In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Giyu Tomioka plays an important role. Currently, he is the Water Hashira of the demon slayer crops.
Appearance:
Giyu has a muscular build and pale skin and wears an expressionless look most of the time. He wears his unkempt hair in tufts around his head and in a low messy ponytail at the base of his neck. The bangs he wears over his eyes are uneven. His medium-sized, sharp eyes have sapphire irises that fade to lighter blue and bluish-black pupils framed by thin brows.
Giyu is wearing a dim cyan-colored adaptation of the ordinary Demon Slayer uniform, with fastened white leg-wrapped kyahan and a coordinating pair of white zri with dull blue ties and tabi socks underneath. Giyu is wearing a haori with 2 unmistakable examples split down the middle: one strong red on the right and one mathematical shape designed with squares of green, orange, and yellow on the left. These haori were subsequently found to be the owner of his late more established sister, Tsutako Tomioka, as well as his expired companion Sabito.
Personality:
Giyu generally has an apathetic, courageous appearance all over. He has a held character and a solid feeling of equity, and he has no capacity to bear the individuals who know nothing about their impediments and waste their lives. Regardless of permitting Nezuko Kamado to live because of Tanjiro Kamado’s constancy, he has no faltering in killing different evil spirits and has no regard or leniency for them, as most Demon Slayers do.
Regardless, Giyu broke the Demon Slayer Corps’ implicit set of principles when he safeguarded Nezuko from Shinobu’s death. This infers that, dissimilar to some other Hashira, he doesn’t completely abhor devils and will make a special case for them by allowing them to live as long as they don’t kill and eat people.This illustrates that when interacting with demons, he is more reasonable rather than allowing his hatred to cloud his judgment.
Giyu seems worried about others’ thought processes of him and is shocked when Shinobu Kocho claims he is detested by a lot of people. Aside from that, he appears unconcerned by Shinobu’s other jabs, even choosing to ignore her. Despite this, they are good friends who have a long history together. He is a man of few words and has difficulty interacting with others, so he usually keeps his distance. He even goes out of his way to tell Akaza that he dislikes talking and prefers to keep his name to himself because he believes names should not be shared, especially with demons.
Later on, it is revealed that Giyu has an inferiority complex that he developed as a result of his participation in the Final Selection. It becomes so severe that he considers leaving his position as the Water Hashira until Tanjiro helps him realize that rather than acting on his survivor’s guilt, he should appreciate his life and live on for the individuals who gave their lives for him. This sense of survivor’s guilt returns when he believes Tanjiro died during the fight with Muzan. While crying, Giyu confesses that he is always the one who is saved.
Abilities:
Giyu is a very strong and skilled fighter as a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps. Giyu demonstrated his dominance over Tanjiro and his friends from the start, easily capturing Nezuko and knocking him unconscious with a single blow. Later, in his transformed state, he was able to quickly defeat the Father Spider Demon and Rui, Lower Rank Five, which Tanjiro and Inosuke were unable to do.
During his fight against Akaza, Upper-Rank Three, he was able to hold his own for a while, and like Kyojuro, Akaza is impressed by Giyu’s abilities to the point where he offers to turn the Hashira into a demon, which Akaza only asks of the most worthy of his opponents. Giyu was able to temporarily outmatch the Upper-Rank demon when he first awakened his mark, repeatedly cutting his arms, slicing his body, and even cutting his neck. Akaza claims he hasn’t fought a Water Hashira as skilled as Giyu in fifty years.
Demon Slayer Mark:
Giyu awakens his Demon Slayer Mark during his battle with Akaza, which appears as a fluid-water-like design on his left cheek, complementing his Breathing Style, Water Breathing. When activated, he gains incredible speed, precision, and endurance, allowing him to engage in a long battle on even ground against the Upper Rank.
Bright Red Nichirin Sword:
During the fight against Muzan, Sanemi forcefully clashes his sword against Giyu’s, briefly turning both of their blades red, granting them the ability to thwart the Demon King’s increased regeneration, making their attacks far more effective and lethal.
Speed and Reflexes:
Giyu has inhuman speed and reflexes, as evidenced by his ability to take Nezuko from Tanjiro’s grip at blinding speeds that took him several seconds to register. Later, he was able to hoist and tie Inosuke to a tree before he realized what had happened, prompting him to remark that he was extremely fast. When Giyu was pursuing Tanjiro, she easily caught up to Shinobu. Giyu cut all of Rui’s threads and Akaza’s shockwaves so quickly that he didn’t appear to move his arms at all. He also blitzed and instantly beheaded Rui.
He was also able to keep up with Upper-Rank Three, Akaza, who is one of the fastest demons in existence, and when his mark awakened, Giyu managed to out-speed him numerous times and emerged to “teleport” even to Akaza. Giyu was also able to avoid many of Muzan’s attacks and negate them calmly.
Water Breathing:
A Breathing Style taught to him by Sakonji Urokodaki, the Water Hashira before him. Giyu, as the Water Hashira, is the most skilled Water Breathing user of his generation. Giyu has mastered this swordsmanship style to the point where he invented an entirely new technique within the Breathing Style, impressing Akaza, who had previously fought Water Hashira.
- First Form: Water Surface Slash: The user requires enough acceleration to make a strong single concentrated slash.
- Second Form: Water Wheel: The user leaps and spins vertical position forward in the air while going to release a flowing attack in a circular motion.
- Third Form: Flowing Dance: The user moves and bends their blade in a winding motion along with their body and dances in a flowing pattern, snipping everything within the path.
- Fourth Form: Striking Tide: The user slashes numerous times in a row while distorting their body and sword in a flowing motion to deliver multiple blows at the same time.
- Blessed Rain, Fifth Form After the Drought: The user alters their sword grip and decapitates their enemy in a single flowing strike that causes little to no pain. When the enemy voluntarily surrenders, it is a “kindness strike” with the sword.
- Sixth Form: Whirlpool: The user twists their upper and lower body violently, producing a whirlpool of air that cuts almost everything caught in it. Its effectiveness and efficiency are enhanced underwater, where the user can draw water around their weapon to amplify their slashes.
- Drop Ripple Thrust: The user performs a quick and accurate stab capable of reducing the impact of a moving target.
- The eighth form: Involves the user cutting the target vertically in a flowing motion that is most effective when they are falling downward.
- Ninth Form: Splashing Water Flow: The user alters their footwork to reduce touching downtime and surface required, gradually moving freely. When fighting in a place with no solid foothold, this is ideal.
- Constant Flux: The user needs to perform an ongoing flowing strike that appears to be taking the form of a water dragon and starts growing in strength and power with each rotation due to movement.
- Eleventh Form: Dead Calm: Using his blade, the user stops all body movements and enters a state of complete tranquillity, deflecting, blocking, and cutting any incoming attacks with imperceptible speed. Its effectiveness, however, is limited because fast and numerous attacks can break through.
