Demon Slayer is a fantastic shonen anime that may have plenty of dark moments, like Daki and Gyutaro's flashback and Kyojuro Rengoku's death, but it also has charming, cartoonish elements, like "smol" Nezuko and even talking animals. Demon Slayer's kasugai ravens are the best example, being enhanced messenger hawks that talk directly to their demon-slaying partners.
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Protagonist Tanjiro Kamado gets on well with his kasugai raven, and Mitsuri Kanroji is good friends with his, but Inosuke Hashibira is totally different. His raven is rarely seen, and some Demon Slayer fans fear it's already dead. Fans can't wait to find out the fate of Inosuke's raven and what it means for both characters - and the story as a whole.
Does Inosuke have a raven?
According to Demon Slayer plush lore, Inosuke was given a kasugai raven after joining the Demon Slayer corps, just like all the other Demon Slayers. Inosuke's raven is called Dongurimaru, who is said to be a highly intelligent creature, unlike Inosuke, but Dongurimaru is almost never around to prove it. Amusingly, Inosuke has tried to kill and eat Donguimaru on several occasions, and the terrified avian now avoids Inosuke and is rarely seen. This means that Inosuke almost never receives direct orders from his superiors, so Inosuke relies on Tanjiro's raven, Matsuemon Tennoji, for updates on where the demons can be found.
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For the sake of variety, most of the kasugai ravens in Demon Slayer have different personalities and even different appearances, such as Tenten Uzui's garishly decorated Nijimaru raven or Mitsuri Kanroji's shy but gentle Urara raven. These ravens also have varying relationships with their demon-killing partners, Muichiro Tokito's Ginko raven being very proud of his haze owner Hashira and Isuzu worrying about his owner, the silent dandere Kanao Tsuyuri... For the sake of comedy and to showcase Inosuke's wild nature, Dongurimaru is afraid that Inosuke is about to eat him, so the two obviously don't get along and don't trust each other. It's ironic too, because Inosuke is a survival expert and understands animals, but he can't even convince a talking crow to trust him or work with him.
How Demon Slayer's ravens compare to other Shonen animal messengers
A variety of shonen anime series depict the main characters using talking animals to convey messages in place of technology such as radios, cell phones or pagers, Demon Slayer being just one example. The animal messenger trend is also seen in Bleach , for example, with Soul Reapers sometimes using black Hell Butterflies to convey messages. Given the number of similarities between Demon Slayer and the old Bleach franchise, it's possible that Hell Butterflies even inspired the kasugai crows.
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Meanwhile, One Piece characters regularly use transponder snails - large, docile mollusks that have telephone receivers on their shells. These snails are psychic and can be used to talk to anyone in the world who has their own snail to receive the call, and transponder snails can even visually mimic their owners to some extent. However, these snails have no names or personalities, any more than Bleach's Hell Butterflies.
This makes Demon Slayer's kasugai ravens a charming evolution of the messenger animal idea, mainly for fluff and entertainment purposes. Kasugai ravens have distinct personalities and unique relationships with their owners, which often reflects not only on the ravens themselves, but also on the Demon Slayers they're assigned to. Tanjiro, being a pleasant and cooperative person, is often hassled by his raven to hurry off to the next mission. A nice guy like Tanjiro simply can't bring himself to argue or challenge his crow.
By contrast, Tengen Uzui and his raven are two peas in a pod, both proud, confident, flashy creatures who set an example for everyone else. But above all, Inosuke's fear of Dongurimaru proves that Inosuke really is an instinctive individual who holds nothing sacred and will impulsively do what he feels like, even if it means breaking the rules. If Inosuke's official messenger crow is just another meal to be devoured in Inosuke's eyes, we don't know what this wild demon slayer will do next - but Donguimaru certainly won't be involved.
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