Tanjiro as the embodiment of kindness even in battle, is a very unique and refreshing
take on the shounen hero trope, that is worth looking at in detail.
By the way, this video has no spoilers for season 2.
I've really been looking forward to talking about Tanjiro for a while now.
Even though I criticised the character writing overall in my video on why you should watch
demon slayer, Tanjiro is not only an exception to this but also easily one of the most interesting
ones in the show. In a weird way he is your very stereotypical shounen hero on the one
side and yet something entirely new and different on the other. And I find his personality and
philosophy extremely fascinating.
Hi my name is Manu, the only demons I've ever slain are the ridiculously huge mosquitos
here in Japan, like I absolutely hate killing any living thing, but for mosquitos I can
go full berserk mode, those are true demons, where was I? Oh yeah, I've been absolutely
obsessed with the beauty of the Kimetsu no Yaiba Anime. And so I just had no other choice
but analyse its main character and found some surprisingly deep writing behind it. What
do I mean by that?
Well, on the surface, Tanjiro Kamado fits the typical Shounen hero mold pretty nicely.
He's a young boy, check, who goes on an adventure fighting bad guys, check, trying to get stronger
to reach his goal, check and has a hidden power he didn't know about all along, check.
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Tanjiro's desire, his big goal is super clearly defined and tells us a lot about his character:
After his entire family is murdered, except for his sister, who is turned into a demon,
Tanjrio doeasn't seek revenge, but simply wants to save the last remaining member of
his family and turn Nezuko back into a human. This perfectly sets up his most important
character trait overall his empathy. And I found that really interesting, because Tanjiro
even is kind or at least empathetic to the demons he encounters. He is the only one that
is willing to see them as people, but at the same time he still wants to turn Nezuko back.
At first I found that a little bit paradoxical, but when you actually think about it, it speaks
of a certain maturity. He is able to see the people who were turned into demons, but he
still dislikes the condition of being a demon, for obvious reasons, I mean they eat people
and shit.
Now usually, for most heroes, beneath that superficial desire that they have, there is
actually a subconscious need that a character has. A lie they believe about the world, that
needs to be challenged. Now at the beginning of the series, it would be easy to say Tanjiro's
need is to lose his naivety. You can't empathise with everyone, especially if they are trying
to kill you. It seems like his kindness and hate for violence might be a hindrance in
his fight against the most evil and strongest beings in this world. However that is proven
wrong relatively quickly.
Tanjiro proves to us very early on that he can do both, be kind and caring AND do what
is necessary at the same time. He has a sort of kind ruthlessness in him, that results
in scenes like this [gently cutting the girls head of].
The point, that I found really astonishing to be honest, is that Tanjiro doesn't really
have a need to change. He is an incredibly kind and caring person with a strong will
to fight and get stronger to protect his sister and those who need protection, and he stays
that person. As a result, Tanjiro has close to no character development in the story.
Now, you probably know a few people, who proclaim that if a character has no character development,
it's a bad character. Which is not true. A character is bad if he is inconsistent or
simply boring. The reason Tanjiro stands out as a Shounen hero however, is that most shounen
protagonists have a positive character arc. They start with a fault to their character,
that they resolve at the end of the story. They have positive character arcs, becoming
better people as the story goes on. Even a character like Saitama in One Punch Man needs
to learn that true happiness doesn't come from fighting stronger and stronger opponents,
but from the relationship he has built.
A rare variation on this is a negative character arc, where the hero becomes disillusioned
with the world and becomes a worse person, like Gon in Hunter x Hunter.
Tanjiro on the other hand has a flat character arc, yup that's a real thing. He already has
accepted the world as it is and has chosen his path of how to approach it. In his case
kindness. Flat arcs are very rare in Shounen, because the audience expects the hero to grow
and change as they face harder and harder obstacles. And flat character arcs thus can
be confusing or frustrating. A good example I think is Ichigo from bleach. He also barely
changes throughout the story, and only gets stronger physically. The problem is, is that
bleach is way too long for such a hero. It becomes dull at some point, which was ultimately
its downfall.
Demon slayer on the other hand is relatively short. The manga is already over, and there
might be even less than 100 anime episodes at the end, which lets us focus on the world
and people around Tanjiro without it getting too boring.
That being said, flat arcs depend on your taste, and if you prefer seeing someone grow
as a person, then that's fair, I totally get that. But it's not bad writing in Tanjiro's
case.
His only flaw is his physical weakness, that he has to continually fight and struggle against.
He hates how useless he is, how he cannot help the people he wants to help.
Once criticism I personally have here, is that I feel like the characters around Tanjiro
could use way stronger character arcs. I think Tanjiro as a pillar of goodness would have
actually been some really great writing if the people around him changed a lot more in
his presence than they do in the end. Shinobu and Kanao are the closest we get, but it could
have been more impactful I think.
The people who change the most are the demons, and that only after they are defeated. Which
I find a bit of a shame.
So what IS Tanjiro all about then?
Well as most heroes, he is the foil and exact opposite to the villain of the story, Muzan
in every aspect. Everything from their motivations, to the ideals and values they represent.
While Muzan only cares about himself and sees everyone around him, demons and humans alike
as tools to use for his desires, Tanjiro’s central defining trait is his altruism. His
greatest priority will always be the lives of other people around him. Even though he’s
fighting against literal demons, he sees every last of them as people. While he does not
forgive and still condemns them for their actions, in the end he acknowledges that all
of them were humans at one point and tries his best to respect their feelings. Even though
he has to take their lives in order to protect his own or that of his friends, he tries to
give them the kindness that they were denied during their lifetime, giving them a bit of
redemption and a final chance to reflect on their lives. And so his arc is purely about
finding strength without throwing away his kindness, or his humanity. Instead of changing
and becoming a better person, Tanjiro is all about staying the great man he is. He embodies
the ideal of existentialism, basically the idea that his life derives meaning and happiness
from selflessly giving to the people around him. To the point where he tries to give meaning
to everyone he meets. [Tanjiro and the girl]
Even though the first season of Demon Slayer was an absolute firework in terms of production
for me, as I explained in my previous video, the Mugen Train movie really took me by surprise
with its story line, especially for Tanjiro. The fact that we got to physically enter everyone's
deepest desire and even more interestingly, see everyone's subconsciousness was an incredibly
creative choice in my opinion. I doubt this was on purpose, but the visual nature of the
anime makes up for a lot of the character writing in my opinion and so literally visualising
everyone's personality was a really awesome move.
Touché. I wonder what my subconscious would look like. Mostly coffee probably and you
gently hitting the subscribe button.
Anyways, in Tanjiro’s dream, instead of returning back to his family left dead after
being massacred, he finds them alive instead, at least at first.
Tanjiro’s desire is very simple — to just live a happy live with with his family. After
all, he’s just a simple charcoal-burner, and a simple elder brother who became the
breadwinner at a young age after the death of his father.
The dream brings to light all of his trauma, regrets, and guilt that he must carry with
him at all times, as he huggs his “alive” siblings so tightly, apologizing over and
over again, even though his dream self doesn’t know exactly why he was apologizing and crying.
Tanjiro understandably has a pretty severe case of survivor's guilt, as he was the only
one who got away unharmed, especially as the oldest brother. It is the first time since
going on his journey, where he can pause and reflect on that fact, because he kept himself
distracted with his mission to get stronger and at least save Nezuko.
At the same time it once again shows that Tanjiro is already mature and priorities those
around him. Instead of allowing himself to be drawn in by the thing he desires most,
he is able to let go of the past in order to save the people on board of the train.
He even goes so far as to kill himself in order to get out of the dream, which is pretty
radical, if I'm being honest.
And yet, despite all the pain and regret inside him, when we get to enter Tanjiro's subconsciousness,
it still is an endless oasis of love and warmth, with his core shining as bright as the sun,
the thing demons fear the most. He still reminds unconditionally kind to the point where you
could call him the personification of kindness itself. The boy who entered this place was
reduced to tears and is healed from his darkness, exactly the thing I would have liked to see
for more characters around him. Tanjiro is the sun that frees people and demons alike
from the darkness of their hearts and their eternal pain. And that's what makes him such
a unique character in the shounen genre.
If you want to hear my full thoughts on the series until now, I strongly recommend you
check out that video right here. Thanks for watching.