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The world of Demon Slayer is a harsh one full of loss and death. Most anime characters have gone through a lot and will have to endure even more in the upcoming seasons of the series. It doesn’t matter whether the character is a human or a demon, most of them have suffered so much, their personality and life have been forever changed and fans can’t help but root for them. Demon Slayer has some of the most interesting characters with the saddest backstories that deserve to be heard.
Updated July 26, 2022, by Jessica Faith: The second season of Demon Slayer, Entertainment District Arc, is available to stream on Crunchy Roll for fans who would love to catch up on the latest events of the series. There is no information regarding the release date of the third season at the moment, but fans suspect the season is in production or will be soon enough. The next season will focus on the hidden and mysterious Swordsmith Village. According to the recent trailer, the love Hashira, Mitsuri, and the Mist Hashira, Muichiro, will finally get their time to shine. Fans will also get to learn more about the swordsmiths.
Spoiler Alert
12 Tamayo
When Tamayo was human, she was a married woman with children who fell sick with a disease that threatened her life. Muzan found her and offered to save her life by transforming her into a demon. She accepted but regretted it eventually. Once a demon, she started killing innocents and even slaughtered her family in the process.
She joined Muzan’s side for a few years after realizing that she can’t kill him on her own until she saw him battle the Demon Slayer Yoriichi. Muzan had almost lost. This fight revived Tamayo’s hope that he could be taken down, and so she fled. She managed to change her diet and lifestyle and dedicated her life to helping humans and demons while studying cures.
11 Kanao Tsuyuri
Kanao was born to an impoverished and abusive family. Her parents would often beat or try to drown her and her siblings whenever they did something they deemed wrong. Kanao would sometimes wake up and noticed that her siblings had passed away during the night as a result of the beatings.
She quickly learned not to show her emotions and to bottle everything up to keep her parents satisfied. Eventually, she was sold as a slave and would have gone through worse things if she wasn’t saved by Shinobu and her sister Kanae, who took her to the butterfly mansion. Eventually, Kanao joined the Demon Slayer Corps.
10 Inosuke
When Inosuke was born, his mother, Kotoha, ran away with him to escape her abusive husband. They eventually found a refuge when someone named Doma offered to help. Kotoha didn’t know at that time that he was part of a cult called Paradise Faith until she realized that he was a demon who ate members of his cult. She ran away again with a baby Inosuke but found herself trapped above a cliff.
When Doma was closing in on them, she dropped her child over the cliff into the river in an attempt to save him. Later on, Inosuke was found by boars and raised by them. Inosuke has a tragic backstory considering the fact that his mother only wanted to raise her child peacefully, but fate had other plans.
9 Muichiro Tokito
Muichiro Tokito was born to an older twin, Yuichiro, and both were left orphaned after their parents died. Their mom had died of bronchitis, and their father had fallen off a cliff during a storm. The siblings survived together until Kagaya and his wife, Amane, came to recruit them. Yuichiro blamed himself for the loss of their parents and became cold toward people. He also refused to join Kagaya as a way to protect his brother.
When a demon attacked the siblings, Yuichiro died protecting his younger brother, who got hired by the Demon Slayer corps after killing the demon in question. This tragic event was so traumatic for Muichiro that he forgot about it and unconsciously adopted his brother’s cold personality and hatred of demons.
8 Gyomei Himejima
Gyomei, the Stone Hashira, raised nine orphans in a temple protected from demons due to some burning Wisteria Incense. One night, a kid snuck out and encountered a demon, but just before he was about to be killed, he made an offer. In exchange for his life, he would let the demon inside the temple where it could make more victims.
The night of the attack, the kids didn’t trust Gyomei’s protecting abilities due to his blindness and frail nature, so they fled. All the orphans died except Sayo, who actually listened to Gyomei’s orders. Gyomei managed to kill the demon, but when questions from villagers came the morning after, there was a misunderstanding. Sayo’s retelling of the events led people to believe Gyomei was the murderer, and he got wrongfully imprisoned. He was about to be charged with the murder of seven children, but the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps, Kagaya Ubuyashiki, intervened and hired him as a demon slayer instead.
7 Sabito & Makomo
Sakonji Urokodaki took the two orphaned under his wing and trained them to become Demon Slayers. When Sabito finally made it to the Final Selection exam, he faced the Hand Demon and was killed while protecting others and his friend, Giyu Tomioka. His soul remained trapped on Sagiri Mountain with 13 others of Sakonji’s students who died at the hands of the same demon.
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As for Makomo, she suffered the same fate as the other slayers and only met Sabito once her soul became trapped as well. They waited years, watching as more slayers perished like them until Tanjiro finally put a stop to it and set their souls at peace.
6 Tengen Uzui
Tengen was born in a shinobi clan where they valued extensive training even at the cost of their children’s lives. Three of his nine siblings died before they reached the age of ten years old, and the others got forced to kill each other while being blindfolded. Only two boys survived all the trials; Tengen and his younger brother.
Tengen realized that his father believed that in order for their clan to survive, they needed to kill innocent people. Unlike his brother and father, Tegen renounced that way of thinking and left the clan with his three wives. He eventually became a Demon Slayer and the sound pillar of the Harisha.
5 Lower Rank Five Demon Rui
Before Rui became a demon and a member of the Twelve Kizuki, he had a sad human life. He was frail and struggled to walk or even breathe, so his parents kept him inside. He watched the world from the comfort of his home and couldn’t play with kids his age until Muzan came around and offered to change his life by transforming him into a demon.
Rui, who loved his parents unconditionally, didn’t want to be a burden anymore nor spend his life confined, so he accepted. After killing a man to feed his hunger, his parents tried to kill him for becoming a monster but were killed in the process by Rui himself. This event led Rui to try and find what he expects is a perfect family and created his own when he couldn’t find one.
4 Tanjiro & Nezuko Kamado
Tanjiro had to step up and become the “man of the house” shortly after his father had passed away. He did it willingly out of love for his mother and siblings. He discovered his family had been slaughtered by a demon when he returned from a trip into town. He lost everything, and his sister, Nezuko, lost her humanity and freedom when she became a demon.
With nothing more to lose, he embarked on a quest to become a demon slayer and trained vigorously for months so that someday he may take down the demon responsible for ruining his life and perhaps have Nezuko turned back into a human.
3 Sanemi Shinazugawa
Sanemi has a deep hatred of demons, which is understandable considering his backstory. He grew up in a toxic household with an abusive father, who was one day killed by someone who hated him. As the eldest brother of 7 siblings, he took charge of taking care of them and their mother with the help of his brother, Genya.
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One day, their mother disappeared and returned as a demon who tried to murder all her kids. Genya was the only one to survive due to Sanemi, who had arrived just in time to kill her. He then started killing demons on his own and abandoned Genya in the process. Eventually, he joined the Demon Slayer Corps because of Masachika, who later died at the hands of a Twelve Kizuki demon, which promoted Sanemi to the rank of Wind Hashira.
2 Obanai Iguro
Obanai was born into a family with morally questioned values. They worshipped a snake-like female demon, and in exchange for money or valuables, they would sacrifice anyone, even newborn babies or family members. Obanai was kept in a cell because the demon was fascinated with him since he was the first boy born to the family in years. The demon planned to eat him, but only after he grew up enough for her.
In order to resemble and honor the demon, Obanai’s mouth was cut wider at the age of 12. When he eventually escaped, the demon killed his family out of spite and went after him. However, it was killed by the flame Hashira of that time, and later on, Obanai became the Serpent Hashira.
1 Upper Rank Three Demon Akaza
Before Akaza became a demon he was a human named Hakuji. Hakuji grew up in an impoverished neighborhood with his sick father. To get medicine for him, Hakuji often stole money from others and was caught and beaten for it. He was even forced to get tattoos as a way to be branded as a criminal.
Once his father learned of the news, he hung himself to avoid being a burden to his son. Hakuji was then banished from his town and with so much anger and nothing to lose, he took it out on people by beating them. Keizo, the owner of a local dojo, offered to take him in and teach him how to properly fight in exchange that he helps with his sick daughter, Koyuki.
The nearby dojo’s heir wanted their space, so he tried to get it by force and failed against Hakuji, and thus years later, when he found out Hakuji and Koyuki were getting married, he enacted his revenge. He poisoned her and Keizo. This led Hakuji into a blind rage and kill all 67 members of the rival dojo, catching the attention of Muzan, who then offered to transform him into a demon. Hakuji having nothing more to lose, accepted.
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