Demon Slayer: Was Gen’ya a Hashira? No, He Didn’t Even Have His Own Breathing Style!

When one decides to talk about Demon Slayer, one usually talks about the demon slayers themselves or the demons. And while the series has offered us a variety of other intriguing characters, we will talk about one specific Demon Slayer – Gen’ya Shinazugawa, Sanemi’s brother – in this particular article. Gen’ya is a very interesting character because of his unlikable personality and how it reflects his relationship with the Demon Slayer Corps. Building on that fact, we have decided, in this article, to tell you a bit about his skills and his evolution as a character. Namely, in our text, you will find out whether Gen’ya Shinazugawa eventually became a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps in the future.

Although Gen’ya eventually does become as powerful, and he did play a major role in defeating two Upper Ranks (Four and One), he never actually becomes a Hashira himself. There are three reasons for this: first of all, he died while fighting the Upper-Rank One; secondly, he had no Breathing Style of his own; and thirdly, the Demon Slayer Corps were disbanded after Muzan’s defeat.

The rest of this article will provide you with more information about Gen’ya Shinazugawa, his powers, and his story within the Demon Slayer series. We will explain how his powers evolved and when and how he reached the power level that could have made him a Hashira. We will also expand on the story of why he did not become a Hashira.

Gen’ya had the necessary level of power to become a Hashira

After the Final Selection, Gen’ya worked hard to become a Hashira. This has to do with his childhood tragedy. Namely, Gen’ya and his siblings were left alone with their caring mother, who was – at one point – turned into a demon and then attacked them. Sanemi jumped on her to protect Gen’ya and the others (who were, sadly, already dead) while Gen’ya was recovering from the injuries.

He wanted to get a doctor, but while on the way, he found Sanemi with a knife above their mother’s corpse. He accused his brother of being a murderer, creating a rift between them that lasted until the final battle against Kokushibō when Gen’ya died.

Gen’ya did not know at the time that their mother was turned into a Demon and that Sanemi had to kill her; when he found out the truth, he tried to apologize to Sanemi, but he would not listen. That is why Gen’ya decided to become a Demon Slayer, hoping that he could come closer to his brother as a Demon Slayer. This is why he also worked hard to become a Hashira – as Sanemi was the Wind Hashira – and why he, during the fight with Hantengu, told Tanjirō to leave Hantengu to him, as he wanted to slay him to become a Hashira.

Going back to Gen’ya’s abilities, we can confirm that he was powerful enough to become a Hashira. After becoming one of the members of the Demon Slayer Corps, Gen’ya Shinazugawa possessed quite a high level of strength and surpassed an average person. His strength was greatly increased after using his Demonic Transformation ability, and he could take on members of the Twelve Kizuki, such as Hantengu and Kokushibo. His level of physical stamina surpassed that of most Slayers, allowing him to endure severe pain and survive fatal injuries, as demonstrated when he lost one of his teeth in the middle of training or when one of the Hantengu clones speared him.

Every time he recited a portion of the Amida Sūtra, his speed rose to new heights, giving him more control over his powers and making him practically undetectable to both humans and demons. He was a member of the Demon Slayer Corps, but what made him so special was that he could not perfect any Breathing Technique.

To compensate for his lack of talents, he trained under Gyōmei Himejima, mastering the Repetitive Action technique that allowed him to focus intently and fully open his five senses, as well as enhancing all of his physical prowess and proficiency with Nichirin weaponry. He didn’t use any Breathing Styles, yet he was nonetheless an expert swordsman who could move with Nichirin swords with amazing agility. Additionally, he was skilled at moving around while brandishing a sword and using pistols. He could quickly remove a demon’s head thanks to his accurate shooting.

By consuming the living flesh of a Demon, Gen’ya could also assume demonic characteristics for a short time. Depending on his strength, he might gain regenerative abilities and physical powers similar to one. And while all of this confirms what we have said, Gen’ya never actually became a Hashira, and we are now going to explain why that was.

Gen’ya did not become a Hashira because of three principal reasons

As we have established above, Gen’ya Shinazugawa reached the necessary level of power to become a Hashira, but he never became one, and there are three main reasons why he never became one. The principal reason why he never became a Hashira is, of course, because he died while fighting the Upper-Rank One.

After a fierce battle, Kokushibō was dead, but so were Gen’ya and Muichiro, who had been injured so badly that there was no way of saving them; in fact, Muichiro’s body was mutilated by Kokushibō, so there really was nothing anyone could do. Gen’ya managed to reconcile with his brother after this battle but perished; still, his sacrifice was not in vain. And this is the primary reason why Gen’ya never became a Hashira, but there was time for him to become a Hashira before his death, which brings us to the two other reasons.

We know that there are two ways of becoming a Hashira: having a demon kill count of at least 50 as a Kinoe-ranked Demon Slayer, killing a member of the Twelve Kizuki, or becoming the Tsuguko of a Hashira, i.e., their designated successor. Now, Gen’ya might have killed 50 demons (we don’t really know), but while he did participate in both Hantengu’s and Kokushibō’s deaths, he did not kill the Upper-Rank Four (it was Tanjirō who eventually killed him, although Gen’ya told him to leave it to him so he could become a Hashira), and he died after helping kill the Upper-Rank One.

So he probably did not meet this condition. On the other hand, he might have – informally at least – been Himejima’s Tsuguko, as he was seen training with him, but Himejima was alive at the time, so Gen’ya could not have succeeded him, and there is also the issue of Gen’ya not having a Breathing Style of his own, which also probably hindered his rise.

The third reason is a hypothetical one. Namely, had Gen’ya survived the final battle, he certainly would have met the conditions to become a Hashira, but he would then be faced with the same sad fact as Tanjirō, Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Kanao, all of whom reached the necessary level to become a Hashira, and that is the following: after Muzan’s defeat, Demons ceased to exist, and the Demon Slayer Corps were simply disbanded, meaning that there were no Hashira anymore. This means that even if Gen’ya had survived the final battle and learned a Breathing Style, he still wouldn’t have become a Hashira.