By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting​

I’ve had a chance to catch up on chapters lately (up to 117 of Kyou Kara Maou) and there are a few things I’ve noted now that confirmed things I suspected when I watched the anime a long time ago. 

The first thing I want to note is that the “demon” personality that comes out when Yuri uses his powers – I’m pretty sure it’s his first incarnation. We, the audience, suspect two lives because of that scene with the twins that Sara is caring for – the ones that hint at two past lives that were both important. I think that they were correct. Some of my friends though, think that Murata/his Excellency disproved them with his questions about his own past lives. I disagree, for one primary reason. He has lived a lot of them over 4,000 years. The twins – young as they are – who can see all of those lives layered atop each other (I assume) probably have difficulty deciphering the order. Especially if they can see that Murata has lived in another world in another dimension that they have never encountered. If they see the past lives – vaguely – it could account for their distress and confusion when Murata approaches them and asks such questions. Yuuri on the other hand, who has two lives, both of which are very likely to be in their world only, would be easier to decipher, especially if the twins can see a glimpse of the people that Murata and Yuuri once were. A glimpse could help them see, by dress or something, that one life is more recent than another and they can make statements based on that. 

At the very least, I am glad to confirm that though the second personality, which I call the “demon” persona, is a distinctly different persona from that of Yuri, enough so that the characters recognize it as someone separate. When that voice talks, it often uses “We” instead of just “I” unless it is upset about something that the dominant personality of Yuri isn’t (images below). The two are still one person, making up Yuri Shibuya–but the difference of them, the slight separation allows for some amazing internal conflict that I can hardly wait to see. (Especially because I was really upset that, in the anime, Wolfram-Conrad-and team do not note a difference between that Yuri and the other one.)

The biggest difference is that the demon person seems to use the royal we and the personal “I” when something is closer to himself than the larger issue at hand. 

*I know I need to add more to this, but I’m leaving this as it is for now.