Demon Slayer Characters

Nezuko Kamado

Tanjiro's sister · Demon

Nezuko is turned into a demon the night her family dies, but she refuses to eat people and recovers her strength by sleeping instead. She wears a bamboo muzzle, can shrink to fit inside Tanjiro's box, and fights with powerful kicks and a Blood Demon Art that sets demon blood alight. Her stubborn kindness is the living proof of Tanjiro's belief that demons can still hold on to their humanity.

Voice

Akari Kito (JP), Abby Trott (EN)

Zenitsu Agatsuma

Thunder Breathing

Zenitsu is loud, terrified of everything and hopelessly boy-crazy for any girl who smiles at him, which makes him the series' main comic relief. He can only perform the first form of Thunder Breathing, but he has polished it to a lightning-fast strike, and when he faints from fear his body fights on its own. His exceptional hearing lets him hear a person's heart, and his loyalty to his old master gives him one of the series' most moving payoffs.

Voice

Hiro Shimono (JP), Aleks Le (EN)

Inosuke Hashibira

Beast Breathing

Inosuke was raised by boars in the mountains, wears a boar's head as a mask and challenges everyone he meets to a fight. He invented his own Beast Breathing style, fights with two jagged swords he chipped himself, and has a body so flexible he can dislocate his joints at will. Beneath the bravado he slowly learns what friendship and gentleness feel like, mostly from Tanjiro and Nezuko.

Voice

Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (JP), Bryce Papenbrook (EN)

Kanao Tsuyuri

Flower Breathing · Shinobu's Tsuguko

Kanao was bought out of an abusive situation by the Kocho sisters and raised at the Butterfly Mansion. She was so traumatised that she couldn't make simple decisions and flipped a coin to choose what to do. As Shinobu's personal successor she wields Flower Breathing and has extraordinary eyesight, and Tanjiro's encouragement to listen to her own heart starts her real growth.

Voice

Reina Ueda (JP), Brianna Knickerbocker (EN)

Genya Shinazugawa

Demon eater · Sanemi's brother

Genya is rude, prickly and unable to use any Breathing Style. He makes up for it by eating demon flesh, which temporarily gives him demonic strength and healing, and by fighting with a Nichirin shotgun. All he really wants is to apologise to his older brother Sanemi, and his rough start with Tanjiro turns into real friendship in the Swordsmith Village arc.

Voice

Nobuhiko Okamoto (JP)

Giyu Tomioka

Water Hashira

Giyu is the first slayer Tanjiro meets. He spares Nezuko after seeing her protect her brother and sends both siblings to his old teacher. He's quiet to the point of seeming cold, and believes he doesn't deserve his rank because of a friend who died in his place. He created an eleventh Water Breathing form of his own, Dead Calm.

Voice

Takahiro Sakurai (JP), Johnny Yong Bosch (EN)

Shinobu Kocho

Insect Hashira

Shinobu is too small to cut off a demon's head, so she kills them with wisteria poison delivered by a needle-like sword. She runs the Butterfly Mansion, the Corps' hospital, and always wears a gentle smile. Underneath it is a deep anger over the death of her sister Kanae, and a plan built around revenge.

Voice

Saori Hayami (JP), Erika Harlacher (EN)

Kyojuro Rengoku

Flame Hashira

Rengoku is loud, warm and unshakeably sure of his duty to protect the weak. He leads the Mugen Train mission and becomes a mentor to Tanjiro over a very short span. That fight is the emotional centre of the 2020 film, which became one of the highest-grossing films in Japanese history, and his example drives Tanjiro for the rest of the series.

Voice

Satoshi Hino (JP), Mark Whitten (EN)

Tengen Uzui

Sound Hashira

Tengen is a former shinobi who left his clan's brutal traditions behind and wants everything to be "flamboyant." He fights with two giant cleavers joined by a chain and reads enemies' rhythms with his musical score technique. He leads the Entertainment District mission, where his three wives, all trained kunoichi, work undercover.

Voice

Katsuyuki Konishi (JP), Ray Chase (EN)

Mitsuri Kanroji

Love Hashira

Mitsuri has muscle density eight times that of a normal person and a huge appetite, traits that once made suitors back away. She joined the Corps hoping to find someone who'd accept her as she is. She fights with a thin, whip-like blade and an incredibly flexible body, and she's kind-hearted and easily flustered.

Voice

Kana Hanazawa (JP), Kira Buckland (EN)

Muichiro Tokito

Mist Hashira

Muichiro became a Hashira just two months after picking up a sword, making him the youngest of the nine. He has amnesia from a traumatic event and drifts through life detached and distracted. The Swordsmith Village arc gives him back his memories and reveals that he descends from a famous family line on both sides of the war.

Voice

Kengo Kawanishi (JP), Griffin Burns (EN)

Obanai Iguro

Serpent Hashira

Obanai wears bandages over his mouth, has mismatched eyes and keeps a white snake named Kaburamaru around his neck. He's harsh and suspicious, especially toward Tanjiro, and his twisting Serpent Breathing strikes come from unpredictable angles. He's quietly devoted to Mitsuri, but his past makes him feel he doesn't deserve her.

Voice

Kenichi Suzumura (JP)

Sanemi Shinazugawa

Wind Hashira

Sanemi is covered in scars and openly hostile, and in his first scene he stabs Nezuko's box to prove she's a monster. He has rare "marechi" blood that makes demons dizzy. His violent edge comes from a tragic childhood, and he treats his younger brother Genya harshly in a misguided attempt to keep him away from the fight.

Voice

Tomokazu Seki (JP)

Gyomei Himejima

Stone Hashira

Gyomei is a towering, blind Buddhist who weeps easily and prays constantly. He is also the strongest member of the Corps. He fights with a spiked flail and an axe chained together, and he finds his targets by sound. Once a temple caretaker for orphans, he carries the scars of being betrayed by one of the children he protected.

Voice

Tomokazu Sugita (JP), Crispin Freeman (EN)

Sakonji Urokodaki

Former Water Hashira · Tanjiro's teacher

Urokodaki hides his face behind a red tengu mask because, he says, his face looked too kind to frighten demons. He trains both Giyu and Tanjiro, puts Nezuko into her long healing sleep and gives her the bamboo muzzle. He carves a protective fox mask for every student, and has lost many of them to the same demon in the Final Selection.

Sabito and Makomo

Urokodaki's late students

Sabito and Makomo appear to Tanjiro during his training as mysterious children in fox masks, and help him reach the strength needed to cut a boulder in half. Both died during their own Final Selection. Sabito was Giyu's closest friend, and his death is the source of Giyu's guilt.

Jigoro Kuwajima

Former Thunder Hashira · Zenitsu's teacher

Jigoro is a strict old man with a wooden leg who believed in Zenitsu when nobody else did. He trained two very different heirs, Zenitsu and the arrogant Kaigaku, and Kaigaku's eventual betrayal leads to the old man's death by ritual suicide, taking responsibility for his student's crimes.

Kanae Kocho

Former Flower Hashira · Shinobu's sister

Kanae appears only in flashbacks. She believed that demons and humans might one day understand each other, a belief Tanjiro unknowingly shares. She was killed by the Upper Moon Doma, and her last wish that Shinobu leave the Corps and live a normal life went unheeded.

Shinjuro Rengoku

Former Flame Hashira · Kyojuro's father

Shinjuro gave up on the Corps and sank into drink after his wife Ruka died and he concluded his family's style was inferior to Sun Breathing. He meets Tanjiro with contempt, but Kyojuro's death and his last message slowly push him to face his sons again.

Senjuro Rengoku

Kyojuro's younger brother

Senjuro looks just like his brother but could never make his sword change colour, the sign of an aptitude for a Breathing Style. He welcomes Tanjiro warmly, gives him Kyojuro's sword guard and looks through the family's records for answers about the Hinokami Kagura.

Kagaya Ubuyashiki

97th leader of the Corps

Kagaya, called "Oyakata-sama" by the slayers, is a frail young man slowly dying from a curse on his bloodline. He can't fight at all, yet even the Hashira kneel to him because of his calm voice, his uncanny foresight and the care he shows every slayer. He remembers the name of every member who has died.

Voice

Toshiyuki Morikawa (JP)

Amane Ubuyashiki

Kagaya's wife

Amane comes from a family descended from Shinto priests and married into the Ubuyashiki line knowing the curse would follow her children. She handles much of the Corps' day-to-day business as Kagaya weakens, and recruits Muichiro personally.

Kiriya Ubuyashiki

98th leader of the Corps

Kiriya is Kagaya's young son, who has to take over the Corps mid-crisis. He steers the final campaign with a composure far beyond his age, with his sisters at his side.

Kokushibo

Upper One

Kokushibo is a six-eyed demon swordsman who uses Moon Breathing, the only Breathing Style used by a demon. In life he was a Demon Slayer and the twin brother of Yoriichi Tsugikuni, and his envy of his brother's genius is what led him to accept Muzan's blood.

Voice

Ryotaro Okiayu (JP)

Doma

Upper Two

Doma is a smiling, cheerful demon who leads a religious cult and claims to "save" his followers by eating them. He feels no real emotion at all. He fights with fans and ice that freezes the lungs, and he killed both Kanae Kocho and Inosuke's mother.

Voice

Mamoru Miyano (JP), Stephen Fu (EN)

Akaza

Upper Three

Akaza is a martial-arts demon obsessed with getting stronger. He respects strong fighters, despises the weak and refuses to eat women. He appears at the end of the Mugen Train arc, and his human past turns out to be one of the saddest in the series.

Voice

Akira Ishida (JP), Lucien Dodge (EN)

Hantengu

Upper Four

Hantengu is a cowering old demon who splits into younger clones when beheaded, each embodying an emotion such as anger, joy, pleasure or sorrow. Finding his tiny true body while fighting the clones is the puzzle of the Swordsmith Village battle.

Nakime

Upper Four (later)

A silent demon with a single eye who plays a biwa. Each strum reshapes the Infinity Castle, Muzan's shifting fortress, and moves people through it. She's promoted after Hantengu falls and becomes vital to Muzan's final plan.

Gyokko

Upper Five

Gyokko is a grotesque demon who lives in pots, teleports between them and fancies himself a great artist. He fills his "works" with his victims. He attacks the Swordsmith Village alongside Hantengu.

Daki and Gyutaro

Upper Six

A brother and sister who share one rank. Daki poses as a top courtesan in the Entertainment District and fights with living sashes, while Gyutaro lives inside her body and wields poisoned blood sickles. They can only be killed by cutting both heads at the same time, and their past in the district's slums is heartbreaking.

Voice

Miyuki Sawashiro and Ryota Osaka (JP)

Kaigaku

Upper Six (later)

Zenitsu's senior under Jigoro, who could use every Thunder Breathing form except the first. Bitter and arrogant, he became a demon to survive an encounter with Kokushibo and took the vacant Upper Six seat.

Enmu

Lower One

Enmu is a demon who traps people in dreams and loves watching them suffer. He fuses with the Mugen Train itself to devour its passengers. He's the only Lower Moon to survive Muzan's purge.

Voice

Daisuke Hirakawa (JP)

Rui

Lower Five

A child-shaped demon who rules Mount Natagumo with a "family" of demons he controls with fear. He fights with steel-strong threads. His fight with Tanjiro is where the Hinokami Kagura first appears, and his defeat triggers Muzan's purge of the Lower Moons.

Voice

Nobunaga Shimazaki (JP)

Rokuro, Wakuraba, Mukago and Kamanue

Lower Two, Three, Four and Six

The remaining Lower Moons barely get a scene: Muzan summons them after Rui's death, reads their fear and kills all of them except Enmu. It's a short, brutal demonstration of how little his followers mean to him.