All 14 Breathing Styles are used in Demon Slayer…

Breathing Styles are swordsmanship styles that makes use of a difficult breathing technique known as Total Concentration Breathing practiced and taught by members of the Demon Slayer Corps and are used in combat by Demon Slayers.

The anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has showcased a handful of the breathing techniques that demon slayers use to protect humanity, but they’ve only just scratched the surface of their abilities. Each breathing style has multiple forms, but the techniques as a whole vary in terms of capabilities and lethality.

The 9 Hashira are the highest-ranking demon slayers in the Corps, and each member possesses unique breathing techniques. Each breathing style also has forms that the demon slayer has developed or learned themselves, making them stronger and more versatile.

14. Beast Breathing (11 Techniques)

Beast Breathing is a Breathing Style that mimics beasts and wild animals, specifically their unpredictable and wild nature, including movements, attacks, and senses, and replicates it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most of all known techniques and forms are simple, straightforward yet wild, unpredictable, and animalistic movements and attacks, although one of them, utilizes the powerful sense of touch to replicate an animal’s primal senses. Beast Breathing users also visualize themselves seemingly manifesting the claw slashes of a beast when unleashing its techniques.

Since this Breathing Style is personally created and self-taught by Inosuke Hashibira after living in the mountains and fighting for survival, it can be assumed that it can only be utilized by someone with dual Nichirin katanas and an extremely acute sense of touch.

13. Insect Breathing (4 Techniques)

A derivative of Water & Flower Breathing, Shinobu Kocho uses Insect Breathing. Shinobu created this technique to mimic the lethal stings and movements of insects. Her sword is notoriously thin with a needle tip to replicate the stinger function to inject Wisteria poison into demons.

There are four techniques called Butterfly Dance, Dance of the Bee Sting, Dance of the Dragonfly, and Dance of the Centipede. Shinobu matches the movements of the butterfly, dragonfly, and centipede, as well as the sting and speed of the bee, to behead her demon adversaries.

12. Flower Breathing (7 Techniques)

Flower Breathing is a Breathing Style that mimics flowers and fruits and replicates the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most, if not all, known techniques and forms are a combination of graceful attacks that focus on agility. This Breathing Style also enhances and utilizes one’s vision, albeit at the possible cost of their eyesight. Users of Flower Breathing also visualize themselves seemingly creating and manipulating flowers when unleashing its techniques.

11. Sound Breathing (5 Techniques)

Sound Breathing is a Breathing Style that mimics sound, specifically its disorientating loudness, and replicates it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities, and it is derived from Thunder Breathing. Most of all known techniques and forms utilize explosives to deal massive amounts of damage while making use of extremely fast movements similar to how fast sound travels as well as the user’s sense of hearing.

The only known user, Tengen Uzui uses a technique developed using his superhuman sense of hearing called Musical Score which involves Tengen reading his opponent’s movements and deconstructing them into sound by analyzing the rhythm of their movements. Through this, he can take advantage of their openings to much greater effect by striking in a way similar to making the beat to a song. In conjunction with this, he uses small but powerful anti-demon bombs that are capable of damaging the bodies of Upper-Rank demons.

Since this combat style can only be used by Tengen, it can only be used with a specific set of weaponry, which is two gigantic kusarigama-like Nichirin Cleavers, which each have a notch in the sharp ends of their blades and are held together at the hilt by a metal chain. His swords are said to have large amounts of explosive power, and it is stated that, until Tengen’s fight with Upper-Rank Six, no one had ever survived a blow from them.

10. Serpent Breathing (5 Techniques)

Serpent Breathing is a Breathing Style that copy serpents and snakes, specifically their slithering motions, and replicates it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most, if not all, known techniques and forms focus on twisting and bending the sword like how a serpent slithers, the attacks are not direct and constantly meander which can ultimately strike anywhere. Users of Serpent Breathing also visualize themselves seemingly manifesting white serpents that accompany them when unleashing its techniques.

Since this technique is currently known to only be utilized by Obanai Iguro, it can only be used with a twisted blade that is similar in appearance to an Indonesian Kris Sword, with the sword’s shape modeled into the bodily structure of a snake.

9. Love Breathing (6 Techniques)

Love Breathing is a Breathing Style that is based on the emotion of love. Most, if not all, known techniques form a combination of mid to long-ranged whip-like attacks that utilize the user’s flexibility, dexterity, agility, and speed.

This Breathing Style is the personal creation of Mitsuri Kanroji, made by altering the Flame Breathing she learned from Kyojuro Rengoku to suit her needs. It takes advantage of her body’s unique muscle density, which grants her inhuman strength without making her physically bulky, to deliver fast and powerful blows while moving with incredible flexibility and agility. As it relies on her body’s special composition, it is a Style only she can use. It can also be assumed that this Breathing Style requires a whip-like katana.

8. Mist Breathing (7 Techniques)

Mist Breathing is a Breathing Style that mimics mist, specifically the obscurity of mist, and replicates it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most of all known techniques and forms involve swift strikes and movements performed in a unique pattern that obscures the opponent’s senses and surroundings as if the battlefield were enveloped in mist. Mist Breathing users also visualize themselves seemingly creating and manipulating mist when unleashing its techniques.

Based on Mist Breathing’s only known user, Muichiro Tokito, who wears baggy clothing that covers his arms and legs to obscure his movements, it can be assumed that most other users would also have to don clothing that hides their limbs from their enemy to fully maximize the potential of this Breathing Style.

7. Thunder Breathing (7 Techniques)

Thunder Breathing is a Breathing Style that mimics lightning, specifically swift strikes, and movements akin to lightning ripping through the sky, and replicates it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most, if not all, known techniques and forms involve utilizing blinding speeds and immensely fast attacks to overwhelm the enemy in an instant. Users of Thunder Breathing also visualize themselves seemingly creating and manipulating lightning and electricity when unleashing its techniques.

It has been remarked by Zenitsu Agatsuma that this Breathing Style focuses on channeling strength into the user’s legs and maximizing the output of every single muscle and blood vessel in them. Users also mimic lightning to such high fidelity that they cause the air to vibrate when poised to unleash a technique and create immensely loud sounds akin to thunder with their mere footsteps.

6. Water Breathing (11 Techniques)

Water Breathing is a Breathing Style that mimics water, specifically the flow, flexibility, and adaptability of the liquid, and replicates it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most, if not all, known techniques involve the user bending their body, arm, and weapon in a fluid motion to match the movements of flowing water. Users also visualize themselves seemingly creating and manipulating water when unleashing its techniques.

This Breathing Style was created by one of Yoriichi Tsugikuni’s students who attempted to learn Sun Breathing, but due to not being as innately talented as Yoriichi, they were instead taught and trained in an alternative personalized Breathing Style that focused on their strengths and weaknesses, eventually becoming Water Breathing.

It is said to be the most common Breathing Style among Demon Slayers due to being the easiest to learn for beginners. A known Cultivator of Water Breathing in the Demon Slayer Corps is Sakonji Urokodaki, though there are other Cultivators as well.

5. Wind Breathing (9 Techniques)

Wind Breathing is a Breathing Style that mimics wind, specifically powerful torrents of air and whirlwinds, and replicates it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most of all known techniques and forms involve purely offensive attacks, most of which utilize rotating movements to generate swift whirlwind-like slashes that greatly increase the wielder’s striking range or utilize the air around them to deliver sharp sickle-shaped attacks. Users of Wind Breathing also visualize themselves seemingly creating and manipulating wind when unleashing its techniques.

This Breathing Style is also extremely reminiscent of the real-life swordsmanship style, Jigen-Ryu, a sword-wielding style that emphasizes on the opening strike and high stances.

This Breathing Style was created by one of Yoriichi Tsugikuni’s students who attempted to learn Sun Breathing, but due to not being as innately powerful as Yoriichi, they were instead taught an alternated personalized Breathing Style that focused on their strengths and weaknesses, which eventually evolved into Wind Breathing.

4. Stone Breathing (5 Techniques)

Stone Breathing is a Breathing Style that imitates earth and stone and replicates it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most, if not all, known techniques and forms utilizes the ground beneath the user and the vast surroundings to generate powerful and sturdy attacks that specialize in both offense and defense.

The Breathing Style was created by one of Yoriichi Tsugikuni’s students who attempted to learn Sun Breathing, but, due them to not being as innately powerful as Yoriichi, they were unable to master it and was instead taught an alternative personalized Breathing Style by their teacher that focused specifically on their strengths and weaknesses, eventually branching out completely and becoming Stone Breathing.

Based on the only user in the series, Gyomei Himejima, it can be assumed that Stone Breathing can only be used with a flail and/or axe. However, in Kokushibo’s flashback, the progenitor of Stone Breathing is seen wielding a giant Kusarigama-like weapon.

3. Flame Breathing (9 Techniques)

Flame Breathing is a Breathing Style that mimics flames and replicates them with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most, if not all, known techniques and forms involve extremely powerful singular strikes that ‘burn’ their opponents, with most attacks being initiated from a high stance. Users of Flame Breathing also visualize themselves seemingly creating and manipulating fire when unleashing its techniques.

This Breathing Style was created by one of Yoriichi Tsugikuni’s students who attempted to learn Sun Breathing, but due to not being as innately powerful as Yoriichi, they were instead taught an alternated personalized Breathing Style that focused on their strengths and weaknesses, which eventually evolved into Flame Breathing.

2. Breath of The Moon (16 Techniques)

Moon Breathing is a Breathing Style that imitates the moon and replicates it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. Most, if not all, known techniques and forms are standard yet varied swordsmanship techniques that focus on swift and powerful strikes that always follow the shape and pattern of a crescent moon. Due to this Breathing Style’s great variation in techniques, this swordsmanship form has a great blend of offense and defense, similar to Sun Breathing.

This Breathing Style is only used by Upper-Rank One, Kokushibo, who was one of the first Demon Slayers who utilized Total Concentration Breathing. When he became a demon, he improved this Breathing Style using his Blood Demon Art, which he used to create dozens of tangible crescent moons from his sword, each of them as sharp as blades, making this Breathing Style one of, if not the, most powerful and deadly ones showcased thus far.

1. Breath Of The Sun (13 Techniques)

The Hinokami Kagura is a Breathing Style that is passed on from father to son in every generation alongside the Hanafuda earrings. The Kamado family uses the Breathing Style within a ritual ceremony practiced every new year, where the Breathing Style user offers the Fire God a dance from sunset to sunrise to ward off threats and diseases.

The dance is composed of twelve segments repeated throughout the night until dawn. Tanjuro noted that the breathing technique utilized in this dance allows the user to never exhaust themselves no matter how long they move, making it such that they can seemingly dance forever. The last user is Tanjiro Kamado, who learned the Breathing Style from his father, Tanjuro Kamado. Other people can learn this technique if taught by a Kamado descendant.

The Hinokami Kagura is later revealed by Shinjuro Rengoku to be a legendary Breathing Style known as Sun Breathing, a legendary and forgotten Breathing Style and the first one to ever be created. All other Breathing Styles are derived from it as the result of Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the creator of Sun Breathing, modifying it to suit the individuals he taught.

Both the Hinokami Kagura and Sun Breathing are Breathing Styles that mimic the sun and replicate it with the user’s movements, techniques, and abilities. All techniques and forms are extremely varied and have no set pattern, making them the most versatile and effective against demons. Users of Sun Breathing visualize themselves seemingly manipulating solar flames when unleashing its techniques.

This Breathing Style also seems to be capable of hampering a demon’s regeneration to an extent and causing pain akin to being burnt. Tanjiro also noted that using this style increases his overall power and speed, probably because his body is more suited to Sun Breathing as opposed to Water Breathing.

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