Demon Slayer's Ending, Explained: Chapter 205 and the Anime

Demon Slayer's manga ended on May 18, 2020, when its 205th chapter ran in that year's 24th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump. Muzan dies at sunrise, Tanjiro is turned into a demon and brought back, the survivors go home, and the last chapter jumps generations ahead to modern Japan. The anime has not reached any of it. As of October 7, 2026, one film of the three-film Infinity Castle adaptation has been released, and the second has no announced date.

What happens at the end

The last fight is a holding action against the clock. In CBR's summary of the ending, the Hashira and the Demon Slayers fight Muzan for as long as they can, helped by Tamayo's plan to drug him beforehand, and Gyomei, Sanemi, Giyu and Obanai struggle to keep him in place as the sun is about to rise. Nezuko has already become human again, in chapter 196 by CBR's count. Muzan swallows Tanjiro, and as the Demon King tries to escape the incoming rays, Tanjiro strikes him from within his own body. CBR places Muzan's death at the start of chapter 200.

Muzan does not end quietly. As ComicBook.com explained when chapter 204 ran, he implanted his genes within Tanjiro to turn him into the perfect demon, and two chapters later Tanjiro freed himself in a mental battle in which he imagined his sister and friends supporting him. CBR describes the same struggle: a disembodied Muzan tries to make Tanjiro reject his humanity, and Tanjiro escapes with the support of his friends and allies. Tamayo does not survive the war; CBR counts her among the dead, alongside almost every Hashira and Ubuyashiki and his family.

Chapter 204 explains the cure and counts the cost. ComicBook.com reported that it takes place three months after the battle, and Yushiro has told Tanjiro how he came back: Tamayo's antidote had left Nezuko with antibodies, and because she was the one Tanjiro bit, he took those antibodies into himself. His right eye and left arm, restored while he was a demon, are left unusable now that he is human. CBR notes that Giyu and Sanemi are the last two Hashira still in action, and that there are more characters dead than left standing. Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu and Inosuke head to the Kamado family home.

The pages added in the final volume

The 23rd and final Japanese volume was promoted with 14 new epilogue pages that it did not contain. Anime News Network reported that Koyoharu Gotouge apologized, and that the volume instead reinserts an eight-page and a six-page section cut during serialization, alongside illustrations, eight pages of special manga and an afterword. ComicBook.com's account of the extended finale places the added pages at the end of chapter 204: as Tanjiro and Nezuko find their way home, they see the spirits of their lost family, and the four clean the old house together. VIZ's English edition of volume 23 was released on August 3, 2021.

Chapter 205: the modern-day epilogue

The final chapter jumps generations ahead. CBR summarizes it as opening on Yoshiteru, Zenitsu and Nezuko's great-grandchild, reading a book titled The Legend of Zenitsu and telling his sister Toko that he believes everyone who fought demons and died for a peaceful world was reborn into a happier life. CBR calls that hope the backbone of the chapter. Two Kamado brothers, Kanata and Sumihiko, are introduced first, and CBR notes that their appearance makes clear they are Kanao and Tanjiro. Reincarnated Hashira and descendants appear around them: CBR mentions a diner run by Iguro and Kanroji, which it reads as Obanai and Mitsuri getting their wish of being together in another life, and Yushiro, still alive and known as a mysterious artist who paints portraits of Tamayo. Near the end, as Sumihiko's mother takes a phone call, CBR describes Tanjiro's sword, his earrings and a photo of those who assisted and survived in the battle against Muzan.

Why end in the present day

Not everyone accepted the jump. ComicBook.com's Nick Valdez wrote that the hard cut to new characters left the finale a little unsatisfying, with not enough conclusion for the main cast. That objection has force: chapter 205 gives a survivor like Zenitsu a great-grandchild before it gives him much of a later life.

Our reading is that the cut answers Muzan rather than skipping the cast. His last act, in ComicBook.com's account, is to plant his genes in Tanjiro and make him the perfect demon: one body to carry on what Muzan was. The epilogue offers the human version of continuing: children, great-grandchildren and the hope of rebirth, none of it requiring anyone to last forever. Yushiro is the exception that tests the idea. He is still alive in the modern chapter, and what he does with the decades, in CBR's account, is paint the woman he lost. One reading is that his survival looks like grief that never got to end, and that the ordinary school morning around him is the thing the Corps actually won.

Where the anime stands

The Hashira Training Arc TV series ended with its eighth episode on June 30, 2024, and was followed by the announcement of a film trilogy adapting the Infinity Castle arc. A December 2024 press release listed on ANN's encyclopedia page called the first film part of a trilogy that will conclude the story. That film, Infinity Castle - Akaza Sairai, opened in Japan on July 18, 2025 and in the U.S. and Canada on September 12. ANN's review describes Zenitsu and Shinobu reaching the climax of their arcs and a rematch between Tanjiro and Akaza with Giyu fighting alongside, and calls the film the start of the climax.

So the defeat of Muzan, Tanjiro's turn, the return home and chapter 205 all remain unadapted. In February 2026 ufotable's promotional reel listed the second film among its future projects without a date. When we checked the official Demon Slayer site on October 7, 2026, it still showed no release date for the second film. For the order of the seasons and films so far, see the Demon Slayer watch order; the checked lines from the series are on the Demon Slayer quotes page and the Tanjiro page.