As a proper shonen action anime, Demon Slayer is filled with deadly and thrilling villains for heroes like Tanjiro Kamado to battle. These villains—almost all demons—vary greatly in their powers, abilities, appearance, and backstories. They also vary somewhat in their evil, as some demons are relatively tame or have never had the chance to prove their wickedness and horrific nature.

Regardless of powers and abilities, some Demon Slayer Villains are far more cruel and vicious than others, meaning some have the true heart of a villain, while others merely act as antagonists for the demon slayers to fight. True acts of evil are nearly impossible to forgive or forget, such as preying on the weak, pitting friends against each other, or creating sadness and misery just for fun.

Related

10 Darkest Demon Slayer Villains

While some Demon Slayer demons like Gyutaro have suffered personal tragedies, others like Muzan are irredeemable monsters.

10 The Swamp Demon regularly attacked teenagers

The swamp demon was the least evil of Demon SlayerOne of the most vicious villains, making his debut early in the series. At the time, Tanjiro only had his younger sister, Nezuko, to back him up, so it was easy for the swamp demon to split into three bodies to overcome Tanjiro's small team. Fortunately, Tanjiro's water breathing was the perfect style to finish him off.

As for his evil deeds, the swamp demon regularly preyed on teenage girls, considering them the most delicious prey of all. It's usually the most cruel and twisted demons that target specific prey like this, and he terrorized an entire town for a time with these swamp kidnappings until Tanjiro arrived to save the day.

9 Akaza killed Kyojuro Rengoku in cold blood

Related

Apparently, Demon Slayer villains don't need sympathy.

Demon Slayer's third season proved that not all of its villains have sympathetic backstories, and fans are free to hate them all they want.

It has been argued that Akaza was never truly evil, despite his immense power as the Upper Moon 3. True, he had a sense of honor when fighting Kyojuro Rengoku, the Flame Hashira, but he still killed Kyojuro in cold blood, and it was too late to save Enmu anyway. Akaza apparently challenged Kyojuro to a fight just for the sake of fighting.

Akaza repeatedly offered to turn Kyojuro into a demon, pressuring the honorable Flame Hashira to abandon his humanity and principles—a treacherous offer for any demon to make. Kyojuro refused, so Akaza simply killed him with a punch to the stomach. Akaza then fled, and now he intends to kill Tanjiro Kamado next, as if killing Kyojuro weren't bad enough.

8 The Hand Demon sought out and killed Sakonji's students.

The so-called hand demon was the first notable demon Tanjiro killed in Demon Slayerfrom the anime, and it was truly personal for both of them. While Tanjiro has few shonen-style mentors, he trained with Sakonji Urokodaki, who captured the Hand Demon and placed that creature in the final selection training camp.

Since then, the hand demon has personally sought out and dispatched Sakonji's students to exact revenge on the demon slayer who humiliated him, a truly evil act for any demon. However, being sympathetic, Tanjiro still saw and appreciated the hand demon's humanity despite everything, and wept when the enormous hand demon finally died.

7 Gyutaro tormented Tanjiro to defend his younger sister

Gyutaro was the true Upper Moon 6, a terrifyingly powerful demon who killed several Hashira over the past decades. He became even stronger thanks to his bond with his younger sister, Daki, as neither of them will die by decapitation as long as the other has the head. Personality-wise, Gyutaro is distinctly vile and aggressive.

Gyutaro fought hard to protect his younger sister, which was the only non-evil thing he ever did. As a human living on the fringes of society, Gyutaro often attacked people, and this didn't win the hearts of his younger sisters. Demon Slayer fans. Then, in the present, Gyutaro playfully tormented and hurt Tanjiro during the fight, and even mocked Tanjiro for apparently failing to protect his own younger sister.

6 Daki lured people to their deaths in her Oiran guise

Related

10 Demon Slayer Fights Fans Want to See in Season 4

Demon Slayer Season 4 has already begun, and fans can't wait to see who will fight who as the story draws to a close.

The other half of Upper Moon 6, the cruel himedere Daki, hid in plain sight in the entertainment district, where she posed as an oiran. Daki, like her brother, suffered poverty and hardship growing up, leaving her desperate for validation. After nearly dying, she became a demon and realized her dreams of being strong and beautiful for all to see.

Daki didn't have Rui's spider theme, but she behaved like a spider, using the entire entertainment district as her web to capture unsuspecting prey and store them in her lair for later consumption. Daki was also quite abusive even in her oiran guise, as Zenitsu saw for himself in his own disguise before the battle began.

5 Rui abused his found family

Rui held the rank of Lower Moon 5, though he could have risen in the rankings if he made the right moves. Regardless of his position among the Kizuki, Rui is still in the middle. Demon Slayerof the most evil villains thanks to his abusive ways towards the family he built.

Rui gathered other people and transformed them into demons to join his found family, with himself being one of the sons. However, demons aren't very prone to healthy family dynamics, much less Rui, who regularly mistreated most of the other family members with his words and violence. The exception was the nightmare spider father, who earned Rui's respect as a powerful warrior.

4 At home, happily dead, Kanae Kocho

At first glance, Upper Moon 2 might not seem so bad, but he was actually one of the most evil demons to ever serve Muzan Kibutsuji—or at least, he's the least capable of good, as he can't feel emotions, and encountering them is strange. Doma is seemingly incapable of caring about other beings or empathizing with them for any reason. Even Gyutaro and Daki cared for each other, but Doma wouldn't go that far.

Doma was also the one who killed Kanae Kocho, Shinobu's older sister, and it's a tragic loss that such a gentle demon slayer was dispatched. Doma also makes a point of feeding on women, believing them to be the most nutritious prey, as their sex nourishes the babies. Only a twisted demon would think and act accordingly.

3 Gyokko melted villagers into a grotesque mass

Related

10 Best Episodes of Demon Slayer (So Far)

Over the course of three seasons, fans have watched Tanjiro, Nezuko, and the others overcome many obstacles with fantastic fights and shocking twists.

Gyokko, the Upper Moon 5, enjoyed creating and selling artistic vases, a venture Muzan approved of. He also participated in the attack on the blacksmith village alongside Hantengu, with Gyokko clearly being the villain of the two Upper Moons.

Gyokko used more than porcelain to create his beloved art. To everyone's horror, he fused a variety of villagers into a fleshy mass and admired what he had created, and there's no doubt Gyokko had done such a thing before or would do it again if given the chance. Fortunately, the himbo Hashira Muichiro Tokito put an end to him.

2 Enmu manipulated sick children to obey him

At one point, Muzan killed most of the Lower Moons out of sheer frustration, but spared Lower Moon 1, Enmu. After Enmu consumed Muzan's blood to strengthen himself, he set out on his latest mission, attacking Kyojuro and Tanjiro's squad one night aboard the Mugen Train. In a way, Enmu was actually the Mugen train itself.

Enmu didn't even fight his enemies directly at first. He put them to sleep with his special abilities and then sent a squad of children to finish off Tanjiro and the others while they slept. Enmu, like a true villain, coerced some sick children into being his personal assassins, something not even the Upper Moons were seen doing.

1 Muzan Kibutsuji became the scourge of humanity for selfish reasons

The Demon King himself, Muzan Kibutsuji, has clearly established himself as the most evil character in anime. Centuries ago, Muzan became the world's first demon and has been determined to find a cure ever since. Unfortunately, Muzan's chosen methods were costly, with Muzan regularly creating demons that attacked and killed people. Muzan didn't care how many people suffered, as long as he got the cure he wanted.

Regardless of his guise as a loving family man in Tokyo, Muzan is a cruel, selfish, and exploitative creature with no particular redeeming qualities. He even casually transformed a passerby into a demon, who attacked his wife, just so Muzan could create a distraction to escape Tanjiro. He will also capriciously kill his minions if they fail to meet his lofty expectations.

Demon Slayer

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

Release date

April 6, 2019

Cast

Natsuki Hanae, Zach Aguilar, Abby Trott, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka

Seasons

3

Studio

ufotable

The Creator

Koyoharu Gotouge