Is Muichiro Tokito Actually Yuichiro? What Happened To Yuichiro? Is Yuichiro Dead?

Muichiro Tokito is a major supporting character in the Demon Slayer Corps.

He is currently the Mist Hashira and one of the strongest characters introduced in the anime.

Despite having a very nonchalant and apathetic demeanour about almost everything in life, he can also get very serious when it comes to fighting strong demons and protecting others.

But people often mistake him for being egotistical because of his limited understanding of human behaviour and his inability to show his emotions.

Is Muichiro Tokito Actually Yuichiro?

Because of the latest instalment in the Demon Slayer anime (episode 8), there is a lot of mystery surrounding the character of Mist Hashira, and people are questioning whether it is actually Muichiro or his twin brother Yuichiro.

There are several reasons why this theory became so popular among anime fans, and in this article, I will try to address all of them.

Demon Slayer season 3, episode 8, directly takes us on a journey to Muichiro’s past, where he is still living with his family on a mountainside.

He is blessed with very loving and hardworking parents.

But everything changes when his mother suddenly falls victim to an unknown illness, and because of her rapidly worsening condition, his father is left with no choice but to go out during a furious storm to find a herb that might cure her.

But because of an unfortunate accident, he falls off a cliff and ends up dying.

With no possible cure, his mother ends up dying that night as well.

This leaves 10-year-old Muichiro and his twin brother, Yuichiro, alone to fend for themselves.

But because of their differing ideologies about empathy and sacrificing oneself to help others, they are constantly fighting.

Muichiro is very optimistic even after their parent’s deaths and admires them for their compassion for others.

In contrast, Yuichiro believes that their parents are solely to blame for their deaths and despises them for leaving their children behind.

This is where the first point of contention comes from. Muichiro, in the present, associates more closely with Yuichiro’s ideologies than with his younger self.

Muichiro, in the present, is very selfish, logical, and methodical.

He only does things for himself and does not let his emotions cloud his judgement, like his young self. But this argument is debunked by Muichiro himself when he mentions during his narration of the past that he became like Yuichiro because of his amnesia.

After an encounter with a demon, Muichiro loses all his memories, which causes him to lose his ability to communicate normally with other humans or show any compassion.

But this is not because he is Yuichiro; it’s just because he forgot who he was, which is a very normal human response.

When people are in a dire situation, their survival instincts kick in, and they tend to act selfishly in those situations.

Another theory that people came up with as to why the current Mist Hashira might be Yuichiro is that they believe that it was Muichiro who died at the end of their backstory, not Yuichiro, because of their encounter with a demon, and because of his guilt for not being able to save his brother, Yuichiro took on his name and joined the Demon Slayer Corps to honour his late brother’s desire to save others.

This is a common trope that we see in anime and in mainstream media. But this is not what happened here, and we have no reason to believe that Yuichiro is impersonating Muichiro. Mangaka Koyoharu Gotouge also made it very clear in the manga that it was Yuichro who died, and Muichiro will die later in the series as well.

What Happened To Yuichiro? Is Yuichiro Dead?

Now you might be wondering: if Muichiro Tokito is not Yuichiro, then what happened to Yuichiro?

At the end of their backstory, it was a hot summer night, and the twins were trying to fall asleep amid the quintessential loud chorus of songs that cicadas produce during the summer season. They had their front door wide open because of how hot it was.

That’s when a powerful demon suddenly entered the house and attacked Muichiro.

To protect his brother from the demon’s attack, Yuichiro jumped in front of the demon and had his hand chopped off in the action. This sparked a massive rage in Muichiro and caused him to lose control.

When Muichiro came back to his senses, he was standing in front of the demon’s disfigured and mutilated body with an axe and a hammer in his hands.

He could not remember anything that happened during the time that he lost control, but he was extremely exhausted.

However, he did remember that before he lost control, Yuichiro was fatally injured by the demon. It took him every ounce of strength he had left just to get to the house.

When he finally got there, he encountered the gruesome sight of Yuichiro lying in a pool of his own blood on the verge of death.

He only had his hand chopped off, but because he did not get any medical attention in a timely manner, he lost a lot of blood, and now it was impossible to save him.

The twins had a very emotional interaction at the end of their backstory. Yuichiro, who had lost all sensory awareness, finally poured his heart out in front of Muichiro, expressing how much he cared about him and begging God to save Muichiro’s life, even if it meant taking his own life in the process.

After all these heartwarming moments between the two brothers, Yuichiro finally passes away, leaving Muichiro and the fans alike in a state of complete shock and disbelief.