Tanjiro Kamado vs Musashi Miyamoto

[Sir_Ovens]

In a forest somewhere, a boy carries his little sister on his back. His destination is a village over yonder, past the humid vegetation. His goal was to bring medication, which he held in his arms, to aid the village in their time of war.

"We're almost there, Nezuko!"

The boy finally makes it out of the forest, finding himself at the entrance of the village.

"We made it!" He exclaimed in glee.

The boy ran forward, making it inside the village. However, his delight soon turned into horror as he witnessed the sight of dead bodies strewn everywhere, and buildings damaged beyond repair. At the center of all this chaos and destruction, was a lone man wielding a sword.

"Sigh... Yet another fruitless venture." The man said to himself.

Upon the boy coming into earshot, the man turned around. His eyes widened, as the image of a grand feast appeared before his very eyes.

"Ohoho! An exquisite meal has brought itself to me."

The image the boy saw, was far from palpable, however. He saw the image of a grotesque demon, far larger than himself. Its fangs, baring themselves at him. This creature masqueraded as a man, but it was far more sinister.

On instinct, the boy tossed his sister aside and readied his blade.

"You're a Demon, aren't you!?"

The man scratched his chin.

"Man? Demon? Does it matter what you are if one can fight? Come little one, the feast will grow cold if not eaten at once!"

And with that, they charged with their swords.
​

---

Post-Pillar Training Tanjiro and Base Musashi. Speed equalized. Victory via SBA.

 

[DaReaperMan]

Ya'll already know Musashi outskills because Baki is stupid, so what does Tanjiro have?

Battle Spirit (Overwhelming Aura that causes the opponent fear and paralysis with them feeling the air getting heavier, and can even cause internal bleeding and external lacerations)

sigh stomp. Next.

 

[Razor]

Musashi has an aura himself, I Don't know which one is more potent though.

 

[DaReaperMan]

Musashi has an aura himself, I Don't know which one is more potent though.

It isn't passive fear and paralysis. It's frankly kinda shit.

 

[Razor]

Damn, Looks like tanjiro stomps then

It isn't passive fear and paralysis. It's frankly kinda shit.

 

[LordGinSama]

Does Tanjiro have StW? If he does then Musashi isn't hitting him even with his skill advantage, his precognition with that ability is downright busted.

 

[DaReaperMan]

He has it by 4th key

 

[Hl3_or_bust]

Aura shit in Baki is like 99% AP-dependent, as in it only ever works on nameless fodder, with the only exception being Yujiro because of course.

Anyways, as for the actual fight:

• Tanjiro's precog is not winning this for him. Musashi can directly sense the electrical impulses within someone's brain, to the point that he was able to surprise Baki who way, way, way earlier in the series can predict exactly how a fight will happen, including his own mistakes and near-losses. This is opposed to Tanjiro being able to smell intentions and using this to form metaphorical lines for his sword to follow, which are noted in-universe as being pretty shitty forms of prediction and directly resisted by Musashi, and See-Through-World, which while definitely good is not on Musashi's level.
• AP-wise, I'd say Musashi has the edge here. KnY 8-A is due to very high upscaling from an 8-B+ feat, while Baki 8-A comes from two characters simply being angry, not even actually attacking anything directly. Obviously these are both in fairly nebulous areas but it shouldn't be hard to understand why I'd consider Musashi to have some advantage still.
• Now onto the big shit, abilities:
  • Tanjiro is absolutely no slouch when it comes to abilities. While it's in truth all just sword techniques, the sheer variety is definitely something to consider. And this is all on top of predictive capabilities that could, theoretically, throw off Musashi for a brief moment, especially with his fascination with more modern fighting styles. However, there are a few caveats: firstly, the stat amps from Breaths are wildly misleading, because he's constantly using those to fight literally anybody, so those are integrated into his normal tiering. And secondly, he cannot maintain See-Through-World for every long, even at the absolute peak of his ability, and "coming down" from it makes him even more vulnerable due to the lack of oxygen, potentially turning one of his only true advantages into a suicide tactic.
  • Musashi, meanwhile, is a lot shorter and simple in terms of his abilities. Simply put, he is way more skilled than Tanjiro, as much as I do like Tanjiro after he quits being a ******* tool but that's besides the point. Additionally, Tanjiro has no real way to counter Sword Simulation, given that it works on people with both better sensory capabilities and better pain resistance than him. There are two issues, however: the first being Musashi's fascination with modern fighting styles, and the fact that he's likely to initially dismiss all the Breath stuff as a magic show or something of that nature. Secondly, while Musashi does grow in power as he fights, it is not as fast as Tanjiro by any stretch, meaning that a drawn out fight could potentially lead to him getting overwhelmed

Overall, despite Musashi's dismissal of modern fighting styles that tends to cause him a lot of trouble, I don't see Tanjiro winning. Musashi could only really lose if he somehow lets the fight go on for a while, while also never noticing that Tanjiro is getting stronger and faster and reacting accordingly.

 

[Razor]

Wouldn't Tanjiro's aura just win him the fight? I apologize for ignoring the wall of text you wrote but how is Musashi bypassing Tanjiro's aura if his aura only works on fodders?

 

[Hl3_or_bust]

because that's also the case with Tanjiro's aura

aura fuckery in both KnY and Baki, and really most fighting manga in general, is only there to hype up future enemies as insanely strong for the moment or to show how normal people see the fuckery going on

 

[Hl3_or_bust]

in fact, the aura could even technically not exist, and just be the viewer's senses going nuts because it's fully aware that the thing in front of them could easily kill them. Afterall, humans tend to become delusional or irrational in the face of life-or-death situations

 

[Razor]

because that's also the case with Tanjiro's aura

aura fuckery in both KnY and Baki, and really most fighting manga in general, is only there to hype up future enemies as insanely strong for the moment or to show how normal people see the fuckery going on

Ah icic, Voting musashi for reasons above then

 

[Nierre]

Following

 

[Yobo_Blue]

Also of note. It’s not on profile because our Baki profiles are part downplayed, part wank, and part just outdated, but Musashi also has the skill to deceive prediction by sending false information about his actions. Baki was able to evolve and use his own prediction against him and ended up falling flat on his face because Musashi‘s skill made it so that prediction ability was more of a hindrance than a bonus

 

[Yobo_Blue]

because that's also the case with Tanjiro's aura

aura fuckery in both KnY and Baki, and really most fighting manga in general, is only there to hype up future enemies as insanely strong for the moment or to show how normal people see the fuckery going on

I think if anything Musashi has better feats of dealing with aura, since Yujiro’s is so strong it causes earthquakes and causes biological reactions, and Musashi faced him at his strongest in Demon Back without flinching, despite being aware of his power

 

[Sir_Ovens]

Bump.