Kyojuro Rengoku

Kyojuro Rengoku is a character from Koyoharu Gotoge's manga and anime series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. He is prominently featured in the 2020 film Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, which adapts the manga's arc of the same name and a direct sequel of the anime's first season.

Kyojuro is one of the "Hashira", a collective name for the most powerful swordsmasters of the Demon Slayer Corps. He holds the position of "Flame Hashira" which is appropriately evoked in his design, having messy yellow-orange hair with red highlights and eyes, and using fire-based sword breathing techniques in battle. Furthermore, his family name Rengoku literally means "purgatory", a location in several religions which is commonly associated with flames.

Rengoku's starring role in the Mugen Train feature film, which despite being released during the COVID-19 pandemic became the highest-grossing animated film and Japanese film of all time, has led to his standing as a breakout character in the Demon Slayer fandom.

Mugen Train Plot (spoilers) However, just as they were about to regroup, a demon named Akaza -- "Upper Rank Three" of the "Twelve Kizuki" which makes him the 4th-strongest known demon in existence -- suddenly appears and tries to attack Tanjiro, but Kyojuro protects the boy and fights Akaza on a one-one-one duel that lasted until sunrise, repeatedly refusing the latter's offers of turning into a demon along the way. The fight ultimately ends in Rengoku's defeat despite unleashing his strongest techniques. Mortally wounded, Kyojuro chooses to spend his last moments with Tanjiro and Inosuke, and dies smiling. News of the Flame Hashira's death was immediately delivered afterwards to the shock of his family and the Demon Slayer Corps.

Kyojuro is an example of a major character death that greatly influenced the story and its characters, which combined with his noble personality is one of the main factors behind his popularity among fans.

Icons

ISML
Kyojuro was successfully nominated for International Saimoe League's 2021 edition with 24 votes, behind Tanjiro (75) and Zenitsu (28). However, that year's peculiar nominee selection process resulted in the latter two becoming re-assigned for its Winter and Spring seasonal respectively, since they appeared in the series' supplementary material (Tanjiro) and the movie release (Zenitsu). As a result, Kyojuro became the series' main contestant in the 2021 main tournament.

With much of the Demon Slayer fandom behind him, Rengoku posted fairly strong results in the early periods, placing 2nd in Split 1 behind Saitama. He then placed 7th in Split 2, posting 3 wins in each period, which also got him his first exhibition gem appearance in Sapphire where he placed 6th.

At that point however, Kyojuro's presence started fizzling out like a dying flame as he barely survived in the second wildcard round, placing 7th out of the maximum 8 survivors. The Flame Pillar then lost his first 4 matches in Split 3, and scored a very rare tied result against Nasa Yuzaki in the 5th match, which proved to be the death sentence for both guys' chances of tournament survival. Indeed, both were eliminated at the first possible opportunity when they failed to score even one win after Diamond 2 (split 3, round 12).

Main Tournament
Overall record:
 * Regular season: 15-19-1 (W-L-T)
 * Postseason: 0-1-0
 * Total: 15-20-1

Exhibitions
Exhibition Gem record:
 * 2021 (Ring): Sapphire (6th), Emerald (2nd), Ruby (4th), Diamond (4th)

r/anime
Likewise, Kyojuro is also one of the most popular characters from the Demon Slayer series, mainly because of his one standout fight during the Mugen Train film. He first appeared in Best Guy 8 as the #5 seed, the highest out of all demon slayers (even exceeding Tanjiro who's at #8). Rengoku's last three opponents coincidentally pitted him against Re:Zero characters, defeating cat familiar Puck and merchant Otto Suwen before losing to MC Subaru in the last-16.

Best Guy 8 - seed 5
 * (508) Kaoru Kurita @ Wonder Egg Priority -- 527 - 107
 * (252) Yuutarou Katori @ The Brave of Sun Fighbird -- 533 - 206
 * (124) Yuki Sohma @ Fruits Basket -- 507 - 425
 * (69) Puck @ Re:Zero -- 584 - 487
 * (28) Otto Suwen @ Re:Zero -- 640 - 475
 * (12) Subaru Natsuki @ Re:Zero -- 463 - 765

Honours

 * FB Anime vote fanpage Best Character 2022 (FB link)
 * FB @Anime RQ Husbandos 4.0