Jacket - Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer)
Kimetsu no Yaiba, also known by its English name Demon Slayer, is a manga written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotōge that was first to be serialized on February 15, 2016 in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine published by Shūeisha. After its anime adaptation, it became a great success worldwide and one of the most popular series of 2019.
Due to the huge success that this series experimented, a large and diverse amount of merchandise has been released. From anime clothing to accessories, cosplay, to figures and other gifts!
An aspect that became very popular among Demon Slayer’s fans was the costumes of the characters, especially the kimonos and jackets that the main and secondary characters are wearing on the series. Unlike some shonen anime, the character’s clothes of Demon Slayer keep a very strong connection to actual Japanese history, and it contains multiple references with the period where the series is developed and the traditional Japanese art.
Background Setting
Taisho is the shortest era in the history of Japan. It developed after the Meiji period, one of the most importants in terms of openness, importation and cultural assimilation the country has ever had. Taisho was comprised of 14 short years in which Japan opened to the West countries and quickly adapted their customs, architecture, transport and clothing to their Western counterparts. Therefore, since the change from hermeticism to full opening was so rapid, in this period, traditional Japanese customs and clothing coexisted with those that came from abroad, and can be seen throughout the entire series.
Heirs of the economic crisis, the lower-middle class Japanese experienced liberal movements, the creation of trade unions, the search for the rights of the workers and the peasant class, as well as the first steps were taken towards the creation of the current Diet. Also, they suffered World War I. Although Demon Slayer is not a historical anime, there are various several details in the clothes, architecture and the elements that surround the characters that can show the context in which the story occurs.
Besides, Taisho period took place much later than the moment of splendor of the Ukiyo-e engravings of the Edo period, but the use of blue, white foam and splashes that are so characterized of the fighting technique of Tanjiro Kamado, the main character of Demon Slayer, could be a reference to this art that would complement the large amount of references to the Japanese art and folklore.
Demon Slayer Costumes
Aside from the remarkable graphic designs, its story and its great action, another aspect that is also very popular among Demon Slayer fans is the mixed-image fashion that is represented in the image of Tanjiro. Before successfully entering the Demon Slayer Corps, he is known for wearing a green-black plaid print haori jacket. However, these are not the only clothes that Tanjiro wears, since he also replaces this haori jacket with a white-grey kimono and a flow-blue and white-cloud kimono during the Demon Slayer exam. Once he passes the exam and becomes an official Demon Slayer, he and his colleagues wear a uniform which is similar to the school uniforms that Japanese students wear at school. However, the origins of this uniform does not come from school, but from the military.
What Tanjiro seems to wear is a kind of clothes similar to a gakuran, that is, a type of male clothing school that was created during the Meiji period, and which is still commonly used nowadays among Japanese students. The word “gakuran” comes from the kanji “gaku”(学) that refers to the Japanese schools or students, and “ran” (蘭), which would be a shortened Japanese pronunciation for Holland (the Netherlands), since they were almost the only outside-world foreigners that traded products with Japan until the country opened to the rest of foreign countries. Also, “ran” also refers to the Occidental West in general.
Thus, while the interest of Western features from the Japanese society during the Meiji period were more limited to the upper class, during the Taisho period this trendy became more generalized and also many middle class citizens followed the Western style in various ways, including fashion.
However, even though it can also be seen Tanjiro wearing the Demon Slayer gakuran, some people took more time to change their habits and costumes into the Western one. In the case of Demon Slayer, Tanjiro comes from a small village in the mountains where the contact with the Western world is not that big. Therefore Tanjiro keeps wearing throughout the series (except when wearing his Demon Slayer Corps’ uniform) a very traditional Japanese style. In fact, the black green checkered kaori he wears over his gakuran would represent a visual reminder of his strong connection to his late and cursed family.
Demon Slayer’s jacket
The huge popularity of the Demon Slayer series and the great Japanese-style costumes of the main characters favored the commercialization of jackets with the same design and colors of the one that usually wears Tanjiro.
In some specialized online shops jackets and sweatshirts are sold with the black and green plaid print designs popularized by the main character of the series, Tanjiro.
For example there is a 3D printed hoodie jacket that is unisex, which means that both men and women can wear them. It is a casual long sleeve hooded jacket with zipper and a general thickness. Its material is a combination of polyester and cotton and the fabric name is Health Cloth. It can be worn with sports and leisure clothes and the available sizes are from S to 5XL.
Another example is a me zipper hoodie cosplay costume jacket with very similar features and design as the 3D printed hoodie jacket. It is also a 3D digital print hoodie that features drawstring hood, long sleeves and front kangaroo pocket. Its material is polyester and the sizes also include from S to 5XL.