The Misfit of Demon King Academy

Episode 4

“In which things get all timey-wimey.”

This episode is full of revelations so let's go through it step by step.

Last episode, we were left wondering exactly what Misha is, and this episode wastes no time in spelling it out for us. Misha is not a magical doll as Sasha pejoratively called her; rather, she is Sasha—well, half of her at least. Before birth, Ivis split Sasha's soul in two, with a time limit around of 15 years before the two would naturally recombine. The resulting demonic body would be twice as powerful as it would have been otherwise.

However, this would not merge the personalities. Instead, as Sasha was the base, Misha would be erased in the combination, and that's something that Sasha couldn't stand for.

After bonding with Misha as a sister and learning to control her eyes, Sasha set about mastering her family's magic. By doing this, she hoped to find a spell capable of keeping Misha alive—and eventually succeeded. If she turned Misha into the base, then it would be Sasha who was erased in the combination. There was just one trick: Part of the spell required Misha's soul to reject being part of Sasha's.

This is why Sasha spent so much time bullying Misha, even going so far as to stab her. She had to make Misha hate her with every fiber of her being or the spell wouldn't work. Yet even then, she was unable to resist the temptation of spending a few days as the close sisters she always dreamed they would be (as we've seen over the past few episodes) before disappearing.

But in the end, all that bullying was never going to have the intended effect. Misha had long been at peace with her existence. Her only real dream was for them to once again be together like when they were young children. And from a certain point of view, she would get this by becoming one with Sasha; they would truly be together forever.

So despite Sasha tricking Anos into activating the spell that would turn Misha into the base existence, it fails. Luckily, Anos has a convoluted plan to keep them both alive.

While a bit confusing, it boils down to this: Misha and Sasha each have half a soul. However, if the two go back in time and merge their half-souls with the half-souls of their yet-to-be born selves—i.e., Misha with Sasha as the base and Sasha with Misha as the base—their past selves would each have a full soul. Thus, in the present both Sasha and Misha would have a full soul all their own and would not recombine at midnight.

And by doing this in the past shortly after their souls were split in utero with the power of time travel, no one—not even their past selves—would know that they didn't, in fact, only have half a soul each. Everything would unfold exactly as it had in the original timeline. In the end, the only real change would be that Misha wouldn't disappear come midnight.

It's here that Ivos intervenes. His plan was to create the ultimate demon body, the perfect vessel for the reincarnation of his master Avos Dilhevia. Obviously, changing the past to make Sasha and Misha separate individuals would undo fifteen years of work. Unfortunately for Ivis, even stabbing Anos through the heart does nothing to slow him down.

However, he's not the only being that wants to stop Anos' plan. The god of time isn't going to just allow Anos to change the past, so he combines his power with Ivis' to create a demon emperor of time.

But even this isn't enough to stop Anos. Even being killed is just a small speed bump. Really, the only thing that can stop Anos' plan is Sasha and Misha themselves.

As was set up in previous episodes, origin magic—the magic they need to use to combine their souls in the past—draws its power from its origin. In this case, that origin is Anos. However, with magic this complex, simply drawing power from the nebulous idea of the “Demon King” is not enough. It must be drawn from Anos directly, meaning the two girls must truly believe him to be the Demon King of legend.

It's here we also get some insight into Anos and his view on being the Demon King. He didn't set out to be one. Nor did he chase the power or responsibility that comes from such a title. He simply acted as he thought was right and people called him the Demon King for it. Thus, what makes him the Demon King is simply him being himself.

It's this revelation and not his endless powers that convince the pair to believe in him in the end. They have come to know Anos as a person and want him to be the Demon King of legend, not the obscure figure they've learned about all their lives. And in return, he gives them the power to grant their greatest desire—to exist alongside each other.

With this, we end the first arc of the story. Misha and Sasha are full-fledged people, Ivis has been returned to his original, non-altered state, and Anos has more than a few hints to mull over about the nature of this world he died to create. Thankfully, we only have to wait a week to see where it goes from here.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Yes, the time travel stuff does create a paradox. It's annoying but we're just going to have to live with it.

• At first it seems odd that a god would merge so readily with a demon to stop Anos. But since Anos says he's changed time before in the epilogue, it implies the god of time had failed to stop Anos before and knew he couldn't beat him alone.

• Since magic can't hurt its own origin, it makes sense that Sasha's demonic eyes couldn't hurt Misha—her own magic can't hurt her.

• I love that Sasha's way of speaking to Anos after accepting him as the Demon King reborn is super polite and embarrassed. She's basically found out her friend is god and has no idea how to properly act—till he shocks her into speaking in her usual way, anyway.

• Ivis planned to use the recombined Sasha as a body for the resurrection of Avos Dilhevia, which implies the usurper was killed at some point. Though how and by whom remain interesting questions.

• Arc words of the first arc: “Did you really think that killing me would be enough to make me die?”

The Misfit of Demon King Academy is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.