The Demon Slayer anime has always been an emotionally charged shonen adventure, with strong personal drama and heartbreaking moments defining many of the best arcs and shaping the characters into who they are. The first example was Tanjiro Kamado's reaction to Muzan slaughtering his family one night in 1913, and as more characters appeared in Demon Slayer, they too explained their tragic origins stories. Tanjiro slowly got used to hearing about his fellow demon slayers' past suffering, from Kyojuro dealing with his father's bitter skepticism to the Shinazugawa brothers' own family slaughter when their mother turned into a demon.

That said, Tanjiro was still in for a shock when he heard about the Stone Hashira's own origins before he joined the Demon Slayer Corps. It soon became clear why Gyomei Himejima's backstory was saved for last, considering its thematic weight and emotional impact, and that revelation helped reframe this character for the remainder of the Hashira training story arc. In a few key ways, Gyomei's backstory adds much-needed depth to his character and the entire Demon Slayer anime.

Gyomei Himejima's Past Matters Because It Shows Humanity's Dark Side

For the most part, Demon Slayer's narrative is content to use a black and white morality system, with demon slayers always being noble heroes who do the right thing and the demons always being terrible, evil monsters who must be slain. It's true that the anime does some line blurring with the deeply buried humanity in each demon, which adds a little nuance to this otherwise straightforward shonen narrative, such as Daki's vulnerable side and even the hand demon's sympathetic side.

That is why Tanjiro often cries for demons when they are dying, but now the line-blurring is happening in another way. Gyomei Himejima's backstory did the vital job of not just showing the humanity in monsters, but showing the monsters in humanity. That makes the narrative more balanced and even more intriguing than it already was.

Like his fellow Hashira, Gyomei treated anime fans to a shonen-style flashback sequence, this one taking place near the end of Demon Slayer's fourth and most recent season. In his teens, Gyomei Himejima was a gentle giant, a tough and kind teenage boy who spent his days caring for a small handful of young orphans who had nowhere else to go. The good-hearted Gyomei trusted those young boys and girls with all his heart, and in his mind, they were a proper family built on trust, cooperation.

The children evidently felt the same way, but when a challenge came along, one boy showed his true colors in the worst way possible. The boy, cornered by a demon one night, bargained for his life and sold out Gyomei's humble orphanage. As he was told, the boy took apart Gyomei's defenses, then allowed the demon inside. The children were butchered, and an alarmed Gyomei finally leaped into action, beating the demon repeatedly until the morning sun finally rose to destroy it for good.

One young girl did survive, but she actually saw Gyomei as the real monster, her traumatized mind mixing up the facts. That was why the little girl reported all this to the authorities in terms of Gyomei being the real instigator, and the authorities believed her. Gyomei was arrested and would have been executed if it weren't for Kagaya Ubuyashiki's interference. Thus, Gyomei's flashback story added an important new angle to Demon Slayer's existing themes.

The line between human and monster was blurred in an entirely new way, with a human boy cruelly sacrificing his fellow orphans in exchange for his own life, and a traumatized, confused girl painting the noble Gyomei as the murderer rather than the demon. This practically subverts Demon Slayer's current narrative, with demons having sympathetic humanity buried deep down while humans all had a demonic side buried in them, too. If there's good to be found in evil, then there's evil to be found in good, and Gyomei learned that the hard way.

Gyomei's Past Matters Because It Explains How He Fights and Thinks Today

The Hashiras' flashbacks tend to explain exactly how and why those characters ended up acting and thinking the way they do today, from Mitsuri Kanroji's theme of self-acceptance to Muichiro Tokito's walled-off heart in response to the pain of losing his family members one by one. The same is true for Gyomei Himejima, but not just for the sake of getting to know his complete story.

Demon Slayer fans needed to learn Gyomei's full backstory so they could see why Gyomei was skeptical of the Kamados at first and why he, of all people, practices the fighting style known as repetitive action. Another user of repetitive action is Genya Shinazugawa, who learned it from Gyomei himself. Gyomei's backstory was a harrowing and heartbreaking one, an experience that left a permanent mark on his psyche. This had two effects, with the first being Gyomei's general skepticism of other people.

Gyomei may not be misanthropic or bitterly cynical, but his experiences still taught him that people won't always do what they way, and people are capable of breaking their vows or lying for selfish reasons. Gyomei saw that for himself when he realized that one of the orphans had allowed that demon into the small orphanage in exchange for being spared, so today, Gyomei wants people to prove that they are trustworthy heroes, not just say so.

That's why Gyomei was skeptical of the Kamados until he heard about Tanjiro risking Nezuko's death to fulfill his promise to protect the swordsmith villagers. The other major effect was Gyomei getting a proper subject for his use of repetitive action. This particular technique is different than conventional breathing styles because it is based on not only repeating the same action many times, but emotionally fueling oneself with an intense memory.

In Gyomei's case, he thinks of the orphans' slaughter when using repetitive action, granting him immense strength so he can push a huge boulder along the ground. Only someone with a backstory like Gyomei's could introduce such a technique in Demon Slayer's anime, and thanks to Gyomei's efforts, characters like Genya and Tanjiro started using it themselves to push their abilities to the next level.

Gyomei's Past Matters Because It Explains His Crying Monk Aesthetic

For some time now, Demon Slayer fans had wondered why the biggest, strongest Hashira was always in tears. At the time, fans could have surmised that Gyomei was crying because, like many of his fellow demon slayers, he had suffered personal losses either in his backstory or in his line of work. No doubt many demon slayers have lost friends or family members, with such losses spurring them further in their careers. But then again, the other eight Hashira were not seen in perpetual tears.

Instead, Shinobu Kocho hid her vengeful rage under her gentle exterior, and Kyojuro and Mitsuri were outwardly cheerful and optimistic no matter their hardships and losses. So, there must have been a special reason why Gyomei alone spent most of his time in tears. Gyomei's backstory was explored at the last minute before the final battle against Muzan Kibutsuji and the Upper Moons could begin, filling in the missing pieces at last.

Gyomei's backstory not only answers the question about his mysterious tears, but also explains how he became so powerful. His losses were serious even compared to what the other Hashira have been through, and he chose to put those emotional scars to good use, hence his tears. Gyomei didn't bury his painful past -- he keeps it at the fore of his mind, fueling his repetitive action to strengthen himself. It may be emotionally taxing to do so, hence Gyomei's constant tears about those memories, but he deems it necessary.

That proves how far he will go to fulfill his duty as the strongest of the nine Hashira. As for his monk aesthetic, that's more ambiguous, but there are a few details to latch onto that may help explain this theme. Gyomei ghose Buddhist chants to help focus his repetitive action, so he might as well dress the part of a monk, complete with thick beads and his frequent posture for prayer, his hands clapped together.

Gyomei's monk aesthetic might also represent endless self-sacrifice and denying himself worldly comfort to fulfill a loftier cause, because instead of burying his memories to recover, he uses this tear-inducing memories to power his repetitive action. Mons will sacrifice anything, happiness and comfort included, to do what is expected of them, and Gyomei Himejima is much the same way, tears and all.