Anime vs DC · Superhuman
Tanjiro Kamado vs The Joker
The Joker has never been understood by anyone. Tanjiro can smell exactly what he is feeling.
Tale of the tape
| Demon Slayer | Universe | DC |
|---|---|---|
| Superhuman | Tier | Street level |
| Sun Breathing and a nose that smells openings | Strength | Chaos, poison gas and a mind no one can predict |
| Too kind to demons | Weakness | Cannot resist making it a show |
| 2–2 | Record on Versus | 1–2 |
The Arena
Tanjiro Kamado came through a strange portal and smelled something terrible: laughter, gunpowder, poison and a deep, rotten sadness, all mixed together. He followed it to an abandoned carnival outside Gotham, where a man with green hair and a purple suit was setting up bombs under a Ferris wheel, humming to himself.
The Joker turned and saw the boy with the scar on his forehead and the black sword at his hip. “Well, well! A little samurai! Are you here for the show?” Tanjiro sniffed the air. “You smell like… you’re very sad,” he said quietly. “Underneath all of it.” The Joker’s smile froze for just a second.
Then it came back wider than before. “Sad? Me? I’m the happiest man in the world!” He pulled out a gun.
Round One
The Joker fired, and Tanjiro smelled the gunpowder a split second before the trigger was pulled and dodged. The Joker fired again, and again, and Tanjiro dodged every shot, then cut the gun in half with his sword. The Joker stared at the two halves of his gun, then laughed with delight.
He threw a bouquet of flowers that sprayed acid. Tanjiro smelled the acid and leapt away. He threw a pie full of laughing gas. Tanjiro held his breath, using his Total Concentration breathing, and the gas did nothing. The Joker clapped. “You’re no fun at all!”
He pressed a button, and the Ferris wheel began to move, every carriage rigged with explosives.
The Turn
“One minute!” the Joker sang, holding up the detonator. “Then the whole carnival goes boom, and you with it! Unless you can find the bombs, little samurai!” He laughed, certain no one could find twenty bombs hidden across an entire carnival in sixty seconds.
Tanjiro closed his eyes and smelled the air. He smelled the gunpowder in every bomb, each one a sharp, clear scent among the smell of old popcorn and rust. He opened his eyes and moved, using Water Breathing, flowing across the carnival like a river, cutting the wires of every bomb in twelve seconds.
The Joker stared at the detonator in his hand, then at the boy standing in front of him, holding twenty cut wires. For once, he did not laugh.
The Finish
The Joker pulled a knife from his sleeve and lunged. Tanjiro caught his wrist, twisted the knife out of his hand, and knocked him down with the flat of his blade. The Joker lay on the ground under the stopped Ferris wheel, looking up at the boy.
“Go on,” the Joker said, grinning again. “Finish it. That’s the punchline, isn’t it?” Tanjiro shook his head and sheathed his sword. “I only kill demons,” he said. “You’re not a demon. You’re just a person who’s very sad and very lost.” The Joker stared at him. Nobody had ever said that to him before.
Tanjiro tied him up with the carnival’s rope and left him for the police. As the sirens approached, the Joker lay there, unusually quiet. When Batman arrived, the Joker said only, “A kid told me I was sad.” Batman looked at him for a long time. “Were you?” The Joker laughed. But it was not quite the same laugh.
The verdict
Tanjiro Kamado wins
The Joker is unpredictable and deadly with tricks and bombs, but Tanjiro’s sense of smell detects every trap before it springs, his breathing resists the laughing gas, and he is far stronger in close combat.
- Sense of smellTanjiro smells every gun, acid trap and bomb.
- Total Concentration BreathingIt protects him from the laughing gas.
- SwordsmanshipHe outclasses the Joker in a fight.
How the rematch could go differently: A Joker who used odourless poison, something Tanjiro could not smell, would have a far better chance.
Who do you think wins?
Who would win in a fight between Tanjiro Kamado and The Joker?
Tanjiro Kamado wins. The Joker is unpredictable and deadly with tricks and bombs, but Tanjiro’s sense of smell detects every trap before it springs, his breathing resists the laughing gas, and he is far stronger in close combat.