Akaza

APPEARANCE: Akaza is a very muscular young man of average height with skin so fair it appeared bright green-tinged white, decorated by a pattern of thick blue lines, which resembled the criminal tattoos he had as a human. Akaza has short, bright pink hair that fluffs out around his head and inward-tilting yellow eyes with pink eyelashes and blue sclera that somewhat resembles cracked glass. The kanji for Upper Rank (上じょう弦げん Jōgen?) is etched into his right iris, and the daiji for Three (参さん San?) is etched into his left.

The lines on his face curved through each of his eyes from below his ears to over his temples, another blue line running from the center of his hairline to the bridge of his nose, with two more lines running around his neck, three others branching off the lower one to his torso. The middle line ran directly down his chest to halfway down his stomach, and the other two branched off to the sides over each side of his chest to join the two other lines. This same three-line pattern also repeated around his waist. On his arms, lines were running down the front of his shoulders that ran into two more, which went around his biceps before continuing to run down to his wrists, below which each of his fingers was also dark blue with an orange fingernail, his toes also sharing this unusual appearance.

Akaza wore little and only sported a short, sleeveless dark purple-pink haori cut off at his waist, left open to expose his chest, and decorated by a square pattern on his back. Below this, he sported a pair of baggy white pants that he rolled to just below the knee with a blue rope belt to secure them at his waist. Akaza preferred to go barefoot but wore a pair of chains of large, round, pink pearls around his ankles.

During his human days as Hakuji, he had the same hair, just colored black rather than pink, and pale blue eyes with unusually-colored light pink eyelashes. He was also very muscular as a human and bore three black criminal tattoos on each forearm. He also wore a dark blue-gray yukata.

PERSONALITY: Akaza was a headstrong, stubborn, and battle-crazed Social Darwinist who enjoyed fighting, especially against strong Demon Slayers. He purposefully drew out fights to savor every moment of it, always complimenting his opponents when they unleashed powerful techniques or landed blows on him, usually remarking that their techniques and swordsmanship were magnificent and intriguing. Akaza looked down on anybody he deemed weak, so much so that his skin would crawl at the sight of them. He genuinely respected those who were strong in his eyes, demanding to know their names, and would not stop until he found out; he remembered all the names of strong opponents of the past and committed them to memory as a tribute to their strength.

Akaza also presented an opportunity for those he recognized the strength of to become demons, believing that preserving their refined techniques and skill was right and feeling pain watching the deterioration of those blessed with extraordinary gifts as they age, and going so far as to kill them to preserve their magnificent skill himself should they decline his offer to become a demon. He also did not discriminate against strong warriors who were weak before, as shown when he praised and complimented Tanjiro Kamado despite initially attempting to kill him over how weak he was during their first encounter, even going so far as to thank Kyojuro for Tanjiro's growth. Akaza believed strongly in Social Darwinism, believing that the law of nature dictates that all weaklings shall be eliminated.

Akaza had a deeply rooted psychological need to become stronger and while he usually respected the strong, he did not get along with his fellow Upper Ranks, seeing them as his rivals. [8] He was especially antagonistic towards and somewhat jealous of the two Upper Ranks above him, Doma and Kokushibo, lashing out at Doma[9] and vowing to kill Kokushibo.[10] Even after being beheaded during his fight against Tanjiro and Giyu Tomioka, he stubbornly held on and continued to fight, remarking that he must become the strongest no matter what, to the point of overcoming all demons' shared weakness of decapitation by Nichirin Swords through nothing but sheer willpower and resolve.[11] It was later revealed that Akaza's desperate and stubborn pursuit of strength was to heal his sick father and to protect the ones he loved and cared about, namely his fiancée Koyuki and his teacher Keizo.

Akaza also possessed a deep hatred for his past life as a human, believing he was absolutely worthless, and hating anyone or anything that reminded him of it, such as Tanjiro's view of how the strong should help the weak and Giyu's unwavering resolve reminding Akaza of Keizo. During both instances, he reacted negatively due to his own grief of not being strong enough to protect Keizo and Koyuki despite his heartfelt promises that ultimately "amounted to nothing", which led to his obsession with becoming strong. Even after becoming a demon and losing his memories of his human life, parts of his human memories still influenced his decisions; he refused to eat or kill women, despite knowing it would make him stronger if he did so.