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Demon Slayer or Kimetsu No Yaiba is one of the most popular anime in recent years. Because the main characters often wear beautiful traditional Japanese clothing like kimonos, a lot of cosplayers have done, or are planning, a Demon Slayer costume.
My favorite one is Nezuko. For those who don’t really follow the anime, or are bad with names like I am, Nezuko is the younger sister of the main character Tanjiro Kamado. She is the girl who turned into a demon.
This is going to be a Nezuko Cosplay Costume Outfit and Ideas guide for both beginners and intermediary cosplayers. I am not just going to talk about what to wear, but how to act to be a convincing Nezuko.
Understanding Nezuko from Demon Slayer
Nezuko’s background
Tanjiro Kamdo and Nezuko Kamado are brother and sister. One day, when Tanjiro was not at home and spent the night somewhere else after a trip, his family was attacked by a demon named Muzan Kibutsuji. The demon murdered his entire family.
When Tanjiro came back home, all his siblings and mother were murdered. Nezuko, however, survived and was turned into a demon. Due to the love for her brother and his care and help, she managed to retain a lot of her former personality and is not a demon that has the urge or has a need to attack and kill humans. She fights demons and enemies and travels the world looking for revenge on the demon who murdered her family, together with her brother.
Nezuko’s personality
When Nezuko was still human, she was a loving person who put her family first. She was caring and always thought about helping others. Despite being one of the most beautiful girls in the village, she was rather shy and preferred to keep a low profile.
Normally, becoming a demon means losing most memories of your former life and have primal urges for violence and murder consume them. However, Nezuko has retained a lot of her personality. She is still very caring and kind, especially towards her brother and people who she learns to trust.
Nezuko is a very weird demon due to the fact that she has retained a bit of her humanity. She does not drink blood or eat human flesh. If you wrong her, or the people she loves, she does reveal her dangerous demon side and will without any hesitation attack or kill her enemies.
Despite being a demon, she still has feelings of fear and guilt. Due to her retaining her shy personality – and the fact she has a bamboo gag in her mouth – Nezuko never talks, and thus communicates with her emotions and body language.
What you need to wear for a great Nezuko cosplay costume
If you have seen the anime or read the manga, you will see that Nezuko often changes appearance and outfits. So, I will discuss the outfit she wears the most and is well known for. This is the Nezuko cosplay costume that is the easiest to recognize.
Nezuko Kamado Costume:
You can buy a Nezuko Kamado Costume online for a pretty decent price. They are high quality and tailor-made for doing a great Nezuko cosplay. If you do not want to buy a costume, you can also buy a pink Kimono and add some details yourself. Making a Kimono or Nezuko costume from scratch yourself is going to be very hard and almost impossible unless you have a lot of experience in sewing.
Wig with long black hair:
If you like to cosplay and do a lot of anime cosplay, I would strongly recommend you buy a quality wig with black hair. A lot of Japanese characters in anime have black hair. So investing in a great wig will make sure you can broaden your range of cosplay costumes and will save you money in the long run if you cosplay a lot. This is due to the fact that cheap wigs either don’t last long or are not suited for hair dye. A high-quality wig can be dyed.
Orange hair Dye:
Talking about dye, you will need some to make your Nezuko cosplay costume complete. You need to color the tips of your wig orange. You should color about 10 to 15 cm with the orange hair dye. When choosing a dye, it is best to pick a dye that you can wash out easily.
Bamboo Gag:
One of the most essential parts of this costume, and the prop the Nezuko costume cosplay is most well-known for, is the bamboo gag. You can use a real piece of raw green bamboo and make the prop yourself. However, I would not recommend you do this. Biting down on raw bamboo, while not poisonous, is no fun at all.
Wooden sandals:
You can use any kind of wooden sandals, and you do not need to buy super fancy ones for this costume. However, if you want to make your Nezuko cosplay costume outfit absolutely perfect, your wooden sandals should have pink straps. This is a minor detail, but it really adds to the overall look and matches very well with the rest of your cosplay.
Belt:
This goes around your kimono or Nezuko cosplay robe. You need to have a big red and white belt. Around this belt, you should have an orange thread. This should be wrapped around the belt.
Pink ribbon:
Nezuko wears a pink ribbon in her hair. There really is nothing hard about this part, and you can use any ribbon you want. It just needs to be pink. It is a detail that is often forgotten about.
Pink-colored contact lenses:
This is optional, but a very nice touch to the cosplay. Nezuko has pink eyes after her transformation into a demon. So wearing pink-colored contact lenses is going to make your outfit absolutely perfect. However, you need to make sure you buy say quality contact lenses. You are putting something on your eyes, after all.
Makeup:
Nezuko wears a bit of makeup. It is not too hard to apply it, and you can do it yourself. Even if you are a total beginner. You will need to have a bit of mascara for your eyes and white powder for your face. Go for a very pale look.
Cosplaying Nezuko: the pros and cons
Pro’s about cosplaying Nezuko
- If you pick the right robes for the pink Kimono, you have a very fashionable traditional Japanese piece of clothing. Meaning, it is a great excuse to finally get that kimono!
- The Nezuko cosplay is really recognizable. You only need three things to make sure people know right away who you are and to avoid the “So, who are you cosplaying as?” Question. The wig, the kimono, and the bamboo gag are the three most essential parts of this costume. You can not do the costume without the bamboo gag, as this is the most defining part of the whole cosplay and makes Nezuko recognizable right away, so keep that in mind.
- It is a high-quality cosplay costume for beginners. Nezuko cosplay is really easy. Even when you can’t buy the Nezuko kimono, with just a pink kimono you can probably still pull off this costume. This makes it perfect for even beginning cosplayers or people who are on a budget.
The cons about cosplaying Nezuko
- Biting down a bamboo tube is not fun. If you are cosplaying for a few hours, biting down a bamboo tube is no fun. Not only will your jaw start to hurt, but the taste is awful. Also, you are probably going to drool while having this in your mouth.
- This cosplay has many unique items. That means you won’t be able to reuse some props. Only the black wig is used in a lot of different cosplay costumes. Not a lot of anime characters have a pink kimono or wooden sandals with pink straps.
Final Thoughts about Nezuko Cosplay Costume Outfit
The Nezuko cosplay is great for beginners, and you can do it on a reasonable budget. I think the best thing about the outfit is how recognizable it is. Even when people have only seen a couple of episodes from demon slayer, they will likely recognize who you are cosplaying as. The cosplay also has a lot of cool items, and I really enjoy the fact that you can wear traditional Japanese clothing and have an excuse to go out in public wearing a kimono.
There are a couple of things I do not like about cosplay. The first one is the bamboo gag. Biting down on this for hours is going to be annoying, and your jaw WILL hurt. Also, take tissues in case you start producing more spit than you want.
There is also the fact that you will need pink-colored lenses to make this costume perfect. I would strongly recommend that you only use these lenses if you buy very high-quality ones from a trusted brand. Buying lesser quality might be harmful to your eyes, so do not take the risk.
Frequently asked questions about Nezuko and the Cosplay costume
Question: Can Nezuko talk and how should I communicate when cosplaying her
Answer: Nezuko does not say much in the anime. Very rarely, she attempts to say something, but this often fails. When she tries to talk, she will stutter and be incomprehensible for the most part. This is partly since her bamboo piece stays in her mouth when she is communicating.
Only very rarely, she removes her bamboo mouthpiece. When she talks without the gag in her mouth, her speech is much more fluent, however, it is still nowhere near the fluency she had when she was a regular human.
Almost all of the communication she has is by using her body language. She communicates by growling, looking angry, hissing, or laughing and smiling.
Question: Can I walk in the sunlight if I am cosplaying Nezuko
Answer: During most of the series she has been avoiding sunlight by hiding away in a basket when traveling. She has this fear for a good reason. Demons can not stand the sunlight. If they walk into the bright daylight, they are almost instantly burned to death.
So, do I need to avoid the sunlight if I want to do the perfect Nezuko costume? No, you don’t because (SPOILERS AHEAD) Nezuko is a daywalker. There is only a very select amount of chosen demons that can walk in the sunlight without getting burned into a crisp. She is the only demon that can walk freely into the sunlight in the manga that we know of. Even the demon Muzan can not do this. Meaning, you can walk in the sunlight all you want without having to break character!
Question: What human traits does Nezuko still have?
Answer: Nezuko was compassionate and overall a very sweet and innocent girl. She would sacrifice herself without question for her brother Tanjiro and her other siblings. Even after her transformation and her subsequent memory loss,
She for the most part has retained her love for her brother and the urge to protect him at all cost. She still has a very sweet side, and genuinely wants to help people she cares for. However, when she is outraged, not much remains of this sweet girl, and she goes all out berserk.
Question: How can I make the Nezuko cosplay easier?
Answer: Nezuko is one of the easiest cosplays you can do as a beginner, but it has two downsides. The first is the bamboo gag you have to wear when doing this cosplay, and the second is the pink-colored lenses.
These are both related to her transformation into a demon. Her eyes turned from normal for humans to bright pink, and the bamboo gag is to seal away her demon fangs.
So to make the cosplay easier, or more convenient, and safe, you just need to cosplay Nezuko before her transformation into a demon. Of course, this has the downside that not many people are going to recognize who you are. This is because the normal Nezuko barely gets any screen time and has no attributes that stand out from the pack.