Demon Slayer: All Upper Moon Demons Explained

In Demon Slayer, the man-eating demons crawl through the night, finding their next meal. These demons have superhuman strength and the potential to develop special abilities called “blood demon arts”.

Only elite demons can use these, and many of them work for the King of Demons, Muzan Kibutsuji. His army of demons also has a ranking system, called the twelve Kizuki.

Demons with ranks 1-6 are the strongest demons in the world. In this article, we’re going to take a look at these Upper Moons!

Upper 6 – Daki and Gyutaro:

Introduced in the Entertainment District Arc, Daki and Gyutaro are siblings who work together.

While Gyutaro, the guy is the true upper 6 demon, his sister Daki is the face. She’s quite strong as well, which allows Gyutaro to remain hidden and help her.

Over a century ago, Daki and Gyutaro were human children, belonging to the lowest class of the Entertainment District.

They were killed by Doma, who was the Upper-Rank Six Demon at the time. The siblings still love each other dearly, hence they stick together.

Upper 5 – Gyokko:

Gyokko is one of the weirdest-looking demons in the series, with a legless body that comes out of a decorated pot.

His face is completely disoriented, with mouths where eyes should be, eyes on his forehead and chin.

He has tiny arms that fall off his head and other parts of his body.

While he is extremely sadistic, he seems to get along with other demons well.

Gyokko has a distinct combat technique where he summons numerous fish-like demons possessing diverse abilities.

Furthermore, he possesses the power to teleport between his pots, utilizing them to ensnare his targets or launch surprise attacks with his strong and long tentacles.

In addition, Gyokko has a true form in which his appearance becomes more humanoid and his body acquires scales, enabling him to engage in more conventional forms of combat.

Upper 4 – Hantengu:

Hantengu is a short, frail man with a skeletal body covered with veins and wrinkles, usually seen kneeling.

His most distinguishing characteristic is the big bulge on top of his head, which is complemented by two curving horns.

During his life as a human, he was a despicable and irredeemable man. Stealing, lying, and cheating were part of his daily routine.

After being caught by the police, he started playing innocent by pushing the blame on them.

Muzan appears just before he is about to die and makes him a demon; thus, Hantengu the demon was born.

Being an upper-rank four, Hantengu is extremely powerful, and his blood demon art is called emotional manifestation.

It allows him to manifest any and all emotions he is feeling. The kanji for manifested emotion gets etched on the tongue of the demon.

In the series, we see him manifest about six emotions: fear, anger, pleasure, sorrow, joy, hatred, and resentment. Each of these manifest demons holds power equivalent to that of an upper-rank demon.

To know about these forms in detail, you can read our in-depth article about Hantengu’s powers! 

Upper 3 – Akaza:

Making his appearance in the Mugen Train Arc, Akaza became an extremely infamous character after killing Rengoku, the Flame Hashira.

Akaza is also a sort of a brat, hating Doma and throwing tantrums, sort of. He also has an inferiority complex towards both Doma and Kokushibo.

His problem with Doma stems from their different stances on eating. Akaza never eats women due to his memories from when he was a human, while Doma prefers to eat women almost exclusively.

Having killed Rengoku, the Flame Hashira, there’s no doubt that Akaza is very strong.

He is a pure brawler, with even his blood demon art, Destructive Death being centered around Martial Arts.

However, being the Upper 3, he is special. His willpower allowed him to even survive being beheaded!

Upper 2 – Doma:

Doma is arguably the most hated character by the series’ cast. Literally, nobody, including Muzan likes him!

Doma is a psychopath who has zero empathy towards humans and instead fakes it to get a thrill and then kills them.

He even runs a large cult, where people worship him as their god.

Doma is also the reason for the death of Gyutaro and Daki, Shinbou’s sister, and Inosuke’s mother.

His Blood Demon Art, Cryokinesis allows him to generate ice and frost from his flesh and blood. He can even create figures made of ice that can fight independently without affecting his strength!

This makes almost all fights too easy for him, however, he prefers to toy with his opponents.

Upper 1 – Kokushibo:

Kokushibo is the Upper rank 1 demon, making him the second-strongest demon after Muzan, King of Demons.

He became a demon nearly 500 years ago, during the Sengoku Era.

The Sengoku Era is revered as the “Golden Age of Demon Slayers,” as during this era, the breathing style was invented by Yoriichi Tsugikuni, the strongest demon slayer.

In his human life, he was a hard-working and ambitious demon slayer who wanted to become the strongest swordsman.

This hard work and ambition made him the second-strongest swordsman after his younger brother Yoriichi.

Formerly known as Michikatsu Tsugikuni, he was the elder brother of Yoriichi and was jealous of his brother’s growth, strength, and achievements.

Unlike Yoriichi, Michikatsu was not born with a demon slayer mark and awakened it later in his life.

Michikatsu wished to become an ideal samurai. In this quest, he became obsessed with strength, which was further clouded by his jealousy of his brother.

In order to pursue strength, he accepted Muzan’s blood and became a demon.

After becoming a demon, he used his blood demon art to augment his moon-breathing techniques, creating Crescent Moon Blades.

This made his attack much more powerful than when used without Blood Demon Art.

Though it is unclear how many breathing technique forms he developed as a human and as a demon separately, each form was supplemented with his Blood Demon Art.

After becoming a demon, he kept using his Nichirin Blade and modified it with his own demonic blood and flesh.

Even in the end, Kokushibo only lost because he let himself die, cementing him as one of the strongest characters in the series!