Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Part 2 Will Confirm The Series’ Female Cast Is Way Better Than Fans Think

Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Part 2 Will Confirm The Series’ Female Cast Is Way Better Than Fans Think

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Warning: Spoilers ahead for Demon Slayer Chapter #151 and beyondDemon Slayer has long caught flak for its female representation, but the upcoming sequel to Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle will seriously challenge that criticism — and put the franchise’s female cast right in the spotlight. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle smashed records by becoming the highest-grossing movie ever in Japan, while also achieving staggering success worldwide. All of this just goes to speak to the incredible degree of hype its upcoming sequel has earned.

Details remain sparse, and the disappointing Infinity Castle Part 2 release date updates mean fans will be waiting for teasers, trailers, and exact information. However, just by looking at the source material, a few key battles will clearly make the cut.

Importantly, those battles weave together in a way that will shine a different light on Demon Slayer‘s female cast writ large. From their writing to their presentation, Infinity Castle Part 2 is going to highlight just how vital of a force Demon Slayer‘s female cast has been for the franchise just by allowing some major female characters to take center stage.

Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Part 1 Set Up A Perfect Start For Part 2

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle‘s first part ended at just the right point with a cliffhanger setting up Kanao and Inosuke’s fight with Doma after Shinobu’s tragic death, a collapsed Tanjiro on the floor, and Muzan within the cocoon announcing the Slayer Corps will regret ever having lived. Naturally, this set up a tsunami of anticipation for the second part. That anticipation isn’t misplaced; the fights following Infinity Castle Part 1 are some of the best in the entire franchise.

The big question is just where, from the source material, the second film will choose to end. The Kokushibo fight, the next major climax of the manga, is the obvious focus for the upcoming film. It’s very likely that the second part will find a natural conclusion when Muzan emerges from the cocoon and is teleported by Nakime to face Tanjiro and Giyuu. This would make for a killer cliffhanger in classic Demon Slayer style: there’s no better way to leave fans hungry for more than Muzan coldly announcing his intentions to wipe out all demon slayers right to Tanjiro’s face.

In total, the first part covered Demon Slayer Chapter #140 to #157, for a total of 17 (or, more accurately, 17.5) chapters. With the Muzan emergence as an ending, the second part would have to cover 24 chapters. It sounds like a lot, but given the film series is a trilogy, it allows the third part to comfortably cover the Sunrise Countdown arc and epilogue (also around 24 chapters).

Infinity Castle Part 2 Will Prove Why Demon Slayer’s Women Are Great

That context is critical because it means three of Demon Slayer‘s best-written female characters will be right at the center of the film’s narrative: Kanao, Mitsuri, and Tamayo. Although the movie will likely be anchored by the Kokushibo fight that eats up a generous majority of those chapters, what’s more crucial is the maneuvering that the other characters are doing around it.

For example, because of the first film’s cliffhanger, it’s clear Kanao and Inosuke’s battle with Doma will kick off Infinity Castle Part 2. Not only does Kanao ground Inosuke during Doma’s emotional and physical onslaught, but she importantly doesn’t do so by being shoehorned into a nurturing role. Rather, it’s in the service of her autonomously chosen goals: her dedication to her role as a demon slayer and Tsuguko to her sister, and her devotion to her sisters’ memory. When her part inevitably reflects on her connection to her two adopted sisters, it will nicely bring out the series’ thematic meditations on family, honor, and rectitude.



















Kimetsu no Yaiba · Final Selection
How Well Do You Know Demon Slayer?
“Set your heart ablaze.”

TanjiroThe kind-hearted blade

NezukoThe sleeping demon

HashiraNine pillars

MuzanProgenitor of demons

BreathingTotal concentration

01

The series follows a young charcoal seller whose family is slaughtered by a demon. Only his sister Nezuko survives — turned into a demon herself. What is the protagonist’s full family name?




✓ Correct! Tanjiro Kamado is the eldest son of the Kamado family of charcoal-makers. The Kamado name, written with characters meaning “furnace,” is a subtle nod to the family’s ancient connection to fire and Sun Breathing — the original breathing style all others descend from.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Kamado. Agatsuma is Zenitsu’s surname, Tomioka is the Water Hashira Giyu’s, and Hashibira belongs to the boar-headed Inosuke. Tanjiro Kamado’s family lived high in the mountains as charcoal-burners — a lineage that secretly carried the art of Sun Breathing.

02

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba began as a serialized manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2016 before becoming a global anime phenomenon. Which mangaka created it?




✓ Correct! Koyoharu Gotouge is famously private — the pen name gives no indication of gender, and the author has consistently declined interviews and public appearances. The manga ran for 205 chapters from 2016 to 2020 and sold over 150 million copies, making it one of the best-selling manga of all time.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Koyoharu Gotouge. Hajime Isayama created Attack on Titan, Eiichiro Oda writes One Piece, and Masashi Kishimoto created Naruto. Gotouge wrapped Demon Slayer’s main story in 2020 after just four years — a surprisingly short run for a series of that scale.

03

Before the Final Selection, Tanjiro trains for two years on Mount Sagiri under former Hashira Sakonji Urokodaki. Which breathing style does Urokodaki teach him?




✓ Correct! Water Breathing has ten forms plus the Eleventh Form (Dead Calm), the last of which was created by Urokodaki’s finest student, Giyu Tomioka. Tanjiro later combines Water Breathing with his family’s ancestral Hinokami Kagura (Sun Breathing), which proves far more powerful against high-ranking demons.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Water Breathing. Thunder Breathing is Zenitsu’s style, Flame Breathing is the Rengoku family’s specialty, and Stone Breathing belongs to Gyomei Himejima. Urokodaki was the Water Hashira decades before Giyu, and his pupil Tanjiro eventually surpasses him by unlocking Sun Breathing.

04

Nezuko Kamado is the only known demon allowed to travel with the Demon Slayer Corps — she wears a bamboo muzzle and is carried in a sealed wooden box by day. What makes her so uniquely valuable to her brother’s cause?




✓ Correct! Nezuko restores her body and power by sleeping, bypassing the need to consume humans that defines every other demon. Her unbroken love for her brother — and her implanted suggestion from Urokodaki that all humans are her family — anchors her humanity. She does eventually gain sunlight immunity, but that’s a much later plot twist.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is that she sleeps instead of feeding on humans. Nezuko can change her size (true but minor) and eventually gains immunity to sunlight (near the end of the series), but her defining trait is that she refuses to eat humans — sustaining herself through long periods of sleep instead.

05

The series’ ultimate antagonist is the original demon — a creature who has walked the earth for over a thousand years, creating every other demon from his own blood. What is his name?




✓ Correct! Muzan Kibutsuji is the Demon King — created accidentally by a Heian-era doctor whose medicine overcame his terminal illness but turned him into an immortal monster. His lifelong obsession is curing his sunlight weakness. Akaza, Douma, and Kokushibo are all Upper Moon demons under his command — terrifying but all creations of Muzan himself.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Muzan Kibutsuji. Akaza (Upper Moon 3), Douma (Upper Moon 2), and Kokushibo (Upper Moon 1) are all fearsome Twelve Kizuki, but they’re Muzan’s creations — not the original demon. Muzan is the source of every demon in the story, and destroying him ends the demon curse forever.

06

The Mugen Train arc features Tanjiro being mentored by the cheerfully boisterous Flame Hashira — a man whose final words (“set your heart ablaze”) became a fandom rallying cry. What is his name?




✓ Correct! Kyojuro Rengoku — the Flame Hashira with the iconic yellow-and-red flame-haori and the signature “UMAI!” catchphrase — battles Upper Moon 3 Akaza in one of the series’ most devastating fights. His death and final speech to Tanjiro became one of the most emotionally impactful moments in modern anime.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is Kyojuro Rengoku. Giyu Tomioka is the Water Hashira (the stoic one who saves Tanjiro and Nezuko in episode 1), Tengen Uzui is the flamboyant Sound Hashira from the Entertainment District arc, and Gyomei Himejima is the gentle-giant Stone Hashira — the Corps’ strongest.

07

Demon Slayers wield Nichirin Blades — color-changing katanas forged from sun-infused ore. When a slayer first draws theirs, the blade takes on a color reflecting their breathing style. What color does Tanjiro’s blade turn?




✓ Correct! Tanjiro’s blade turns black — an extremely rare color associated in-universe with bad omens and the superstition that black-blade wielders don’t live long. The real reason, revealed later, is that black blades resonate with Sun Breathing, the original breathing style from which all others descend.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is black. Water Breathing typically produces blue (like Giyu’s), Mist Breathing produces a pale greenish-white, and Flame Breathing a vivid red-orange. Tanjiro’s pitch-black blade is considered unlucky — but it’s actually the mark of a Sun Breathing user, the rarest and most powerful style of all.

08

The 2020 anime film Demon Slayer: Mugen Train became a worldwide box-office phenomenon despite releasing in the middle of the pandemic. What record did it famously break in Japan?




✓ Correct! Mugen Train dethroned Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, which had held the Japanese box-office record for 19 years. Ufotable’s breathtaking animation of the Tanjiro-versus-Akaza battle, paired with Rengoku’s emotional farewell, turned a theatrical arc of the anime into the highest-grossing film in Japanese history.

✗ Demon deception! The answer is that it surpassed Spirited Away as Japan’s highest-grossing film ever. Mugen Train didn’t win an Oscar (though it was eligible) and hasn’t crossed $1 billion globally. But in Japan, it dethroned Miyazaki’s 2001 classic — a record many thought would stand forever.

Mission Complete · Scroll Sealed
Your Corps Rank

/ 8

Hashira-level expert — or still at Mizunoto?

Provided it follows a one-to-one adaptation of the manga like the first film, this will be followed by four male Hashira standing off with Kokushibo, arguably Demon Slayer‘s scariest demon. Nonetheless, on the sidelines, two important events are brewing.

On one hand, there will be Mitsuri and Obanai facing off against Nakime, who has them in an intentional stalemate. Mitsuri will have the chance at length to show off her unique identity as a fighter in a battle that is practically meant to showcase her skillset — a far cry from the series’ initial presentation of her as more light-hearted. She will be shown to be swift, tactical, and a valuable asset to the Slayer Corps; meanwhile, the sustained fight and high stakes will reveal more depth to her character and personality than she would have previously been allowed.

At the same time, Muzan is starting to emerge from his cocoon. This will be one of the most striking scenes of the film: his emergence holding Tamayo’s severed head as Tamayo pleads for her family’s life before he disintegrates her. Tamayo’s brutal death is a reminder of the fact that she chose to privilege her autonomy over her perceived allegiances as a demon to attempt to neutralize Muzan. It’s a reminder, too, of her narrative importance: the final arcs are only possible because of the drugs that she and Shinobu created.

Demon Slayer’s Female Cast Has Only Gotten Better With Time

Shinobu Kocho clutching her haori in Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Movie
Shinobu Kocho clutching her haori in Demon Slayer Infinity Castle Movie

The point here isn’t to establish a specific contrast with Demon Slayer‘s male cast — the men’s valiant efforts in the Kokushibo fight, for instance. There will be no question left about who Demon Slayer‘s strongest Hashira is. The point is rather to note how Infinity Castle Part 2 will express, in clearer terms than ever before, women’s macro and micro importance to Demon Slayer‘s narrative and themes.

For a long time, it seemed Demon Slayer had a problem with underwriting many of its female characters, leaving space for a few notable exceptions who were solid from the start, like Shinobu and Nezuko. The first several arcs would often sideline female characters or shoehorn them into comic relief or emotional support. That’s not even to touch the conversation of sexualization in Demon Slayer, which is simultaneously important and too involved to responsibly cover in this scope.

Demon Slayer's Tanjiro has his face covered in blood as he cries.

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However, there is a tide shift later in Demon Slayer‘s run. Especially starting with the Swordsmith Village arc, more of Demon Slayer‘s women are given the opportunity to develop more narratively commanding roles. What’s critical is that, while it won’t necessarily show that Demon Slayer always had a long con plan to bring more of its female characters to the forefront, Infinity Castle Part 2 will be a full-circle moment that forces fans to reassess their perception of Demon Slayer‘s female writing.

Although Demon Slayer is often lauded for its relative simplicity and face-value enjoyability, it will become abundantly clear that Demon Slayer‘s female characters have long been set up for long-term payoffs in the series’ final arcs. Meanwhile, having every beat other than the Kokushibo fight featuring one of Demon Slayer‘s strongest female characters gives them plenty of time in the spotlight to show how great Demon Slayer‘s writing of female characters can be.

Whether it’s through a fight that emphasizes Mitsuri’s unique strength and adaptability, a critical and crushing moment that shows Tamayo’s sacrifice and rebellion, or Kanao’s equal parts tearful and (understandably) sadistic victory over Doma, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 2 will showcase how its female cast is one of the franchise’s most consistent and important assets.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019) anime poster

Video Game(s)

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- Sweep the Board!, Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles

Cast

Natsuki Hanae, Akari Kitō, Hiro Shimono, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Kengo Kawanishi, Kana Hanazawa, Toshihiko Seki, Saori Hayami, Tomokazu Sugita

Created by

Koyoharu Gotouge


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