Kanae

Kanae was a girl of a slender build, much like her younger sister. She was rather tall for her age and had notably red lips in contrast to her pale complexion. She had long, straight hair of a dark black color that reached just below her waist, worn down with two shorter clumps over her shoulders, and arched, ear-length bangs on either side of her face. Her eyes were a pale violet color and slanted towards the sides of her face, and were bright and bug-like, with many notable white sparkles reflecting light off of them.

Kanae wore the standard Demon Slayer Corps uniform, which is black in the manga and tinted dark purple in the anime. Her uniform consisted of a button-up jacket with a stand-up collar and long sleeves, featuring gold buttons, a shirt pocket on the left breast, and the kanji for Destroy (滅めつ Metsu?) engraved on the back of the collar. Beneath the jacket, she wore a white long-sleeved collared undershirt, and her outfit was fastened at the waist with the standard white belt. She wore traditional tattsuke-hakama pants matching the dark-purple tone of her uniform. Around her lower legs, Kanae wrapped a strip of black fabric, functioning similarly to kyahan, and wore dark purple tabi socks that matched her uniform’s accent. On her feet, she wore zōri sandals with pale purple straps. Over her uniform, she wore a now-iconic white haori patterned like butterfly wings, which fades to pale turquoise and then pink at the hem and sleeves, cuffed with a black trim, with white-pale turquoise dots. This haori was later inherited by her younger sister Shinobu Kocho, who wears it in remembrance of her. Kanae also adorned her hair with a distinctive set of pink and green butterfly hairpins, worn symmetrically on either side of her head. After her death, one of these butterfly pins was passed on to Kanao Tsuyuri, her adoptive younger sister, who wears it as a cherished keepsake.

Kanae is shown to be a good-natured girl with an easy-going personality; in Shinobu and Kanao's flashbacks, she is almost always seen with a gentle smile on her face. When Sanemi Shinazugawa lashed out against their leader, Kagaya Ubuyashiki, she displayed concern for Kagaya and gently informed Sanemi how Kagaya truly cares for the Demon Slayers under his charge. Kanae also had a dream of someday being able to live peacefully alongside demons despite all the suffering and death they have inflicted on humans, which later inspired Shinobu to do the same.

However, Kanae had a much stricter side, as shown when Shinobu was on the verge of defeat during her battle with Doma. Kanae's spirit ordered her to stand up and face her opponent, brushing away the excuses forming in her mind that she was too delicate to take on demons. Kanae was also keenly observant, seeing through Doma's acting and lies, and deducing that he was in fact emotionless and empty. According to Kanao, Kanae felt sorry for him due to his emptiness, even though he mortally wounded her.