Demon Slayer is one of the most popular anime of all time, being full to the brim with gorgeous animation, memorable characters, and breathtaking action sequences that are a joy to watch. The incredible production quality of Demon Slayer is its biggest strength and the reason why it's attained just a massive worldwide following in the first place, showing just how popular a show can become if the effort put into animating it is in a class of its own.
Viewers love the many flashy and exciting Breathing Styles that are quite engaging to witness, with each style requiring a ton of practice and finesse to execute flawlessly. Users of these Breathing Styles can take on powerful demons and fight to survive in a world ravaged by these bloodthirsty beasts. The master of each Style is called a Hashira, who are introduced right after the Mount Natagumo arc where Tanjiro engaged in a battle for the ages against one of the Lower Kizuki members, Rui.
This arc sees the introduction of Shinobu Kocho, who uses a particularly unique Breathing Style called Insect Breathing. Instead of powerful swings and the like, this Breathing Style actually uses a mix of quick stabs and thrusts along with the use of poison made by wisteria to incapacitate demons without expending a ton of strength. The forms aren't numbered either, and all the techniques in Insect Breathing are mentioned below.
4 Butterfly Dance: Caprice
The simplest technique in Insect Breathing shows the strengths of this style without any compromises whatsoever. These techniques were made by Shinobu just to make up for her lack of raw power, ensuring that she can hold her own weight in battle and absolutely decimate the opposition without too many issues. With focused hits from a sword laced with poison, Butterfly Dance: Caprice can be quite deadly if used correctly.
This technique involves the user leaping into the air and lunging at the opponent, stabbing them with consecutive thrusts and incapacitating the target with the poison applied by each hit. Shinobu's strength may not be anything to write home about, but her agility makes Insect Breathing perfect for such a talented swordswoman. Any other user who isn't fast enough needs to either shift to a different style or hone their speed since this technique would be useless in their hands otherwise.
3 Dance Of The Bee Sting: True Flutter
While multiple strikes are a great way to ensure that a user's poison has the maximum effectiveness in battle, there are times when a demon has such thick skin that using low-powered strikes to pierce their skin can be easier said than done. Thankfully, there's a great technique that Shinobu can pull off against tougher demons, called Dance of the Bee Sting: True Flutter.
This move requires a ton of speed that is built up over time, allowing the user to build up a ton of momentum that adds even more force to a single. focused strike. If executed properly, then this technique will stab most opponents with ease and inject a massive dose of poison that will leave most demons down for the count. Once again, this move is pretty tactical and bridges the gap for users who don't boast a ton of strength.
2 Dance Of The Dragonfly: Compound Eye Hexagon
Insect Breathing is a tactical Breathing Style that requires a user with high intelligence to pull off. Thankfully, Shinobu more than fits the bill here, with her medical knowledge allowing her to create deadly poisons and figure out a target's weakness, allowing her to use minimal effort to defeat her enemies. However, there are times when a particular demon can be pretty threatening and endanger Shinobu's life, causing her to go into overdrive and whip out some of the tougher moves in her arsenal.
Dance of the Dragonfly: Compound Eye Hexagon involves six strikes, all of which are meant to target the weak points of a target. This move is carried out in a bid to guarantee that a target is injected with enough poison to completely take them out, but requires surgical precision to be carried out efficiently. Thankfully, Shinobu is an accomplished warrior who can certainly pull this move off with ease... although a particularly crafty enemy can still avoid this technique if they're skilled enough, which won't be the case in the majority of instances.
1 Dance Of The Centipede: Hundred-Legged Zigzag
There are times when demon slayers will encounter enemies who are so strong that trying to take them out requires a herculean effort. This means that someone who lacks raw power like Shinobu needs to play to her strengths to eliminate this foe with her poison. This is where Dance of the Centipede: Hundred-Legged Zigzag comes into play, with the user pushing their speed all the way to the max just so they can land that one decisive blow against their opponent.
Shinobu moves in a zig-zag pattern in this technique, with the main aim being to confuse the opponent and not let them know where the strike is coming from. The biggest strength of Insect Breathing is that a single hit is all it takes for an enemy to be taken out, and the main purpose of the movement in this technique is to force an opening that the user can exploit to fatally stab an enemy in the neck.