Akaza

This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, strong drug use, extremely traumatic themes, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. Note: Content classification services hold no influence over the template's criteria and usage. Only the content itself matters.

Akaza (猗窩座, Akaza) is a major antagonist in the manga/anime series Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. He is a member of the Twelve Kizuki, holding the position of Upper Rank Three. As a human, he lived over a century ago and was a prodigious martial artist by the name of Hakuji (狛治, Hakuji).

Akaza first appeared towards the end of the Mugen Train Arc, during which he defeated and killed the Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku in battle, and grew to despise Tanjiro Kamado for humiliating him after Muzan angrily reprimanded him for not killing the boy when he had the chance. Later on, during the Infinity Castle Arc, Akaza fought both Tanjiro and the Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka to the death, during which he regained his memories of his past as a human and committed suicide as an act of remorse for the crimes he committed as a demon so that he could finally pass on and reunite with his loved ones in the afterlife.

Quick Answers

Who was Akaza before he became a demon in Demon Slayer?

Akaza, a character in Demon Slayer, was originally a human named Hakuji. He was a skilled martial artist who lived over a century ago. After experiencing the loss of his family and having nothing left to protect, Hakuji accepted Muzan's offer and transformed into a demon, adopting the name Akaza. As Akaza, he forgot his human past and was driven by a singular desire to become stronger, although he didn't understand why. Notably, he made a personal rule not to harm or eat women.

Provided by: Fandom

What is the significance of Akaza's rank in the Twelve Kizuki?

Akaza, previously known as Hakuji, is a prominent figure in the Twelve Kizuki, holding the Upper Rank Three. His rank reflects his formidable power and standing among demons. Even as a demon, Akaza maintains a unique moral code, abstaining from harming women. His pursuit of strength is rooted in his past life as a martial artist and his innate desire to safeguard his loved ones. He perceives his fellow Kizuki, particularly those with higher ranks, as competitors.

Provided by: Fandom

Who was responsible for Akaza's death in Demon Slayer?

In Demon Slayer, Akaza, also known as Upper Moon Three, ended his own life. Following a fierce fight with Tanjiro and Water Hashira Giyu Tomioka, he recovered his human memories. Stricken with guilt for his demonic deeds, Akaza chose suicide, seeking to join his loved ones in the afterlife.

Provided by: Fandom

What is the backstory of Akaza in Demon Slayer?

Akaza, a prominent antagonist in Demon Slayer, held the position of Upper Moon 3. As a human, he resorted to theft to procure medicine for his ailing father. He trained under Keizo and developed a romantic relationship with Koyuki. Following the murder of his loved ones, he exacted revenge on the culprits. His transformation into a demon occurred post these incidents. His pursuit of strength was rooted in his determination to safeguard and care for his family.

Provided by: Fandom

How did Akaza's encounter with Tanjiro Kamado impact him?

Akaza's encounter with Tanjiro Kamado led to a significant change. He acknowledged Tanjiro's growth and was confronted by his belief that the strong should protect the weak, which stirred his forgotten human memories, causing anger. Tanjiro, using a technique called 'transparent world', surpassed Akaza's speed and senses, and decapitated him. Despite this, Akaza resisted death, his thoughts on getting stronger, and his body continued to attack Tanjiro even after his head disintegrated.

Provided by: Fandom

Portrayals

He is voiced by Akira Ishida (who also voiced the Ant King from Solo Leveling, Fish Eye from Sailor Moon SuperS, Fyodor Dostoevsky from Bungo Stray Dogs, Zeref Dragneel in Fairy Tail, Gaara in the Naruto franchise, Gabriel Miller in Sword Art Online, Regulus Corneas in Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World, Hyoga in Dr. Stone, Ryuunosuke Uryuu in Fate/Zero, and Hideo Shimada in Parasyte) in Japanese and Lucien Dodge (who also voiced Toshikazu Hazamada in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, Mahito in Jujutsu Kaisen, Zoisite in Sailor Moon, Chin in Re:Zero, and Yukio Hans Vorarlberna in Bleach) in English.

In the Japanese live-action stage play, he was portrayed by Jin Aoki.

Appearance

As a demon, Akaza was a muscular young man with skin so fair that appears bright green-tinged white, decorated by a pattern of thick blue lines, which resemble the criminal tattoos he had as a human. 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 center 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 there also repeating around his waist.

On his arms there were lines 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 it could be seen that each of his fingers is also dark blue with an orange fingernail, his toes also sharing this unusual appearance.

Akaza had short, bright pink hair that fluffed out around his head, and inward-tilting yellow eyes with pink eyelashes and blue sclera that looked somewhat like cracked glass, the kanji for "Upper Rank Three" etched into his irises.

He wore little, only sporting a short, sleeveless dark purple-pink haori that was cut off at his waist, left open to expose his chest, that was 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 prefers to go barefoot but wears a chain of large round pearls around each of 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 pink eyelashes. He was also very muscular as a human, and, on each of his forearms, he bore three black criminal tattoos.

He wore a dark blue-gray yukata.

Personality

Akaza is a stubborn, harsh, short-fused and bloodthirsty fighter who desires to fight the strong, respects the strong and loathes the weak. His distain for the weak stems from when his teacher and fiancé were poisoned by a rival dojo who was unable to defeat Akaza in a fair fight when he was Hakuji and his obsessive pursuit of strength comes from his buried desire to help his loved ones but has been twisted by his demonic transformation.

He also shares ill feelings for his fellow kizuki and sees them as his own rivals, being especially hostile towards Kokushibo, the Upper Rank One, and Doma, the Upper Rank Two, who both held higher ranks than him. He shows a particularly strong interest in powerful opponents and will try to figure out their names as a form of respect towards them and their might. As a result, he remembered the names of every single opponent he fought in his life as a form of respect towards them.

In spite of his cruelty and wrath, Akaza had one special code even in his transformed state; he never devoured any women, in spite of the fact that eating females would have actually made him even stronger, and Muzan gave him special permission to do so. He also showed a serious self-loathing tendency, valuing others above the good of himself.

All of his personality was influenced by his past life and the remnants of his own humanity, showing how dark and miserable his traumatic experiences were, to the point of being forced to become a demon and joining Muzan.

Biography

Past

Before he became a Demon, Hakuji was born and raised by his father, who suffered from sickness. In order to pay for the medicine to cure his father, Hakuji pickpocketed the townspeople, three times, but sometimes got caught for his misdeeds. Beaten and given tattoos, they threatened to cut off his arms the next time he commits theft and was called a "Demon Child". Afterwards when Hakuji headed home after his third punishment from the town, a villager informed him about what happened to his father, having heard about his arrest and later hung himself. In a letter his father sent to him, he stated that all he wanted was for Hakuji to live a full life without worry and didn't need to take the medicine if it was earned by dishonesty and misdeeds.

With the loss of his father, his criminal tattoos, and no home to return to. Hakuji was banished from Edo for his Theft. Devastated by his father's death and enraged at society for how he lived and couldn't afford the medicine to cure his father, he ends up picking a fight with other people he encounters and later beats them up. However, one day later he beat up seven men and nearly killed them off in a village, until he was soon approached by the village's dojo owner, Keizo. Annoyed by the owner's cheerful demeanor, Hakuji challenges the owner to a duel, but during the fight, he was defeated easily.

After the Duel, Keizo takes him into his dojo, then introduces Hakuji to his daughter, Koyuki. Koyuki suffered from a sickness; her mother drowned herself due to the stress she had as Keizo had to work as a Handyman to keep things in balance. Keizo would later task Hakuji with taking care of her. But reminders of how he had a problem tending to his father, Hakuji had problems trying to tend Koyuki. He did, however, find this awkward at first but till Koyuki burst into tears, crying because of his sickness. But Hakuji would indirectly motivate her by telling her that "there's always next year to see the fireworks".

As three years have passed. Koyuki was finally in good health, now willing to do the chores and could stand again. Hakuji on the other hand, continued training as Keizo's pupil of the Soryu style at the dojo. One day afterward, Keizo offered Hakuji to take over the dojo and marry his daughter, Koyuki. Being embarrassed and surprised by this, Hakuji immediately agrees, now promising to protect both his master and his wife, even if the cost of it was his own life. At the festival, he would later tell Koyuki about his troubled past and his father's death; then she asked if he was alright with the proposal, which reaffirmed Hakuji's vow to protect her for the rest of his life.

However, this vow was short-lived. Hakuji then visits his father's grave and informed him of his marriage, but then he would quickly realizes something was amiss from his return. A student from the dojo informs Hakuji that their rivaling kenjustu dojo, which had sought to Keizo's land for themselves and had prevented him from getting any students, had poisoned the well. Keizo and Koyuki drank the water from it, and the two died shortly after, leaving Hakuji in despair, also causing his promise to protect them to be broken.

Enraged from the despair, Hakuji then immediately picks a fight with the rivaling kenjutsu dojo. He killed 67 members of the dojo with his own bare hands, pulverizing them one by one to the point where their corpses were unrecognizable. Because of this, it brought Muzan Kibutsuji's attention, but he would later feel disappointed that a human rather than a demon would commit such a gruesome act towards what Hakuji had done. Muzan then offers Hakuji to become a demon and a Member of the Twelve Kizuki, but as an Upper Rank. With nothing left to protect and having lost his will to continue living, Hakuji accepts Muzan's offer to become a demon under the name of Akaza.

After becoming a Demon, he lost all of his memories of when he was once a human, but now with only one desire: to become stronger, but despite never knowing why he wanted to become stronger in the first place. But as said by Doma, Akaza has refused to let himself harm or eat women or girls. Due to the strength he has now, Muzan would dispatch him on a special mission on finding the Spider Lily. And to this day, Akaza never remembered who he truly was.

Mugen Train

After the battle on the train ends with Enmu's defeat and the train derailed, Akaza arrives and tries to kill the injured Tanjiro, but is stopped by the Flame Hasira, Kyojuro Rengoku. Impressed by Kyojuro's strength, Akaza extends an offer to turn him into a demon to achieve eternal life and strength. Kyojuro rejects Akaza's offer and engages him in battle. Despite putting up an amazing fight, Akaza recovers from any damage he receives while Kyojuro takes on the damage. After a final clash of techniques, Kyojuo manages to slice almost all the way through Akaza's neck, but Akaza also manages to mortally impale Kyojuro through his solar plexus with his fist. Akaza, further impressed by Kyojuro's fighting spirits and strength, begs him to become a demon so he won't die. Kyojuro again refuses the offer and with his remaining strength, holds Akaza in place as the sun begins to rise. Akaza struggles to break free to escape the sun and Tanjiro and Inosuke attempt to help hold him down. However, Akaza escapes by ripping his arms off and creating a shockwave to repel the demon slayers before fleeing. Tanjiro frantically gives chase and hurls his Nichirin Blade at the Akaza, piercing his chest. Tanjiro condemns the flee Akaza calling him a coward for retreating and declaring that demons like him do not have the same strength as the demon slayer corps, enraging the Upper Moon.

Entertainment District Arc

After the battle with Kyojuro, Akaza reports to Muzan, who is currently living as a young boy in a pharmacy house, that while he has failed to find the Blue Spider Lily, he did defeat a Hashira. Muzan is displeased with Akaza's "accomplishment", declaring that one victory is meaningless until the entire demon slayer corps are destroyed and that Akaza failed to kill the other three Demon Slayers at the train. He punishes Akaza by making him bleed profoundly and dismisses him. Afterward, Akaza destroys the blade Tanjiro impaled him with and furiously vows to destroy Tanjiro for calling him a coward.

Eventually, after the Upper Six duo Daki and Gyutaro's deaths at the hands of the Demon Slayers, Akaza is summoned to the Infinity Castle with the rest of the Upper Ranks on Muzan's orders, as he gets into an argument with Doma. Kokushibo stops the two of them as Akaza venomously declares that he will surpass both of them, to which Kokushibo expressed his wishes.

Infinity Castle Arc

During the battle at the Infinity Castle, Akaza ambushes Tanjiro and Giyu. He immediately goes after Tanjiro, but the latter's drastic improvement allows him to hold his own against the upper moon. Akaza recognizes Tanjiro's growth and acknowledges it before reengaging Tanjiro and Giyu. Despite it being 2 on 1 Akaza overpowers the pair and explains his disgust for the weak, infuriating Tanjiro, who counters with his own beliefs that the strong should protect the weak. Tanjiro's words briefly remind Akaza of his forgotten memories as a human, angering him to point he attacks the memory of Keizo despite nothing being there. Akaza intensifies his attacks and using his powerful instincts to detect killing intent and perceive attacks, overpowers him. He grabs Tanjiro's sword and tries to break it, but is stopped by Giyu, who awakens his demon slayer mark. While Giyu holds Akaza back Tanjiro realizes from a previous conversation with Inosuke how Akaza is foreseeing all their attacks and how to eliminate his own killing intent using a technique called "transparent world" from a memory of his father. Despite utilizing his demon slayer mark, Giyu is still unable to defeat Akaza because of his battle sense. Akaza eventually breaks his sword and seemingly impales Giyu, but in actuality, Tanjiro cut off his hand with his new technique before he could kill Giyu.

Akaza then unleashes his strongest technique and overpowers Giyu and approaches him to kill him. However, Tanjiro gets behind Akaza without him noticing, but instead of killing him with a surprise attack, Tanjiro deliberately makes himself known and declares he shall decapitate him. Akaza tries to kill Tanjiro, believing his battle sense will give him the edge, but discovers Tanjiro's killing intent has vanished, making his sense useless. In that moment Tanjiro completely surpasses Akaza's speed and senses then decapitates him with the very technique he has been striving to achieve. However, Akaza refuses to submit and tries to resist death by putting his head back on, only for Giyu to knock it off by impaling it with his sword. As Akaza's head hits the ground and disintegrates, his thoughts focus solely on getting stronger and his body doesn't disintegrate and keeps attacking the weakened Tanjiro. Tanjiro passes out from overexertion and Giyu desperately tries to protect him. As Akaza tries to continue fighting, he is held back by the spirit of Koyuki.

Redemption

As Koyuki's spirit holds Akaza back, she asks him why he still seeks to becomes stronger. Akaza begins to remember his past and answers that if he isn't strong enough, he won't be able to steal the medicine his sick father needs. Akaza remembers his past as a thief trying to tend to his ailing father, becoming Keizo's student, falling in love with Koyuki, and ruthlessly murdering those responsible for his loved ones' murder with his bare hands before being turned into a demon. After remembering Akaza's consciousness returned to that of Hakuji, but his body begins to regenerate its head and attacks again. Unwilling to resume being a demon and acknowledging his defeat at Tanjiro's hands, Hakuji takes back control of his body and has it destroy itself.

Hakuji begins passing to the afterlife where he meets his father and Keizo, who forgive him for his crimes. Muzan's spirit appears and tries to return Hakuji to being Akaza, but Koyuki's spirit pulls out away from Muzan's influence for good and the two reunite as Akaza is sent to hell, finally reunited with his loved ones.

Power & Abilities

As the Upper Three of the Twelve Kizuki, Akaza is one of the most strongest and powerful demons in the entire series, being the fourth strongest demon, only surpassed by Doma, Kokushibo, and Muzan himself. He is so fiercely powerful that he was able to kill numerous Demon Slayers, including Hashira. He was even able to defeat the likes of the Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku. He was even able to go toe-to-toe with Tanjiro and Giyu during the Infinity Castle Battle, even when the two were using their Demon Slayer Marks. The only reason why he even lost was because of Tanjiro's Selfless State and Transparent World abilities, that allowed him to secure his victory against Akaza. Even as a human being, Akaza possessed inhumane strength as he was capable of knocking out grown fighters and even massacred 67 trained swordsman, a feat which highly impressed the demon king who believed it to be a work of a demon.

Trivia

• Akaza is the first Upper Moon to appear in the series and the first one that Tanjiro ever met.
• Although they are both demons, Akaza is seen in a more noble light compared to Doma. Akaza is portrayed as sympathetic and tragic, while Doma is almost as wicked as Muzan is and has no excuses for it outside of his inability to feel emotion. Akaza is also honorable and respectful, while Doma is not. Lastly, Akaza refuses to kill or eat women, while Doma specifically targets women as his main source of food. That probably also explains his personal hatred towards Doma, besides being surpassed by him.
• Akaza is the only Upper Moon to be a boss in the video game adaptation, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The Hinokami Chronicles, with his fight occurring after Enmu meets his demise.
• Muzan considered Akaza to be one of his favorite Upper Moons since he was loyal and serious.
• Akaza represents the sin of wrath. Akaza loves fighting strong opponents and goes on a never-ending desire to face and killing those whom he deems worthy. He also has a short-tempered fuse when it comes to both Doma and Kokushibo, as he is extremely spiteful that two of them are stronger than them, and even vows to kill Kokushibo. And lastly, he became a demon after violently massacring the rival dojo responsible for his loved ones' demise, losing the will to live.

External Links

• Akaza on the Kimetsu no Yaiba Wiki.

Navigation

Villains

Demons Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji Twelve Kizuki Original Upper Moons One: Kokushibo | Two: Doma | Three: Akaza | Four: Hantengu | Five: Gyokko | Six: Daki & Gyutaro Replacement Upper Moons Four: Nakime | Six: Kaigaku Lower Moons One: Enmu | Two: Rokuro | Three: Wakuraba | Four: Mukago | Five: Rui | Six: Kamanue Former Lower Moons One: Ubume | Two: Hairo | Six: Kyogai Lesser Demons Shizu Shinazugawa | Temple Demon | Kyogai’s Mansion Demons | Snake Demon | Susamaru and Yahaba | Hand Demon | Swamp Demon | Spider Family (Father Spider | Mother Spider | Brother Spider | Sister Spider) | Slasher | Woodland Demon Humans Tengen Uzui’s Father | Gyutaro and Daki's Mother | Kyogo Shinazugawa | Iguro Family | Doma's Parents | Kanao Tsuyuri's Parents | Inosuke Hashibira's Father and Grandmother