Contenuti
Intro
Demon Slayer (in Japanese, Kimetsu no Yaiba) is currently one of the most appreciated and loved anime, even by those who have seen very few anime in their lives. The secret of its success is a special connection that links great animation and drawings with an intriguing plot full of twists and turns. In particular, it is a series that handles moments of drama and tension perfectly and always delivers surprises in climaxes. Another highlight is the incredible variety and writing of Demon Slayer’s characters, making them especially distinctive and recognizable. However, unlike most shonen anime and shonen manga, Kimetsu no Yaiba does not have a lot of characters, it has a few well-done ones.
This is a very recent work from the first edition of a manga written and drawn by the very young mangaka Koyoharu Gotōge, published in Shūeisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from February 15, 2016 to May 18, 2020.
In the anime rankings, we find Demon Slayer consistently in the top positions, which is not surprising given that both the first and second seasons of the anime were also very successful among critics
Anyway, in this article we are going to take a look at all the most interesting characters in Demon Slayer, clearly we will focus on the current state of the anime so as to avoid spoilers for most fans of the series. Some contents of this article may contain spoilers for those who have not seen the Demon Slayer anime until the second season.
If you are interested in the third season you will find all the information in our article : Demon Slayer season 3
A look at the main characters within the plot
This shonen genre anime is set in Japan in the Taishō period, an era coinciding with the reign of Emperor Taishō Tennō. The narrative plot revolves around Tanjiro Kamado, the elder brother of a fatherless family, who lives by selling coal to support his family consisting of his mother and younger siblings. The story begins on a winter morning, after spending the night away from home, Tanjiro returns home to find that his family has been brutally exterminated by a demon. Upset by the incident, Tanjiro begins searching one by one for all his family members, finding their bodies. The only survivor is her younger sister Nezuko, and she immediately senses something strange about her; Nezuko has become a demon because of her injuries.
Demons are creatures that feed mainly on humans, are usually much stronger and more physically fit than humans, and can develop unique and very special powers. In addition to these characteristics, demons have the disadvantage of suffering severe injuries if they see the sun or light rays strike their skin. Nezuko, however, is shown to be different from other demons, as he seems to be the only demon who has no intention of feeding on other people, such as his brother. However, she has one characteristic in common with other demons, which is that she suffers from sunlight, and for this reason, Tanjiro carries her in a wooden trunk that constantly on his back during daylight hours.
Tanjiro observing his younger sister’s behavior becomes convinced that she can return to the way she was before. It also reflects on the fact that the other demons have far worse intentions than Nezuko’s and thus could hurt and kill other human beings, as tragically happened to her family.
From here begins the protagonist’s adventure to find a way to make Nezuko human again, and to do so, Tanjiro will have to train hard to join the demon hunters, namely the Demon Slayers.
During their journey, Tanjiro and his sister Nezuko will meet many other characters, some of whom will be other slayers. These include two in particular, namely Inosuke Hashibira and Zenitsu Agatsuma, two demon slayer apprentices who will train hard with Tanjiro and follow him on his journey.
In his adventure Tanjiro will train to go in search of the lord of all demons, Muzan Kibutsuji. This most powerful demon is the one who commands all the demons in existence, and among his subordinates are the Crescent Moons and Waning Moons, very strong demons with special powers. In this anime, the demon lord created demons from his own blood, and by killing him, all others should also cease to exist or at least return to their previous form, the human form. Tanjiro’s goal is to fight Muzan and kill him, that way perhaps his sister Nezuko could return to normalcy and continue living a life as a human being.
While on the one hand we have Kibutsuji and the twelve demonic moons that make up the Demon faction who hunt humans, on the other hand we have Kagaya Ubuyashiki and his pillars, who instead have the goal of exterminating demons. Kagaya is the leader of the demon slayer corps, an organization that trains fighters in order to make them skilled demon slayers, Pillars are the highest-ranking demon slayers and are Kagaya’s direct subordinates.
The main characters of Demon Slayer
In this section we will look at the major characters one by one and examine their physical and character traits as well as the powers and abilities they possess. We decided to divide the characters into three categories: the first category is the protagonists of the series, the second category is the demon hunter corps, and the third category is the demons.
As a reminder, this article is based solely on the released seasons of the anime and the canonical Mugen Train movie, so you will not find characters from the manga and possible character developments and spoilers that have not yet appeared in the animated series.
The protagonists of the series
We take a look at the four main characters in the series, namely Tanjiro Kamado, Nezuko Kamado, Inosuke Hashibira, and Zenitsu Agatsuma.
These 4 characters are the main heroes of the story; they are young fighters who continuously train so as to improve their techniques and be able to defeat demons and protect their comrades and other human beings.
Tanjiro Kamado
Tanjiro is the main character in the series, at the beginning of the story his job is to collect coal to earn something for his family. After his family is exterminated by demons and his sister is turned into a demon, he begins training to become a demon slayer and vows to defeat Muzan Kibutsuji, the demon king. Tanjiro is a young boy with an athletic and muscular physique. He has shaggy black hair with red tips, combed back to expose his forehead, and wide, dark red eyes with white pupils. He has a maroon scar on the upper left side of his forehead from when he was a child, the history of which is very peculiar. One day while his little brothers were playing, one of them slammed into a boiling cauldron containing coal, causing some pieces of hot coal to fly off. Tanjiro at that moment pushed his younger siblings away and in shielding them, a piece of hot coal hit his face, leaving him with the distinctive scar.
Character: Tanjiro is very kind and friendly in nature, being described by other characters as a compassionate and kind-eyed person. Like all the best anime protagonists, she is an extremely determined person in accomplishing her goals, such as saving her sister Nezuko. Although he has a tragic past, he is a very strong person and is very protective of his friends and his younger sister, but a strong desire for anger and revenge against his exterminated family members also grows in him. Despite his calm and kind nature, Tanjiro has little tolerance for cowardly and rude people, and because of this, he often argues with Zenitsu and Inosuke when they display such attitudes.
Skills: From the beginning, Tanjiro is shown as a prodigious fighter with great natural talent, especially in the use of the sword. He also possesses incredible senses that are superior to those of a normal human being, such as the ability to analyze and smell any object and person and possess an instinct that makes it possible for him to make the right choice in critical situations. His tremendous determination also allows him to take on opponents much stronger and more experienced than he is, such as when in the first season he threatens to fatally injure Giyu Tomioka, the water pillar.
Techniques: During his training to become a demon hunter, Tanjiro learns to use water breathing, and he is able to use up to 10 different forms of it (kata in Japanese), which correspond to lethal techniques for cutting off demons’ heads. His hard training and dedication enable him to learn absolute concentration breathing, an advanced and esoteric breathing technique in which a user inhales the maximum amount of oxygen to increase his physical and mental ability to the highest limits. The effects include an improved set of physical and mental abilities, such as superhuman physical characteristics, faster thought processes, maximization of concentration and information processing. In addition to water breathing, Tanjiro also learns to use sun breathing (also called Fire God dance), this breathing technique was passed down to him from his father and allows him to use powerful abilities by generating fire from his katana.
Nezuko Kamado
Nezuko is the deuteragonist of the series, that is, the second main character after Tanjiro. At the beginning of the first episode we see her in human form, but during the extermination of the Kamado family, she is attacked and transformed into a demon by Musan Kibutsuji. Nezuko is a young demon girl with fair skin, visibly large and prominent fangs, and sharp nails. Her hair is long, black and wavy and she has soft pale pink eyes. When Nezuko transforms into her awakened form during her fight with Daki in the second season, she has a larger, taller and more curvaceous body, as well as much longer hair that reaches her feet. In addition to this, he loses his bamboo muzzle, as well as the sleeves of his haori and kimono. In this form she grows a short white horn on the right side of her forehead designed with an irregular pattern. It has a vein-like pattern appearing around its left eye, but its most distinctive feature is a special red and green vine-like pattern covering its skin, circling around its arms, legs, and chest.
Character: Her human personality is that of a very kind, selfless and caring girl who always thinks of others before she thinks of herself, somewhat like her older brother. When Nezuko becomes a demon, she is initially bloodthirsty and hungry for human flesh, but after seeing her brother’s desire to protect her from being killed by the water pillar despite her being a demon, she changes completely and becomes fiercely protective of Tanjiro and the other humans. Nezuko is not afraid to put herself in danger, protects her friends from demons, and becomes furious when a demon tries to give her brother the coup de grace during battles.
Skill: Although not a member of the Twelve Demonic Moons, Nezuko is a very powerful demon. This is due to the time when Nezuko became a demon, as she received a very large amount of blood from the demon king, Muzan. The peculiarity of Nezuko, as an atypical demon, is the fact that he does not need to consume human flesh to stay alive; however, he needs to sleep a lot to recover his energy, and he usually does so during daylight hours. Her nature makes it possible for her to improve more rapidly than a human and thus also to defeat enemies who are much stronger than she is on the first occasions. Among her special abilities, due to the large amount of blood she received from Muzan, Nezuko can control her blood by solidifying it and making it liquid so that she can reattach her severed body parts. Therefore, he has a great deal of regenerative capacity and is also very strong physically; he can even change his body and height according to situations.
Techniques: Nezuko’s fighting style is mainly developed around her sharp claws and powerful kicks. His combative techniques of include demonic blood arts, usable only by those who have received the blood of the demon king. Nezuko does not often use these arts, since using too much blood could cause her to instantly fall asleep from exertion. One of her special moves allows her to generate and manipulate special demonic flames originating from her pink-colored blood. Nezuko can set fire to his finished blood on enemies or create it from nothing. Its flames have a special property that makes the fire harmful only to demons and objects of demonic origin, but clearly it is also capable of injuring humans and objects that come into contact with them. It also has the ability to go into a state of fury in which she becomes more demonic in appearance, transforming into her awakened version. This form greatly improves her physical and regeneration abilities, enabling her to go up against demons normally more powerful than she is.
Inosuke Hashibira
Inosuke is a demon slayer as well as the traveling companion of Tanjiro, Nezuko and Zenitsu Agatsuma. This is one of the most distinctive and beloved characters in the series; he is a pale boy of average height with remarkably developed musculature and a boar’s head that he perpetually wears as a mask. When he takes off his boar mask, we can see that he has long black hair that fades to blue at the tips and a face with graceful, feminine features with large green eyes and long eyelashes. During his childhood, Inosuke was abandoned by his parents and was found by a female boar who raised him as a son. The mask she wears is made from the very head of the late Mother Boar. He fights using two indigo-gray swords with serrated blades to match his fighting style.
Character: Given his difficult past, he is a brash boy prone to violent and animalistic reactions. He is a very instinctive, almost illiterate young man, and although he uses two swords simultaneously, he is left-handed and not ambidextrous. In addition, he is extremely short-tempered and proud, believing himself to be the strongest in every situation and challenging any other demon slayer in order to hear himself praised for his abilities. He often overestimates his own abilities and underestimates those of others, taking many unnecessary risks. Having been raised by a boar, he does not understand human interactions very well. Through Tanjiro’s influence, he matures over the seasons and learns to recognize the strength of others, while also developing an affectionate and generous side, yet still maintaining his pride and desire to be praised. He also possesses indomitable willpower, has a great fighting spirit even against strong opponents, and often puts his life on the line to beat them.
Skills: His life in the wilderness has enabled him to develop extraordinary muscular strength in his arms, which is why he is able to use two swords simultaneously while also moving them at high speed. He is incredibly fast and agile, this allows him to fight with all the higher ranking demons, also because he is very skilled at dodging. His body is very flexible, he has the ability to be able to dislocate any joint in his body to assume poses impossible for a human being, and he can also stretch his limbs slightly and move his internal organs. Like all the best demon hunters, he has highly developed senses and instincts. Touch is his distinctive sense, making him able to sense even the slightest shift of air and enabling him to tell if someone is secretly watching him and from what position. As he matures, he comes to have a tactical mind to combine with his formidable instincts; he is able to learn new moves and techniques by observation alone.
Techniques: Because he grew up in the mountains with wild boar and wild animals, he knows wildlife well and can imitate animal behaviors, so he has developed a totally unique fighting style, namely Beast Breathing. This fighting style is derived primarily from Wind Breathing but was developed completely by Inosuke, who received no conventional training. Thus, beast breathing consists of imitating the behaviors of wild animals, using swords in attack techniques characterized by simple and unpredictable movements. When Inosuke breaks his katanas and receives new ones, he uses a rock to break the blades and make them serrated, in this way, he believes they are better suited for tearing the flesh of opponents rather than cutting them cleanly.
Zenitsu Agatsuma
The last main character in the series is Zenitsu, a fan-loved demon slayer and traveling companion of Tanjiro, Nezuko, and Inosuke. Zenitsu is a young boy with very fair skin, downward-slanting brown and gold eyes, and a frightened appearance. He has short blond hair of varying lengths that turns a darker orange at the tips. Originally, that is, to become a demon hunter, Zenitsu’s hair was black, but it changed color when he was struck by lightning during his training.
Character: Zenitsu comes across as the most fearful and cowardly character in the series, constantly whining and claiming that he does not have much to live for because of his dangerous job of being a demon slayer. He has very low self-esteem despite being a very strong character, often considers himself useless, and almost cannot believe that he is capable of killing demons. He is in a constant state of terror and at the sight of danger, he cries and runs away, claiming that he only wants to live a normal life. His fears lead him to be pessimistic, so he sometimes annoys Tanjiro and Inosuke by starting small fights. This nature of his, besides making him a sympathetic and tragicomic character, makes him hate himself for how cowardly and incompetent he is, even though he genuinely wants to improve and overcome his fears.
Skills: Zenitsu comes across as a very skilled and talented demon hunter even if he is not convinced of his abilities. In the first two seasons of the anime we can see that Zenitsu’s true strength awakens when he sleeps, as he fights in a state similar to sleepwalking. In this state his usually very tense nerves that normally prevent him from accessing his true strength relax, making him more courageous, calm, and precise in combat. This calmness allows him to perform deadly, lightning-fast attacks, such as when in the first season he manages to instantly decapitate the Tsuzumi mansion demon and the spider demon. Zenitsu, too, has highly developed senses, his best sense is his hearing, which enables him to hear and pick up sounds outside the normal range of perception; he can also detect a person’s thoughts, emotions, and even personality simply by listening to the slight sounds he makes. In addition, he can tell from the sounds whether the person making them is a human being or a demon, and he can even estimate an estimate of his strength.
Techniques: He has tremendous strength in his legs and has incredible agility and reflexes, as well as great speed and physical endurance. This enables him to master lightning breathing, a fighting style learned from his master Jigoro Kuwajima, who was formerly the Pillar of Lightning. His master often scolded him and managed to teach him only the first form, but Zenitsu developed a great mastery of this technique so that he created numerous variations of it. As a perpetually frightened character, he reaches his full potential when fear causes him to pass out and enter unconscious combat mode, where he has a tough and ruthless personality toward demons.
The characters of the demon hunter corps
The demon-killing corps is an organization that has existed since ancient times, and it devotes its existence to protecting humanity from demons, setting up missions to exterminate them. This organization consists of hundreds of demon hunters within, but they are not officially recognized by the Japanese government.
The most important characters in this organization include the leader Kagaya Ubuyashiki, the pillars, who are considered the most powerful demon slayers, and all the other demon slayers. There are 9 pillars in total, we will take a look at the most important ones that have appeared so far in the anime
Kagaya Ubuyashiki – The Leader
Kagaya is the 97th leader of the demon hunter corps, and is also the head of the Ubuyashiki Family. As the leader, it is up to him to make all major decisions and give assignments to the pillars under his command. Kagaya has fair skin and fairly long black hair that reaches his shoulders. He has a cursed mark that acts like a disease that is slowly killing him. This mark makes his skin look rotten and is spreading over his face, covering his eyes and making him unable to see. He usually wears a black kimono with a long white haori with a pink and purple pattern.
Character: A character with a very calm and compassionate demeanor. He shows great care for all members of the Demon Slayers, regarding them as if they were his children. He can handle criticism very well and is always very honest and objective. One of the main criticisms levelled at him is his inability to be an effective slayer despite being the main leader, but he admits this weakness and accepts the situation without question. He highly values all members of the demon hunter corps, remembers each and every member of the corps, and frequently visits the graves of deceased members at the cemetery on a daily basis.
Skill: Kagaya possesses a calming voice that gives him the ability to put others at ease just by talking; the pace of his actions also seem to have this effect on other characters, especially Tanjiro. His main gift, however, is foresight; Kagaya (and all the other members of the Ubuyashiki family) possess incredible instincts that help them avoid disastrous situations and have led them to accumulate large amounts of wealth and fortune. His decisions are almost always right and rational, and he is a character who is very good at predicting situations, so he proves to be an excellent leader. Since he is not a demon slayer, he does not have great fighting skills and does not use combat techniques.
Giyu Tomioka – Pillar of Water
Giyu is the current pillar of water and is the first pillar we see in the series, specifically in the early episodes, where he discovers that Nezuko is a demon and then tries to kill her, but is stopped by Tanjiro. Giyu is a young man with a pale complexion, who is always seen with a serious and emotionless expression on his face. He has black hair of irregular length that sticks up in clumps around his head, and he wears it tied back in a sort of tail. Its eyes are sharp and moderately large, the irises are a deep sapphire color fading to a lighter blue with bluish-black pupils.
Character: The mainstay of aquatic techniques always has a stoic, impassive expression on his face. Although he seems to be an unemotional character, he has a reserved personality and a good heart, as well as a very strong sense of justice, which leads him to and intolerant of those who do not recognize their limitations and throw away their lives because of it. When he let Nezuko live, it was only because of Tanjiro’s unwavering persistence; usually, however, he shows not the slightest hesitation when killing demons and has no respect, much less pity for them. Giyu in the anime violates the code of conduct of the demon hunter corps without hesitation to protect Nezuko during Shinobu’s attempt to kill her. This implies that he does not completely despise demons, and is willing to let them live if they do not kill and eat humans. This shows that he is a very rational character because he prevents his hatred from clouding his judgment.
Skills: As a Hashira (i.e., pillar), Giyu is an extremely powerful and skillful fighter, one of the best swordsmen in the demon-killing corps. From the beginning of the series, Giyu shows his superiority in combat to Tanjiro and his friends; in fact, he can defeat almost all demons of not too high rank, such as waning moons, with ease. Giyu possesses incredible speed and reflexes, as demonstrated when he carries Nezuko away from Tanjiro’s grasps at extremely high speeds. His speed makes him able to tie Inosuke to a tree before he even realizes what has happened; this show of strength makes Inosuke especially respectful toward him. He also possesses great strength and stamina, as well as an indomitable spirit that makes him very determined to win all fights.
Techniques: Giyu uses the water breathing style taught to him directly by the water pillar previous to him, namely Sakonji Urokodaki. As the Hashira of water, Giyu is the most skilled of his generation at using this type of breathing. He completely mastered this fighting style, to the point that he even created a completely new technique within the breathing style. This technique is the eleventh kata and he first uses it against Rui, when he stops all body movement and enters a state of complete tranquility, deflecting, blocking and cutting off any incoming attack with his blade at imperceptible speed.
Rengoku Kyojuro – Pillar of Fire
Rengoku is the pillar of fire, and is one of the main characters in the first Demon Slayer film, which follows the Mugen Train story arc. Kyojuro is a young adult of tall stature and muscular build. He is known to be very charismatic and always very optimistic; he has a perpetual smile on his face in almost every scene where he appears. He has long blond hair with red streaks at the tips resembling flames, has forked black eyebrows and golden eyes that fade to red with white pupils. There is also a spin-off manga about this character called Kyojuro Rengoku’s Story.
Character: Kyojuro took his pillar duties with much enthusiasm, often coming across as cheerfully eccentric and somewhat bizarre. A lovable character, pure of heart and with an extraordinary technique and swordplay, resulting from very rigorous practice and discipline. He is an honorable warrior who places great importance on his code of morals and the principles his mother instilled in him at a young age, such as his belief that those who are born strong have a duty to protect the weaker.
Skill: Being the pillar of fire, Kyojuro is a very powerful and skilled fighter. Before taking his father’s place as Hashira, he had already proven himself to be a fighter with extraordinary gifts. He was initially trained by his father, Shinjuro Rengoku, but when he stopped teaching him, he began personal training to become a pillar, learning from the Sun Breathing Guide, a three-volume book he jealously guarded. Rengoku possesses a great deal of extrasensory perception that enables him to locate the position of enemies in any situation, and he also possesses uncommon agility and reflexes. He is a very strong and resilient character, so much so that a great many demons and even some crescent moons recognize him as a high-level opponent.
Techniques: Being the pillar of fire, Kyojuro is the most skilled existing user of flame breathing in his generation. In the Mugen Train movie we can see him use some of his powerful techniques and hold his own against the very powerful crescent moon number 3. In this confrontation we can see him using the ninth form of his breathing, which is his most iconic technique. This technique consists of a devastating burst that causes him to strike his opponent with force; the technique has enough power to char the ground below. In the film adaptation and anime, this technique takes the form of a fiery Japanese dragon that envelops the user as it charges toward the target.
Sanemi Shinazugawa – Pillar of the Wind
Sanemi is the pillar of the wind and is also the older brother of Genya Shinazugawa, a demon slayer who fights alongside Tanjiro Kamado and Nezuko Kamado in the third season of the anime. Sanemi is a tall, pale, muscular man who has long, spiky white hair and large purple eyes. His face and body are almost entirely covered with scars, accumulated during his years of fighting demons. He is usually seen with a crazed expression on his face, with wide eyes and a mocking smile.
Character: Sanemi is an edgy, aggressive, outgoing and stubborn character, often impulsive and ready to lash out at anyone. He is almost always indifferent and dismissive of others and is very easily angered. The only person toward whom Sanemi shows any respect and reverence is Kagaya Ubuyashiki, the leader of the demon hunter corps. In any case, he is a cold and rough character who is always eager to fight and test himself, longing to meet demons of higher rank to challenge and kill them.
Skills: In as many as Hashira of the wind, Sanemi is one of the most powerful and skilled fighters in the entire corps of demon slayers. Sanemi is able to fight while holding her own against many of the strongest pillars, such as Giyu Tomioka. He is one of the strongest swordsmen in the series, although at the moment we have seen him in action very few times. He possesses incredible physical gifts, such as great quickness of movement, stamina and strength. Since he has a lot of scars, he seems to have won in numerous fights against demons, so he has a great deal of experience in the field.
Techniques: Sanemi uses wind breathing and is considered the most skilled user of this breathing in his generation. He seems to know all the existing forms of this breathing and is very confident in his fighting abilities.
Tengen Uzui – Pillar of Sound
He is the pillar of sound, and an important character in the story arc of the entertainment district. Tengen is a very tall, muscular, broad-shouldered man with lightly tanned skin and white hair. He has rather thin, brown eyes that seem to slant inward. He is a very attractive man and is often noticed by many women and even Zenitsu. After losing an eye and a hand in the fighting against the crescent moons, he decided to retire from his job as a pillar.
Character: The Pillar of Sound is an eccentric and flamboyant individual who always wants to be“flamboyant” and needs everything to be flashy and exceptional. He even proclaims himself to be the god of appearance and parties, and loves to repeat the word “flamboyant.” Tengen is very demanding of other people, treating his fellow demon slayers very harshly even insulting them if they fail to survive his resistance training. He can’t stand inconspicuous things, but he can also prove himself wise when he wants to.
Skill: Like Hashira of sound, he is a very skilled and strong fighter. He has shown incredible physical qualities of strength and agility, and is the second physically strongest pillar in the current generation, as well as one of the fastest. In terms of skill, he can match the combat proficiency of both Daki and Gyutaro (crescent moons number 6), even when he no longer has a hand. Being the pillar of sound, he has an incredible sense of hearing and can recognize the position of enemies and analyze their fighting rhythm so as to predict their attacks. Because he is one of the most powerful and skilled swordsmen in the entire organization, he chooses to fight using two swords connected by a chain as if they were nunchucks.
Techniques: Tengen uses a breathing style he created himself, called sound breathing. This fighting style allows him to combine his very fine sense of hearing with his musical rhythmic technique, his double swords, and his anti-demon bombs. This breathing style has few forms, but they are all extremely powerful and reliable, making it a dangerous pillar to deal with even after he loses an eye and a hand.
Characters who eat humans, Muzan and demonic moons.
The 12 Demonic Moons is an organization to which the twelve most powerful demons belong, and they are all under the direct command of the demon king, Muzan Kibutsuji. These 12 demons are second in strength and authority only to the Demon King; each member of the Twelve has received a large portion of Muzan’s blood, larger than any other demon, hence the great difference in strength from the other demons. Each member of the Twelve can also use demonic blood arts, supernatural powers that manifest through blood, even Nezuko who has received a large amount of blood makes use of them.
The demons are divided into two groups, the six crescent moons, numbered from one to six, and the six waning moons, also numbered from one to six. The number indicates their rank, determined by each member’s level of strength; the crescent moon numbered 1 is the strongest of the demons subjected to Muzan while the waning moon number 12 is the weakest.
Many of the demons of this organization have not yet appeared in the anime, so we will see the most important of those that have appeared, besides of course the very powerful Muzan Kibutsuji.
Muzan Kibutsuji
Muzan is the main antagonist of Demon Slayer. He is the king of demons, the first and most powerful of his kind, and the progenitor of all other existing demons, which originated from his blood. Muzan is the leader of the 12 Demonic Moons, an organization that contains the twelve strongest demons in existence. Muzan was turned into a demon during an experimental treatment that sought to cure his terminal illness a millennium ago, during the Heian era. His goal since becoming a demon is to live without fear of death and become immortal. Muzan’s physical appearance is like that of a tall, young and fairly muscular man with unnaturally pale skin, curly black hair and sharp almond-shaped eyes. Its pupils are vertical, like those of a reptile, and colored red; it also possesses sharp blue nails on its fingers.
Character: Muzan is a cold, ruthless, strict and exceptionally intelligent leader. He is unable to see any value in any human being he has met and considers even his subordinates to be of little value. He rarely sees himself upset or happy, appearing completely detached and impassive on most occasions, even when he callously kills demons who disappoint him. His ego is extremely inflated and his delusional sense of self-worth are so great that they make him a narcissist. He cannot bear to be laughed at or corrected in any way, especially by his subordinates, and in any case, he believes that humans and demons exist solely to serve him.
Skill: Since it is in fact the origin of all demons, Muzan is the strongest demon in existence, by far more powerful than all demonic moons. In the anime at the moment we have not yet seen what he is capable of, since up to now he has continuously sent his subordinates to fight for his cause.
Techniques: Muzan’s demonic blood arts give him powerful biokinetic and combat skills. The demon king has the ability to manipulate his body as it suits him and change its shape at will. Muzan can then alter and control his skin, limbs and even his organs. Since it is the origin of all demons, its arts are extremely more powerful than those of all other demons.
Daki and Gyutaro – Rising Moons #6
Daki and Gyutaro are the two main antagonists of the entertainment district story arc and appear in the second season of the anime. They are two demon brothers who are part of the 12 demon moons, both occupying the sixth position of the crescent moons and thus are direct subordinates of Muzan. Daki was a human child named Ume who lived on the bank of the Rashomon River in Yoshiwara, the poorest neighborhood in the entertainment district. Her brother Gyutaro lived with her in the same neighborhood and worked as a debt collector. Both were turned into demons by Doma, who at the time occupied position number 6 of the crescent moons. The two after a harsh childhood lived as humans, once they became demons, they have no problem killing and feeding on human beings at will.
Character: Daki is a very proud, contemptuous and sadistic crescent moon who enjoys playing with her victims before killing them and never shows the slightest sense of guilt when killing a human. Because of the harsh and abusive childhood she and her brother experienced in constant poverty and the harsh tragedies they experienced as human beings, Gyutaro also became cruel, mean, and envious of anyone with a better life than him, this led him to develop a vindictive habit. He usually likes to sarcastically compliment people and then try to kill them in a brutal way.
SKILLS: As the sixth strongest demon in Muzan’s ranks, Gyutaro is extremely powerful and has over a century of combat experience behind him; he has a reputation as an exterminator of demon hunters having killed as many as 15 pillars in the past. Her immense abilities and skills are very evident when she can hold her own against both Tanjiro and Uzui at the same time. Daki is slightly less strong than her brother but is still very powerful and has managed to take the lives of as many as 16 pillars during her demon life.
Techniques: In addition to the use of demonic blood arts, Gyutaro and Daki possess a unique characteristic not seen in other demons. Although they are brothers and therefore two different people, it is as if they share their lives and bodies. Gyutaro normally remains hidden inside Daki without altering his physical mass in the slightest. Daki has an immunity to decapitation due to his connection with Gyutaro. The only way to circumvent this immunity and defeat both is to behead them at the same time.
Akaza – crescent moon number 3
Akaza is one of the main antagonists of Demon Slayer, is one of the strongest demons ever and occupies the third place of the crescent moons. He took the form of a tall, muscular young man with very light skin, bright white tinged with green, decorated with a pattern composed of fairly wide blue lines, resembling the tattoos he had as a human. Akaza has short bright pink hair and yellow eyes slanted inward with pink eyelashes. We see this demon for the first time in the canonical Mugen Train movie.
Character: Akaza is a stubborn and battle-loving demon, he especially loves to fight against the strongest demon hunters. He often makes sure to bring fights to life and loves the adrenaline rush he gets in fights where he risks his life. He loves it when his opponents unleash strong techniques and manage to hit him hard, if the technique is particularly effective he also compliments them. He has a philosophy typical of a social Darwinist, so he believes in the natural selection of the fittest and the strongest and resents the weak, who disgust him.
Skill: Because he is the third strongest demon of the twelve demonic moons, Akaza is an extremely powerful demon; he was able to defeat the extremely strong Kyojuro Rengoku and numerous other pillars before him in the past. Akaza possesses incredible skills and attributes, and is also extremely skilled in martial arts. He possesses the ability to sense the fighting spirit of his opponents, this enables him to predict attacks and understand weak points. These characteristics make him unbeatable toward anyone who cannot counter them. In addition, he is extremely fast, durable, lethal and is also a great strategist.
Techniques: So far we have seen fairly little of him, but during the battle against Rengoku he shows his extraordinary skill in unarmed combat and martial arts. Certainly combining the arts of demonic blood with his superhuman physique, every single punch and kick he is able to deliver becomes extremely lethal, so his techniques are extremely devastating. Each blow can shatter the ground or break ribs, making it an extremely powerful and dangerous opponent for anyone.
