Who Is Demon King Tanjiro & How Strong Is He Compared to Other Anime Heroes?
The story of Tanjiro Kamado, the protagonist of Demon Slayer, is one of the more intriguing ones in the history of anime and manga. Namely, after almost losing all of his family to Muzan Kibutsuji, the evil lord of the Demons, Tanjiro set out to become a Demon Slayer so he could kill the Demon that killed his family members. He eventually did exactly that, but he almost became a Muzan-like Demon himself along the way. This form is known as Demon King Tanjiro and in this article, we are going to tell you who Demon King Tanjiro is and how strong he was.
Demon King Tanjiro is a name given to Tanjiro Kamado’s final Demonic form after he had been turned into a Demon by Muzan Kibutsuji. It was Muzan’s final attempt at destroying Tanjiro, but he was ultimately unsuccessful thanks to the efforts of Tanjiro’s sister, Nezuko Kamado, and Kanao. He was supposed to be the strongest Demon in history, being both immune to sunlight and unkillable because no one else knew the Sun Breathing Style.
The rest of this article is going to focus on Demon King Tanjiro, the final iteration of both Tanjiro Kamado and the late Muzan Kibutsuji. This was Muzan’s last attempt to wholly destroy Tanjiro but it ultimately failed, despite Demon King Tanjiro being extremely powerful. Spoilers from the manga are going to be present, so be careful how you approach the article.
Who is Demon King Tanjiro?
Demon King Tanjiro is a name given to Tanjiro Kamado’s final Demonic form, after he had been turned into a Demon by Muzan Kibutsuji. It was Muzan’s final attempt at destroying Tanjiro, but he was ultimately unsuccessful thanks to the efforts of Tanjiro’s sister, Nezuko Kamado, and Kanao. In this section, we are going to tell you all the narrative details concerning the character.
The events that led to Tanjiro becoming a Demon actually happened after Muzan Kibutsuji’s death. Namely, the Demon Slayers ultimately managed to defeat Muzan, although at a great cost. As he was dying, Muzan pondered about his life and the meaning of immortality, realizing – with tears in his eyes, mind you – that he would never achieve it. He then comes up with an idea – Tanjiro could be the one to carry out his plan! Having immunity to sunlight like Nezuko, and being unkillable due to being the only one who knows the Sun Breathing technique, Tanjiro would become the most powerful Demon in history and would truly be immortal and could carry out Muzan’s plan as he had intended originally.
Having realized that, Muzan Kibutsuji makes a final effort and pumps absolutely all of his remaining blood into Tanjiro Kamado, which turned him into the entity known as Demon King Tanjiro.
In his new demonic form, Tanjiro began fighting the Demon Slayer Corps. He first fights Giyu Tomioka and Inosuke Hashibara, who fail to defeat him. Nezuko, meanwhile, urges Tanjiro not to let Muzan take over, as Tanjiro’s regenerated body becomes more and more deformed by Muzan’s demonic blood. He proceeds to attack Zenitsu, who is saved by Giyu. Shortly after, Kanao arrives with the last humanification medicine and approaches Tanjiro to inject the medicine.
While his body is fighting the Demon Slayer Corps, Tanjiro, in his mind, has a conversation with what remains of Muzan. Muzan Kibutsuji urges Tanjiro to let him take over so that Tanjiro can become the ultimate being, the most powerful, immortal, and indestructible being, but Tanjiro refuses and continues to fight Muzan’s influence from the inside vehemently. At one point, the hands of his loved ones, his friends, and his family, appear inside his mind and try to reach out to him, which Tanjiro ultimately accepts.
Tanjiro is then brought back to reality. As his demon form disappears, we realize that Muzan Kibutsuji is finally dead. Nothing remains of the former demon lord and with him, Demon King Tanjiro also disappears and the saga is finally over.
What are Demon King Tanjiro’s powers and abilities?
Now that we have told you who Demon King Tanjiro was, we can continue with his powers and abilities. Namely, in order to compare Demon King Tanjiro to other characters, we have to see and analyze just how powerful he was and what his powers and abilities actually were. As we have said, Muzan Kibutsuji turns Tanjiro into a demon in a last-ditch effort to save himself and achieve immortality; before being murdered by the slayer, he had planned to impart his emotions and skills to Tanjiro, believing that the latter was capable of carrying out his plans and becoming the real immortal king of demons.
Although Tamayo’s humanizing medication rapidly converted Tanjiro back to a human, the strength he shows while a demon appears to be at least on par with an Upper Moon, if not Muzan himself. Later, Yushiro claimed that compared to his sister, who was the first demon to achieve sunlight resistance, and Muzan, Tanjiro’s ability to evolve as a demon was far higher.
Tanjiro possessed the tremendous regenerative ability, easily equaling an Upper Moon. Upon becoming a demon, he recovered from all the injuries he suffered during his fights with Akaza and Muzan, receded the growth on his face caused by Muzan’s poisoning, and later regenerated the damage he received. caused sunlight in seconds. He was also able to instantly regrow his severed arm. According to Giyu, Tanjiro’s regeneration speed, along with his resistance to sunlight, made him virtually invincible.
Tanjiro is initially damaged by sunlight after his first transformation, just like any other demon would be, but he quickly builds up a resistance to it and is soon able to wander around in broad daylight without suffering harm. He may be able to accomplish this because, as Muzan remarked just before he passed away, he is related to Nezuko, a demon who overcame the sun, and since his skills appear to be his own. Giyu asserted that Tanjiro was practically unbeatable due to his accelerated regeneration and immunity to sunlight.
Giyu claims that Tanjiro’s immunity to the sun also makes him resistant to the Bright Red Nichirin Swords. Tanjiro, like Muzan, has shown signs of shapeshifting, probably due to the fact that he shares Muzan’s blood. He has the ability to develop thorn-like protrusions from his back that spread out like whip-like blades and considerably enhance the range of his attacks. Tanjiro, though, hasn’t demonstrated Muzan’s level of proficiency in using them, perhaps as a result of his thinking. Tanjiro is claimed to have acquired what seems to be Blood Demon Art after Muzan temporarily transformed him into a demon. Wave and energy manipulation is the foundation of his abilities. His specific Blood Demon Art techniques include:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Shockwave Energy Blast | Similar to Muzan, and probably because he inherited his blood, Tanjiro’s screams can create a powerful shockwave. The technique is powerful enough to regrow Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Goto as they tried to hold him down, only Nezuko can hang on. |
| Energy Beam | Tanjiro can fire an energy beam from his mouth. The technique is powerful enough to create a small crater. However, when Nezuko put her hand in front of her mouth, she came out with only a bleeding hand, though Giyu noted that he wasn’t trying to harm her. |
How strong is Demon King Tanjiro?
We’ve now gone over everything you need to know about Demon King Tanjiro. You know who he was, how he came to be, and what his powers and abilities were. But how powerful was he when compared to other characters both from his own universe and from others? We shall analyze that in this section, the final one of this article.
In terms of his own universe, Demon King Tanjiro was absolutely the strongest character of Demon Slayer. He was more powerful than any of the Demon Slayers, even the Hashira, as he was immune to the sunlight (the main weakness of Demons) and he remained the only living person with the knowledge of how to use the Sun Breathing Style, the only Breathing Style that could kill him. Had Tanjiro succumbed to Muzan’s influence, he would’ve easily taken over the whole world.
The same goes for all the Demons. Okay, it is noteworthy to state that Demon King Tanjiro was the last remaining powerful Demon, but regardless of that, he was the most powerful Demon in history, even more, powerful than Muzan. Because of the above-said reasons, Muzan saw Demon King Tanjiro as a perfect and invincible version of himself, which is why Demon King Tanjiro was undoubtedly the strongest Demon of them all.
As for other universes, there is a lot to talk about. For example, Demon King Tanjiro could easily defeat the characters from Attack on Titan, as his powers would be enough to surpass those of the Titans, plus they couldn’t really kill him; the same goes for almost all My Hero Academia characters, as these guys simply aren’t equipped to deal with a threat such as Demon King Tanjiro.
On the other hand, Bleach characters would deal with him easily, as well as Jujutsu Kaisen characters, as these guys are trained to deal with demonic threats; this would probably happen with a lot of Chasinaw Man characters as well, but the situation is less clear here, as Demon King Tanjiro would certainly be able to defeat Aki or Power, while Denji and Makima are less likely to lose against him.
As for pure fighting anime characters, like those from Dragon Ball or Naruto, the situation depends on the character. The more powerful ones, like Goku, Beerus, Zeno, Naruto, or Sasuke, would be able to bring him down, whereas some weaker ones like Krilin or Boruto probably wouldn’t be able to do so because of his immense power. The situation with One-Punch Man is completely unclear, as we cannot compare the gimmick world of that series with the powers of Demon King Tanjiro.
Finally, the One Piece series is also quite diverse, because the characters have very diverse powers. Some like Kaido, Whitebeard, Shanks, or Luffy would certainly be able to defeat Demon King Tanjiro, but a lot of others wouldn’t actually know what to do against such immense power. This is why this comparison depends a lot on the characters in question.