Demon Slayer: What makes each Breathing Style different from the other? Explained

Demon Slayer is a series whose anime adaptation has turned the franchise into a visual spectacle, which is something that has helped it gain worldwide success. While the success can be attributed to the animation and the likable characters, the execution of the different Breathing Styles has also helped people in terms of having attacks that look extremely fun and interesting.

Furthermore, a lot of Demon Slayer fans have noticed, both in the manga and the anime, that most users have different Breathing Styles, which has led to them questioning the differences between every style and approach. The truth behind the differences between these Breathing Styles is actually a lot more telling than what fans might initially think.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Demon Slayer series.

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Explaining the differences between Breathing Styles in Demon Slayer

The Demon Slayer series never explains the differences between the multiple Breathing Styles that are shown across the story. While both the manga and the anime show there are differences between each Breathing Style from a visual perspective, it has never been shown that one style can get the edge over the other, such as Tomioka’s Water Breathing against Rengoku’s Fire Breathing.

The only time a Style was determined to be stronger than the rest was with the Sun Breathing that Yoriichi invented centuries ago and Tanjiro Kamado, the main character of the series, went on to use. Furthermore, it is also worth pointing out that Sun Breathing seems to just “hit harder” rather than having any specific abilities.

Muichiro Tokito, one of the Hashira, used Mist Breathing during his fight with the sixth Upper Moon during the Swordsmith Village arc, and it seemed to have hidden him during his battle, giving him the chance to end the demon right there and then. However, there has been no explanation in the manga or the anime as to why this Breathing Style can do that compared to others, which is something worth taking into account.

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The legacy of Demon Slayer

There is no denying that Demon Slayer is a series with somewhat of a complicated legacy in terms of what it has achieved and its artistic merits. On the one hand, it’s no secret that the anime adaptation by Ufotable has been a generational success, turning Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga into a worldwide hit and becoming one of the most popular series in the entire business, which is something that not every anime out there can boast.

On the other hand, there are a lot of people and critics who feel that the story relies way too much on animation and visual appeal in order to gain the audience’s attention because the story doesn’t have that much going for it. Of course, this is all down to personal preferences, but it is something worth highlighting since it shows how a series this successful can have a lot of different opinions all over the world.

This was further emphasized by the manga’s ending, which was extremely rushed by Gotouge due to personal health reasons involving their family and has been one of the biggest sources of criticism when it comes to the series as a whole. There have been fans hoping that the anime is going to make alterations to the original ending, although that doesn’t seem likely at the moment, especially considering how faithful Ufotable has been to the manga.

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Final thoughts

The Demon Slayer manga and anime never showed any differences between the several Breathing Styles that were shown across the story. And while they have different visuals when executed, it is worth pointing out that they are more for visual appeal than serving a specific role in combat.