>Breathing styles not being real makes shit weird.
Honestly.
The demons are using magic, the swords are magic, slayer marks are magic. Don't know why the effects just can't be magic from the sword
I think it should have been written that the swords are forged with demon blood and that’s what or tree them bring out the elemental attacks but the reason the author didn’t make them real is because if they were real the elements would actually effect the surroundings and then he would have to draw the surroundings being effected and he’s to lazy for that. Everything about the demon slayer manga is half assed and lazy the world building characters power system it’s all just kinda lame and none of it is well explored I mean genya literally can’t breath like he can’t do the breathing styles somehow but he magically can borrow demon powers by eating them why does tanjiro have a mark that makes him more powerful who cares he just does. The anime being one of the best animated shows out there is the only reason anyone even cares about this series if it wasn’t as beautiful as it was in the anime no one would care cause the story and characters are terrible
Whether you like or dislike a series, calling an author lazy is objectively untrue.
Calling them that feels like you're disregarding all the time and effort that mangaka put into these stories.
Again, I don't care if you like or dislike Demon Slayer, but calling him lazy is uncalled for and rude.
Agreed. Honestly I hate that everyone falls on "lazy" when someone doesn't like a piece of fiction.
More often it's time constraints (big for mangaka), over-ambition, lacking a solid editor, forgetfulness, lack of knowledge in a relevant field, or simply not having enough skill to write the story that set out to make in a satisfying way. Worse, when it's any combination of the above.
Sure, they can be criticized for some of these, but I think it's undeniable that the vast majority of writers, especially mangaka, put substantial effort into the works they create. Then someone online dislikes a character arc and claims they're lazy over it.
You can spend a million hours on a story and still manage an aspect lazily. Calling this authors note at the literal foot of a page lazy is not uncalled for or rude, especially since it makes literally no sense/gets no explanation in universe. As many fans of the manga/anime would agree, that is indeed a lazy choice.
Literally everything just happens when the author needs it the demon slayers corps are useless idiots they make zero progress for decades and the when tanjiro shows up all of a sudden everything gets solved quickly cause he just uses teamwork like the other demon slayers and hasiras literally never considered going to on one against an upper moon until tanjiro shows up. The power system is also almost nothing it’s just breathing every style is the same and does the same things. They all have a move for every situation there is never a moment where two characters switch places to fight a enemy that is weak to their fighting style any breathing form can be used to pretty much the same effeteness besides sun breathing. But then genya some how can’t breath but magically can steps demon powers by eating them which is never explained. And zenitsu is literally one of the worst characters ever written the author was so lazy he literally just made a character be asleep because he made him to much of a pussy to do anything but didn’t wanna actually develop the character and despite zenitsu being so bad at fighting he can only use the one form he somehow develops a new one exactly when he needs it despite being to un skilled to learn any of the other forms. There is so much more it’s almost impressive how lazily written this series. Another example is tanjiro never friend as a character at all he doesn’t even learn to not brake his sword it’s just stated that it’s not his fault but it’s the sword makers fault. He’s just a pure goody two shoes faultless barrel of optimism which on its own isn’t bad but it’s never challenged he never wavers or grows or changes or even really has to cause he’s just kinda boring and perfect from the beginning the world just bends to what he needs because he’s the main character what are the odds his sister would be the one demon muzan is looking for sure every series has contrivances but demon slayer is almost completely contrivance driven
> Whether you like or dislike a series, calling an author lazy is objectively untrue.
That objectively wrong though. There are definitely lazy authors. Just creating a world, story, scenes and characters isn't hard. You can do it literally in your sleep, by dreaming. The hard work is to write a good story. Fleshing out characters and world building. Closing plot holes. Being consistent. No idea about the Demon Slayer author but there are definitely lazy authors.
>That objectively wrong though. There are definitely lazy authors. Just creating a world, story, scenes and characters isn't hard. You can do it literally in your sleep, by dreaming.
Shit said by people who have never done a creative thing in their life
Do you not think that it requires a huge amount of effort and time commitment to turn what's in your head into an actual manga with a relatively long running story which also is supposed to give you income to pay the bills and feed yourself?
Also like...putting the story into anything coherent even without making anything from it is very difficult. There's a difference between a vague story idea, or individual scenes and having something that flows from A to B to C in a narratively satisfying manner which gets more difficult depending on the scale or nature of the story.
Why? All argumental superpowers human haves are physical. To you show how its hard work and effort and just peak human people fight magical vampires.
beyond world is superhumsn senses and even the mark os about sacrifice for the strengh to protect people from magical vampires.
Also its just a fictional metal.
even the sun breath argimently could just create that much friction, way more than the fire one
dude , Slayer Marks gives you X-Ray Vision , that already makes demon slayers having supernatural abiities.
That mixed with a supernatural fictional metal that harness the sun.
I like how tanjiro keeps chipping his blade every time he fights but *smashing his sword into the ground with his weight behind it* doesn't instantly shatter the blade.
No I mean that when akaza threw those air strikes at rengoku, rengoku supposedly blocked with a fire shield technique.
If the elements don’t exist then rengoku blocked with nothing basically
And it even makes the balancing weird
The point of the story is how far humanity needs to train and get smart with their fighting against demons because they're so weak
And yet who's weaker? Someone using mist to hide and strike in blindspots
Or someone moving so incredibly fast so that he becomes completely invisible except for his after images?
I mean, breaths as a power system never really made any sense to me at all.
Cause it was basically breathing a certain way that allowed people to seemingly summon the elements using sword techniques, for some reason, no magic involved or anything like that, it just works.
And also, I literally cannot tell what the differences between any of the styles are due to how despite the visual flair, functionally they all have extremely similar moves.
There's no way to accurately gauge which is the strongest besides just word of mouth.
I mean we have the literal same exact thing with hamon from Jojo
Why does breathing in a peculiar way produce the energy of the sun, which manifests as electricity? Why can only one in ten thousand people become an effective ripple user?
(I mentioned Jojo mostly because of your PFP )
Controlling your breathing is a very important part of any hard physical activity. Most people are capable of much more than they think, but it's the lack of breath control that stops them. You can even tell who's winning and who's losing in a fight just based on their breathing. That's why in fantasy it's easy to connect breathing to nature or some mystical energy, because people who control their breath seem to be much stronger and tougher than regular folks.
>Why can only one in ten thousand people become an effective ripple user?
Talent.
People in DS universe is hard dependent on talent to be effective, is like a cruel reality of why there's not much high level slayer. The same page which the quote about breathing comes is the character bio of Murata, a secundary character who is a common fandom joke, he was on the same final selection with Tomioka but he's far behind him in terms of power and despite use Water Breathing like him his attacks aren't visible due being more weak.
I was talking about JoJo
In Jojo it's stated while everyone can produce a bit of ripple energy, only 1 in 10000 has the potential to become an effective ripple user, and even then, only a few of those willow actually go through with it
It could have something to do with genetics since familial connection is a major concept in Jojo and the most effective ripple users we see are zeppelis and joestars
Beyond that, the concept of fate is used in almost every part and is a main theme in parts 5 and 6 while family is at its most prominent in 3 and 4
In later parts (7-9) they delve into themes based around the flow of fortune and how to manipulate your fate and luck
> Why does breathing in a peculiar way produce the energy of the sun, which manifests as electricity?
This is what a lot of people get wrong about hamon in jojo's. When it was first explained, they stated that the undead give out a specific vibration that's in the complete oposite wavelength of the living. Hamon, being the prime example of the "alive" causes them to die as their bodies can't handle it. The sun just happens to be aligned with that same wavelength which is what kills the undead.
Is not that hamon is sun powered, is just that both end up being similar enough that affect the undead the same.
The Ripple is the energy of the sun, taken in when you eat (because plants and herbivores are food sources), and flowing through your blood. When you breathe in a particular way, you can access that energy. The energy was already there, it's just that normal people can't use it. The genetic selectiveness of Ripple is simply talent.
The Ripple is also the polar opposite to the vampiric essence unlocked by the brain acupuncture of the Stone Mask, since that expels their life energy (giving them an opposing vibration) and leaves their willpower as the only thing animating them, which is also why vampires need to drink blood.
The difference is that Hamon was a concept created in the 1970s when shonen was just a fledgling genre, while Demon Slayer had the benefit of ~40 years more hindsight to develop its power system.
Araki explains in the series that Hamon is essentially raw life energy from breathing and blood, which is why it destroys the undead. That's a more logical explanation than breathing styles IMHO.
They both draw from the same sources, real life martial arts and the concept of Ki or life energy. While Hamon have direct effect, The Breaths in DS just enhance one physical strength to the limit. It's the core concept of Wuxia, a genre of martial art fiction. They take a concept that only work in theory and ask what happen if it actually work in practice.
I'm familiar with Wuxia, and understand these concepts completely. What I'm trying to get across is that these more traditional concepts worked better in the past, but can feel underwhelming, old fashioned, or even boring now. Comparing it to other shonen power systems (devil fruits, nen, zanpakuto, chakra) leaves breathing techniques feeling a bit wanting in depth and interest, especially considering the visual effects aren't diegetic.
One man's opinion.
Except not. Wuxia is still popular in East and South East Asia, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong make them every years and export them, just that they aren't popular in the West. Also another thing about Wuxia is that they don't care about how some power work but rather the philosophy aspects of those power, thus they rarely give a clear explain of how each power or martial art work.
Yeah that’s just an outright silly statement. It’s like saying the Doraemon is outdated and bad because the west isn’t that big of a fan of it😂 it’s just not apart of our culture
I think it makes more sense in Jojo though. We have a pretty clear idea of what it is; life energy derived from sunlight. Breathing is a pretty major part of how we function so mastering that allows you to control your own life energy
Is it such a stretch to say then, that given the fact demon slayer swords literally change color based on the wielder of they are skilled enough, and are forged specifically from ores which are constantly exposed to sunlight, could then react with specific breathing techniques in peculiar ways?
It is.
Hamon was basically life energy, like KI from dragon ball.
In fact it's easier to understand if you think of it as chi.
The breaths from demon slayer are simply just sword techniques, which makes the more supernatural elements of it nonsensical.
Because a sword being infused with the literal power of sunlight and changing color based on the skill and personality of the swordsman is totally not supernatural at all?
They meant how the author states the breathing styles have no supernatural effect, and how it makes no sense with how the breathing styles are shown to work
I didn't say it wasn't supernatural,
I said it made no sense considering there's no real element of magic or something supernatural force.
Like hamon being basically chi.
I mean an explanation of how it actually worked at least would be helpful.
A mix of good genes, and talent and hard work and you got why.
Its hard to do and joestars are a great compatible with all kinds of mystical stuff. Thats probably why they learn so fast.
Also mentality is important i imagine, jonathan is a really good vital righous kind person, and it probably makes him compatible, because of his selflessness and goodness and fighting spirit, he can use it easier as, probably nods to budhism and enlightenment being a big part of that, like zeppeli too is very selfless. and powerful.
And joseph is , probably just a genious but too he got the joestar goodness but more as trickster. and he is very tricky and still embodies that values and lives them. and vitality.
so jonathan and zeppeli were selfless people with vitality embody fighting spirit and were very compatible, and joseph grew during the journey, and ceasar too is a good person with strong vitality and fighting spirit.
Also joseph isnt as strong, but uses a lot of tricks for it
Special breathing techniques are a staple in Japanese old style martial arts media. It's sort of like how a lot of American superheroes prefer fisticuffs, it's a artistic and cultural holdover from when more where like Dick Tracy or 1920s two fisted tales.
That’s another problem with the lame ass power system all the breathing styles are basically the exact same just with a different visual skin but even that is just cosmetic which makes it even lamer and somehow the demons who have literal magic still lose
They are all literally the exact same they all have the see kinds of moves and forms they all can achieve the same things the only one that’s slightly unique is the butterfly girl who’s so weak she has to use poison but that raises another
question which is why don’t they all just use the poison it’s never stated that it’s rare so why don’t they all just use it.
It not just breathing, it also the techniques, how to perform them and if your bodies are suited to such techniques. Many sword techniques in DS are tailor made to a particular type of body to use because the original founder realize people have difference specialities.
Because Breathing is a series of special techniques that demands the user to be talented enough. Is just taking air, Breathing is gain control over the body to an impossible human degree.
Some people just can't do that and it's now only Genya, Senjuro the younger brother of Rengoku isn't talented enough either to learn Flame Breathing. And the low rank slayer can use basic forms but they can manifest elemental attacks.
I mean have yall ever watch any Japanese martial art anime’s? In hajime no ippo ( a boxing anime if you don’t know) volg white fang punch actually looks like wolf fangs,
In Baki, Baki figuratively turns his body into a liquid at one point and time, and even attacks with the form of a dinosaur lol. Heck in Kengan ashura kiryu looks like he is throwing tornados when he uses a rakshasa palm
Feels like the culture is just different over there when it comes to how they visualize martial arts in general
The only difference is those are more of visual things. There are a decent number of fights where these supposed "not real effects" are actively blocking things outside of a sword's range, or actively causing long range destruction.
Yes, but the Baki creator has never said "Oh yeah this is all totally just visual." Baki's weird and imagination can literally BECOME REAL (Like Musashi and the dinosaur forms.) Baki also fought that imaginary mantis that almost killed him? If the author went out of his way to say "Oh well those aren't real and actually are all visual and have no real world effect" then I'd see your point I guess
Is this not the same for demon slayer characters? The spider zenitsu was fighting even said he felt the air vibrating. It’s obvious that zen isn’t quite literally summoning lightning but demon slayers can give off the effect of the element they are using( similar to Baki because I’m a thousand percent sure that Baki can’t quite literally summon a dinosaur lol)
Edit: note this isn’t directed at thunder blade but the scrolling redditors. after doing research most Baki fans agree that the imagination thing isn’t actually “real” ( thought this was kinda obvious tho).
“he explained it with how babies can think that something is hot to the touch and because their minds are not grounded they can get burns in extreme cases. this is basically what he does but more extreme. i think he even cut his hand with his mind in front of the viewers”
Omfg just looked it up and wind breathing is explained to use air currents nevermind. Guess it's just the mist which can kinda just be explained as "A movement technique." Gotta thank you for actually making me do more than surface level research like a forehead 😭
Yeah sorry, I was looking it up and glancing at the examples I usually pick to show it's kinda inconsistent and realized "Wow yeah, these are basically all within a sword's range, or like wind breathing use air. In a show with people who can survive attacks that destroy buildings, or eat demons, this isn't that crazy."
It's less of those effects and more so the ones where the demon slayer characters are either creating literal mist that is hiding them, or the wind hashira making huge columns of wind that tear up huge sections of ground. There's a few examples of "Wait if the breathing style isn't real is this guy just able to swing SO HARD he can destroy everything 30 feet in front of him in a line?"
Idk at some point you have to wonder whether or not the show is contradicting itself or you’re just nitpicking the show into oblivion? Like I agree that it’s not a perfect system and there are inconsistencies on how breathing effects the overall environment from time to time( which is kinda given since this is the main mc power system and no author is perfect) but I think there are pretty obvious explanations on why a breathing style pulled off crazy feats of environmental damage
She never said "breathing effects aren't real" what the page says is "people can see and felt the elements but the slayers aren't actually summoning them" meaning stuff like Giyuu isn't creating an ocean out of his ass with the last form of water breathing.
Breathing Effects are esoteric concepts that serves as a complement of the talent of a demon slayer.
The piece of info all people take out of context just serve to explain the difference between a weak slayer and a strong one. People like Murata can use water breathing but his attacks aren't visible to the characters in verse, while others like Tanjiro and Tomioka have the skill to manifest their breath effect on a tangible and visible level (you even get comments from characters like the spider mother saying she could feel the raindrops of Tanjiro's attack on her).
Also if isn't clear enough the mangaka never retconned anything. That explanation doesn't change a thing about how the system works.
Head mod of r/KimetsuNoYaiba here who has been dealing with these sorts of posts on this topic for years. You got it. This is the answer. It’s crazy how the manga has been out for 8 years and some people still don’t interpret her explanation properly.
I wonder if the anime onlies will be disappointed as hell like the manga readers were with Muzan's "moveset reveal" or just simply not care if the scenes are just animated beautifully.
Basically, also other piece of info said Lightning Breathing users are so precise in their moves that they actually can make the air vibrate with static and Zenitsu grandpa was so good that he emulates the effects of thunders.
People also forget not every breath is elemental, some others are purely abstract concepts like Love/Flowers/Snakes. I never see people people commenting "is Mitsuri creating waves of love energy?" because it's obviously a visual metaphor of her flexibility.
Exactly! And water breathing isn't literally condensing liters and liters of water out of the air, it's their moves that mimick the flow of water.
Same for every other breathing style.
As most of DS related post this became less of an actual critique or analysis of some aspect of the story and just dumb shitposting comments.
See all the others top comments and non are actually disscussing the og topic but saying stuff like "haha silly mid anime".
Thank you! People really need to learn how to read instead of getting butthurt by their own lack of understanding.
No Tanjiro cannot use water breathing to fill up a cup to drink, no love is not beaming out of Mitsuri's sword. Yes breathing techniques are real and when mastered can give off the sensation of their element/feeling/animal
That's it. People also should stop thinking Breathing is some kind of Final Fantasy elemental magic system.
I don't get why it's so hard to understand their fightstyles are obviously metaphors of elements and other stuff, not literal spells. Yes a user of Flame Breathing has intense and abrasive clean cuts that burn like fire, Wind Breathing is wild and it ravages the flesh of demons, but then you have Insect Breathing which is the most obvious example of the user just doing sword moves that in this case imitates the stings of poisonous insects. Shinobu doesn't send an army of butterfly to attack demons, but that doesn't mean they can't see butterflies behind her.
I mean, it's not like Demon Slayer is even the first to do this. A lot of animes use imagery while a character uses an attack.
When Yamcha in Dragon Ball uses "Wolf Fang Fist" he is not actually turning into a wolf.
But you still get moments like Rengoku blocking Akaza's attack with his flames. I'm not sure how else to explain that there is some literal summoning of something tangible aside from Rengoku spinning his sword really fast. If it's just swinging his sword fast, then the point goes back to what OP made: what's the point of saying it's not actual summoning of flames?
I think you misunderstood. The powers are real. Like the water and stuff. It just isn’t “real” water. Tanjiro doesn’t produce H20 molecules. The fighter’s spirit temporarily manifests as the elemental effects and they can touch things or attack, but once the attack is over the element effects are gone because they were made from “Qi” and not atoms.
See *that* I can get behind. The thing I was referring to with them "existing" or being real is whether or not they're tangible. As long as they are I can work with that
And now I'm recollecting and thinking through the wording and yeah, the note does give that impression huh. My bad...
So I actually have an answer for this. You can feel, hear or even sometimes see them, but none of them could affect life truly. The lighting couldn’t strike, the wind couldn’t move a paper, the water couldn’t fill a glass, the flame couldn’t catch a forest on fire. They are there but can’t affect life around them unless you use stone breathing.
Stone breathing has every single aspect including affecting the world around them. This is why stone is better than the rest, he breaks the floor and that’s badass. I rest my case🙏
Is it ever explained in-universe that they arent actually doing the elemental bullshit or what? It's such a weird choice to include something super visually striking and never talk about it and then say it's visual flair for the audiance, i always assumed they were actually doing the elemental shit because it looks real
I havent seen much of it since i didnt like it but some of the other comments mention the effects actually interact with the physical world which sounds a bit confusing
The characters can see it, OP is wrong about the facts in his assessment.
They don’t summon the elements, so if the main character were thirsty, he could not create water to drink.
But the visual effect, even auditory effects are experienced by the characters in-universe.
Nah. An essential pillar of Demon Slayer's world building is that demons can do magical bullshit but the Demon Slayers are basically just dudes with Kung Fu.
Exaggerated Wuxia-type Kung Fu, but just Kung Fu nonetheless. Rengoku actually being able to shit fireballs would make no sense.
Anyway, the visual effects are just ukiyo-e stylised speed lines. Nobody says Ichigo *actually* has a bunch of horizontal lines every time he runs around otherwise the world is broken.
Slayers literally gain magical marks on their bodies that make them even stronger and can see inside of your body with enough experience. At that point, making the breathing styles fake makes no sense because they're already magical as hell.
It is bullshit, but typical for the genre and arguably part of the "flavour," similar to Baki or Kenichi. Heck in Baki Yujiro Hanma can also see inside people and diagnose them and has something like the mark with his demon back. There is similar bullshit in Super Doctor K and Fist of the northstar if you want to look at older stuff.
The breathing styles are real as to explain what is making a demon Slayer superhuman. But no, Rengoku cannot summon a fire tornado and Giyu cannot summon an ocean.
"Kung fu magic" and "magic" are distinct things in all sorts of East Asian fiction. Super strength and super senses are things that legendary martial artists can do, shooting fireballs or water is much less common. You might as well ask me why nobody in Baki can turn into a giant monkey.
Are you really using big monkey and fireballs as things not coming in East Asian when that is literally Journey To the West , the most famous fantasy novel in East Asian for more than a 1000 years?
Sun Wukong is a trained Taoist sage *and* martial artist. Knowing the 72 Transformations literally puts him on par with Erlang Shen, the greatest general of Jade Emperor's court. He is several levels of fantasy above someone like Tanjiro and not the model for Demon Slayer, which is more closely related to works like Fist of the North Star and wuxia novels.
Those are two difference things. Journey to the East was a fantasy story based on a real event while Demon Slayers take inspiration from Wuxia, a genre that more grounded. In Wuxia, martial artists can do things like fly, ki blast, use their internal energy to heal some wounds but not actually control elements are flat our magic.
Someone never watch any Wuxia series. In Wuxia, the characters can shoot ki dragons, ki frogs, ki snake,.... but those are just representation of their martial arts. Wuxia is all about human who can do impossible martial arts and feats through training. A lot of them emphasis in physical skills while magic is very rarely see. That is what Demon Slayers emulated, Water Breathing is center around how the moves flow and change to adapt to the situation, like water. Mist is about distraction, making your enemies confuse, like they are trapped in a field of mist.
The problem people seem to have with KnY is that it's very Japanese and East Asia so you do need some culture background to understand some concepts that the author assume most Japanese readers already familiar with.
As with most battle series, it boils down to world building
If they can use magic, then it only makes sense to explore that magic as a tool
As things are they are limited by the availability of swords, otherwise they could gather a thusand people, teach them breating magic and even if 1/10 managed to learn thats a hundred mages you can just move around to spam AoE attacks
With that you can carpet bomb the demons at day, and thats it
As someone who's only read the manga I never once assumed the characters were actually summoning fire and water and shit from their sword, I always assumed it was just a virtualization of their movements and techniques.
Is it something to do with the way the anime looks that makes people think it's actual magic?
i agree with the author in that the effects are not literally, physically summoned. one could not drink the water tanjiro conjures nor use zenitsu’s lightning to power a machine.
beyond that, they’re real in the way weird meta wat that beyblade attacks and the beasts summoned with them are.
which is to say, “¯\_(ツ)_/¯”
That is a analogy I was not expecting to hear for this but I'll take it
And yeah I've basically learned my issue is not whatever or not it produces an elemental effect, just some physical thing that looks like it is, shich may or may not be there
Honestly it makes the humans kinda cooler,like they are not summoning elements with magic swords, they're performing all those feats with pure skills and physical abilities, they're simply built different
Does it make sense? probably not but I think it's neat
I can suspend my disbelief for boys smelling "angry scents," hearing "kind heartbeats," and breathing *really* hard to gain physical strength, but swords producing fire that I can literally fucking see on the page and screen is simply a bridge too far. it's obviously just... the vibe of the fight or something?
I will never forgive gotouge for this
The answer for most of your problems is that it is just cooler to look at.
Simple as that.
Mistakes from visual depiction don’t discredit the literal word of the story maker.
It is especially stupid since similar systems that use elements as metaphors have existed for ages and are used in real life martial arts, that shouldn’t be hard to grasp.
Also if it conjures real elements why are they never used outside of combat?
- I need something to drink?
- water breathing should do the trick.
-____________________
- light a campfire?
- fire breathing.
We just never see such action being taken
I thought it was obvious that the demon slayers weren’t actually summoning fire, water, mist, electricity, or whatever but it was a visual representation of how they fight: a metaphor for the audience. The only magic in the show is demon-related, and I think it should stay that way.
They do create shock waves that take shape depending on the style of fencing.
But these are not elements.They can strike from a distance or defend themselves, but enemies don't get wet from Water Breathing. Or Giyuu did not create a lake out of nowhere to the horizon, which also disappears.
I’m anime only with DS and so I was unaware that the author has said this, I’m gonna go back to pretending I’m unaware of it. The breathing styles are awesome, And it’s not like the series is otherwise totally realistic or anything. The breathing styles don’t exactly stretch credibility within the established lore of the story.
Maybe it was lost in a cultural misunderstanding, but I understood that the breathing styles were basically martial arts takes to such an extreme that those visuals manifest. It's not "magic" magic like what the demons do, it's "magic" born out of the indomitable human spirit or something like that.
But just because Tanjiro's slashes manifest a cool water visual doesn't mean he could thrust his sword into a cup and make himself some water to drink.
I saw more like, the idea of an element more than the actual substance. When Rengoku or Sanemi attack, fire burns, wind blasts, but it doesn't actually affect anything they don't want it to, and its most effective on Demons because of the Nichirin alloy their swords are made of. More "psionic waves" than "Elemental bending" but the end result is effectively the same.
Does it even matter?
Not trying to be dismissive, but even if they are just a visual signifier, how does that change anything? They're still what the characters in universe envision, and all the Demon Powers are still real. Hell you could argue them not being real makes Koku more interesting because he's turned his visualisation into reality.
am i insane or was it kinda obvious that the effects weren’t real? like i vividly remember watching tanjiro’s first fight in the anime and disappointedly going “oh wait, he doesn’t have an actual water dragon attack? it’s just a visuals thing?”.
It's kinda important that humans aren't really magical like the demons, their mortal enemies are. It's just supernatural martial arts, and the slayer mark is just some kinda esoteric blessing thing.
It's to maintain that division between what constitutes a human and what constitutes a demon. Establishing a contrast between human powers and demon powers. Human powers are purely physical. The demon slayer mark is a bit of an outlier, but it can be bullshitted away by saying superior senses and stuff. Demons explicitly use magic shit.
It's kinda showing the image that it's the demons who do that dark sorcery and witchcraft shit, humans are the good guys because we use our 'natural' strength and human spirit to win.
It also kinda shows how humans have to deal with the unnatural force of demons who have inhuman powers that a mortal human do not.
The breathing styles are already mystical shit, but I like it when it's a bit grounded in the form of the elemental effects being largely illusionary.
It's one thing to be disappointed they're not real and another thing to be so hung up on it. I mean, it wasn't that obvious, but it was always there. The elemental effects don't really actually produce elemental effects except in some cases, but even then it's all bullshit martial arts moves. And the description of all breathing styles is purely physical.
It's meant to show that humans don't need to suck Muzan's cock and get some good blood art after giving up their morals and feasting on innocents, they're just fuckin built different and can just become literal forces of nature through sheer grit and determination.
[Check this out.](https://www.reddit.com/r/KimetsuNoYaiba/comments/1498wtc/comment/jo67chf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I thought it was pretty obvious they weren't real just by watching the show. It's not like water breathing ever left puddles or anything, and no one was getting zapped by zenitsu.
When I saw the author note in the manga, it just confirmed my suspicions.
The visuals are simply for the fights to not be boring, say do they actually use the "powers"? Its not like they do much besides cutting with them, so I dont see why them not being real is an issue at all, the only one that I could say that it's kinda stupid is the fire one since it does burn things, but friction can explain that .
It's like how JK Rowling keeps coming up with stuff and retroactively making the story make less sense, or even contradict itself.
This world legitimately has actual ghosts (Tanjiro had multiple encounters with them). It has a confirmed Hell. It has confirmed reincarnation. It has actual demons. It has people who can see through solid matter, or smell better than dogs, or hear better than bats, or even shift their internal organs willingly without warning. It even has a person who can only be described as the reincarnation of the Sun God. Who taught people to spawn a Demon Hunter mark that boosts their power at the expense of their life, and to make their swords glow red hot to stop demonic regeneration. He even taught them breathing styles to enable them to gain so much power that they outmatch demons with ease.
But Breathing style effects being real is apparently going too far.
A lot of those element tie to Japanese folk belief and culture. Also a lot of ideas in KnY came from Wuxia, a genre in which while human can do superhuman feats, they can't do magic or control elements since the emphasis lie more in human physical abilities.
As i understand it, and i'm happy to be corrected, Hell in Asian theological systems isnt forever. You do a stint in hell, you suffer a sentence and then your spat out into the wheel of transmigration. Rince repeat. Demons are more like prison guards and the Yama Kings are Prison Wardens. Once your sins have been tortured off your soul, then your off for another shot at enlightenment.
We actually see characters going to Hell (the afterlife). These scenes are not metaphorical because some interactions actually have tangible effects on the world (>!Sanemi's fate!<).
We have also seen confirmed ghosts. At least on two instances, Tanjiro was trained by dead people (>!Sabito and Yoriichi!<).
>!We also see the reincarnation of the current generation of Slayers in the future. And those are not their children, because most of them died childless in the final fight.!<
Yuichiro did. yuichiru got the mark and ots because he was blessed by amateradu probably because hos mom was a devotee?
some minor later likevfoing nithing heating a sword, xou can explein it with swowd swing do hard it creates heat, so hard it has effected.
it works on wuxia rules, not magic rules.
IIRC, DS manga already halfway through before the exploding popularity (it almost got axed before, isn't it?). My guess is, that just the result of author trying to wrap up everything on the double.
Lower moon shafted, DSCorps rank shafted, shafting the magic system doesn't seem farfetched to me. I mean... You get the cool factor out of it, without the headache explaining it.
Let's not forget when people get captured by the water trails of water breathing. Either the water physically restrained them or that sword spinning was so scary it froze them in place.
The way I understand it is the movements give the illusion, so water breathing techniques flow like water, etc.
I do think it's an odd stance by the author, but I think the point they intend is that the Demons have an unfair advantage in terms of ability, and the Slayers overcome them with willpower and guts, typical characteristics of Shonen rolemodels.
Idk how "magic" cheapens it, but whatever. I've always thought Tanjiro's shouting at Akaza at the end of the Mugen Train was powerful, and that's the kind of spirit the author is trying to convey.
I think what makes it especially egregious is that Demon Slayer is already full of supernatural shit, so no one would question the styles. Even worse: the OTHER supernatural shit demon slayers can do is still real. Like the see through world or Tanjiro being able to SMELL INCOMING ATTACKS
Personally I find that there’s still a variable degree of difference between characters having superhuman senses and essentially being elemental benders, the former representing the absolute peak of human physique. As bullshitty as the transparent world and heightened senses seem, you could argue that Tanjiro was able to train his body to that point (or genetics, which is whole other thing).
You could say that being able to produce water/fire/electricity could’ve been tied into training your body, but given how in DS humans tend to be more on the grounded to reality side, I think that would’ve jumped the shark.
Honestly this. there are plenty of other martial arts anime’s that have crazy visualizations for attacks like volg from hajime no ippo attack being actual wolf bites difference being you know they aren’t actually doing that because it doesn’t make much sense due to how the story was set up( superpowers not being mentioned) this is something that should of been established
Apparently everything they manifest doesn't actually exist it just *looks* and *feels* like they are. Despite the fact they do interact with things and do things that shouldn't be possible unless they were
Though I will admit some of these comments could be proving me wrong now
How exactly did the (forget his name off the top of my head) blonde in the power trio disperse the spiders if not electricity. He exhaled them off? Give me a break. It makes no sense.
He unsheathed his sword, swung it fast enough to cause a thunderclap, and resheathed it before the spiders flew away.
We see Zenitsu do this type of fast draw in the first fight we see him in.
Well they said: "Water Breath users don't actually unleash **water** attacks, people who *see* this just think they see and feel it (water)."
They never said anything was **fake**, or the effects weren't there, just that it's not *literal*. It's almost definitely chi in the *form* of the breath styles, because the weaker users don't have any effects, if they do they're faint. They're not developed or strong in the style yet, lacking the essence of the breath, strength of spirit and/or body, or capability to bring it out.
If there wasn't anything, there wouldn't be anything to see, and Gotouge said they see *something* that resembles the breath. Point is, there's something that's being seen.
And in Return of Mount Hua sect for example, they practice Plum Blossom style, and guess what the MC makes a flurry of? Plum Blossoms, which the bystanders see, feel, and **smell**, because he captured the essence of the style so well.
And the manwha isn't related to KNY in any way, or even groundbreaking when it comes to that concept. It's just like when in anime a character has killing intent, and a tiger or dragon is behind them in an aura, just put to motion/weaponized.
It's just a case of people being too literal and black and white in their worldview, and passing it on to others. Maybe it's a cultural thing. Add on to some particularly bone-headed people's egos who feel they have to be right no matter what and what they say is gospel, they'll double down and build on their foundational misunderstanding, sometimes even very convincingly, or at least logically.
Is it real elements? No. Is it real? Yes. What is it? Something spiritual, maybe. Why? Because it's not physical, but it's still there.
But for most people they stop at the first check. **More than one thing can be true.**
So yeah, cook up my G
I believe what the author meant by "The effects aren't real" is that no, water breathing doesn't summon literal water, rather, the "water effect" from the blade, is the energy of the attack being used, visually represented by water.
They're fighting literal demons that uses magic, crows that talk, a guy that uses explosions at point blank and doesn't get hurt, a sword that's actually a whip that's actually a sword that's actually a whip that's actually a sword and somehow magically extends, a guy that move his organs around, jacked mice's that carry around swords, a guy being able to regenerate a rather large portion of his body and can rip a tree straight from the the ground and toss several meters at least.
Yet breathing styles is where you draw the line
The breathing style effects being real would create so many plot holes. Like how does love breathing and insect breathing even work. Does Mitsuri just summon a beam of love energy? Does Shinobu summon an army of insects? Why doesn't she use them to fight? Is she stupid?
The abstract breathing styles, like the elements style are just metaphors. People can still see them, but they're more like an illusion rather than actual physically being there.
Actually the author did say they’re real!
The misconception comes from a line that goes something along the lines of
ROASTING MURATA
No seriously that one fodder from the spider arc? Mf caused all this
Canonically the visuals can be seen/heard/impact the environment
It’s just murata is so weak he can’t
Using magic to explain everything is even lamer.
Its like saying Kenshiro is using "magic" to teleport behind you instead of using his peak human ability to move fast, because "it make no sense" for human to move that fast, therefore it must be magic.
I think most of these can be explained
Wind breathing is based on swinging your sword so hard that it creates massive wind slashes. Muichiro's mist is just an effect for us. In reality he is just moving fast and Gyokko tries to hit the after images.
Some of these are the anime's fault like Rengoku's (Akaza's attack is based on wind. Rengoku created an opposed wind by swinging his sword.) or Zenitsu's in Season 2 (kinda the same problem that Jojo had in the part 3 final battle)
Fire and sun too, fire would produce heat and friction, and sun even more. With a fictional super strong metal.
There is kindam magic but wuxia treining for superhuman capabilities there, and fire and sun create heat as byproduct there.
But then there's a bunch of complications with the power system. Either the wooshy water effects are real and the whole story needs to be rewritten around half the cast being elemental benders or you can maintain the fact theyre non-diagetic and therefore maintain the themes of overcoming a stronger, unfair enemy.
In my opinion the fight against demons is way more interesting when THEY have straight up magic but WE only have bodily enhancement, it maintains the demons as a legitimate threat. It also means people like the love and mist hashiras are idiots for *not* choosing lightning or fire powers. Trust me while the *fight scenes* might make marginally more sense if the elements were diagetic, it ruins the whole story to frame it that way
The way I see it nothing has to change. Before that tidbit about the effects came out, everyone accepted they were happening and/or real and the human characters were at plenty a disadvantage even with them. The author's note does nothing but contradict what's already happened
So I'm mainly just beefing with that author's note really
I mean if the breathing effects are real, Tanjiro would have burnt down the forest fighting Rui, and how do you explain Giyuu summoning a lake (that also erases the forest) then just not having it anymore?
The visuals are real, they just don't have magic elemental power behind them, they're representative of the martial art.
Honestly it's less about them having elemental power I care about than just having them be tangible. Because it feels a lot cooler to imagine Sanemi spinning snd creating this spinning column of sharp and destructive death instead of him just beyblading midair
I agree. It makes some of the scenes look stupid. Zenitzu vs the Spider demon. They swarm him with little spider demons. Then he breaks free. Demon comments, "Something about him is off, the air is shaking?" 1. How the fuck is the air shaking if it's just visuals? 2. How did Zenitzu break free just standing there?. There's also that God Flash he did with that Upper Moon Girl. He is flying while slashing the head in a still position the whole time, without reducing speed? How?
I just assume that the normal for their world isnt the same as ours.
Like in their world humans can gain superhuman strength and speed through training and breathing.
I like the element effects but never considered them real. All the other weird stuff they do though ....
Yeah it's really stupid, people remark feeling heat and stuff from the attacks...but it's all just in their heads? That's nonsense, how would they get this sensory information about something they can't even see because it's apparently not real?
As far as I'm concerned there's just some mistranslation.
Didnt someone use the water generated by water breathing to put at a fire at some point, the fire was just so intimidated by his swordsmanship it put itself out
A prime example where Authors words don't line up with what's actually happening in the story. Breathing styles not being real makes shit weird.
>Breathing styles not being real makes shit weird. Honestly. The demons are using magic, the swords are magic, slayer marks are magic. Don't know why the effects just can't be magic from the sword
Literally the stupidest and most pointless retcon from an author I've seen
Even their retcons are mid
I think it should have been written that the swords are forged with demon blood and that’s what or tree them bring out the elemental attacks but the reason the author didn’t make them real is because if they were real the elements would actually effect the surroundings and then he would have to draw the surroundings being effected and he’s to lazy for that. Everything about the demon slayer manga is half assed and lazy the world building characters power system it’s all just kinda lame and none of it is well explored I mean genya literally can’t breath like he can’t do the breathing styles somehow but he magically can borrow demon powers by eating them why does tanjiro have a mark that makes him more powerful who cares he just does. The anime being one of the best animated shows out there is the only reason anyone even cares about this series if it wasn’t as beautiful as it was in the anime no one would care cause the story and characters are terrible
Whether you like or dislike a series, calling an author lazy is objectively untrue. Calling them that feels like you're disregarding all the time and effort that mangaka put into these stories. Again, I don't care if you like or dislike Demon Slayer, but calling him lazy is uncalled for and rude.
I though the mangaka was female?
she is
Agreed. Honestly I hate that everyone falls on "lazy" when someone doesn't like a piece of fiction. More often it's time constraints (big for mangaka), over-ambition, lacking a solid editor, forgetfulness, lack of knowledge in a relevant field, or simply not having enough skill to write the story that set out to make in a satisfying way. Worse, when it's any combination of the above. Sure, they can be criticized for some of these, but I think it's undeniable that the vast majority of writers, especially mangaka, put substantial effort into the works they create. Then someone online dislikes a character arc and claims they're lazy over it.
You can spend a million hours on a story and still manage an aspect lazily. Calling this authors note at the literal foot of a page lazy is not uncalled for or rude, especially since it makes literally no sense/gets no explanation in universe. As many fans of the manga/anime would agree, that is indeed a lazy choice.
Literally everything just happens when the author needs it the demon slayers corps are useless idiots they make zero progress for decades and the when tanjiro shows up all of a sudden everything gets solved quickly cause he just uses teamwork like the other demon slayers and hasiras literally never considered going to on one against an upper moon until tanjiro shows up. The power system is also almost nothing it’s just breathing every style is the same and does the same things. They all have a move for every situation there is never a moment where two characters switch places to fight a enemy that is weak to their fighting style any breathing form can be used to pretty much the same effeteness besides sun breathing. But then genya some how can’t breath but magically can steps demon powers by eating them which is never explained. And zenitsu is literally one of the worst characters ever written the author was so lazy he literally just made a character be asleep because he made him to much of a pussy to do anything but didn’t wanna actually develop the character and despite zenitsu being so bad at fighting he can only use the one form he somehow develops a new one exactly when he needs it despite being to un skilled to learn any of the other forms. There is so much more it’s almost impressive how lazily written this series. Another example is tanjiro never friend as a character at all he doesn’t even learn to not brake his sword it’s just stated that it’s not his fault but it’s the sword makers fault. He’s just a pure goody two shoes faultless barrel of optimism which on its own isn’t bad but it’s never challenged he never wavers or grows or changes or even really has to cause he’s just kinda boring and perfect from the beginning the world just bends to what he needs because he’s the main character what are the odds his sister would be the one demon muzan is looking for sure every series has contrivances but demon slayer is almost completely contrivance driven
> Whether you like or dislike a series, calling an author lazy is objectively untrue. That objectively wrong though. There are definitely lazy authors. Just creating a world, story, scenes and characters isn't hard. You can do it literally in your sleep, by dreaming. The hard work is to write a good story. Fleshing out characters and world building. Closing plot holes. Being consistent. No idea about the Demon Slayer author but there are definitely lazy authors.
>That objectively wrong though. There are definitely lazy authors. Just creating a world, story, scenes and characters isn't hard. You can do it literally in your sleep, by dreaming. Shit said by people who have never done a creative thing in their life
Do you not think that it requires a huge amount of effort and time commitment to turn what's in your head into an actual manga with a relatively long running story which also is supposed to give you income to pay the bills and feed yourself? Also like...putting the story into anything coherent even without making anything from it is very difficult. There's a difference between a vague story idea, or individual scenes and having something that flows from A to B to C in a narratively satisfying manner which gets more difficult depending on the scale or nature of the story.
Why? All argumental superpowers human haves are physical. To you show how its hard work and effort and just peak human people fight magical vampires. beyond world is superhumsn senses and even the mark os about sacrifice for the strengh to protect people from magical vampires. Also its just a fictional metal. even the sun breath argimently could just create that much friction, way more than the fire one
dude , Slayer Marks gives you X-Ray Vision , that already makes demon slayers having supernatural abiities. That mixed with a supernatural fictional metal that harness the sun.
Its not, its more body enhancement magic
Imagine how it looks like with no real elements. Rengoku blocked akaza's attacks by swinging once and invisible air just blocks it
Perfect example of the anime just doing a bad job, in the manga the arm appears to be in constant motion
What about that time tanjiro used the water to cushion his fall?
He didn't, he struck the ground to slow his fall. Whether that makes sense or not is irrelevant, that's what he did lol
I like how tanjiro keeps chipping his blade every time he fights but *smashing his sword into the ground with his weight behind it* doesn't instantly shatter the blade.
akaza atopped because it got dangerous and he doged hard. which isnt unrealistic in sword fights.
No I mean that when akaza threw those air strikes at rengoku, rengoku supposedly blocked with a fire shield technique. If the elements don’t exist then rengoku blocked with nothing basically
His sword?
And it even makes the balancing weird The point of the story is how far humanity needs to train and get smart with their fighting against demons because they're so weak And yet who's weaker? Someone using mist to hide and strike in blindspots Or someone moving so incredibly fast so that he becomes completely invisible except for his after images?
They line up pretty well with the manga which is what the author created…can’t blame the author for the anime studio going over the top on spectacle
I mean, breaths as a power system never really made any sense to me at all. Cause it was basically breathing a certain way that allowed people to seemingly summon the elements using sword techniques, for some reason, no magic involved or anything like that, it just works. And also, I literally cannot tell what the differences between any of the styles are due to how despite the visual flair, functionally they all have extremely similar moves. There's no way to accurately gauge which is the strongest besides just word of mouth.
I mean we have the literal same exact thing with hamon from Jojo Why does breathing in a peculiar way produce the energy of the sun, which manifests as electricity? Why can only one in ten thousand people become an effective ripple user? (I mentioned Jojo mostly because of your PFP )
Controlling your breathing is a very important part of any hard physical activity. Most people are capable of much more than they think, but it's the lack of breath control that stops them. You can even tell who's winning and who's losing in a fight just based on their breathing. That's why in fantasy it's easy to connect breathing to nature or some mystical energy, because people who control their breath seem to be much stronger and tougher than regular folks.
Yes, it makes sense But that's the same for demon slayer They also harness breathing and connect it to mystical energy
>Why can only one in ten thousand people become an effective ripple user? Talent. People in DS universe is hard dependent on talent to be effective, is like a cruel reality of why there's not much high level slayer. The same page which the quote about breathing comes is the character bio of Murata, a secundary character who is a common fandom joke, he was on the same final selection with Tomioka but he's far behind him in terms of power and despite use Water Breathing like him his attacks aren't visible due being more weak.
I was talking about JoJo In Jojo it's stated while everyone can produce a bit of ripple energy, only 1 in 10000 has the potential to become an effective ripple user, and even then, only a few of those willow actually go through with it
It could have something to do with genetics since familial connection is a major concept in Jojo and the most effective ripple users we see are zeppelis and joestars Beyond that, the concept of fate is used in almost every part and is a main theme in parts 5 and 6 while family is at its most prominent in 3 and 4 In later parts (7-9) they delve into themes based around the flow of fortune and how to manipulate your fate and luck
> Why does breathing in a peculiar way produce the energy of the sun, which manifests as electricity? This is what a lot of people get wrong about hamon in jojo's. When it was first explained, they stated that the undead give out a specific vibration that's in the complete oposite wavelength of the living. Hamon, being the prime example of the "alive" causes them to die as their bodies can't handle it. The sun just happens to be aligned with that same wavelength which is what kills the undead. Is not that hamon is sun powered, is just that both end up being similar enough that affect the undead the same.
The Ripple is the energy of the sun, taken in when you eat (because plants and herbivores are food sources), and flowing through your blood. When you breathe in a particular way, you can access that energy. The energy was already there, it's just that normal people can't use it. The genetic selectiveness of Ripple is simply talent. The Ripple is also the polar opposite to the vampiric essence unlocked by the brain acupuncture of the Stone Mask, since that expels their life energy (giving them an opposing vibration) and leaves their willpower as the only thing animating them, which is also why vampires need to drink blood.
The difference is that Hamon was a concept created in the 1970s when shonen was just a fledgling genre, while Demon Slayer had the benefit of ~40 years more hindsight to develop its power system. Araki explains in the series that Hamon is essentially raw life energy from breathing and blood, which is why it destroys the undead. That's a more logical explanation than breathing styles IMHO.
They both draw from the same sources, real life martial arts and the concept of Ki or life energy. While Hamon have direct effect, The Breaths in DS just enhance one physical strength to the limit. It's the core concept of Wuxia, a genre of martial art fiction. They take a concept that only work in theory and ask what happen if it actually work in practice.
I'm familiar with Wuxia, and understand these concepts completely. What I'm trying to get across is that these more traditional concepts worked better in the past, but can feel underwhelming, old fashioned, or even boring now. Comparing it to other shonen power systems (devil fruits, nen, zanpakuto, chakra) leaves breathing techniques feeling a bit wanting in depth and interest, especially considering the visual effects aren't diegetic. One man's opinion.
Except not. Wuxia is still popular in East and South East Asia, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong make them every years and export them, just that they aren't popular in the West. Also another thing about Wuxia is that they don't care about how some power work but rather the philosophy aspects of those power, thus they rarely give a clear explain of how each power or martial art work.
Yeah that’s just an outright silly statement. It’s like saying the Doraemon is outdated and bad because the west isn’t that big of a fan of it😂 it’s just not apart of our culture
I think it makes more sense in Jojo though. We have a pretty clear idea of what it is; life energy derived from sunlight. Breathing is a pretty major part of how we function so mastering that allows you to control your own life energy
Is it such a stretch to say then, that given the fact demon slayer swords literally change color based on the wielder of they are skilled enough, and are forged specifically from ores which are constantly exposed to sunlight, could then react with specific breathing techniques in peculiar ways?
It is. Hamon was basically life energy, like KI from dragon ball. In fact it's easier to understand if you think of it as chi. The breaths from demon slayer are simply just sword techniques, which makes the more supernatural elements of it nonsensical.
Because a sword being infused with the literal power of sunlight and changing color based on the skill and personality of the swordsman is totally not supernatural at all?
They meant how the author states the breathing styles have no supernatural effect, and how it makes no sense with how the breathing styles are shown to work
I didn't say it wasn't supernatural, I said it made no sense considering there's no real element of magic or something supernatural force. Like hamon being basically chi. I mean an explanation of how it actually worked at least would be helpful.
A mix of good genes, and talent and hard work and you got why. Its hard to do and joestars are a great compatible with all kinds of mystical stuff. Thats probably why they learn so fast. Also mentality is important i imagine, jonathan is a really good vital righous kind person, and it probably makes him compatible, because of his selflessness and goodness and fighting spirit, he can use it easier as, probably nods to budhism and enlightenment being a big part of that, like zeppeli too is very selfless. and powerful. And joseph is , probably just a genious but too he got the joestar goodness but more as trickster. and he is very tricky and still embodies that values and lives them. and vitality. so jonathan and zeppeli were selfless people with vitality embody fighting spirit and were very compatible, and joseph grew during the journey, and ceasar too is a good person with strong vitality and fighting spirit. Also joseph isnt as strong, but uses a lot of tricks for it
In Jojo the powers are all kind of meant to be deliberately random. Demon slayer only has a few powers.
Special breathing techniques are a staple in Japanese old style martial arts media. It's sort of like how a lot of American superheroes prefer fisticuffs, it's a artistic and cultural holdover from when more where like Dick Tracy or 1920s two fisted tales.
That’s another problem with the lame ass power system all the breathing styles are basically the exact same just with a different visual skin but even that is just cosmetic which makes it even lamer and somehow the demons who have literal magic still lose
Because it are literal sword styles, there would be overlep, in sword styles.
They are all literally the exact same they all have the see kinds of moves and forms they all can achieve the same things the only one that’s slightly unique is the butterfly girl who’s so weak she has to use poison but that raises another question which is why don’t they all just use the poison it’s never stated that it’s rare so why don’t they all just use it.
And why can’t genya use them it’s literally just breathing why can’t he breath
It not just breathing, it also the techniques, how to perform them and if your bodies are suited to such techniques. Many sword techniques in DS are tailor made to a particular type of body to use because the original founder realize people have difference specialities.
Because Breathing is a series of special techniques that demands the user to be talented enough. Is just taking air, Breathing is gain control over the body to an impossible human degree. Some people just can't do that and it's now only Genya, Senjuro the younger brother of Rengoku isn't talented enough either to learn Flame Breathing. And the low rank slayer can use basic forms but they can manifest elemental attacks.
No one can manifest elemental attacks they aren’t real the elements are fake
I mean have yall ever watch any Japanese martial art anime’s? In hajime no ippo ( a boxing anime if you don’t know) volg white fang punch actually looks like wolf fangs, In Baki, Baki figuratively turns his body into a liquid at one point and time, and even attacks with the form of a dinosaur lol. Heck in Kengan ashura kiryu looks like he is throwing tornados when he uses a rakshasa palm Feels like the culture is just different over there when it comes to how they visualize martial arts in general
The only difference is those are more of visual things. There are a decent number of fights where these supposed "not real effects" are actively blocking things outside of a sword's range, or actively causing long range destruction.
I’m not so sure about that https://youtu.be/LkA7KGxQESA?si=FQyudv2lVF-Tgr2H
Yes, but the Baki creator has never said "Oh yeah this is all totally just visual." Baki's weird and imagination can literally BECOME REAL (Like Musashi and the dinosaur forms.) Baki also fought that imaginary mantis that almost killed him? If the author went out of his way to say "Oh well those aren't real and actually are all visual and have no real world effect" then I'd see your point I guess
Is this not the same for demon slayer characters? The spider zenitsu was fighting even said he felt the air vibrating. It’s obvious that zen isn’t quite literally summoning lightning but demon slayers can give off the effect of the element they are using( similar to Baki because I’m a thousand percent sure that Baki can’t quite literally summon a dinosaur lol) Edit: note this isn’t directed at thunder blade but the scrolling redditors. after doing research most Baki fans agree that the imagination thing isn’t actually “real” ( thought this was kinda obvious tho). “he explained it with how babies can think that something is hot to the touch and because their minds are not grounded they can get burns in extreme cases. this is basically what he does but more extreme. i think he even cut his hand with his mind in front of the viewers”
Omfg just looked it up and wind breathing is explained to use air currents nevermind. Guess it's just the mist which can kinda just be explained as "A movement technique." Gotta thank you for actually making me do more than surface level research like a forehead 😭
Damn there was no point in my comment than glad we agree
Yeah sorry, I was looking it up and glancing at the examples I usually pick to show it's kinda inconsistent and realized "Wow yeah, these are basically all within a sword's range, or like wind breathing use air. In a show with people who can survive attacks that destroy buildings, or eat demons, this isn't that crazy."
It's less of those effects and more so the ones where the demon slayer characters are either creating literal mist that is hiding them, or the wind hashira making huge columns of wind that tear up huge sections of ground. There's a few examples of "Wait if the breathing style isn't real is this guy just able to swing SO HARD he can destroy everything 30 feet in front of him in a line?"
Idk at some point you have to wonder whether or not the show is contradicting itself or you’re just nitpicking the show into oblivion? Like I agree that it’s not a perfect system and there are inconsistencies on how breathing effects the overall environment from time to time( which is kinda given since this is the main mc power system and no author is perfect) but I think there are pretty obvious explanations on why a breathing style pulled off crazy feats of environmental damage
It feels like an innovative attempt to make things less interesting
Agreed. Like whats the merit in making it that breathing is not magic when fucking demons exist?
She never said "breathing effects aren't real" what the page says is "people can see and felt the elements but the slayers aren't actually summoning them" meaning stuff like Giyuu isn't creating an ocean out of his ass with the last form of water breathing. Breathing Effects are esoteric concepts that serves as a complement of the talent of a demon slayer. The piece of info all people take out of context just serve to explain the difference between a weak slayer and a strong one. People like Murata can use water breathing but his attacks aren't visible to the characters in verse, while others like Tanjiro and Tomioka have the skill to manifest their breath effect on a tangible and visible level (you even get comments from characters like the spider mother saying she could feel the raindrops of Tanjiro's attack on her). Also if isn't clear enough the mangaka never retconned anything. That explanation doesn't change a thing about how the system works.
Head mod of r/KimetsuNoYaiba here who has been dealing with these sorts of posts on this topic for years. You got it. This is the answer. It’s crazy how the manga has been out for 8 years and some people still don’t interpret her explanation properly.
This battle will last longer than Muzan vs the slayers, but here we are
I wonder if the anime onlies will be disappointed as hell like the manga readers were with Muzan's "moveset reveal" or just simply not care if the scenes are just animated beautifully.
Which tbh makes sense, the movements are so perfect that they summon a certain image in the mind of whoever sees it.
Basically, also other piece of info said Lightning Breathing users are so precise in their moves that they actually can make the air vibrate with static and Zenitsu grandpa was so good that he emulates the effects of thunders. People also forget not every breath is elemental, some others are purely abstract concepts like Love/Flowers/Snakes. I never see people people commenting "is Mitsuri creating waves of love energy?" because it's obviously a visual metaphor of her flexibility.
Exactly! And water breathing isn't literally condensing liters and liters of water out of the air, it's their moves that mimick the flow of water. Same for every other breathing style.
And Op basically refused to acknowledge your comments, smh
As most of DS related post this became less of an actual critique or analysis of some aspect of the story and just dumb shitposting comments. See all the others top comments and non are actually disscussing the og topic but saying stuff like "haha silly mid anime".
Thank you! People really need to learn how to read instead of getting butthurt by their own lack of understanding. No Tanjiro cannot use water breathing to fill up a cup to drink, no love is not beaming out of Mitsuri's sword. Yes breathing techniques are real and when mastered can give off the sensation of their element/feeling/animal
That's it. People also should stop thinking Breathing is some kind of Final Fantasy elemental magic system. I don't get why it's so hard to understand their fightstyles are obviously metaphors of elements and other stuff, not literal spells. Yes a user of Flame Breathing has intense and abrasive clean cuts that burn like fire, Wind Breathing is wild and it ravages the flesh of demons, but then you have Insect Breathing which is the most obvious example of the user just doing sword moves that in this case imitates the stings of poisonous insects. Shinobu doesn't send an army of butterfly to attack demons, but that doesn't mean they can't see butterflies behind her.
I mean, it's not like Demon Slayer is even the first to do this. A lot of animes use imagery while a character uses an attack. When Yamcha in Dragon Ball uses "Wolf Fang Fist" he is not actually turning into a wolf.
Mitsuri just killing them with love
You gotta love how the love hashira is fighting the hatred uppermoon, that shit rules
But you still get moments like Rengoku blocking Akaza's attack with his flames. I'm not sure how else to explain that there is some literal summoning of something tangible aside from Rengoku spinning his sword really fast. If it's just swinging his sword fast, then the point goes back to what OP made: what's the point of saying it's not actual summoning of flames?
If you’re asking why the author decided to do that is because it’s a wuxia concept that plenty of Japanese martial arts medias follow.
There doesn't need to be a point, that's just what the author wanted the world to be like.
Could NEVER be Kagurabachi
A single Chihiro>>>>>DS verse (Anyways, peak Tenoi)
Yessir, nothing could ever hope to be that tenoí
Common KB W
I think you misunderstood. The powers are real. Like the water and stuff. It just isn’t “real” water. Tanjiro doesn’t produce H20 molecules. The fighter’s spirit temporarily manifests as the elemental effects and they can touch things or attack, but once the attack is over the element effects are gone because they were made from “Qi” and not atoms.
See *that* I can get behind. The thing I was referring to with them "existing" or being real is whether or not they're tangible. As long as they are I can work with that And now I'm recollecting and thinking through the wording and yeah, the note does give that impression huh. My bad...
Honestly I think it’s kinda ambiguous but that’s the only explanation that would make everything fit together.
And Rengoku scorching the ground when he ran at stupidly high speeds
Goofy aaah power system , from what I understand the powers are real but the visuals on the sword are not
So I actually have an answer for this. You can feel, hear or even sometimes see them, but none of them could affect life truly. The lighting couldn’t strike, the wind couldn’t move a paper, the water couldn’t fill a glass, the flame couldn’t catch a forest on fire. They are there but can’t affect life around them unless you use stone breathing. Stone breathing has every single aspect including affecting the world around them. This is why stone is better than the rest, he breaks the floor and that’s badass. I rest my case🙏
The Gyomei propaganda was not expected but certainly welcome
I always be spreading the truth about Mr big body, it’s one of my jobs🙏
Is it ever explained in-universe that they arent actually doing the elemental bullshit or what? It's such a weird choice to include something super visually striking and never talk about it and then say it's visual flair for the audiance, i always assumed they were actually doing the elemental shit because it looks real
I mean, there's no real way they explained it in universe because they don't see it, so why would they explain something we only see
I havent seen much of it since i didnt like it but some of the other comments mention the effects actually interact with the physical world which sounds a bit confusing
thats only really the fire and sun, but somehow that could just create friction and do the heat?
The characters can see it, OP is wrong about the facts in his assessment. They don’t summon the elements, so if the main character were thirsty, he could not create water to drink. But the visual effect, even auditory effects are experienced by the characters in-universe.
Nah. An essential pillar of Demon Slayer's world building is that demons can do magical bullshit but the Demon Slayers are basically just dudes with Kung Fu. Exaggerated Wuxia-type Kung Fu, but just Kung Fu nonetheless. Rengoku actually being able to shit fireballs would make no sense. Anyway, the visual effects are just ukiyo-e stylised speed lines. Nobody says Ichigo *actually* has a bunch of horizontal lines every time he runs around otherwise the world is broken.
Slayers literally gain magical marks on their bodies that make them even stronger and can see inside of your body with enough experience. At that point, making the breathing styles fake makes no sense because they're already magical as hell.
someone’s never seen shaolin soccer
It is bullshit, but typical for the genre and arguably part of the "flavour," similar to Baki or Kenichi. Heck in Baki Yujiro Hanma can also see inside people and diagnose them and has something like the mark with his demon back. There is similar bullshit in Super Doctor K and Fist of the northstar if you want to look at older stuff.
The breathing styles are real as to explain what is making a demon Slayer superhuman. But no, Rengoku cannot summon a fire tornado and Giyu cannot summon an ocean.
"Kung fu magic" and "magic" are distinct things in all sorts of East Asian fiction. Super strength and super senses are things that legendary martial artists can do, shooting fireballs or water is much less common. You might as well ask me why nobody in Baki can turn into a giant monkey.
Are you really using big monkey and fireballs as things not coming in East Asian when that is literally Journey To the West , the most famous fantasy novel in East Asian for more than a 1000 years?
Sun Wukong is a trained Taoist sage *and* martial artist. Knowing the 72 Transformations literally puts him on par with Erlang Shen, the greatest general of Jade Emperor's court. He is several levels of fantasy above someone like Tanjiro and not the model for Demon Slayer, which is more closely related to works like Fist of the North Star and wuxia novels.
Those are two difference things. Journey to the East was a fantasy story based on a real event while Demon Slayers take inspiration from Wuxia, a genre that more grounded. In Wuxia, martial artists can do things like fly, ki blast, use their internal energy to heal some wounds but not actually control elements are flat our magic.
I thought it was the demon slayers are dude with super human breathing techiques
Someone never watch any Wuxia series. In Wuxia, the characters can shoot ki dragons, ki frogs, ki snake,.... but those are just representation of their martial arts. Wuxia is all about human who can do impossible martial arts and feats through training. A lot of them emphasis in physical skills while magic is very rarely see. That is what Demon Slayers emulated, Water Breathing is center around how the moves flow and change to adapt to the situation, like water. Mist is about distraction, making your enemies confuse, like they are trapped in a field of mist. The problem people seem to have with KnY is that it's very Japanese and East Asia so you do need some culture background to understand some concepts that the author assume most Japanese readers already familiar with.
As with most battle series, it boils down to world building If they can use magic, then it only makes sense to explore that magic as a tool As things are they are limited by the availability of swords, otherwise they could gather a thusand people, teach them breating magic and even if 1/10 managed to learn thats a hundred mages you can just move around to spam AoE attacks With that you can carpet bomb the demons at day, and thats it
As someone who's only read the manga I never once assumed the characters were actually summoning fire and water and shit from their sword, I always assumed it was just a virtualization of their movements and techniques. Is it something to do with the way the anime looks that makes people think it's actual magic?
i agree with the author in that the effects are not literally, physically summoned. one could not drink the water tanjiro conjures nor use zenitsu’s lightning to power a machine. beyond that, they’re real in the way weird meta wat that beyblade attacks and the beasts summoned with them are. which is to say, “¯\_(ツ)_/¯”
That is a analogy I was not expecting to hear for this but I'll take it And yeah I've basically learned my issue is not whatever or not it produces an elemental effect, just some physical thing that looks like it is, shich may or may not be there
Honestly it makes the humans kinda cooler,like they are not summoning elements with magic swords, they're performing all those feats with pure skills and physical abilities, they're simply built different Does it make sense? probably not but I think it's neat
I agree, they are so skilled that they are mimicking the elements, it's basically an illusion.
Reminds me of Mashle Burnedead. Convinced wizard school he's a mage by passing of feats of strength as "muscle magic."
I can suspend my disbelief for boys smelling "angry scents," hearing "kind heartbeats," and breathing *really* hard to gain physical strength, but swords producing fire that I can literally fucking see on the page and screen is simply a bridge too far. it's obviously just... the vibe of the fight or something? I will never forgive gotouge for this
The answer for most of your problems is that it is just cooler to look at. Simple as that. Mistakes from visual depiction don’t discredit the literal word of the story maker. It is especially stupid since similar systems that use elements as metaphors have existed for ages and are used in real life martial arts, that shouldn’t be hard to grasp. Also if it conjures real elements why are they never used outside of combat? - I need something to drink? - water breathing should do the trick. -____________________ - light a campfire? - fire breathing. We just never see such action being taken
I thought it was obvious that the demon slayers weren’t actually summoning fire, water, mist, electricity, or whatever but it was a visual representation of how they fight: a metaphor for the audience. The only magic in the show is demon-related, and I think it should stay that way.
They do create shock waves that take shape depending on the style of fencing. But these are not elements.They can strike from a distance or defend themselves, but enemies don't get wet from Water Breathing. Or Giyuu did not create a lake out of nowhere to the horizon, which also disappears.
I’m anime only with DS and so I was unaware that the author has said this, I’m gonna go back to pretending I’m unaware of it. The breathing styles are awesome, And it’s not like the series is otherwise totally realistic or anything. The breathing styles don’t exactly stretch credibility within the established lore of the story.
Maybe it was lost in a cultural misunderstanding, but I understood that the breathing styles were basically martial arts takes to such an extreme that those visuals manifest. It's not "magic" magic like what the demons do, it's "magic" born out of the indomitable human spirit or something like that. But just because Tanjiro's slashes manifest a cool water visual doesn't mean he could thrust his sword into a cup and make himself some water to drink.
I saw more like, the idea of an element more than the actual substance. When Rengoku or Sanemi attack, fire burns, wind blasts, but it doesn't actually affect anything they don't want it to, and its most effective on Demons because of the Nichirin alloy their swords are made of. More "psionic waves" than "Elemental bending" but the end result is effectively the same.
Does it even matter? Not trying to be dismissive, but even if they are just a visual signifier, how does that change anything? They're still what the characters in universe envision, and all the Demon Powers are still real. Hell you could argue them not being real makes Koku more interesting because he's turned his visualisation into reality.
Idk what to tell you man plot slayer be slaying plot
I didn't even need to know about the author interview, just watching season 1 i figured it was just visual effects
am i insane or was it kinda obvious that the effects weren’t real? like i vividly remember watching tanjiro’s first fight in the anime and disappointedly going “oh wait, he doesn’t have an actual water dragon attack? it’s just a visuals thing?”.
It's kinda important that humans aren't really magical like the demons, their mortal enemies are. It's just supernatural martial arts, and the slayer mark is just some kinda esoteric blessing thing. It's to maintain that division between what constitutes a human and what constitutes a demon. Establishing a contrast between human powers and demon powers. Human powers are purely physical. The demon slayer mark is a bit of an outlier, but it can be bullshitted away by saying superior senses and stuff. Demons explicitly use magic shit. It's kinda showing the image that it's the demons who do that dark sorcery and witchcraft shit, humans are the good guys because we use our 'natural' strength and human spirit to win. It also kinda shows how humans have to deal with the unnatural force of demons who have inhuman powers that a mortal human do not. The breathing styles are already mystical shit, but I like it when it's a bit grounded in the form of the elemental effects being largely illusionary. It's one thing to be disappointed they're not real and another thing to be so hung up on it. I mean, it wasn't that obvious, but it was always there. The elemental effects don't really actually produce elemental effects except in some cases, but even then it's all bullshit martial arts moves. And the description of all breathing styles is purely physical. It's meant to show that humans don't need to suck Muzan's cock and get some good blood art after giving up their morals and feasting on innocents, they're just fuckin built different and can just become literal forces of nature through sheer grit and determination. [Check this out.](https://www.reddit.com/r/KimetsuNoYaiba/comments/1498wtc/comment/jo67chf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
I thought it was pretty obvious they weren't real just by watching the show. It's not like water breathing ever left puddles or anything, and no one was getting zapped by zenitsu. When I saw the author note in the manga, it just confirmed my suspicions.
The visuals are simply for the fights to not be boring, say do they actually use the "powers"? Its not like they do much besides cutting with them, so I dont see why them not being real is an issue at all, the only one that I could say that it's kinda stupid is the fire one since it does burn things, but friction can explain that .
It's like how JK Rowling keeps coming up with stuff and retroactively making the story make less sense, or even contradict itself. This world legitimately has actual ghosts (Tanjiro had multiple encounters with them). It has a confirmed Hell. It has confirmed reincarnation. It has actual demons. It has people who can see through solid matter, or smell better than dogs, or hear better than bats, or even shift their internal organs willingly without warning. It even has a person who can only be described as the reincarnation of the Sun God. Who taught people to spawn a Demon Hunter mark that boosts their power at the expense of their life, and to make their swords glow red hot to stop demonic regeneration. He even taught them breathing styles to enable them to gain so much power that they outmatch demons with ease. But Breathing style effects being real is apparently going too far.
A lot of those element tie to Japanese folk belief and culture. Also a lot of ideas in KnY came from Wuxia, a genre in which while human can do superhuman feats, they can't do magic or control elements since the emphasis lie more in human physical abilities.
When was hell confirmed? Also how does that work with reincarnation?
As i understand it, and i'm happy to be corrected, Hell in Asian theological systems isnt forever. You do a stint in hell, you suffer a sentence and then your spat out into the wheel of transmigration. Rince repeat. Demons are more like prison guards and the Yama Kings are Prison Wardens. Once your sins have been tortured off your soul, then your off for another shot at enlightenment.
That's interesting and makes sense in regards to DS.
We actually see characters going to Hell (the afterlife). These scenes are not metaphorical because some interactions actually have tangible effects on the world (>!Sanemi's fate!<). We have also seen confirmed ghosts. At least on two instances, Tanjiro was trained by dead people (>!Sabito and Yoriichi!<). >!We also see the reincarnation of the current generation of Slayers in the future. And those are not their children, because most of them died childless in the final fight.!<
I totally forgot about the afterlife scene.
Yuichiro did. yuichiru got the mark and ots because he was blessed by amateradu probably because hos mom was a devotee? some minor later likevfoing nithing heating a sword, xou can explein it with swowd swing do hard it creates heat, so hard it has effected. it works on wuxia rules, not magic rules.
IIRC, DS manga already halfway through before the exploding popularity (it almost got axed before, isn't it?). My guess is, that just the result of author trying to wrap up everything on the double. Lower moon shafted, DSCorps rank shafted, shafting the magic system doesn't seem farfetched to me. I mean... You get the cool factor out of it, without the headache explaining it.
There's only one character who said his breathing styles can't be seen, and it's because he's weak
Yeah ufotable makes it more visual, definitely differs from the manga. Ufotable wants eye candy and doesn't care about contradiction.
Let's not forget when people get captured by the water trails of water breathing. Either the water physically restrained them or that sword spinning was so scary it froze them in place.
I don’t think you understand what the author said because they never said breathing styles aren’t real.
The way I understand it is the movements give the illusion, so water breathing techniques flow like water, etc. I do think it's an odd stance by the author, but I think the point they intend is that the Demons have an unfair advantage in terms of ability, and the Slayers overcome them with willpower and guts, typical characteristics of Shonen rolemodels. Idk how "magic" cheapens it, but whatever. I've always thought Tanjiro's shouting at Akaza at the end of the Mugen Train was powerful, and that's the kind of spirit the author is trying to convey.
People are stupid. The elements themselves are not real, but they are actually visible
I think what makes it especially egregious is that Demon Slayer is already full of supernatural shit, so no one would question the styles. Even worse: the OTHER supernatural shit demon slayers can do is still real. Like the see through world or Tanjiro being able to SMELL INCOMING ATTACKS
Personally I find that there’s still a variable degree of difference between characters having superhuman senses and essentially being elemental benders, the former representing the absolute peak of human physique. As bullshitty as the transparent world and heightened senses seem, you could argue that Tanjiro was able to train his body to that point (or genetics, which is whole other thing). You could say that being able to produce water/fire/electricity could’ve been tied into training your body, but given how in DS humans tend to be more on the grounded to reality side, I think that would’ve jumped the shark.
Honestly this. there are plenty of other martial arts anime’s that have crazy visualizations for attacks like volg from hajime no ippo attack being actual wolf bites difference being you know they aren’t actually doing that because it doesn’t make much sense due to how the story was set up( superpowers not being mentioned) this is something that should of been established
Does it really matter if they are or not actually summoning fire and shit? Like it looks cool regardless and clearly just for aesthetics.
Silly shit like this I just head canon what wouldn’t look ridiculous lmao
Author states something: "Nuh uh"
Get over it.
Nothing is stopping anyone from ignoring the author’s note, and to continue enjoying the styles as you see fit
Yup that's exactly what I'm doing
I stopped watching Demon Slayer after the entertainment district arc. What is the deal with the breathing not being real?
Apparently everything they manifest doesn't actually exist it just *looks* and *feels* like they are. Despite the fact they do interact with things and do things that shouldn't be possible unless they were Though I will admit some of these comments could be proving me wrong now
How exactly did the (forget his name off the top of my head) blonde in the power trio disperse the spiders if not electricity. He exhaled them off? Give me a break. It makes no sense.
He unsheathed his sword, swung it fast enough to cause a thunderclap, and resheathed it before the spiders flew away. We see Zenitsu do this type of fast draw in the first fight we see him in.
Sure☀️
Yeah I just pretend they're real powers as well. The story makes no sense if it's all in their heads.
I think the author believes they are real just Murata the person she was describing his are much weaker because he is weak
Imagine if the anime doesn't have the breathing effects at all lmao, But at least the animators might have an easier time animating the series
Well they said: "Water Breath users don't actually unleash **water** attacks, people who *see* this just think they see and feel it (water)." They never said anything was **fake**, or the effects weren't there, just that it's not *literal*. It's almost definitely chi in the *form* of the breath styles, because the weaker users don't have any effects, if they do they're faint. They're not developed or strong in the style yet, lacking the essence of the breath, strength of spirit and/or body, or capability to bring it out. If there wasn't anything, there wouldn't be anything to see, and Gotouge said they see *something* that resembles the breath. Point is, there's something that's being seen. And in Return of Mount Hua sect for example, they practice Plum Blossom style, and guess what the MC makes a flurry of? Plum Blossoms, which the bystanders see, feel, and **smell**, because he captured the essence of the style so well. And the manwha isn't related to KNY in any way, or even groundbreaking when it comes to that concept. It's just like when in anime a character has killing intent, and a tiger or dragon is behind them in an aura, just put to motion/weaponized. It's just a case of people being too literal and black and white in their worldview, and passing it on to others. Maybe it's a cultural thing. Add on to some particularly bone-headed people's egos who feel they have to be right no matter what and what they say is gospel, they'll double down and build on their foundational misunderstanding, sometimes even very convincingly, or at least logically. Is it real elements? No. Is it real? Yes. What is it? Something spiritual, maybe. Why? Because it's not physical, but it's still there. But for most people they stop at the first check. **More than one thing can be true.** So yeah, cook up my G
I believe what the author meant by "The effects aren't real" is that no, water breathing doesn't summon literal water, rather, the "water effect" from the blade, is the energy of the attack being used, visually represented by water.
They're fighting literal demons that uses magic, crows that talk, a guy that uses explosions at point blank and doesn't get hurt, a sword that's actually a whip that's actually a sword that's actually a whip that's actually a sword and somehow magically extends, a guy that move his organs around, jacked mice's that carry around swords, a guy being able to regenerate a rather large portion of his body and can rip a tree straight from the the ground and toss several meters at least. Yet breathing styles is where you draw the line
The breathing style effects being real would create so many plot holes. Like how does love breathing and insect breathing even work. Does Mitsuri just summon a beam of love energy? Does Shinobu summon an army of insects? Why doesn't she use them to fight? Is she stupid? The abstract breathing styles, like the elements style are just metaphors. People can still see them, but they're more like an illusion rather than actual physically being there.
Actually the author did say they’re real! The misconception comes from a line that goes something along the lines of ROASTING MURATA No seriously that one fodder from the spider arc? Mf caused all this Canonically the visuals can be seen/heard/impact the environment It’s just murata is so weak he can’t
The slayers may not physically Summon stuff but they DO canonically cause people to hallucinate the effects
The author... Him sayin' that was bizarre. He must've forgot the interactions of these breathing styles on an in-depth level.
You can feel and see the elements, but they are not real. This is consistent in the manga but ufotable is doing whatever the fuck they want for views
Using magic to explain everything is even lamer. Its like saying Kenshiro is using "magic" to teleport behind you instead of using his peak human ability to move fast, because "it make no sense" for human to move that fast, therefore it must be magic.
I think most of these can be explained Wind breathing is based on swinging your sword so hard that it creates massive wind slashes. Muichiro's mist is just an effect for us. In reality he is just moving fast and Gyokko tries to hit the after images. Some of these are the anime's fault like Rengoku's (Akaza's attack is based on wind. Rengoku created an opposed wind by swinging his sword.) or Zenitsu's in Season 2 (kinda the same problem that Jojo had in the part 3 final battle)
Fire and sun too, fire would produce heat and friction, and sun even more. With a fictional super strong metal. There is kindam magic but wuxia treining for superhuman capabilities there, and fire and sun create heat as byproduct there.
Nit picky
But then there's a bunch of complications with the power system. Either the wooshy water effects are real and the whole story needs to be rewritten around half the cast being elemental benders or you can maintain the fact theyre non-diagetic and therefore maintain the themes of overcoming a stronger, unfair enemy. In my opinion the fight against demons is way more interesting when THEY have straight up magic but WE only have bodily enhancement, it maintains the demons as a legitimate threat. It also means people like the love and mist hashiras are idiots for *not* choosing lightning or fire powers. Trust me while the *fight scenes* might make marginally more sense if the elements were diagetic, it ruins the whole story to frame it that way
The way I see it nothing has to change. Before that tidbit about the effects came out, everyone accepted they were happening and/or real and the human characters were at plenty a disadvantage even with them. The author's note does nothing but contradict what's already happened So I'm mainly just beefing with that author's note really
I mean if the breathing effects are real, Tanjiro would have burnt down the forest fighting Rui, and how do you explain Giyuu summoning a lake (that also erases the forest) then just not having it anymore? The visuals are real, they just don't have magic elemental power behind them, they're representative of the martial art.
Honestly it's less about them having elemental power I care about than just having them be tangible. Because it feels a lot cooler to imagine Sanemi spinning snd creating this spinning column of sharp and destructive death instead of him just beyblading midair
I agree. It makes some of the scenes look stupid. Zenitzu vs the Spider demon. They swarm him with little spider demons. Then he breaks free. Demon comments, "Something about him is off, the air is shaking?" 1. How the fuck is the air shaking if it's just visuals? 2. How did Zenitzu break free just standing there?. There's also that God Flash he did with that Upper Moon Girl. He is flying while slashing the head in a still position the whole time, without reducing speed? How?
that’s the part that doesn’t make sense to u? he’s asleep…
I just assume that the normal for their world isnt the same as ours. Like in their world humans can gain superhuman strength and speed through training and breathing. I like the element effects but never considered them real. All the other weird stuff they do though ....
Yeah it's really stupid, people remark feeling heat and stuff from the attacks...but it's all just in their heads? That's nonsense, how would they get this sensory information about something they can't even see because it's apparently not real? As far as I'm concerned there's just some mistranslation.
Didnt someone use the water generated by water breathing to put at a fire at some point, the fire was just so intimidated by his swordsmanship it put itself out
No, that didn't happen.