A stoic Water Hashira, Giyu Tomioka, is a multifaceted character due to the intense survivor guilt and an inferiority complex caused by the loss of his sister, who makes him withdrawn, detached, but also incredibly protective; he starts to think that he is not worthy of his position but ends up accepting his task, becoming a good swordsman, and displaying a lot of compassion when he spares Nezuko, which gets the process of Tanjiro moving. He is going through the process of overcoming doubt in himself, creating his own Eleventh Form Dead Calm, and understanding how to appreciate his life, and finally to play the most important part in saving the mankind and Tanjiro.
Appearance
Giyu is a relatively tall young man of a lean muscular build with pale complexion and usually has a stoic look on his face. He has choppy raven black hair of uneven lengths with length in his jaw pausing side-bangs and a low messy pony tail at the base of his neck with bangs falling over his eyes of choppy fringe. His eyes are sharp and moderately large and have irises a lapis blue color that loses into a lighter shade of blue color on the lower of the irises and their pupils are navy blue, sometimes his completely irises empty, just in lapis blue color, and are framed by thin eyebrows.
Personality
Giyu is a strong equanimity man, he always wears a cool and stern expression on his face. Having a stoic personality, and possessing a very strong sense of justice and responsibility, he had no tolerance towards those who don’t know their own limitations and throw away their lives. Despite letting Nezuko Kamado live as a result of Tanjiro Kamado’s determination, he shows zero hesitation when killing other demons and have zero respect and mercy towards them like most Demon Slayers. Even so, Giyu went against the Demon Slayer Corps code of conduct without a second thought to save Nezuko during Shinobu’s attempt to kill her. This implies that he doesn’t completely despise demons as some of the other Hashira do and is willing to make an exception for a demon by letting them live if they don’t kill and eat humans. This shows that he is more pragmatic and impartial in dealing with demons rather the lack of his hatred clouding his judgement. Due to his aloof personality, Giyu is not close with his fellow Hashira. While some are on even terms with him but emotionally remote, others look at him with apathy, or even with disdain. Sanemi Shinazugawa and Obanai Iguro were especially contemptuous of the Water Hashira because they misread, with an unwarranted basis, his aloofness as arrogance. Giyu also expressed surprise when Shinobu Kocho stated the fact that he is hated by the others; despite that, he is still on good terms with her, with both of them sharing a great deal of history together. In the end, after dealing Muzan Kibutsuji, he ended up developing a closer friendship with Tengen Uzui and Sanemi, his former rival.
Abilities
As a Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps, Giyu is a very powerful and skilled combatant. From the beginning, Giyu demonstrated how much he surpassed and outmaneuvered Tanjiro and his friends, being able to take Nezuko from him with ease, and later knock both of them unconscious with one blow. Later, he was able to easily prevail over Father in his transformed state and Rui, Lower Rank Five; something Tanjiro and Inosuke respectively were unable to achieve. He also fought equally against fellow Hashira Sanemi Shinazugawa in a sparring match. Giyu was also portrayed as easily beating out dozens of demons that were equalled to that of the Lower Ranks of the Twelve Kizuki. On top of his incredible skills as a Demon Slayer, Giyu is also a really good teammate as well, as he can understand their intentions and work in tandem with it.
Indomitable Will: Giyu has an unyielding will and indomitable will, never giving up taking many injuries against Akaza, which is considered as one of the strongest Demons who exist and later on as the Demon King, Muzan. Even when losing his arm he had not given up and still managed to play an important role in the defeat of Muzan. When Tanjiro became a demon, Giyu was the first to act in order to protect the survivors, and enough to make it seem that Tanjiro was impervious to any method of death, he was hard-pressed, but Giyu was not out of sorts and fought.
Tactical Intellect: Giyu has an exceptional tactical intellect and keen eye for observation, he is always able to stay calm, composed and focused on analyzing the situation for which he might react accordingly. The first time he fought against Tanjiro he was able to instantly comprehend Tanjiro’s strategy with his concealed hatchet throw. He has also shown keen critical thought and accurate tactical analysis in the middle of battle action, absolutely determining and noting the details of by his keen observation. In his clash with Akaza, Giyu was able to keep pace during the high speed battle, all while in pre critical note of the accuracy of his techniques as well as his instantaneous adaptation. In addition with his sharp perceptive skills in battle, Giyu also displays good survival skills, after fighting Akaza and bleeding profusely from his sustained wounds, Giyu lit a fire and heated his sword up to cauterize his wounds. In his confrontation with Muzan, when Tanjiro tried to go head on out of anger, Giyu advised (the strategy) of stalling the demon instead until allies arrived.
Immense Stamina & Endurance: Thanks to very brutal trainings, Giyu has achieved his own stamina and endurance enormously. In his fight against Akaza, he was able to persist despite receiving many dozens of wounds all over his body, seriously weakening him, a feat which helped to pleasantly surprise Akaza. Additionally, he was seen cautering his wounds by heating up his blade with a fire. During the final battle against the Demon King, Giyu managed to fight Muzan despite suffering the effects of his poisonous blood at first, and continued to play an integral role in his defeat after his arm was cut off by helping Tanjiro turn his blade a bright red. Even after the entire ordeal, by the time Tanjiro was transformed into a demon, Giyu had still enough left in him to fight him off for a brief period of time.
