Highlights
- Tanjiro Kamado’s extreme honesty may make him a likable character, but it can also land him in trouble, especially when facing deceptive demons.
- While Tanjiro’s recklessness and willingness to throw himself at enemies can save lives, it also puts him in danger against stronger opponents.
- Tanjiro’s fiery temper and anger towards demons have helped him push beyond his limits, but it also leads him to take risky actions that may not always pay off.
Tanjiro Kamado is an exemplary model of an ideal shonen protagonist, who always strives to do the right thing and is empathetic towards everyone, including his enemies. While he may not be the most engaging character in the main cast throughout Koyoharu Gotouge’s Demon Slayer, he does play his role fairly well, and the series’ immense popularity has soared in part due to his likability.
From the start of his journey to save his sister Nezuko from losing her humanity, Tanjiro has undergone explosive growth as a swordsman and a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. At first, he was barely able to take on the lower ranks of the Twelve Kizuki, but he could later fight on even ground with the strongest among the Upper Moons. There is little doubt Tanjiro is a prodigious swordsman, but he is also burdened by a few shortcomings that diminish his overall strength in Demon Slayer.
5 Extreme Honesty
Green Flag Or Fatal Flaw?
On one hand, Tanjiro is honest to a fault, where everything he does is out of good intentions, and he will never do anything to deceive anyone he encounters. While some may view this as a good character trait, Tanjiro’s inability to tell even a single lie has landed him in trouble on official assignments for the Demon Slayer Corps during the Entertainment District Arc in Season 2 of Demon Slayer.
Given that his job is to fight bloodthirsty demons who are more than willing to use trickery and misinformation to outwit their prey, this quality may not be ideal for someone in his position. Even while attempting to lie, his face takes on a pained expression which is a dead giveaway for anyone who wants to interrogate him.
4 Recklessness
Abandoning All Sense Of Strategy
Even in situations where he is struggling to move after sustaining major injuries, Tanjiro will never hesitate to throw himself at the enemy if it allows him to save someone in the process. Again, this is an extremely noble quality for the most part, but it can also lead him into grave danger against opponents far stronger and more experienced than him.
At times, his actions have saved the lives of innocent civilians or other members of the Demon Slayer Corps. On other occasions, he left himself open to attack once his initial surge of energy faded away. While he is generally an astute tactician, Tanjiro’s recklessness has also left him vulnerable at times, and he might not have survived if not for the intervention of his allies.
3 A Fiery Temper
Inability To Keep A Cool Head
Despite how his anger has allowed him to push beyond his limits and earn quite a few victories against demons, Tanjiro’s fiery temper also lands him in trouble when going up against the Upper Moons of the Twelve Kizuki. Naturally, his prodigious talent, coupled with his good fortune and the assistance of his allies, has saved him from situations where he was quite outmatched, but this is a mere remedy for the problem and not a treatment that hits at the source.
His anger towards demons is also quite justified, given how much he has lost because of them, but this blinding rage has also led him to take risky actions that may not have paid off if circumstances had been different. Luckily for him, fate has always shined on him at the right time in battles, but it could only be a matter of time before his luck runs out.
2 Limited Control Of Sun Breathing
An Incomplete Imitation Of The First Breathing Style
Regarded as the progenitor of all Breathing Styles and the strongest of them all, Sun Breathing is the most powerful asset in Tanjiro’s arsenal, as it is incredibly effective when fighting against even the highest-ranked demons among Muzan’s forces. Tanjiro has used it to great effect against the Upper Moons so far, but its power also comes at a great cost to his well-being.
The fatigue from using Sun Breathing hits Tanjiro’s body quite quickly, and he struggles to perform consecutive attacks for extended periods in the anime. Even after he overcame most of his errors in using the Breathing Style in the manga, there was still a fair amount of whiplash when he employed it in combat for extended periods, hinting that it is a double-edged sword by virtue of being his most potent weapon as well as a great threat to him emerging victorious.
1 Indecisiveness
Struggling With Tough Choices
The life of a Demon Slayer is sure to be filled with difficult decisions, as they constantly gamble their lives and those of their comrades in the hopes of finally eradicating all of Muzan’s subordinates. Due to his innate need to save everyone and subsequent inability to make sacrifices, Tanjiro has been left wanting in tense situations, with the most notable one among them coming at the end of the Swordsmith Village Arc.
While he was lucky on that occasion, since Nezuko survived being exposed to sunlight, his indecisiveness also cost him in fights when he was unable to choose which Breathing Style to use for a given enemy. Fighting demons requires a great deal of concentration and quick wits, due to their overwhelming speed and strength, and Tanjiro has been lucky that his hesitation has not cost him his life.
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