Tanjiro's Death and the Epic End of Muzan Kibutsuji (2024)

If you are looking for the answer to the question, “Does Tanjiro die in Demon Slayer?” the answer is yes.

He dies in the final battle with the King of Demons, Muzan Kibutsuji. Let’s recall Tanjiro’s death in this blog.

How Did Tanjiro’s Death Happen?

The final battle of the Demon Slayer Corps with Muzan is divided into two parts: the Infinity Castle Arc and the Sunrise Countdown Arc. Ironically, the life of Tanjiro Kamado has been under constant threat throughout these two arcs. And he died.

So, in this blog, we will tackle that epic battle.

The Infinity Castle Arc: the Beginning of Tanjiro’s Death

Muzan Kibutsuji, a demon who lived for a thousand years, arrives at the mansion of Kiriya Ubuyashiki, head of the clan that hunted him for generations, to kill the latter when it is dark.

When Muzan has almost killed Ubuyashiki, a massive explosion happened. The rest of Ubuyashiki’s family traps Muzan and uses their lives to do that. As a result, the body of Muzan shatters into pieces. However, his regeneration is too strong, and his body returns to normal immediately.

At that time, his daughter Tamayo appears and uses a dose on Muzan to turn him back into a human. Next, all the Hashiras come, but Muzan opens his Infinity Castle to trap them in a space full of Demons.

The story goes on with many battles. But since this article is about Tanjiro’s death, we only focus on him. Tanjiro and Giyuu team up to fight with Akaza, the demon who killed Rengoku at the Mugen Train.

Tanjiro unlocks the Transparent World and cuts Akaza’s head off. After that, he and Giyuu join the other Hashira. But suddenly, Muzan appears in front of them.

Unfortunately for them, Muzan is too overpowered.

(Editor’s note: In anime/manga lingo, “overpowered” means having too much power. So please don’t get confused… as I did.)

Tanjiro and Giyuu are in a difficult situation. Here, Tanjiro gets injured in the right eye.

Luckily, the castle gets ruined, thanks to Tamayo’s assistant Yushiro. So, now they must fight Muzan in the middle of the town. While other Hashira fight with Muzan, Tanjiro feels something and can’t control his body.

He coughs up blood and faints immediately. His right eye appears like a weird lump of meat. It turns out that Muzan has transmitted his blood into Tanjiro’s body during the attack. While it would not turn Tanjiro into a demon, his blood would poison Tanjiro’s cells until he died.Tanjiro Kamado is going to die.He stops breathing, and nobody could feel his heartbeat. The likelihood that Tanjiro would live was so low.

But at that moment, when everyone thought Tanjiro would not get through, he opens his eyes.

The Sunrise Countdown Arc: Zero Hour to Sunrise

1 hour and 30 minutesto Tanjiro’s Death

All the Hashira attack Muzan and discover a way to kill him. Muzan destroys the ground and knocks all the Hashiras, Inosuke, and Zenitsu into the wall, badly injuring them.

Muzan slowly gets to Hanako’s position, but Tanjiro returns and uses Sun Breathing to cut one of Muzan’s arms.

Then, Tanjiro faints. He sees a memory of his ancestor and why the Kamado clan can use Sun Breathing or the Dance of the Fire God.

With that piece of memory, Tanjiro can now use precisely 12 forms of Sun Breathing. And when he repeats those 12 forms, a 13th would appear. All he needs to do is dodge the attacks of Muzan and use the Dance of the Fire God until the morning, like what his father did to cut every head and heart of Muzan.

He uses some forms of Sun Breathing to try with Muzan first. After gaining an understanding of Muzan’s attacks, Tanjiro decided to use 12 forms of Sun Breathing at the same time.

Tanjiro’s blade changes to red, and he uses Sun Breathing to attack Muzan. When he uses the 6th form, his body has to endure so much pain. His lungs feel like exploding, his limbs get ripped, and his heart fires up like a flame.

1 hour to Tanjiro’s Death

The state of Tanjiro erodes after an attack that he uses. His accuracy and speed obviously decrease. But in reverse, Muzan can’t kill Tanjiro even when he wants because Muzan is also in the same situation.

The dose given by Tamayo worked! It’s mixed with many other ingredients. If it can’t turn Muzan into a human back, it will increase the effect on others.

And in this case, it’s aging. Each minute will make Muzan older by 50 years.

It’s almost five hours since Tamayo used this dose in Muzan. After taking some time to work, it affects Muzan for at least 3 hours. That means he is older by 9000 years.

Of course, Muzan is immortal. He couldn’t die because of aging. But the thing is, demons need energy. They have to eat and drink blood to survive.

What if it couldn’t eat for 9000 years?

Muzan has had to fight for that many years without any energy supplements. Tanjiro is exhausted because of a lack of oxygen, and Muzan is getting older and older after a minute. This is the battle of endurance.

35 minutes to Tanjiro’s Death

Muzan tries to escape by splitting his body but the dose of Tamayo has stopped it. It is the third effect of the medicine. And when the third worked, the final will follow up to destroy Muzan’s cell. Then, Muzan starts to cough up blood.

Tanjiro realizes it. He and the Serpent Hashira together embark on Muzan. Suddenly, on Muzan’s chest appears a huge mouth with many fangs. It creates a ball of the shock wave, destroying the ground around him and stopping the attack on Tanjiro. He gets a colossal vibration from it and was motionless for a while. Even breathing was hard for him.

25 minutes to Tanjiro’s Death

Muzan turns around and went from the battle. But Inosuke and Zenitsu stop him after regaining. Tanjiro uses his sword to stab his body. It could help to reduce the Blood Demon Art of Muzan. The triad attacks Muzan rapid-fire. It gives enough time for the other Hashira to wake up and return to the battle. Tanjiro uses his sword to stab through the body of Muzan.

From the East, the Sun is slowly rising.

Muzan knows it. He casts a solid spell to push everybody away. Tanjiro loses his left arm because of it, but he is determined not to drop out the blade.

With the support of Giyuu, the blade of Tanjiro changes to red and stabs into Muzan’s body. The sunlight shines on the ground.

Muzan feels the daylight ignite his body. He creates a monster of meat and hides in it. Tanjiro is so close to Muzan that it traps him inside. The monster tries to escape, but the Demon Slayer Corps does everything to stop it.

With all the effort to stop Muzan from escaping, the monster finally ignites by the daylight. After the monster gets engulfed in flames, Tanjiro appears. But, this time, he is truly dead.

Tanjiro Dies

No one can feel his breath or pulse. Even when he dies, he still holds his sword tightly. We can see the veins rise on his hand. Tanjiro has fought courageously, and he is an important factor in defeating Muzan.

If he wasn’t there and didn’t use Sun Breathing to buy Muzan’s time when other people were motionless, everyone in the Demon Slayer Corps could have died.

A 15-year-old boy who just became a Demon Slayer for months had to assume a significant responsibility on his shoulders.

Unlike other series where the main character will always be the strongest at the end, Tanjiro still had many defects when fighting with Muzan. If Tanjiro was able to master Sun Breathing sooner, this battle would be his own show.

It’s because Demon Slayer focuses on the collective solidarity of humans. The victory belongs to all of the Demon Slayer Corps. All the characters have their role in this fight with Muzan.

No one is too outstanding to others. And that’s why this battle was legendary. But until the end, the hero of this series no longer lives to taste the victory.

Or is Tanjiro Really Dead?

Actually, Tanjiro became a demon because of Muzan’s cell. That’s why he could revive from death. After that, the others stop Tanjiro and turn him back to human.

The Demon Slayer Mark: the True Reason for Tanjiro’s Death

But after all, many, possibly even the author of Demon Slayer, need to remember one thing. And this might be the cause of the death of Tanjiro Kamado.

It’s the Demon Slayer Mark.

The Demon Slayer Mark appears like a tattoo on the body of a Demon Slayer after unlocking all the needed conditions. It takes on a variety of shapes depending on who activates it. For example, the Demon Slayer Mark of Tanjiro looks like a fire, but Tokito’s looks like a cloud.

The first Demon Slayer Mark in history is on Yoriichi‘s body. He was born with it. After all, he created Sun Breathing, from which all modern Breathing techniques originated. Many people believe Yoriichi with the Demon Slayer Mark did make the golden age of the Demon Slayer Corps because of its power.

Yoriichi was the reason the King of Demons Muzan had to hide everywhere. The scars that the blade of Yoriichi has left on his body still exist until this day. After Yoriichi died, Demon Slayer Mark disappeared until Tanjiro activated it once again.

How? It’s partly because no one knows about the origin of Demon Slayer Marks, partly about the nightmare conditions it needs to unlock, and partly the curse they have to bear after owning them.

We don’t know yet the origin of the Demon Slayer Marks, but we know that only the strongest warrior who can pass the condition of it can unlock the Demon Slayer Mark.

How to Activate Demon Slayer Marks?

A Demon Slayer Mark needs the user to have to satisfy these conditions:

• Master a Breathing technique.
• Break the limit of the human body. The heartbeat has to beat more than 200 times per minute, and the body temperature has to be higher than 39 degrees.

The first is pretty simple for many Demon Slayers.

However, the second is more brutal. If you don’t know, even a 200 heartbeat per minute or a temperature higher than 39 degrees can immediately send your body into a life-threatening state.

Did you know that the heartbeat of an ordinary person is just around 60 to 100 times per minute?

So, when your heartbeat reaches 200 times per minute or higher, death is coming for you. Only professional athletes with special training prepared by top experts could be in this condition.

When it comes to the Demon Slayer world, it is hard for a person to break that limit and maintain that heartbeat for a long time.

Fun fact: This is a normal state of Sun Breathing users like Yoriichi or Tanjiro Kamado.

Demon Slayer Marks can spread to others. When a Slayer can unlock it, other people around him can, too. Yoriichi and Tanjiro are the two best examples for this.

A Demon Slayer with this mark can be as strong as an Upper moon level Demon. The strength, speed, and ability to use Breathing will increase as well. Their blade now can also stop the cure of the demons.

But despite its power, the user has to bear a curse. Who unlocks Demon Slayer Mark CAN’T live more than 25 years old. This is because they have used their lifespan to change it into power.

Until now, we only know two people who can break this curse. One is Yoriichi, the one born with Demon Slayer Mark, and his brother, who turned into a demon.

With that said, Tanjiro’s death could happen because of the curse of Demon Slayer Mark.