Demon Slayer: Who Is Zohakuten? Meet Hantengu’s Hatred Demon

We already saw the action picking up in the events of episode 3 of the Swordsmith Village arc in Demon Slayer as Hantengu finally showed himself to Tanjiro and Muichiro. It didn’t take time for him to reveal his power when he split into two and then four powerful demons that gave Tanjiro and the others a lot of trouble. But Zohakuten, the most powerful Hantengu form, is yet to be revealed. So, who is Zohakuten in Demon Slayer?

Zohakuten is the most powerful form of Hantengu and combines all of his four clones. He represents Hantengu’s hatred, so he is often called the Hatred Demon. On top of using all of the clones’ abilities, he can produce wooden dragon-like attacks.

While the four clones are already quite troublesome for Tanjiro and the Demon Slayers, Zohakuten will only worsen matters as he is the most powerful form of Hantengu and is set to push the tempo to a different level. After all, he is the combination of four powerful demons already as strong as Upper-Rank demons. Now, let’s look at what we know about Zohakuten.

Zohakuten’s Background Explained

Episode 3 of Demon Slayer season 3 already allowed us to see all of Hantengu’s clones revealing themselves. This happened when Hantengu showed up to surprise both Tanjiro and Muichiro but was quickly beheaded by the Mist Hashira. However, the demon split into two different demons and eventually four demons after Genya shot the heads off of the first two demons and decapitated them.

The four demons that appeared were Sekido, Karaku, Aizetsu, and Urogi. All four of these demons are strong enough to make life miserable for Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Genya, as they all have the strengths of Upper-Rank demons. And they all represented one of Hantengu’s different emotions. However, we are yet to see the most powerful manifestation of Hantengu’s emotions.

Zohakuten is the combination of all four different clones created by Hantengu. Unlike the manly appearances of the four clones, Zohakuten looks like a child and is shorter than the four clones. He also has narrow orange eyes with the kanji of Upper Rank and Four written on them. And like Sekido, he is often seen with an angry scowl on his face due to his status as the Hatred Demon.

On top of his unique appearance, Zohakuten also has a series of drums connected to each other and floating behind his drum. Each drum has the kanji of hatred on them. And he also has a set of clothes quite different from the other clones.

As the manifestation of Hantengu’s hatred for everyone and everything, Zohakuten is similar to the Anger Demon Sekido. After all, Sekido served as the base for creating Zohakuten after he absorbed all of the other clones to create the Hatred Demon. And because anger and hatred are very similar to one another, Zohakuten shares a lot of personality traits with Sekido.

Zohakuten is easily enraged and is spiteful and hateful towards his enemies. He is also foul-mouthed like Sekido and often insults his opponents. At one point, he even referred to Mitsuri as a harlot due to her clothes.

Unlike all of the other clones, Zohakuten is immensely loyal to Muzan as he says that Muzan is the only person he heeds and follows in the world. He is also the most intelligent out of all of the clones and is quite insightful when it comes to analyzing the different movements and attacks of his opponents. Despite his spiteful nature, he is a very intelligent demon that knows and understands what he needs to do to defeat an opponent.

Zohakuten also has a unique ability that his Blood Demon Art manifests. He can manipulate wood, which often manifests whenever he taps one of the drums on his back. He can use this attack in attack up close or from a far distance as he often uses this attack to form massive dragon-like creatures that can stretch up to 20 meters and bite or swallow his targets. 

The same dragons are also powerful enough to crush Zohakuten’s opponents inside their mouths. On top of that, he can create more dragon heads from the dragon heads that he created so that they can increase the length of the original dragons.

On top of his unique Blood Demon Art, Zohakuten can use the Blood Demon Arts of the four demon clones that combined to create him. But he can use their attacks as part of his own to make them more powerful than ever. That is why he can create powerful gushes of wind, generate lightning strikes, emit powerful sound waves, and use spear-like attacks out of thin air. And he can even combine these attacks with the wooden dragon he can create using his own Blood Demon Art.

In that regard, Zohakuten is the strongest out of all of the different forms of Hantengu, even if he isn’t the true body. He can easily match Mitsuri in a fight as he forces the Love Hashira to use her Demon Slayer mark to fight on even terms. However, as Zohakuten noted, he would have won his fight with Mitsuri because he knew she would run out of stamina due to the massive demands of the Demon Slayer mark. And had it not been for the sunrise and Hantengu’s death, Zohakuten would have been able to defeat Mitsuri.

What Happens to Zohakuten in Demon Slayer?

During the Swordsmith Village arc events, the clones kept Tanjiro, Genya, and Nezuko at bay as they were more than a match for them. However, the arrival of Mitsuri changed things up because the clones understood that they wouldn’t win with the presence of the Love Hashira as she was still one of the strongest members of the Demon Slayer Corps. As such, that was when Sekido grabbed the other clones and absorbed them against their will to create Zohakuten, the combination of all four of the clones.

Zohakuten, the Hatred Demon, protected the miniature version of Hantengu, which Tanjiro and the others believed was the true body of Hantengu. As such, he used his immense power to make things difficult for Tanjiro and the Demon Slayers while protecting the smaller Hantengu from them. But Tanjiro was successful at decapitating the miniature Hantengu, only for him to realize that this was not the real body of the demon.

The headless body of Hantengu ran away from Tanjiro, as Mitsuri was left to face Zohakuten all on her own so that the others could pursue the Fear Demon and kill him. Eventually, Zohakuten forced Mitsuri to awaken her Demon Slayer mark. That was when she fought him to a standstill, as nothing that Zohakuten did work against Mitsuri. However, he noted that Mitsuri would eventually run out of stamina and would become vulnerable enough for him.

However, Tanjiro caught up with the headless Hantengu and realized that the real Hantengu’s head was hiding inside the body’s heart. That was when he sliced the torso to kill Hantengu, as Zohakuten died soon after Tanjiro successfully killed the real Hantengu. And Mitsuri was relieved at Zohakuten’s death as she might have understood that she wouldn’t have been able to defeat the powerful demon had it not been for Tanjiro’s efforts.