Kyojuro Rengoku: The Flame Hashira
I’m starting a sort of series, where I’d be talking about some of my favourite fictional characters. So yeah… enjoy? also… * spoiler alert *
With eyes that shine as bright as a thousand supernovae, and a demeanour capable of exorcising demons conjured in Benin city, Kyojuro Rengoku easily snatches my made up throne of the most iconic anime character I have ever seen.
Rengoku is a fictional character from the popular manga — Kimetsu No Yaiba (Demon Slayer). At a very shaky and confusing point in my life, stumbling across the brilliance of Rengoku’s character was a breath of fresh air. If I were to describe him with one word, it would be “unfettered,” because he is the most consolidated character I have ever seen — he simply knows what he wants to do, and does it with all his might. He walks, talks, eats, run, and swings his shiny red blade like his entire life depends on it. With a face that shines as bright as the sun, he is the greatest harmony between a character’s design, and its personality.
When we analyse his character from a moral viewpoint, Rengoku strikes me as a sort of perfect human. Immanuel Kant argued that morality must come from duty, rather than mere inclination, so I’m sure both Kant and I can agree that there has never been a more “good” character in all of fiction. He strikes me as the sort of guy that has never had a single doubt of his moral position in his life. Even as he cleaves the heads of demons from their body, he does so with the purest of wills. He does not kill demons out of vengeance or hate — he simply does so because it is the most natural thing to do. I remember the scene where those kids were incepting the dreams of Rengoku, Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke, with the aim of destroying their spiritual cores at the centre of their subconscious, and we got to see Rengoku’s spiritual core embedded in the midst of literal Hell fire, showing us that even subconsciously he burns the brightest, and harshest.
The beautiful thing is that we were made to understand that Rengoku’s flame, wasn’t always so fierce and dauntless. At a very young age, Rengoku experienced the loss of his mother, which led to the mental breakdown of his father, turning him from the Great Flame Hashira to a miserable, pathetic drunk. Witnessing his father and role model transition into such a sorry state wasn’t the end of his troubles as a child, he also had to endure growing up with his father’s constant verbal abuse and lack of acknowledgement, even after managing to become a Hashira himself. He also had to assume the role of a sort of guardian and mentor to his little brother, in order to dampen the trauma of growing up with a drunk and miserable deadbeat father. However, I would say that Rengoku’s flame was borne out of the words his mother said to him before her passing — “it is your duty as someone who was born strong to help those who were born less fortunate, that is your responsibility.” Those words were enough to ignite the flames that would eventually go on to save the lives of countless individuals in Taisho-era Japan from bloodthirsty demons.
One of his most iconic attacks that perfectly embodies his character is his “Flame Breathing First Form: Unknowing Fire” — a fire made for rendering to ashes any creature that opposes will of the blind and merciless Lady Justice. Rengoku’s pure will was evident in the strength of his attacks, and even his opponent, Akaza, recognised his strength and made remarks of how he was at the peak of swordsmanship, and that his only inhibition was the fact that he was human.
Kyojuro Rengoku strikes me as those sort of people who are just too good for this world. He shone too brightly, and burnt out too quickly. From a writing perspective, I think it was a good decision to make his presence very brief in the story, because the longer screen-time he would have gotten, the more inconsistent his character would have ended up. Giving him a honourable death, with a smile on his face and a glorious victory in battle, was the most correct thing to do. And the words he left behind in his final moment, are words to live by—
“If you are feeling disheartened, that you are somehow not enough, set your heart ablaze. Dry your eyes and look ahead. You may feel like digging your heels in, but the flow of time waits for no one. It won’t patiently stand by as you grieve.”
— Kyojuro Rengoku
One can only aspire to be like Rengoku, but it is — to me — simply impossible. But that’s the beauty of fiction — to show the impossible as possible, and inspire some obscure individual to reach for it. Reality may never be so straightforward, and sometimes it gets confusing and overwhelming, but always remember, to set your heart ablaze!
