Hello people of Tumblr I’m sharing my thoughts on Koyoharu Gotouge’s detailed designs and stories of some of the demons in Kimetsu no Yaiba. With season 3 coming up in April (and the amount of leaks that dropped) I’m so excited to see my favorite characters and how Ufotable fleshed out this amazing manga. I’m also taking this as a chance to write down my thoughts on the characters as I do have a lot and need a space to type them down lol. With s2 wrapping up at the introduction of the upper moon meeting, I’ll be starting off with Gyutaro and Daki. I’m sorry if there’s any grammar mistakes btw I’m not very good at writing :,) SPOILER WARNING & TRIGGER WARNING BTW
Upper Moon 6: Gyo’s appearance is sickly looking following along with having very strange anatomy where his chest and arms are big but his waist is incredibly skinny. He’s emaciated with dark spotted marks, and a pale/green complexion. Adding on to the sickly look, his eyes are tinted eyes and slanted downwards on the sides. As a human, he looked extremely similar to how he does now. His sickly looks compliments his blood demon art where it’s mainly made up blood sickle like slashes. His blades are also in a sickle shape, plus his slashes are shaped like blood sickles when sick with the disease. His blood demon art ties back to his life when he was human, telling a story of a sick and poor kid.
As a human, his mother caught Syphilis and before she died she tried to kill him many times even after his sister was born. People saw him as creepy and someone to fear. He had poor hygiene and lived off eating mice and insects. Because of this, he was bullied a lot but after his sister Ume was born, he became a debt collector. With the beauty of his sister, his ugliness became nothing to him and his inferiority complex was dismissed. Plus he got really good at fighting.
With Daki (or Ume), she shares the rank with Gyutaro by both of them sharing a body. She’s tall with black hair in the beginning but as the fight carries on, her hair becomes white with green tips at the end. She disguises herself as an Oiran, which is the highest ranking courtesans (prostitutes) in Japanese history. Her personality is quite cruel and sadistic but it is important to note that she has tantrums like a child and this is due to her age before she was a demon. She also suffers from Pyrophobia and has shown to have a deep fear of flames. Also something to note, Ume’ s name could be Interpreted as Uvetic cystoid macular edema which is a disease that infects the eye. This can tie back to her true ability in which she grows a third eye.
With Ume being born, it gave hope to Gyutaro. She was given things just for smiling and is said that even grown men and women would falter from looking at her. This ended quickly though when Ume stabbed a samurai in the eye with her hair pin. For this, she was burned alive and left in a ditch. Her design was purposely made to resemble a prostitute, tying back to her childhood.
Just from these two alone, you can see how their appearance alone tells a story. From personality to visuals, these two are extremely recognizable and tells a depressing story about two kids who grew up with misfortune. At the end of their story, Gyutaro explains that he has no regrets besides having Ume as a sister. He explains that she could’ve had a better life without him and would’ve turned out better if she didn’t follow his path. Even though he feels this way, Daki refused to leave his side and because of this Gyutaro and Daki has one of the most depressing stories in Demon Slayer (in my opinion). The way their relationship is written and the deep bond that is shown is emotional, but the way Gotouge writes sibling bonds is a whole different blog lol.
Note: Gyutaro means pimp and Daki means fallen princess
Upper Moon 3: Akaza, being one of my favorite characters and has a story that made me ugly cry in my bed, his character is one of the most recognizable and has a strong resemblance to his backstory. He’s muscular, very fair skin, and has a pattern of blue stripes along his face, torso, and arms. He also wears a pink, short and sleeveless haori that exposes his chest.
In his human life, his name was Hakuji. He raised his sick father, who he loved deeply. Hakuji was a criminal, he pickpocketed and murdered people with his own hands and because of this his father killed himself. After this, he was banned from Edo which caused him to kill even more men with his own hands. Eventually a man named Keizo approached him and took him in to nurse Koyuki, who would eventually become his wife. Koyuki’s health improved and Keizo offered the dojo to Hakuji along with taking Koyuki as his bride. He vowed to protect both of them with his life as they were the two most important people in his life.
This wouldn’t last though. After Hakuji informed his dad about the marriage (at his grave), a student at the dojo told him that the rival dojo poisoned the well where Koyuki and Keizo drank from. The two died after drinking the water. Hakuji killed all 67 members of the rivaling dojo with his bare hands and killing them too the point where the corpses were no longer recognizable. The act was so gruesome, it caught the attention of Muzan Kibutsuji and decided to make Hakuji one of the Twelve Kizuki.
This story easily being one of the most tragic stories in Demon Slayer, his design shows a lot of detail to his past. As a demon, he forgot his memories as a human but had a desire to become stronger despite not knowing why. With a discussion with Douma, he refuses to eat or harm women in anyway. The blue stripes on his arm and his rank as upper moon 3 resemble his tattoos and the three important people in his life (his dad, Keizo, and Koyuki), his pink haori resembles his wife’s haori, Koyuki’s 3 snowflake hair pin can resemble his technique “Compass Needle”, even his fighting style, hand to hand combat, resembles the fact that he always fought with his fists in his human life.
Akaza’s demon design consists of wearing ankle beads and in many cultures, ankle beads are thought of as a charm for protection. Akaza’ s human life was all about protection and the irony is that he failed to protect anything that he loved in his life. His name Hakuji can be a reference to stone lion dogs that protect shrines. They were honorable animals that were loved in mythology. Although when his loved ones died, you could say he became a “mad dog” and murdered dozens before turning to a demon. With following Muzan, his memories were taken away and became a “obedient dog”. EVEN Akaza’s visuals when he fights can resemble fireworks (which is what Hakuji and Koyuki got married under). Finally, at the end of the fight between Akaza’s, Tanjiro, and Giyu, Akaza kills himself after remembering his past life. This could easily resemble his dad’s suicide.
I cannot express how much I love Akaza’s story. It’s a story of his criminal past and the failure to protect the people he loved is told through his design in an incredible way. Easily one of the saddest stories told in Demon Slayer. It tells a story of love, failure, lost, and grief in one single character and it’s just another example of Gotouge’s brilliant way of telling a story through a character.
Upper Moon 2: Douma, meaning polished child or magic child, is the only antagonist that we don’t have a human name of. Douma is a complex character and a lot of my analysis mainly comes from other people’s opinions and my own guesses.
Douma is tall with a muscular body. His eyes are described to be rare and beautiful. In color, they are made of rainbow pastel colors. Because of this, he was known as a child who was blessed and could communicate with the gods. He is charismatic and friendly, with a carefree manner.
Douma’s character is extremely complex. Again, it’s really hard to analyze him because we know so much but so little about him. Douma basically had no childhood, he was forced to listen to adults because he was a “messenger from god”. I think Douma definitely has some apathetic feelings but I think he has also experienced some other emotions, like anger and love. I urge you to read this blog about him! It explains his character really well and gives the reader a different view of Douma’s apathetic feelings.
✎ just wanna start this by saying this is sort of both an analysis but also my own personal portrayal on douma’s character based on what we
So, Muzan uses weak points to gather people. Akaza’s desire to become stronger, Kokushibo’s jealousy, etc. But what about Douma? It’s unclear what was used against Douma and it could be that he didn’t use anything, it could’ve been something Douma found interest in or something. But with some analysis, it could be because of Douma’s lack of self identity. The pressure he could’ve experienced as a child drove him to a point of forgetting himself and becoming what people wanted him to be.
Douma’s character is really interesting and takes a lot of research to create an opinion of your own about him. I believe Douma is just another demon with a tragic backstory. A story of trauma and the pressure a child can face.
Upper Moon 1: Kokushibo is a huge antagonist in the story and has an amazing story about a brotherly bond and the origins of breathing techniques. Like Akaza’s, his story is very emotional and his design tells a lot about it.
Kokushibo wears a purple kimono, has long dark hair that’s in a ponytail, and has a set of 6 eyes with 3 on each side. 5 centuries ago, during the Sengoku Era, he was a human named Michikatsu Tsugikuni. He was a former demon slayer with his twin brother Yoriichi Tsugikuni. Kokushibo is an ancestor of Muichiro and he’s also the one responsible for turning Zenitsu’s senior, Kaigaku, into a demon and join the Twelve Kitsuki. He is reserved, silent, and extremely intimidating.
As a human and even now as a demon, Kokushibo feels extreme envy towards Yorichii for his natural talents and abilities. Despite the feelings of jealousy, he still feels deep care and love for Yorichii and this is shown when Kokushibo is touched when Yorichii treasures the handmade flute that he made when they were children. These feelings are definitely caused by a inferiority complex and strives to be stronger and be better than his brother. In his design, Kokushibo uses moon breathing. The moon is a symbol of enlightenment and the irony of this is Kokushibo never felt any kind of enlightenment, he felt jealousy and rage for his brother for most of his life and definitely could not let those emotions go. Along with enlightenment, the flute that was made and given by Yorichii is a bamboo flute which is played by japanese monks to step closer to enlightenment. His design also shows the internal struggle he feels. He grows 3 sets of eyes to enhance his vision and perspective to replicate Yorichii’s speed.
Kokushibo’s design screams enlightenment but he could never reach it because of the jealousy and rage he felt against his brother. In his final moments he says: “The ugliness of not admitting defeat even though they took my head, chopped me up and crushed me. Living in disgrace. Have I lived hundreds of years for this? Was I so afraid of defeat that I became a monster? Did I want to be strong even if it meant eating people? Did I become this miserable creature because I didn't want to die? No. Yoriichi... I just wanted to be you.” His design is so powerful and intimidating and it shows the struggle of the moon constantly living in the shadow of the sun.
If you read this much, thank you so much!:D
