. This is because, against powerful opponents like the Upper Rank Twelve Kizuki, Tanjiro's level of Water Breathing mastery is insufficient to inflict damage, and Water Breathing offers better defense than Sun Breathing.

First Form: Water Surface Slash: A basic, simple horizontal slash.

Second Form: Water Wheel: A leaping attack that spins the user in the air, creating a water wheel-like trajectory.

Modified Form: Horizontal Water Wheel: A variation of the Water Wheel developed by Tanjiro, which, unlike the original, is performed horizontally.

Third Form: Flowing Dance: A mobile attack where the user moves rapidly in a winding water current-like trajectory, slashing everything in their path.

Fourth Form: Striking Tide: A technique involving several powerful sword slashes, which Tanjiro used to defeat the demons he first encountered during the selection test. Tanjiro can replicate the winding water current but can only slash an opponent once, whereas Giyu literally shatters his opponents with the same technique.

Fifth Form: Blessed Rain After Drought: This technique causes almost no pain to those who are cut by it and is only used on demons who offer their own necks. It has only appeared once in the series, and apart from the lack of pain, there is no detailed explanation of the sword's trajectory or the technique's difficulty, but it is clearly a powerful technique.

Sixth Form: Whirlpool: A wide-area attack where the user twists their entire body, creating a spiraling vortex of slashes that are unleashed in all directions. This is said to be the most suitable Water Breathing technique for use underwater. Thanks to this technique, Water Breathing swordsmen can exhibit overwhelming power in or near water compared to on land. When used on land, it is a simple area-of-effect slash, but when used underwater or in a similar environment, it creates a massive whirlpool that tears apart approaching opponents.

Seventh Form: Plunge, and then a sudden strike: A thrusting technique. It is the fastest and most accurate form in Water Breathing, piercing the enemy with a single thrust. A variation is Plunge, and then a sudden strike, curve.

Eighth Form: Waterfall Basin: A technique where the user strikes down with their sword with the force of a waterfall. It is a type of area-of-effect attack that can slash multiple targets within its range simultaneously. Since it is based on simply bringing the sword down, it can be used in mid-air, and it seems to put a considerable burden on the user's body.

Ninth Form: Spout, and then a sudden surge: An evasion technique that minimizes the landing time and area during movement to dodge enemy attacks. A variation, Spout, and then a sudden surge - Flowing, allows for free movement on walls and ceilings within a confined space.

Final Form: Ten Thousand Forms: Flowing Water: The strongest form of Water Breathing. It involves wielding a sword aura shaped like a water dragon, increasing the power of the slashes with rotation. The more consecutive attacks are maintained, the stronger it becomes, making it advantageous in prolonged battles.

Hinokami Kagura: A breathing technique that Tanjiro had learned from his father at a young age but couldn't properly understand or practice, thus unable to use it until now. During the battle with Rui, on the verge of death, he recalled the Kagura his father performed every New Year and the breathing technique, which is the Sun Breathing technique passed down through generations of the Kamado family, asking him to inherit it. Applying this to combat, he first demonstrated it by cutting through the spider silk net, which even the strongest form of Water Breathing, Flowing Water, couldn't cut, with his basic form, Whirlwind.

While there are differences in the basic power and characteristics between breathing techniques, and it is a Kagura passed down through generations of the Kamado family, Tanjiro, inheriting the Kamado bloodline strongly, finds it a better fit for his body, making its power much stronger than when using Water Breathing. However, since it's a breathing technique Tanjiro hasn't used before, his physical capabilities are insufficient to keep up with the techniques. Most importantly, Hinokami Kagura is a swordsmanship twisted into a dance, so it has many unnecessary movements, and his stamina is quickly depleted every time he uses it. In the Natagumo Mountain and Mugen Train arcs, using it even once rendered him unable to move.

It was passed down as Sumiyoshi, Tanjiro's ancestor, observed and imitated Yoriichi's swordsmanship and breathing techniques. Muzan and Kokushibo annihilated all swordsmen who used Sun Breathing and its records, causing the original Sun Breathing to become lost, and only Hinokami Kagura was preserved by the Kamado family in the form of Kagura. The basic principle is a continuous loop of dancing from sunset to dawn, from the first to the twelfth form. It was passed down in this form because Yoriichi's swordsmanship was so fluid and graceful that it was mistaken for a dance, and crucially, Yoriichi, who used Sun Breathing, appeared to Sumiyoshi like a spirit of the sun. Because it was passed down in the form of a dance, it was able to escape the wrath of Muzan and Kokushibo when they eliminated swordsmen who knew Sun Breathing.

However, Sun Breathing itself became 'Satokagura' (village Shinto ritual dance) practiced in modern Japan, and the sword dance using the Seven-Branched Sword as a divine tool, along with subtle changes in wrist movements and strides over centuries of transmission, unfortunately, meant that even this was not a perfect preservation method.

Nevertheless, the movements, breathing techniques, and the original purpose of dancing continuously from evening until dawn are almost accurately inherited.

In the battle with Rui, Tanjiro began to apply the dance and breathing techniques his father Tanjuro performed in his memory vision to swordsmanship. Specifically, Tanjiro applied 'the dance Tanjuro performed' to swordsmanship. In other words, Sun Breathing, which was preserved by transforming it into the dance Hinokami Kagura, was then reapplied to swordsmanship by Tanjiro. This elicited reactions like "To think Kagura can be applied to swordsmanship" from Kyojuro, Tanjiro, and Shinobu.

Whirlwind: A technique that vertically slashes, imbued with the energy of Sun Breathing.

Blue Silk Sky: A technique where the sword is rotated horizontally parallel to the ground, creating a circle. The sword's trajectory resembles the rim of the sun.

He has a flame-like mark on his left forehead. However, unlike other users of the mark, Tanjiro's mark has a somewhat complex story. The mark on his head in the early part is not a real birthmark but a scar from a burn he sustained while protecting his younger brother from a hearth fire. The reason it appeared like a mark was due to a scar from the Hand Demon during the final selection. In other words, the burn scar from childhood, combined with the blood scar from the final selection, resulted in a mark-like appearance. This is why Rengoku Shinjuro, when believing Tanjiro to be a chosen user of Sun Breathing, was denied by Tanjiro himself.