Part of Demon Slayer’s appeal is its varied character designs, which often combine wild hair colors and patterned haori jackets. While they’re mostly used for cutting down demons, the Nichirin swords in the series are also valuable parts of these designs, and there are as many unique blades as there are unique characters.Nichirin swords are the demon slayer's weapon of choice. They are made of a special material that absorbs sunlight, making them effective at killing demons. While we see most rank and file demon slayer's wielding unimpressive katana, some characters in the series have swords with more unique designs and purposes.
Tanjiro Kamado
Starting with Demon Slayer’s hard-headed protagonist, the hilt and guard of Tanjiro’s sword are nothing special, sporting a black wrapping around the red hilt, and a black wheel for a guard. Even his blade doesn’t look special, but it’s actually one of the more unique swords in the series.
While most of the other characters have blades that match their breathing styles, despite being a water breather, Tanjiro’s blade is pure black. Black is an extremely rare color for Nichirin blades and indicates that Tanjiro’s compatibility might not be with the water breathing style or even the Hinokami Kagura. Having broken his blade at the end of Season 2 however, Tanjiro is going to have to seek out a new sword that might be a bit more unique in its aesthetic.
Zenitsu Agatsuma
Unlike Tanjiro, Zenitsu’s Nichirin blade fits much better with his breathing style and his general aesthetic. While the guard is a fairly unassuming clover shape, the hilt sports a white and yellow color scheme, matching Zenitsu’s patterned haori.
The blade itself features a lightning design across it, almost as if it was struck by lightning just like Zenitsu was.
Inosuke Hashibira
Inosuke is easily one of the most unique demon slayers in the series. Not only does he have an aggressive disposition and an unexpectedly feminine face, but he also has his own self-taught breathing style. His beast breathing is borne from his animalistic instincts, and so requires equally brutal weapons to make it work.
As such, Inosuke not only has 2 swords instead of the usual 1 but forgoes traditional hilts and guards entirely. The hilts are simply wrapped with bandages, making them look almost DIY. The blade has a special light teal color to match beast breathing’s associated color scheme, but most shockingly is the many chips and dents in the blades. These chips are beaten into the blades by Inosuke himself, much to his blacksmith’s dismay. They allow the blades to function less like swords and more like saws, which is necessary for beast breathing’s ripping and tearing focused techniques.
Sanemi Shinazugawa
While we haven’t seen the wind Hashira fight in the anime yet, we did get a look at his sword during Tanjiro and Nezuko’s first encounter with the Hashira. Instead of the traditional diamond shaped wrapping of Nichirin blades and katana in general, Sanemi’s hilt is wrapped more horizontally, with diamond shapes on the bare hilt itself. He also has one of the most unique guards, which is shaped somewhat like unfolding cards or fan blades, which make perfect sense for a master of wind breathing.
Both the hilt and guard are both predominantly green, and this trend continues with the blade itself, which is a striking green throughout, with saw-like patterns. These patterns make it clear that Sanemi’s wind isn’t the gentle kind, but the sharp, cutting kind. Unsurprising considering his many scars and his violent disposition.
Shinobu Kocho
Much like Inosuke, Shinobu is a character who has had to forego a traditional katana in order to better express her unique breathing style. Due to her small stature, Shinobu is unable to cut off demon heads, so she adapted her blade to be focused on stabbing instead of cutting.
The sharp edge of her sword is almost completely removed, save the point and the base. This makes it more akin to a rapier than a katana, making it lighter and more effective at delivering her special wisteria poison to demons. While the hilt and guards' bronze and green color scheme is a far cry from Shinobu’s mostly purple and pink aesthetic, the guard does pay homage to her insect breathing, featuring 4 rounded blades that somewhat resemble wings.
Kyojuro Rengoku
Traditionally shaped to match his very traditional flame breathing style, Kyojuro’s sword is exactly what you would expect from a user of flame breathing. This is most obvious in the special, flame shaped guard, but the blade itself takes on a rare burning red color, with flame-like patterns all over it.
The only thing even slightly surprising about it is the horizontal white wrappings on the hilt, which despite not being the usual diamond pattern, does at least match with his mostly white haori.
Kanao Tsuyuri
Kanao has only been in one fight so far in the anime, so it’s easy to miss the fact that she actually has a unique Nichirin blade. Most strikingly is the cool pink color of the blade itself, something common for users of the flower breathing style.
A minor detail, however, is the fairly intricate design of her sword guard. It features flower patterns on curved lines that somewhat resemble streams of water. These elements combined paint the picture of a peaceful garden, somewhere we’ve seen Kanao in often, implying that her guard was specifically styled to match her calm and gentle nature.
Giyu Tomioka
Being the unassuming guy he is, Giyu doesn’t have a sword nearly as flashy or unique as most of his peers. In terms of color, his is the same cool blue that is common for water breath users.
The more interesting part of this sword’s design is in the guard, which is shaped like a gemstone, and shares the same shade of red as the right side of Giyu’s haori. It’s unclear what the significance of the gem shape is, but it might be there to represent his very rigid personality.
Tengen Uzui
Last but never least, the flashy sound Hashira Tengen Uzui sports equally flashy weapons. Just like Inosuke, Tengen opts to dual-wield swords for his unique sound breathing style. Unlike Inosuke though, Tengen’s are bound at the hilt by a chain, allowing him to use them similarly to how someone might use nunchucks. We see the utility of this in his fight with Gyutaro, as he’s able to not only extend the range of one sword by gripping the tip of the other, but also to better fight one-handed by sometimes leaving one of his swords swinging in midair.
His Nichirin swords are also far larger than most, only being wieldable because of his large body. They have a yellow coloring on their blades, similar to that of thunder breathing users. This is unsurprising, as Tengen’s sound breathing was based on thunder breathing to begin with. They are also shaped more like cleavers than traditional katana, and feature a single large hole in each blade, possibly to allow Tengen to hook unto enemy’s weapons or bodies. And of course, the color of their hilts and guards is a striking combination of red, green and gold, matching some of Tengen’s accessories and makeup.
While we’ve seen plenty of unique blades already, 4 of the Hashira are yet to reveal their full swords, and Tanjiro still needs to get his repaired, so Demon Slayer still has a lot of fun weapon designs waiting in the wings.