Becoming a demon? That’s not gonna be a good look for the protagonist of an anime called Demon Slayer. After all, didn’t he swear that he was going to kill all the demons like all these other protagonists? Weren’t demons the ones that killed his whole family in the first place? And on the subject of killing, wouldn’t Tanjiro immediately get whacked by some of the other strongest characters in the series?
Yes, yes, and maybe not. After all, Tanjiro is the main character of a shonen anime, which means his plot armor is basically impenetrable. If the poor kid ever does turn, you can bet that the author is gonna pull some serious plot twist mumbo jumbo in order to bring him back to normal.
Which is fortunate because …
Spoiler alert: Tanjiro becomes a demon
WHAT!? BUT I HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN THAT EPISODE YET!?
—that’s what you’re thinking, right?
Well, neither have I. Neither has anyone, for that matter. Why not? Because that episode of Demon Slayer doesn’t exist. We haven’t gotten far along enough in the anime adaptation of the story for that to happen. But you can bet your ass it happens … in the manga.
Yes! The Demon Slayer manga! The thing none of us have read! Well, most of us. For those of you who HAVE actually read the manga, you would know that Tanjiro struggles with his “inner demons” QUITE LITERALLY in one of the manga’s final arcs. During Tanjiro and the rest of the Hashiras’ showdown with the Demon King Muzan, Tanjiro is mortally wounded and dies. At the same time, Muzan receives a particularly fatal lil’ booboo himself. As Muzan is about to shuffle off the mortal coil, he uses the last of his powers to turn Tanjiro into a demon. It was part of his nefarious plan all along! After all, it was theorized by the series big bads that Tanjiro’s demonic potential surpasses even that of his sister, one of the strongest demons in existence.
The newly awakened Demonjiro begins to mindlessly attack his former Hashira companions. What a jerk! However, he does it in a pretty cinematic way. His demon powers allow him to sprout gross tentacles from his back (just like Muzan) that he uses to try and cut his old friends to pieces. He is also the second demon in existence to become immune to the effects of sunlight. The first was his sister, so I guess it just runs in their jeans? Like diarrhea! Sorry, I meant genes.
Because of Tanjiro’s sunlight resistance powers, he is unaffected by the power of Nichirin swords. He ALSO gets a pretty sweet shockwave attack, which he can use to toss his opponents away whenever he screams. People tend to get away from me pretty fast when I run screaming at them, too! So I guess that power isn’t THAT special. Thankfully for the plot, Tanjiro is able to revert back to normal after eating some medicine that’s made from wisteria. Because everyone knows that the demons of Demon Slayer can’t stand wisteria! Why didn’t it just kill him instead? Plot armor, baby!
So there you have it! Tanjiro did his time as a demon, but now he’s back to normal—well, almost normal. He’s still got Muzan living inside of him, so he’ll struggle with “inner demons” quite literally from now on.
(featured image: Crunchyroll)
