Is Yoriichi Tsugikuni the strongest character in Demon Slayer?

Yoriichi Tsugikuni is a mythical figure in Demon Slayer, but is he really the strongest in the series?

What makes Demon Slayer so exciting are the intense, emotional life-or-death battles between the Hashira of the Slayer Corps and the demons of Muzan. Muzan's higher-ranking demons are so powerful that it often takes several Slayers to take down a single one, and even then, the Slayers still fail. Such overwhelming power is the rule where demons are concerned, but there was one man in history whose name frightened even the most powerful of demons, and that man was Yoriichi Tsugikuni.

Yoriichi has become a legendary presence in the Demon Slayer world for at least two reasons. Firstly, he was the originator of the breathing techniques used to kill demons in the Tanjiro era. Without his influence, mankind would probably have no way of fighting the demonic spawn of Muzan. The second (and perhaps most important) reason why Yoriichi is considered a legend is that he was the only person ever to come close to killing Muzan in a one-on-one fight.

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Is Yoriichi the most powerful demon killer ?

Yoriichi is without doubt Demon Slayer's strongest character. Even though he lived long before the start of the series, there are still enemies to compare him with that are relevant in establishing his comparative strength to the rest of the cast.

The first way to measure Yoriichi's strength is against his brother, Kokushibo. As the demon of Upper Moon 1, Kokushibo is the most powerful demon just behind Muzan himself. In the manga, Kokushibo was able to fight three Hashira simultaneously, all of whom had awakened their killer marks. In contrast, Kokushibo fought Yoriichi when Yoriichi was an elderly man and would have been easily defeated had Yoriichi actually pursued the fight to its conclusion.

The second way in which Yoriichi's power can be compared to that of the current era of Slayers is in relation to Muzan. At his peak, Yoriichi was able to easily cut Muzan into pieces during their confrontation, and Muzan was only able to survive because each piece of him scattered in separate directions to escape. It's a traumatic experience that Muzan has never forgotten, and one that influences much of the way he behaves today. In fact, the encounter with Yoriichi had such a profound impact on Muzan that even other demons are shaken when they see Tanjiro's earrings and Slayer Mark because of the innate memories they share with Muzan. Considering that Muzan is by far the most powerful demon in Demon Slayerand Yoriichi was far stronger than him, it's reasonable to conclude that Yoriichi is by far the strongest character in the series.

Unfortunately, Yoriichi lived hundreds of years before the main Demon Slayer storyline, and died hundreds of years before Tanjiro and Nezuko were born. Since Yoriichi is no longer with us, the title of the most powerful killer of the current era must be passed on. As far as the modern Slayer Corps is concerned, the current most powerful demon slayer is in fact Gyomei Himejima, the Stone Hashira. However, there are many other threats to Muzan that also persist in the modern era. Among them are Lady Tamayo (who is actively working on an antidote to cure demons) and Tanjiro Kamado, who unknowingly holds the key to Yoriichi's solar breathing technique, the Hinokami Kagura.

Why was Yoriichi so strong?

Yoriichi is the originator of all breathing techniques. That said, all modern breathing techniques are simply derivatives of Yoriichi's original solar breathing. Yoriichi was a naturally talented swordsman who wanted to wield a sword from an early age. Unlike those who use breathing techniques in the modern era, Yoriichi's solar breathing was developed entirely naturally through his innate genius with a sword.

Yoriichi was so naturally gifted with a sword that he would have defeated a master swordsman the first time he picked up a blade. He was also born with the Demon Slayer mark, giving him even higher levels of strength and speed than the average human. While most people will die before the age of 25 after manifesting a slayer mark, Yoriichi is the only person known to have lived well beyond that.

Throughout his long history of protecting the weak from demons, Yoriichi has never been killed by any adversary. He did, however, die in battle. At the age of 85, Yoriichi died of old-age exhaustion while in battle with his demonic twin brother Michikatsu , also known as Kokushibo. While Yoriichi was long gone by the time of Demon Slayer's events, his solar breathing technique managed to endure long after his death. The only person who learned the solar breathing technique was Tanjiro's ancestor, who watched Yoriichi in action and continued to copy his movements as a ritual dance that he passed down through the generations of the Kamado family.

Tanjiro and Nezuko carry Yoriichi's torch

Even if Yoriichi is the most powerful killer in history, that doesn't mean Muzan is completely out of the water and Yoriichi is gone. Following recent developments at the end of season 3, Nezuko and Tanjiro emerged as an existential threat to Muzan in an unexpected way.

Although Nezuko is still a demon, it was revealed that she has the power to survive sunlight, an ability Muzan has desired since the moment he became a demon a millennium ago. This makes her a prime target for Muzan as he tries to find a way to survive the sun himself. Pursuing Nezuko is probably not the best idea for Muzan, because what he doesn't realize is that Nezuko's bloodthirsty demon art transforms Tanjiro's blade into the same form of black that Yoriichi's became when he almost killed Muzan centuries ago.

In Tanjiro's case, his Hinokami Kagura form is directly derived from Yoriichi's own technique, giving him the potential to become as much a threat to Muzan as Yoriichi once was. The dance of solar respiration, also known as the dance of the fire god, was passed down in Tanjiro's family by his father, who in turn learned it from his own father before him. Tanjiro never realized what he was actually learning, but he did learn the dance as part of the family tradition. This being the case, Tanjiro and Nezuko find themselves particularly well equipped to carry on Yoriichi's legacy and potentially kill Muzan with the technique of the man the Demon King fears most.

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