This Demon Slayer Character Should Replace Zenitsu in Tanjiro's Team (2024)

Early on, the Demon Slayer anime formed its main shonen trio with protagonist Tanjiro Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma, and Inosuke Hashira, who all fought well together in arcs like the Mugen Train sequence and the Entertainment District story arc. Over time, those three young heroes learned to get along and coordinate their efforts in battle, allowing them to take on the Lower and Upper Moons to claim victory. By this point, however, it seems Zenitsu Agatsuma is falling behind.

As of Season 4, Zenitsu's growth has slowed down a great deal. He is making decent progress in the Hashira training regimen, having made it to the final phase with Gyomei Himejima, but he seems to have hit a wall in his development. He hasn't yet pushed that boulder like Tanjiro and Inosuke have, and he's still making more excuses for his hardships rather than making an effort. By contrast, the mohawk-wearing slayer Genya Shinazugawa is making huge strides both as a swordsman and as an ally of Tanjiro's. At this point, Genya is ready to replace Zenitsu in Tanjiro's trio, and that could prove fruitful both for the anime's narrative and for the characters themselves.

Zenitsu's Growth Slowed Down While Genya's Growth Accelerated

Up to a certain point, Zenitsu Agatsuma was definitely a better fit for Tanjiro's team than Genya was, such as in the first two seasons of Demon Slayer's anime. When Tanjiro and the others cleared the final selection test, for example, Zenitsu may have been a worried wreck, but Genya was downright disruptive. He bullied the test proctors to get his own Nichirin sword right away, and his fierce temper got the best of him. He may have reminded anime fans of My Hero Academia's Katsuki Bakugo, and not just because those characters share a voice actor.

From there, Genya faded into the background while Zenitsu slowly yet surely built himself up as a worthy member of Tanjiro's squad, such as when he started using his Thunder Breathing style against foes like Enmu and even the arrogant himedere Daki. That clearly put Zenitsu in the lead between him and Genya Shinazugawa, partly because Zenitsu got a lot of screen time and Genya simply did not.

Starting in the third season of Demon Slayer, though, all that started to change. Both Inosuke and Zenitsu were sidelined as the Swordsmith Village story arc launched, with both boys staying behind while Tanjiro and his sister ventured to the mysterious village of swordsmiths for a brand-new adventure. There, Tanjiro got to know the Love and Mist Hashira, and most notably, Genya Shinazugawa finally returned to the fore.

Genya was still acting like a standoffish punk at first, but the kindhearted Tanjiro insisted on being his friend, and Genya decided to open up to him, at least a little bit. Genya had the advantage of screen time over Zenitsu, and he put it to good use. Genya made it clear he had come a long way since final selection, because when he fought the Upper Moon 4 alongside Tanjiro and Nezuko, he had some neat new tricks to show.

Being both resourceful and brutal, Genya engaged Hantengu with a double-barred shotgun loaded with anti-demon ammo, something Tanjiro's squad would never think of, and he even turned himself into a half-other in gruesome ways. Genya revealed that he could not use conventional breathing techniques at all, putting him at a serious disadvantage, so he pushed himself to use repetitive action, something he learned from the Stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima. With that fearsome power, Genya almost became a demon himself and even ate Hanengu's flesh to power up, showing how much grit and resolve he had as a slayer who couldn't even fight the "normal" way.

Genya may not have dealt the final blow to either Hantengu or Gyokko in the Swordsmith Village story arc, but he still impressed Demon Slayer fans with his progress and sheer ingenuity as a gritty slayer. He kept it up in the next arc, making it all the way to Gyomei's training phase, where he used repetitive action to push his boulder. So far in the anime, Tanjiro has only barely completed that task and Inosuke is still working on it, while Zenitsu has made no appreciable progress.

It's a given that the shonen hero will overcome all challenges and go the distance, so the real question is whether Tanjiro's allies and friends will succeed and impress viewers. So far, Zenitsu hasn't cleared that bar despite his earlier progress in other arcs, so Genya is starting to eclipse him. And Genya isn't the one who constantly complains and worries, either. He's got the resolve and courage to face all challenges without a word of complaint or a hint of self-doubt.

That, combined with his repetitive action, proves that Genya is now better than Zenitsu and should probably replace him in Tanjiro's trio. For that and other reasons, it's evident that Tanjiro no longer needs Zenitsu for much of anything. Zenitsu is the weakest link, so Genya deserves a chance to take his place and prove that he can keep up with Tanjiro and Inosuke. It's true that Zenitsu seems to be on the verge of something big after getting that message from his kasugai sparrow, but unless that comes to fruition soon, Genya is the better pick for Tanjiro's teammate.

Genya and Tanjiro Support One Another as Warriors and People

The members of a shonen action trio are expected to support and inspire one another as friends, and anime fans can point out all kinds of examples. In Jujutsu Kaisen, Yuji and Nobara were a perfect tag team while fighting Eso and Kechizu, and Deku and Bakugo actually shared One For All in the second My Hero Academia movie to defeat Nine. In Season 6 of that anime, Bakugo even took a mortal blow to shield Deku from harm. And, of course, the Straw Hats in One Piece would gladly lay down their lives for one another.

Meanwhile, in Demon Slayer, Inosuke and Zenitsu only sometimes support Tanjiro, with the latter doing very little. Those three boys did fight well together against Daki and Enmu, though in theory, most slayers in the Demon Slayer Corps could do the same for Tanjiro, so fighting together isn't the only factor here. Personally, Zenitsu has done nothing to support his friend Tanjiro -- in fact, Zenitsu often does the opposite, loudly criticizing Tanjiro or envying the latter's abilities and accomplishments.

Tanjiro also didn't learn much from Zenitsu aside from a basic Thunder Breathing move that he used briefly in Season 3. Tanjiro's and Zenitsu's personalities and fighting styles are simply too different. However, as the Hashira training arc has showed so far, Genya has much more to teach Tanjiro, and what Genya can teach him should prove more broadly useful. Genya Shinazugawa is the one who learned repetitive actions to make up for his lack of a breathing style, but even swordsmen like Tanjiro who use regular breathing styles can make use of it, too.

In fact, without Genya's instructions on repetitive action, Tanjiro never would have moved that boulder one cho away, no matter his protagonist's powers. Genya had to go Plus Ultra out of necessity for that training, and Tanjiro can now do the same. And it's not like Tanjiro merely watched and copied Genya's style -- Genya freely told Tanjiro all about it, wishing to see his fellow slayer succeed in Gyomei's training.

In addition, Genya and Tanjiro have been supporting one another as more people than Tanjiro and Zenitsu ever have. Tanjiro appreciates Zenitsu as a friend, but just as often, they annoy each other and seem to have an emotional disconnect. Tanjiro was outright disgusted when he first met Zenitsu, as the "Tanjiro reaction face" showed, and their friendship has only slowly progressed from there. By now, the two of them seem to take each other for granted, and they don't emotionally support one another that much.

Genya is a different case. Tanjiro made a serious effort to befriend him despite the latter's hot temper and standoffish attitude, which is already more than Tanjiro ever did for Zenitsu, and Tanjiro and Genya only grew closer. As of Demon Slayer's fourth season, Tanjiro has become sympathetic to Genya's strained relationship with his Hashira brother Sanemi, to the point that Tanjiro intervened in their brawl and got in trouble defending Genya.

Tanjiro hasn't done anything like that for Zenitsu, partly because he hasn't gotten a chance to, but regardless, it still puts Genya ahead of Zenitsu. Tanjiro defied his scarred Hashira coach for Genya's sake, and Genya is grateful for the help. He and Tanjiro get along better than ever and have a great deal of mutual respect, more than Tanjiro has for Zenitsu. Or at least, Tanjiro hasn't shown it in some time, but he will show admiration and empathy for Genya, at least, and his actions speak volumes. There's little doubt that if Genya replaced Zenitsu in Tanjiro's main squad, Demon Slayer's main trio would make faster progress and get along that much better.

Demon Slayer

TV-MA

Anime

Action

Adventure

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

Release Date

April 6, 2019

Cast

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

Main Genre

Anime

Seasons

4

Studio

ufotable

Creator

Koyoharu Gotouge

Streaming Service(s)

Crunchyroll , Hulu , Amazon Prime Video , Netflix