Mist Breathing: Muichiro’s seven forms

Muichiro Tokito watches the clouds go by. He forgets names, faces, what he has just been told. He is fourteen, and he is one of the most formidable demon slayers of his time. When he draws, a turquoise mist wraps around him, and the opponent no longer knows where he is.

Here is where Mist Breathing comes from, its seven forms, the story of the boy who carries it, and the night he got his memory back. To place Mist among the other breathing styles, our page on all the Demon Slayer breathing styles presents the fourteen known styles.

What is Mist Breathing?

In Demon Slayer, Mist Breathing, Kasumi no Kokyū in Japanese, is a derived style. It was born from Wind Breathing, one of the five basic styles that came from Sun Breathing. From Wind, it keeps the speed. But where Wind overwhelms the opponent with gusts, Mist makes them lose their way.

Its forms alternate slow and fast movements, appearances and disappearances, so that the enemy can never anticipate the next blow. The fighter seems to float in a cloud, present and absent at the same time. It is a style of illusion, as much as of the sword.

It suits Muichiro’s temperament. Absent-minded, elusive, his gaze lost in the void, the boy himself seems wrapped in mist. Our article on Wind Breathing presents the original style, and the one on the breathing tree shows the whole family.

The seven forms of Mist Breathing

The seven Mist forms bear names of clouds, fog and sky. The first six are handed down, the seventh is Muichiro’s creation.

The seventh form is the heart of the style. Oboro refers to the veiled light seen through a misty night, the hazy moon of spring. Muichiro slows down, then suddenly speeds up, then slows down again: the opponent loses sight of him, finds him again too late, and does not understand where the cut came from.

The Mist names are among the most poetic in Demon Slayer. They evoke landscapes more than fights, as if the style first sought to paint an atmosphere before striking.

Our 25 cm figure makes this turquoise mist rise from the rocky base to above Muichiro’s head, his hand on the guard. It is filed in the complete Muichiro Tokito collection and the demon slayer figures collection.

What Mist demands of the fighter

In Demon Slayer, each breathing style fits a body and a temperament. Mist demands speed inherited from Wind, but above all perfect control of rhythm. The fighter must know how to slow down when the opponent expects a fast blow, and to speed up when they think they have time. It is a style of deception, which plays with the other’s perception.

It also demands a form of inner calm. Mist is not practised in anger: it requires an empty, detached, almost absent mind. That may be why Muichiro, lost in his clouds, masters it so quickly. His amnesia, which cuts him off from his emotions, leaves him in the ideal state for this style.

Like all breathing styles, Mist rests finally on Total Concentration Breathing, which Muichiro maintains permanently despite his young age. Our article on Total Concentration Breathing explains this common foundation, and our page on the Demon Slayer Hashira presents Muichiro among his peers.

Muichiro Tokito, the Mist Hashira

Muichiro is the youngest of the Demon Slayer Hashira: fourteen. He took up the sword two months before becoming a Hashira, a progression found only in Gyomei Himejima. He speaks little, in an even voice, forgets almost everything, and treats others with an indifference bordering on contempt.

This absence has a cause. Muichiro has amnesia. He lost his memory after a terrible night, a few years earlier, and he has lived in a permanent fog ever since. He remembers neither his family, nor his childhood, nor why he fights. Only the sword remains to him.

Yet his talent astounds the other Hashira. He masters Total Concentration Breathing, invents forms, and stands up to demons others could not face. Our portrait of Muichiro Tokito, the Mist Hashira tells his life in detail.

Yuichiro, the twin brother

Muichiro had a twin brother, Yuichiro. Sons of woodcutters, the two boys lose their parents very young and live alone in the mountains. Yuichiro is hard and cutting; he keeps telling his brother that his kindnesses are useless. Muichiro, for his part, would like to help others.

One day, Amane Ubuyashiki comes to see them. She tells them they descend from a swordsman of the very first breathing styles, and invites them to join the Demon Slayer Corps. Yuichiro drives her away. Soon after, one summer night, a demon enters their cabin. Yuichiro is mortally wounded. Muichiro, in a mad rage, beats the demon until dawn, with no weapon and no training.

Before dying, Yuichiro prays for his brother to be spared. His last words reveal what his harshness was hiding: he wanted to protect Muichiro, not belittle him. The shock wipes out the survivor’s memory. Taken in by the Ubuyashiki, nursed for months, Muichiro wakes up with no memory of what he has been through, but with a dull anger he cannot explain. He takes up the sword, learns the breathing styles at astounding speed, and chooses Mist. He has forgotten Yuichiro’s last words: the “mu” in his name, his brother had told him, is the “mu” of mugen, infinity, like what he could do for others. Our article on season 3 and the Swordsmith Village tells how this memory comes back.

Kotetsu and the Swordsmith Village

In Demon Slayer’s Swordsmith Village, Muichiro comes across Kotetsu, a young craftsman in a round mask. He wants to train on a six-armed mechanical doll, modelled centuries earlier on Yoriichi Tsugikuni, and pushes Kotetsu around to get the key. The boy stands up to him, and Muichiro, without knowing it, starts coming out of his absence.

When Gyokko, Upper Moon Five, attacks the village, Muichiro is at first indifferent to the swordsmiths’ fate. Then he sees Kotetsu in danger, and a sentence of Tanjiro’s comes back to him: what you do for others always comes back to you. He throws himself into the battle to protect the child.

Our article on Yoriichi Type Zero, the six-armed doll tells of this astonishing machine. And to see Muichiro swept along by the wind again, our shower curtain shows him with his hand raised, black hair with turquoise tips, among the leaves. It is filed in the curtains collection.

Facing Gyokko, memory regained

Gyokko traps Muichiro in a vase filled with water, from which he cannot escape. On the verge of drowning, the boy sees his memories come back all at once: his brother, his parents, what he lost. He breaks his prison. A cloud-shaped mark appears on his face.

Muichiro then unleashes the seventh form, Oboro, which he has just invented. Gyokko, despite his true form, can no longer see him. The demon is beheaded. Muichiro becomes the only Hashira of his time to have defeated an Upper Moon alone, and the mark he awakens that night changes the fate of all the Hashira.

After this fight, Muichiro changes completely. He smiles, thanks Kotetsu, worries about Tanjiro. The boy of mist becomes a fourteen-year-old child again, who laughs and cries like the others. Our article on the Hashira’s marks explains what this sign on the face means.

Muichiro in the Hashira Training

In season 4 of Demon Slayer, Muichiro leads one of the stages of the Hashira Training. His test focuses on the speed and fluidity of movement: the demon slayers must learn to move like him, without pauses, and to react before thinking. He also crosses wooden swords with Tanjiro, with a brand-new seriousness.

The change since the Swordsmith Village is striking. The boy who used to forget names now remembers everyone, smiles, sometimes jokes. He acknowledges what he owes Tanjiro and treats him as a friend. Demon Slayer fans love this version of Muichiro, finally given back his age.

This transformation also gives new meaning to his breathing style. Mist is no longer the weapon of a child who has lost everything, but that of a boy who knows who he is fighting for. Our article on season 4 and the Hashira Training tells of each stage.

Mist on screen

In the Demon Slayer anime, Mist can be recognised by its turquoise and white veils, which wrap around Muichiro and drown the background. The studio ufotable plays on transparency: the boy appears, disappears, reappears elsewhere, like a silhouette glimpsed in the fog.

The seventh form gets special treatment. The picture slows down, the mist thickens, then everything suddenly speeds up at the moment of the cut. Facing Gyokko, this contrast makes you feel what the demon experiences: he sees Muichiro, then no longer sees him. Our article on ufotable, the studio behind the animation tells how these effects take shape.

Mist in the Infinity Castle

This part reveals elements of the Infinity Castle arc that the anime has not yet adapted.

In Muzan’s castle, Muichiro faces Kokushibo, Upper Moon One. The demon recognises a descendant in him: Kokushibo was once Michikatsu Tsugikuni, and Muichiro belongs to his bloodline. The boy fights with boundless courage, alongside Gyomei, Sanemi and Genya, and his sword turns red under the strain.

The fight costs him his life. But his crimson blade, driven into Kokushibo’s body, helps the others deliver the final blow. Fans remember his last image, standing to the very end. Our page on the demons and the Twelve Kizuki presents Kokushibo, and our article on Moon Breathing presents his style.

To hold Mist in your hand, our LED mist katana lights up in cyan and gives off a cold mist, with a black handle with turquoise diamonds. It is filed in the LED mist katanas collection.