Demon Slayer Swords Guide: All Kimetsu no Yaiba Swords - Manga Insider (2024)

Part of the excitement of seeing the Demon Slayer anime and manga in action is the impressive fight sequences that occur between the titular slayers and demons. Many of those fights involve the unique swords that the slayers use in combat. If you’ve always wanted to know about them, you’re in the right place with this Demon Slayer swords guide.

Ever since starting reading the manga and eventually watching the brilliant anime adaptation for Kimetsu no Yaiba, I’ve been astonished by the extraordinary action that you see in the fights.

A large part of why the fight animation looks so stunning is due to the swords and the breathing techniques that the characters use in combat. I hope to break down more of what you need to know about those demon-slaying weapons in this Demon Slayer swords guide.

Bottom Line Up Front

The basic Demon Slayer sword is the Nichirin sword. It is basically a katana weapon that is specifically designed to eliminate demons. To this point, it is made using unique materials you might not usually find with swords. The blades are one of the only weapons out there capable of removing the head of a demon, which is one of the only ways to permanently kill them for good.

Each Nichirin sword has a different color to reflect the user, and the most famous Demon Slayer swords come from the main characters and the Hashira’s signature weapons.

Demon Slayer Swords Overview

The Demon Slayer swords aren’t your average blades. No, they are called Nichirin swords, using the Japanese words for a day or sun and circle or ring. Essentially, these weapons are sun ring swords that the titular demon slayers use to take out the main villains in the manga and anime series.

The Nichirin swords resemble katanas, but each one is unique in its way. There are even some swords that differ in size, shape, and utility. But at its core, several components make up a Demon Slayer sword, and most of them are shared across all of the blades.

Nichirin Swords Explained: The Demon-Slaying Weapon

When it comes to creating a Nichirin sword in the Demon Slayer world, there are a few materials used for them. The sun-inspired name for the blades comes from the two key elements in crafting one of these special weapons.

The two items that set demon-slaying swords apart are Scarlet Ore and Scarlet Crimson Iron Sand, taken directly from the translation of their Japanese versions. These two items are necessary since they have the sun’s power directly in them, which demons are vulnerable to. This is why it is possible to decapitate and finish them with these swords.

The materials must be given to a special Swordsmith capable of creating one of these Nichirin swords. The Demon Slayer Corps generally employ them to make the weapons. The Swordsmith Village, where many of these swords are made, plays a huge role in the similarly titled arc of the Demon Slayer series.

Handguards Explained

On its own, each demon-slaying sword is your bare katana blade that comes with a hilt that the wielder holds in battle. As part of the hilt, the user has a hand guard on their sword. The general purpose isn’t anything special, allowing the user to protect themselves from their blade while using the sword.

But the hand guard might add extra weight and unnecessary heft to the sword that it otherwise wouldn’t have. Because of this, some bonkers slayers are out there, like one of the main characters, Inosuke, who removed the hand guards from his to give more speed and flexibility, especially since he wields two swords at once.

Sword Colors Breakdown

The other significant aspect of the Nichirin swords in the Demon Slayer series is the color of each blade. What is fascinating about particular Scarlet Ore is that there isn’t a set color that the edge will turn into. Each slayer picks their unique ore used in creating their blade after passing the recruitment test.

The ore in the blade reacts to the user and shifts its sword color to reflect the person who uses it. There are many colors of Nichirin swords seen throughout the series, ranging from plain gray to green to yellow to even white and black.

The last of these, black, is the most auspicious color for a sword in the Demon Slayer Corps. Few members have it, and there is a stigma surrounding this blade color that it is a bad omen for the user who wields it. In fact, many of the black blade wielders don’t last long at all, which is why it is alarming when the main protagonist, Tanjiro, has one himself.

Red Swords

For the most part, each blade’s color is unique to the user, but red Nichirin swords are even more special. This is an instance in which the edge is so abnormally hot or under exceptional circ*mstances which the blade turns to a crimson red color.

There are a few known ways that this can happen to a blade, such as the use of literal heat to make the sword hotter than usual and be basically on fire or by using special abilities that I won’t get into too much for this particular guide for the sake of spoilers.

That said, the few users in the series who turn their blades red during battle do it for a particular reason. This is because the heat can make it easier to slice off the head of the enemy in one go, which is necessary to eliminate them, and because the heat can stop the demon from using their blood art powers to restore limbs and regenerate their health.

All Known Demon Slayer Swords

There are many Demon Slayer swords in the series to date. Most of the unique ones come from the core trio of main characters, plus the Hashira group in the Demon Slayer Corps. Each of the prominent cast members has their sword that is uniquely tailored to them.

Here are some brief descriptions of all of the main Demon Slayer swords that are known and seen throughout the manga and anime series. Note that some of these descriptions come from the manga since the anime adaptation hasn’t covered them at the time of making this post.

As such, I have to leave a fair warning that there are only slight spoilers included here, just for the weapons that these characters use, but that’s it.

Giyu Tomioka’s Blade

The first of the slayers met in the Demon Slayer series, and one of the first blades we see comes from Giyu Tomioka, the Water Hashira. Unsurprisingly, his Water Breathing alignment turned into a blade that reflects him quite well, a rich blue color throughout the sharp, thin blade.

What is most intriguing about his particular sword is that it has a hexagon-shaped hang guard hilt that is a maroon-ish color. This contrasts nicely with the blue blade he wields and somewhat matches the right side of the coat he wears most of the time.

Tanjiro Kamado’s Sword Explained

The main character of the Demon Slayer series is none other than Tanjiro Kamado. On a journey to avenge his family, it is fascinating that his blade is a deep, ebony black color. This is the color that is considered a bad omen in the Corps but is otherwise relatively simple. It is an average size with a hilt that is also black and circular with gaps throughout the hand guard.

That said, this is the sword that Tanjiro crafts himself with the help of his mentor, Sakonji Urokodaki, near the beginning of the series. This follows after he formally becomes a demon slayer. Before that moment, he has to make do with a plain silver and gray sword that nearly every throwaway soldier in the Demon Slayer Corps uses. Thankfully, this doesn’t go on for too long.

Zenitsu Agatsuma

On its own, Zenitsu’s sword is a plain silver color with a basic hilt that has nothing special going for it. However, the strength of the lightning user caused a lightning bolt to form all the way down the blade, leaving a one-of-a-kind pattern. This seems to note the impressive talent that is lying inside Zenitsu.

Inosuke Hashibira

As I mentioned already, Inosuke is a Beast Breathing user, so he prefers the fast and fluid nature of fighting. To this point, he removed the hand guard from his swords to allow for more flexibility. At the same time, he is the only primary user in the series who wields two swords at once.

Even wilder about these otherwise plain gray swords is that he carved jagged edges throughout both blades, allowing them to slice and dig into the opponents that he faces off against.

Shinobu Kocho

The Insect Hashira user has a unique situation. As the smallest and physically weakest member of the renowned slayer group, she has to resort to other measures when it comes to slaying demons. That is why her primary weapon of choice is the poison that she wields.

However, she also has a sword that she occasionally uses in battle. This sword is extremely thin and short, allowing her to use it without worrying about it being too heavy and cumbersome. It is a light purple blade with a bright butterfly-shaped hilt dipped in poison to let her eliminate foes her way.

Kyojuro Rengoku

The popular Rengoku is the Flame Hashira in the series, and his sword makes that clear just by looking at it. One of the most apparent swords on this list, Rengoku’s blade, is a bright crimson blade that makes it clear that he is a flame user.

At the same time, though, there is a flame pattern that goes throughout the blade to show how in tune he is with the breathing style. As for his hilt, the hand guard is in the shape of a yellow and red flame, matching his fiery personality and visual appearance.

Kanao Tsuyuri

Kanao Tsuyuri, the quiet fellow recruit Tanjiro meets when he first attempts to join the Corps, has a relatively simple sword. Her weapon has a basic appearance that isn’t anything special, so the only noteworthy feature of it is the fact that it has a pinkish undertone to the blade. It is subtle and not easy to see but has an elegant accent nonetheless.

Genya Shinazugawa

The last recruit that joins the Demon Slayer Corps at the same time as Tanjiro at the beginning of the series is Genya Shinazugawa. It should be noted that his weapons haven’t been fully revealed in the anime adaptation yet, so this is one of those possible spoilery territories, but only for what he uses in battle.

His primary weapon of choice isn’t a sword like others use in combat (more on that later down below), but he has a blade that he occasionally uses when necessary to finish off the demons he fights. This is a small weapon that is more like a wakizashi short sword than anything else. It doesn’t have much going for its appearance, being a plain gray color.

Tengen Uzui

The Sound Hashira is flashy in more ways than one. He doesn’t settle for a standard Nichirin sword but has a demon-slaying blade that he has repurposed into a different weapon entirely. He dual-wields two massive cleaver blades that are chained together so that he is able to swing it around like a whip.

Though they aren’t dual-wielding traditional swords like Inosuke has, they are still two blades nonetheless. The two Nichirin blades are thick and massive, likely requiring an intense amount of strength to swing them around, with a gold and silver appearance.

Mitsuri Kanroji

The Love Hashira also doesn’t have a traditional blade she wields in combat. Instead, she uses what is essentially a sword whip. It is a metal Nichirin blade that has been made flexible into a whip that she can swing around and slice enemies with from afar.

The blade whip is black and pink, following the same color scheme that her outfit has minus the green. Her hilt is a pink and gold flower petal shape.

Muicihiro Tokito

The Mist Hashira carries a brilliantly white blade that shines with its beautiful nature. Other than that, there isn’t anything too special about this blade as it has an average size and square-shaped hilt.

Obanai Iguro

The Serpent Hashira has a unique demon-slaying blade that reflects his strange nature. As a snake-like slayer, his sword snakes around with a twisted edge that looks like a snake slithering. This distinct shape is also matched by an equally unique color scheme for the blade itself.

The outside of the blade is a rich light purple color, while the inner part of the blade is a deep black color. Both of these blade colors match the overall outfit color scheme that Obanai has going on. His hilt, meanwhile, is rectangular and relatively small.

Sanemi Shinazugawa

The eclectic Wind Hashira, Sanemi Shinazugawa, is the older brother of Tanjiro’s fellow recruit, Genya. However, their weapons of choice couldn’t be any more different. Sanemi has a traditional Nichirin blade that is personalized to match his style and liking.

Notably, his blade is rather long and perhaps the longest out of the standard katana swords from the Hashira group. But it is also thin and quite sharp, with a unique edgy pattern throughout the sword that is bright green and contrasts nicely with the darker black color of the rest of the blade. This pattern has a wind touch to it that mixes well with the almost shuriken-shaped hilt.

Yoriichi Tsugikuni

Yoriichi Tsugikuni is a character who appears in the manga and has not entirely made his debut in the anime yet, so I’ll leave some details about who exactly this demon slayer is. That said, his blade is what you need to know about. Other than Tanjiro, he is the only other black Nichirin sword user in the series that we see.

At least, it’s an obsidian black color most of the time in battle. However, when he gets going in battle, he has that unique crimson-red color that it turns into that not every slayer is able to accomplish. The red and black almost mix together, giving off a garnet feel.

Other Demon-Slaying Weapons

At the core of the Kimetsu, no Yaiba series are the demon-slaying weapons that the main characters use. As you saw in this sword guide, there are lots of different blades for each of the main characters. However, there are some characters who use weapons besides basic swords in battle.

These weapons are usually crafted in the same manner as the swords but into a different shape, such as the battle axe and flail that the Stone Hashira, Gyomei Himejima, uses. Though he has a blade on the end of his axe, it is not at all a sword like most of the other Hashira members use.

In addition to this, there are characters like Shinobu who have a blade, but this isn’t her primary weapon of choice. Instead, she uses her poisonous techniques as the primary way that she eliminates her foes.

And then there are characters like Genya, who has a blade, too, but his other weapon is a literal shotgun. This ranged weapon is unique and he has special Nichirin-built bullets in the gun. These bullets are built from the same materials as the Nichirin blades, allowing him to effectively fight against demons more safely from afar and still have a blade for up-close encounters.

FAQs

How the Sword Breathing Techniques Work

As you saw in this Demon Slayer sword guide, the katanas that most demon killers use in battle are crucial to them eliminating the foes of the manga and anime series. Their special equipment is what allows them to slice off the heads of the demons and finish them off for good.

However, these weapons on their own don’t allow a slayer to get up close enough to take them out. This is where the swords and the wielder themselves have to use the exceptional Demon Slayer Breathing Styles in combat. These special breathing techniques empower the wielder with unique elements, such as fire and water so that they can take out their foes in unexpected ways.

You can find out more about the special sword breathing techniques and what each main character uses in this Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba character guide. Plus, you’ll get to learn more about the wielders of each of the swords mentioned above in a largely spoiler-free manner.