Who Is Genya in Demon Slayer? (2024)

The hit shonen anime series Demon Slayer lives up to its title, featuring a variety of lovable heroes who risk their lives to dispatch deadly demons and protect humanity. That makes Demon Slayer a good example of a "monster hunter" anime akin to Chainsaw Man and Fire Force, and like those series, Demon Slayer shows that there is more than one way to get the job done. Demon slayers in Taisho-era Japan may all use the same basic tactics, such as using Nichirin swords, but slayers like Genya Shinazugawa have radically unusual, even unique, fighting styles.

Most demon slayers make use of conventional breathing techniques like water breathing and thunder breathing to define their sword styles, but Genya is a different case. He uses a more creative, resourceful fighting style to get results, and he has a personality to match. Now, Demon Slayer fans want to know how Genya's personality and relationships defined his fighting style and vice versa and see how far he has come in his demon-slaying career compared to the main anime trio of Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke.

Genya Shinazugawa's Unique Half-Other Fighting Style In Demon Slayer

The Demon Slayer anime set up a fairly straightforward combat system that marked a clear divide between how humans fight and how demons fight. Demons, being supernatural creatures gifted with Muzan Kibutsuji's blood, rely on their incredible strength, stamina, and speed to outmaneuver humans and slay them with ease. Even ordinary demons outclass most human warriors, and the gulf between them is even greater when demons use their blood demon arts to perform incredible feats. By contrast, demon slayers can only count on their Nichirin swords to hack off demons' heads and slay them with sun-soaked metals. This means humans are always at a distinct disadvantage, but characters like Genya Shinazugawa can blur the line in ways other slayers can't or won't.

At first, Genya had no promise as a demon slayer, since he lacked the talent to learn any of the conventional breathing styles, such as flame breathing or mist breathing. He also either failed or didn't even try to invent his own fighting style like Inosuke Hashibira with his beast breathing fighting style. Instead, Genya became the student of the stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima, who taught Genya how to use Buddhist chants to focus his energy withouyt needing a proper breathing style. Genya's off-screen training evidently paid off, because during the Swordsmith Village arc, Genya fought Upper Moons and survived thanks to his unique powers and a double-barreled shotgun.

Unlike other demon slayers, Genya can eat demons' flesh to borrow their strength, to the point he actually resembles demons with colorful hair, black eyes, and enlarged fangs, almost like Nezuko Kamado herself. Genya's half-other concentration method boosts his physical abilities with demonic powers and allows him to keep fighting despite life-threatening injuries, and he only needs his Nichirin sword and unarmed strikes to fight demons on equal grounds. Genya can even eat demon flesh in a fight to heal even faster and push his abilities to their peak. Genya isn't a literal half-other character like Denji or Ken Kaneki, but considering humanity's limitations in Demon Slayer, he is close enough.

Genya Shinazugawa's fighting style isn't just a gimmick to refresh the Demon Slayer formula in story arcs like the Swordsmith Village arc, though Genya's style certainly did that, too. More than any other human protagonist, Genya embodied the resourceful, creative desperation of humanity in the never-ending war against Muzan's demonic hordes. With Tanjiro's meteoric rise as a great slayer draped in plot armor and protagonist-style power-ups like Hinokami Kagura, it's easy to forget that most demon slayers are highly vulnerable to the monsters they fight for a living. Demons can hold back and toy with their enemies, like Akaza and Kyogai, but demon slayers need every advantage they can get, relying on human ingenuity just to stand a fighting chance. Genya, who has no protagonist plot armor and can't even use conventional breathing techniques, is the best example of that. It makes Genya inspiring, despite his bad attitude and limited screen time in Demon Slayer's anime.

Genya Shows Normal Power Scaling In Demon Slayer, Unlike Tanjiro

The Main Ranks and the Hashira

In many ways, protagonist Tanjiro Kamado is a good example of smooth, well-earned progress in an action-oriented anime series like Demon Slayer, since he was not born with a special inner monster like Kurama or a Hollow. Tanjiro and his friends have steadily risen in the ranks in the Demon Slayer Corps with several ranks left to go, but Genya Shinazugawa does it even better. The key difference is that even without an inner monster boosting him along, Tanjiro is still a shonen protagonist, and that means the narrative will expedite his rise to power with dazzling abilities like Hinokami Kagura or sheer plot armor. Of course, Tanjiro still trained hard to earn those things—he's not cheating his way to the top. But still, Tanjiro is rising in the ranks rather quickly and gets more chances than other demon slayers to prove his worth against foes like the twelve Kizuki/Moons. Already, Tanjiro is practically Hashira level, which is clearly unusual among demon slayers.

Meanwhile, Genya Shinazugawa is climbing the ranks more slowly and steadily than Tanjiro's anime trio, since he does not have protagonist powers or even a breathing style to push him along. Being a side character with little to no plot armor, Genya definitely earned everything he has gained, however much or little it may be, and he only has an off-brand breathing style and a shotgun to get the job done. That means Genya's modest rise to power feels more like a typical career in the demon slayer corps, so fans must not compare him too unfavorably with the glamorous protagonist. In some ways, Genya is just a control group to make Tanjiro's rapid rise to prominence seem that much greater, but Genya is also a compelling reminder of what being a demon slayer is really supposed to look like.

Genya's Connections To His Family And Other Demon Slayers

Genya Shinazugawa has the attitude of a rough loner at times, but he still has meaningful connections to other people in Demon Slayer's story. For example, Genya had a tragic flashback in Season 3, revealing the harsh truth of his upbringing. Genya had to watch his mother endure physical abuse from her husband, and Genya and his siblings weren't spared, either. Eventually, the father was stabbed and killed, and Genya's widowed mother returned home one night as a demon whom Genya and his brother Sanemi fought until she died in the morning sunlight. That experience was remarkably similar to Tanjiro's own, losing family members to a demon and vowing to become a demon slayer for that very reason. It helped prove that becoming a demon slayer is often a personal choice, and most likely, few people choose to become demon slayers for the pay or the fun of it.

Genya's connection to his only surviving family member, Sanemi Shinazugawa, also plays into Genya's underdog theme. While Tanjiro is the beloved older brother of his sister Nezuko, Genya is the younger of two brothers, and he has a dysfunctional relationship with his scarred brother Sanemi, to say the least. Sanemi treats Genya poorly and scorns him as a demon slayer, and evidently, Genya internalizes that, hence his aggressive, abrasive attitude. Still, Genya has a good heart, and Sanemi might, too. That provides more room for personal growth for the Shinazugawa brothers, which may provide a payoff when Demon Slayer's fourth season airs next year.

Genya's Achievements in Demon Slayer's Anime So Far

Being a side character rather than a member of Tanjiro Kamado's anime trio, Genya Shinazugawa has had limited screen time so far and has not accomplished that much in Demon Slayer's anime so far. Still, given his minimal role, Genya has done well for himself, being far more than a redshirt jobber slayer who dies just to prove how strong the Kizuki are. For one thing, Genya passed the final selection exam with only light injuries, a remarkable feat by any standards. That was when Tanjiro first met him, and Tanjiro wasn't pleased to see Genya harassing the Ubuyashiki siblings about getting his Nichrin sword as soon as possible.

Genya's main claim to fame was his role in the fight against Hantengu and Gyokko, two members of the elite Upper Moons. As soon as Hantengu and Gyokko made their move, Genya was already in battle mode, his honed instincts ready to fight a foe much stronger than himself. Even if Genya didn't finish off either Upper Moon, he still did well given his limited powers and lack of plot armor. Most of all, Genya helped expand Demon Slayer's combat system with his trademark combination of a Nichirin sword, an anti-demon shotgun, and his half-other concentration style. Genya did his part in that chaotic nighttime battle as best he could, and to his credit, he survived to see the dawn despite his inferior powers and plot armor compared to Tanjiro, the mist Hashira Muichiro Tokito, and the love Hashira Mitsuri Kanroji. This gives Demon Slayer fans hope that Genya, the hotheaded half-other who could, may survive the entire series and get a well-earned retirement.

Demon Slayer

TV-MA

Anime

Action

Adventure

When Tanjiro Kamado returns home to find his family was attacked and killed by demons, he discovers his younger sister Nezuko was the only survivor. As Nezuko slowly becomes a demon, Tanjiro sets out to find a cure for her and become a demon slayer so he can avenge his family.

Studio

ufotable

Release Date

April 6, 2019

Cast

Natsuki Hanae , Zach Aguilar , Abby Trott , Yosh*tsugu Matsuoka

Main Genre

Anime

Seasons

4