In the anime and manga world of Demon Slayer, heroes Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Giyu are some of the best swordsmen around, with their unique Breathing Styles helping them to overcome the toughest of demonic enemies. And now, in an incredible stop-motion fan animation, their awesome powers are unleashed in epic fashion!
Posted on social media via Instagram, this isn't the first time username @hannibalsaikaku has made an incredible stop-motion animation video based on characters hailing from the anime and manga space.
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Painstakingly bringing to life heroes and villains from not just the world of Demon Slayer but Dragon Ball, Akira, Chainsaw Man, and more, @hannibalsaikaku is a "Stop Motion Animist" who consistently uploads clips that show off a set of creative skills that give the professional animators in the industry a run for their money, with this clip proving that point completely.
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Four members of the Demon Slayers Corps that need no introduction, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Giyu, are fan-favorite heroes that in the anime, command the epic power of Water/Sun Breathing, Thunder Breathing, Beast Breathing, and Water Breathing (again), respectively. Beautifully animated in the show whenever one of these forms comes about, @hannibalsaikaku has not only successfully captured the spirit of these characters in this clip, but ends up rivaling the anime's take on them and their epic powers too!
Animating modified mini Nendoroid figures, @hannibalsaikaku starts the clip off with Tanjiro facing down a terrified anthropomorphic kiwifruit. Drawing an Opening Thread on the poor piece of fruit, Tanjiro next unleashes his Water Breathing technique, with @hannibalsaikaku's beautiful rendering of it matching the anime's style and fluidity nearly perfectly. Moving onto Zenitsu, @hannibalsaikaku animates him in his usual zonked-out state, showing him unleashing his Thunder Breathing ability on the poor fruit with a quick slice of blinding lighting. Showing Inosuke using his Beast Breathing next, @hannibalsaikaku adds a bit of patented Inosuke humor to the sequence before animating him chopping the kiwifruit clean in half. Finishing things off with Giyu, @hannibalsaikaku doesn't show him using any of his Water Breathing forms, as expected, but instead has him nonchalantly cut the kiwifruit in two with a quick, almost unnoticeable swipe of his blade.
But that's not all! At the end of the clip, @hannibalsaikaku gives fans a peek at the creative process behind this video, showing how much hard work and dedication is needed to pull off a piece as visually stunning and intricately animated as this one. Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Giyu are four iconic Demon Slayer characters that have more than their fair share of fanart floating around the nerd community, but after seeing what @hannibalsaikaku is capable of, the bar has been raised considerably.
Source: @hannibalsaikaku