‘Demon Slayer’: Why Did Mitsuri’s Hair Become Pink?

Mitsuri Kanroji is a major supporting character in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. The current Love Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps she is one of its most skilled and powerful members. Mitsuri Kanroji played a large role in the manga, and with the Swordsmith Village Arc finally being adapted into an anime, we have finally gotten the chance to see more of her and her story in the anime as well. And while Mitsuri’s story might seem boring or monotonous due to her cheerful and flirty personality, there is a great story behind her current attitude and one filled with sadness and rejection. Mitsuri is truly special, and that is why she will be the focus of this article, in which you will find out when and why her hair became pink in the series.
Contrary to popular belief, Mitsuri Kanroji was not born with pink hair; her natural hair color is actually black. But, due to her special constitution, Mitsuri had to eat a lot, and because she liked sakuramochi a lot, she ate a lot of sakuramochi as a child. Due to the dish’s specific color, her hair turned pink after a while, which scared her potential fiances. She dyed her hair black again at one point, but when she realized that she wanted to be herself more than anything, she returned it to its usual color – pink.
This article will be the most informative guide on Mitsuri Kanroji you need about the question at hand. We will give you a full introduction to her backstory and some other related aspects of Mitsuri’s story, which are relevant to understanding what happened to her hair and how some biographical details influenced her visual appearance. You’ll get many answers related to Mitsuri Kanroji, as we plan to provide you with everything you need related to the question. We must warn you that the article will contain some spoilers, so be careful how you approach it.
Mitsuri’s hair wasn’t always pink – in fact, the color changed more than once
Mitsuri, one of five siblings born during the Meiji era, shocked even her strong mother when she demonstrated supernatural power at a young age. This was a result of her special muscle composition. When she was a child, she could lift very large boulders, as was shown in a manga flashback, but she also looked quite different than she does now (and we don’t just mean that she was an infant).
Namely, it is known that Japanese people have dark hair and don’t have naturally light hair. And while anime and manga don’t necessarily reflect reality as it is, Demon Slayer has consistently portrayed some aspects of reality and explained why some others aren’t as realistic as you might expect. Mitsuri Kanroji definitely isn’t the most realistic character in the series due to her pink hair, but the author provided us with a proper explanation.
Namely, as we’ve seen, Mitsuri Kanroji was born with black hair, her natural color. But fans will know that one of her major trademarks is her ability to eat superhuman amounts of food while retaining her slim figure. She usually says she just had a nibble when she’s finished eating while columns of empty plates pile up around her. She grew up eating far more than the norm, and one of these episodes actually led to a change in her hair color.
Namely, Mitsuri ate a lot, and as a child, she liked sakuramochi more than other dishes. The dish is actually pink in color, and since Mitsuri ate abnormal amounts of sakuramochi as a child, the natural color of her hair changed from black to pink, which was quite strange.
This change made her seem freakish and prevented her from getting married, as was anticipated of her at the age of seventeen. But, while we’ve seen Mitsuri with pink hair, and the hair color is a specific trademark for her, she hasn’t always had pink hair in the series, even if we disregard her childhood.
Namely, after being brutally rejected by a potential fiance, who said that her hair color (pink) disgusted him and that the mere thought of her passing it down to their children disgusted him, Mitsuri, in order to conform, decided to change so she, among other things, decided to dye her hair black, i.e., to revert it back to its natural color.
And while she seemingly did find a potential suitor who would marry her like that, who would marry a changed Mitsuri, she started questioning whether posing as someone else would ultimately benefit her. And she was right to do so, as being someone other than herself would absolutely not benefit Mitsuri in any way. And that is the story of Mitsuri’s hair color in Demon Slayer. After that moment, she reverted her hair back to pink and kept it until the very end.