Updated March 12, 2023 by Ernie
As you may be aware, Demon Slayer has emerged as a famous anime in recent years. Although the manga has reached its conclusion, the anime adaptation has only enhanced its popularity among fans. For those who may not know what Demon Slayer is, we have written a comprehensive article on it in one of our blogs. Be sure to take a look!
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The unique fighting techniques called Breathing Styles were created by the demon slayers to make their battles against demons more effective. Each style possesses different strengths and advantages. There are several different forms such as Thunder Breathing, Water Breathing, Flame Breathing, and many more! Let’s explore and discover the strongest Breathing Styles in the popular anime.
HERE ARE THE BEST BREATHING STYLES!!
14. Breath of the Beast
Beast Breathing technique in the Demon Slayer series is a unique and powerful method that replicates the wild, unpredictable nature of animals. It originates from the Wind Breathing technique and is only known to be used by Inosuke Hashibara, who developed this skill through his time spent living in the mountains.
The technique allows its users to significantly enhance their physical abilities, including strength, speed, and sensory perception. With many known forms, the Beast Breathing technique is truly a force to be reckoned with. However, one of the most impressive forms is the Seventh form, known as Spatial Awareness. This form allows users to sense the vibrations around them and gives them an unparalleled awareness of their surroundings.
13. Serpent Breathing
Starting off with Serpent Breathing! It’s a unique breathing style that originated from Water Breathing and its known user of this style is Obanai Ishiguro. He is a part of the Demon Slayer Corps and has the title of the Serpent Hashira for obvious reasons.
Using this Breathing Style has different kinds of techniques that the user can use. In this case, here are some of the few techniques that Obanai uses. The first one is called the First Form: Winding Serpent Slash where the user slashes his way toward the enemy like a snake with its loop of attacks. The 2nd form is called Venom Fangs of the Narrow Head, and this is executed by flanking the enemy as fast as possible and slicing the head off of the opponent causing an instant kill (Demon Slayer, Chapter 164).
Lastly, his strongest move is known as Slithering Serpent where Obanai slashes his sword in different directions at once making it possible for him to kill several opponents in an instant. Since this is also a Breathing Style that involves a whole lot of twisting, the Serpent Breathing can only be properly executed with a curved blade just like what Obanai Iguro uses (Demon Slayer, Chapter 140).
12. Breath of the Insect
This breathing technique originates from the Breath of the Flower. Shinobu Kocho realized that she lacked the necessary strength to behead a demon, so she honed her skills and created the Breath of the Insect technique, which emphasizes the art of stabbing and piercing.
Her Nichirin sword features a needle-like tip that mirrors the stinger of an insect and is imbued with Wisteria poison, a well-known weakness for demons. Additionally, her sheath has been designed to alter the coating of the poison, enhancing its effectiveness.
One of the most formidable forms of the Breath of the Insect is the Dance of the Centipede: Hundred-Legged Zig-zag– this vicious technique involves the user darting about at maximum speed, disorienting their adversary and creating an opening for a precise neck strike. With an explosive combination of velocity and power, the attacker then injects a lethal dose of poison. You could check quotes shared by our strong demon slayers after reading this blog.
11. Flower Breathing
The Flower Breathing is also a style that stems from Water Breathing just like the Serpent one. Its known users are Kanao Tsuyuri and the late sister of Shinobu, Kanae Kocho. Kanae was also the Flower Hashira back when she was alive.
So, the reason why it’s called Flower Breathing is that the user moves as if it were a flower or a fruit. In simpler terms, it’s a graceful way of attacking your opponents and its reliability relies more on agility just like the Serpent Breathing. One of its techniques is the Crimson Hanagoromo where Kanao executes a graceful slash by twisting her sword. There is also the powerful move called Peonies of Futility where nine continuous slashes hit the enemy giving off an image similar to a flower’s (Demon Slayer, Chapter 143)!
The strongest technique when using Flower Breathing is Kanao’s Equinoctial Vermilion Eye. The user’s vision raises to its highest capabilities and even allows the person to see her surroundings in slow motion. It’s a deadly move but also has major downfalls because whoever uses this technique can cause partial blindness to the user (Demon Slayer, Chapter 162).
10. Love Breathing
Next up is Love Breathing which originated from Flame Breathing and is used by Mitsuri Kanroji as the Love Hashira. Now you may be wondering what kind of power is Love Breathing? It probably sounds laughable to some of you guys but basically, it’s a style based on the concept of love and is personally created by Kanroji herself.
So, this technique works by having long-ranged attacks with a sword that extends like a whip and can be taken advantage of with the user’s speed. In Kanroji’s case, this Breathing Style allows her to have superhuman strength without having a muscular body.
As a result, she can deal with quick and powerful attacks against her opponents! Some of Kanroji’s techniques in using Love Breathing is called Love Pangs where her sword extends and bends like a whip allowing her to easily slash any enemies in her range (Demon Slayer, Chapter 123).
While her strongest move is called the Cat–Legged Winds of Love where she takes advantage of her cat-like reflexes by twirling her body while she performs multiple attacks with her whip-like sword (Demon Slayer, Chapter 182).
9. Mist Breathing
The Mist Breathing is a style that came from Wind Breathing just like Inosuke’s Beast style. This style allows the user to move and blend with their surroundings like a mist. Just like any other Breathing style, this also involves quick strikes and high agility. I’d say this technique is really good for stalling enemies especially when you know they’re stronger than you since it messes up the enemy’s senses and acts as if they are surrounded by mist.
The sole user of this breathing style is Muichiro Tokito who is also the Mist Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. As the Mist Hashira, Muichiro is known to be very skilled in Mist Breathing and has several techniques he can use in battle. One of which is the Shifting Flow Slash where Muichiro unsheathes his sword while running toward his opponent and executing a quick clean slash (Demon Slayer, Chapter 106)!
He also personally created a move that is only exclusive to him, which is called the Obscuring Clouds. This technique is used by fooling enemies into thinking that the user is slow but in reality, he’s actually moving fast. Enemies may not want to blink their eyes when dealing with him especially if it’s in a wide area because that is where he shines the most (Demon Slayer, Chapter 121).
8. Water Breathing
If you’ve watched the anime, then this is the one you’re gonna be most familiar with since this is the most used Breathing Style of Kamado Tanjiro. Yes, that’s Water Breathing. Basically, it’s a technique where the user moves like water. It means that their flow of movements are continuous similar to a river stream.
Unlike the other styles, there are a lot of people known to be using this such as Tanjiro, Giyu Tomioka, Sakonji Urokodaki, and other minor characters in the series. The Water Breathing Style also has several techniques and a lot of them have been shown in the first season. One of which is the most common move called Water Surface Slash where Tanjiro executes a straightforward slash to the enemy as long as he gathers enough force to do it (Demon Slayer, Chapter 21).
As for its best move, it’s only exclusive to the Water Pillar, Giyu Tomioka, since he was the one who first created it. He calls it Dead Calm and it may not be an offensive technique but it’s a very effective defensive mechanism since it allows the user to be in a calm state where he can deflect any form of attack (Demon Slayer, Chapter 42)!
7. Thunder Breathing
Coming in next is Zenitsu Agatsuma’s Thunder Breathing! Just from the name itself, it already gives you the impression that it’s a powerful one, well that’s because it is! The Thunder Breathing does not only focus on the power of your strikes but also on the user’s speed which allows them to quickly move like lightning!
Although Zenitsu only uses one form of Thunder Breathing in the anime, it still has other forms that are known in the series. Some of which is the Heat Lightning where the user releases a long-ranged attack imbued with Lightning. There is also the strongest move that is only available to Zenitsu and that’s the Flaming Thunder God. With his lightning speed, Zenitsu takes a stance and performs a straightforward slash to the enemy as the image of a lightning dragon appears beside him (Demon Slayer, Chapter 145).
This is probably one of the most badass Breathing Styles you’ll ever see especially when they’re all animated. So far in the anime, Zenitsu has only been using his First Form: Thunderclap and Flash with different variations of it namely Sixfold, Eightfold, and Godspeed. And it looks like we’ll have yet to see the other techniques in the future (Demon Slayer, Chapter 23)! If you want to know more about Zenitsu Agatsuma, you can check our blog solely dedicated for him!
6. Breath of the Sound
Sound Breathing is a unique type of Breathing that is different from others in that it doesn’t have many forms. This Breathing is based on Thunder Breathing and requires the user to have excellent hearing abilities. Currently, the only known user of this technique is Tengen Uzui. Sound Breathing allows the user to predict their opponent’s movements by analyzing their rhythm patterns and creating loud noises to disrupt them. Additionally, its fast movements can generate powerful explosions that inflict massive damage.
5. Flame Breathing
Flame Breathing is one of the five styles that originated from Sun Breathing. It was used by the Flame Hashira, Kyojurou Rengoku, and his father, Shinjuro Rengoku. Obviously, the Flame Breathing are movements that are similar to a flame’s—powerful and leaves the enemy with a burning sensation. Unlike the Thunder Breathing which is most of the time executed with a low stance, the Flame is performed with a high stance to create strong and powerful strikes to the enemy!
So, the Flame Breathing has a lot of high-powered moves and all of them were shown in Rengoku’s fight with Akaza displaying his full power as the Flame Hashira. Some of them is the Flame Tiger which is an overhead slash and creates the image of a flaming tiger toward the enemy. As for Rengoku’s strongest move, it’s called Purgatory and it’s a move taken with a high stance unleashing a flaming dragon that charges directly at the enemy (Demon Slayer, Chapter 64).
4. Stone Breathing
Another one of the five original Breathing Styles is called Stone Breathing. Using this style allows the user to take advantage of the ground making them sturdier as a rock. Unlike the other Breathing Styles, you can mostly see that they are focused on offense and if not, defense. But the Stone Breathing focuses on both at the same time making it one of the strongest styles!
Its known user is Gyomei Himejima, the Stone Hashira. Unlike other Demon Slayers, Gyomei doesn’t use a Nichirin sword to kill demons but rather uses a Nichirin Spiked Flail and Axe in order to properly use Stone Breathing. One of its known techniques is called Volcanic Rock, Rapid Conquest and he uses this by swinging the chain that connects the flail and axe. After gaining enough momentum, he uses them both at the same time to strike the enemy. While its final form called Arcs of Justice is a continuous chain of attacks dealing heavy damage for a period of time (Demon Slayer, Chapter 176).
What makes this so strong is that you can use the weapon either for short-ranged or long-ranged battles allowing you to think of different ways of defeating your opponent. Add to that, Gyomei’s muscular build which allows him to fully utilize his weapons resulting in heavy damage!
3. Wind Breathing
This another entry on breathing style is used by the Wind Hashira, Sanemi Shinaguzawa. It’s a style that makes the user move like the wind but is also very offensive when it comes to its known techniques. This Breathing Style also takes advantage of the wind in their surroundings allowing them to blend with it and create several swift attacks.
As the Wind Hashira, Sanemi was able to use the style to its full potential in his battles displaying every possible technique up his sleeve. Some of them are very eye-catching to look at as it involves generating whirlwind–like patterns in their attacks such as the Eighth Form: Primary Gale Slash. This is where Sanemi leaps high enough to swing his blade to create a whirlwind that slices up the enemy in any part of its body (Demon Slayer, Chapter 176).
There is also the Idaten Typhoon and just from the name itself, yes, it’s like a typhoon. A move is executed by doing a backflip and creating a wind current that slashes anything that it touches below (Demon Slayer, Chapter 199).
2. Breath of the Moon
This breathing is not used by the Demon Slayer corps, it’s a sword style that was developed by a demon– Michikatsu Yokiguni. Unlike his brother (Yoriichi Tsukiguni) he cannot learn Sun Breathing, therefore he was taught a different technique, and after knowing his strength and weaknesses he created the Moon Breathing.
This technique focuses on quick and lethal strikes that follow the shape of a crescent moon. Using this technique makes him more formidable especially when he becomes a demon. While using his Blood demon art and its multiple breathing forms Michikatsu became even more powerful.
1. Sun Breathing/Hinokami Kagura
Lastly, the strongest breathing style and obviously that’s the Sun Breathing. The main root of all the Breathing Styles mentioned so far. Surprisingly, this is also the Hinokami Kagura that Tanjiro was able to use in some of his battles.
Not to be mistaken with the Flame Breathing since the Sun Breathing involves the power of the sun and can only be done with moves as if you were offering a dance to the Fire God. This breathing style is also the most effective one in exterminating demons since their main weakness is the sun.
One of its notable moves is Hinokami Kagura: Dance where the user inhales deeply to increase their blood pressure and unleash an all-powerful attack on its enemy as the user fully exhales (Demon Slayer, Chapter 40).
While the most powerful move in the series is called Thirteenth Form where the user executes all the 12 Forms of the Sun Breathing Style resulting in a continuous series of attacks. Using this technique also reduces the exhaustion of the user allowing it to be capable of a much longer battle (Demon Slayer, Chapter 193).
Conclusion
And so that concludes the Strongest Breathing Styles in the Demon Slayer series! There are still other styles known but these are the ones deemed as the most powerful ones, especially since this also includes almost all of the branches of the Breathing Styles available in the series. If you loved this blog and want to know more about this series, you may also check our Demon Slayer watch order!
