InoTan

"We're comrades... and like brothers. So if someone starts straying from the path, the rest has to stop him together. No matter how hard and painful it is... We've got to walk the right path[...] I'm gonna strike him down and stop him. I- [...] I can't cut him. I was wrong, Tanjiro. I can't do it!"

- Inosuke, unable to bring himself to kill Tanjiro after the bond they developed, chapter 201

InoTan is the slash ship between Inosuke Hashibira and Tanjiro Kamado from the Demon Slayer fandom.

Canon
Tanjiro and Inosuke's first meeting is rough and difficult due to Inosuke's intentions of stabbing Zenitsu to kill Nezuko: completely annoyed by his attitude, Tanjiro gets in a duel with him which leads to the former's boar mask falling off, revealing a beautiful and feminine face under it. Zenitsu finds it disgusting, but Tanjiro declares openly that Inosuke's face is "quite petite, fair-skinned and therefore attractive".

After Tanjiro knocks down Inosuke by hitting his head, the latter is shown wanting to fight with Tanjiro to demonstrate his strength, but Tanjiro manages to distract him of that by showing compassion toward him, a gesture that provokes Inosuke and makes him forget about his desire of fighting to help Tanjiro and Zenitsu and show that he's not weak.

When they are resting, Inosuke tries to get Tanjiro mad, but the latter is not affected by his provocations and answers them with a smile and kindness, annoying Inosuke even more.

On the Natagumo Mountain Arc, Inosuke runs after Tanjiro to the forest to fight the demons and left Zenitsu alone. Once they are inside, Tanjiro thanks Inosuke for coming with him and Inosuke feels a soft and strange sensation multiple times that he describes later as a ‘strange satisfaction’. When they find with Demon Father and get separated, Tanjiro says to Inosuke to not die before he returns to help him.

Tanjiro reencounters with Inosuke at the Butterfly State, where he almost cries of happiness after seeing that he's alright.

Tanjiro is always worrying about Inosuke's safety, risking his life to save him on multiple situations and not wanting him to take risks when he's too damaged and hugging him when he sees that Inosuke is alive. Inosuke begins to feel the same way toward him, showing concern when Tanjiro is hurt by someone.

Inosuke at first also felt angry and weird when Tanjiro praised him, but when he starts to feel good by Tanjiro's words he wants him to praise him more.

Inosuke is also shown sitting on Tanjiro's bed and talking with him, and he also has the habit to hide between him or hold on to his shirt when he's feeling scared or nervous.

A gag of this ship is Inosuke saying wrong Tanjiro's name, calling him Kamaboko Gonpachiro, Monjiro, Santaro, Tontaro and a lot of different names.

Fanon
This ship is very popular inside the fandom of Demon Slayer. Although TanKana and AoIno are paired on the canon story, there are a lot of fanworks featuring Tanjiro and Inosuke romantically involved with each other.

A lot of people worship their relationship because of the positive influence Tanjiro has on Inosuke and the way both of them care about the other. It is also noticeable that Tanjiro finds Inosuke attractive and that the latter feels really good when he's praised by Tanjiro.

Their ship is portrayed as a very pure one, and in fanfics they are shown on a similar way to canon, usually with Inosuke realizing that he has weird feelings toward his friend and Tanjiro returning them back, helping Inosuke to put a name to his emotions. On fanarts their portray is usually the same, showing more of their comedic and funny side.

Fandom
FAN FICTION


 * Inosuke/Tanjiro tag on FanFiction.Net
 * Inosuke/Tanjiro tag on FanFiction.Net

Variations

 * InoGenTan refers to the ship between the two and Genya Shinazugawa
 * InoRenTan refers to the ship between the two and Kyojuro Rengoku
 * InoZenTan refers to the ship between the two and Zenitsu Agatsuma
 * Kamaboko Squad refers to the ship between the two, Nezuko Kamado and Zenitsu Agatsuma
 * TanKanaIno refers to the ship between the two and Kanao Tsuyuri