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| “ | Persistent. You're all seriously persistent. And it bores me. It sickens me from the bottom of my heart. Whenever you open your mouth, you only remember that one dumb notion about avenging your parents, kids, or siblings. You've all survived. That should be enough for you. So your family got slaughtered. What's the problem here? Think of yourself as lucky, and go back to the way you lived life before. Look at it this way. Being killed by me is the same as encountering a great calamity. You don't need to think so hard about it. Rains, winds, volcano eruptions, earthquakes. Nobody tries to swear revenge on a natural disaster, no matter how many lives it takes. You can't bring dead humans back to life. Why not just stop fussing over the issue all the time, and live quietly to earn your daily wages? Most humans live that life. Why can't you all do that? There's only one reason. The Demon Slayers are an assembly of deviants. And I'm tired of dealing with deviants. I'm the one who really wants to put an end to all this. | „ |
| ~ Muzan rationalizing his crimes to Tanjiro and Giyu in his most infamous speech. |
Muzan Kibutsuji (鬼舞辻無慘 Kibutsuji Muzan), also known as the Demon King, is the main antagonist of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise.
He is the progenitor and king of all other demons in existence, and the leader of the Twelve Kizuki, an organization consisting of the twelve strongest demons under his command. As a result of his actions and influence, he is primarily responsible for all the tragedies that have occurred throughout the entire series.
Originally a human aristocrat who was born during the Heian Era, Muzan was inadvertently turned into a demon by an experimental treatment that he took in order to cure him of his terminal illness. Ever since then, his goal has been to conquer the sun and become truly immortal, which he intends to accomplish through one of two ways: by finding the Blue Spider Lily or creating more demons with his blood in the hopes that one of them will eventually become immune to sunlight.
In his relentless pursuit of this ambition, Muzan would become the sworn enemy of the Demon Slayer Corps, which was founded and led by the Ubuyashiki Clan to eliminate him and wipe out all of demon-kind. He is also the arch-nemesis of the Kamado siblings Tanjiro and Nezuko due to being responsible for massacring the rest of their family and turning Nezuko into a demon against her will. This event would lead Tanjiro to join the Demon Slayer Corps in order to find a way to turn his sister back into a human and get revenge on Muzan for murdering his family, thus setting the events of the series in motion.
Quick Answers
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What is Muzan Kibutsuji's personality like?
What is Muzan Kibutsuji's weakness?
Portrayals[]
In Japanese, he is voiced by Toshihiko Seki (who also voiced Aaroniero Arruruerie while disguised as Kaien Shiba in Bleach, Aleister Crowley in the A Certain Magical Index series, Il Dottore in Genshin Impact, Rau Le Creuset in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Conrad Leto in Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King and Lord Embryo in Cross Ange).
In English, he is voiced by Greg Chun (who also voiced Garou in One Punch Man, Henry Wu in Jurassic Park: Camp Cretaceous, Gabriel Miller in the Sword Art Online franchise, Shin in Fist of the North: Lost in Paradise, and N'Doul in JoJo: Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusders).
In the stage adaptation of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, he was portrayed by Yoshihide Sasaki.
Appearance[]
Muzan is a tall and muscular young man with curly black hair, red eyes with cat-like irises, and unnaturally pale skin. His primary outfit consists of a white fedora, an embroidered black tuxedo with a white tie over a black dress shirt, simple white dress pants, and black loafers.
During his meeting with the Lower Ranks, Muzan disguised himself as an elegant woman with chignon wearing a long black yukata, which led the Lower Ranks to fail to recognize him until he revealed his identity. After dismantling the Lower Ranks, he then transformed himself into his latest cover identity as the adopted sickly son of an elderly couple, taking the form of a young boy with pale white skin and combed black hair. His main outfit in this disguise was a plain white button-up shirt and black cargo shorts along with long tube socks and loafers.
After accidentally consuming a drug created by Tamayo, Yushiro, and Shinobu that was deliberately designed to counter his abilities and weaken him over time, Muzan's hair grows in length and turns white due to the drug drastically accelerating his biological age. He also takes on his battle form, which features numerous mouths all over his limbs, each one lined with a set of sharp fangs. A dark red mass of flesh expands to cover his body, particularly on his limbs, his forehead, and his entire lower body. It is also later revealed that Muzan has dozens of scars all over his body from the wounds that were inflicted on him from his battle with Yoriichi, which burned him down to the cellular level and never fully healed despite the fact that their fight took place centuries ago. However, it should be noted that these wounds aren't visible normally and only come to light as he weakens.
Personality[]
| “ | Muzan. You...are a being that must not be allowed to exist. | „ |
| ~ Tanjirou Kamado to Muzan. |
| “ | What do you find so entertaining? What's so amusing about this? What do you take life for, exactly? Why can't you understand? How could you ever forget? | „ |
| ~ Yoriichi Tsugikuni to Muzan |
| “ | The moment I saw him, I understood that I was born into this world... to slay this man. | „ |
| ~ Yoriichi Tsugikuni's thoughts of Muzan in their first (and last) encounter |
As the king of demons, Muzan is a callous, cold-hearted, ruthless, intimidating, tyrannical, heartless, egotistical, and extremely narcissistic perfectionist with a horrendous self-absorbed streak. He never tolerates anyone who mocks him, even to the point of brutally murdering a pair of drunk bystanders who were simply rude to him along with their female companion, while proclaiming his own delusional grandeur. Like most narcissists, his ego is also very fragile and causes him to lose his cool for the pettiest reasons, as displayed when he savagely murdered Rokuro for "ordering him around" when all the latter did was desperately ask him for more blood.
Muzan sees himself as the perfect organism and has a god complex due to his nearly unparalleled strength. The only thing he is weak to is the sun, which is why he turns other humans into demons on the chance that one of them will become immune to sunlight. Muzan also mostly keeps himself out of danger by using his minions to do his bidding on his behalf and wants to enjoy life without any harm coming to himself. Due to his lust for perfection, Muzan has absolutely no tolerance for failure, as shown when he purged the Lower Ranks after the death of Rui simply because he believed that they were useless to his plans and that he only needed the Upper Ranks to do his dirty work instead. However, it should be noted that he is not completely irrational about the incompetence of his minions and will give them credit when they prove him wrong, as displayed when he spared Enmu for his loyalty and even gave him a large dose of his blood as a reward for his devotion to the cause. He also respects strength and power, which is why he shows favoritism towards the Upper Ranks despite them having failed to find the Blue Spider Lily or exterminate the Ubuyashiki Family over the past few centuries.
Muzan sees his minions as tools who solely exist to serve him and has no problems murdering them himself if they ever cease to be useful to his goals. Many of his subordinates joined him because of the extreme injustices that they faced as humans and he tends to exploit this factor by luring people at their lowest to become demons and ultimately corrupting them completely with his influence. Rui, Gyutaro, Daki, and Akaza are all good examples of this. To prevent himself from being exposed, Muzan curses his subordinates so that none of them may utter his name or else they will be killed instantly and gruesomely in a morbid fit of cruelty. This serves as proof of his extreme paranoia and fueled Tanjiro's disgust towards him, causing the latter to believe Muzan was the only true demon in the world.
Behind the myriad of facades he displays and completely offsetting his insatiable ego and his obsession with perfection, Muzan has also proven to be a pathetic coward. He always avoids conflict whenever he can, which was proven during his confrontation with Giyu and Tanjiro. He states that the duo managing to survive should already be sufficient and that they should just live to earn their wages and put a halt to the cycle of revenge. This trait also complements his manipulative nature, bending many demons to his will to do his bidding so that he doesn't get his own hands dirty. His cowardice was further proven during his first and only confrontation with Yoriichi Tsugikuni. After arrogantly taunting and mocking Yoriichi, Muzan groveled and fled to safety when Yoriichi cut him down and nearly killed him. Even centuries after Yoriichi's death, Muzan was still traumatized by the experience of fighting against him to the point of trembling in fear when he saw that Tanjiro was wearing Yoriichi's hanafuda earrings. He even viewed the swordsman as more of a monster than a human being. Muzan would also attempt to escape numerous times in his final battle with the Demon Slayer Corps, either by splitting himself up or merely running away, and remarked many times to them to just die and give up fighting.
As his body started burning away in the sun, Muzan acknowledged that he had finally been beaten and began to reflect on all the choices he made over the course of his life, leading him to finally understand and accept Kaguya's words that everything eventually dies and that the only things that are truly immortal are the legacies that are passed on in death. This realization caused Muzan to be overwhelmed with emotion and prompted him to focus on leaving something behind in order to become "truly immortal." He attempted to accomplish this by injecting Tanjiro with a massive amount of his blood so that the latter could become the next Demon King and make his dream come true, but ultimately failed when Tanjiro vehemently rejected his ideals and regained his humanity with the help of his friends and family.
As a human, Muzan was already shown to have a cruel and self-absorbed personality, as he was incredibly envious and bitter towards those who were perfectly healthy unlike him, and wished to kill them all simply because they weren't as sick as he was. He was also very impatient and somewhat paranoid, as he believed that the doctor who was trying to treat him was a fraud without any hard evidence to support that claim and straight-up killed him in cold blood because he believed that the doctor had gotten what he deserved for trying to con him. Even after it turned out that doctor was not a fraud and that the treatment he gave him actually worked, Muzan expressed no remorse in taking his life and only came to regret killing him at all because it got in the way of his own selfish ambition of conquering the sun, proving that he was already a very despicable and heinous man long before he became a demon.
Despite all his personal faults, Muzan is very cunning and manipulative, as he is able to seamlessly blend into human society without raising any red flags and easily sway people to his side with just his words alone. Due to having a great deal of practice over the past 1000 years of his existence, he can take on many different identities in society and play them all capably, even if it means transforming himself into a child or switching between genders. He also appears to have a fondness for high fashion, as he is often dressed in very stylish and expensive clothing, and an interest in higher education, having developed an expertise in chemistry by the time of his meeting with the Upper Ranks in the aftermath of Gyutaro's death.
Also, although he rarely shows it, Muzan is capable of being respectful and generous towards his minions, albeit for only pragmatic and self-serving reasons. As an example of this, he gave Akaza permission not to eat women even though doing so would be counter-productive to his growth and made sure to only deploy him on special missions, a right not even given to the two demons who ranked above him. He also allowed Rui to form a gang of demons under his control to satisfy his longing for a family, despite his own law of forbidding such a thing, and gave Gyutaro and Daki the unique privilege of sharing the position of Upper Rank Six, even though he saw their emotional attachment to each other as weakness and did not acknowledge Daki as worthy of being an Upper Rank. Other notable instances of this include his relationship with Kokushibo, whom he treats like a business partner due to the latter's fanatic loyalty towards him, and his highly unusual decision to ecstatically praise Hantengu for finally finding a demon who was immune to sunlight. It should also be noted that Muzan's sense of respect can even extend to his enemies, as shown by how his acknowledgement of Yoriichi's skill and power led him to claim that the abilities of the marked Demon Slayers in the modern age were nothing compared to his.
Powers and Abilities[]
Demon Physiology: As a result of experimental treatment performed during the Heian Era of Japan to cure his terminal disease, Muzan became a supernatural, man-eating monster known as a demon. Having been the first ever demon to emerge and consumed countless human beings to increase his power, Muzan is the most powerful member of his race and is essentially a god to all that spawned from him. He possesses following powers:
- Demonification: Muzan's blood gained strange and unnatural properties upon becoming a demon, allowing him to inject other organisms with it to turn them into demons that he has full control over. He can infuse blood with his physical attacks, which enables him to inconspicuously turn civilians into low-level demons by slashing their bodies, or inject blood through his finger like a needle. The higher blood concentration is, the stronger the demon would become; however, Muzan cannot inject too much blood at once into person's body or else their cells would disintegrate, turning them into ashes.
- Power Bestowal: Each demon created by Muzan possesses immortal life, eternal youth, superhuman physical attributes, sharpened senses, high-level regeneration, unlimited stamina, shapeshifting and immunity to diseases.
- Biological Manipulation: Once converted into a demon, the victim is fully subjected to Muzan's control and influence. As such, if Muzan finds their performance or behavior displeasing, he can kill them remotely with a thought, as demonstrated with Nakime. He has also imposed "Curse of Kibutsuji", an automatic process in which a demon perishes upon revealing any sort of information on Muzan; so far, it has been only demonstrated on Susamaru. Muzan can also nullify his minions' regeneration and inflict cellular decay.
- Genetic Telepathy: Muzan is able to read thoughts and emotions of his demon minions within his line of sight, which was first demonstrated when Muzan quoted Kamanue's thoughts out loud during a meeting with Lower Ranks. Aside from that, the Demon King can access his minions' vision and memories from far distances. His minions can also communicate with each other psychically.
- Consciousness Transferal: Muzan's blood carries out pieces of his soul and memories, which allows him to be immortal through parasitic means. He attempted to overtake Tanjiro Kamado's body by injecting him with a massive amount of his blood and forcing his will upon him, which ended unsuccessfully due to previously absorbed anti-bodies and help of his allies.
- Shapeshifting: Muzan has no fixated appearance, allowing him to change his height, weight, physique, gender, age and adjust his aura to resemble another person to the point where he can fool victim's family, as well as generate clothing. His default form possesses movable seven hearts and five brains with no permanent location in his body.
- Megamorphing: If forced into combat situation, Muzan grows several whip tendrils up to 10 meters (32.8 feet) in length on various areas of his body. Muzan's secondary weapon in combat is an armor of red mass with numerous sharp fangs that can emit suction winds and eat away his opponents to regain strength instantly. According to the second official fanbook, Muzan can create puppets made out of his flesh to fool his opponents and fight for him; a technique that was used by Enmu during his fight with Tanjiro.
- Biological Absorption: Like all demons, Muzan can phase, absorb, assimilate and dissolve matter organic and inorganic in nature. Doing so may give Muzan physical properties of absorbed materials, as demonstrated by Enmu who merged with a train. Muzan can even absorb special abilities of his demons and utilize them, and he planned to use that ability to consume Nezuko's immunity to the sunlight.
- Ultimate Regeneration: While even the lowest demons can regenerate from small pieces of body so long as they are not exposed to their weaknesses, Muzan's regeneration vastly exceeds that. He cannot be decapitated by Nichirin Swords due to his nape healing itself too fast, while being stabbed with it makes it appear as if the blade phased through Muzan's chest. As revealed during his final battle, Muzan's cells have continuously resisted being burned over centuries by Yoriichi Tsugikini's Red Sword and upon being poisoned by Tamayo, his scars were revealed, which are actually the locations of his hearts and brains that are constantly shifting.
- Reactive Adaptation: Muzan can render himself immune to the poisons and toxins he did not experience by being informed about their properties earlier by his minions.
- Scattering: If he were to face a Demon Slayer too powerful for himself to overcome, Muzan can simply split his body into 1800 pieces that fly in every direction, as demonstrated in his fight with Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
- Endopathy: Muzan has demonstrated ability to speak to his minions through his DNA, as it was the case with Akaza during his final battle. He can also summon the "essence" of his absorbed victims and communicate with their spirits, which he used to interrogate Tamayo after absorbing her.
- Superhuman Strength: Muzan is incomparably stronger than all the demons in existence. He is able to kill adult humans larger than him with a single kick or punch, which sends them flying at dozens of feet high; effortlessly decapitate lower demons instantly; destroy large sections of city blocks when poisoned; and even break Gyomei Himejima's chain which not even Kokushibo's katana was able to.
- Shockwave Generation: Muzan can generate tremendously powerful shock waves that can paralyze humans and demons alike, as well as cause severe damage to their nervous systems. This momentarily prevents Demon Slayers from breathing due to the sheer amount of damage inflicted on their lungs.
- Superhuman Durability: Demons possess flesh harder than steel and resist point-blank shotgun shells without damage, as demonstrated by Hantengu. As revealed during his final battle, Nichirin Swords break upon the contact with Muzan when thrown at him.
- Superhuman Jumping: In his combat form, Muzan has demonstrated being able to leap over tall buildings.
- Superhuman Speed: Being the Demon King, Muzan possesses ability to move at unfathomable speeds, being able to mutilate and kill experienced Demon Hunters and high-level Demons without either noticing. His horrifying speed first came to play during Lower Rank Meeting, where he beheaded Wakuraba from several miles away and returned to his original position in less than a blink of an eye. After emerging from his cocoon, Muzan was able to slaughter hordes of Demon Slayers across the room in a rapid succession.
- Aura Emission: Muzan can emit a powerful aura of fear that causes his opponents to become paralyzed or lose the will to battle.
Quotes[]
| “ | Does my complexion look terrible to you? Does my face look pale to you? Do I look weak to you? Does it look like I haven't got long to live? Does it look like I'm close to death? No, no, no, no. I am a being ever close to perfection. | „ |
| ~ Muzan Kibutsuji denies his sickly appearance and brutally kills innocents. |
| “ | I believe that the Twelve Kizuki are better off consisting of only the Upper Ranks. | „ |
| ~ Muzan Kibutsuji voices his plans to purge the remaining Lower Ranks. |
| “ | Shut up. I’m never mistaken about anything. You have no right to reject what I say. Whatever I say is the right thing. My word is absolute. I'm the one who calls all the shots and yet you just tried to tell me what to do. You deserve to die. | „ |
| ~ Muzan before killing Rokuro. |
| “ | Have I ever told you a lot how much I detest change? Changes in circumstance, the changes of flesh, changes in one's emotions. Most changes cause only weakness and inferiority...and I am not weak. What I'm interested in is permanence. To forever remain in perfect condition immune to the disease of change. | „ |
| ~ Muzan to a beheaded Gyokko. |
| “ | At last... At last, someone able to withstand the sun has appeared! Good work, Hantengu! Now... there's no need to search for the Blue Spider Lily. That took so long. But it was for this reason, for this reason, for one thousand years... that I've continued to increase my kind unwillingly! A rare constitution that never showed up even among the Twelve Kizuki. The chosen demon. If I devour that girl and absorb her... I, too, will be able to conquer the accursed sun! Now that I think of it, it was on that day. It all started one thousand years ago. The era was still called Heian back then. No matter how many times he examines me... or administers that medicine... nothing can stop my symptoms from worsening. But then I realized that this doctor's medicine was working... not longer after I'd killed him. My body was bursting with energy... and I thought that I'd gained a durable physique... but there was one problem. I couldn't walk in the sunlight. I could tell. Then if exposed to sunlight, I would die. I began to crave human flesh and blood. To remedy that... all I had to do was devour humans. I had gained power. Eternal power! But... having to restrict my movements during the day was humiliating... and my anger only grew. I began to seek a body that wouldn't perish in the sunlight. I examined the compounds for the doctor's elixir, but perhaps because it was still in the experimental stages, I couldn't figure out how to make the medicine called "Blue Spider Lily." It did seem to contain actual blue-colored Spider Lilies... but as for where this Blue Spider Lily bloomed or whether or not it could be cultivated... no one knew but the doctor I'd killed. I searched all over Japan, but failed to find it. In order to become truly immortal... finding the Blue Spider Lily... and someone who had the ability to survive the sunlight...Those two have been my top priorities. And at last... I've found her! Since that girl has conquered the sun... there's no longer any reason to increase my kind. I will absorb her... and then I will conquer the sunlight. I will get my hands on Nezuko... and become a perfect being! | „ |
| ~ Muzan Kibutsuji explaining his origins after discovering Nezuko is immune to sunlight through Hantengu's memories. |
| “ | You thought you could corner me? You're all going to hell now! You pathetic Demon Hunter pests, I'm slaughtering you all tonight! | „ |
| ~ Muzan Kibutsuji taunts the Demon Slayers during his last fight. |
| “ | So kill me. If you can, Tanjiro Kamado! | „ |
| ~ Muzan dares Tanjiro to kill him. |
| “ | Tanjiro Kamado...You will conquer the sunlight and become the strongest demon- the Demon King! That is because you are the elder brother of Nezuko Kamado and thus share her blood. And you are the only one able to use the same breathing as that monster. You will not die. I believe that. Make my dream come true...Tanjiro. | „ |
| ~ Muzan speaks his last thoughts as he attempts to turn Tanjiro into the next Demon King. |
| “ | Tanjiro! Don't go! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE! | „ |
| ~ Muzan speaks his final words as Tanjiro rejects his will and regains his humanity. |
Etymology[]
- His first name, Muzan, means miserable as well as atrocity, cruelty, cold-bloodedness, tragic, pitiful, and merciless, befitting his personality. Among them, "tragic" and "pitiful" can relate to his past, where he was a sickly man for most of his human years.
- Muzan's surname Kibutsuji means "demon dance" (鬼舞) (kibu) and "street, crossroad" (辻) (tsuji).
Trivia[]
- It is revealed that Muzan is a member of the Ubuyashiki family. As a result, he and Kagaya Ubuyashiki look very much alike. In spite of that, Muzan does not use the Ubuyashiki surname.
- His design with a white fedora, pale white skin, and curly black hair bears a similarity to how Michael Jackson looked in his later years, which spawned internet memes over the topic. It is unknown if this resemblance was intentional or not.
- While the doctor who attempted to cure Muzan ended up turning him into a demon and could be blamed for all the tragedies that took place in the Demon Slayer series, the manga depicts the doctor as a good, virtuous man who was doing his best to cure Muzan of his illness. Muzan's demonization was purely unintended and accidental, as he killed the doctor before the treatment could be completed. Also Muzan's demonization changed nothing about his personality, it just cured him from his illness and gave him superhuman strength and Muzan used that to commit his atrocities.
- Fitting enough for a demon king, Muzan embodies all of the seven deadly sins:
- Pride, a rather strong and fitting sin for someone like the Demon King. Muzan is an incredibly narcissistic and egotistical individual with grand plans on becoming the "perfect being". He views everyone, humans and demons alike, below him and doesn't show much respect towards them, and he really hates those that he finds imperfect, and those who dare to disobey or insult him.
- Wrath. Muzan is shown to have a dangerous short-tempered fuse and he tends to react very poorly to something that may easily anger him, even for the smallest and pettiest of reasons.
- Lust. Muzan desires for perfection and immortality more than anything and tends to be bloodthirsty, killing many people he encounters mainly to satisfy his bloodlust. While he doesn't have any lascivious attraction towards women (as he views them as either food or pawn), the only exception seemed to be Lady Tamayo, who he probably planned to keep as his concubine of sorts.
- Envy. His desire for perfection and immortality is motivated by his petty and jealous attitude towards humans, due to being a demon who can't be in the sunlight. This is even more evident as he desires to kill everyone simply because he was dying.
- Greed. He ultimately wanted to overcome his terminal illness and after he got his wish, he became more obsessed with becoming the perfect being.
- Gluttony. After becoming a demon, he started craving for human blood and has no qualms on eating any humans (man, woman, and even children) for subsistence. He is also overindulging in his research about the Blue Spider Lily and has been living up multiple lives because of it.
- Sloth. Despite being a powerful being, Muzan has the Twelve Kizuki and the demons under his command to do his dirty work for him, to which to a point he never encounter a Hashira before the story begins. This is heavily implied because of his trauma of Yoriichi, he hides away from anyone who could potentially harm him like Yoriichi did.
- Muzan is the only character who can genderbend, which is why the Lower Ranks failed to recognize him when he summoned them to the Infinity Castle as a woman.
- Muzan is the only major character within the series (prior to the epilogue set in the present day) to come in contact with an actual car.
External Links[]
- Muzan Kibutsuji on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Muzan Kibutsuji on the Kimetsu no Yaiba Wiki
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 Villains
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