Dōma

* Anime
* Manga

**Dōma** (童 (どう) 磨 (ま) , *Dōma*?) is a major supporting antagonist of *Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba*. He is a demon affiliated with the Twelve Kizuki, holding the second highest position, **Upper Rank Two** (上 (じょう) 弦 (げん) の弐 (に) , *Jōgen no Ni*?).

Over a century ago, Dōma held the position of **Upper Rank Six** (上 (じょう) 弦 (げん) の陸 (ろく) , *Jōgen no Roku*?), and during that tenure, he turned Gyūtarō and Daki into demons and introduced them into the Twelve Kizuki.

He is also the leader of the Eternal Paradise Faith, a cult dedicated to worshipping Dōma and a place where he listens to all his followers' troubles and gives them advice. It also acts as a place for Dōma to capture and kill humans. This cult also took in Inosuke's mother, Kotoha, before Dōma killed her for finding out that he was eating his followers.

## Appearance

Dōma is a tall young man with a toned and muscular body, who is of a notably pale complexion and possessed unusually long, pointed nails that appeared to be stained with a pale blue color. He possesses long platinum blond hair that he wore parted to his right, the shorter parts around his face seeming to flare out to either side around his head, curving backwards with one lock slanting down to the right of his face to fall between his eyes, while the longer parts were left to drape centrally down his back in a thinning spiral. His eyes have been described to be incredibly rare and beautiful, as, in color, they appeared to be made up of an array of rainbow pastel tones that fade into one another as they circle his irises, this unusual appearance even causing people to believe Dōma is a blessed being who could communicate with the gods. The kanji for "Upper Rank" (上 (じょう) 弦 (げん) , *Jōgen*?) daiji for "Two" (弐 (に) , *Ni*?) (or "Upper Rank" (上 (じょう) 弦 (げん) , *Jōgen*?) and "Six" (陸 (ろく) , *Roku*?) at the time when he first met Gyūtarō and Daki) is etched across them, and they were shaped to slope downwards towards the sides of his face, with a set of notably large, thick black eyebrows acting to frame them above.

Dōma wore a blood-red turtleneck of a design that made it appear that the section between his neck and upper chest is covered by a black substance that looks like it's dripping slightly down his body, this same design repeated at his wrists and down his hands, as well as on the small, circular "blood stain" he adorned on his head. Below this, he wore a pair of straight, tan-colored hakama pants of a pinstriped design, their cuffs visibly loose, which he secured with a pale green-tinged golden belt, its buckle a bright silver. He also only wears plain black tabi socks on his feet. On occasion, Dōma may also have been seen sporting a black cloak, which he drapes around his shoulders, two lengths of purple and black cloth with a rectangular pattern also hanging from it around his neck, as well as a black crown which is lined with gold around its frontal plates and has flowing black ribbons dangling from each of its sides. He is also usually seen holding a pair of sharp fans that were made entirely out of shining gold, a lotus design engraved across them and a green tassel at the base, which acted as his primary weapons.

### Gallery

Dōma's appearance as a human child.Dōma's appearance as the former Upper Rank Six over a century ago.
## Personality

Dōma is outwardly friendly, possessing an approachable and charismatic air. Kanae describes him as talking and acting in a calm and carefree manner. However, it is soon revealed that Dōma has psychopathic tendencies. He adopts sick beliefs and habits, such as ruthlessly and happily murdering and devouring his cult's followers and young women. He believes he is saving them from their suffering by letting them live inside his body.

Under his carefree and unassuming demeanor, Dōma is a cold and calculating individual with an extremely keen intellect. His high intelligence may be the reason why he looks down on humans, genuinely believing that they are pathetic and stupid. He even cried out of pity for them. His condescending attitude towards humans was also showcased when he was decapitated by the combined efforts of Shinobu, Inosuke, and Kanao. He felt insulted to be killed by individuals whom he thought lowly of.

It is later revealed that Dōma is clinically apathetic, completely emotionless, and unable to experience proper emotions. Dōma himself admitted that the concept of emotion was completely foreign to him, even as a human. Aware that this is abnormal, Dōma compensated for his empty heart with his own charisma. He learned to express his carefree demeanor enough to deceive all but the most keen observers.

Despite his innate apathy, he appeared angry when Kanao insulted his inability to feel real emotions, dropping his kindly façade and outright trying to kill her. His apathy could be tied to his psychopathy, or even be the source of it. This is shown when his mother murdered his father and then proceeded to kill herself all while being observed by Dōma when he was a child; Dōma didn't show any sign of grief or shock, but instead complained that their blood made the room stuffy.

In spite of his apathy, Dōma has a disturbing habit of primarily eating young women, as evident by most of his cult followers being women. One exception to this was Inosuke's mother, Kotoha, who Dōma didn't want to kill and instead wanted to keep by his side until she died of natural causes, though he eventually killed her when she tried to escape. The reason for this unique behavioural trait is still currently unclear, though it is implied that the reason is because women provide more nutritional value for demons as they can nurture babies.

In addition to his incapability to feel genuine emotion, Dōma also possesses masochistic pain tolerance, comparable to congenital analgesia. During one of his battles he stuck his finger into his skull, puncturing a hole straight through his temples, and then fondling and fiddling with his brain in order to stimulate his memories from his long life with a completely serene expression in his face.

During his interactions with fellow Upper Rank Akaza, he showed no negative reactions to him delivering two fatal blows to his head in annoyance, one with Akaza swiftly punching the upper part of Dōma's head off, then punching his jaw off. In fact, he considered this to be their form of personal "greeting" between two "best friends". Dōma has even implied that he actually enjoys these physical abuses as seen when he morbidly asked Muzan with excitement on what type of extreme self harm he should inflict on himself as punishment for his failure, and again expressed delight upon the severe pain he felt at Shinobu's numerous attempts to poison him to death and even cheerfully expresses his delight on the feelings and sensations of the poison destroying his body and how he might actually grow to "like" it.

Despite leading a cult, Dōma is a nihilistic atheist who staunchly believed that gods, Buddhas, and the afterlife do not exist. He believed that after death there is nothing and that people who "could not accept something so simple" are naïve and dumb. However, after his death, he accepted that he is wrong and that heaven and hell actually do exist. Dōma also displayed what arguably is his first true emotion, love, when he proclaimed his love for Shinobu after finding her cute.

## Abilities

**Overall Abilities:** As the holder of the second highest position in the Twelve Kizuki, Dōma is an exceptionally powerful demon, being the second highest ranking member in the Twelve Kizuki and the third strongest demon in existence. His combination of combative prowess and his potent cryokinetic Blood Demon Art in battle is powerful enough to overwhelm and defeat the Insect Hashira, Shinobu, without any difficulty, and he is also noted to have defeated Kanae, the late Flower Hashira, in the past. Afterwards, Dōma could take on both Inosuke and Kanao, who were on par with the Hashira, simultaneously without much effort either.

According to Dōma, Akaza, who holds the rank of Upper Three, would have no chance in defeating him in battle. Moreover, Dōma was able to surpass Akaza in a shorter period of time, showcasing the immense power gap between the two demons. As further credence to Dōma's immense power, he rarely fights seriously and instead adopts a casual and carefree attitude even in life-and-death situations against the most powerful Demon Slayers, only ever becoming serious when his life is in serious danger, such as when the deadly effects of Shinobu's poisons became apparent.

**Apathy:** Dōma is diagnosed as clinically apathetic, unable to experience human emotions. Despite this, he maintains a friendly and carefree façade that deceives all but the most astute observers. Kanao is the only person who can see through his façade, thanks to her exceptional eyesight. She believes that Dōma impersonates emotions in the hopes that he could eventually acquire the ability to feel them himself, a concept entirely foreign to him. Even in his childhood, Dōma exhibited little to no emotion. When his mother killed his father before taking her own life in front of him, he remained unaffected by the traumatising event; his only reaction was annoyance over the blood that was making the room stuffy.

This inability to feel emotions has become an advantage for Dōma, as this allows him to calmly process, understand and analyze any situation he is faced with without being hampered by emotions, allowing him to easily and quickly come up with any solution for any adversary. Although, after his death, he seemed to have developed feelings for Shinobu, making it the first time he actually shows true emotion.

**Biological Absorption:** Dōma briefly displayed the ability to absorb human bodies through physical contact, shown when he completely broke down and assimilated Shinobu's body within only a few seconds of killing her. He mostly uses this ability as a faster alternative of consuming humans during battle.

**Extrasensory Perception:** Dōma possesses extraordinary sensory abilities which allow him to detect things outside the normal range of perception, as shown when he could perceive attacks even from places he is not looking at, allowing him to nullify the effectiveness of sneak attacks. Later, Dōma was capable of detecting Akaza's transformation into a demon immune to decapitation by Nichirin Swords despite being extremely far away from him.

**Immense Durability:** As an Upper Rank demon who has assimilated a huge amount of Muzan's blood, Dōma has an exceptionally durable body. This is shown when Kanao had difficultly slicing Dōma's neck even when his body was falling apart due to the extreme dosage of poison he received. Kanao only succeeded in decapitating the Upper Rank when Inosuke used his swords to push her blade through Dōma's neck.

**Immense Speed & Reflexes:** Dōma possesses inhuman movement speed and reflexes, being able to move so fast he appears to teleport. Due to their rankings, it is strongly suggested that Dōma is faster than Akaza, who was able to keep up with a Marked Giyū while holding back, and Gyūtarō who was able to keep up with and overpower Tengen, the fastest runner among this generation's Hashira. He first displayed his immense speed during the Upper Rank meeting, where he appeared to teleport to Gyokko, which caught him off guard. Later, when Akaza appeared behind him and destroyed his head, Dōma claimed that he could've easily evaded it if he wanted to, but didn't do so on purpose as he wanted to get along with him.

His imperceptible speed was further testified when he sliced a woman to pieces after Shinobu, the fastest Hashira Dōma has met, brought her away from his attack range, taking the Insect Hashira a while to register the attack. Moreover, Dōma was shown to be able to keep up with Shinobu's imperceptible speed for the majority of the fight. More impressively, Dōma was able to deliver a deep cut to Shinobu before she could even react, effectively blitzing her. Against Kanao, a Hashira-level Demon Slayer, Dōma was able to easily dodge her **Crimson Hanagoromo** technique while still busy absorbing Shinobu, and later managed to move so fast he appeared to teleport behind her, nearly decapitating the Demon Slayer's head.

Later on in the fight, Dōma managed to completely blitz Kanao, running up to her from a considerably far distance, stealing her Nichirin katana while she was still gripping onto it, and returning to his original spot so fast that Kanao, despite possessing superhuman vision, couldn't react to, let alone perceive the Upper Rank's movements, even taking several seconds to comprehend and realize what just happened. Similarly, Dōma blitzed Inosuke, this time, stealing his mask without he and Kanao realizing it until several seconds later. Due to how casual Dōma was when he performed the aforementioned feats, it is implied that Dōma could've instantly blitzed and killed both Kanao and Inosuke had he taken the fight more seriously.

**Immense Regeneration:** As an Upper Rank demon, Dōma possesses one of the most advanced and powerful regenerative healing factors in existence. When Akaza punched off both his lower jaw and the upper portion of his head, he instantly healed with ease, even considering the fatal attack to be a friendly gesture. Dōma also took mere seconds to recover from Shinobu's onslaught of fatal wisteria poison attacks and from a deep slash in his abdomen which caused his guts to spill out. Even when Dōma absorbed Shinobu's body and ingested over 37 kilograms worth of poison, approximately 700 times more than the lethal amount needed to kill an average demon, it still took a considerable amount of time before it began to have any adverse effect on him.

* **Reactive Adaptation:** During his battle against Shinobu, he is able to break down and render all of the various poison mixtures Shinobu injected into him useless, immediately developing antibodies to her poison without much trouble. Shinobu herself was shocked at how fast Dōma built a resistance to her normally fatal poison.

**Keen Intellect:** Dōma is exceptionally intelligent, which he displayed on multiple occasions. While in a fast-paced brawl with Kanao, he was able to process and deduce her abilities, surmising that it was her superhuman eyesight that allowed her to parry and dodge his ice attacks and immediately develop a strategy to counter it. In another instance, when he left Kanao and Inosuke to fight his ice clones, he construed that Inosuke had an acute sense of touch just by observing his behavior when near his ice techniques.

It is also implied that Dōma was able to trick and deceive all of his followers, allowing him to kill and eat them. He was able to keep this up for over a century with almost complete infallibility. Dōma also possesses incredible memory, being able to remember even the most insignificant details from back when he was human, which was over a century ago.

**Unlimited Stamina & Endurance:** Dōma possesses absolute and infinite stamina and vitality, never tiring and always remaining in optimal physical and mental condition all the time as well as being able to endure waves of onslaught as if it were nothing. He showed almost complete immunity to being repeatedly violently attacked by his fellow Upper Rank, Akaza, having his eyes slashed out by Inosuke, being repeatedly poisoned and stabbed by Shinobu, having his stomach slashed open by Kanao and inflicting various forms of extreme self-harm to himself. Dōma never once expressed the slightest bit of pain, discomfort and panic at being wounded so grievously, having been able to nonchalantly and calmly continue fighting, talking or doing whatever else he is doing as if nothing is happening.

## Fighting Style

**Tessenjutsu:** Dōma is incredibly skilled in tessenjutsu as shown during his battles against the Demon Slayers. It is implied that his skill in this martial arts surpasses Akaza's bare-fisted combat prowess due to his superior ranking compared to Akaza. Dōma showcased his skill in dual wielding his Japanese war fans against Kanao and Inosuke, where he could easily fend off both combatants, displaying his ability in using his fans for both attacking and defending during high-speed battles, parrying and delivering attacks that overwhelmed the Demon Slayers.

With his exceptional proficiency in tessenjutsu, Dōma could make use of techniques that require him to perform eight to nine fan attacks in the blink of an eye and generate huge gusts of air with them. Furthermore, Dōma's tessenjutsu incorporates his cryokinetic Blood Demon Art which enhances its range and lethality, making his fighting style a great blend of offense and defense.

### Blood Demon Art

**Cryokinesis:** Dōma's Blood Demon Art grants him extremely powerful cryokinesis. He can generate ice and frost from his flesh and blood and can spawn it anywhere in his vicinity, as well as manipulating it at will, allowing him to unleash incredibly potent ice techniques. Additionally, the ice created from his Blood Demon Art is extremely lethal to those that inhale it, causing the cells of the victim's lungs to die and rendering them unable to breathe very quickly. His ice and frost has also been noted to be extremely cold, as shown when the air around Dōma's frost was cold enough to make Shinobu's lungs feel as if they were about to burst and nearly freeze Kanao's body and surroundings just by coming into contact with it.

Dōma is incredibly proficient in his Blood Demon Art, being capable of creating constructs out of the ice he generates such as frost lotuses, stalagmites, clouds of icy air and even miniature ice clones of himself capable of unleashing the same techniques as him. He has also shown the ability to use the ice he creates as extra appendages, as seen when he created ice vines to hold himself up the ceiling while he uses his arms to hug Shinobu. In combat, Dōma usually incorporates his cryokinetic abilities with his tessenjutsu, enhancing his fan attacks with ice and frost. Dōma prefers to use his Blood Demon Art to create frost lotuses and crystal-like shards made of ice.

### Techniques

* **Frozen Lotus** (蓮 (はす) 葉 (は) 氷 (ごおり) , *Hasuhagōri*?) - Dōma delivers a forward fan slash that creates razor-sharp ice shards along with several ice lotuses.

* **Barren Hanging Garden** (枯 (かれ) 園 (その) 垂 (しづ) り, *Karesono Shizuri*?) - A series of 8 to 10 successive fan attacks that generates ice shards to slice the enemy into pieces.

* **Freezing Clouds** (凍 (い) て曇 (ぐもり) , *Itegumori*?) - Dōma creates a large wave of cold wind and uses his fans to scatter them. This technique nearly froze Kanao's eyeballs.

* **Lotus Vines** (蔓 (つる) 蓮 (れん) 華 (げ) , *Tsuru Renge*?) - Similar to his **Frozen Lotus** technique, Dōma creates several lotuses made of ice and long frost vines that extend his reach and can capture or slice up his opponents.

* **Cold White Princesses** (寒 (かん) 烈 (れつ) の白 (しら) 姫 (ひめ) , *Kanretsu no Shirahime*?) - Dōma creates the upper body of two female humanoid figures at the end of lotuses using ice with the ability to blow icy air towards his target. The wind generated was cold enough to instantly freeze the surrounding wood bridges and water. Kanao noted that this technique is extremely broad and has a long reach.

* **Wintry Icicles** (冬 (ふゆ) ざれ氷柱 (つらら) , *Fuyuzare Tsurara*?) - Dōma spawns numerous icicles to impale his target.

* **Scattering Lotuses** (散 (ち) り蓮 (れん) 華 (げ) , *Chiri Renge*?) - Dōma swings his fans and creates a blizzard of long-ranged razor-sharp ice shards shaped like lotus petals.

* **Crystalline Divine Child** (結 (けっ) 晶 (しょう) ノ御 (み) 子 (こ) , *Kesshō no Miko*?) - Dōma creates miniature ice replicas of himself to battle his opponents. He has shown to be capable of creating up to six clones of himself at once, all possessing roughly the same skill and proficiency as Dōma himself in addition to being fully capable of using any of his techniques, albeit not to the same caliber as him. Furthermore, these clones are able to record any information it gathers during battle and relay it to Dōma, allowing him to better fight his opponents. However, one drawback to this technique is that the clones require concentration in order to maintain their functionality, as seen when they disappeared when Shinobu's poison started to take effect on Dōma.

* **Rime - Water Lily Bodhisattva** (霧 (む) 氷 (ひょう) ・睡 (すい) 蓮 (れん) 菩 (ぼ) 薩 (さつ) , *Muhyō - Suiren Bosatsu*?) - Dōma creates an enormous Bodhisattva statue surrounded by lotuses made of ice. Its most notable trait is its ability to generate huge gusts of Dōma's deadly ice from its mouth and deliver powerful physical attacks using its large arms. It is also able to grab targets using its hands.

## Equipment

**Japanese War Fans:** Dōma carries around a pair of gold-plated Japanese war fans most likely fashioned from his flesh (similar to all other weapons used by demons), that act as his main offensive weapons and aid in spreading his Blood Demon Art. His fans are of a golden color with several patterns resembling lotuses engraved on the side complete with a green tassel. They are extremely sharp and suited for his style of combat, being able to slice and slash as well as swords and generate huge gusts of air. They are also shown to be extremely durable, withstanding multiple sword slashes and attacks without breaking.

## Battles

Dōma Battles

**Infinity Castle Arc**

* Shinobu Kochō vs Dōma
* Kanao Tsuyuri and Inosuke Hashibira vs Dōma

## Trivia

* Dōma's name contains the on'yomi reading of the kanji for "child" (童 (どう) , *dō*?) and "polish, improve" (磨 (ま) , *ma*?).
* In the manga's original Japanese, Dōma's hair is described to be very light blond/gold in color, "birch-colored" (白 (しろ) 橡 (とち) , *shiro tochi*?), and this is how it's colored in the colored version of the Final Battle Arc. However, on Shonen Jump 2019 issue 29 and Chapter 162's covers (both of the covers he's on that were personally colored by Koyoharu Gōtoge), in the anime adaptation, and in the manga's English translation, his hair is pictured/described as being a silver color.
* Dōma's attire and Eternal Paradise Faith is an inspiration to Dzogchen Atiyoga, a tradition of teachings within the Karma Kagyu, a trasmitting lineage and practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Dōma himself is represented as the Gyalwa Karmapa, the leading figure who teaches all to attain enlightenment.
	+ This leads back to Dōma's entire Blood Demon Art techniques being centered around the teachings and practices of the Karma Kagyu. The lotuses being connected to the cycle of enlightnement along with the Lotus Sutra, religious Buddhist texts that teaches those about dharma (law), karma (action) and saṃsāra (cycle, world).
* Muzan never really liked Dōma, despite his loyalty and worship of him. Dōma also made Muzan the figure of worship within his Paradise Faith Cult.
* After Kotoha stumbled into his temple, Dōma grew fond of her beauty and singing. He initially never intended to eat her as he enjoyed her company.
	+ Kotoha's husband and mother-in-law also went to the cult (possibly in search of her) but Dōma found them noisy and murdered them. He didn't devour them though, only leaving their bodies in the mountains.
* In Kimetsu Academy, beyond fake marriages, Dōma is a scam artist in various ways. He is infamous to the point that he gets covered in special programs on TV. He's also been involved in several incidents, but because the evidence is insufficient, he has yet to be prosecuted. After greeting a woman with pink and green hair, he went missing afterward. Earlier at the crime scene, the voices of a man and a woman fighting were overheard saying "I had a feeling you were lying".

## Quotes

* (To himself) "*How sad... that paradise does not exist. It's a fairy tale that humans created with their imagination. The Gods and Buddhas don't exist either. These people had been alive for decades yet they couldn't understand something so simple. When you die, you just become nothing. You just stop feeling anything. Your heart stops and your brain stops. You rot and return to the earth. As long as you are a living creature, it is unavoidable. They could not accept something so simple. It must be difficult to be so dumb. I wanted to make the pitiful people happy and help them. **That** is why I was born.*"
* (To Kanao Tsuyuri and Inosuke Hashibira) "*The reality is that even those who live upright and good lives meet with misfortune while the wicked act as they please. They enjoy themselves and live life to the fullest. The idea of divine punishment is a joke. Wicked people going to hell after death? If humans didn't think like that, people with weak spirits couldn't keep going, right? I truly believe that humans are pathetic.*"
* (To Shinobu Kochō) *"You know, everyone's afraid of dying. And that's why I **eat them all up**. Now they get to live together with me. Forever. All the feelings of my worshipers. Blood. Flesh. I made sure to accept, rescue, and guide them all to enlightenment.*"