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Since its serialization in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2016 to 2020, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba has been thrilling manga fans, drawn to the art, story and characters of Koyoharu Gotouge’s. Its subsequent anime adaptation increased Demon Slayer’s popularity ten-fold.

Fans are in rapture with the family bond stories, as well as the heart and simplicity of these characters being samurais fighting demons. We cannot forget about the lush character designs, which all leads to a passionate fanbase and creative cosplay.

Main character Tanjiro Kamado is at the top of the popularity with his green kimono and red hair, but close behind is his sister pink-kimono-clad Nezuko sporting a bamboo muzzle.

“Nezuko herself is very adorable in every sense of the word,” “I think the character design is so cute and adorable” Nezuko’s English voice actor Abby Trott told Popverse at San Diego Comic-Con. “My favorite thing is seeing little Chibi Nazukos running around in cosplay, little girls dressed up as Nazuko. They love the character and I think that the fact she’s wearing pink might have something to do with that.”

Audiences just connect differently with Demon Slayer as compared to other anime.

“Nezuko’s like a lovely person as a human, so caring for her family, so sweet. Then you know, she’s a tough cookie as well. She will fight for her family. ”

But it’s not just the Kamado clan that’s well represented. Fans love walking around shirtless and putting on a boar-head or mask and wielding two samurai swords for Inosuke Hasbira. Rengoku sports a vivid white cape and a flame crawling up midway and has a bleach-blonde mullet to match. And if you can’t pull either of those off, there’s always the dazzling Zenitsu, clad in burst of color donning a citrus yellow-orange gradient scheme. Just close your eyes for pictures.

“I find unique about the show is that the character designs are so striking and memorable,” Zenitsu’s English-speaking Aleks Le said. “Everybody has a color associated with the character or pattern, different hair shapes, and also something that I don’t hear people talk about a lot is that everyone’s eyes are different. Like the inside design of their eyeballs are literally different.”  

“There's so much thought that's been put into it that I feel that that's why the designs have struck such a chord with con-goers and cosplayers. It's been amazing to see families and friends who get together and dress up as these characters.” 

The series makes it an easy commitment for groups of cosplayers whether your group is as small as two, three or four. Each character has a different version of their costume based on the story arc. 

“Like the Academy or in the entertainment district when they were dressed as girls,” Le added. “There's a lot of fun and cool combinations they can pull off with the designs of the show. And so I see all sorts of groups come to me with different variations and versions of characters and it's been such a blast. ”

Demon Slayer became a global sensation when the anime series began airing Season 1 in 2019 and the subsequent Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train film in 2020 become not just the highest-grossing anime film but Japanese film of all time. Three more seasons aired, and the first in a film trilogy the Infinity Castle arc is all that remains to be seen by American audiences because the film was recently released in Japan in mid-July. 

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba The Movie: Infinity Castle hits US theaters September 12

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