Tanjiro (Blade of Demon Destruction) vs Guts (Berserk)

[Username taken]

Who wins in the battle of the two monster slayers.

Tanjiro is NOT with Nezuko and Guts is not wearing the Berserk armor.

[Nik Hasta]

Hmm... Guts is vastly more experienced and probably stronger. Tanjirou, when using his fire dance breath, is likely faster.

This will be a short match methinks. Not sure who wins it, both could one shot this.

[BitVyper]

Is Tanjirou fast enough to dodge the cannon?

[Nik Hasta]

Is Tanjirou fast enough to dodge the cannon?

Hnnggg...

I reckon he could probably aim dodge it if he saw it coming.

Is he fast enough to coldly dodge a cannonball...?

Maaaaaaaybe...? I don't know.

[Kuro]

I’d worry more about Guts auto crossbow more than his cannon.

[Lord Falcon]

So we know that Tanjirou is able to cut apart a boulder the size of a small house, and this was a few power ups ago. Is Guts capable of that sans berserker armor? Guts is probably outright stronger, but I'm not sure how his offensive ability with a sword stacks up against the weird things Tanjirou's breathing techniques do.

[Nik Hasta]

I mean, small house is a gross overstatement.

[Lord Falcon]

I mean, small house is a gross overstatement.

Upon further investigation there appear to be animation errors that confuse the size of the boulder.

Kimetsu no Yaiba Boulder Slicing.jpg

Kimetsu no Yaiba Boulder Slicing 2.jpg

[BitVyper]

Hnnggg...

I reckon he could probably aim dodge it if he saw it coming.

Is he fast enough to coldly dodge a cannonball...?

Maaaaaaaybe...? I don't know.

How does his speed work? If he's not faster than Guts out of the gate, I feel like aim-dodging is less likely. Cannonballs ARE fairly quick; it's hard to find numbers on them, but a couple sources I've checked seemed to put them around 1400 fps and higher.

[Nik Hasta]

Upon further investigation there appear to be animation errors that confuse the size of the boulder.

Kimetsu no Yaiba Boulder Slicing.jpg

Kimetsu no Yaiba Boulder Slicing 2.jpg

Neither of those shots make it look remotely house sized.

[Nik Hasta]

How does his speed work? If he's not faster than Guts out of the gate, I feel like aim-dodging is less likely. Cannonballs ARE fairly quick; it's hard to find numbers on them, but a couple sources I've checked seemed to put them around 1400 fps and higher.

Speaking broadly, Tanjirou at his base has some degree of enhanced speed. When he uses his breath techniques, he gets significantly faster. Water Breath, his standard breathing type makes him faster, Fire God Dance makes him considerably faster than that and if he manifests his mark (bloodline ability type thing) he gets faster again.

A good feat of showing the jump between the two breathing types, when fighting a demon, Tanjirou in his water breathing technique is able to keep up. The demon then absorbs parts of her body that are hidden elsewhere and goes back to her full power. She then is able to full on disappear and blitz Tanjirou. She uses these sash/tentacles that are whipping around so fast they are invisible.

Tanjirou then loses his **** and goes into Dance of the Fire God and notes that, as he's fighting her now, all of her sash attacks and movements seem to be in slow motion to him.

So it's a really big jump in terms of his speed.

Later he fights Akaza again and Akaza is notably faster than Fire God even with the amp of his birthmark. Tanjirou then got another boost in the form of completely mastering his battle spirit and entering the see-through world.

Idk if that makes him able to dodge a cannon ball but he's very quick at this punt in time in the manga.

[BitVyper]

Neither of those shots make it look remotely house sized.

At any rate, Guts cuts through multiple stone columns in a single swing fluidly enough that they don't remotely impede him while he's fighting Serpico (berserker armour, but it's blatantly not active). I could go either way on comparing that with the boulder-cut really, having looked it up now; there's certainly more unknowns with it, and he didn't do it while continuously fighting and defending himself. Overall, I'd say it puts them in the same ballpark.

Notably, as far as power ups go, the berserker armour typically mostly works as a mental limitation bypass and then reinforces his body when going past his limitations starts injuring him, so it's not like his feats while it's active are THAT far beyond what his body can do.

[BitVyper]

It sounds like fire dance is probably at least somewhat faster than Guts, so I guess my question is does he have to do anything special to use that?

I will say Guts was catching crossbow quarrels at close range long before he owned Griffith and went off to super-train in the mountains, and I feel his actual reflexes are probably a good step faster than the speed he generally fights at on top of that. So I'm not sure Tanjirou would be THAT much faster. It sounds to me a bit like Guts vs a stronger but less sneaky Serpico, and even if they're close in strength, I think trying to match Guts head-on would be a big mistake for someone with a shorter weapon and no cannon-arm

[Nik Hasta]

At any rate, Guts cuts through multiple stone columns in a single swing fluidly enough that they don't remotely impede him while he's fighting Serpico (berserker armour, but it's blatantly not active). I could go either way on comparing that with the boulder-cut really, having looked it up now; there's certainly more unknowns with it, and he didn't do it while continuously fighting and defending himself. Overall, I'd say it puts them in the same ballpark.

I mean, I'll point out that the boulder cut is literally Tanjirou's base level of cutting ability. That's the first thing he does when he gets access to his powers for real with a normal sword rather than his nichirin blade.

We see him come against super durable demons who he has difficulty getting through and he overcomes it.

This is as early as the mountain exam and crops up later after Tanjirou has gotten way stronger. For example, when fighting Rui's family, the Daddy Spider guy is so physically tough that Tanjirou and Inosuke can barely break his skin despite being able to cut through boulders as shown above. The same with Rui himself; using standard Water Breathing Tanjirou can't break his skin or even cut the threads of his attacks. Using Fire God Dance, he cuts through his Blood Magic Enhanced threads and, probably, could have beheaded him had Rui not cut his own head off to avoid the fatal hit.

Also, it's worth noting that Giyuu, a Hashira (a top guy in the hierarchy of demon hunters), beheads Daddy Spider and Rui with minimal effort. Tanjirou is now at a level where he is equal to, if not on a higher level, than someone like Giyuu. So his cutting power is quite a ways above the boulder cut.

[Nik Hasta]

It sounds like fire dance is probably at least somewhat faster than Guts, so I guess my question is does he have to do anything special to use that?

I will say Guts was catching crossbow quarrels at close range long before he owned Griffith and went off to super-train in the mountains, and I feel his actual reflexes are probably a good step faster than the speed he generally fights at on top of that. So I'm not sure Tanjirou would be THAT much faster. It sounds to me a bit like Guts vs a stronger but less sneaky Serpico, and even if they're close in strength, I think trying to match Guts head-on would be a big mistake for someone with a shorter weapon and no cannon-arm

He literally just has to breathe to activate it.