Shinobu Kocho: Insect Pillar - Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)
Shinobu Kocho (胡蝶しのぶ Kocho Shinobu) is the Insect Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps in the Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) series. She also uses the Breath of the Insect (蟲の呼吸 Mushi no Kokyu) which originated from the Breath of Flowers (花の呼吸 Hana no Kokyu) which came from the Breath of Water (水の呼吸 Mizu no kokyu). She is a petite girl with hazy purple eyes that are similar to bugs. She has shoulder length hair that fades from black to a dark purple. Her hair is usually tied up with a butterfly ornament. She wears the standard Demon Slayer uniform with a butterfly wing pattern haori coloured white and fades to green then pink which she inherited from her sister, she wears a similar patterned leg wrap.
“If we could all get along together everything would be great. No matter if it’s humans or demons.”
—Shinobu to Tomioka, Demon Slayer Chapter 28
Profile
- Age: 18 years
- Height: 151cm
- Weight: 37kg
- Birthdate: February 24
- Manga Debut: Chapter 4 (Partial) Chapter 28 (Full)
- Anime Debut: Episode 15
- Japanese Voice Actor: Saori Hayami
- Status: Deceased
History
Shinobu and her older sister Kanae were from a wealthy family who worked in compounding medicine but their life was ruined when a Demon attacked their home killing their parents. The sisters swore to join the Demon Slayer Corps to stop innocent people from experiencing the same. When Kanae gets killed by the Upper Moon Two, Doma Shinobu starts to adopt her sister's personality trying to fulfill her dream of finding harmony between Demons and humans despite the rage she has over the death of her sister.
Personality
Shinobu always has a pleasant expression on her face and is first thought to be laid back and friendly, wanting to establish some peace between humans and Demons. It is later revealed that she hates Demons with a burning passion after a Demons killed her parents and her older sister. She enjoys teasing people and can be a bit sadistic, she knows how to make people tick and how to make them move the way she wants them to. When she was younger she was shown to be more straightforward and quick to anger but after Kanae’s death, Shinobu started to behave like her sister. She also has an inferiority complex since she isn’t as tall as strong as the others Pillars.
Skills and Abilities
- Master Swordsman: Being a Pillar of the Demon Slayer Corps, Shinobu is one of the most powerful and skilled swordsmen in the entire organization.
- Medical Expertise: Despite not being as combat oriented as the rest of the Pillars, Shinobu instead displays immense skill and mastery over medical and pharmaceutical fields to make up for her lack of natural born combat talent. She is highly knowledgeable about how to create various poisons and venoms using wisteria flowers, as well as the medical skills needed to counteract the venoms and poisons created by demons.
- Immense Speed: Shinobu has displayed almost superhuman levels of speed. Doma stated she might have been the fastest Pillar he has ever met.
- Enhanced Strength: Although possessing the weakest swing strength due to her small arms, Shinobu instead has a powerful thrust and stab strength. A single thrust from her sword could easily pierce a stone boulder in half.
- Unique weapon: Shinobu used a heavily modified katana, the handle to slightly above the hilt is the same but above that, the blade is replaced with a thin rod and ends in a needle like tip, similar to an insect's stinger in appearance and function. The ‘stinger’ is designed to inject wisteria poisons into demons. She has also modified the weapon's sheath, using it as a portable poison mixer and loader.
- Poisonous Body: In order to defeat Upper Moon Two, Doma who killed her sister, Shinobu heavily transformed her body by absorbing and altering her body's physiology with highly concentrated wisteria based poison. With the assistance of the Demon doctor, Tamayo, Shinobu is successful in saturating her body with undetectable poison that has completely merged with her body's own cell structures, including those of her blood and internal organs, all the way down to the very tips of her fingernails. Her body is the equivalent of 37 kilograms worth of poison, approximately 70 times more than the lethal amount needed to kill an average demon. The poison being strong enough to melt Doma, down to his bones.
Total Concentration Breathing: Breath of the Insect
- Dance of the Butterflies: Frolic (蝶ノ舞 戯れ Cho no Mai: Tawamure): Shinobu jumps towards the opponent and stings them multiple times with her blade to inject her poison.
- Dance of the Bee Sting: Mere Fluttering (蜂牙ノ舞 真靡き Hoga no Mai: Manabiki): Shinobu dashes at her target with an incredible speed and uses the momentum of her speed to then strengthen her single thrust into her opponent to inject lethal poison into them.
- Dance of the Dragonfly: Compound Eye Hexagon (蜻蛉ノ舞 複眼六角 Seirei no Mai: Fukugan Rokkaku): A six strike attack where Shinobu aims to strike and inject her target with multiple doses of poison at the demon's weak spots; neck, heart, torso, etc.
- Dance of the Centipede: Hundred Legged Zigzag (蜈蚣ノ舞 百足蛇腹 Goko no Mai: Hyakusoku Jabara): An attack where Shinobu used her full speed to run a zigzag pattern to confuse her opponents in order to create an opening for her to directly stab her opponents neck and inject poison into their neck and kill them, with the stab's force and power being further enhanced by the momentum of her speed.