Brace yourselves, Demon Slayer fans, the Infinity Castle Arc will completely change the way you know Tanjiro

With the upcoming Demon Slayer's Infinity Castle arc right around the corner, fans are anticipating several major changes in the storyline of the series. While the main storyline will stay the same, one of the biggest changes shocked some as they read into the manga, unable to hold their anticipation.

While changes to characters as a series reaches its climax are common in the world of anime and manga, the change being applied to Demon Slayer's main protagonist, Tanjiro Kamado, is what makes it noteworthy and worth exploring.

A major change in one of his personality traits made by Kohoharu Gotouge may affect the outlook of the fans upon him.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the Demon Slayer manga and anime while briefly reflecting the author's opinions.

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Tanjiro losing his smile in the Demon Slayer's Infinity Castle arc may change how the fans look at him

From the very beginning of the Demon Slayer anime and manga series, the one constant wholesome factor has been Tanjiro's personality. While every now and then he gets flustered and serious during fights, he is mostly a jolly and lovable guy with a smile on his face that can melt anyone's heart.

Despite facing the severe tragedy of losing his family to the hands of demons, Tanjiro never lost his empathy and kindness and would always act as a ray of sunshine for others whom he deeply cares about, which his mostly the entire series' cast.

He even went so far as to show empathy to some demons, despite his history with them.

As fans tune in to the series, they already know there's going to be a plethora of smiles and wholesomeness whenever Tanjiro appears, unless it's like a serious and intense fight scene.

From motivating others to showering warmth on other stoic characters like Giyu Tomioka, Muichiro Tokito, and even Genya Shinazugawa, to showing empathy to others suffering deep within, Tanjiro plays a key role in the series not only for his character, but for several others as well.

However, as the Demon Slayer series moves into its Infinity Castle arc, nearing the end, a huge change in Tanjiro's character has been introduced, which is manga exclusive at the time this article was written, with the Infinity Castle arc films yet to be released.

For a whole span of sixty-six chapters, Tanjiro has not smiled even once, except for several flashbacks, of course.

Starting from chapter 137 to chapter 203, Tanjiro's iconic and heartwarming smile was entirely missing, which is highly likely because of the intensity of the battle against Kibutsuji Muzan.

This may affect how fans look at his character, as the new Tanjiro introduced after chapter 137 is a more serious and determined version of him, whose objective is only one thing: to defeat Muzan at any cost.

While he remains extremely serious throughout the entire course of the fight against Muzan till he himself was turned into a demon, Tanjiro was finally shown smiling again at the end of chapter 203, when the fight was finally over and Muzan was defeated and removed from existence.

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Final thoughts

Tanjiro and Kanao smiling after the battle was over in chapter 204 of the Demon Slayer manga (Image via Shueisha)

After the gruesome battle with Muzan was finally done and dusted, Tanjiro's smile returned as he felt the relief of finally avenging his family and others who sacrificed themselves for the cause.

However, with the upcoming Demon Slayer's Infinity Castle arc films, it is yet to be seen how much Ufotable adapts this character change of Tanjiro from the original manga.

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