Thunder Breathing, First Form.

There are several “Forms” of breathing styles used by the Demon Slayers.

For example, the Thunder Breathing used by 我妻善逸(Zenitsu Agatsuma) has the “Thunder Breathing, First Form. Thunderclap and Flash”.
In Japanese, it’s called “雷の呼吸 壱ノ型 霹靂一閃” (Kaminari no Kokyu Ichi no Kata Hekireki Issen).

Demon Slayer Season 1 Episode 17
You Must Master a Single Thing (ひとつのことを極め抜け)

In this article, I will explain the translation of “First Form”.

Prerequisite knowledge

How to write ordinal numbers

English	Japanese
first	1番目
second	2番目
third	3番目
fourth	4番目
fifth	5番目
sixth	6番目
seventh	7番目
eighth	8番目
ninth	9番目
tenth	10番目

How to write cardinal numbers

Arabic	English	Japanese numerals	Traditional(Formal) Japanese numerals (It’s called “大字”(Daiji).)
0	zero	〇	零
1	one	一	壱
2	two	二	弐
3	three	三	参
4	four	四	肆
5	five	五	伍
6	six	六	陸
7	seven	七	漆
8	eight	八	捌
9	nine	九	玖
10	ten	十	拾

Make English closer to the original Japanese text

1番目の型

This is the literal translation of “First Form”.

As it is, it means the first of many sword techniques.

Since it is not written in Japanese characters, it does not convey any further meaning to an English speaker.

一番目の型

In Japanese, there are two ways to write numbers: Arabic numerals and Japanese (kanji) numerals.
In other words, the “1番目の型” can be written as “一番目の型”.

This makes it more like Japanese language.

壱番目の型

Moreover, there is a traditional notation for Japanese (kanji) numerals.
In other words, the “一番目の型” can be written as “壱番目の型”.

This makes it more like traditional Japanese language.

The time setting of this anime is a slightly older Japan. Furthermore, the art of demon killing was passed down from much earlier times.

壱の型

Furthermore, let’s remove the “番目” from this word.
In other words, the “壱番目の型” can be written as “壱の型”.

If you remove this word, you would think that it would lose its meaning as an ordinal number, but it does work in Japanese.

However, in Japanese, it does make sense.
In fact, it is more like a noun, and Japanese people feel it is a cool name for a special move.

壱ノ型

Finally, let’s rewrite it like this.
the “壱の型” can be written as “壱ノ型”.

The time setting of the Demon Slayer is the Taisho period. (The “Taisho” is Japanese era name.)
At this time in Japan, katakana was used a lot.

Japanese people imagine these characters (“壱ノ型”), so they feel that the technique was inherited from a very long time ago (“壱”), around the Taisho era (“ノ”), and that it is a cool special technique name (without the “番目” characters, and the whole word sounds cool).

From now on, please say “Ichi no Kata” instead of “First Form” as you think of the kanji (“壱ノ型”).