Demon Slayer: Is Insokue Gay, Bi or Straight?

Inosuke Hashibira is one of the protagonists of Demon Slayer and one of the series’ most popular characters, without a doubt. This quirky character, best known for being shirtless most of the time and wearing a boar mask, is a true fan favorite because he is original and authentic and always consistent with himself. But, due to his specific personality, people often wonder about his sexual orientation, so we have decided to compose this article for you. In it, you will find out whether Inosuke Hashibara is gay, bisexual, or straight in the story of the Demon Slayer manga and anime.

Inosuke Hashibira is heterosexual (straight) in Demon Slayer. He did, like the two other protagonists, crossdress during the Entertainment District Arc, but that was solely for the sake of a mission. In the epilogue, it is discovered that he married Aoi and that the two of them had a descendant named Aoba, who becomes a botanist and much later discovers the blue spider lilies that Muzan had searched for but soon after, they wither and die.

In the rest of this article, we will tell you what you need to know about Inosuke Hashibara and his romantic life, specifically his sexual orientation. We now know that he did get married to Aoi Kanzaki, which was a very interesting coupling if you ask us, which proves that he is heterosexual, so we are just going to bring you some additional details about it. If you’re not fully up to date with Demon Slayer, there might be some spoilers ahead.

Inosuke Hashibara is a character who seemingly couldn’t be imagined in a romantic context

Out of all the Demon Slayer characters, Inosuke is the quirkiest one, and… well, we didn’t really expect to be writing about him and his personal life so often, but this is not the first time we’re writing about this topic. Inosuke is simply not that type of character, and we never actually thought that romance would be a relevant factor in his story (there are such characters in anime who are simply so odd that you don’t picture them in any romantic context).

But, as it turns out, the much controversial ending of Demon Slayer actually saw Inosuke Hashibira end up with someone. With that, his sexual orientation was confirmed, but more on that later. Before we actually explain this story, let us quickly see why Inosuke’s personality was such that we never thought romance would be a relevant factor in his story.

Inosuke was extremely temperamental, impulsive, short-tempered, and full of inordinate pride. His pride was such that he was even willing to fight opponents who were technically stronger than him. He was not the kind of person who would stop to think about the level difference between him and his opponent, which often put him in serious danger of dying.

Despite this, Inosuke deep down seemed to have an insecurity that he hid with his arrogant attitude for not knowing how to adapt to those around him and because of his fear of being rejected for being different. His low self-esteem is revealed after his defeat against one of the Spider Demons and later humiliation by the Water Hashira Giyū Tomioka, even apologizing to his teammates for his weakness. Because he grew up alone in the mountains, Inosuke had many problems when interacting with others and only took records of himself most of the time.

Similar to Tanjirō, Inosuke lacked common sense and was easily amazed by things and places he had never seen before. When they were about to go to the train where the Flame Hashira, Kyōjurō Rengoku, was, Inosuke was put on guard and assumed that the train was the “boss” of that place and was prepared to fight against it, being stopped and suppressed by Zen’itsu.

Over the course of the series, Inosuke became more centered and focused on his missions as a Demon Slayer, as demonstrated during the mission in the Entertainment District when he infiltrated as a courtesan and quietly investigated the possibility of a demon’s presence there.

The manga confirmed that Inosuke is straight

Now that we’ve explained everything you need to know about Inosuke’s personality, you’ve probably realized why we never pictured Inosuke in any such discussion. He was a brash character, someone focused on fighting and nothing else, and we never really shipped him with anyone properly because it seemed like he would remain like this forever. He just seemed like that type of character, and that is why we were initially unable to determine his sexual orientation.

From the beginning, Inosuke shows that he fancied girls, as he would admire their beauty and get confused in front of a beautiful girl; he did not simp like Zen’itsu, but it was clear that he was mesmerized by their beauty. On the other hand, during the Entertainment District Arc, he dressed up as a geisha. He was the most authentic one, even more than Zenitsu (who was a lost cause) and Tanjirō, which prompted talk that he could be bisexual, especially because he had become quite close to Tanjirō later n the story. But, all these conversations and theories were put to rest after the battle against Muzan, when Inosuke’s sexual orientation was definitely confirmed.

As we’ve said, we thought that Inosuke would definitely end up as the series’ enfant terrible, but that did not happen as he ended up with, as we have said, Aoi Kanzaki. Sadly, there isn’t much of a story to tell here, as the relationship never developed properly in the pages of Demon Slayer. It kind of just happened.

Sure, Inosuke met Aoi in the Butterfly Mansion, and she did care for him, but she did the same to Zenitsu and Tanjiro, and it did not seem like Inosuke liked her all that much. But, fast forward a bit, and one meal later, Inosuke falls in love with Aoi. The next moment, Inosuke is back in the field, and when he returns, we find out that he eventually marries Aoi and that they have a happy marriage and a family that extends to the current day. Cool, right?

Well, it is, in a way, but we cannot really give Gotoge points for developing this properly. Inosuke and Aoi ending up together seem more like an ex-Machina solution that had Inosuke ending up with someone so that he wouldn’t end up alone. It didn’t make much sense, although we are actually happy that it happened. Happy for him, that is because he certainly deserved it because of his overall evolution.

But it did not have to be Aoi, really… Gotoge seems to have paired these two up because they did not have anyone else, so he just combined them. Be that as it may, Inosuke Hashibira ended up together with Aoi Kanzaki, and the two of them did marry, which is one of the prettier Demon Slayer tales. However, it wasn’t all that credible or based on any actual in-manga interaction between the two characters.