Mitsuri Demon Slayer Guide: Love Hashira Explained

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Cody is a writer who was shaped by manga and anime at a young age. From discovering series like Dragon Ball and Gundam, he fell in love with this medium. Though he walked away for a time in his teenage years, he came back in his adulthood to fall back in love with manga and anime. Nowadays, he can be found reading the latest manga series and catching up on all of the new seasonal anime. And, of course, writing about them at the same time.

Bottom Line Up Front

Mitsuri Kanroji is one of the supporting characters in the vast group of Demon Slayer characters. She is one of only two female members of the Hashira, most certainly being the stronger physically of the two.

Mitsuri has the unique status of the Love Hashira, which is a title that she claimed for herself as the first and only user of the Love Breathing technique. This breathing style allows her to decimate demons using a fascinating blend of fighting styles that she created herself.

She is one of the most memorable characters in the cast, with a notably colorful design that contrasts the darker and moodier tone of the rest of the Demon Slayer characters.

While she is mostly absent from the early parts of the story, she plays a more significant role in the latter story arcs of the series. As an unbelievable fan favorite in the community, there are a lot of merch, cosplays, and more surrounding her.

Who is Mitsuri Kanroji?

Mitsuri Kanroji is a young adult who is a member of the Demon Slayer Corps. This organization is dedicated to fighting Muzan, the progenitor of all demons, and his army. Furthermore, she is not only a member of the Slayer Corps, but she is one of the most potent fighters to exist in the current state of the force.

Because of her immense strength and prowess in battle against demons, she was granted the ability to join the Hashira group, including the most elite and best fighters in all of Japan. She was 19 years old when she debuted in the manga and anime series as one of the Hashira slayers.

Among the Hashira, Mitsuri Kanroji holds the unique title of the Love Hashira. While this name may not sound too menacing, she is not someone to be trifled with in battle. She is among the most physically strong in the entire group, and she is near the top when it comes to the best slayers around.

Mitsuri Kanroji uses the Love Breathing technique, which is something that she created herself that utilizes her strengths in fights, hence her placement as the Love Hashira. She is one of only two female members of the elite group of slayers, and she has more than earned her right to be there, being one of the major supporting characters in later story arcs of the Demon Slayer series.

Appearance

Since Mitsuri Kanroji has little involvement in the earlier parts of the Demon Slayer series, she does not get too many appearance changes in the series. She generally sticks to the single outfit and looks that she has at the beginning, but this is understandable since this design is memorable enough on its own.

While she only has one general appearance, it is worth noting that there are some unique traits that we know about her look in the Demon Slayer series. For one, she used to have black hair naturally, but she colored it to the iconic look that we see in the series before her debut.

Furthermore, she does have a modern-day high school-style outfit that we can see in the Kimetsu Academy manga spin-off series.

Demon Slayer Uniform

For the most part, though, Mitsuri Kanroji has only one general appearance in the series. In battle, this is the uniform that she wears as the Love Hashira in the Demon Slayer Corps. I think that, without a doubt, she has one of, if not the, most memorable designs in the entirety of the Hashira group.

Whereas most people in the series have this darker look to them and very few color variations, her entire appearance is colorful and exciting. This allowed her to stand apart from the group when she was first introduced, even though she did not do anything initially in the series.

The outfit begins with the fact that, like the other Hashira in the elite organization, she uses the standard demon slayer uniform as a basis for her design. However, unlike the other group members, she has modified the original battle outfit so much that it is almost unrecognizable at this point.

The basic demon slayer uniform is that of a black button-up outfit that is standardized across all members of the group. In the case of Mitsuri, she retains the buttoned-up shirt on top, and instead of black pants on the bottom, she wears a short black skirt that matches the top.

Below her skirt, she has enormous green socks that go up to her thighs, covering a vast majority of her lower half. The bright green socks have a blue border at the top and very thin vertical lines going up and down. She wears simple sandals on her feet that have pink ties on them.

When it comes to the top half of her design, she retains the original demon slayer uniform, but she unbuttons it partially to give a more casual look. Over the top, she wears a white long-sleeve coat that covers almost the entirety of the demon slayer uniform, including the shirt and skirt.

When it comes to her face and hair, this is where she stands out with her customized look. She has huge green eyes sparkling with just a little bit of dark eye makeup to make them stand out. Her hair is in large twin braids that go down quite far, almost to her stomach.

The bulk of her hair is a vibrant pink color, while the tips of her bangs and the ends of the two braids themselves are a bright green that matches both her eyes and the socks that she wears. Overall, she has one of the unique designs in the series and one that quickly implanted itself in the hearts of fans worldwide.

Personality

It is worth noting that Mitsuri Kanroji is the Love Hashira, so emotions are at the very core of her existence. Everything she does, from breathing, eating, fighting, sleeping, and building relationships with others, is built around her emotions. Because of this, she is a highly emotional person.

These emotions dictate a lot of her decision-making and what she does on an average daily basis. To this end, she is also a little bit childish in some ways, and not just because of the fact that she is so emotional. It has to do with her communication skills being a bit wonky at times, given her passionate nature.

She is exceptionally social, though, and loves being around people and helping them out. She even sees the good in everyone she interacts with, constantly thinking about others and how amazing they are. This love is persistent in every part of her character, right down to her motivations.

She is so love-driven that she joined the Demon Slayer Corps and Hashira in the first place in order to find a husband.

As part of the Hashira, she believes that she will be able to find a man who is more potent than her and that he will be a suitable candidate to marry. Her love is quite strong as she cares deeply for her comrades and is seen as the emotional center of the Hashira, binding them all together.

Key Relationships

As the Love Hashira, Mitsuri Kanroji is the very center of the group. Some of the members operate independently, having little to do with one another. However, it is Mitsuri that binds everyone together with her friendly personality and the love that she exudes toward her friends.

Because of this, she has a crucial relationship with just about every member of the Hashira, though some are more important than others. For one, one of the most important friendships to her is that with Shinobu Kocho, the Insect Hashira.

As the only two females in the elite group of warriors, it is no surprise that the two of them are pretty close. Mitsuri cares deeply for Shinobu, showing her affection most of the time and bonding with one another often. They are best friends, helping each other and hanging out a lot of times.

The other primary relationship that she has within the Hashira group is with Obanai Iguro. The Serpent Hashira is a closed-off person who is quite the opposite of the loving and colorful personality that is Mitsuri. Her friendship with him is at the forefront of her storyline as they care deeply for one another on the battlefield.

There are even some hints that there is more to their relationship than meets the eye, at least on Mitsuri’s part. Other than the Hashira, later in the series, Mitsuri builds a relationship with the core main characters of Demon Slayer: Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, and Inosuke.

They become quick friends with one another during the Swordsmith Village Arc, and she begins to consider them part of her lovable family, too.

Voice Actor

The highly talented and hilarious Japanese voice actor behind Mitsuri Kanroji is Kana Hanazawa. Unfortunately, so far in the anime adaptation, we have not gotten to see much of Kanroji’s personality at this point in time. However, that will change soon, with the third season of the series focusing on her quite a bit in the adaptation of the Swordsmith Village Arc.

In the meantime, I think that the fantastic talent of Kana Hanazawa can be seen elsewhere in other anime series that she has done.

You may know her from her iconic roles, such as Nadeko Sengoku in the Monogatari series, being the best girl Chiaki in Danganronpa 2, the mature and alluring Rize in Tokyo Ghoul, lead character Akane Tsunemori in Psycho-Pass, and so much more.

Lastly, she nails her best role, in my opinion, as Hinata Kawamoto in the criminally underrated masterpiece, March Comes in Like a Lion.

On the English side, Kira Buckland is the voice of Mitsuri Kanroji. It does the best job possible of tackling the daunting task of matching Hanazawa’s brilliant performance on the Japanese side from what little we’ve seen of her so far.

You may know her from iconic roles like 2B in Nier Automata, Hiyoko Saionji in Danganronpa 2, Rebecca Bluegarden in Edens Zero, and so much more.

Suppose you are a video game and JRPG fan. In that case, my personal recommendation is to check Kira Buckland out with her impressive dual performances as Celine and Elise in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel sub-series.

Abilities

As a member of the Hashira group, Mitsuri Kanroji has a couple of aspects that define her abilities and skills in battle. The first of these is the general physical qualities that she has to her that allow her to succeed in fights, while the second has to do with the original Love Breathing style that she created on her own.

Enhanced Physical Capabilities

Mitsuri Kanroji is a Hashira for a reason, and she is one of the most vital members of the entire group. She is naturally well-built with the ability to gain muscle quickly. Through this, she has immense strength that rivals that of almost everyone else in the entire group.

This immense physical strength means that she also has to eat a lot to regain the energy that she frequently uses in order to gain the large muscle mass that she has. What is fascinating is that her enhanced physical abilities over the average human do not stop with strength, either.

She is also quite fast in battle and able to easily maneuver around enemies, and her inherent flexibility boosts this. With this, she can flexibly make flips, turns, and movements that allow her to dodge attacks and surprise her foes. She is one of the best fighters in the Hashira and, arguably, the better of the two females with her insane versatility in combat and the fact that Shinobu is unable to slice a demon’s head off usually.

Besides the innate talent that she has, Mitsuri has also honed her sword skills through training to be quite good at that as well.

Love Breathing Technique Explained

The primary ability that Mitsuri Kanroji uses in battle has to do with her Love Breathing technique. She invented this skill, and it is based on the Flame Breathing that the Flame Hashira uses. Training under Rengoku before joining him and the other Hashira in the group, she learned how to use the traditional Flame Breathing.

She then took that breathing technique and tweaked it with her unique elements Ike the Nichirin weapon that she uses in battle, and the flexibility that she has in combat to make Love Breathing. How it works is that it mainly has to do with the Nichirin weapon.

This weapon appears like a sword, which it is, but it has the unique trait of being whip-like. She can extend the blade to send it flying from a long distance and attack foes from afar, eliminating one of the shortcomings of the katanas that some of the others in the Hashira use.

Coupling this with her movements, she can zip around enemies and slice and dice them up. It is worth noting that she can also use Flame Breathing in battle, but she is much more skilled with her Love Breathing, so she sticks to that instead.

History

The history of Mitsuri Kanroji in the Demon Slayer series mostly has to do with events that happen in the second half of the series, especially in the final story arc. Since she is not super prevalent in the story until later, there are some inevitable spoilers for late-game events. This is your warning to skip this if you have not finished this series or you are an anime fan only.

Member of the Hashira

Little is known about Mitsuri Kanroji’s life prior to her debut in the Demon Slayer series. What we do know comes from some circumstantial conversations and details that we learn. What we do know is that she joined the Demon Slayer Corps and found quick success that was unheard of before.

Her physical capabilities and skill with slaying demons allowed her to become the Tsuguko of Rengoku, the current Flame Hashira. Tsuguko is the trainee apprentice who is set up to either take over the current Hashira position or find a new spot to join the group.

Mitsuri was okay with the Flame Breathing technique that Rengoku’s family uses, but she found that her unique Love Breathing was a better take on that style. With it, she excelled further and was able to join the Hashira as the first-ever Love Hashira.

Her original purpose for joining the Demon Slayer Corps was actually love-related, as she wished to find a husband to marry who would be more powerful than she is. While this is still somewhat her goal as part of the Hashira, she appreciates her new comrades and helps them in their goal of defeating Muzan and his demon army.

Swordsmith Village Arc and Final Battle

We see Mitsuri Kanroji for the first time officially when Tanjiro and the gang arrive in the presence of the Hashira after the mountain story arc, where they fight one of the Twelve Kizuki demons. At this point, Mitsuri is mostly a bystander who comments to herself on the events happening with Tanjiro and Nezuko, not really getting involved.

Her actual story in the series does not truly kick off until the Swordsmith Village Arc. In this part of the Demon Slayer series, she joins up with Tanjiro, Nezuko, and the other main characters to fight off against some demons that threaten the source of weapons for the Demon Slayer Corps soldiers.

She then also plays a significant role in the final arc of the series with the final battle against Muzan. It is here that we finally see her true feelings come to light regarding her love for Obanai. In the end, though, she is tragically defeated in battle and loses her life in this battle alongside her loved one.

This tragic ending for her character is at least helped by the fact that she gets a happy ending someday. In the epilogue of the manga, we get to see that Mitsuri Kanroji and Obanai are reincarnated in the future, allowing them to finally get married and be together.

Mitsuri Kanroji in Other Media

Given the famous state of Mitsuri Kanroji, it is unsurprising that she is featured in much more than just the regular manga and anime series. There is an absolutely insane amount of merch and items that are based around her character. It is pretty easy to find figures, plushies, body pillows, and all sorts of items that involve her character.

She is also heavily featured in cosplays in the Demon Slayer community. I would say that she is easily in the top five cosplays for the popular anime and manga series, beating out other characters that are far more frequently featured in the series.

It helps, too, that there are some solid cosplays for her at the same time.

Oddly enough, you cannot play as Mitsuri in the Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles video game, though. This was an intentional decision to avoid featuring characters and their fighting styles that have not appeared in the anime just yet.

Fun Facts about Mitsuri Kanroji

Here are some fun facts about Mitsuri Kanroji that you may not have known about before:

The reason that Mitsuri’s hair is dyed the pink color that it is, is due to eating too many sakura mochi treats which was not necessarily something that she intentionally wanted to happen.
The very long green socks that Mitsuri wears were actually given to her by Obanai.
In the few popularity polls that have officially happened, Mitsuri has placed 12th. This is impressive for a character that had not really been featured in the series just yet.
The romantic comedy manga and anime series, Tonikawa (which I really enjoy and highly recommend) features Mitsuri and Obanai both in a cameo appearance at one point.
She has a pet rabbit as well as some bees.

FAQs

Question: Who has a Crush on Mitsuri Demon Slayer?

Answer: This is slight spoilers for the Demon Slayer manga series, so beware of that, especially if you are an anime-only fan. Mitsuri has a crush on Obanai and the feelings are reciprocated as we are able to see towards the end of the manga.

Question: How Old was Mitsuri when She became a Demon Slayer?

Answer: This question is currently unknown. What we do know is that when Tanjiro and his friends meet the Hashira for the first time, Mitsuri is around 19 years old.
Presumably, she trained for a couple of years prior to that under Rengoku plus her time as a normal slayer so she was likely anywhere around 14-18 years old when she first joined.

Question: What Two Breathing Styles can Mitsuri Use?

Answer: The little-known fact is that Mitsuri has trained in two different breathing styles, including the Love one that she invented herself. The other one is Flame Breathing, which she trained in under Rengoku originally before developing her own technique.

Question: Why is Mitsuri so Strong?

Answer: Mitsuri is so strong physically because she naturally builds muscle quite easily and has many layers of it on her body, making her essentially like a bodybuilder of sorts. This is also why she has to eat so much, too.

Mitsuri Demon Slayer Guide: Conclusion

When it comes to the impressive Hashira group in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, there are few members that are even close to as memorable and interesting as Mitsuri Kanroji is, in my opinion. There is a lot to love about her and she is one of the characters that I am excited for anime-only fans to learn more about in the near future.

But if that is not enough for you while we wait for Demon Slayer’s anime to return, thankfully, I’ve got you covered in the meantime. You can check out my full guide to the Hashira group in Demon Slayer so that you can find out all about the various other members of the organization, who they are, and their relationships with one another.