Shinobu Kocho

Appearance

Shinobu is a petite young woman with a slender build and a fairly pale complexion. She has large eyes that lack pupils, only a haze of gradient purple, making her eyes appear similar to those of insects, and rose pink lips. She has raven-black wavy hair that fades into a dark purple hue at the ends, styled at the back of her head into a flat yakai-maki bun fastened with a white, turquoise and light purple butterfly ornament. She has center-split, ear-length, voluminous curtain bangs that flow down to frame the sides of her face, with two slightly thinner chin-length locks of hair in front of her ears below them. Both of which grow an inch longer later on in the series. She stands out among the more physically imposing Hashira due to her diminutive stature and small frame, which is later reinforced by her mentioning that she does not possess enough physical strength to decapitate a demon as the others do. According to Zenitsu, Shinobu is so cute that she could make a living on her looks alone. Shinobu wears a dark purple tinted standard Demon Slayer uniform, consisting of a button-up jacket with golden buttons, stand collar, and long sleeves, having the kanji for "Destroy" engraved on the back, a shirt pocket on top of the left breast, matching the dark purple color of her tabi socks and her long saggy tattsuke hakama pants, that is wrapped by a pair of white butterfly-patterned Kyahan fading into a pale turquoise to pink shade around her lower legs, fastened with white ribbons. Over her uniform, she wears a white haori that previously belonged to her older sister, which has a butterfly wing pattern, especially that of a Monarch Butterfly, that fades into a pale turquoise then pink color gradient on the sleeves and hem which are cuffed with a black and white dotted trim. She wears white zōri sandals with purple straps for footwear; she conceals a hidden blade in the right sandal. When Shinobu was fourteen, her appearance was altered slightly.

Personality

Shinobu is an Insect Hashira. She is 18 years old. Her height is 4'11”. Her birthday is February 24th. Shinobu displays a bright, friendly and cheerful demeanor, always having an easygoing smile on her face regardless of the situation she is in. However, her outward behavior is shown very quickly to be a façade. This is displayed in the way she enjoys teasing others, to the point of being rather sadistic about it, enjoying most notably to pick on Giyu Tomioka. Despite her relaxed exterior and her initial claim of wanting to get along with demons, she can be rather cruel towards them, which is seen when she kills Daughter after giving her false hope of helping her, and immediately attempting to kill Nezuko Kamado without giving Tanjiro Kamado a chance to prove that she was harmless to humans. JLater on, she is shown to have a more compassionate side towards both Tanjiro and his sister after hearing their full story. It is later revealed that her outwardly calm and tranquil disposition is worn as a mask, as Shinobu holds an intense hatred for demons due to the loss of her sister, Kanae Kocho, at a young age, along with the deaths of her parents, almost all of her Tsuguko, and the families of her apprentices at the Butterfly Mansion. This hatred is so strong that she is in a near-constant state of extreme anger, which is sensed by Tanjiro Kamado when the two individuals hold a conversation. Her desire for revenge rendered her unable to live the normal life her sister had wished upon her, instead devoting the entirety of her energy to defeating demons.

Abilities

As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Shinobu is a very powerful and skilled combatant. Despite not possessing the physical strength to cut off a demon's head common to that of an average Demon Slayer, Shinobu uses her creativity, ingenuity and other physical abilities to more than make up for it. Instead of the traditional method of decapitating a demon with a Nichirin Sword to kill them, Shinobu opts to use a modified version of a katana that acts as a stinger to inject a powerful wisteria-based poison that is lethal to demons. In addition to her intellect, she is extremely fast and agile, allowing her to overpower demons very quickly

Interesting facts

Shinobu and Mitsuri Kanroji get along quite well due to them having been the only two female Hashira after Kanae Kocho's death. Mitsuri Kanroji also teaches her western cooking. Shinobu's parents worked in compounding medicine, a reason why Shinobu is also very talented with medicines. Shinobu has great knowledge of medicine and chemistry.