Did Demon Slayer Really Kill Off that Main Character?

Warning! Major spoilers for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Chapter 200 of the manga below! Demon Slayer‘s final arc has reached a turning point with the latest chapter of the series as the countdown to sunrise has finally ended. It’s been a long hour for Tanjiro Kamado and the surviving members of the Hashira as they continued to struggle against Muzan’s evolving form in order to buy time until sunrise — which would deal the final blow. Tanjiro himself had been pushing his body beyond the limits with all the forms of the Hinokami Kagura.

It wasn’t an easy road for Tanjiro as he often was the only swordsman standing against Muzan and forcing himself to counter each one of the demon’s attacks while pushing his body. This led to him losing an arm, receiving a head wound that continued to blind and poison him, and as Chapter 200 came to a close…losing something worse.

As the Demon Slaying Corps attempt to recover as sunrise has seemingly defeated Muzan once and for all, multiple members of the Hashira all lost their lives. It’s confirmed that Sanemi Shinazugawa, Inosuke Hashibira, Zenitsu Agatsuma, and Giyu Tomioka have all managed to survive the fight, but the same can’t be said for Tanjiro. Tomioka finds Tanjiro slumped over, and he’s not breathing. The Corp members confirm that he doesn’t have a pulse either.

If Tanjiro truly is dead, then it’s quite the cruel fate as he finally got his wish of Nezuko becoming a human again thanks to Shinobu and Tamayo. He’ll never get his hard fought happy ending with his sister after all this time, and he’ll be marked as yet another casualty in the series’ bloodiest battle to date. It would be a fitting end in a series full of death for every one of its characters just like this, but still terribly heartbreaking.

Given how we’ve seen a glimpse into the afterlife for many of the characters who have died, there’s still a chance Tanjiro could pull through because we haven’t seen it yet. Then again, a goodbye like this is going to need an entire chapter dedicated to it. What do you think? Did Tanjiro lose his life in the fight against Muzan? How will Nezuko react to seeing her brother like this? Is this really how Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba will end? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!