Aoi Kanzaki (Kimetsu no Yaiba)

KANJI 神崎 アオイ RŌMAJI Kanzaki Aoi CHARACTERISTICS RACE Human GENDER Female AGE

16[1] HAIR COLOR Black EYE COLOR Deep Blue AFFILIATION AFFILIATION Demon Slayer Corps COMBAT STYLE Water Breathing (Formerly)[2] BASE OF OPERATIONS Butterfly Mansion PERSONAL STATUS STATUS Active (Pre-Timeskip) Deceased (Post-Timeskip)[3] RELATIVE(S) Unnamed Family Inosuke Hashibira (Husband) Aoba Hashibira (Great-Grandson) Unnamed Great-Grandson

Aoi Kanzaki (神かん崎ざき アオイ, Kanzaki Aoi?) is a supporting character of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and a Demon Slayer of the Demon Slayer Corps. However, she works as a helper at the Butterfly Mansion, rather than taking to the front lines and fighting demons.

Appearance

Aoi is a young woman of average height and pale complexion, with large deep blue eyes that fade to a lighter blue at the bottom, along with white rectangular pupils, straight black hair with a parted fringe, and twin-tails. She has dark, thin and arched eyebrows which are usually furrowed due to the frown that she often has on her face. She wears two blue butterfly clips to keep her twin-tails in place.

She wears the standard Demon Slayer uniform with the addition of a white nurse dress on top of it, with a blue sash around her waist. Her uniform is tinted slightly blue, along with pair of zōri with blue straps and white tabi socks.

Personality

Aoi telling Zenitsu to take his medicine Aoi reprimanding Zenitsu for complaining. Aoi is tough, uncompromising, strict, and serious, displaying an efficient and no-nonsensical attitude nearly at all times. While performing her duties in the Butterfly Mansion, she is effective and proactive, evident when she quickly demands a complaining Zenitsu to silence himself and take his medication; Aoi goes so far as to demand he does not complain to her when he does not heal, despite Zenitsu's reluctance due to its bad taste.

Her personality is somewhat similar to that of a younger Shinobu Kocho, being loud, volatile, and open. She often appears angry, generally displaying how she feels very clearly. However, she does occasionally express more tender emotions such as declaring her enjoyment of the time spent with the trio when they were at the Mansion,[5] looking openly surprised at Tanjiro's reassurance towards her,[6] and bursting into tears when discussing Inosuke's serious injuries.[7]

Despite her somewhat gruff demeanor, she is kind and caring, doing her best to help the Demon Slayers that came to the Mansion rehabilitate. Aoi also harbors insecurity over her inability to be an effective Demon Slayer, stating that her survival of Final Selection was due to luck and deeming herself a coward for her failure to fight in battle due to her immense fear of combat.[8]

Aoi is shown to be rather reserved, as when Tanjiro asks what she would do to show someone who thinks he's alone that he isn't actually alone, Aoi bluntly states that she wouldn't know and that she would prefer to be left alone.

Abilities

Overall Abilities

As someone who passed Final Selection, Aoi has above-average fighting abilities and physical capabilities compared to the average person. However, she is not on par with Demon Slayers such as Tanjiro Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma, and Inosuke Hashibira as she does not spend time training to fight demons or go on missions, but rather chooses to be a helper in the Butterfly Mansion, helping injured Demon Slayers to recover.

Medical Knowledge: After training under Shinobu Kocho, Aoi is able to concoct most of the more simple medicines and use them to treat injured patients.

Trained Craftsmanship: Aoi is knowledgeable and skillful enough to repair Nezuko's box which was damaged by Sanemi's blade.[9]

Fighting Style

Breathing Style

Water Breathing (水みずの呼こ吸きゅう, Mizu no kokyū?): Aoi was a user of Water Breathing when she took Final Selection.[2] Despite her surviving Final Selection, she believed it was nothing but pure luck and decided to stop training with the Water Breathing and instead helped other Demon Slayers within the Butterfly Mansion.

Trivia

"Aoi" (アオイ, Aoi?) can have different meanings depending on the kanji used. For example, her name can translate to "hollyhock" (葵あおい, aoi?) or "blue" (青あおい, aoi?). However, her name is spelled with three katakana characters, which have no semantic properties. Although since her entire character design revolves around the color blue, it can be presumed that it stands for blue in nature. Aoi's surname, Kanzaki, contains the Kun'yomi reading of the kanji for "deity, spirit" (神かん, kan?) and "promontory, peninsula" (崎さき, saki?), the latter is affected by rendaku. Aoi was in the same Final Selection as the Mist Hashira, Muichiro Tokito.[2] Aoi's uniform was supposed to have an open chest design like Mitsuri Kanroji's uniform, same with Kanao and Shinobu. She later on burned this uniform with the oil and matches that Shinobu gave her and Kanao.[10] Aoi ranked 24th in the first character popularity poll with 103 votes. Aoi wanted a sister so she was fiercely pestering Kanao Tsuyuri to choose her last name.[11] Aoba shares the Hepburn romaji spelling of the first part of his name with Aoi (however, the "ao" in "Aoi" and the "ao" in "Aoba" are written using different character scripts). Given that Sumihiko Kamado, Kanata Kamado, Toko Agatsuma, and Yoshiteru Agatsuma share parts of their names with their ancestors, this is also the case for Aoba. Due to Aoba's name containing the character "blue, azure" (青あお, ao?), this is direct evidence that Aoi's name is in reference for blue. Aoba works in the field of science, much like Shinobu did back in the Butterfly Mansion where Aoi lived. Aoba has jet black hair rather than hair that fades from black to blue like Inosuke's, the same as Aoi. Aoi was partially responsible for Kanao's name. During the time in which the naming selection for Kanao took place, Shinobu and Kanae placed the names on the floor, allowing Kanao to choose a name at random. After seeing that Kanao was going to choose a paper containing the name "Kamasu" (カマス, Kamasu?), Aoi swiftly swapped the paper for the one containing Kanao. Aoi's voice actress, Yuri Ehara, is an in-house animation staff member at Ufotable, the animation studio behind Demon Slayer. In Kimetsu Academy, Aoi is a second year high school student of the Persimmon Class and a member of the Flower Arrangement Club, and she is also a volunteer at the school canteen. Her parents own Aozora Diner, where she helps out a lot. However, a girl with a big appetite has been coming recently and causing her much trouble.[12]