Characters / Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Muzan Kibutsuji

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Main Character Index
Main Characters | Demon Slayer Corps (Hashira) | Demons (Muzan Kibutsuji | Twelve Kizuki: Upper Ranks: Kokushibo | Hantengu) | Civilians | Demon Slayer Academy

Muzan Kibutsuji

Voiced By: Toshihiko Seki (JP), Greg Chun (EN)^{Other VA} Luis Leonardo Suarez (Latin American Spanish) José Manuel Oliva (European Spanish, first half of Season 1), Rafa Albert (European Spanish, second half of Season 2), Lionel Tua (French), Norman Matt (German), Claudio Moneta (Italian), Glauco Marques (Brazilian Portuguese), Yu Zhengsheng (Taiwanese Mandarin)
Live actor: Yoshihide Sasaki (Stage Play)

^{Click here to see his appearance as a woman}

^{Click here to see his appearance as Toshikuni}

^{Click here to see his aged form (MAJOR SPOILER WARNING)}

^{Click here to see his appearance as a human}

"You're so persistent. I'm getting sick and tired of you all, and I'm losing my patience. You're always yapping about avenging your parents or your children or your siblings. Isn't it enough that you're still alive? So what if I killed your loved ones? Consider yourselves lucky and carry on with your lives. Think of it as if they simply met with some natural disaster. There's no need to make it more complicated than that. Rain, wind, volcanoes, earthquakes... no matter how many people they kill, no one seeks revenge against them. Besides, the dead will not return to life. Let go of your grudges. Just go about your business and live a quiet life. That's what most people do. So why don't you? There's only one reason; because demon slayers are abnormal, and I'm tired of dealing with you. I just want this to end."

The main antagonist of the series. Muzan is the first demon and progenitor of all of the other demons. A selfish, narcissistic tyrant, he has no compassion or sympathy for the demons he creates, and will torture and kill them at the slightest provocation. He believes himself to be a perfect being, and strives to become truly immortal. Tanjiro has a personal grudge with him, as he was was the one that murdered the Kamados and turned Nezuko into a demon.

Born in the Heian era, a thousand years before the events of the series, he was deemed stillborn, but managed to give out his first cry before the cremation of his body. Even as he grew up, he remained sickly, and wasn't expected to live to age 20. A doctor used an experimental medicine to try and cure him, but it worked a little too well, and he wound up becoming a demon as a result. Muzan creates other demons to destroy the Demon Slayer Corps, track down the Blue Spider Lily that was a key component in his transformation, and in the hopes that one of them may conquer his Achilles' Heel — sunlight — so he may then consume them and become totally unkillable.

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A — H

• 0% Approval Rating: All of his Demons fear and hate him but they cannot do anything against him lest he brutally kills them.
• Absurdly Sharp Claws: Having sharp claws is expected as a demon for him. But his new form in chapter 180 shows that he's also got sharp toe claws along with his finger claws and he's become even more powerful with them.
• Achilles' Heel: Sunlight. Like all demons, Muzan shares the intrinsic weakness to sunlight that is characteristic of all demons— and it's especially noticeable because that's his only weakness. Every other weak point in his otherwise immortal body Muzan has developed several extensive countermeasures against to prevent the possibility of his death ever occurring. These range from repeatedly disguising his appearance to obscure any concentrated efforts to attack him with multiple demon slayers, a healing factor so absolute that it seems he isn't even cut when the blade goes through him, when he can even be cut in the first place, to having multiple backup hearts and brains in case his original ones are ever attacked. Fittingly, this is ultimately what puts him down in the end for good, but it's a long bloody struggle with many sacrifices to hold him still long enough for the sunlight to take effect.
• All for Nothing: Muzan spent his immortal life trying to find the Blue Spider Lily used for the medicine that turned him into a demon with no luck. As the final chapter reveals with modern research, the Blue Spider Lily was real, but only blooms for a few days in broad sunlight, impossible to obtain for a demon who burns in sunlight.The 2nd Databook adds insult to injury by stating the Blue Spider Lily he coveted so much actually grew in the land the Kamado's home resides in, coincidentally the area Yoriichi buried Uta in; Muzan stepped in its very ground when he killed Tanjiro’s family at night, but could never hope to identify the one thing he desperately wanted.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After transferring his blood to Tanjiro and turning him into a demon, Muzan's cells continue to live on within him and influence his behavior as a demon inside his Mental World. Once Tanjiro is injected with an antidote, Muzan begins losing control and no longer has any power over Tanjiro as he regains his will, so he resorts to telling him Blatant Lies about his fallen comrades hating him for surviving, which Tanjiro refutes as nonsense. As Tanjiro is about to fully turn back human, Muzan spends his final moments desperately clinging to Tanjiro's mental form as it rises to the light, pathetically begging not to be left all alone before losing his grip and dropping into the darkness of hell.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: His death and later the last of his cells being neutralized inside Tanjiro elicit this reaction from the surviving Demon Slayers, due to no new demons being formed after his death.
• Arch-Enemy: He is this to Kagaya, the current head of the Ubuyashiki family, the Hashira, Tanjiro Kamado, who is trying to get revenge on Muzan for killing his family and for turning his sister Nezuko into a demon, Lady Tamayo, who he manipulated into becoming a demon and causing her family's demise, and the Demon Slayer who nearly killed him 400 years ago, Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
• Ax-Crazy: Muzan is not only a remorseless mass murderer of humans and demons alike, he also suffers from violent mood swings whenever things don't go his way. It's implied that the reason so many demons are bloodthirsty and chaotic is due to Muzan's blood passing his insanity to them.
• Bad Boss: He does not know how to be a good boss. Even mildly contradicting him can result in a very painful execution, and he's occasionally come up with reasons to kill you that only make sense in his own self-absorbed mind. Tanjiro is furious at how he treats Susamaru and Yahaba as expendable tools, especially when the former dies merely because she speaks Muzan's name. The only way he'll cut you anything resembling slack is if you're just too strong that it'd be a pain to find or cultivate a successor, and that'll only get you so far if he's in a particular mood.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Downplayed. While he does favor wearing fashionable suits, it's only for disguising himself and he's never shown to actually fight in any of his suits.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: In case you needed another example for showing that Muzan is a bad guy, he is seen coldly and brutally injuring Tamayo's cat familiar Chachamaru and killing one of Kiriya's Kasugai crows during the final arc.
• Bad Samaritan: Muzan offers "help" to humans who are in dire need and end up becoming his pawns in the process. Tamayo and Rui, both sickly and fragile as humans, met him this way.
• Bad with the Bone: The Combat Tentacles that Muzan utilizes are made from masses of bone and flesh, and the tendrils that he sprouts from his spine and femurs have their blades made of bone as well.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: A variation occurs with the final confrontation between Muzan and Tanjiro, as it is not a flashy action sequence, but a quiet and somber battle between their ideals in their shared Mental World. After Tanjiro is injected with the demon antidote, Muzan tries to have him resist its effects by convincing him to accept his new form as a demon. First he tells Tanjiro Blatant Lies about how he had killed Nezuko and his friends during his rampage, then he tries putting him through a guilt trip about his fallen comrades resenting him, before resorting to petty insults about how Tanjiro is throwing away his chance to be a perfect existence, fully displaying his horribly selfish worldview in his attempts to convince Tanjiro. Tanjiro's selfless beliefs shine through as he refutes all of Muzan's claims and offers, ultimately resisting with the help of the spirits of his family and all the people who he affected with his kindness, overcoming the demon blood within him and leaving Muzan to die alone.
• Berserk Button:
  • Dislikes being called fragile or sick. He kills a random passerby, Yacchan, for calling him sickly and pale, conveniently ignoring the factor of him being drunk when he said that, with the latter's brother and sister-in-law subjected to a Cruel and Unusual Death at his hands immediately after. Granted, considering his sociopathy and its characteristic Hair-Trigger Temper, he'd have probably killed them anyway. It's probably due to his terminal sickly origins, and his whole deal with getting immortality as a demon.
  • He also hates receiving any sort of suggestion from his subordinates, as to him, it makes them sound like they're telling him what to do. He had no more use for the Lower Moons and was going to kill them all regardless of what they said or did (except for Enmu), but Rokuro asking Muzan for his blood in order to get stronger makes him so angry, veins start popping out of his face. While the other members' deaths are shown in grisly detail, Rokuro's isn't, and therefore must not have been a pretty sight.
• Beyond Redemption: While there are a few other demons who are complete monsters in and of themselves (Doma & Hantengu for example), Muzan Kibutsuji is the primary example of an irredeemably evil demon in this story. His vile atrocities and nasty personality in general, even back as a human, make it unambiguously clear how much of a bastard he truly is and that there is no chance of redeeming a deranged Sociopath like him. Even the kind and pure-hearted Tanjiro Kamado finds Muzan Kibutsuji as the one true demon in the world and declares him an irredeemable monster.
• Big Bad: He’s the first demon and progenitor of all demons. He was also the demon who attacked the Kamado family, killing all but Tanjiro and Nezuko while turning the latter into a demon. The entire series revolves around Tanjiro training under the Demon Slayer Corps both to restore Nezuko's humanity and to eventually kill Muzan.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As "Tsukihiko", he comes off as an impeccable gentleman and a considerate family man. He likewise plays the role of a quiet and studious young boy named "Toshikuni" very well. Beneath the facade, however, is a monstrously psychopathic serial mass-murderer who only cares about himself, and likewise sees both the entirety of the human race and his army of unholy servants as no different from the dirt he walks on. And he isn't even a family man because that wife and daughter aren't even his. He ate the real father and stole his place in the family.
• Biomanipulation: Muzan’s primary ability is manipulating flesh in numerous ways via the blood in his veins. By injecting other organisms with his blood, he can turn them into demons, strengthen a demon’s already existing powers, or forcibly alter their bodies in gruesome ways with his mind. And on the rare occasion he actually fights, he can do things like grow tendrils, cover himself in fanged mouths, and split himself apart into autonomous lumps of meat.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: More like Bizarre Demon Biology, he is revealed to have 5 brains and 7 hearts after Yoriichi gazes upon him using the Transparent World, with a heart in each limb and several in his torso, and two of the additional brains visible to the reader are in his stomach and pelvic region.
• Blood from the Mouth: Muzan starts bleeding profusely from his mouth and coughs up blood as Tamayo's drug begins breaking down his body while preventing him from regenerating.
• Body Horror:
  • One of Muzan's unnamed Blood Demon Arts creates a large and long mass of grotesque flesh from his arm that comes with a giant mouth at the tip. The Lower Ranks, unfortunately, get to see this up close and firsthand...
  • He was inside a cocoon made up entirely of his flesh and blood to recover his injuries sustained from Ubuyashiki, Tamayo, and Himejima, but as of chapter 180, he has recovered in a new form that sprouts pairs of jaws and teeth all over his arms and legs (and let's not forget the fact that he's also naked). It's not a pretty sight to see.
  • When Yoriichi fights Muzan for the first time, he uses his vision to see Muzan's inner structure and discovers that Muzan has seven hearts and five brains.
  • Muzan becomes desperate when fighting against the Demon Slayers and first forms a Belly Mouth across his torso. As Tanjiro and the others close in on him, he becomes so much more desperate, that he gets Fish Eyes and soon morphs his head into a large and wide grotesque Lamprey Mouth, complete with rows and rows of fangs inside of his mouth. This would make Pennywise proud.
  • When the sun starts to rise in the morning, Muzan makes it his number one goal to purely escape, so he envelopes himself into a mass of flesh to form a giant demonic baby body to protect himself from sunlight, complete with bulging veins and muscles.
• Boring, but Practical: Considering that he is the origin of all demons and their blood arts, his main fighting style during the final fight is fairly simple; keep the demon slayers at bay with his long combat tentacles. Not as flashy as making or manipulating ice or controlling a pocket dimension, but he is still the strongest demon that can fight several marked Hashira at once.
• Break the Haughty: Muzan was thoroughly humiliated during his match with Yoriichi. Despite all his strength and the many precautions he took to prevent being beheaded, Muzan was nothing more than another demon to be slain before Yoriichi's skill.
  • As Tanjiro reverts back to being a human, Muzan is reduced to begging him not to leave him alone.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Muzan gains the powers of the demons he procreates by eating them. After Nezuko gains immunity to sunlight, Muzan makes devouring her his number one priority to become truly immortal by being invulnerable to the one thing that can ultimately kill him.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Glosses over all the pain and suffering he has caused throughout the centuries by comparing what he does to a natural disaster.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The major reason why the Upper Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki can get away with minor slights against Muzan is the simple reason they're so strong that it would be troublesome finding/cultivating a worthwhile replacement, so he'll tolerate their eccentrics to a point. It's presumably the reason why he tolerates Daki and let her have the Upper-6 spot despite not being quite strong enough for it, since Gyutaro who Muzan considers the real Upper-6 has Daki as his top priority and there's no reason to antagonize him over it.
• Can't Take Criticism: Springing directly from his pride. Mocking or even mildly correcting/contracting Muzan is a very good way to provoke him into brutally killing you. He bloodily murdered two drunks for merely insulting his appearance, and when Kagaya expresses pity and sadness for the life he led, Muzan only interpreted his words as insults and threats.
• Character Development: In a true villainous fashion, at the very end of the final battle when Muzan truly accepts that he is about to die, he quickly and desperately takes Kagaya's words to heart, which was that no matter how many Demon Slayers and members of his family - including himself - die, everyone's combined will would live on to hunt Muzan till the end of time. Back then, Muzan brushed those words off as the ramblings of a pathetic, dying human, with Muzan not believing in concepts such as will and inheriting them as he thought of himself as a perfect being who would live forever. For his final move, Muzan admits Kagaya was right, choosing to pass his demonic will to Tanjiro, hoping he would inherit his ideals and terminate the Demon Slayers in his place.
• Cheated Death, Died Anyway: As a former terminally ill human turned into an ageless demon who refuses to just die, he does whatever it takes to overcome his weakness to sunlight and become the perfect being. When his main body is destroyed in the final battle, he attempts to possess Tanjiro by injecting his blood and memory in him to achieve it. But even that stunt is almost immediately foiled, since the Demon Slayers have already created a successful cure at that point, so his last bit of consciousness are drowned in the darkness of hell for good.
• Cleavage Window: His patterned yukata in the flashback of Chapter 178 has a neckline low enough to expose a small amount of his chest.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: The final form taken on by the Monster Progenitor Big Bad is... that of a giant, crying baby. When the sun rises on the final battle, Muzan surrounds his body with a large amount of flesh to protect himself from the sunlight, and the flesh moulds into the shape of a giant infant that pathetically and aimlessly attempts to crawl to safety, with his only means of attack being to swing his baby arms at speeds that even the non-combatant Kakushi can easily react to. A suitable final form for someone whose entire existence was built around an infantile refusal to accept his own mortality. When Muzan's full backstory is finally shown, his ridiculous final form makes a lot more sense. He was plagued by health issues even in his mother's womb, and was stillborn as a result, but Muzan fought for life and began crying for the first time as his family was about to cremate his body. His final form as a giant, wailing infant didn't just represent his shattered Pride, it symbolized his will to fight and survive by any means necessary.
• Combat Tentacles: Another of Muzan's Blood Arts sprouts 9 bladed tendrils that come out of his spine. These give Muzan more long reach and the blades of the tendrils are very sharp. He laters sprouts another 8 tendrils from his thighs that increase his offenses even further.
• The Corrupter: Muzan lures in people at their lowest to become demons, twisting their emotional trauma so that they serve him wholly. Rui, Gyutaro, Ume/Daki, Hakuji/Akaza, and Michikatsu/Kokushibo are prime examples of this.
• Create Your Own Hero: He was so terrified of the entity known as Yoriichi that he, alongside Kokushibo, went out of their way to personally kill every inheritor of his Sun Breathing technique to ensure another like him could never get in his way again, despite his otherwise deep paranoia and preference to allow his pawns to do his dirty work. His coincidental butchering of Tanjiro's family and turning Nezuko into a demon on a whim motivated Tanjiro to join the Demon Slayer Corps to find a cure for her and kill the demon responsible for her condition. This directly results in Tanjiro accidentally resurrecting the Sun Breathing style during a pitched fight, as his family has passed it on disguised as a yearly festival dance for ages. All Muzan's attack did was create the very thing he so feared.
• Creepy Monotone: He almost always speaks in a soft-sounding monotone, which makes him pretty unsettling whenever he's butchering someone.
• Curse:
  • Any demon that is created from Muzan's blood is bound by a curse that prevents them from uttering his name, lest they suffer a horrifying death.
  • It is revealed that Muzan brought the Hereditary Curse upon the Ubuyashiki family that condemns their members to die at young ages of sickness, due to him originally hailing from the family's ancestors before becoming a demon and spreading untold evil into the world. The illness that overcomes the family members is remarkably similar to the disease that Muzan suffered from as a human.
• Dark Is Evil: Dresses primarily in black and is the first and evilest of the demons.
• Deadpan Snarker: As cruel as Muzan is, even he's not above portraying some occasional dry wit. For instance, there's this exchange when he drags the Lower-6 to his base of operations when they've outlived their usefulness:
  Muzan: For over a century, the members of the Upper Ranked Twelve Kizuki have remained unchanged. How many times have you been replaced?
  Kamanue: (thinking) That's easy for you to say, but we-
  Muzan: "That's easy for you to say, but we..." What? Go ahead and say it.
  Kamanue: (thinking) He can read my mind?! I'M SCREWED...!
  Muzan: Screwed how?
• Death by Irony: Muzan spent nearly all of his demon life trying to achieve full immunity to sunlight. But in the end, and after a long battle with the Demon Slayers, he dies getting disintegrated by the sun, the one thing he vowed to overcome.
• Deal with the Devil: He offers people the chance to become demons, forsaking their humanity and needing to devour others, in exchange for life or power. Kokushibo is a noticeable example, who was terrified of losing his sword skills to age and death, after which Muzan stepped in with his offer.
  • He attempts this against Tanjiro during their Battle in the Center of the Mind after he turns him into a demon, tempting him with the offer of immortality and supremacy over others, but Tanjiro refuses it all without giving any consideration for Muzan's selfish claims.
• Detachment Combat: Muzan can split himself up into at least 1800 pieces that can move independently from each other. Using this ability to escape is the only reason he survives his encounter with the first Sun Breathing user. He attempts to do this again as his fight against Tanjiro and Iguro isn't going his way and dawn nears, but Tamayo's drug prevents him from splitting apart.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Muzan likes to hide himself among human society by masquerading as one of several different human guises. Tanjiro is left baffled and horrified at how his "family" has been unable to detect his true nature as a demon.
• Didn't See That Coming: Muzan's pride really comes back to bite him several times as it makes him greatly underestimate what his enemies are capable of when pushed.
  • He gets spectacularly blindsided by Ubuyashiki's suicide trick, which leads to the entire Demon Slayer Corps getting the drop on him. Tamayo also blindsides him with a perfect cure for demonism which, while not successful at reverting him right away, still makes him unable to fight. And forces him to summon his Infinity Castle in a desperate escape attempt, which promptly gets besieged by the full force of the Corps.
  • Before his fight with Yoriichi Tsugikuni, he callously declares that he has no more interest in Breath-using swordsmen and begins attacking. He never knew someone like Yoriichi could exist and gets utterly stomped.
  • Muzan first thought that the drug Tamayo injected him with only had the singular effect of turning him human, and once he overcomes it he believes he has won. To say that he didn't see it's multitude of secondary effects coming would be an understatement.
• Dirty Coward: Tamayo believes everything he does is out of fear of anything that could hurt him.
  • And she's right. This also plays into his new demonic form, where he prioritizes long range in all of his Blood Arts to keep the Demon Slayers away from him. It's even implied the reason he doesn't fight the Demon Slayers himself is because he's actually terrified of them, thanks to his one encounter with Yoriichi.
  • During the final battle, when the dawn is nearing and Muzan is unable to finish off the remaining Demon Slayers, he turns away and runs from the fight without a hint of shame before getting stopped by Tanjiro and Iguro. He also attempts to completely escape by turning into a giant demonic baby to shield himself from sunlight. The efforts of all Demon Slayers prevent him from escaping as his demonic baby form is turned to ashes by sunlight.
• Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Both before and after becoming a demon, Muzan was always a terrible person, with his inability to withstand sunlight as a demon and his terminal illness as a human being part of the reasons for his cruelty rather than an excuse. When he was a human treated by a doctor during the Heian Period, Muzan's impatience with the doctor's experimental medicine led him to be rude to the doctor until he decided to murder him. Becoming a demon only made Muzan worse, since not only did it make him arrogant and monstrous, but it made him frustrated that he can't go into the sunlight without burning to death. Because of this, Muzan perpetuates the cycle of man-eating demons preying on humans so he can find the means to overcome his weakness.
• Disease Bleach: Muzan initially believed that his hair turned white from the strain of overcoming Tamayo's drug and the color would eventually return, but it remains unchanged throughout his battle with the Demon Slayers and he comes to realize that his hair actually turned white from the drug's secondary effect of rapidly aging his body's cells.
• Disproportionate Retribution: It's very easy to get him to kill you. Just saying something, anything that somehow contradicts what he says will immediately get you a violent death, and most of the time, there is absolutely nothing you can say to save yourself.
• The Dreaded: The demon from Tanjiro's first quest is horrified when Tanjiro mentions his name. It turns out there's a good reason for this. On top of being a Bad Boss, the majority of his underlings can't talk about him without his cells in their bodies violently killing them for it.
• Dual Age Modes: He can take the form of a young boy named Toshikuni.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He's the Monster Progenitor of the demons. No matter what form he takes, he always has pale skin and jet black hair; in fact, calling him sickly and pale is his Berserk Button. As of chapter 180, he has white hair now thanks to the aging poison.
• EMP: When pushed to his absolute limits in the final battle, Muzan opens up a large, gaping maw on his torso which releases a burst of energy that is functionally similar to an electromagnetic pulse, as it shuts down the nervous and respiratory systems of anyone caught in the blast and leaves them on the ground paralyzed. This is an exceptionally powerful Blood Demon Art and Muzan notes that it is very taxing to use, especially in his weakened state.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • When Tanjiro runs into him for the first time, he acts completely innocent. He then swiftly swipes at a man walking by him, causing the man to turn into a demon and attack his wife. This forces Tanjiro to subdue the man, while Muzan casually walks away with his own family. If that doesn't showcase his complete and utter disdain for human life, then later, he brutally takes his rage out on some drunken passersby who insult his appearance, giving the only one who didn't a completely horrific death simply because she was there. Then he orders two of his underlings to kill Tanjiro because his earrings reminded Muzan of another demon slayer who almost killed him in the past.
  • His second major appearance is another one. Angered by Rui's death, he summons the other Lower Ranks to his lair, declares them all too weak to continue serving him and viciously slaughters them all except for Enmu while shutting down every attempt they make to plead for another chance, since it means they're implying that he's wrong. And how could Muzan ever be wrong? He's the most powerful demon alive, after all. So based on that logic, what he says is right IS right. In other words, it's Muzan's way or the highway. The highway in this case being a horrible death.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • As much as a vile demon Muzan is, even he doesn't like Doma.
  • It's shown that he disdains that his demons have initiative or improvise, not only because they're overstepping the boundaries he places on them, but also because it's almost always counterproductive. If they're going to put themselves in danger by fighting the Demon Slayers, they better die, or else they'll face his wrath.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Muzan has a difficult time understanding selfless and heroic motives, to say the very least. He can't even understand why so many people hate him and want to kill him.
  Muzan: You're so persistent. I'm getting sick and tired of you all, and I'm losing my patience. You're always yapping about avenging your parents or your children or your siblings. Isn't it enough that you're still alive? So what if I killed your loved ones? Consider yourselves lucky and carry on with your lives. Think of it as if they simply met with some natural disaster. There's no need to make it more complicated than that. Rain, wind, volcanoes, earthquakes... no matter how many people they kill, no one seeks revenge against them. Besides, the dead will not return to life. Let go of your grudges. Just go about your business and live a quiet life. That's what most people do. So why don't you? There's only one reason; because demon slayers are abnormal, and I'm tired of dealing with you. I just want this to end.
• Evil Counterpart: Muzan is the lord of demons while Kagaya Ubuyashiki commands the Demon Slayers. It is apparent since he is possibly a distant relative from the Ubuyashikis. Muzan is a powerful fighter and possibly the strongest being alive despite being an evil coward at heart. On the flipside, Kagaya is physically weak (something that he hates) but is an unbelievably kind, generous, and self-sacrificing man who makes it clear that he will give his life for his men and to the Corps' cause. Muzan is immortal while Kagaya is dying at age 23 ( and did so, but in a way that proved instrumental in Muzan's final defeat). Muzan cares nothing for his subordinates who serve him out of fear and fanaticism. Kagaya remembers the names, faces, and backgrounds of every demon slayer who dies, loving all of them like his own children. To top it off, the two of them are said to be physically identical, but Kagaya has a wide, horrific scar while Muzan is one of the least monstrous-looking demons.
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Going hand in hand with his ego and Hair-Trigger Temper, Muzan can't resist doing unnecessarily cruel or petty things to those around him, either because of minor slights or just because he can. Case in point: he brutally murdered two drunks just for being rude to him before going on to kill their female companion, who had done nothing, all while proclaiming his own perfection and superiority.
  • He also put a curse on his own family members (the Ubuyashiki) due to almost being stillborn and having a weak body. This will kill a lot of Ubuyashikis in their young age.
  • In addition when he finally stumbles upon Kagaya Ubuyashiki, he insults his sickly appearance. He later does the same thing to Tanjiro when referring to his grotesque facial tumor that developed after Muzan poisoned him. He even has to gall to say that it was hard to tell which one of the two of them was the demon.
• Evil Only Has to Win Once: Once Muzan gets his hands on the Blue Spider Lily or Nezuko once she gains immunity to the sun, it's game over for the Demon Slayers at that point, as he will become a totally unkillable, unstoppable being.
• Evil Overlord: A perfect Deconstructed Character Archetype; Muzan shows us how petty, evil, and selfish you have to be to really be one. And how those said traits lead to his demise.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Kibutsuji is played with a languid baritone that suits both his cold demeanor and his malice.
• Evil Wears Black: Muzan, the Big Bad, is usually seen wearing black clothing of different kinds.
• Exotic Eye Designs: He has twofold slit pupils, with the outer part crimson and the inner part black.
• Familial Foe: He brought a Hereditary Curse upon the Ubuyashiki Family, his distant relatives, that induces a disease that causes them to die young due to being a distant relative of the family before becoming the first demon. As a result, the Ubuyashiki Family have led the Demon Slayer Corps for generations to kill all his underlings and eventually Muzan himself.
• Fatal Flaw: Fittingly for a Satanic Archetype, Pride. While he's undeniably powerful and highly intelligent, Muzan considers himself an unparalleled existence and grossly underestimates others as a result. This ultimately becomes his undoing, as he views himself as so above his enemies that he doesn't take them seriously until it's far too late for him. Muzan's pride is slowly broken down over the course of the final battle, with him becoming increasingly undignified in his attempts to survive, ultimately taking on the form of a crying infant as a Last Ditch Move.
  • Also his impatience, ironically for an immortal creature. As a human, a doctor offered a cure for his sickness, but only administered part of it before Muzan killed him because it wasn't working fast enough. The cure actually did work, turning him into the first demon, but since it was never completed, he's still vulnerable to sunlight. His one weakness that he is desperate to overcome was caused by his own impatience.
  • His irrational fear also counts. Despite presenting him as a powerful being, deep down in his shallow heart lies a coward who will hide away from anything that could possibly hurt him and is afraid of death, places a curse on his demons to not speak of his name, despite the fact every one of his enemies already knows his name, and is even afraid of the Demon Slayer corps, despite seeing them as weaklings. This may be due to his crushing defeat by the hands of Yoriichi. In the end, he even tries to run away after his pride gets slowly broken down and even dies like a coward to the very end.
• Faux Affably Evil: Muzan has perfected the ability to hide his bloodlust, insanity, and misanthropy behind the various masks he uses in his human disguises, coming off more as a quiet, stoic person. Even when he's acting in the role as a demon king he can keep up the calm air, right up to the point he drops it to angrily berate or try to murder someone.
• Fedora of Asskicking: He favors a white fedora.
• Final Boss: He is the last big enemy the protagonists must face in order to finish their duty, and the plot's Big Bad. Upon dying, he passes his remaining blood and will into Tanjiro, effectively turning him into the new demon king and the biggest threat the remaining slayers must face, and the story's Post-Final Boss.
• Flaming Devil: Although not as overly flamboyant as most examples he is nonetheless considerable effeminate, and he is nearly literally Satan.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Not as much as Doma, but Muzan in his tremendous egocentrism has rebuked Kagaya's notion that someday karma will catch up to his evil deeds by gloating about his very long life, he lived for more than a thousand years without ever seeing God or Buddah thus Muzan rationalizes there's either no such thing as divinity or that his actions are actually supported by higher powers, somehow.
• Forced Transformation: He subjects this to people a lot, whether it be innocent civilians or people he'd think would make formidable demons, he doesn't really take consent into account when turning people into demons.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: As "Tsukihiko", he speaks in formal Japanese, emphasizing his genteel and debonair demeanor.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The lord of all demons who terrorized Japan from the shadows for almost a millennia was once a sickly human boy born into an aristocratic family from the Heian era who was not expected to see his 20th birthday.
• Genetic Memory: Those who receive his blood can experience parts of his memories. The reverse is also true, as Muzan can view the memories of anyone whose cells he had absorbed.
  • It's also how he intends to live on in a fashion through his successor Tanjiro.
• A God Am I: Implied. When Yacchan hits his Berserk Button, Muzan calls himself a being infinitely close to perfection. When he expresses his displeasure to the Lower Ranks, he claims that he's always right, he never makes mistakes, and telling him what to do is grounds for execution. He demands unquestioning, suicidal devotion, and the only way to avoid his wrath is to praise his name and claim that it's an honor to be killed by him, being a fanatical worshipper, as Enmu demonstrated. And during his encounter with Tanjiro, Muzan even asks his opponent why Tanjiro wouldn't just move on since fighting him is futile, equating his atrocities to natural disasters aka Acts of God.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set Muzan off. Even mildly contradicting him can provoke his violent wrath.
• Hated by All: Muzan is despised by almost every single character in existence. The Demon Slayers want his head due to him siring demons and causing several atrocities via his minions, and the demons themselves fear him, and can't act against him due to Muzan being vastly superior to them, with Muzan openly discussing the ways to exterminate them. The ones who have any respect for him, like Susamaru or Kokushibou, get vastly reminded of his cruelty as he dispatches the former brutally with his Geas and leaves the latter to die due to failing against the Demon Slayers. Really the only exceptions are Doma and Akaza who don't feel anything towards Muzan (the former is because he emotionally can't), and Gyokko and Enmu who are Nightmare Fetishist sadomasochists.
• Hate Sink: Everything about Muzan is despicable and horrendous. He is beyond spiteful, self-centered, and lacking in empathy. At the start of the final confrontation with him he pointedly glosses over the death, pain and misery he caused so many people throughout his existence, the very reason why the Demon Slayers exist, and compares his culpability to a natural disaster that can't be helped. He tells the slayers to get over it and just quit because he's tired of their persistence.
• Healing Factor: Expected from being a demon. However, his regeneration is even greater than those of the Upper Ranks. He regenerates most of his body when he gets injured from Ubuyashiki's explosion and when he gains his new demonic form, his regeneration heals almost instantly even after Giyu, Iguro, and Mitsuri used their techniques successfully.
• Hero Killer: He slays Tamayo by absorbing her, and during the final battle, Gyomei, Mitsuri, and Obanai all perish due to injuries sustained fighting him; and technically Tanjiro fell against him as well, but due a change of mind regarding inheriting ideals and desperation to live through someone else, Muzan gives all of his remaining blood to Tanjiro in hopes of him becoming the next demon king, the true king in his place, but that plot is quickly foiled and Tanjiro is healed back into a human, so all Muzan did was bringing his newest nemesis after Yoriichi back to life.
• The Heavy: As the First Demon he plays this role being the one who killed Tanjiro's family and Turning his sister Nezuko into a demon sending out his minions to destroy the Demon Slayers until near the end where he becomes the final boss.
• Hellish Pupils: His eyes are red with slit pupils.
• His Own Worst Enemy: To put it simply, the one most responsible for Muzan's problems and eventual downfall is ultimately himself. His extreme anger issues, impatience, and sociopathy cost him his chance to live life as a normal human when he killed the doctor treating him before he could finish making the medicine meant to heal him. Then over a thousand years later, his dismissal of humans having any value beyond food or potential demons causes him to inadvertently kill the one person who could've helped him find the Blue Spider Lily that he'd been searching for to attain Complete Immortality (according to supplementary materials, anyway), which leads to her son eventually becoming the one to finally kill him.
• Howl of Sorrow: Muzan in his giant baby form lets out a loud and anguished cry of pain as he's roasted by the morning sun's light.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: In his first few appearances, Muzan was presented as an all-powerful and dignified Man of Wealth and Taste who viewed himself as a supreme existence. However, by the end of the final battle he is reduced to taking increasingly undignified measures to ensure his survival and cling to life, culminating in him taking on the form of a giant, crying infant that attempts to crawl away from the fight, a very far cry from his position at the start of the series. On top of that, what's left of his presence inside Tanjiro's body is begging him not to leave him behind.
• Hypocrite: He kills any of his demons if they’re scared of fighting Demon Slayers (or even if he just believes they are) and yet Muzan is the one terrified of Demon Slayers to the point he refuses to ever come out of hiding. Which is likely due to his fight with Yoriichi, where Muzan almost died. In addition, he beheads Gyokko; albeit not fatally, and gives a speech on how much he detests change. This coming from a man who frequently changes appearances to further his goals.

I — Y

• I Control My Minions Through...: Fear. Any demons created from Muzan's blood are kept under his thumb through sheer terror, as anything done to displease him will lead to a brutal death. Only the most powerful demons among the Twelve Kizuki are granted a degree of leniency, as strength is something he greatly values in his subordinates.
• Immortality Seeker: While already an ageless demon, Muzan's ultimate goal is to achieve true immortality by conquering his weakness to the sun. This is why he is so hellbent on capturing and absorbing Nezuko.
• Immortals Fear Death: Despite being ageless and coming up with multiple methods to stay alive, Muzan still fears death above all else, so he seeks the means to overcome his weakness to sunlight so he can become truly immortal. Notably, the only times Muzan has ever shown fear is when he’s close to death, such as his Near-Death Experience at Yoriichi’s hands instilling in him a fear of the Demon Slayer Corps. When the Demon Slayer Corps keep coming at him while he’s severely weakened by Tamayo’s drugs, he resorts to increasingly desperate measures to avoid death, especially when the sun is rising. The last remnants of his consciousness within Tanjiro as the latter is being cured of his demonization ends up begging Tanjiro not to leave him in the darkness of Hell as Tanjiro regains control of his body and rejects Muzan’s temptations.
• Intangibility: Muzan is not intangible in the true sense of the word, but his healing prowess is so powerful that it creates the same effect. Any sword swings that actually come in contact with him appear to harmlessly pass through his body, as he can heal the instant he is cut. He loses this attribute as the final battle rages on, which, in hindsight, is the first sign of Tamayo's drug breaking down his body.
• Interspecies Adoption: Muzan, a demon, lives with a human family while masquerading as "Toshikuni", though they think he's just a child with a skin condition. After he learns of Nezuko's newfound ability to survive in the sun, he butchers them.
• Invincible Villain: Muzan is easily the strongest and fastest demon, can infuse his attacks with his blood as a potent poison, can transform at will to give himself plenty of options in combat, and has a few powerful Demon Blood Arts he can bring to bear. Defensively, he's remarkably hard to injure, can regenerate from any injury almost instantaneously, and instead of having one vital point like most demons, he has twelve. Even the legendary Demon Slayer Yoriichi could defeat Muzan but not kill him, as Muzan scattered his body into 1,800 pieces to flee the instant he believed he would be killed. His only weakness is sunlight, and he's working on fixing that. In the final battle, the Demon Slayers aren't even trying to kill him themselves, just dogpile him with the entire Corps with the hope that it will take him long enough to hack through them all that he won't have time to find shelter from the sun before dawn comes. And even that only works because he was severely weakened by several potent drugs Tamayo injected him with.
• Irony:
  • Muzan kills multiple members of the Lower Moons himself for them being seen as weak. At the time, Muzan all but outright states that he has no need for anyone but the Upper Moons, as they're the only ones who can defeat a Hashira or be counted on to succeed in any task. From that point on, we see few if any non-Upper Moon demons. However, from then on until the final battle, only one Hashira (Rengoku) ever actually dies due to an Upper Moon's actions, but several Upper Moons end up dying, often at the hands of non-Hashira Demon Slayers. In the end, this leaves him with only a small number of his Upper Moons for the final battle, which are whittled down to nothing due to being outnumbered, as well as due to regularly underestimating the non-Hashira opponents facing them. In fact, many of the battles are so close that the heroes are often at the brink of death and require a long recovery time before being able to fight again, meaning that even a single Lower Moon backing up an Upper Moon could easily have turned the tide in their favor. Meanwhile, the Demon Slayers are a large organization with a great many members, and in the end, even the weakest and most seemingly inconsequential members help contribute in the final battle to defeat him. In every full-scale conflict, both quality and quantity do matter when it comes to the respective participants of a conflict. Without taking that in mind, Muzan launched a half-baked assault against the Demon Slayers during the Final Battle.
  • When massacring the Lower Moons, he claims that he never makes mistakes, yet the whole reason he creates other demons in the first place is due to a mistake he made in killing the kind doctor who provided him with the incomplete cure, thus rendering him an immortal demon with a weakness to sunlight. He creates catspaws in order to both search for the blue spider lily needed to finish the doctor's serum and distract or whittle down the demon slayer organization whilst he engages in experimentation to see if he can create the perfected medicine on his own. If not for that need for disposable pawns, it's pointed out that Muzan would never create another like himself, as he considers himself to be perfect and without equal.
  • Throughout much of the manga, Muzan belittles Tanjiro as being beneath him and only paying him special attention because of his resemblance to Yoriichi. Of course, not only is Tanjiro instrumental to his final defeat, he also turns out to have tremendous potential as a demon. When Muzan gives him a proper and large enough dose of his blood, he not only instantly heals from the cancerous demon cells he was given earlier, he returns from the brink of death as the strongest demon ever. The young man Muzan saw as so beneath him winds up as the heir to Muzan's will, with the last vestiges of Muzan referring to him as the chosen one and begging him to resist the demon cure. If he had tried to convert him by force earlier in the final battle, Muzan easily could have won.
  • The second databook reveals the location where the Blue Sider Lily blooms is the land where Tanjiro's family lived, meaning Muzan actually visited the correct spot to find the Macguffin he was obsessed with before the series started, but he not only never realised this, since the flower only blooms in sunlight, it was impossible for him to ever find it by relying on his demons.
  • Muzan casts aside one of his Lower Moons due to no longer being able to drink blood. The one demon who successfully gains the ability to withstand sunlight is the one who has gone their entire time as a demon without ever having drank any blood whatsoever.
• It's All About Me: Muzan is horrifically self-centered in his viewpoints, and every single thing he does is all for his gain, never for anyone else. It reaches the point that in the final battle, he actually tries to tell off the Demon Slayers for their usual cries of vengeance and oaths to kill him, proclaiming they should have just run back off to their daily wages and normal lives. Muzan is so sociopathic and self-focused that he attributes himself as a force of nature that shouldn't be held responsible for his countless crimes, all the while proclaiming he is the victim in the attempts on his life and that his enemies are nothing more than societal deviants. It's telling that this is the moment that Tanjiro decides Muzan can never be redeemed.
• It's What I Do: Goes in hand with Muzan's immense ego as he compares himself with natural disasters, as in he might as well be a god, in his myopic view of how the Demon Slayers that are in the wrong for fighting against him at all; all the atrocities and deaths Muzan has caused is simply what he does and anyone should just put up with it and move on with their lives, just like humans can't really swear revenge on a volcano or tornado for killing loved ones, according to him.
• Jerkass: Muzan is shown to be an unpleasant bastard throughout the series. He belittles both the main characters and even his own demons.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: You would think his backstory reveal in chapter 127 would gain Muzan some sympathy points right? Well, that's definitely not the case. Muzan has been revealed to always have been an evil jerk for his entire life. In the past, when a doctor attempted to use an experimental medicine to cure his disease, he told Muzan that there was a possibility that he wouldn't be able to survive despite his efforts. Muzan ends up throwing a knife at the doctor out of anger, which led to the cure, imperfect as it was, turning him into a cannibalistic, sun-lethal demon in the first place.
• Kick the Dog: Muzan is a HUGE FAN when it comes to this trope, as he does a lot of nasty things that showcase just how terrible he truly is.
  • Before we even see him in person, he had already slaughtered Tanjiro's family down to the youngest child, save for Nezuko, who barely survived.
  • While him turning a passerby into a demon to distract Tanjiro enough to escape when seemingly exposed was bad enough, what he did to that one lady was horrifically cruel. He had already escaped and vented his anger out on her brother-in-law, Yacchan, and her husband, the former of whom had insulted him, but she was entirely innocent, yet suffered the cruelest fate.
• Knight of Cerebus: While plenty of other demons qualify for this, Muzan undoubtedly makes any comedy or calm evaporates anytime he's onscreen.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When the final battle against the Demon Slayers has dragged on to near dawn, Muzan decides not to put himself at further risk and flees from the fight despite not fulfilling his vow to wipe out the Corps, but his attempts to escape are thwarted by the teamwork of Tanjiro and Iguro along with the debilitating effects of Tamayo's drug.
• Lack of Empathy: If you aren't Muzan Kibutsuji, he doesn't care remotely about your problems or your feelings. The closest he can come is his relationship with his Upper Moons, and even that's just him tolerating them for their sheer strength. Especially evident in chapter 181. After all that he's done to Tanjiro and so many more Demon Slayers, he simply tells Tanjiro that he and the rest of the Demon Slayers should have kept quiet and walk away with a quiet life, as if they were victims of a natural disaster. Tanjiro becomes silently angered after hearing those rude and insulting words from Muzan's mouth, to the point he even declares Muzan must die.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In his backstory, as the reason behind him being a demon in the first place. He killed the kind doctor who told him that the cure for his illness may not work... only for it to be unfinished due to the doctor dying before it could be completed. As a result, Muzan became cannibalistic and unable to be in the sun unless he could finish the cure with the elusive blue spider lily. To his credit, Muzan quickly realized his mistake.
• Love Is a Weakness: After the deaths of Daki and Gyutaro, Muzan makes it clear he believes this since he explicitly cites Gyutaro's love for Daki as both his last remaining tether to humanity and a weakness in what was otherwise an incredibly powerful demon, which isn't surprising coming from a sociopath who doesn't value anyone who isn't him. As disgusting that statement is, he has a point considering how Daki actually is to her brother that contributed to their detection and their demise.
• Machete Mayhem: As shown in his backstory, he spitefully killed his doctor by taking up the nearest sharp object at hand, a nata, and splitting the other man's head.
• Magic Pants: When caught in an explosion created by Ubuyashiki, his upper body gets utterly shredded, with his shirt being entirely disintegrated and much of his flesh being burned away revealing muscle. Yet somehow, his pants remain completely unscathed.
• Makeup Is Evil: When in the form of a woman, he wears heavy mascara and a small amount of lipstick. He also happens to be the first and most evil of the demons.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: He is introduced wearing Western-style formal clothing in opulent patterns. This, along with his villainy, contrasts with the hero Tanjiro who comes from a poor background.
• Manipulative Bastard: In his human guises Muzan tries to pass himself as a gentle husband in his male form, a friendly hostess in his woman form, and a gentle but sickly boy in his child form, all to perfectly blend in human society, successfully fooling unsuspecting humans that he is a great person, which is far from the truth that is the absolute cruel Demon King who rules his demons with absolute fear and violence, demanding absolute blind devotion akin to worshiping a god. Beyond that there is the odd case where Muzan manipulated Daki into obedience by pretending to care about her, something he doesn’t attempt with any other demon, naturally once Daki dies Muzan wastes no time in revealing he never liked her, preferring her brother Gyutaro instead exactly because he is cruel and driven just like him, even wishing Gyutaro had never assisted his sister at all by sharing his rightful Upper-6 spot.
• Manly Tears: In his dying moments, Muzan reflects on Kagaya's final words and how they proved true over the course of his fight with the Corps, and is deeply moved to the point of shedding tears as he thinks of their display of trust in each other and their determination to stop him at all costs.
• Maou the Demon King: The first and most powerful of Demonkind. He is downright called something to this effect a few times in the story.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Muzan literally means "cruelty", while Kibutsuji contains the kanji for "demon".
  • When encountered by Tanjiro, Muzan plays the role of a genteel and debonair merchant by the name of Tsukihiko, which combines the Japanese words for "moon" and "a male child of noble blood, a prince." The "moon" part may have something to do with his demonic inability to survive in the sun.
• Mental World: During the final battle, Muzan enters some sort of abstract space within his mind where he communicates with the cells of Tamayo that he had absorbed, forming them into the shape of her head. When she refuses to talk, he is able to view the memories held within her cells to get the answers he needs. He does all this within the span of seconds while he is fighting Tanjiro in the real world.
  • Tanjiro inherits this attribute after being turned into a demon with Muzan's blood, and it serves as the setting for their final confrontation as Tanjiro is being healed by the antidote and Muzan struggles to convince him to accept his status as a demon.
• Misanthrope Supreme: Muzan thinks lowly of the human species in general, despite having a wife and child. It's more because he has to remain in cover from the Demon Slayers actively hunting them down. It's then revealed they aren't his wife and child, and he kills all the human beings who ever gave him shelter. The only value he assigns humans is as a food source.
• Monster Progenitor: He is the one who created the demons, though he states that he actually hated doing it, but had to in order to find either a demon that could withstand the sun or the main component in the elixir that made him a demon in the first place. If there's a reason why most of the Demons in this series are quite twisted in terms of morals and sanity, then it can be all traced back to him.
• Monstrous Cannibalism: He not only eats humans but also he is willing to eat his own demons. He eats Kamanue and Mukago alive for being cowards and weak Lower Ranks, not to mention his to plan get Nezuko's newfound immunity to the sun for himself by eating her.
• Moral Myopia: He thinks Yoriichi is a monster for possessing tremendous skill that actually can harm him. Says the Humanoid Abomination with multiple brains and hearts, who slaughters innocents, foes and even underlings indiscriminately.
• Morphic Resonance: He is always an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette in his various forms. His female form retains his unusual eyes and delicate features, both of which he changes to look more natural as the child "Toshikuni". His eyes revert to their distinct red appearance when he speaks to Akaza.
• Mortality Phobia: Muzan's fear of death has driven his heinous actions for his entire life, with there being no low he wouldn't stoop to in order to avoid facing his own death.
• Morton's Fork: When he killed off the Lower ranked Kizuki; he asked why he should spare them if they're so afraid of demon slayers; either they admit that they are afraid, in which case they're weak and have outlived their usefulness, or they say they're not afraid, in which case they must be calling him a liar, and thus - to Muzan - deserve to die anyway.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Muzan has a number of negative meanings such as "miserable", "pitiful", and "merciless". Kibutsuji begins with the kanji for "Oni", which is what the series' titular "demons" are known as in Japanese.
• Narcissist: He thinks that he alone is the perfect being in the world. Any contradiction to his world view is met with instant death.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • As pointed out by Kagaya, Muzan's endless reign of terror had resulted in him creating a boundless league of enemies that would not rest until he was dead.
  • After Nezuko gains an immunity to the sunlight, he decides to stop creating demons altogether as he had no need to turn random humans into test subjects anymore. Thus, the demon population slowly withered away and left the Demon Slayer corps obsolete by the end.
  • At the end of the Infinity Castle Arc, when he finds out that Yushiro had taken control of Nakime's eye, he panics and kills her on the spot, not only murdering the last Upper Moon but also destroying the very useful Infinity Castle itself, thus leaving him totally exposed to the outside. As such he meets his end at sunrise.
  • Muzan's final attempt to spite the Demon Slayers, turning the dead Tanjiro into a demon to continue his legacy, is undone swiftly thanks to the efforts of Nezuko and Kanao. In the end, all Muzan accomplished through this act was reviving one of his greatest enemies and healing him back to almost perfect health (Tanjiro’s sight on the right eye is very poor and he can just barely move his left arm) along with suffering his greatest humiliation as he pitifully begged Tanjiro not to leave him to die alone.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His appearance as "Tsukihiko" closely resembles Michael Jackson, especially from the Smooth Criminal music video.
• One Head Taller: He is about a head taller than his wife, Rei. However, she's not even his real wife.
• One-Man Army: After overcoming Tamayo's attempt to revert him to a human, he begins slicing his way through the Demon Slayers who had surrounded his flesh cocoon, killing dozens of them in an instant.
• One-Winged Angel: Downplayed. He still retains his height, but in chapter 180, he essentially assumes a new and more monstrous form for himself while recovering in the cocoon. His strength, range, and speed drastically increase in this new form of his, making him the biggest threat for the Demon Slayers to face.
• Orcus on His Throne: Despite possessing incredible power and a great intellect, Muzan would rather have his minions go out and accomplish his goals for him, preferring to hide out as one of his human aliases. This is thanks to the Noodle Incident involving Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the Sun Breathing user, who came very close to ending his life. He only takes an active role in the story during the climactic Infinity Castle Arc. This only emphasizes how much of a Dirty Coward he is.
• Organ Dodge: Muzan can freely manipulate his many brains and hearts to move anywhere within his body, avoiding real damage if anybody happens to get past his numerous other defenses.
• Pet the Dog: Muzan in his infinite cruelty still allowed a few demons to have a certain level of special treatment:
  • Arguably, one act of kindness was kicking Kyogai out of the Twelve Kizuki when his power stopped growing from eating humans. Considering that this is Muzan we're talking about, who thinks nothing of killing and/or eating his subordinates for real or perceived failures, this is downright saintly of him.
  • Muzan definitely treated Rui differently; Muzan says that the Twelve Kizuki must always eradicate the Demon Slayer Corps and find the Blue Spider Lily, and anything beyond those two goals is meaningless. Rui, on the other hand, enjoyed a certain degree of freedom since he could maintain the façade of having a family, only killing Demon Slayers whenever they trespassed on Natagumo Mountain. This was likely because Muzan and Rui’s pasts are quite similar; he perhaps saw a kindred spirit in Rui.
  • He gave Akaza special permission to not eat women, which was rather nice of Muzan of all people, considering the guy has no qualms about hurting any women. This is probably because Muzan was fond of Akaza's loyalty. In fact, according to the databooks, he apparently has a sense of humor about it, teasing Akaza to at least try eating woman once.
  • He was uncharacteristically patient with the drunken who bumped into him, apologizing and intending to move on. It's only because the guy insisted on bothering him that Muzan killed him. It's also noteworthy that they were in a desolate alleyway so even if Muzan killed him from the getgo, he wouldn't be spotted.
  • When Muzan realizes that Nezuko conquered the sun, he inwardly praises Hantengu for indirectly causing and scouting it. Given that Hantengu was an Upper Rank that Muzan thought was annoying but normal, this speaks volumes on how grateful he was.
  • When Nakime uses her miniature eyeballs to scout out Nezuko's location, he compliments her strength. Although this can be attributed to him being in a good mood due to him learning of Nezuko's immunity to sunlight.
  • He's surprisingly genuinely respectful of his right-hand man Kokushibo for his loyalty and strength, which is saying something considering his treatment of the other Upper Ranks.
• Physical Scars, Psychological Scars: At the climax of the final fight in the series, after being weakened to a dangerous degree Muzan reveals numerous scars all over his body, as if they magically appeared on him; that's the physical and psychological trauma Muzan was actually never able to truly rid himself off after surviving against his mortal enemy Yoriichi, it is quite telling since Muzan has the absolute best demonic regenerative abilities in the series by far, yet he was never able to truly heal a 400 years old wound, he could only conceal it, he has been terrified of anything remotely resembling that encounter ever since.
• Poisonous Person: Muzan embues all of his attacks with lethal amounts of his blood, creating a poisonous effect if an opponent even suffers one scratch while fighting him. During the final battle, he overwhelms all of the present Hashira using this attribute, with them only being saved by an antidote that Tamayo had created.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: These are Muzan's last words, pathetically begging Tanjiro not to leave him all alone in the darkness of hell.
• Poor Communication Kills: Despite being the Demon King and having fantastic Manipulative Bastard skills, Muzan's ability to manage and communicate with his own demons is utterly abysmal if not nonexistent, which is not a good trait for a leader who leads an organization or an army with a clear goal in mind. His Psychopathic Manchild Mood-Swinger and Stupid Evil sociopathic nature and Hair-Trigger Temper are the major contributors to this, since he refuses to listen to any kind of opinion, point of view or suggestion outside his egomaniac internal Insane Troll Logic, through which he also expects people to somehow inherently know or extrapolate what he wants without him actually telling them what he wants. Which is quite the feat, since Muzan has a Psychic Link to every demon.
  • Susamaru's Cruel and Unusual Death shows that Muzan's curse to keep himself He Who Must Not Be Named will activate even if the demon in question was tricked or forced into revealing his name. It's likely he is aware of when a demon activates the curse and why, yet activating the curse in Susamaru's case was All for Nothing, since everyone present (Tanjiro, Nezuko, Tamayo and Yuchiro) already knew his name to begin with. In fact, since the entire Demon Slayer Corps already knows Muzan's name, the curse itself is utterly pointless in safeguarding his identity (except if a demon is tried where they can find Muzan, for which they could just use vague terms like "the master" without triggering it). Unlike Wilson Fisk, Muzan can take on any new name or form he wants.
  • When he confronts the Lower-Rank Kizuki, he complains to them about how they are weak and haven't done much since obtaining the rank, especially in regards to hunting Demon Slayers. Given the thoughts and actions of every demon seen thus far by that point, it's implied Muzan never made it an official command for the Kizuki (or any demon for that matter) to wage all-out war and manhunts on Demon Slayers. He then proceeds to kill nearly all of them, including two Kizuki who requested the chance to fulfill said command (i.e. Mukago and Rokuro) because they dared contradict his accusations. He instead spares Enmu, who essentially just thanked him for leaving him for last instead of promising to do anything to actually fulfill Muzan's commands. As Wakuraba (Lower Rank 3) puts it, the Kizuki will get killed according to Muzan's mood at any given moment, and your only chance to survive is stroking Muzan's ego without necessarily doing anything else he wants or needs (i.e. swearing to do what he wants because it contradicts his opinion that you won't or refuse to).
    • A lesser version of this happens when Akaza reports to him. Akaza reports that he managed to kill Kyojuro Rengoku as Muzan requested. Muzan then gets pissed off because Akaza "misunderstood" his command and failed it because Akaza didn't go out and somehow kill every single Hashira and Demon Slayer in the span of a few days on his own before reporting back to Muzan. Like with the Lower-Rank Kizuki, Muzan's own words make clear he didn't clarify his desire, since he immediately contradicts himself by saying he asked Akaza to kill Rengoku and Tanjiro because he happened to be closest by to the train crash after Enmu's death. He also slams on Akaza for failing to kill Tanjiro, Zenitsu and Inosuke too, despite the fact he likely knows via Psychic Link that Akaza just didn't do it because the sun was just rising, meaning Akaza would have likewise failed via burning to cinders. Akaza only survives Muzan's wrath because he's utterly paralyzed and somehow kept himself from thinking anything, sparing him the same fate as the Lower Kizuki.
• Pride: Very much so. He hates being the creator of demons simply because, in his mind, it means he's no longer truly a "unique" being and their existence is proof he's still not the immortal perfect being he wants to be due to the incomplete elixir.
• Psychic Link: Any demon that receives Muzan's blood is bound by a connection to his mind, allowing him to view their memories or read their thoughts. This also allows him to enact the effects of his curse and instantly kill any underling who mentions his name. This does backfire, however, even for his underlings: Daki was downright unnerved and put at a disadvantage when she fought Tanjiro (at the time using the Hinokami Kagura/Sun Breathing), as the one other person Muzan encountered using it was Yoriichi, the man who almost killed him.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Oh, where to begin? His downright infantile inability to accept his own mortality drives his actions throughout his entire immortal existence, he impulsively kills some of his strongest servants because he feels insulted by them, and he's so selfish to the point that he can't understand why people hate him for ruining their lives and won't just move on and forget about it. Need more proof? His final form shows who he truly is: a literal giant baby.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: The most powerful of the demons and their leader.
• Rapid Aging: As Muzan continues his fight with Tanjiro, he notices that his body is gradually becoming slower, before realizing that the drug Tamayo injected him with has a secondary effect developed by Shinobu of rapidly aging his body's cells if the drug failed to make him human. He estimates that the drug has aged him by roughly 9000 years over the course of his fight with the Demon Slayers.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: He always has perfectly groomed black hair and pale, flawless skin no matter what form he takes. He is described by the author themself in the Databook as "tall and handsome".
• Razor Wind: One of Muzan's common attacks is to whip his Combat Tentacles and tendrils at speeds so great that they produce slicing gusts of wind. He can also spin them with enough force to create small tornadoes that can shred enemies.
• Really 700 Years Old: He's been around for about a millennium; he became a demon in the Heian Era (late 700's), and the story takes place in the Taisho Era (the early 1900s.)
  • Taken to the next level in chapter 193 were after consuming a poison that causes him to age 50 years every minute for over three hours he has aged an additional 9000 years!
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Muzan has irises and outer pupils in different shades of red. He is one of the most monstrous demons.
• Removed Achilles' Heel: He's immune to decapitation for several reasons. One, he heals so fast his body can't recognize itself as being decapitated, and two, he has several backup brains and hearts in various parts of his body so one must simultaneously destroy all his vital points to kill him, a tall order because of his instantaneous Healing Factor. And it's possible he can outlive all that too with sheer willpower just as Kokushibo and Akaza did.
• Rubber Man: Another one of his unnamed Blood Arts in his new demonic form is making his arms stretch to great lengths, all accompanied by sharp claws and teeth swirling around.
• Satanic Archetype: Muzan is the originator of demons, all his forms are beautiful and powerful, and he has forms that aren't limited to one specific sex, alluding to Medieval depictions of Satan as being ambiguously-gendered. Also true is that him turning people to demons parallels the Deal with the Devil.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • After experiencing first-hand how overwhelmingly powerful Yoriichi Tsugikuni's sword skills are, he splits apart and runs away in fear.
  • When it looks like he will be unable to kill the remaining Demon Slayers before sunrise, Muzan turns and runs from the battle, unwilling to take his chances.
• Secret Test of Character: It's implied this is what he dragged the remaining Lower 6 to his lair for. Most of them either refuted his claims of them being worthless, begged him to lend them his power, or just plain tried to run, resulting in him gruesomely murdering them. Only Enmu, who praises Muzan's name and wholeheartedly accepts his death, is given a second chance.
• Sex Shifter: During a meeting after Rui's defeat, he appears in the form of a woman. One of his minions mistakes him for one.
• Shadow Archetype: To Rui of all people; Muzan represents what Rui could have been if the latter had no love left for anyone.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He has a taste for western-style suits.
• Sissy Villain: Aside from his penchant for wearing impeccable western-style clothing, he convincingly dresses as a woman in his second major appearance, where he massacres the surviving members of the Lower Ranks for disappointing him. It's later revealed that he used to be physically weak since conception.
• The Sociopath: He is perfectly capable of behaving in a civilized manner in order to blend in, but it's shown that he fundamentally lacks morals and sympathy completely. He's been like this since he was a human. He was a very bad candidate to give the elixir to.
• Speak of the Devil: As the progenitor of all demons in the series, Muzan rules his creations with absolute terror to such an effect that he actually curses them with a spell that renders any demon utterly incapable of ever uttering his name, or trying to merely hint at his location. Being absolutely terrified of Muzan prevents a regular demon from even trying to challenge this curse; but one demon is tricked via demonic spell to do so, and accordingly Susamaru is immediately killed on the spot by Muzan’s will. Muzan’s strongest and loyal demons never call him by name, always referring him as "that person"^note In Japanese, "ano kata," an extremely respectful gender-neutral third person pronoun, "His Lordship," "sir" or "my lord"; being able to voice disgust at Muzan is the first thing that Tamayo did once his spell on her was broken, after the legendary fight against Yoriichi.
  • However, there’s one specific exception where Muzan allows for demons, at least those part of the Upper Ranks in the Twelve Kizuki, to say his name: when being in the same room as him, without a single human in sight, while showing utmost reverence; Akaza, Daki and Kokushibo had one stance each where they could call Muzan by name.
• Stationary Boss: Non-video game example; Muzan spends the majority of the final battle standing in one place while wildly flailing his Combat Tentacles around in a Multi-Directional Barrage. He only starts moving around as he gets more desperate.
• Super-Empowering: By experimenting on his body, Muzan developed blood with special mutagenic properties that can transform humans into demons. Also, people injected with Muzan's blood seem to develop special powers like rapid regeneration, the power to control the flesh, immortality, an accelerated growth rate, enhanced physical prowess and even supernatural abilities called Blood Demon Arts.
• Super Supremacist: Played With. Muzan carries quite a lot of elements of this, having a very low view of humans and leading demonkind in their atrocities against humanity. He even says to Akaza something to the effect that is natural for demons to defeat and kill humans. However, he considers the other demons as beings inferior to himself, treating them like crap and is a selfish and insane coward all around.
• Surrounded by Idiots: After Gyutaro's death, part of his meeting with the Upper Moons essentially involves him berating them for perceived incompetence in failing their major objectives (wiping out the Demon Slayers completely and finding the Blue Spider Lily) time and time again and openly wondering why he keeps them around.
• Take Up My Sword: He does a rare villainous example of this trope towards the end of the manga, when he realizes that he's been defeated and he's going to die. He accepts Ubuyashiki's assertion that all things must die besides their feelings, which remain eternal, and uses every last drop of blood he has to turn Tanjiro into a demon as a way to keep his desires alive. He correctly comes to the conclusion that as Nezuko's older brother Tanjiro will also become a demon who can overcome the sun, vicariously having his ambitions fulfilled.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He is described by the author themself in the Databook as "tall and handsome", with perfectly groomed black hair.
• Teens Are Monsters: It can be inferred that he was in his late teens, 17 and up, when he murdered the Doctor and began his campaign of terror as a demon, given that the Doctor had told him that he would not live to see his 20th birthday.
• Telepathy: He has the ability to hear the thoughts of any demons who have his blood in them. The closer they are, the clearer he can hear them.
• This Cannot Be!: With absolute arrogance coursing through his veins Muzan is the quintessential demonic villain who wholeheartedly believes to be untouchable by puny humans, that is to say when anything challenges this belief Muzan is quick to lose his mind over it, he has a few key moments in the series where this happens:
  • When Muzan notices Tanjiro wears the peculiar hanafuda earrings, it immediately triggers his worst fears of the one time a legendary slayer almost killed him; as the story later reveals Muzan and his top demon Kokushibo went on a manhunt to kill all of Yoriichi's Sun Breathing disciples over the centuries, they couldn't believe Sun Breathing was secretly preserved by Tanjiro's family without their knowledge as Hinokami Kagura, when Muzan killed the Kamados he did for the simple whim of testing if new demons useful to him would be born, he had no idea of who they really were.
  • When said legendary fight that almost took him down happened, Muzan was completely confident that no human could possibly be a threat to him but Yoriichi proved himself to be an anomaly among humans, potentially divine, he almost killed him with ridiculous ease, leaving Muzan in complete disbelief where he only managed to escape by the tiniest of chances.
• Thanatos Gambit: Muzan pulls off a spectacularly cruel example of this trope in his final moments, using his remaining blood to revive the deceased Tanjiro as a demon in order to carry on his will to destroy the Corps. He also puts his trust in Tanjiro to accomplish his goal of becoming the ultimate demon in his stead.
• Tornado Move: One of his attacks has him spin his whip-like appendages with enough force to create small vortexes that can suck in enemies and cut them even if the original spin of the appendage misses. He first uses this move against Mitsuri during the final battle, with her dodging the first strike but getting caught off guard and sucked in by the ensuing vortex, sustaining critical injuries. After this, he begins spamming the attack, covering the battlefield with the miniature tornadoes.
• Tragic Stillbirth: Muzan had poor health even in his mother's womb, and was thought dead when he was born without a pulse or breathing. However, as his family was about to cremate him, he miraculously began crying for the first time and survived.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • When Muzan is meeting with the Lower Ranks following Rui's death, he condemns them for their weakness and question's their worth while keeping a very calm tone of voice and expression, even after Rokuro pushes one his Berserk Buttons.
  • During the final battle, he alternates between a calm, calculated wrath and Unstoppable Rage, becoming unhinged when something takes him by surprise or the battle doesn't go his way.
• Ultimate Life Form: What he desires to be. He's pretty close already, but he knows he's still incomplete and wants to get rid of the last of the weaknesses that hold him back.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • He does not take any of the demon slayers seriously, viewing humans as well beneath any demon. He also underestimates the resolve of Ubuyashiki, as his self-destruction catches Muzan entirely off guard, giving Tamayo an opportunity to trap him.
  • Centuries ago in the past, he badly underestimated Yoriichi's abilities and nearly died for it.
  • In the final battle, he seriously underestimated the Demon Slayer corps determination to kill him and put an end to his evil for good. At first he simply delivered grievous wounds and mocked them for daring to stand up to him. But the corps and especially the Hashiras refuse to to lay down and die even when bloodied, having lost their limbs, being infected by his own blood. As the fight drags on and sunrise is coming up, his smugness turns into frustration and desperation as the Corps will do anything to prevent him from escaping from the incoming sunlight.
• Undignified Death: Muzan dies not to the skill of a superior Demon Slayer, but to the break of dawn after turning into a literal giant baby to try to escape. And his final death is him begging for mercy as he's left to die alone.
• The Unfettered: Even by demon standards, Muzan is utterly ruthless.
• Unfit for Greatness: A villainious example. Despite all the incredible power his transformation into a demon blessed him with, Muzan is nowhere near the threat he could be if he wasn't held back by his cowardice and immaturity. He even somewhat realizes it himself as he dies, leading him to bequeath all of his remaining power onto Tanjiro and proclaim him the true Demon King.
• The Unfought: Despite his role as the Big Bad of the series, Muzan is not the final boss of the video game adaptation, being strictly limited to only covering what had been adapted to anime at the time of its release: Season 1, Mugen Train, and later DLC after the Red-Light District finished airing.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Even as a human. When a doctor offered him a new medicine to try to save his life, Muzan decided it wasn't working fast enough and slammed a nata into the doctor's head.
• Unskilled, but Strong: His fighting style in a nutshell after he emerges from his cocoon, and is forced to confront the Hashira. Compared to the likes of Kokushibo or Akaza who used highly refined sword and martial arts techniques in addition to their demonically enhanced strength and speed, most of Muzan's combat ability seems to consist of wildly flailing his tendrils at anything near him. Yet he's so strong and fast, and possesses such a strong Healing Factor, that he's at least a match for the entire Demon Slayer Corps even after being artificially aged over 9,000 years.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The doctor who made the Blue Spider Lily drug to cure him. From what we can see, the doctor was genuinely a nice person and a genius who struck gold with such potent concoction. Unfortunately, trying the medication on one as sociopathic as Muzan and succeeding caused untold amount of tragedy and death through many generations.
• Variable-Length Chain: One of Muzan's Black Blood Techniques is called Chain of Thorns, a Blood Art that creates thorny tendrils that sprout out of his arm. Himejima easily deflects this move with his Stone Breathing skills.
• Villain Cred: Because of Kokushibo's fanatic loyalty and his overall strength and power, he respects him and sees Kokushibo as a "business partner". This is rather surprising, considering how he views the other Upper Ranks.
• Villain's Dying Grace: Muzan pulls off a cruel variant in his final moments. As he is dying, Muzan revives the deceased Tanjiro as a demon, doing so in the hopes that he will live on to accomplish his goal of ending the Demon Slayer Corps and become the strongest existence by conquering the sun. Muzan also chose to revive Tanjiro due to gaining his respect throughout the course of their battle, viewing him as someone worthy of becoming the perfect demon in his stead.
• Villain Respect:
  • It turns out that Muzan developed some degree of respect for Yoriichi after their encounter, with him dismissing the abilities of the modern Demon Slayers as being nothing in comparison to Yoriichi's incredible skill.
  • He also comes to respect Tanjiro throughout their fight, viewing him as the embodiment of Ubuyashiki's final words regarding the Demon Slayers' will to stop him at all costs.
• Villainous Breakdown: A post-mortem one. As Tanjiro begins to be cured of the demon transformation brought on by being infused with all of Muzan's blood, Muzan initially tries to quietly convince Tanjiro to stay. But as his arguments are shaken off by Tanjiro with the assistance of the spirits of the dead pushing him up and the voices of the living, he grows more and more agitated and angry, until Tanjiro shakes him off completely and all he can do is pathetically beg him not to leave him alone in death.
• Villain Takes an Interest:
  • Many of the demons he creates are humans with a sadistic and cruel streak that amuse or impress Muzan enough to decide to give them his blood. This is how Enmu, Gyokko, and Hantengu are recruited. Although in Akaza's case,this is not always consensual
  • Noticeably averted with Tanjiro until he's about to die. Muzan looks down on Tanjiro as a weakling only stronger than an untrained civilian, and only pays him special attention in the form of offering a reward to any demon who can kill him because he reminds him of Yoriichi. Even after Tanjiro has established himself to be as powerful as the Hashira and his sister has become the first demon to conquer the sun, he still looks down on him. Muzan only ever acknowledges his strength in his final moments, and gives Tanjiro all of his blood in a last ditch effort to create a demon powerful enough to end the Demon Slayers. While he does succeed in forcefuly transforming Tanjiro into a demon, he is turned back into a human before he can kill anyone. Muzan may have won if he'd recognized Tanjiro's potential sooner and converted him by force earlier in the battle.
• Vocal Dissonance: He still speaks with a masculine voice in both his female form and his child form.
• Waistcoat of Style
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Two times to be exact. The first time is when he loses his shirt against Ubuyashiki's explosion and the second time in his new demonic form, wearing nothing on his body and using some demonic skin as "pants" for his bottom.
• White Hair, Black Heart: After getting affected by Tamayo's poison, Muzan's older form has completely white hair, but he's still the same vicious demon we have seen.
• The Worf Effect: Gets beaten up so one-sidedly and instantly by Yoriichi, to establish just how powerful Yoriichi was.
• Worf Had the Flu: Tanjiro and the Hashira only manage to hold their own against Muzan due to a secret failsafe created by Shinobu that was in the demon cure Tamayo uses on Muzan. In the event that the cure doesn't take, it instead increases the effectiveness of a secondary poison that rapidly ages Muzan. This slowly weakens him as his body has to work overtime to keep his body the same age, resulting in a very gradual loss of strength, speed and regeneration. Furthermore, a third component prevents Muzan from dividing and scattering his body to escape like he did with Yoriichi, before a fourth substance finally activates that starts destroying his cells after the first three weaken him.
• World's Strongest Man: He is the strongest demon alive until he is about to die, having transformed Tanjiro into his potential successor. Muzan is so incredibly powerful that no Demon Slayer was able to match him, that is until Yoriichi came into the picture and was easily able to defeat and almost killed Muzan if the latter hadn’t escaped. Even during the final battle, with his body aged 9000 years by Tamayo's drug and severely weakened, he was able to overpower and mortally wound most of the Hashira and it required almost every member of the Demon Slayer Corps to finally finish him off.
• Would Hurt a Child: He killed not only Tanjiro and Nezuko's mother but also their young siblings.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: The numerous wounds that were inflicted on Muzan during his encounter with Yoriichi Tsugikuni still have not healed even centuries later, with the scars appearing all over his body once Tamayo's drug compromised his Healing Factor past a certain point. As such, these provide a nice weak spot for the heroes to exploit.
• You Cannot Kill An Idea: As he is dying, he recalls Kagaya's final words to him, that thoughts are indestructible and can be passed on and carried out by those who come after you. He takes the words to heart after witnessing firsthand how powerful inherited thoughts and wills can be, and decides to do the same himself by passing on his desire to become the most powerful existence and destroy the Corps to the deceased Tanjiro, reviving him as a demon with his remaining blood and trusting him to accomplish his goals. Unfortunately for him, his numerous misgivings against Tanjiro and the rest make the latter less than willing to accept his cause.
• You Have Failed Me: You either die to your enemies or die to him; there is no middle ground. Honestly, seeing the vicious ways Muzan kills his subordinates, a swift decapitation via demon slayer would be far more merciful in comparison.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • After Rui's death, he kills the remaining Lower Ranks except for Enmu in the belief that the Twelve Kizuki only needs the Upper Ranks. After Gyutaro's death, he openly opines if he should just go ahead and wipe out the Upper Ranks if they're going to keep disappointing him like this, and his wording to Gyokko before sending him on his way implies he'd personally kill him and/or Hantengu if the results of their mission failed to impress.
  • He killed the doctor that made him a demon because he thought the doctor failed to cure his terminal disease which plagued him since birth — to his own detriment since only the doctor knew about the main components in the elixir.
  • He callously murders his adopted mother and her maid when he finds out Nezuko can walk during the day, and had no reason to stay with them.
• You Monster!: Tanjiro calls him a true demon for deceiving his loyal followers, Susamaru and Yahaba.

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"Tanjiro! Don't go, Tanjiro! Don't leave me here!"

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