Main Characters | Demon Slayer Corps (Hashira) | Demons (Muzan Kibutsuji | Twelve Kizuki: Upper Ranks: Kokushibo | Hantengu) | Civilians | Demon Slayer Academy
Upper Ranksnote
The Twelve Kizukinote are a group comprised of the twelve most powerful demons alive that answer directly to Muzan Kibutsuji. They are divided in Lower and Upper Ranks. Each group also internally ranks the Twelve Kizuki, going from Upper One Kokushibo to Lower Six Kamanue.
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In General
- Alas, Poor Villain: With the general exception of Doma, Hantengu, Gyokko, Kaigaku, and Enmu, the majority of the ranked demons die rather somberly and sympathetically, especially in the case of Akaza and Gyutaro.
- Arc Villain: Each member of the Twelve Kizuki becomes a primary antagonist for each Story Arc they appear in. They would all later become the primary antagonists of the Infinity Castle Arc, serving as Muzan's last line of defense for the final battle.
- Artifact Name: In the official English translation. After the Lower Ranks have been completely disposed of, the rest are still called Upper Kizuki despite there being nobody to be "upper" to. This is not an issue in the original Japanese terminology, since they are ranked according to Moon Phases, the Waning Moon Demons being wiped out doesn't make the Waxing Moon Demons redundant.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Many of them (especially the Upper Ranks) managed to earn their position by being powerful demons on their own right, and thus attracting Muzan's attention.
- Boss Bonanza: The climatic Infinity Castle Arc focuses on the entire Demon Slayer Corps assaulting Muzan's base of operations, which features several extremely difficult fights against the Upper Ranks in quick succession (or simultaneously).
- Cosmic Motifs: The Moon, their two sub groups are named after the Japanese terms for waning and waxing, and several things associated with them reference it: Such as the name of Muzan's human disguise Tsukihiko combining the kanji for "moon" and "prince". or Kokushibo's sword fighting style's name being Moon Breathing.
- A Death in the Limelight: With the sole exception of Akaza, all of the Kizuki are defeated and slain in the arc they first encountered and fought. Many (albeit not all of them) also get a more extensive exploration of their backstories, the tragedy in their humans lives, the circumstances of their demonification and their personal motives, notably Rui, Akaza and Kokushibo. The former gets half of a whole episode dedicated to this and the latter 3 full chapters in the manga.
- Depending on the Artist: With the animated adaptation of the Upper Rank meeting fully unveiling all of the remaining Twelve Kizuki, it settles the fact that the anime art direction doesn’t want demons with unique human-like skin pigmentation; to note, in Gotouge’s manga coloring schematics Daki, Doma and Kokushibo had perfectly healthy skin unlike most of their demon brethren who have pale to outright grey pigmentation, the anime makes the aforementioned special three have light pale skin instead, they still look less ghastly than other demons but can no longer pass as if they were almost human.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Downplayed. Many of them have their own ambitions and plans, but these usually don't come into conflict with their loyalty to Muzan. Muzan generally grants them a considerable degree of independence as well and lets them do as they wish until he needs them for something in particular.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Several times in the anime, originally they were mostly nondescript in the manga.
- Silhouettes of the Upper Ranks minus Gyutaro, Nakime, and Kaigaku whose involvement are walking spoilers appear in the first opening.
- When Kyogai enviously covets his position in the 12 Kizuki, the silhouettes of Enmu, Rokuro, Rui, Doma, Daki, and Akaza are seen in the anime version of that scene. In the manga, the obscured figures were without defined characteristics, Gotouge likely hadn't fully conceptualized the Twelve Kizuki members yet.
- When Tanjiro confronts Enmu, the demon becomes enthralled at the concept of killing him and receiving enough blood from Muzan to make him strong enough to challenge and usurp and Upper Rank. In the anime he visualizes the vague and dark figures of Daki, Hantengu, and Akaza, when he imagines this.
- Right before his death, Enmu notes how the Upper Ranks had not changed for hundreds of years and he imagines all of them in the anime, albeit their faces ore obscured and they are under very dark lighting. In the manga, only silhouettes of what ended up being Akaza and Daki were seen.
- Evil Counterpart: They are considered to be this to the Hashira. While the Hashira are an elite group of humans lead by the Big Good Kagaya, they're an elite group of demons lead by the Big Bad Muzan.
- Exotic Eye Designs: All of them have their Twelve Kizuki number on their eyeballs in the place of an iris and pupil. The Lower Ranks have just both their rank position and their number on one iris, while the Upper have both their number on one eye and their rank position on another. On top of this, they also tend to have additional unique eye features, like odd colors or strange eyelashes.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The top three Upper Moons have Akaza as the fighter, Doma as the mage, and Kokushibo as the thief.
- Hero Killer: The Upper Ranks are the scourge of the Demon Slayer Corps, each Upper Kizuki has a body count of numerous slayers across centuries, Hashira included; the Upper-6 demons casually state they have killed 7 and 15 Hashira respectively in the past, while Akaza and Kokushibo vaguely allude to having fought Water Hashiras and Wind Hashiras beforehand; it goes to show just how miraculous the current Hashira generation is to actually start to pose a real threat to Upper Ranks after centuries of humiliation.
- High Turnover Rate: While the Upper Ranks have stayed consistent over the last century before the series starts the Lower Ranks keep getting replaced due to them being killed by the Hashira. Muzan eventually gets tired of their constant failures and decides to remove the Lower Ranks entirely, killing all but the Lower-1 Enmu who only survives because he found his sadism to be amusing. Then the Upper Ranks begin to die...
- Identity Amnesia: Most of the twelve don't recall their past lives as humans at all or beyond context-less glimpses. Muzan has exploited this to make them more manipulable.
- Klingon Promotion: Muzan makes it clear that only the strong belong in this close circle. He has established a Blood Succession Battle system where a demon seeking to be ranked higher within the Twelve Kizuki can just rip their way upwards against upper ranks and take the seats if they are up to the task.
- Lost in Translation: Their Moon Phase theme is less apparent in the official English translation, labelling them by Lower Ranks and Upper Ranks rather than trying to localize Kagen (Waning) and Jogen (Waxing) into Moon related terms.
- Marathon Boss: All of the Twelve Kizuki that the Demon Slayer Corps fight (with the exception of Kaigaku) are extremely difficult to bring down, requiring upwards of a dozen chapters just to fend off. And sometimes the Slayers aren't even able to kill them.
- Meaningful Name: The group’s name, and its two halves, are actual phases of the moon in Japanese: Kagen and Jogen (Waning and Waxing), that’s why some translations try to find a way to localize it in a way to keep its theme. Also their individual names as well as appearances allude to a type of sickness (for example, Kokushibo sounds very similar to Kokushibyou, the Japanese pronunciations for the Black Death.)
- More than Mind Control: Most of them are kept in place through fear and desire to attain status, but Muzan also enjoys leading them on with empty promises to manipulate them.
- My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: With the exception of Enmu and Gyokko, all members that were main antagonists of their particular arc remember their early lives as humans and what led them down their path. Downplayed with Hantengu where we only see his final days as an elderly criminal before Muzan meets him.
- Older Than They Look: With the exception of Hantengu's elderly forms, the demons have young appearances with some even passing as children. However minus Kaigaku who recently turned into a demon, most of the demons are actual several years older than their appearance with some being over a century old.
- Praetorian Guard: As the most powerful warriors in Muzan's army, the upper sixth are the literal final line of defence of his domain before Muzan must personaly get his own hands dirty in battle; and true to the trope, they perform their duties with ruthless efficiency, slaughtering and crippling champion after champion (to say nothing of the scores of poor barely-trained apprentices) of the Demon Slayer Corps during the Infinity Fortress Final Battle.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Aside from a few rare instances, any battle against one of the Twelve Kizuki are normally long, exhausting affairs that result in the Demon Slayers being brutally injured in the process of putting them down. Most exhibited in the Infinity Castle Arc, where the Hashira fight the Upper Ranks, and sustain not only serious injuries, but also more than a few deaths among them.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Others attained their status because Muzan directly gave them enough of his blood to become as powerful as they are, which he did because some unique detail of their human lives caught his interest.
- Really 700 Years Old: Most demons are killed by the Corps not long after their transformation, but the Twelve Kizuki are much stronger, so they are more likely to enjoy the immortality that comes with being a demon. While the ranks of the Lower Ranks are shuffled around with some frequency, most of them are very old. Apart from Kaigaku, all of the Upper Ranks are at least a hundred years old. Kokushibo deserves special mention, being that he was already Upper-1 since 400 years ago.
- Removed Achilles' Heel: Certain Upper Moons in particular subvert the decapitation Achilles' Heel common to demons. There's usually a catch to it, that just decapitation by itself won't be enough.
- Secret Police: As elite warriors who have an easier time infiltrating human society than the obviously monstrous and weak foot-soldier demons, the Upper Six effectively function as the shadow enforcers of Muzan's army; performing deep-cover recon-missions and assassinations pertaining to particularly formidable thorns in the Demon King's side, namely the Hashira, with their lethality all but ensuring that no witnesses are left alive to connect the clues that will compromise their master's all important anonymity. Therefore, it was Daki stupidly blowing her cover through a string of highly-publicized murders, not to mention her spectacularly-extravagant demonstration of demonic power (and existence) by destroying an entire city block, that served as the first domino in the final collapse of Muzan's shadow empire.
- Seven Deadly Sins: Muzan Kibutsuji and his lieutenants correspond to one of the seven sins, due to their motivation for becoming demons, their power set or personality.
- Muzan Kibutsuji himself embodies all the sins.
- Pride: His ultimate goal is to become a perfect being, with all the perks of an unkillable demon, without their trademark weakness to sunlight. He’s also a huge narcissist who views everyone else below him, and he takes very poorly to those who disobey or insult him, sometimes to his own burden.
- Greed: He understandably wished to overcome his terminal illness, but when he does, he becomes obsessed with the thought of becoming a perfect being aka a demon impervious to sunlight.
- Envy: He is motivated to become a perfect being out of intense jealousy for humans due to his being a demon forbids him from being in the sunlight.
- Wrath: The King of Demons is also short-tempered, spiteful, vicious and ruthless in general, showing very little compassion even to his own subordinates.
- Sloth: He has the 12 Kizuki do most of his dirty work, to the point where he manages to never meet a single Hashira before the story starts. This is because after his encounter with Yoriichi, he cowardly hides away in hopes he never faces him or another like him again.
- Gluttony: After becoming a demon he starts craving human blood and has no second thoughts on eating humans for subsistence, eating them in droves. He also overindulges his life to research the blue spider lily, ending up living as a man, woman, and child because of it.
- Lust: A lust for power, immortality, and intense bloodlust of course. Muzan isn’t very lascivious and views most women as either food or pawns. The only exception seems to be Tamayo, as he's shown to be keeping her around during his encounter with Yoriichi, implying that he planned to or was using her as a demonic concubine of sorts.
- Greed: Upper Kizuki 1, Kokushibo. Although more characterized by his intense envy for his brother, Yoriichi Tsugikuni, Kokushibo ended up marrying and having a family, as well as being a decently strong and respected swordsman. However, after meeting his twin again, sparking his desire to become more, he abandoned his family in order to pursue a career in the demon slayer corps and eventually became desperate enough to conclude that that accepting demonic power was to only way to surpass his twin.
- Gluttony: Upper Kizuki 2, Doma, achieved his power by continuously devouring the followers of a cult founded around his worship. He also loves eating young women and can literally absorb his victims through his skin, leaving nothing of them behind.
- Wrath: Upper Kizuki 3, Akaza, became a demon after violently avenging the deaths of his loved ones, after which he lost his will to live. Due to becoming a demon, he lost much of his memories and his will to fight only manifested through a never-ending desire for slaughter and battle with worthy opponents.
- Sloth: Upper Kizuki 4, Hantengu, being a cowardly cheat who feigned blindness to rob and murder kind strangers, manifests his demonic powers by creating younger clones of himself, based around his emotions, and having them do all the necessary fighting, while his "real" body runs away and waits the fight out.
- Pride: Upper Kizuki 5, Gyokko, is an Attention Whore artist obsessed with creating the finest "art" and forcing everyone and anyone to observe and adore it. He’s also quite arrogant and boastful, which unfortunately for him, it ends up biting him in the…pot. His underestimation of Muichiro who he traps in a water pot leaving him for dead, and petty mission to make Hotaru Haganezuka break his concentration on honing Yoriichi’s old sword, allows the Mist Hashira to escape. In addition, he inadvertently helps Muichiro awaken his Demon Slayer mark, allowing to Hashira to make quick work of the prideful demon and behead him.
- Lust: Upper Kizuki 6, Daki, works as an "oiran" (high-class prostitute) in the Red Light District, and has for centuries. As a bonus, she also has a noticeable bloodlust when fighting and is quite vain.
- Envy: Although as mentioned before, this sin very well fits Kokushibo Gyutaro’s is characterized as someone who heavily envies those who are more fortunate than him, going on an angry, self-mutilating rant when he faces off against the polygamous Lady Killer, Tengen Uzui. In life, after his beloved sister Ume was burned by a vengeful client who happened to be a samurai, he berates him for his wrath despite very obviously living a privileged life. Although it should be noted that Gotouge Koyoharu confirms in the Databooks that Muzan appreciates greed as his best characteristic.
- Muzan Kibutsuji himself embodies all the sins.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Their serious battles are always fought in ascending order of rank, which also signals their power. The only exception would be the first-hand experience of what an Upper Rank is like, Akaza the Upper-3 is the first Upper Rank fully introduced, he is given a fight immediately after the Lower-1 Enmu falls; however, Akaza's real fight indeed takes place in proper order, after Upper-6 through 4 are dealt with.
- Standard Evil Organization Squad: They are Muzan's most powerful and loyal minions with only Hashira considered to be a match for them. Despite large degree of autonomy, Muzan keeps them on a tight leash and makes them run errands for him when needed. After Yahaba and Susamaru (who aspired to become one) and Kyogai (former Lower-6) every Arc Villain has been a member of Twelve Kizuki.
- Supervillain Lair: The Infinity Castle is a Bizarrchitecture that serves as the base of operations for Muzan and the Upper Ranks, with Nakime being the Domain Holder.
- Technicolor Eyes: It's very common in demon and even the human characters, and the 12 Kizuki are no different.
- Upper Moons
- Kokushibo had golden irises with red sclera.
- Doma has rainbow irises that are a mix of sky blue, pink, gold, and pea green.
- Akaza has golden irises with steel blue sclera.
- Hantengu has golden irises with red sclera. His clones also have colorful eyes.
- Sekido has red eyes
- Karaku has green eyes
- Aizetsu has blue eyes
- Urogi has amber eyes.
- Zohakuten has the same eyes as Hantengu.
- Nakime has pink sclera
- Gyokko has yellow eyes with a orange center.
- Daki has olive eyes with a red center
- Gyutaro has olive irises with yellow sclera.
- Kaigaku has electric blue irises with black sclera.
- Lower Moons
- Enmu has light blue eyes.
- Rokuro has olive yellow eyes.
- Mukago has pale lavender irises and red sclera
- Rui has baby blue irises and red sclera
- Upper Moons
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Aside from Daki and Gyutaro, due to them being siblings and genuinely loving each other, none of the Upper Moons really like each other and ever work as a team. Almost all of them harbor some sort of disdain for Doma, Akaza can barely stand each Kokushibo, and while both Hantengu and Gyokko are attacking the Swordsmith Village together, neither ever thinks about checking on and helping the other.
- Transhuman Treachery: They all display Fantastic Racism towards humans, regarding them as inferior species and their natural property, and reminding that they were humans at some point is a sure way to annoy them. Most had a Cynicism Catalyst in some way or another even before being turned by Muzan, and willingly became demons to make killing people they don't like easier.
- We Have Reserves: Muzan replaces the Lower Ranks often (although he eventually gets tired of this and disbands them permanently). While the loss of an Upper Rank is a very significant hallmark, he isn't particularly bothered by this and has no problem making more.
Upper Ranks
To view tropes regarding them, click here.
Lower Ranks
Enmu
Enmu
Voiced By: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese), Landon McDonald (English)Other VA
"All human hearts are the same. So fragile and weak, like glasswork."
The Lower-1 and a member of the Twelve Kizuki. Enmu is always elated at the torment of others and has the ability to trap his victims into either pleasurable dreams or nightmares.- All There in the Manual: His backstory is curiously given in the official pamphlet given in a few theaters in Japan for the Mugen Train movie: as a human, Enmu was a delusional person who couldn’t quite differentiate between dreams and reality. He passed himself a healer with supernatural hypnotic powers, selling people false promises of healing their conditions through pure mind-over-matter practices. That, of course, didn’t work at all and people ended up dying. Enmu felt no remorse and kept scamming desperate people. That anecdote is a direct mirror to how Enmu manipulated the group of people who helped him overtake the Mugen Train, promising them never-ending happy dreams instead.
- Arc Villain: He served as this for the Mugen Train Arc, being sent by Muzan to kill Tanjiro. Unfortunately for him, he gets slain down by Tanjiro and his friends despite his best efforts, and his role gets taken over by Upper Three Akaza.
- Ax-Crazy: Enmu is incredibly sadistic and loves to lull people into a false sense of security with his dreams powers to make them more terrified later on before savoring their fears with bloodhungry delight and devouring them. He is one of the more shamelessly violent and brutal demons in the series.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Enmu gets a rather dramatic buildup, being the last surviving of the lower ranked Twelve Kizuki and his ambition to join the upper ranks leading into the Mugen Train arc. While he does give Tanjiro and Inosuke an extended struggle, they ultimately best him and it turns out that Enmu didn't have any extra tricks up his sleeve. The arc instead gets hijacked by Akaza in the end, who serves as the Final Boss of the arc.
- Body Horror: After merging with the Infinity Train, Enmu's body becomes something truly horrific, bordering on Eldritch Abomination. His humanoid form becomes a proxy that can survive decapitation by sprouting a grotesque mass of flesh to connect his head to the train, which looks like something out of The Thing (1982). Masses of flesh with arms and eyeballs also begin forming within the train which attempt to consume passengers and a very large spinal column forms underneath the train's engine. Once he is defeated, the true extent of his assimilation is shown, with the fleshy masses completely surrounding several cars at the front of the train.
- Carnivorous Healing Factor: Defied when Enmu, who had fused with the Mugen train to survive being decapitated once earlier, tries to regenerate his neck by devouring the Mugen Train's passengers when Tanjirō slices through it with his sword, but Rengoku stops this by slashing the writhing tentacles with his own sword.
- Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Enmu ends up being the Sole Survivor of Muzan's slaughter of the Lower Ranks so he can hijack the Mugen Train. Unfortunately for him, the team effort of Tanjiro and co leads to his defeat.
- Compelling Voice: One of his abilities allows him to grow a mouth on his hand which can speak and instantly put to sleep anyone who hears its voice.
- Crazy-Prepared: Enmu is very aware of his Blood Demon Art's limitations and weaknesses, and takes many precautions to ensure the Demon Slayers on the train fall under his technique without revealing or endangering himself. Too bad he had no way to account for Nezuko's presence or Tanjiro's Heroic Willpower.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Despite being the most prominent Arc Villain of the Mugen Train Arc, he gets killed off 3/4ths in, leaving Akaza to take over as the antagonist for remainder of that story.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: It's easy to mistake Enmu as a woman, as he has a rather long haircut and a suit that could easily indicate him to be a Bifauxnen. While he has a rather deep voice, it still sounds feminine.
- Dream Emergency Exit: The way to wake up from Enmu's dream is to cut your neck.
- Dream Weaver: Has control over what the people he puts to sleep dream about, saying he likes to vary it between sweet dreams and horrible nightmares.
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Played for Horror; he comes dangerously close to killing Tanjiro by not using the Eyes of Forced Unconscious Sleep right after he wakes up after using it multiple times before with Tanjiro responding by severing his head in the dream world. As a result, Tanjiro nearly sliced his own head in the real world, and it took Inosuke's timely interference to prevent him from accidentally killing himself.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: He has black hair and pure white skin. He's introduced as a Nightmare Fetishist who Loves the Sound of Screaming as Muzan brutally kills the other Lower Ranks.
- Effeminate Voice: He speaks with a very campy tone, which is congruent with his overall androgynous appearance.
- Empty Shell: Victims of his who have their spiritual cores destroyed from within their subconscious are turned comatose, making them very easy to consume afterward.
- Evil Gloating: Upon merging with the train, Enmu drops his polite facade and begins taunting Tanjiro, confident in his victory. This leads to...
- Evil Is Visceral: Demonstrated aplenty once he takes over the train, allowing him to sprout fleshy tentacles, hands and pillars of eyes to repel enemies and consume victims. And due to his powerful Healing Factor, it is impossible to truly stop any of this until he is killed.
- Evil Wears Black: His outfit almost consists completely of dark articles.
- Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: After meeting Tanjiro and having a short fight, he explains his ability to merge with the Infinity Train and his plan to devour all passengers aboard, fully believing that he has already won at that point. This, of course, backfires as it gives Tanjiro the clue he needs to locate Enmu's weak spot and leads to his death.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: After merging his body with the train, he can grow countless eyeballs from anywhere within that can put to sleep anyone who looks into them.
- Face Death with Dignity: While the other Lower Ranks react with terror in the face of Muzan's purge and attempt to flee or bargain for their lives, Enmu is in ecstasy at the thought of being personally killed by Muzan and offers his life with no hesitation or fear. Averted with his actual death, where he spends his final moments cursing Tanjiro and his group while lamenting his weakness despite being given a second chance and power-boost by Muzan.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: A rather literal case. Traditional demon features aside, Enmu is rather sweet-looking with delicate, androgynous features, a soft voice, and good manners (at least on the surface). He's also a ruthless sadist and Manipulative Bastard.
- Faux Affably Evil: He is very well-mannered for a demon and speaks to his human subordinates with a kind and gentle tone. He also politely greets Tanjiro when they meet and continues to be cordial even as they fight. In truth, he has no respect for human life whatsoever, and only acts affable to manipulate the humans around him. While even most of the Twelve have rather tragic backstories, he is equal to Muzan in being depicted in a wholly unsympathetic fashion.
- Foil: To the only other prominent member of Lower Ranks, Rui:
- Enmu has the physique of a man in his 20's while Rui's is that of a child.
- Enmu is dressed in black clothes while Rui is dressed in white.
- Both of them have a Faux Affably Evil vibe in different ways: Enmu is jovial and delighted, while Rui is monotone and quiet.
- Both have minions they manipulate as a means to serve them. In Rui's case, he turns them into demons and has them play the part of his family member out of a sense of co-dependency (even abusing them if they don't play it well). In Enmu's case, he coerces human beings into doing his bidding out of a pretense of living out their wonderful dreams, before ultimately consuming them without a care in the world.
- Rui was always favored by Muzan who let him do whatever he wanted and have a family. Enmu only got Muzan's favor by sucking up to him.
- Ultimately, Rui receives a backstory that paint him as a Tragic Villain, while Enmu receives no such treatment. Even his backstory stated above doesn't make him sympathetic.
- Forced Sleep: He has several techniques that let him put people to sleep.
- Hate Sink: Enmu is purely depicted as a sociopathic demon who takes pleasure in the suffering of others without a lick of remorse, much like his master Muzan. In his backstory, he was even like this as a human.
- Haunted Technology: While he is a demon rather than the usual ghost, he is still able to turn an entire train into an extension of his body.
- The Heavy: While he may share the role of Arc Villain with Akaza for the Mugen Train Arc, it is his actions that drive said Story Arc in the first place.
- Hypnotic Eyes: One of his many methods of putting enemies to sleep, alongside with his Compelling Voice and his blood curse. However, he needs to lock eyes with the target to successfully subjugate them, making this technique much less effective if he can't tell where the target's eyes are.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Towards Muzan. To the point that he outright felt ecstasy as he watched his fellow lower-ranks getting killed by Muzan while knowing that he would likely suffer the same fate soon.
- It Only Works Once: The rare case where the villain is on the receiving end of this. During his fight with Tanjiro and Inosuke, Enmu finds himself unable to completely subject them to his Lotus-Eater Machine technique again. Tanjiro figured out how to brute force his way back to consciousness, while Inosuke wears a mask, making Enmu unable to determine which way Inosuke is actually gazing. However, at one point, he manages to subvert the trope and almost kills Tanjiro... by getting him to damn nearly commit suicide in real life, thinking he's in a dream again.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: His Blood Demon Art allows him to enter his target's subconscious and destroy their spiritual core, which would leave them comatose. However, there are many risks to doing this, so he'd rather use human pawns to do it instead. He provides them with a special rope infused with his blood that allows them to enter the dreams of whoever it's tethered to, but doesn't bother fully explaining the risks involved.
- Kick the Dog: His absolutely favorite thing to do is turn the pleasant dreams of his victims into nightmares, so he can see their horrified faces when they wake up, only to then eat them. In addition, when Tanjiro ends up being able to awaken from Enmu's spells, he decides to hit him with a nightmare in which his deceased family berates and blames him for their deaths.
- Losing Your Head: Tanjiro is able to swiftly decapitate Enmu after learning how to counter his sleep powers, but by that point, he had already fused with the train and his head continues to taunt Tanjiro before melting away into the train car's roof.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Enmu's MO is to trap his targets in sweet dreams long enough to kill them or to have one of his minions destroy their spiritual core, leaving them helpless. This is also his means of manipulating his human servants - by promising to lock them in a dream where they can spend the remainder of their life free of suffering. However, considering his sadistic nature, it's very likely he would rather have trapped them in an endless nightmare once they outlived their usefulness.
- Loves the Sound of Screaming: He greatly enjoys hearing the screams of his fellow Lower Ranks being disposed of by Muzan.
- Manipulative Bastard: Enmu convinces several weak-minded and emotionally vulnerable people to do his dirty work by promising them unending pleasant dreams, but he has no regard for human life and fully intends to devour them afterward regardless.
- Meaningful Name: Enmu is a man-eating demon with powers over sleep and dreams. His name is written with kanji meaning "sleep-groaning dream".
- Near-Villain Victory: He comes very close to accomplishing his mission of killing Tanjiro and Rengoku, at one point having both helplessly trapped within his Blood Demon Art without either even realizing that they were under attack thanks to his meticulous planning. The only reason he fails is due to Nezuko being unaffected by his technique, allowing her to briefly wake Tanjiro which gives him the chance to figure out how to counter Enmu's powers.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He puts '''Zenitsu''' to sleep.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Enmu enjoys the suffering of others. A lot. Especially when Muzan is the one who is carrying it out.
- Nightmare Weaver: After seeing how trapping Tanjiro in a good dream doesn't work — he keeps immediately shaking it off by cutting his own neck in the dream world — Enmu switches tactics, trying to break Tanjiro's spirit by trapping him in a horribly hellish nightmare where the blood-covered corpses of his family condemn him for living on while they all died. This succeeds in absolutely nothing except pissing Tanjiro off, as he easily shakes off the dream and lashes out at Enmu for insulting his family.
- No Honor Among Thieves: To drive that he's a merciless sociopath even further home, he's absolutely delighted at the death of even his fellow Lower Ranks demons.
- Pet the Dog: Although he fully intends to eat him afterward, he rewards the train conductor who helped assist him by giving him a dream where he is reunited with his dead wife and child.
- Sadist: He's characterized by delight at the suffering of others, even his fellow Lower Rank Demons.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Enmu’s name is properly written in Kanji, meaning sleep-groaning dream, but the way it is pronounced is exactly an anagram of Nemu, radical form which means sleep.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Similarly to his boss Muzan, Enmu dresses in a more Western-style formal wear as opposed to the more traditional Japanese clothing worn by most demons.
- Sissy Villain: Enmu looks feminine and has effeminate mannerisms, as well as a soft voice that he could be mistaken for a female.
- The Sociopath: Enmu appears to be a low-functioning psychopath defined by his rampant need to make others suffer, display nothing in the way of affection or camaraderie, and happy indulgence for violence. His admiration for Muzan is based less on the man and more on his unempathetic and vicious outlook, which Enmu takes as a projection of himself. Even before becoming a demon, he was more than eager to partake in sham practices as a supposed "healer" and feeling nothing for anybody who died in his services.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He speaks in a soft and calm tone, but he is clearly psychotic.
- Sentient Vehicle: Enmu merges his body with the Infinity Train.
- Sole Survivor: He is the only survivor of Muzan's purge of the Lower Ranks.
- Sycophantic Servant: He's the only Lower Rank who didn't think of running away and who wasn't afraid of being killed by Muzan until he decides to give him a second chance to redeem himself by killing Tanjiro.
- This Cannot Be!: After having his spinal column severed by Tanjiro, Enmu is in utter disbelief at what happened. He had all the present Demon Slayers, including a Hashira, under his technique and at his mercy, but still ultimately failed without even killing a single human aboard the train.
- Token Evil Teammate: Played with. With Rui being a Tragic Villain and the other Lower Ranks being butchered by Muzan in a fashion that makes them look pitiful despite presumably being monstrous enough to be part of the Kizuki, Enmu is ultimately the only member who's characterized by a Lack of Empathy even towards his fellow demons just to please Muzan, and he has no tragic backstory like Rui.
- Too Clever by Half: Enmu is a very intelligent foe and is driven by his desire to rise up the ranks of the Upper Ranks to prove his worth to Muzan. However, his intelligence and conviction lead to arrogance, gloating to Tanjiro once he merges with the train and inadvertently giving Tanjiro the clue he needs to locate his weak point.
- Too Many Mouths: After receiving extra blood from Muzan, He grows an extra mouth on his left hand that allows him to infiltrate the Mugen Train without trouble and uses the train conductor and some passengers to kill Tanjiro and co.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Tanjiro ends up being this to him. Enmu is absolutely terrified when he realizes that Tanjiro keeps escaping his dream by immediately slashing his own neck. He simply cannot fathom the level of Heroic Willpower that would be required to repeatedly commit suicide like that, and muses that Tanjiro is "out of his mind".
- Tricked to Death: Almost kills Tanjiro by ''not'' putting him to sleep after he begins to have his sword ready to chop his neck off in the real world.
- Undignified Death: While he does have a climactic showdown against Tanjiro and is spectacularly finished off by him, Enmu's final moments are anything but dignified. He spends his last seconds in shock and disbelief, complaining about how he was bested and how he failed to complete his task and fulfill his sadistic desires before his eye disintegrates into nothing.
- Undying Loyalty: The other Lower Ranks tried to flee or bargain for their lives, but Enmu simply offered his life and endless praise for Muzan. Muzan instead gives him a painful Deadly Upgrade and spares his life.
Rui
Rui
Voiced By: Kōki Uchiyama (Japanese), Billy Kametz (English)Other VA
Click here to see him as a human
"Since I was the one with the most power, there was no one who could protect me... who could shield me. The more powerful I became, the less I remembered about being a human. And I was losing sight of what it was that I wanted to do. Seeking a bond that I could never claim for myself."
The Lower-5 and a member of the Twelve Kizuki. He was born weak, and was turned into a demon as a child by Muzan to survive his disease. His transformation led him to eat humans to preserve his life, at which point his parents tried to subject him to a Mercy Kill, leading to Rui taking their lives before they could take his. This led Rui to make his getaway to Mount Natagumo to forge a family of his own.- Abusive Offspring: Excluding his "father" (and even then, he was at best a useful henchman), Rui was horribly abusive to the rest of the Spider family, including his "mother," treating them more like props to act out his fantasy than actual people. Subverted because none are his real family.
- Arc Villain: Of the Mount Natagumo arc, being the leader of the Spider family and the strongest demon Tanjiro and his friends fought in that arc.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Rui may have committed many terrible deeds, but his death is rather somber since we see him regretting his actions and as he and his parents go to Hell together, he cries and begs for their forgiveness.
- Animal Motif: Spiders. His hairdo is shaped like one; he uses threads as his main weapon (reminiscent of a spiderweb) and has three pupils in each eye, similar to how spiders possess multiple eyes. This carries over to his "family", as each member has spider traits after Rui modified them to make them more similar to him. His spider motif appears to be symbolic of his greatest desire—threads and ropes (like spider silk) are used to connect things, and Rui wants the emotional connections of a family.
- Anime Hair: Rui’s hairdo was styled to look like a spider’s legs wrapping around his face, and even looked that way when he was human. He seems to have gotten it from his father.
- Bad Samaritan: It's revealed in a flashback that Rui recruited his "sister" this way. She was being chased by demon slayers and he saved her in exchange for becoming part of his family. Doesn't mean he won't abuse her like the rest, though.
- Berserk Button:
- He "punished" his "family" (read: used his threads to strangle them or cut them up) when they reverted to their original demon forms.
- Tanjiro royally pissed him off when he called Rui's family bonds “fake", and Rui went out of his way to make him suffer for it rather than just killing him immediately.
- Big Brother Bully: Even though he is the "little brother" of his spider family, he punishes his "brothers" and "sisters" severely if they don't fill their roles in the family as expected or fail to protect him from Demon Slayers. When he caught one of his "older sisters" planning to run away, he tortured her, strung her up with his threads, and left her to burn to death in the morning sun. He also planned to make Nezuko his new "sister" and do the same to her if she was disobedient.
- Bloodbath Villain Origin: When he devoured someone for the first time as a demon, his parents tried to kill him in his sleep, wanting to prevent him from killing any more people in his Demon state. He promptly killed them in self-defense.
- The Cameo: He makes a brief appearance via flashback in the Mugen Train movie.
- Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Rui is able to avoid getting decapitated by Tanjiro when he severed his own head. Minutes later, he's easily dispatched by Giyu.
- Climax Boss: He's the final Arc Villain of the overarching Unwavering Resolve arc (and Season 1 in the anime), and (being a current member of the Twelve Kizuki) is arguably the toughest demon Tanjiro comes across so far.
- Creepy Child: Might well be the series' prime example.
- Creepy Monotone: Kōki Uchiyama plays Rui with a soft, languid voice that highlights his penchant for cruelty. Billy Kametz is able to replicate it quite well in the dub.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The first time he was shown to fight, he diced up a Red Shirt effortlessly. He then proceeded to toy with Tanjiro for a while before defeating him with ease. Tanjiro did manage to recover and fight back seriously, but Rui still got the upper hand thanks to quick thinking. And a second later, Giyu showed up and delivered this to Rui, one-shotting Rui with a single clean move so fast that Rui didn't even notice.
- The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: He felt so empty after killing his parents, that as he went about making another family for himself, with time he wound up forgetting his real parents, only remembering them as he died.
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: Severed his own head with his threads just as Tanjiro's about to decapitate him, saving his own life.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: Rui did this to Tanjiro twice. The first time was when Rui unleashed his Blood Demon Art to strengthen his threads, he asked Tanjiro if he thought that Rui had been using his strongest threads all this time. The second time, after Rui cut off his own head to save himself, he asked Tanjiro if he thought he'd really succeeded in decapitating Rui.
- Domestic Abuse: He abused his fake family when they didn't follow the roles given by him. He gets rightfully accused of it by Tanjiro.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Played with. He did seem to realize that his parents had tried to kill him in order to take responsibility for his crime of killing a human, but was only able to live with what he had done by convincing himself otherwise.
- Dying as Yourself: As he dies, he regains his sanity and realizes the weight of his sins upon reuniting with his real parents, breaking down crying while apologizing.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even though he killed his mother and father, he never stopped loving them. He missed them so much that he tried to replace them with other demons who he forced to play the roles of his family. As he is dying, he realizes how horrible he was and begs for his parents' forgiveness. Their spirits appear, and promise him that the three of them will always be together from now on, even if they're condemned to hell.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He directed his "family" like a Prima Donna Director directs a theater play; believing that parents protect their children and older siblings protect younger siblings - the rest of his "family" were basically bodyguards for him, the youngest son. He's completely incapable of understanding just why Tanjiro and Nezuko, being siblings, stick their necks out for each other.
- Family of Choice: A twisted example of one; his "family" is a collection of assorted lesser demons who are transformed to look like him and forced to play the roles of his "parents" and "older siblings", and are killed if they don't do what he wants.
- Faux Affably Evil: He speaks in a polite tone and barely raises his voice, but he has no problem beating up his “family”.
- Heel Realization: In his dying moments, he realizes how many terrible things he'd done, as well as how he'd misjudged his parents.
- I Control My Minions Through...: Just like Muzan, it's by instilling fear. Any failure to play the roles assigned to Rui's family will result in a bad time.
- Ignored Epiphany: He felt horrible after killing his parents. However, Muzan showed up and convinced him that he was right to do so, and it was proof of his strength.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: He created a false family with other demons because of his lingering emptiness from killing his real parents.
- It's All About Me: After seeing Tanjiro and Nezuko protect each other, he is touched by the strength of their love for each other... and then decides he will have it for himself by claiming Nezuko as his new sister and stringing her up with Razor Floss to force her to submit.
- Light Is Not Good: His main color scheme consists of white, but he's not exactly a good fellow.
- Love Is a Weakness: Perhaps sentimentality would be more accurate, but Rui made himself weaker by spreading his powers among the many members of his fake family who he brought into his fold to serve as replacements for his parents.
- Made of Iron: His skin is even tougher than his threads, the same ones that broke Tanjiro’s Nichirin Sword.
- The Man Behind the Man: At first, readers were led to believe that the "mother" was the biggest threat of the group... then readers saw her being terrified of Rui and the "father". Added to the fact that Tanjiro and Inosuke mistook the "father"(the largest and most monstrous of the family) as a member of the Twelve Kizuki, many readers were promptly misled into believing that the "father" was the biggest threat. Turned out Rui was the true mastermind of the whole thing.
- Master of Threads: Rui has powers over threads, which he uses to slice up opponents.
- Meaningful Name: The sole kanji character that makes up Rui's name, '累', means "accumulate" or "connect", reflecting his desire for familial bonds. Among other meanings, it can also mean "harmful effect" or "evil influence", reflecting the negative impact her left on his "family", such as his "mother", to name one instance, who was more explicitly Forced into Evil out of fear of Rui's abuse when compared to other demons. Also, the radical that makes up the kanji for his name is '糸' (seen as the bottom half of the '累' kanji), which means "thread", reflecting his thread-based powers.
- Mister Big: He's the most physically petite of his "family". Turned out he's the biggest threat and the one that ruled over the group via instilling fear.
- My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction after killing his parents, and after reuniting with them after his own death.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Rui, your "mother" probably would have won hadn't she gotten a harsh "The Reason You Suck" Speech from you for her failures to win with the People Puppets that she was controlling, thus causing her to lose focus at a critical point.
- Offing the Offspring: Rui's father attempted this upon discovering Rui had become a demon, because they couldn't live with their son's crimes, but did so with the intention of dying with him.
- Older Than They Look: The most glaring example. He was the appearance of a 13 year old boy but is at least 30 years old.
- Personality Powers: He can create and control threads. That embodies his need to be linked with someone as he wants to be a part of a family.
- Pet the Dog: In a Cruel Mercy sense. He gives the Elder Sister Demon shelter and kills Demon Slayers attacking her in exchange for joining his "family". He later offers Tanjiro a deal in which he gets to live in exchange for Nezuko joining his family.
- Poisonous Person: While Rui hasn't been seen using poison on-screen, his "brother" made use of spider poisons extensively, while his "sister" used acidic cocoons. They apparently gained such abilities via absorbing Rui's blood, so it could be assumed that Rui himself possessed poison-related abilities.
- Razor Floss: His web threads are extremely sharp, capable of easily slicing apart human flesh and bone, and even snapping Tanjiro's Nichirin Sword.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His scleras are red and is an exceptionally cruel demon.
- Resignations Not Accepted: He will brutally torture and kill any member of his spider family who he catches trying to leave.
- Self-Made Orphan: Rui's father tried to kill him after Rui started eating humans. In response, Rui killed his parents. He only remembered as he's on the verge of death that his father had said they'd all die together.
- Slasher Smile: Though he was usually stoic and expressionless, he showed a nasty grin when he revealed to Tanjiro his rank as the Lower-5.
- Spiders Are Scary: Rui and his whole "family" will trigger your arachnophobia.
- The Stoic: He only showed expressions regarding the idea of family and when revealing his position in the Twelve Kizuki.
- Tragic Villain: Rui was a sickly young boy desperate enough to make what amounted to a Deal with the Devil, to become a demon and cure his illness, not realizing it would turn him into a bloodthirsty monster. His parents were horrified and tried to kill him, but he killed them instead. He was so sad afterward, and missed them so much, he tried to make a replacement family with other demons acting as his parents and siblings. But it was not built on love, only their fear of him keeping them in line. For all his faults at the end of the day, all he really wanted was to replace the love that he thought his parents didn't have for him. Fortunately he misjudged them.
- Together in Death: Rui reunited with his real parents in hell as he died.
- Underestimating Badassery: On both ends of this.
- A Red Shirt tried to kill Rui in order to score points with his superiors, only for Rui to kill him instantly, and Tanjiro didn't initially realize that Rui, not the larger and more monstrous-looking "father" demon, was part of the Twelve Kizuki.
- Downplayed when it came to Tanjiro. Rui was far out of Tanjiro's league, and would have killed him if not for Giyu's intervention, so Rui did have reason to look down on Tanjiro. That said, Tanjiro came a lot closer to killing Rui than Rui had expected, and with a broken sword, no less.
- Villainous Breakdown: He narrowly managed to avoid Tanjiro's killing blow, but by his own admission, Rui had never been angrier before in his life.
- Villainous Demotivator: He threatened the "mother" demon that he'd tell the "father" demon about her if she didn't hurry up and kill the Demon Slayers, which only served to further unnerve her.
- Vocal Dissonance: In the anime, he has an unexpectedly deep voice for a child demon. He had a deep voice as a human child as well.
- White and Red and Eerie All Over: Rui is a terrifying and ridiculously powerful demon with pure white skin, hair, and clothing with subtle red accents, including a red sash and red markings on his face. His demon "family" have similar appearances to him.
- White Hair, Black Heart: White hair, and a toxic, twisted idea of family values. His hair turned white when he became a demon, and turned back to its natural brown color after he had his Heel Realization and showed remorse for his actions in Hell.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: While other demons weren’t exactly easy for Tanjiro to deal with, Rui was the first demon he outright lost against. By the moment Rui snapped Tanjiro’s sword in half, it was clear that this wasn’t an even battle. He even managed to avoid a last-ditch move that would have killed him without quick thinking. Tanjiro would have been killed on the spot had Giyu not arrived.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: You'd have to be heartless not to feel bad for a terminally ill child groomed into taking a curse that made him kill his parents. Still doesn't make him any less of a threat.
- The Worf Effect: Puts Tanjiro through the wringer with his Razor Floss webs and comes close to killing him. Then Giyu showed up and one-shot him.
- Worf Had the Flu: The databooks note that spreading his blood among his family weakened him, and his true level is comparable to at least Lower 2. Had he not spread out his blood so much, he might have succeeded in killing Tanjiro, and would have been less of a pushover against Giyu.
- Would Hit a Girl: Had at least one female Demon Slayer as his victims. He also had no problem having his "mother" beaten up or tortured when she failed him, and strang up Nezuko on his Razor Floss.
- Would Hurt a Child: In the anime, Rui was willing to abuse his "mother", who's actually a child demon after she accidentally reverted back to her original form seen in the "older sister"'s flashback. This doubles as Would Hit a Girl this is the "mother" he abused.
Other Lower Ranks Members
Rokuro / LR2 voiced by: Taiten Kusunoki (Japanese), Ray Chase (English)Other VA
Wakuraba / LR3 voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (Japanese), Stefan Martello (English) Other VA
Mukago / LR4 voiced by: Kana Ueda (Japanese), Kira Buckland (English)Other VA
Kamanue / LR6 voiced by: KENN (Japanese), Alan Lee (English)Other VA
From top to bottom: Rokuro (LR2), Wakuraba (LR3), Mukago (LR4) and Kamanue (LR6)
Muzan Kibutsuji's six less powerful minions. Unlike the Upper Ranks, they have been killed and replaced many times.- Alas, Poor Villain: Excluding Enmu, they're all mercilessly butchered by Muzan after Rui's defeat while desperately pleading for their lives. It's easy to forget that they must have been ruthless enough to somehow become part of the Twelve Kizuki in the first place.
- All There in the Manual: In the first fanbook, it was revealed their names are Rokuro (Lower-2), Wakuraba (Lower-3), Mukago (Lower-4), and Kamanue (Lower-6).
- Ambiguously Evil: They never do anything that could be considered evil, as they just cower and grovel in front of Muzan and make a futile plea for their lives. As such it's unknown how cruel or merciless they were before their execution, but it's presumably enough to be accepted into the Twelve Kizuki.
- Beard of Evil: Rokuro has a spiky beard, notably the only Twelve Kizuki member to have facial hair, and he is presumably evil enough to be the second-ranking Lower Moon and the 8th ranking member in the Kizuki overall.
- Cute Monster Girl: Mukago qualifies, taking the appearance of a petite young woman.
- Dirty Coward: According to Muzan, Mukago is afraid to fight the Demon Slayer Corps, and she has no intention to fight the Hashira. Of course, that's rich coming from Muzan considering that accurately describes his own buried feelings about directly engaging the Hashira despite his far superior power to Mukago, who at least has the excuse of knowing there are Slayers strong enough to kill her.
- Eaten Alive: Both Kamanue and Mukago are eaten alive by Muzan.
- Exotic Eye Designs: The Lower Ranks have one eye with their number engraved into it, in contrast to the Upper Ranks where their eyes have both their rank position and their number. In addition, Rui and Enmu's other eyes are also unusual; Rui's eyes have three pupils, and Enmu has a horizontal rectangular pupil in the eye opposite to his rank-bearing one.
- Facial Markings: Like most demons.
- Morton's Fork: After criticizing their strength and questioning their worth as subordinates, Muzan gives them a chance to speak for themselves, which amounts to either agreeing or disagreeing with his assessment. Lower 3, Wakuraba realizes that Muzan will kill them no matter what answer they give, as he has no use for weaklings and hates those who speak against him, and decides to Take a Third Option by attempting to flee; the attempt fails and he ends up decapitated.
- Nothing Is Scarier: While the other members' fates are shown in brutal detail, Rokuro's death is offscreen and only a pool of blood is shown afterward when Rokuro meets his demise. Given that he was the Lower Rank who had angered Muzan the most, it must not have been a pretty sight.
- Oh, Crap!: Kamanue's reaction when he realizes that Muzan can hear the thoughts of demons.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Muzan calls out Mukago for having this reaction anytime she encounters a Hashira, which is pretty rich considering this is coming from a man who actually fears the Hashira more than she does.
- Wakuraba attempts to flee from the Infinity Castle upon his realization that Muzan isn't sparing any one of the lower ranks, but Muzan quickly decapitates him.
- The Smurfette Principle: Mukago is the only female of the Lower Ranks.
- Too Dumb to Live: Kamanue apparently had no idea Muzan could read their read minds. However Mukago and Wakuraba do. Mukago futilely tries to deny Muzan's accusation of cowardice and Wakuraba attempts to escape the Infinity Castle, a location he is unfamiliar with and knows is controlled by Nakime. Lampshaded by Enmu.
"What a fool."
- Super-Speed: Apparently, Wakuraba has this power, although it winds up useless in preserving his life. Thanks, Muzan.
- Tears of Fear: Kamanue and Mukago, moments before Muzan eats them both in his rage.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Muzan eradicates the Lower Ranks just a few minutes after we've seen them. We never know what their backgrounds are, nor do we know their skills, Blood Demon Arts, or personalities other than their justifiable fear of Muzan.
- You Have Failed Me: With the death of Rui (Lower-5), Muzan comes to the conclusion that the Lower Ranks are too weak to be worth the effort of keeping around due to their High Turnover Rate, and kills all of them except Enmu, who is the only one to please Muzan.
Former Members
Kyogai
Kyogai
Voiced By: Jun'ichi Suwabe (Japanese), Steve Blum (English)Other VA
- Arc Villain: Of the Drumhouse arc. Though there are two other demons in the house that competed with him, they are easily killed by Inosuke and Zenitsu, so he ends becoming the main threat of the arc at the end.
- Body Horror: As a demon, he has several drums sticking out on his shoulders, stomach, and legs.
- Domain Holder: While not omnipotent within the Drum House, he is quite difficult to kill due to being capable of changing the orientation of the rooms at will and relocating people from one area to another (though he lost the latter power when another demon clawed out his back drum in a skirmish over food).
- Drums of War: Kyogai can attack others with invisible clawing attacks within his domain by pounding on the drums embedded in his chest and shoulders. By pounding the drum on his back, he can forcibly transport someone to another room in his building. The drums on his shoulders and legs will change the orientation of the room via rotation.
- Evil Sounds Deep: With Jun'ichi Suwabe, a menacing baritone comes naturally for this intimidating villain.
- Eye Scream: Muzan removed his number due to Kyogai having reached his limits to eating humans. This means having an X-shaped scar over his eyeball.
- Flawed Prototype: Arguably, for Muzan's purposes. Despite his Domain Holder powers, he never grows any stronger, leading to him being booted out of Lower-6. Nakime, as is later shown, has control of a larger and more utilitarian domain (the Infinity Castle), likely making him also redundant in Muzan's eyes.
- Gravity Screw: Kyogai uses his drums on his shoulders and hips to change the direction of gravity.
- Last Request: All Kyogai wanted was someone to recognize his works. He finally gets this validation through Tanjiro's telling him that his techniques were strong upon Kyogai's defeat.
- Mark of Shame: Instead of simply removing his rank on his eye, Muzan places a large X on it, to serve as a humiliating reminder of what he had once been.
- Mean Boss: His editor constantly belittled his work and cruelly denied him the approval that Kyogai so desperately craved. Unsurprisingly, while his role in Kyogai's Start of Darkness was tragic, he was an Asshole Victim in the whole sordid affair.
- Musical Assassin: Kyogai uses taiko drums to manipulate reality in his house or to send out a disembodied strike in the shape of giant claws.
- Perpetual Frowner: Through the arc, he is constantly shown as angry and frustrated due not being able to find Kiyoshi, and he's always frowning. He stops doing that after Tanjiro kills him and recognizes his strength, although we don't see it, this can be implied.
- Random Transportation: The drum that was originally on his back, has the ability to transport other people in random locations inside the drum house.
- Tears of Joy: He cries silent tears as he dies, as his talents were finally recognized by someone at the end of his life. This allows him to die peacefully.
- Villain Teleportation: Kyogai originally had a drum on his back for this as well as teleporting other entities and even objects, but lost it. Thank Kiyoshi for that last one.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Was an aspiring writer and musician as a human, but his own father, whose approval he sought, constantly mocked and belittled his abilities.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Muzan boots him out of the Lower-6 once he's reached his human-eating limit and thus, can't grow any stronger. Given that Muzan has been known to outright kill subordinates who he deems useless, it's safe to say that Kyogai got off lucky.
- You Meddling Kids: In the English dub in his full introductory scene:Kyogai: If it hadn't been for them...if it hadn't been for them and their meddling...
Hairo
Hairo
Former Lower-2
- BFS: He used to wield a normal katana when he was a human, but after it was broken, he enhanced its shape with his Blood Demon Art to make it bigger and sharper. This would be his last weapon to use in his battle against Rengoku.
- Boom, Headshot!: He has a habit of shooting himself in the head every time he gets angry about Rengoku. It apparently helps him calm himself down.
- Casting a Shadow: His Blood Demon Art "Plunder Cavity" allows him to create blots of shadows that have various functions like storing, protection, negation, and suction. He can also manipulate the shapes of his shadows, such as making shadowy wolves out of them.
- Gatling Good: He used one stored in his body after trying to hit Rengoku with the rest of his weapons.
- The Gunslinger: Hairo has expertise in using long-range firearms. And this also extends to using explosives as well. Although, it was later explained that he started out as a swordsman in his human life. His defeat by soldiers and their firearms is the reason why he switched to those himself as a demon.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Hairo is barely able to restrain his overbearing anger during his fight with Rengoku, and notes to himself that he might literally die from rage should he retreat from the battle once more. Even thinking about (Shinjuro) Rengoku drives him crazy enough to shoot himself in the head just to be able to cool off and think straight.
- Mistaken Identity: He believes that Kyojuro Rengoku is the Flame Pillar who humiliated him years ago and wanted revenge against him. It was Kyojuro's father, Shinjuro, who almost defeated Hairo in the past. It doesn't stop Hairo from wanting a final showdown against Kyojuro.
- Mad Bomber: He used several sticks of dynamite in his attempts to blow up Rengoku their battle.
- More Dakka: His Blood Demon Art allows him to store dozens of rifles into his body. He then proceeds to use all of them at once when fighing Rengoku. And then he pulls out an actual gatling gun along with several other rifles when the previous rifles by themselves didn't work.
- Posthumous Character: He was killed by Kyojuro Rengoku before the start of the series.
- Savage Wolves: His Blood Demon Art allows him to summon an army of vicious wolves from many of his shadow blots to attack his enemies.
- Scary Teeth: He develops sharp teeth in his mouth as a demon. This fits well with his wolf Animal Motif.
- The Shinsengumi: His backstory reveals (based on context clues, particularly the Iconic Outfit of his comrades in a flashback) that he was once a member of the organization, who obviously fell in battle during the wars leading up to the Meiji Restoration. An earlier clue to this would be the mountain-stripe patterns in his face, not to mention the fact that his Animal Motif is that of wolvesnote .
- Survivor Guilt: Likely one of the many motivations/emotions that have addled his mind, on top of being a demon.
- Torture Technician: He mentions he used to be a torture technician when he was a human. However, he and his comrades were looked down upon for using their swordsmanship in the time of Japan's modernization.
- Tragic Villain: He certainly wasn't an innocent man, but he and his comrades were honorable swordsmen who followed the Bushido code in the past. This ended tragically when he and his comrades were defeated by soldiers who used rifles instead of swords during the time of Japanese modernization. And when he became a demon, he barely escaped from the previous Flame Pillar, thus making Hairo swear vengeance on Shinjuro Rengoku.
- Wolf Man: He becomes almost like a werewolf when using his Blood Demon Art "Ravaged War Formation Wolf", where he gathers his blots of shadows onto himself to create a humanoid wolf body for himself. This form greatly enhanced his strength and he wielded his personal katana in the last part of his battle against Rengoku.
- Worthy Opponent: He saw Kyojuro as this and upon Hairo's defeat, he complimented Kyojuro's swordsmanship.
Ubume
Former Lower-1, formerly known as Yae (not the Matagi girl from Giyu’s Gaiden).
- Abusive Parents: She keeps her "adopted children" in constant state of pain and agony so that she'll keep nursing them while expressing her "love" for them forever. Even back when she was a human, she deliberately kept her own birth daughter Sae malnourished and in constant state of pain, even up to subjecting her to a Cold-Blooded Torture, in hopes that she'll keep nursing and taking care of her forever. It eventually culminated in her killing Sae once the girl disobeyed her one too many times.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: On the surface, she acts like a friendly, loving and caring mother, even treating her enemies like misbehaving children whom she kindly admonishes. But beneath that facade lies a cold-blooded tormentor who simply cares about playing out her fantasy of a "loving mother taking care of her own children", and if "her children" prove themselves to be too disobedient? She has them killed, and as shown with Uraga, she'll even compel them to kill themselves as a way to "atone" for "villainizing" her. Not even her own daughter Sae was spared, and that was even before Yae became the demon Ubume.
- Domestic Abuse:
- She keeps her "children" imprisoned and tortures them, leaving them in constant state of agony, so that she'll be able to "take care of" and express her "love" for them. She did that to Sae as well, and that was even before she became Ubume. Furthermore, despite her being responsible for their suffering, her victims tend to develop a Stockholm Syndrome for her, growing to genuinely love her back because of her motherly act convincing them that her love for them is genuine, which culminated in Uraga killing himself for daring to "villainize" her, and the girl she kidnapped ended up trying to save her from Masachika's attempt to kill Ubume.
- She was on the receiving end of abuse at the hands of her violent and greedy alcoholic gambling addict of a husband who was selling off her prized possessions and beat her unconscious whenever she tried to resist, before he died from losing his footing and slipping into a river where he drowned...or rather, that's what the official story is. The truth is that Yae was the one who murdered her, and then made it look like an accident, in response to him threatening to dump her in favor of a girl he met at the gambling den.
- Faux Affably Evil: Ubume puts on a loving mother act in front of both victim and enemy alike, but in truth, it's merely a mask she puts on to play out her cruel fantasies. The moment her "children" prove themselves to be too resistant, the mask slips, and her true sadistic colors come to light.
- Freudian Excuse: It's implied that the reason Yae turned out to be a love-obsessed freak known as Ubume with an idea of being a "good mother" to her own children is because she's unable to cope with the loss of her daughter Sae to illness, so when she became a demon, she became desperate to fill the void in her heart that resulted from grief over losing her, especially since it came right after the death of their abusive husband. The truth, however, is actually much more complicated. Her real freudian excuse is that she always wished to have a happy family because she was always infaturated with an idea of having one, so she kept enduring her husband's abuse in hopes that they'll become a happy family, and then tried to take care of Sae alone after killing her husband when he proved himself to be too abusive and uncaring, beginning to feel genuinely attached to the idea of taking care of Sae while she's suffering. As result, she deliberately kept Sae in suffering, actively preventing her from recovering, solely so that she'll be able to take a good care of her while she's in pain. After Sae proved herself to be too resistant, Yae murdered her, but was left feeling empty afterwards, which is when Muzan came and turned her into a demon Ubume, with her wishing to recreate the feeling she felt while taking care of suffering Sae with others, children specifically.
- The Ghost: Due to only appearing in a light novel and not appearing in the flashback in which she is first mentioned, Ubume has no official design.
- Hero Killer: She was the one who killed Masachika Kumeno, Sanemi's close friend, before the vengeful Sanemi managed to quickly kill her afterwards.
- It's All About Me: By the end of the day, Ubume is simply motivated by her own happiness that she'll feel only by playing out her "caring mother" fantasies, and she doesn't care if "her children" suffer, her biological daughter Sae very much included, so long as she manages to "show them her love" and "take care of them" after the suffering she subjected them to. And if they refuse to play along? They're as good as dead to her.
- Just Toying with Them: When fighting Sanemi, she, rather than make a move to attack him directly, instead took joy in watching him fall prey to her illusion manifestation Blood Demon Art, making him attack empty air while she gleefully mocked him, waiting for him to tire himself out before she'll go in to claim him as her trophy. It worked against her in the end, as this is what allowed Masachika to save Sanemi by destroying her incense burner and rendering her unable to use her Blood Demon Art.
- Lack of Empathy: Despite her claims that she loves her children and her constant nursing of them, she, in truth, doesn't actually care for their well-being, instead treating them more as possessions than anything, and while she does nurse them constantly, it is because of her injuring them that they suffer, and she nurses them simply for the sake of playing out her fantasy of "a loving mother taking care of her children". Even before she became Ubume, Yae treated Sae the same way, and when Sae tried to escape, Yae retaliated by killing her, and whenever Sae gets brought up, Yae/Ubume decries her as a traitor for "rejecting her love".
- Loving a Shadow: While she claims to love her children, the truth is her love is nothing more but a desire to play the role of a "kind mother" and "take care" of her children while they're suffering, because that's what makes her feel fulfilled. She isn't truly interested in making them recover; she only cares about taking care of them for the sake of taking care of them, and beyond that, she couldn't care less about their suffering. That kind of worldview extends even to her own biological daughter, Sae.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: When she murdered her husband, she specifically made it look like an accident, so people ended up believing that he simply lost his footing due to poor eyesight and drowned in a river.
- Master of Illusion: Her Blood Demon Art allows her to create illusions and tamper with her targets' vision, altering their perception of surroundings, along with her own placement, thus allowing her to change the appearance of her own room and dodge the Demon Slayers' attack with ease. She's capable of doing so with an incense burner that produces a magical aroma that makes her enemies hallucinate; as soon as Masachika shattered it, her illusions had dissipated.
- Meaningful Name: Ubume is the name of ghost women Youkai who are known to abduct babies often due to losing their own stillborn children or dying from childbirth. A fitting name for a demon who lures away children to constantly take care of them as if she were their mother, and whose motivations also stem from the loss of her own daughter.
- Moral Myopia: When Uraga, a Demon Slayer who had the misfortune of ending up becoming Ubume's "child", begged for Sanemi to rescue her, Ubume was insulted by him "abandoning" her and told him to commit suicide and subjected him to a Mind Rape, prompting the Demon Slayer to slit his own throat, all while accusing him of "taking advantage of her generosity"; never mind the fact that she kept him tortured just for the sake of nursing him endlessly to play out her "loving mother" fantasy. Also, when Masachika Kumeno calls her out on her abusive treatment and subsequent murder of her biological daughter Sae, as well as her involvement in helping the Demon Slayers finding the mirror that would help them dispel her illusions, she proceeds to decry Sae as a traitor and an Ungrateful Bitch who spat on her love and generosity, despite the fact that she was the one who kept Sae tortured just for the sake of nursing her endlessly.
- My Beloved Smother: Played for Horror; Ubume treats her victims as an overly-doting mother who always takes care of them as they're hurting... and she will make sure that they are hurting, just so that she'll have an excuse to take care of them. Even her own biological daughter Sae suffered from her "care" that way, and that was even before Yae became Ubume.
- Offing the Offspring: Contrary to the rumors that her daughter Sae died from an illness, the truth is that it was Yae, the woman who became Ubume, who killed her, due to Sae resisting her too much. And to add insult to injury, the first human she ate was Sae, whose corpse she dug up and ate. She admitted that she have regretted the act, because it made her feel empty and unfulfilled, now that she no longer was able to strive for anything.
- Posthumous Character: She was killed by Sanemi and Masachika before the events of the main series took place.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her eyes are colored blood-red, which serves to reinforce her menacing nature.
- That Man Is Dead: She refuses to be referred to as by her birth name of "Yae", and when Masachika referred to her by that name, she dropped her Faux Affably Evil act and restated her renouncement of her past human identity in cold fury."I abandoned that name long ago. My name is Ubume. A gem of a name bestowed upon me by my lord when he gave me this wonderful new form."
- Would Hurt a Child: She's deliberately going after the children, keeping them in constant agony so that she'd be able to "take care of them" and "show them her love" before they die and she gets to eat them. She also tortured Sae just to take care of her while she's suffering, and then murdered her when Sae proved herself to be too resistant.
