Demon Slayer Drops New Clues About the History of the Ultimate Breathing Style

Demon Slayer‘s anime just dropped the pivotal season 2 episode that takes us out of the “Mugen Train Arc” redo and into the highly-anticipated new “Entertainment District Arc.” That transitional chapter of the story sees Tanjiro bring the last rites of Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku to his surviving family, and in doing so, unexpectedly stumbling across even more clues about the ultimate breathing technique of the Demon Slayer Corps: Sun Breathing. The more and more we learn about the Sun Breathing technique, the clearer it becomes that this fighting style is deeply tied to Tanjiro’s own history, and could be the key to defeat evil demon lord, Muzan! 

(WARNING: Demon Slayer Anime Episode 34 SPOILERS Follow!)

In “Sound Hashira Tengen Uzui” Tanjiro meets Rengoku’s little brother Senjuro and his abusive drunk of a father Shinjuro Rengoku. When Shinjuro (a former Flame Hashira) sees Tanjiro he flips out over the unique set of earrings Tanjiro wears, stating he knows they are a symbol of the Sun Breathing user. A scuffle between Shinjuro and Tanjiro ends in the former screaming that he knows Tanjiro is mocking him and Rengoku’s memory, as the Flame Hashira wasn’t powerful enough to survive an upper-rank demon and the Sun Breathing user would naturally look down on the lesser power. 

Shinjuro’s drunken rage actually reveals a lot about this mysterious power of Sun Breathing. The former Flame Hashira reveals that Sun Breathing is the original and most powerful breathing technique the Demon Slayers developed – the rest of the breathing techniques (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Sound, Thunder, Mist, etc.) are simply offshoots developed by those unable to master to true power of Sun Breathing. This is a key revelation, as it once again calls Tanjiro’s family history and his father’s mysterious “Hinokami Kagura” dance. Could the key to ultimate power have been in Tanjiro’s hands (literally) all along?

This episode of Demon Slayer’s anime also teases a darker twist in the history of the Sun Breathers. A very brief flashback image during Shinjuro’s rant shows the image of a mysterious character from the back, who is presumably a former Sun Breathing swordmaster of the Demon Slayer Corps. However, when Tanjiro and Senjuro later go back and try to investigate Shinjuro’s book on the Demon Slayer history, they make a startling discovery: the pages about Sun Breathing have been torn from the book. 

Why Sun Breathing has been kept so quiet within in the Demon Slayer ranks – and what it means about Tanjiro’s own family history – are two big questions that have been seeded in Demon Slayer all along – but now they are at the forefront. Got theories? 

Demon Slayer anime season 2 is now streaming on Hulu and Funimation.