Akaza is the best villain in Demon Slayer and this blog will cover why.
He is not your everyday villain who has a desire to just obliterate everyone in his path. While he does destroy his opponents, prior to that he asks them to join him. You know what they say:
If you can’t beat them, join them.
Someone with a big brain
When Akaza appeared in the Demon Slayer Mugen Train movie, I was just baffled. I was amazed to see such a cool character, especially a villain with his breathtaking theme and that autotune voice combined with his majestic character design.
Imagine how the people in the theatres would have felt at his surprise and sudden entrance. Just oh my god!
IMPORTANT: Before reading ahead, I just want to tell you that:
Akaza is NOT a coward.
Suman Sourabh (countering Tanjiro)
Why Akaza is not a coward?
You just can’t say “coward” to a demon in broad daylight. What was Akaza supposed to do? Stand there under the Sun? He would just die. It was a literal suicide. No demon with common sense would do that kind of thing.
If you say like this then even Muzan would be a coward.
Related: Muzan’s biggest flex in Demon Slayer
WARNING: Spoilers ahead of Demon Slayer manga.
Now, let’s begin.
When it comes to villains in Demon Slayer, almost everyone sympathises with them as soon as their backstory is revealed. Because you know, every character in Demon Slayer is just tragic. Akaza is no exception.
The most hated villain in the story became the most loved villain in a matter of pages due to an overpowered thing in anime:
Akaza’s Backstory
One word to describe Akaza’s backstory – Heartbreaking.
Akaza or Hakuji (when he was a human) had a terrible life just because of some cruel and disgusting humans in this tragic world. They destroyed his life by killing his loved ones (his master and his fiance).
I had heard already that Akaza’s backstory was really tragic, but this tragic? I don’t believe a person failed to cry at the point where this was revealed.
The mangaka simply took a U-turn by making Akaza’s character so worthy of getting sympathy from the readers.
At first, I thought Akaza was just pure evil. I would never have imagined that a character who killed arguably the most loved character in Demon Slayer, Rengoku Kyojuro, would turn out to be someone who was just used and manipulated by Muzan.
Yet again, Demon Slayer threw us back into tears as we got caught in its most used trap: the backstories.
Akaza really loved his fiance and that’s probably the reason why Akaza didn’t eat any woman when he was a demon, unlike Doma.
Is Akaza a Good Guy?
Kind of.
Defining Akaza as good or bad wouldn’t be justified as he has both the qualities of a good guy and a bad guy. Of course, he belongs to the group of villains in Demon Slayer but there is more than that in his character.
He respects his opponents if he sees them as strong, but despises those who are “weakling”. He also doesn’t do any cheap tricks upon fighting and only fights an opponent head-on just like he fought Rengoku.
Akaza couldn’t protect his loved ones and that is why even in his life when he was a demon, Akaza only had one objective: He wanted to become strong.
Why did Akaza want To Become Strong?
In his backstory, Akaza wanted to become stronger so that he could protect the love of his life and his master. But the life ahead of him had other plans.
After the death of the persons closest to him, he had no one to protect. So he didn’t care about getting strong at all. Failing to protect the people that he cared about was the reason Akaza hated weak people or weaklings, as he liked to call them.
He was found by Michael Jackson or Muzan who made him one of the twelve upper moon demons and manipulated him to become stronger and stronger so that he could kill more demon slayers.
So even if Akaza killed Rengoku, you can’t blame him. Blame Muzan.
Obviously, if Akaza was strong, the best thing that he could do to become stronger was: Keep on fighting.
Akaza vs Rengoku fight
Before reading about Akaza’s fight with Rengoku, if you would have read the manga then do you remember what Giyu had said when he was fighting the Upper Moon 3?
This man is a carnage. He has given up everything but fighting.
Giyu Tomioka (Levi of Demon Slayer)
This is what Giyu said. Pretty chilling, to be honest.
Akaza loved to fight. Eren Yeager would be proud.
Akaza just wanted to make Rengoku a demon so that they could fight for eternity and become stronger in the process.
Where have you seen a man like this?
His fighting techniques were really astonishing and that snowflake design combined with the stunning animation was one of the most hyped things I had ever seen.
There is one thing that Akaza has that other villains generally don’t. Do you know what?
Akaza has Respect for others (a bit)
This is some John Cena stuff right here.
Being the Upper Moon 3, Akaza was extremely strong. Usually, what happens in anime or other forms of entertainment, villains don’t acknowledge their opponent’s strength and continue to disrespect them for the rest of the fight.
But Akaza is different.
During the fight against Rengoku, Akaza didn’t disrespect or say anything bad to him. NOT even once. He respected Rengoku’s breathtaking skills, courage and tremendous willpower.
Akaza was actually playing with Rengoku the whole time (except for the last struggle) as he wanted to recruit him. How nice of him, right?
Even in the fight against Giyu and Tanjiro, Akaza acknowledged them both and even asked Giyu to become a demon. Guess he really likes strong people. This is one of the reasons why Akaza is my favourite in Kimetsu No Yaiba ahead of Sanemi Shinazugawa, the wind Hashira.
Related: Why Sanemi was not wrong to attack Nezuko?
Villains in season 1 of One Punch Man are one of the most disrespectful ones that I have ever seen. They don’t seem to acknowledge anyone but themselves implying that there is no depth in their characters.
Demon Slayer did a good job with Akaza. I was really impressed and I am sure you were too.
There are many things that I like about Akaza, but nothing could beat his amazing theme.
Why Akaza’s theme is crazy?
Imagine sitting relaxed on the sofa in the middle of the movie when suddenly, you see a character in blue covering your whole screen and in the background, a super hyped soundtrack firing up your speakers … oh man!
That soundtrack was one of the most unique music that I have ever heard. It totally defined how much of a cool and badass character Akaza was.
Again, the snowflake animation and the theme were really in sync. It felt so good to witness them both.
It was extremely tough to contain one’s excitement at that moment. The best thing to note about this sudden entrance was that Akaza was nowhere to be found on the poster of the movie. Crazy, right?
Ufotable kept Akaza a secret for the non-manga readers. I myself hadn’t read the manga at that point and Akaza’s sudden appearance caught me off guard.
No matter how much you praise the theme with that autotune voice, it won’t be of any use as you know that the theme deserved even higher praise.
Why Akaza is the Best demon?
The character of Akaza is well thought out. The complexity in the form of his tragic backstory really adds some depth to his character. It shows us that he is not just some villain who kills people without having an ideology behind his acts.
It doesn’t matter if you hate Akaza just because he killed the fan’s favourite character. Akaza will remain the best villain in the series (at least according to me). Plus, he is a cool “bad guy”.
Conclusion
Even without his backstory, Akaza is the best villain in Demon Slayer.
The only contender who comes close to Akaza could be Kokushibou (Upper Moon 1) but his backstory was NOT as tragic as Akaza.
You already know Akaza liked a character who is loved by everyone who has watched Demon Slayer. He is none other than the Flame Hashira, Rengoku Kyojuro.
Find out what was the biggest flex of Rengoku in Demon Slayer.
