Comparing Demon Slayers and Demons in Demon Slayer is quite intriguing. These two opposing forces in the manga and anime are, by all standards, usually on equal terms when powers are concerned, with their overall abilities dependent on their overall ranks. This is why some stronger demons were able to easily defeat members of the Demon Slayer Corps and vice versa. In this article, we are going to introduce you to two characters – Tengen Uzui and Gyutaro – so we can tell you who would win in a fight between them.
Tengen Uzui is a bit stronger than Gyutaro, from what was shown in the series. Although Gyutaro managed to land a lot of punches, the fact that Tengen was able to defend himself against Gyutaro despite being heavily poisoned and wounded goes to show that he is more powerful than Gyutaro; on top of that, Gyutaro was ultimately defeated by Tanjiro, who was, at the time, weaker than Tengen.
Now that you have the short version of the answer, the rest of the article is going to be divided into three sections, with the first two introducing the characters, their powers, and their abilities. In the end, we’re going to give our final verdict and explanation on why Tengen Uzui is stronger than Gyutaro, even if by a little.
Tengen Uzui and his powers
Tengen Uzui is a major supporting character in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and a major character in the Entertainment District Arc. He is a Demon Slayer in the Demon Slayer Corps and the current Sound Hashira.
Swordsmanship
He uses the Sound Breathing Style, as well as two short blades linked together by an iron chain. In battle, he often uses special bombs that can cause serious damage to the demon. He strikes when he hears that a gap will open in the “song”. Tengen can also stop his heart for a while, as he did against Gyutaro to stop the circulation of the poison.
Sound Breathing
This Breathing Style was developed by Tengen and is unique to him. Using his enhanced sense of hearing, he uses a combat strategy called “scoring”, which involves reading his opponents’ movements and deconstructing them into sound by analyzing the rhythm of their movements. In particular, he uses his modified bombs to couple them to his breath. It has at least five forms, three of which have been revealed:
- First Form: Roar – Tengen raises his twin swords above his head and brings them down with great force while simultaneously creating an explosion with his bombs, causing a loud thunder-like sound.
- Fourth Form: Constant Resounding Slashes – Tengen holds his swords apart and spins them rapidly along with his bombs, making this technique a combination attack and defense.
- Fifth Form: String Performance – Tengen holds one of his swords with an inverted hilt and spins the other using the chain that connects them. He couples this by also throwing plenty of bombs to detonate. This technique was able to defeat an Upper Moon.
Gyutaro and his powers
Gyutaro is one of the primary antagonists of the Entertainment District Arc, and was the former Upper Moon Six before being replaced by Kaigaku upon his death, a rank he shared with his younger sister, Daki.
Overall
Being part of the Twelve Kizuki, Gyutaro possesses superhuman strength and stamina completely unlike that of a conventional demon. To get an idea of how powerful he is, Gyutaro claims to have killed and devoured fifteen Hashita himself. Even though the fight against the hunters was going in their favor, Gyutaro and Daki were able to recover and tip the scales in their favor during the fight.
The other demonstration of his power is the fact of having injured, mutilated and almost killed Tengen Uzui, the Sound Hashira, Tanjiro and Inosuke, who survived thanks to Nezuko’s Demon Blood Art that was able to neutralize the poison present in his blood.
His strength was so overwhelming even in his days as a human being able to easily kill a Samurai and an adult woman bigger and heavier than him. In fact, Muzan later states that if he hadn’t been so arrogant, he probably would have been able to kill them all.
Fighting skills
As part of his human memories, Gyutaro has hardened into an excellent fighter, being skilled enough to match a pillar of Tengen Uzui’s caliber in strength and fighting techniques despite his experience as a Shinobi.
Speed
His speed was such that it reached or exceeded that of the fifth upper moon Gyokko the pillar of sound Tengen uzui could barely follow him, not to say that he could not, incredible reflexes that allowed him to dodge attacks at high speed or even catch a sword with his mouth without any problem.
Stamina
Being a Demon, Gyutaro shows no signs of fatigue when fighting, as his stamina is practically unlimited. Being two beings that form a single body, both brothers by themselves cannot be killed individually, which gives them an air of invincibility, however that proves to be one of their greatest weaknesses since the only 100% safe way to killing him is cutting off his head at the same time as Daki’s.
Regeneration
Being one of the Twelve Kizuki and the Upper Moon Six, its regeneration quality far exceeds that of common Demons. Gyutaro is even capable of grasping a Nichirin Sword with his teeth without it doing considerable damage to him.
Poison
He proved to have the ability to have poison in his scythes, poison that was deadly if it was not locked quickly, this poison would end the life of the sound pillar Tengen Uzui if it were not for Nezuko Kamado who saved him with his own Demon Blood Art.
Tengen Uzui vs Gyutaro: Who would win?
And now for the most important and interesting section of our article – the analysis. Here, we are going to use what we have found out about these two characters and analyze how all these facts would (or would not) help them in a fight against each other. Let us continue.
As we could have seen, Tengen Uzui is one of the more powerful Hashira and had it not been for his generally laid-back attitude, he could’ve been even more powerful. On the other hand, Gyutaro is also one of the stronger members of the Twelve Kizuki, which makes him not just a formidable opponent, but also a demon that is especially difficult to kill.
Although it was Tanjiro who ultimately sliced off Gyutaro’s head, effectively killing him, Tengen is the one who helped facilitate that. Their duel was an epic one and from it, we could gather two things – one, Tengen is extremely skilled and very hard to defeat despite his attitude and, two, Gyutaro is not as invincible as you’d think he is.
Gyutaro, at one point, does come off as almost invincible, but Tengen managed to weaken him so much that Tanjiro actually had a relatively easy job in decapitating him. It is interesting, though, to note that Tengen managed to endure extremely heavy injuries, injuries that would certainly have brought down someone weaker than him, and that he was able to fight off Gyutaro (albeit solely through defending, because his offensive capabilities had been limited) while being heavily poisoned.
All of this is proof enough for us that Tengen Uzui is stronger than Gyutaro, even if the difference between them is very small. This is why we ultimately decided to award this victory to Tengen and not Gyutaro.