Demon Slayer: Offshoot Breathing Styles, Explained

The main power system in Demon Slayer that the heroes use is based around the concept of Total Concentration Breathing. This is when members of the Demon Slayer Corps put all their focus and power into breathing, allowing them to hone their swordsmanship to its maximum potential and letting them fight on par with their sworn enemies; the Demons. To the average person, the application of Total Concentration Breathing in swordsmanship is nothing short of superhuman.

Demon Slayer's power system is also pretty complex. This is because, by attaining the ability to fight this way, they can realize their strength and specific advantages in fighting, which manifests in the form of any one of 5 elements. However, some Demon Slayers can work these styles to benefit from their own strengths, forming unique offshoot breathing styles. So, let's take a look at each of these offshoots and see why they're so strong!

Flower Breathing

Original Style: Water Breathing

An offshoot of one of the 5 original Breathing Styles, Water Breathing, Flower Breathing is fairly similar to its parent style, in the sense it prioritizes finesse over brute strength when it comes to dealing damage. It gets its name from the way it seeks to recreate flowers and plant life with its movements, often forming graceful movements that put an emphasis on agility and speed. Some of the stronger techniques of this breathing style temporarily boost the vision of the user, though they can damage eyesight in the long run.

• Total Forms: 7
• Specialty: Agile and quick movements
• Greatest Feat: Kanae used this style to help defeat Upper Rank 2, Douma

Insect Breathing

Original Style: Flower Breathing - Water Breathing

Unlike the other breathing styles of its kind, Insect Breathing is an offshoot of an offshoot! This is because it is highly specialized for its creator, Shinobu, who, due to being smaller and weaker than almost every other slayer, relies more on jabbing her sword rather than cutting or slashing due to her lack of strength. To make the most out of this style of combat, Shinobu keeps a highly potent Wisteria poison within her blade and injects it through her jabbing motions, essentially killing the Demons from the inside!

• Total Forms: 4
• Specialty: Quick, jabbing attacks with poison damage
• Greatest Feat: Shinobu used this style to incredible effect in the Mount Natagumo arc, killing many powerful demons

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Serpent Breathing

Original Style: Water Breathing

Serpent Breathing is a highly specialized form of Water Breathing that is used by the Serpent Hashira, Obanai. This is an offshoot created by him and utilizes the pet snake he has on his shoulder to help him see. This form mimics the slithery movements of a serpent, allowing Obanai to be very flexible and agile in his strikes, which is reflected in almost every form or technique of the style since they call for the user's arm or sword to move and attack in a very serpentine way. This style is reflected in Obanai's special undulating Nichirin Blade.

• Total Forms: 5
• Specialty: Confusing and slithering motions with unpredictable strikes
• Greatest Feat: Obanai's style was instrumental in keeping Nakime's powers at bay during the Infinity Castle arc

Love Breathing

Original Style: Flame Breathing

Mitsuri is the only known user of this unique Breathing Style. Since it owes lineage to Flame Breathing, it also replicates its parent style's emphasis on powerful attacks, perfectly showcasing the inhuman strength of Mitsuri. However, it also requires an incredible amount of flexibility and acrobatic skill, since Mitsuri's strange whip-sword has a long and flexible blade that functions similarly to traditional ribbon dancing. By using her strength and natural acrobatic skill, she makes full use of this formidable Breathing Style.

• Total Forms: 6
• Specialty: Agile and acrobatic movements with powerful strikes
• Greatest Feat: Love Breathing was incredibly useful in the Swordsmith Village arc and against Nakime in the Infinity Castle arc

Mist Breathing

Original Style: Wind Breathing

Mist Breathing is an offshoot of Wind Breathing. This style focuses on the mist itself, with its most powerful and common techniques being those that seek to obscure the user, allowing them to strike from the blind spots of their enemies. These strikes are also quite powerful and those that do not emphasize killing blows seek to disorient the opponent, perfectly mirroring the same way that mist tends to obscure one's vision. Muichiro even wears baggy clothes that cover most of his body, perhaps replicating the same properties of mist.

• Total Forms: 7
• Specialty: Disorienting attacks that confuse the opponent and striking from the shadows
• Greatest Feat: Muichiro used this style to singlehandedly defeat Gyokko, who was the Upper Moon 5 during the Swordsmith Village arc

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Beast Breathing

Original Style: Wind Breathing

Beast Breathing is a unique style of combat since it focuses more on brute strength and violent slashing as opposed to the agility and speed of Wind Breathing. Since this style mimics the ferocity of beasts, it is perfectly mirrored in Beast Breathing's unpredictable movements and violent nature that focuses on wild attacks that may be straightforward in their application but are quite powerful. However, one of the techniques requires an adept sense of spatial awareness that allows the user to detect enemy movements from very far away.

• Total Forms: 11
• Specialty: Powerful and erratic attacks to overpower the opponent
• Greatest Feat: Beast Breathing was instrumental in defeating Upper Moon 2, Douma

Sound Breathing

Original Style: Thunder Breathing

Much like its parent style, Thunder Breathing, Sound Breathing allows Uzui to fight at blinding speeds. However, unlike Thunder Breathing, Uzui's own style places speed over all else since it makes use of his unique ability to compose a musical score during the fight, which lets him see how the battle is likely to play out. Moreover, this style is unique in the sense that it also makes use of explosives in many of its forms, making it one of the few styles to use weapons outside the traditional Nichirin Blades.

• Total Forms: 5
• Specialty: Blinding speed to pummel enemies as well as using sound to deconstruct enemies' movements
• Greatest Feat: Uzui used this in his amazing one-on-one fight against Upper Moon 6, Gyutaro

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba can be streamed on Amazon Prime and Netflix.

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Demon Slayer

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8.6/10

Action

Adventure

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Release Date

April 6, 2019

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Based on Koyoharu Gotouge's shonen manga, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is an action anime set in Japan during the early 20th century. Seeking revenge for the murder of his family while also looking to save his sister, Tanjiro joins the Demon Slayer Corps as they try to eradicate Demons led by Muzan.

Seasons

4

Studio

ufotable

Based On

Manga

Creator

Koyoharu Gotoge

Number of Episodes

63

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix

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