How Fast Was Yoriichi? (Compared to Other Hashira & Demons)
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 are going to talk about one specific Demon Slayer – Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the strongest Demon Slayer in history – in this particular article. Yoriichi Tsugikuni is an exceptionally intriguing character and is known as the strongest Demon Slayer in the history of the Corps. Building on that fact, in this article, we have decided to tell you a bit about his powers and abilities, focusing solely on his speed and how he would fare against numerous other characters from the Demon Slayer series in that exact category.
The article is going to be divided into two major parts. The first one will briefly introduce Yoriichi as a character and tell you just how fas he was, while the other one will be a short comparison of Yoriichi Tsugikuni’s speed to the speeds of other characters, divided into several subsections. These will not be detailed analyses, just brief comments so you can understand Yoriichi Tsugikuni’s position in the Demon Slayer lore in this category
Yoriichi Tsugikuni’s speed was amazing
Yoriichi Tsugikuni is a major supporting character in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. During the Sengoku Era, he was a legendary Demon Slayer of the Demon Slayer Corps. Yoriichi is the younger twin brother of Michikatsu Tsugikuni, who later became a demon and joined the Twelve Demonic Moons, serving as Upper-Rank One.
Yoriichi was an incredibly strong warrior. During his training to become a Demon Slayer, he could already defeat numerous Demons; his brother, Michikatsu, stated that even as a child, Yoriichi could defeat him in his adult age. He remains the only Demon Slayer who defeated Muzan Kibutsuji in a fight, making him flee to save his life; otherwise, Yoriichi would have killed him. He was also able to overpower Kokushibo, the Upper Moon One. Yoriichi also developed the original Sun Breathing Style that was later used by Sumiyoshi, who gave it the name Hinokami Kagura.
During his fight with his demonized brother, Yoriichi was – despite being old and blind – still able to overpower his brother and slice his throat, nearly killing him, while the latter never really managed to react, before ultimately succumbing to his own injuries. Kokushibo himself admitted that Yoriichi had been able to land a second blow to his neck before dying. He definitely would have died, even though Yoriichi was old and blind at the time.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni was also exceptionally fast, especially for a human. This was demonstrated during his fight with Muzan, where he could counter all of his demonic abilities and overpower him with relative ease. Also, as we have said above, well into his 80s and completely blind, Yoriichi could slice Kokushibo’s throat so quickly that Kokushibo did not see it and couldn’t even draw his sword before almost being killed.
How fast was Yoriichi Tsugikuni compared to other Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba characters?
This section will compare Yoriichi Tsugikuni to some other fast Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba characters. These will be brief comparisons whose main goal is to give you a general idea of how he compares to them in terms of speed.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni vs. Tanjiro Kamado
Tanjiro can move quicker than the human eye can see, outpace Sabito, a master swordsman, and react to the dazzling movement speeds of demons thanks to his extraordinary speed and reaction time. Tanjiro’s speed improves even more after activating his Demon Slayer Mark to the point where Akaza is unable to process his movements in time.
Tanjiro acquires incredibly quick reflexes after activating his Demon Slayer Mark, enabling him to avoid and respond to strikes from Akaza and the Demon King, Muzan Kibutsuji. Tanjiro never actually surpassed Muzan, even in his Demon King form, which means that he was never faster than Yoriichi, as Yoriichi was faster than Muzan when the two of them clashed.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni vs. the Hashira
This is a very versatile category, and while it usually depends on whom the protagonist is being compared to – in this case, we can only affirm our strong belief that Yoriichi was actually faster than all of the Hashira. We don’t actually know how fast the Hashira were, but we do know fast they are when compared to each other:
- Tengen Uzui
- Sanemi Shinazugawa
- Gyomei Himejima
- Shinobu Kocho
- Kyojuro Rengoku
- Giyu Tomioka
- Obanai Iguro (who ran in a snake-like, zig-zag manner and is probably faster)
- Muichiro Tokito
- Mitsuri Kanroji (who ran right after a meal)
Tengen Uzui, as the Sound Hashira, would probably be the only Hashira who would pose somewhat of a challenge for Yoriichi, but we don’t think that even he would be able to outrun Yoriichi. People usually don’t have a proper perception of Yoriichi because he was not in the forefront, but the guy defeated Muzan, and he sliced Kokushibo’s throat when he was old and blind, leaving the latter no time even to draw his sword out. Tengen, the fastest among the Hashira, lost a limb to the Upper Moon Six, which is not something to be ashamed of, but that is simply not even close to Yoriichi’s level.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni vs. Zenitsu
Zenitsu Agatsuma is one of the Demon Slayer anime’s swiftest characters. Because he studied the Thunder Breathing technique, Zenitsu’s swordsmanship depended on his raw speed. He blitzes his opponents and vanquishes them with a single, blinding blow using his speed and agility. Still, Zenitsu is not even close to being the fastest character in the series, as he is not even faster than most of the Hashira. This is why Yoriichi is udoubtedly faster than Zenitsu as well.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni vs. Muzan
Muzan may strike a common person with his claws and infect them with his blood quickly enough for no one to notice because of his speed. Even when one of his Lower Moons attempted to flee from him and managed to go a fair distance without Nakime’s assistance, he quickly beheaded him.
He also showed his amazing speed when he managed to grab Gyokko’s head from a hidden room in the Infinity Castle without anyone noticing it. And yet, this superfast Muzan was no match for Yoriichi when they faced off several centuries ago. Yoriichi managed to overpower Muzan, and had it not been for one of his regenerative tricks, Muzan would have died. This is why we’re certain that Yoriichi was faster than Muzan.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni vs. Kokushibo
Kokushibo had incredible speed, probably much exceeding that of all the other Kizuki, as evidenced by the fact that he severed Akaza’s limb before the latter even understood what had happened. He often demonstrated his incredible speed. He could easily outperform Muichiro’s techniques at first, moving so quickly that it appeared as he had teleported.
Kokushibo’s speed, according to Muichiro, was in a different dimension than his own. Despite having his arm severed just as he arrived, Kokushibo could ” teleport” to the area where Genya was shooting him with his shotgun before the shots could reach him. He then quickly severed his second arm and body, giving the impression that he was not even moving.
And yet, all of this was not enough to counter Yoriichi. When the two of them were fighting, an 80+-year-old Yoriichi, who was also completely blind, was able to slice Kokushibo’s neck before Kokushibo could even draw his blade. This proves that Yoriichi was significantly faster than Kokushibo, despite all of his demonic abilities.
Yoriichi Tsugikuni vs. the remaining Twelve Kizuki
Doma is the only Demon that could match up to Muzan’s and Kokushibo’s speed in some was, as he is able to move faster than the human eye perceives; along with his amazing regeneration skills, this is definitely his forte. He had demonstrated this ability on numerous occasions, for example, when he killed one of his cultists in front of Shinobu, but Shinobu did not notice what happened until later when the woman’s body simply exploded.
He was also able to avoid Kanao’s superhuman sight and steal her sword, as well as to avoid her Flower Breathing. He also stole Inosuke’s boar mask once without anyone noticing. Akaza is also incredibly quick, as evidenced by moving at such high speeds during his battle with Kyojuro that even Tanjiro Kamado and Inosuke Hashibira were unable to see him, but that is not on Yoriichi’s level. The other Demons cannot really be compared to Yoriichi in this aspect.
Having said all of this, we can only simply affirm that Yoriichi is faster than all the remaining Kizuki. Namely, Yoriichi was faster than both Muzan and Kokushibo, and since Doma was the only Demon close to them in terms of speed – but he was not faster – we can only deduce that he is no match for Yoriichi, and neither are the other Kizuki.