Demon Slayer Officially Sets Up The Strongest Breathing Form For Tanjiro

Demon Slayer enjoyed an explosive 2025 thanks to its movie release, and fans all around the world were incredibly excited to see the franchise make a comeback after the enthralling battles of Season 4. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 1 - Akaza’s Return saw the franchise become bigger than ever with exciting battles that thrust the Demon Slayers into the Infinity Castle to take care of the Demons and, above all, the Demon King Muzan. Naturally, the protagonist, Tanjiro, was a massive highlight of the first movie. We saw him take on the Upper Rank 3 Demon, Akaza, in the first movie, and there, he even managed to unlock the Transparent World.

While Tanjiro is set to take a backseat in the second movie, he will return in full force in Infinity Castle Part 3 to take on Muzan. During this final battle, Tanjiro will unlock his strongest Breathing Form yet, which stands as the final form of Sun Breathing, called the 13th Form. Yoriichi specifically created this final Breathing Form with one goal — to take down Muzan as efficiently as possible. Tanjiro will finally make use of it, but his level of mastery over it will never reach that of Yoriichi in his lifetime.

Demon Slayer Will Officially Give Tanjiro The 13th Form Of Sun Breathing As A Power Big Power Up

Tanjiro is the beloved protagonist of Demon Slayer. As fans, we have been following Tanjiro’s story since Demon Slayer Chapter 1, which was released officially in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #11 on February 15, 2016. Throughout the Demon Slayer story, Tanjiro developed tremendously. He began his grueling training by first using Water Breathing. However, it turned out his true affinity was actually Hinokami Kagura, which was later revealed to be Sun Breathing.

Sun Breathing is the hardest Breathing Type to master, and it was the original breathing form invented by Yoriichi during his era. It is the progenitor of all other Breathing Forms, and Tanjiro is the only user alive who has access to it. Sun Breathing is extremely efficient against demons, as it copies the sun itself, making it far harder to regenerate from.

So far in Demon Slayer, Tanjiro has been able to make use of the 12 forms of Sun Breathing, which include :

• Dance
• Clear Blue Sky
• Raging Sun
• Burning Bones, Summer Sun
• Setting Sun Transformation
• Solar Heat Haze
• Beneficent Radiance
• Sunflower Thrust
• Sun Halo Dragon Head Dance
• Fire Wheel
• Mock Sun Rainbow
• Flame Dance

With all these incredible abilities under his belt already, he's set to upgrade his skills even further. In the final movie of Demon Slayer, tentatively known as Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 3, Tanjiro will unlock the last and most efficient form of Sun Breathing that was invented by Yoriichi before his eventual death. This Breathing Form is also known as the 13th Form, and was created specifically to fight against Muzan. This form allows the user to tap into all 12 previous forms at once in repetitive motions to swiftly neutralize the target.

This technique is especially efficient against Muzan because it’s set to target all his vital organs at once, which include his 7 hearts and 5 brains. In the manga, Tanjiro officially goes on to unlock this final power-up near the end of the Muzan fight in Demon Slayer chapter 192, which was released on February 3, 2020, in Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #10. Tanjiro finally learns of it after having a vision of Yoriichi, and it proved to be a pivotal move in securing the victory of the Demon Slayers.

“I see it. The reason my comrades got hit. Nine tentacles from his back and both his arms. Even faster than those, he brings eight tentacles from his thighs and attacks. Muzan can transform freely, you can’t anticipate this attack if you expect a fixed form.” — Tanjiro before unleashing the 13th Sun Breathing Form on Muzan in Demon Slayer chapter 192

Why Tanjiro Never Surpasses Yoriichi Despite Mastering The 13th Form Of Sun Breathing

By the end of Demon Slayer, Tanjiro was undoubtedly one of the greatest Demon Slayers of all time. He was on the same level, if not even stronger, than most of the Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. This is because Tanjiro was able to master the hardest Demon Slayer Breathing Type of all time, that is, Sun Breathing, and he unlocked all of its forms by the end of the story.

While he was undoubtedly strong during his era, his final power level was still eclipsed by Yoriichi, and that is quite apparent. In the final arc of the story, specifically in the flashback from Demon Slayer Chapter 187, which was released on December 9, 2019, in Weekly Shonen Jump Issue #2, it is apparent that Yoriichi could destroy Muzan easily. What's more shocking is that Yoriichi was able to easily defeat Muzan when the latter was at full strength and unaffected by the anti-Muzan drug concocted by Lady Tamayo and Shinobu. Meanwhile, in Tanjiro's case, even with the help of all the Hashira and the anti-Muzan Drug, Muzan was incredibly difficult to fight against and a race against time. This means that even at his peak, Tanjiro was never close in power to Yoriichi. The former user of Sun Breathing remained the greatest slayer to have ever lived at the end of the story.

Tanjiro's Demon King Form Puts Him At A Higher Level After The Muzan Battle

Tanjiro’s skills as a Demon Slayer peaked in the Muzan battle when he finally unlocked all forms of Sun Breathing and pushed himself to the max with his Demon Slayer mark. However, he also went beyond this level when he was infected with Muzan’s blood and turned into the next Demon King. With Tanjiro having mastery over Sun Breathing as well as sun immunity as a demon, he actually became, for a brief moment, the strongest character of all time, even surpassing Yoriichi during that period. Tanjiro was so strong that he was basically unkillable.

However, after Tanjiro lost this form, he only got weaker. He was left with an unusable arm similar to that of an elderly person, as well as blindness in one of his eyes. This means that post-Demon King Tanjiro is far weaker than his prime state, due to the various nerfs he was affected by. In shonen anime, we are used to the main character only growing stronger after the end of the story. However, for Tanjiro, it's the opposite. After the victory of the Demon Slayer against Muzan, almost every Demon ceases to exist, and there remains no reason to even fight, which likely led Tanjiro to lose a lot of his skills as time went by.

All the chapters of Demon Slayer are available for the fans to read via Manga Plus and Viz Media.