Celebrate Tanabata Festival with the Characters of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba!

Nationwide Culture Anime

2020.07.10

Every summer, people around Japan make wishes on Tanabata, and this year that includes Tanjiro, Zenitsu, Inosuke, and Nezuko (in her own oni way)!

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is an anime deeply rooted in Japanese culture, frequently referencing the specific Japanese time period (the Taisho era!), deeply exploring the traditional Japanese mythology of oni (鬼) demons, and all dressed up in the imagery of colorful kimono and haori (羽織) jackets. So it should come as no surprise that, while Demon Slayer's studio Ufotable is hard at work producing the upcoming Demon Slayer movie, illustrators took a break to create this little Demon Slayer celebration of the Japanese festival Tanabata (七夕). We've explained the origins and legends of Tanabata before (along with some great Tanabata festivals to attend when you visit Japan!), but most residents of Japan keep their celebrations simple by just writing down a Tanabata wish called a tanzaku (短冊) and tying it to a stalk of bamboo. So of course Tanjiro, Nezuko, Inosuke, Zenitsu, and Flame Hashira Rengoku had to add their own wishes for 2020!

Image Source: Demon Slayer Website

Plus, 31 members of the Demon Slayer voice acting cast added their own wishes, too!

Image Source: Demon Slayer Website

Left to Right: Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu, Inosuke, Flame Hashira Rengoku

Of course the five Demon Slayers wrote themselves some very appropriate wishes this Tanabata!

The always kind, thoughtful, and loving Tanjiro wishes quite simply "for everyone to be happy."

Nezuko, a demon fighting hard to maintain her humanity, but stuck silenced with a piece of bamboo, ties on a hair ribbon to communicate her feelings in place of a written note!

Girl-crazy Zenitsu adds a wish he already repeats often enough, writing that he hopes "to get married!!!!"

After growing up in the woods, we already know that Inosuke can't read or write. But he's surprisingly adept at illustration―his wish is still pretty clear: shrimp tempura. (We get it, Inosuke. Us too.)

Finally, there's Rengoku, only introduced in the most recent episodes of the Demon Slayer anime, meaning most of us fans are excited to find out just what kind of character he really is. His slip of paper reads "日々精進" (hibi shojin) which means "working harder every day!" If nothing else, it sounds like he's ready to get to work!

Image Source: Demon Slayer Website

Some of the anime's seiyu (声優, voice actors) had pretty good Tanabata wishes too. Natsuki Hanae (Tanjiro) hopes to "find his lost keys." Nezuko's seiyu Akari Kito's tanzaku says "lots of sleep." Takumi Yamazaki, who delivers messages to the show's main characters as the Kasugai Crows, took it upon himself to (possibly?) stay in character. What looks like a mysterious black spot on the paper, next to a pair of little bird footprints, turns out to be a hole in the paper, with a little note saying he poked through the page. The shape of the hole does look suspiciously like a bird beak... On the other hand, the seiyu who does the voice for the "black-haired guide" we see at the Demon Slayer Corps headquarters, Aoi Yuki, wishes for her English skills to improve. And one last tanzaku written by Ayumi Mano, who does the voice of Sumi (one of the little girls who lives with Hashira Shinobu), has a wish that is all too relatable these days, while we still deal with the COVID-19 outbreak: "I want to eat good food together with everybody!"

What is your Tanabata wish for 2020? The Japankuru team wants to know! Chat with us on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and check out the rest of the anime cast's Tanabata wishes on the official Demon Slayer website!