The two most important characters in the Demon Slayer series are Tanjiro Kamada, the series’ protagonist, and Muzan Kibutsuji, the lord of the Demons and the series’ main antagonist. Their ultimate clash in the final chapters of the manga was the culmination of the story that began with Muzan slaughtering Tanjiro’s family. So, who is stronger, Tanjiro or Muzan?
At the end of the saga, Tanjiro was stronger than Muzan, which is why he was able to defeat him in the end. It wasn’t a truly decisive victory for Tanjiro, but the protagonist of the story managed to overpower him just enough to defeat him, even after Muzan forcefully fused with him to survive.
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 Tanjiro is, ultimately, stronger than Muzan.
Tanjiro Kamado and His Powers
Tanjiro Kamado is the main protagonist of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. He is a Demon Slayer of the Demon Slayer Army, having the rank of Kanoe, who has joined in finding a cure to turn his sister, Nezuko Kamado, into a human and to hunt down and kill demons in order to protect the others have the same fate as him.
Before becoming a Demon Slayer, his entire family was slaughtered by the Demon King, Muzan Kibutsuji, while his younger sister, Nezuko, was transformed into a demon.
Overall Skills
From the start, Tanjiro proved to be a prodigious fighter, having a strong natural aptitude for combat, especially fencing. Tanjiro has previously been shown to have superhuman characteristics, such as extraordinary senses, a heightened sense of smell, immense willpower, and great intelligence.
His naturally obtained abilities go so far as to allow him to outsmart and catch Giyu Tomioka, one of the most powerful demon slayers, off guard and almost deliver a fatal blow to him with nothing but his intense emotions.
Right after learning Water Breathing and taking the final selection, he was able to easily eliminate many low-level demons without the help of others, even those who possessed the Blood Power and were previously members of the Twelve Demonic Moons, namely the Swamp Demon and Kyogai.
After recalling the Hinokami Kagura, he learned from his father as a child that he would have defeated Rui, the Eleventh Moon, if Rui had not cut his head off before, a feat that many believed only a Hashira could do.
What is most impressive about Tanjiro is his unprecedented rate of growth, even in the midst of battle, something that shocked Sekido and allowed him to fight higher rank demons after facing members. of lower rank a few months ago. His strength increased further as he awakened his Demon Slayer Mark and trained even more.
Although he was poisoned by him, Tanjiro was able to fight on his own against Muzan, who had just single-handedly defeated the remaining Five Hashira along with Zenitsu and Inosuke. Muzan expressed feelings of unease towards Tanjiro due to the similarities between him and Yoriichi, the most powerful demon slayer and swordsman who ever existed, showing his immense power.
By the end of the series, while he didn’t become the strongest Demon Slayer, there’s no denying his extraordinary strength and growth on his journey.
Breathing Styles
Taught by Sakonji Urokodaki, a former Water Hashira, Tanjiro first mastered the Water Breathing style. This was Tanjiro’s initial Breathing style before he switched to Hinokami Kagura, a breathing style his father taught him as a child, which he says suits him more. However, during the location where he used the Water Breathing, he became extremely proficient, allowing him to face off against two members of the Twelve Demonic Moons, Rui, and Enmu.
Hinokami Kagura, also known as the Dance of the Fire God was Tanjiro’s other style. Namely, during his near-death experience in his battle with Rui, Tanjiro found a memory of his father teaching him this Breathing style. At this time, Tanjiro’s body was not physically adapted to the pressure exerted by the Breathing style, but through many adversities, he finally managed to subdue it.
When Tanjiro fully witnessed the thirteenth form performed by Yoriichi Tsugikuni and became aware, he awakened the Hinokami Kagura in the legendary Sun Breathing.
During his battle with Upper Moon Six, Gyutaro, Tanjiro was able to combine two styles of Breathing, the initially taught Water Breathing and the awoken Hinokami Kagura, which ultimately allowed him to significantly increase his speed for a short period of time and perform attacks that possess the qualities of both styles of Breath. This is a very difficult and rarely seen technique.
Muzan Kibutsuji and His Powers
Muzan Kibutsuji is a demon, the first of his kind, the ancestor of many other demons, and the main antagonist of Kimetsu no Yaiba. He is also the demon responsible for murdering most of the Kamado family and transforming Nezuko Kamado into a demon.
Fighting style
When in combat, Muzan can assume a more monstrous form, with a dark red mass covering his limbs, with wide mouths with sharp teeth, with his torso exposed. Her hair is getting longer and messy.
His speed, strength, reflexes, and potency were greatly amplified in this form to the point that despite losing a large amount of stamina and stamina while fending off Tamayo’s Human Transformation Drug, he was still quite capable of easily outsmarting several low-ranking Demon Slayers, and consuming dozens within minutes of emerging from its cocoon.
The razor-sharp toothed jaws/mouths located all over his body in this form not only serve as the primary form of attack in combat but also serve the purpose of helping him recover faster as he can use the jaws to tear his opponents apart and eat their flesh, simultaneously killing opponents and regaining strength at the same time.
Techniques
One of his major techniques is the Black Blood, Brambles, which sees Muzan use his own flesh and blood to create several barbed wires with black tips to entangle his target. His second distinctive technique is the Shockwave Energy Blast, which shows up later in the series.
After being forced into a corner by Tanjiro and Obanai and weakened by Tamayo’s four-step drug, Muzan showcased another unique ability from his Blood Demon Art, in which he transformed his torso and the top of his body in a gigantic bestial mouth.
From there, he emitted a powerful shockwave cry, capable of seriously injuring anyone inside it caught within its reach. When Tanjiro and Obanai were caught in the blast, even Kiriya and her sisters, who were connected to them by crows in the area, suffered most of the attack. This technique is capable of causing convulsions, paralysis, and respiratory disorders.
It is primarily used as a defensive technique, however, intended to ward off attackers. This technique requires a charging time before use and therefore cannot be used consecutively, although it is widely suggested that Tamayo’s drugs further jeopardize his ability to use this attack. Its impact can be mitigated through the use of a Nichirin Sword, as the Self Stab can dispel some of its effects.
Whips
Muzan can stretch his arms and grow multiple sharp blades in his extended forearms and turn his hands into multiple bladed protrusions, each ranging from 90 centimeters / 35.4 inches to 10 meters / 32.8 feet, which he could then swing like whips to easily tear his opponents apart. The swing speed of his attacks is extremely fast, and the accuracy of his attacks is also extremely precise.
Due to the length of his arms, Muzan possesses such a huge attack range that not even three Hashira could get near him. Later, after being even enraged, Muzan grows 9 slender tubes, each 4 meters / 13.1 feet long, similar to spine-like protrusions from his back that extend into blade-like tentacles resembling whips.
With them, Muzan is able to dramatically increase his attack range and the number of attacks in tandem with his whip arms, allowing him to easily mow down hordes of Demon Slayers and corner four Hashira. Plus, it’s incredibly difficult to read the trajectory of each of the whips, which makes it even more nearly impossible to counter.
Muzan then grew 4 tubes on each thigh, each measuring 7 meters / 22.9 feet long.
Unlike his vertebral whips, they are much faster, and thanks to his immense ability to change shape, he can quickly grow whips and then dispel them faster than the human senses can perceive, allowing him to attack easily from his blind spots, shown when he manages to use them to seriously injure four Hashira and Hashira level demon slayers without them feeling or perceiving that Muzan’s body has changed and transformed.
Tanjiro Vs. Muzan: 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.
Now, the reason why we ultimately chose this format is that Tanjiro and Muzan are two very different characters. The fact that Tanjiro is a Demon Slayer, while Muzan is a Demon reflects a lot on their powers and abilities, which means that we couldn’t directly compare them. For example, Tanjiro relies heavily on his weapons, while Muzan doesn’t really use weapons. The same goes for some weaknesses and resistances.
This is why we had to resort to our classical method. Now, if you’ve read our two introductions carefully, you’ve probably deduced that Muzan is the most powerful Demon ever, while Tanjiro had a long way to go before he became as powerful as he was. Yuiichiro remains the most powerful character in the franchise despite this, but it is thanks to his powers and skills that Tanjiro was ultimately able to surpass Muzan.
Muzan has proven himself, if you’ve read the final chapters of the manga, to be a very powerful and complex foe and someone who was willing to do anything to survive. This is why Tanjiro had to give it his best, which he ultimately did, slashing Muzan from the inside and effectively killing him. Now, Tanjiro might not have been stronger than Muzan on a general level, but he evolved during their battle and eventually managed to defeat him.
And it is exactly because of that reason – that a nominally weaker Tanjiro ultimately managed to win – that we have to praise his powers, and why we have, ultimately, decided that Tanjiro is the stronger character of the two.
