What is the most powerful breathing style in Demon Slayer?

The question comes up among all Demon Slayer fans, in playgrounds as on forums: which breathing style is the strongest. Tanjiro’s Water, Rengoku’s Flame, Zenitsu’s Thunder each have their defenders. Yet the series gives precise clues, if you look at who defeated whom, and at what price.

Here is our ranking, the criteria behind it, and what each breathing style has really achieved. For the detail of the techniques, our page on all the Demon Slayer breathing styles presents the fourteen known styles.

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

Our criteria for comparing the breathing styles

Comparing breathing styles is not simple, because a style never fights alone: it goes through a body, a weapon and a talent. Gyomei’s Stone would not be the same in other hands. So we chose three criteria, drawn from what Demon Slayer shows on screen and in the manga.

The first criterion concerns victories: which style brought down which Upper Moon, and with how many allies. The second concerns the richness of the style, its number of forms and the scope of what it allows. The third concerns what the characters themselves say, Hashira, demons and Muzan included, about the strength of a given fighter.

This ranking remains our reading of the story, not data from the author. It does not settle every debate, but it relies on facts anyone can check in the manga. It does not take into account fighters who practise the same style with more or less talent: a modest-ranking Water demon slayer has nothing in common with Giyu Tomioka. We judge each style through its best representative, the one who got the most out of it. Our article on the ranking of the Hashira compares the fighters themselves.

The ranking of the breathing styles at a glance

The table sets out the most striking breathing styles, from the most powerful to the most discreet, with their main feat of arms.

The other breathing styles, Flower, Serpent, Love, Sound and Beast, all have their place in the big fights, but none brought down an Upper Moon alone. They count above all in collective victories, alongside the styles in the table.

The Sun, above all others

In Demon Slayer, Sun Breathing holds first place beyond dispute. Yoriichi Tsugikuni, its creator, is the only fighter in all of history to have put Muzan to flight. The wounds he inflicted on him kept burning in the demon’s body for centuries, without ever healing.

Muzan is so afraid of it that he has those who know this style hunted down and killed. He recognises Yoriichi’s earrings on Tanjiro, and that is one of the reasons he wants him dead. The Sun is the root of all the other breathing styles, and the only one the first demon fears so much.

Tanjiro, its heir, carries it for a long time without mastering it, through the Dance of the Fire God. He only discovers its true nature late, and ends up stringing together the thirteen forms facing Muzan. Our article on the Dance of the Fire God tells of this path, and our portrait of Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the greatest swordsman presents the man who created it.

Yoriichi’s red blade lights up on our LED katana, with an entirely golden handle, available in 80 or 100 cm. It is filed in the complete Yoriichi Tsugikuni collection and the LED katanas collection.

The Moon, the most formidable branch

Moon Breathing comes second in our ranking of Demon Slayer breathing styles. Kokushibo, Upper Moon One, perfected it over four centuries up to sixteen forms, the record in Demon Slayer. Each cut releases dozens of crescent blades, carried by a sword of flesh that lengthens and branches out.

To bring him down takes four fighters: Gyomei Himejima, Sanemi Shinazugawa, Muichiro Tokito and Genya, with the mark awakened in the three Hashira. Two of them, Muichiro and Genya, lose their lives. No other demon in the Castle costs the Corps so much.

Yet the Moon remains inferior to the Sun. Kokushibo created it precisely because he could not match his brother. Our article on Moon Breathing tells of this rivalry. And our jigsaw puzzle shows Kokushibo drawing his sword under a lunar disc, six golden eyes open, in the jigsaw puzzles collection.

Stone, the strongest of the Hashira

Among the Demon Slayer Hashira’s breathing styles, Stone comes first. Gyomei Himejima is recognised as the strongest of his time by his comrades, and Kokushibo himself hails him as an exceptional opponent. He leads the fight against Upper Moon One and holds out to the end against Muzan.

Stone owes this place to its brute power and to Gyomei’s unique weapon, axe and spiked ball linked by a chain. But it also owes it to the man: his physical strength, his resilience and his mastery of the Transparent World. Our article on Stone Breathing presents this style, and our poster shows him whirling his axe and flail, in the posters collection.

Wind, Water and Mist

Sanemi Shinazugawa’s Wind follows close behind. In Demon Slayer, the Wind Hashira is often cited just after Gyomei. The Wind Hashira survives the fight against Kokushibo, then faces Muzan until dawn. His rare blood, which intoxicates demons, gives him an advantage no one else has. When his sword and Giyu’s clash, their blades turn red together, a sign of two fighters at their peak.

Water, the most widespread breathing style in the Corps, Tanjiro’s at the start, proves its worth against Akaza, Upper Moon Three. Giyu Tomioka and Tanjiro bring him down together, Giyu with his eleventh form, Dead Calm, Tanjiro by switching to the side of the Sun. Mist, finally, can boast of a unique feat: Muichiro Tokito is the only Hashira of his time to have defeated an Upper Moon alone, Gyokko.

Our articles on Wind Breathing, Water Breathing and Mist Breathing tell of these victories.

Flame, Thunder and Insect

Kyojuro Rengoku’s Flame does not win its fight against Akaza, but it impresses. Rengoku holds out until dawn without having awakened the mark, his stomach pierced and an eye lost, facing a demon who regenerates endlessly, and forces Upper Moon Three to flee before the sun.

Zenitsu’s Thunder proves that a single form can be enough. With the seventh, invented for the occasion, Zenitsu alone brings down Kaigaku, who has become Upper Moon Six. Shinobu’s Insect, the least powerful in brute strength, achieves the impossible: killing Doma, Upper Moon Two, with poison, at the cost of her own life.

Tengen Uzui’s Sound also deserves its place: with Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke, he brings down Daki and Gyutaro, the first Upper Moon killed in more than a century. Our articles on Flame Breathing, Thunder Breathing and Insect Breathing tell of these fights.

Flower, Serpent, Love, Sound and Beast

The Demon Slayer breathing styles missing from the table are not weak for all that. Kanao Tsuyuri’s Flower delivers the final blow against Doma, with Inosuke, at the cost of almost all the sight in one eye. Inosuke’s Beast cuts through Daki’s neck with Zenitsu, then takes part in Doma’s death. The two styles shine above all as a pair.

Obanai’s Serpent and Mitsuri’s Love stand out against Muzan himself. The two Hashira fight the first demon to the very end, Obanai even after losing his sight, guided by his snake. Tengen’s Sound, for its part, brings down Upper Moon Six as a team, the first Moon defeated in more than a century.

These styles have one thing in common: they excel in collaboration, rarely alone. Mitsuri holds off Zohakuten while Tanjiro looks for the real Hantengu, Tengen composes his score while the trio attacks. Our articles on Flower Breathing, Serpent Breathing, Love Breathing, Sound Breathing and Beast Breathing detail each of them.

Tanjiro, a special case

Tanjiro holds a special place in this ranking. He starts with Water, one of the most accessible styles, then switches to the Sun, the most powerful of all. No other character travels up the breathing tree from bottom to top in this way.

For a long time, the Sun exhausts him: he can only string together a few forms before his body gives out. He gradually learns to master it, through the fights against Gyutaro, Hantengu then Akaza. Facing Muzan, he finally understands that the twelve forms of the dance link in a loop to form the thirteenth, the one meant to hold the demon until dawn.

His path sums up the question this article asks. The most powerful breathing style is nothing without the body and the will of the one who carries it, and Tanjiro had to become worthy of the Sun before he could use it. Our page on Tanjiro Kamado, everything about the hero follows each stage.

Power is not everything

The ranking shows it: in Demon Slayer, victory does not always go to the strongest. Shinobu, the weakest of the Hashira, kills Upper Moon Two. Zenitsu, who knows only one form, brings down a demon alone. Tanjiro, long at the lowest rank in the Corps, deals decisive blows to three Upper Moons.

In Demon Slayer, what counts, as much as the breathing style, is fighting intelligence, courage and mutual help. Almost all the Upper Moons fall under the blows of several fighters together, each bringing what the others lack. It is perhaps the strongest lesson of the series. Even Yoriichi, the greatest of all, did not manage to kill Muzan alone: it took centuries and hundreds of demon slayers, each with their own breathing style, to get there.

Our page on the Demon Slayer Hashira presents each fighter, and our article on the breathing tree shows how all these styles connect to one another. To compare the opponents too, our page on the demons and the Twelve Kizuki ranks them in turn.