Anime
All of these will be related to the anime/filler episodes. All manga spoilers will be tagged under here, but for the all the ones below this, manga spoilers are tagged from chapter 100 onward. Everything else will be left unmarked.- Confirmed as of episode 23.
- Confirmed as of episode 24 of the anime.
Characters
Any speculations that primarily focus on one character.- It's later revealed how he has the ability to do such incredible feats with nearly no effort. He's a Time Stopper. That's his major demon power, and he uses it to hold back a black hole to Gehenna when some scientists create a gate that won't stop expanding. Temporarily, to this point at least, it's being held in check by Mephisto.
- A funnily related (yet probably unintentional) fact - when Fukuyama Jun, Yukio's seiyuu was asked to act out one of the lines during Yukio and Todou's confrontation(when Yukio says "I'm different from you!") in a series of interview videos posted on nicovideo, he was oddly insistent upon playing the part of Todou as well - only speaking Yukio's one line after much egging from Okamoto Nobuhiko.
- Jossed, Todou's siblings are seen in a single panel flashback early on in his second fight with Yukio, with the same white striped hair as him.
- He has already stated, in a private moment where he would have no need to lie about it, that he plans to never return to Gehenna. Assiah is too much fun for him, in many ways. He seems to genuinely enjoy Assiah things such as Moe and candy and Otakudom in general. Why would he ever want his father to destroy all of that?
- This could also indicate that Mephisto getting Amaimon to learn about Assiah (starting with Japan) could be a move to get Amaimon on his side.
- Confirmed, in a sense since her family's summoner abilities all stem from how they are distant descendants of a kitsune. Though because her bloodline has become so diluted over the generations Izumo is much less than a half-breed.
Watching the episodes and reading the manga, Rin's inability to read anything but manga is ridiculous. In all honesty, he's actually of average intelligence – he's smart enough in the Boot Camp to immediately think of the lights and when he's doing the candle training he does eventually figure something out to help him do it by himself in the manga. Most of his “dumb” moments come from his ignorance – he was kept in the dark practically all his life after all. So, perhaps his book issues have another thing as it's root – ie, Dyslexia.
Now, before I start, I'll say that most of this WMG comes from the idea that if Satan is the “God of Gehenna” that probably means he was the first demon and thus Rin's “bloodline” is “purer” in that regard.
First, the manga. He obviously can read them – but there are actually somethings that can explain it. For starters, I looked through some characteristics of Dyslexia on The Other Wiki and found some that I think might fit.
One, Dyslexia does effect people who read Chinese/Japanese style characters – the problems are just slightly different in nature.
Two, one of the problems I think applies in Rin's case is: Difficulty associating individual words with their correct meanings. Japanese Kanji is somewhat (in)famous for having alternate character readings. And, if we go by the anime, he seems to be somewhat okay with Hiragana. Confusion with combinations of words is another problem – suggesting that the more words he has to deal with, the more trouble he has.
And third, having a larger font has been proven to help Dyslexia sufferers. He reads manga and, as a general rule, the font is large and it is mostly made up of pictures. So, just by having more pictures than words in the end than normal books, Rin finds it easier to read them. And even if he reads manga, it doesn't mean he's a fast reader. We don't really see him do it on screen except maybe once or twice, so we have no idea how fast he goes through manga. He could be rather slow – which would somewhat explain why Yukio is irritated by him stealing his Jump Square (aside from the fact his brother isn't doing his work): he won't get it back until much later if he waits for his brother to finish.
Now, there are two theories for this. The first suggests that he does have pure Dyslexia. The second suggests it's more of a heritage thing – aka he's the Son of Satan and that screws with his reading/writing when it comes to Japanese.
1. Oral Tradition Theory: one of the theories for the cause of Dyslexia is the Evolution Theory. This theory considers that reading is an unnatural act carried out for a very brief period in human evolutionary history. It has only been in the last hundred years that reading a visual form of speech has been promoted as a major form of communication, and subsequently a lack of time for reading behaviors to evolve. In many societies around the world the majority of the population do not use the visual notation of speech as a form of communication, and do not use reading skills, and therefore have no dyslexia. So if we say that demons, being spirit creatures and not material, don't have a need for reading/writing, and since Rin's the son of their “god”....he's a bit regressed in that regard.
2. Percy Jackson and the Olympians Theory: In the Percy Jackson series, in the beginning the titular character is said to have Dyslexia. It is later revealed though that since he is a Half-Blood (aka the son of a Greek God) his brain automatically wants to read Ancient Greek (and is awesome at it too) but flounders when it comes to Modern English. If we borrow that idea, Rin's brain automatically wants to read the demon tongue by merely being the Son of Satan. Japanese has nothing in common with it, so he has to struggle with it. (This gives an interesting idea of someone, maybe Yukio, struggling to decipher a demon scroll and Rin looks over his shoulder and automatically translates it without thinking about it.)
Now we come to the final round: why, if Rin is Dyslexic, does no one notice?
First, he's the elder, healthy brother. Yukio was the one who was born sickly and needs glasses. Rin has this demonic heritage – even when most of his powers are sealed away, he's tougher and stronger than the average human. Him having any kind of health problems would be...weird to think of thus.
Second, personality wise, he's not suited for book work. He's too active and so would have originally have been forced or bribed to sit down and learn how to read. It's very easy for a kid to learn to hate something they have to do if they find it boring and on top of it it's very hard for them to do. Things learned young tend to stick and can even become bad habits in certain cases.
Finally, he was considered the monster/demon child by those outside the Monastery/Church or whatever he grew up in. With all the misconceptions in place, it makes it easy for people to overlook the problems someone has.
None of this means that Rin would never be a book person – it just means if he does have Dyslexia, an intervention in that regard would smooth some of the difficulties he has down. No instant genius, his younger brother is always going to be the smart one, but it will help his grades a bit and means the only real problem they would have when it comes to Rin and books would be convincing him to do it.
- Jossed she turns out to have been an All-Loving Hero and very much like Rin in character.
- Neuhaus being Rin and Yukio's father is Jossed as of Chapter 86. Their biological father is a clone of Azazel. We also see Neuhaus’s wife appear in chapters 106 and 115. Her name is Michela and she has a very similar design to her anime counterpart.
- Confirmed in chapters 111, 118 and 119. In chapter 111, Mephisto vouches for the credibility of Lewin's report, including the "claims about you, Angel". Arthur reacts very aggressively to it, and is later shown really shaken by the thought of being a demon clone even if he's in denial. This is also the chapter where the Uzai clan explains how they supposedly adopted Arthur. In chapter 118, we can see clone 011 being shielded by Rick, surviving Lucifer's light blast. Finally in chapter 119, it is shown how the Uzai clan 'actually' took Arthur in, as they celebrate clone 011(Arthur) surviving.
- Most likely jossed based on what we know of Shiro and Yuri’s relationship during the past arc. While it’s true they shared romantic feelings for one another, neither acted upon said feelings. Considering what is known about both their personalities and the lack of an official romantic relationships, the two of them having sex randomly seems rather out of character, for Yuri especially. Not to mention there isn’t really a logical place in the timeline this theory could work. So while this theory isn’t completely denied, it’s pretty unlikely.
Future
Any predictions or speculation for events that will happen at the very end of the series, or post-series.- Confirmed in chapter 96, when he shoots Rin and leaves for the Illuminati. However, in chapter 113, Yukio later betrays the Illuminati, by sending two demons to destroy their airship. Yukio, Lewin and Renzou were all working on the plan. Thus making Yukio's current status go from a Heel–Face Turn, to a Heel–Face Revolving Door.
- It's further supported by the fact that Mephisto is the eldest son of Satan that we've seen so far. He'd probably be next in line, since his father still seems to think that Mephisto is loyal to him. If there's one thing that's clear, it's that Mephisto wants to take down Satan. Why that is, we'll have to find out. The one problem with the the theory of Mephisto wanting to take over Gehenna though, is that he himself has said in an aside (with no one around for him to lie to) that he never wants to go back to Gehenna and that Assiah is too much fun. To rule Gehenna, wouldn't he have to return to it?
Confirmed Yuri does get a role in the spotlight during the flashback arc.
Confirmed to a degree. In chapter 120, Rin gets to talk to Father Fujimoto again, and thank him for everything. However, whether or not Shiro did in fact recognize him as Rin is a bit more subject to debate.
- Doing so would mark Yukio’s ultimate downfall and potentially his Moral Event Horizon. And really, watching Shima lose his smug facade would be darkly comic.
Plot
This section is for speculations about the plot. Things like predictions for future chapters, theories on potential plot twists, and so on.This is backed up by some evidence in that Mephisto Pheles has been noted as being one of the few people who knew where both Demon Eyes were. Also, Mephisto seemed just a little too cheerful. He didn't really seem like he had "lost" at all. In fact, he looked like everything was going exactly as he expected it to. Plus, if Mephisto really is the Guile Hero (or Magnificent Bastard?) he's been shaping up as, there's no way he'd let his enemies trick him so easily. If this WMG is right, he's been planning everything since the theft of the genuine "Left Eye." Todou, Shura, and Yukio have all been his pawns, which Shura herself has even implied. Let's just hope he's a Guile Hero.
- Jossed Fujimoto and Satan have been proven to be two separate beings.
- Confirmed as of episode 24 of the anime. The manga still has yet to put in any hints about Yukio having Satan's powers at all.
- Confirmed, The bunny puppet is a demon who is controlling Nemu's body since the boy is actually asleep.
Now, it's implied that Satan did have other kids as some of what Amaimon says indicates he is one, and possible all of the Princes of Hell may be as well (that's assuming he's not speaking symbolically and that the title of Prince of Hell has to do with parentage instead of power), so why wouldn't any of Satan's other kids have any of his power while one of the kids he had with a human woman wind up with it? Everyone assumes that Rin and Yukio are fraternal twins instead of identical ones, but what if Satan had a plan to create a body that could allow him to exist in Assiah by getting a human woman pregnant and in the process of development the plan was to create identical twins but manipulate it so one was mostly human and the other being mostly demon, with that one being the one that would become his vessel.
Plans like that tend to be a bit more complicated than they seem however, and somehow Rin didn't wind up with any of the memories of his existence as Satan. Perhaps something about being shoved into the existence of a fetus had to do with it or the sealing of the blue flames after being born. Maybe it was even some other odd factor or a combination of factors, but somehow that happened. It's almost certain that Mephisto had a hand in sealing Rin's blue flames and we know he's a tricky, manipulative one, so what if he guessed what Satan's plan was as well. He's the type who would like to create a figurehead leader who he could manipulate so maybe he had an active hand in those memories not transferring, intentionally sealing them away in the Kurikara along with the blue flames.
And as for the whole incident where Satan possessed Shiro Fujimoto, perhaps the whole thing had as much to do with the seal on the sword weakening as much as it had and Rin's state of mind having found out he wasn't fully human as Shiro's reaction to Rin's words and the power and memories sealed in the Kurikara possessed him in their attempt to make the original plan work and awaken Rin/himself properly. And perhaps something in how the power was sealed in the Kurikara made Rin releasing it himself cause only the physical awakening without any of the memories awakening as well. Again, this could be by Mephisto's design, betting on the humanity he'd gained living without any knowledge of his past existence would cause him to draw the sword himself rather than have his awakening be forced by another power.
And as for Rin, there's the question on his personality in the case he was unknowingly Satan. Is his personality simply the result of living 15 years as a human or is there some of his original personality as Satan involved as well. If you go with the Satan as a fallen angel belief you could guess perhaps some of Rin's personality comes from how Satan was before his pride got the better of him and he was punished for it. And the question begs to be asked, if he ever gets his memories as Satan back which personality would be the most dominant one, the one of Satan, subduing the personality of Rin, or would his current personality be enough to affect his old one for the better.
Now there's the multiple possibilities in Mephisto's role in the whole thing. Did he know Satan's plans from the start? If so did Satan let him know or did he find out enough to make him guess what was going on. Does he want to create a Satan 2.0 to manipulate to his own whims, does he want to work it out so Satan is going to owe him one, or does he like Assiah enough to want to set it up so Gehenna is lead by someone who would be better at keeping demons in line (while being able to manipulate them to his own whims).
Jossed in the manga, Satan is seen again possessing Yukio’s eye. Rin also has his own demon half. Satan can be seen in the past arc of the manga, long before Rin was even born. Satan also is revealed to be communicating with Fujimoto the entire time Rin and Yukio grew up as well.
Jossed by chapter 86. Rin and Yukio were fathered by an Azazel clone named Goro (005), that Satan possessed.
Just for fun
Anything under this category, is pretty light-hearted and not meant to be taken too seriously. Because of the nature of these theories, they will not be confirmed or jossed.Impossible crossovers
- Kyouko Sakura is her daughter for the same reason.
- The twist here is that Black Rock Shooter was also Satan's past 'project' in creating a vessel, but she somehow couldn't return to the human world, so Satan left her for dead. She now traverses Gehenna, seeking to kick his ass and a way to go home.
- But only if uttered by Samuel L. Jackson.