Highlights
- Tanjiro lacks depth as a protagonist, with an overly positive and flawless personality that fails to resonate with viewers.
- His generic traits and inability to face challenges make him unrelatable and dull compared to other more complex anime protagonists.
- Tanjiro’s constant crying, even in minor situations, detracts from his character and makes him less endearing to fans.
Out of all modern anime, few have seen success to the same level as Demon Slayer. What started out as a cult anime has now seen mainstream appeal, making it one of the biggest and most successful anime franchises of all time, which is well-deserved praise due to its interesting world, compelling cast of characters, and jaw-dropping animation.
However, Demon Slayer has one glaring issue that falls for all the negative tropes associated with it; the protagonist, Tanjiro Kamado. While he is undoubtedly a popular character with droves of fans across the globe, he just fails at being a compelling or unique one. This is made even more apparent when compared to the rest of the cast, which is filled with fun and interesting personalities. So, let’s take a look at why Tanjiro is a bad protagonist for Demon Slayer.
A Generic Shonen Personality
Tanjiro Has No Unique Character Traits
|
First Appearance |
Demon Slayer, Episode 1, “Cruelty” |
|---|---|
|
Debut Date |
April 6, 2019 |
|
Story Arc |
Final Selection Arc |
The biggest reason why Tanjiro fails as a main character is that he has no discernable personality at all other than being compassionate. One of the defining things that makes a character good in the first place is their relatability, which fans of a series can only do with a character whose personality is realistic. Tanjiro, however, is just made to be too perfect of a person, so he fails to capture the emotions of fans.
Tanjiro’s personality is just a mixture of positive traits that is common with all Shonen protagonists. However, the difference here is that Tanjiro is made to be far too positive and without any flaws. He embodies the typical things that people have come to dislike about many Shonen main characters, such as;
- Uncompromising Kindness: Kindness is the most commonly associated aspect of what makes Tanjiro’s personality, but it is highly exaggerated to the point where it’s jarring. Tanjiro is always overtly kind or empathetic no matter who he comes across, even flesh-eating Demons who have killed hundreds of people, which makes no sense.
- Overly Positive: Being positive isn’t at all a bad thing, but Tanjiro’s overly positive personality gets annoying and tiring very quickly.
- Hates hurting living things: In a poor attempt to get across how good of a person Tanjiro is, the writer of the show made him a generic goody-two-shoes character who hates hurting people, despite being required to do so, which also doesn’t go anywhere. This trait is overplayed and not at all unique.
All I can do is work hard!
These traits may have made for a compelling protagonist if Tanjiro was the first character to ever embody them. However, these are so overplayed in Shonen anime and manga that Tanjiro just feels like any other character and has no qualities that make him special in that regard.
Has No Negative Traits
Tanjiro Has Only Positive Traits
Back to the point of relatability, a character is only relatable if they have flaws that real people can sympathize with, which allows them to put themselves in the character’s shoes. Tanjiro, however, does not have any negative traits about him, which just ends up making him generic and boring. His beliefs and values are set up to be so right and perfect, and he never really faces any challenge to them.
Take someone like Yuji Itadori from Jujutsu Kaisen as an example of a great modern anime protagonist. Though Yuji also embodies some of these positive traits, he faces challenges regarding them. For example, he too hated harming others. However, his experiences with what Mahito did to him and those he loves changed him into someone who had a vendetta against the Cursed Spirit and swore to kill him, which is a very real and human response in such a situation. This makes him far more relatable.
Moreover, Yuji faces a crisis in his final fight against Mahito, making him question everything about himself and find a new resolve to tackle the world. Despite him wanting to protect everyone in his life, Yuji is constantly shown to fail at this, with what happened to Nobara, Megumi, and Gojo, despite which he continues to fight. Tanjiro never really faces any such hurdles in his character growth and his beliefs are never challenged, which makes him incredibly boring.
He Is A Huge Crybaby
Tanjiro’s Most Annoying Trait
Perhaps the most annoying and off-putting part about Tanjiro is the fact that he is a massive crybaby. Now, there is nothing wrong with crying itself, as there is quite a negative stigma surrounding it already, and many characters across the Shonen genre have cried at one point or another in a way that added more depth to their character.
Tanjiro, however, cries every chance he gets. Though this is obviously an exaggeration, he is still a character who cries quite often and for reasons that many viewers of the series simply don’t understand. It’s almost as if anything happens, whether happy or sad, Tanjiro will somehow find a reason to shed tears over it. Even though this is something that is a fairly minor gripe, seeing him cry for any reason gets quite annoying.
You have no choice but to go on living.
The worst offender, in many fans’ eyes, was the death of Rengoku. While a very important character who fans, and other characters, came to love, Tanjiro only knew him for 2 hours. While his death was sad for everyone, it made no sense for Tanjiro to completely lose all composure and start wailing uncontrollably for someone he only properly got to know recently.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba can be streamed on Crunchyroll and Amazon Prime.
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