It’s not every day that you see your favorite manga characters and get to realize what they’d look like if transmogrified into one of today’s many automobiles. Luckily, Takara Tomy is here to make today that very day, thanks to the new Demon Slayer Tomica car line. [Thanks, Famitsu]
The Demon Slayer Tomica car line is a collection of die-cast vehicles. What sets this series apart is that each vehicle in the line has a customized paint job based on a Demon Slayer character. Making the collaboration possible is a major element of the manga’s character design, which are the characters’ unique haori jackets. Worn over the standard Demon Slayer corps uniform, each character’s haori is unique and colorful, translating well to automotive aesthetics. There are five cars in the Demon Slayer Tomica line, based on Tanjiro Kamado, Nezuko Kamado, Zenitsu Agatsuma, Inosuke Hashibira, and Kanao Tsuyuri.
Here’s Tanjiro Kamado’s signature green-checked haori pattern laid over a model of the Toyota 86 Fastback sports car:
Here’s Nezuko’s complex pink-dominant pattern on a Subaru BRZ, which happens to be exactly the same car as Tanjiro’s Toyota 86. The cars were a joint development project by Subaru and Toyota and sold under their respective badges. It’s a cute reference to the fact that they’re siblings.
Third in the Demon Slayer Tomica line is Zenitsu Agatsuma’s yellow-and-orange jacket pattern applied to a Nissan Leaf. As a practitioner of Thunder Breathing and lightning-speed attacks, it fits to put his colors on one of the most popular electric vehicles in the world.
Inosuke Hashibira grew up in the forests and mountains of Japan, adopting the habits and mentality of its tough and vicious wild boars. He also hangs out without a jacket of any kind most of the time, which means the Subaru Forester chosen for Inosuke’s Demon Slayer Tomica car has by far the most unusual paint job. The SUV’s grill is even painted pink, mimicking the pink boar snout of Inosuke’s mask.
Lastly, Kanao Tsuyuri’s Subaru Sambar truck is probably the most abstract interpretation of the line. Though Kanao wears a plain Demon Slayer Corps uniform, she is a practitioner of Flower Breathing, a flower-based set of techniques. That in mind, Takara Tomy has patterned her Tomica car after a mobile flower shop.
The Demon Slayer Tomica cars will be available in Japan in April 2021. They’re being sold piecemeal for 880 JPY each (about $8.50 USD). The Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba anime series is airing on Netflix, and the game adaptation Demon Slayer: Hinokami Kepputan is due for release in 2021.
