Giyu Tomioka

Giyu is a tall, leanly muscled young man with pale skin and a near-permanent stoic look. His messy raven hair sits at uneven lengths, with side bangs at the jaw, a low loose ponytail at the nape, and a choppy fringe falling across his eyes. His sharp lapis-blue eyes fade to a softer blue near the bottom and are sometimes drawn flat and empty.

He wears the standard Corps uniform, dark in tone, over a white collared undershirt, paired with tattsuke-hakama, wrapped shin guards, tabi, and zori. His most recognizable feature is a split haori: one half a deep red taken from his late sister Tsutako, the other a geometric rhombi pattern that belonged to his fallen friend Sabito. He loses his right arm in the final battle against Muzan, after which he crops his hair short and switches to a kimono with hakama.

Giyu is a man of steady composure, perpetually wearing a stern, level expression. He holds a firm sense of duty and little patience for those who throw their lives away, yet he chooses to let Nezuko live because of Tanjiro's resolve, and he even defies Corps rules to shield her. This shows a pragmatic streak, sparing demons who refrain from killing humans rather than acting purely on hatred.

His distant manner keeps him apart from the other Hashira, several of whom mistake his aloofness for arrogance, and he is genuinely surprised to learn he is disliked. Beneath the quiet exterior lies an inferiority complex and survivor's guilt rooted in Final Selection, feelings that nearly drive him to abandon his post until Tanjiro helps him choose to keep living for those he lost. Despite all this, he is fiercely protective of the people he cares for and will not let attachment override his duty.

As a Hashira, Giyu is a tremendously skilled and powerful fighter. From his first meeting with Tanjiro he showed how far he outclassed the younger slayer, capturing Nezuko effortlessly and downing both siblings in a single strike. He defeats the transformed Father of the Spider Family and Lower Rank Five Rui with ease, and he fights on even footing in a sparring match against Sanemi Shinazugawa.

His combat style is Water Breathing, taught to him by the former Water Hashira, Sakonji Urokodaki, and he is his generation's finest practitioner, going so far as to invent an eleventh form of his own called Dead Calm. Against Upper Rank Three, Akaza, he holds his own and, upon awakening his Demon Slayer Mark, briefly overpowers the demon, who admits he has not faced a Water Hashira so capable in fifty years. Giyu carries a standard black Nichirin katana and possesses immense speed, stamina, strength, and an undaunted will, all of which prove pivotal in the campaign against Muzan.