Shinazugawa Sanemi: Character Analysis

Let me preface this character analysis of the Wind Hashira by saying that the following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer. Therefore, if you are an anime watcher only, you should probably not read this until you've either read the manga as well as the Demon Slayer light novel story Sign From The Wind, or until all of the Infinity Castle movies are released.

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There are two types of people in the Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer fandom: those who loathe Shinazugawa Sanemi from the first season, and those who love him unconditionally from the beginning and then find out they were right to love him. I, for one, am part of the second category of people. We are going to do a deep dive into his character and I will explain why I love him so much in the process.

When we first meet Sanemi, he is prickly and we are meant to dislike him, considering we are seeing things from Tanjiro's perspective. He is insulting Tanjiro, calling him a moron for travelling with his demon sister, and is manhandling Nezuko's box, before proceeding to stab her with his sword. When Ubuyashiki Kagaya comes forward and presents the Hashira with a letter from Urokodaki Sakonji, Sanemi isn't alone in showing his disagreement in accepting Nezuko and Tanjiro into the Corps. He then proceeds to try to prove that Nezuko is just like every other demon and cuts his own arm to entice her to attack him, provoking her by stabbing her a few more times. Nezuko, however, never succumbs to the temptation that Sanemi's blood presents and turns her head in disgust. Sanemi thus is forced to let the matter go and go along with Kagaya's wishes. That first impression is not favourable at all, and it does not get better when we see his behaviour towards Genya as the story progresses. We learn from Mitsuri that Sanemi insists that he does not have a brother, despite Genya sharing his last name and physical features. By that point, most people would conclude that Sanemi is a cruel man.

What people misunderstand the most about Sanemi is that the same cruelty they are so quick to brand him with is actually a front for his deep protectiveness and kindness. Of course, he is still blunt, rough, and looks like he is a mad man — a good friend of mine who does not watch Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer actually told me a few times that Sanemi looks like he is insane and also that he looks scary... Even I cannot deny what he looks like despite his good looks.

We learn through Genya's backstory during the Swordsmith Village Arc that Sanemi used to be a kind child, a good elder brother who took care of his mother and his siblings, and that he hated his father for abusing his mother when drunk and vowed to never become such a man. So why does he seem like he became exactly like his father?

Trauma is one massive answer. I won't excuse his behaviour and say he is a misunderstood bad boy. I can acknowledge that Sanemi is deeply traumatised and his trauma made him act out while also recognising that his behaviour is unacceptable. One does not exclude the other. However, trauma is still what shaped Sanemi into the man he is.

As a child, he already had to be mature enough to take care of his siblings because his father was a drunk abuser who ended up dying prematurely. If I remember correctly, Shinazugawa Kyogo used to constantly abuse his wife, Shizu, as well as his children, including Sanemi. Shizu would often shield her children from getting beaten up by their father, but Sanemi protected his siblings from beatings as well. Then, after Kyogo's death, he and Genya promise to each other to step up and protect the rest of the family, as they've always done.

Unfortunetately, Shizu turned into a demon and killed most of the Shinazugawa siblings. Sanemi throws himself on his mother to take her outside, saving Genya. He then discovered that his blood was special; not only was it marechi, but it intoxicated demons. His mother became intoxicated by his blood, not being able to resist it and that is how he was able to end her when the sun came up. Genya, confused by the turn of event and seeing his big brother with serious bleeding injuries and his clothes stained of blood, as well as his demon mother on the ground, injured and turning to ash as she died, called Sanemi a murderer when Sanemi's only crime was to have saved Genya by making sure his demon mother could not hurt any of them any longer.

Sanemi then spent years killing demons using his blood to lure them and using elaborate traps to keep them immobile until sunrise. His rage at the existence of demons, how they torn apart his family, seems to be the sole motivation behind every single of his action. His survival also comes from that rage, surprising Kumeno Masachika when he meets the reckless future Wind Hashira and tells him it is a miracle he has survived this long without proper Breathing Technique and a Nichirin sword (Sign From The Wind, Chapter 1). But we also learn that Sanemi holds no hate towards Genya and actually wants to protect him, keep him away from this life of slaying demons, and wants him to have a normal life with a wife and children. He even says he could never let Genya be in the Corps the way Kocho Kanae allows her little sister Shinobu to be a Corps member. And in the anime/manga, Sanemi reiterates this same sentiment of wanting Genya to have a normal life upon Genya's death at the hands of Kokushibo during the Infinity Castle battle.

But until people get to that part either reading the Sign From The Wind light novel or the later manga chapters, most people assume Sanemi is a cruel man, except the truth is, Sanemi is not good at expressing how he feels and uses anger as a shield — hence his abuse of Genya throughout the story and his treatment of Tomioka Giyuu and the Kamado siblings.

I do have one personal headcanon of mine regarding the Kamado siblings and Sanemi's treatment of them. First, about Tanjiro: when Sanemi looks at Tanjiro, he sees Masachika.

(Kamado Tanjiro (left) and Kumeno Masachika (right). All rights reserved to Gotouge Koyoharu.)

It is not just their smiles that are similar, but both young men have a pretty similar outlook on life. They are both very positive and they both have pestered Sanemi at one point or another with a big smile plastered on their faces. Tanjiro said to Sanemi during the Hashira Training Arc how excited he was to train with him, to which Sanemi retorted not to be cocky and that he didn't accept him, despite what Oyakata-sama said a few months earlier; Masachika kept pestering Sanemi to call him by his first name because he was like an older brother to him. But, unlike Tanjiro, Masachika wasn't so lucky to survive his encounter with the former Lower Rank One demon, Ubume, which Sanemi and Masachika defeated together but from which only Sanemi emerged a survivor and got his Wind Hashira rank as a result. Meanwhile, Tanjiro kept surviving every single encounter with the Twelve Kizuki, including Lower Five (Rui), Lower One (Enmu), Upper Three (Akaza, twice), Upper Six (Gyūtaro and Daki), and Upper Four (Hantengu and his clones). Perhaps Sanemi felt that it was so unfair that a newbie such as Tanjiro was able to survive when his best friend Masachika did not. And to make matters worse, Tanjiro did irritate Sanemi by standing up to him, claiming he had no respect for him, and accidentally teasing him with Sanemi's favourite food, ohagi, all instances during which Sanemi did not take kindly to the young swordsman's attitude.

Second, about Nezuko: we know that Nezuko turned her head in disgust at Sanemi's bloody arm despite the fact that she was clearly drooling and growling at the scent of his marechi blood. My headcanon for this is the fact that Sanemi was so adamant that Nezuko would show her true colours and succumb to the temptation of his marechi blood — despite Tanjiro insisting that his sister would never do that and hadn't done that for the two years and some months she had been a demon thus far — and his shock and dejection at Nezuko's proof that she wouldn't attack nor eat any human was because of how his mother could not resist his blood and killed his family. He was so furious at Tanjiro's claim that Nezuko would never attack family or any human because in his experience, family that turned into a demon does not care that who they're attacking are loved ones. In essence, he was frustrated that Nezuko could do what he wished his mother would have done.

Sanemi is a tragic character and yet one whose arc is so well-written. I loved him even before knowing every detail of his arc, his backstory, just the fact that he acted prickly. It's either intuition, or the fact that my type in fictional characters is people with lots of anger issues... Regardless, I love him very much and he is by far my favourite character in Kimetsu no Yaiba: Demon Slayer.