The Hashira are an elite group of fighters that are exceptionally skilled in killing demonsthat plague the people of Taisho-era Japan. They sustain the demon hunters.Demon Slayerintroduced the group to us in season 1, and has been slowly establishing each member with every adventure alongside Tanjiro, Nezuko, Zenitsu and Inosuke.
One of the Hashira is Obanai Iguro, the Snake Hashira. He hasn’t been showcased much in the anime, but we have seen him during the Hashira’s meeting in season 1 and briefly at the end of season 2. Despite his minimal screen time, Iguro’s appearance is quite memorable.
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Heterochromia
Iguro was born with two different-colored eyes. His right eye appears more gold while his left eye is emerald green. Iguro mentions that his right eye was always weaker than the left and that he could hardly see through it. Hisunique set of eyesare definitely one of Iguro’s trademark physical characteristics.
Masked face
The reasoning behing Iguro’smasked mouthgoes back to his family’s dark history. He was born into a clan that he describes as “shameless, avaricious, ostentacious and ugly”. His family gave birth to girls for 370 years, that is until Iguro was born. As a boy, they locked him away in a cell. During his confinement, his mother, sisters and aunts doted over him incessantly by serving him plates of rich food and adorning him in fine clothes with great glee. The excessive opulence in his little cell was nauseating for Iguro, describing the fat from the food as “suffocating'. When he slept at night, he would hear the slithering of a huge creature that was crawling around his cell. In the middle of the night, he would feel someone staring at him, petrifying him in fear to the point where sleeping was difficult.
When he was 12 years old, the women in his family dragged him from his cell to a luxurious room filled with gaudy decor. Kneeling with two women of his clan, he observed them bowing to something in front of them. Sitting upon a grand pedestal, in a manner akin to how statues of deities are enshrined in places of worship, was a demon, with the lowerbody of a snakeand the upper body of a woman. Although, she appears more snake-like than human. It was she who was watching young Iguro sleep at night and was heard crawling about. She spoke to the humans, saying she should wait until he is bigger. Iguro knew exactly what that meant.
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His family had been living off the riches of the demon’s victims. In exchange for allowing this, Iguro’s clan would offer their newborn babies as sacrifices for her to devour, as they were her favorite meal. Since Iguro was the first boy in the clan in over 300 years and possessed interesting eyes, she grew fond of him as such a rarity. She wanted to wait until he was a more satiating size before devouring him.
She ordered the clan’s women to forcefully cut his mouth to appear more similar to her ownreptilian maw. Iguro’s blood overflowed into a chalice, which the demon drank. His mouth was then bandaged, most likely to stop the bleeding and begin the healing process.
Kaburamaru
After his mouth was cut, Iguro decided that he absolutely had to escape and survive. He managed to steal a hairclip and used it to gradually scratch the lattice of his cell. Everyday he grew terrified at being discovered trying to escape. The only person he could trust was a snake that slithered into his cell, a small white serpent named Kaburamaru.
Eventually, Iguro managed to escape, with Kaburamaru coiled around his neck. The demon noticed and chased after him. He was nearly caught and killed untilShinjuro Rengoku, the Flame Hashiraat the time, slayed the demon and saved his life. His cousin was also saved by Rengoku. It transpired that in a rage, the demon killed all 50 members of Iguro’s family, save for Iguro and his cousin. She rejected him in grief and sadness, accusing him of being the cause of their deaths. To her, if the demon just ate him as planned, everyone would be alive. Despite knowing the fate that may befall his clan if he escaped, Iguro just wanted to live. He knew no matter what, he would always belong to that “ugly” bloodline, so he channeled his rage into fighting demons and ultimately becoming aHashira.
Through all of this beration and chaos, Kaburamaru did not leave Iguro’s side. In every frame of the manga that followed these tragic events, Kaburamaru is always seen wrapped around Iguro’s shoulders. We see the snake inseasons 1 and 2 ofDemon Slayer, still resting on Iguro’s shoulders wherever he goes. The two have been through hell and back together, and therefore have naturally become inseparable.
Kaburamaru is not just a neckpiece for Iguro. In the battle against Muzan in Chapter 194 of the manga, Iguro saves Tanjiro from an attack byMuzan. In the process, the top half of his face gets slashed over his eyes. This does not stop Iguro from fighting, as Kaburamaru plays an imperative role here. Iguro still manages to attack because Kaburamaru is communicating the fight to him. Kaburamaru is able too read Muzan’s attacks, which allows Iguro to fight back accordingly despite being so heavily injured.
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