[NoSanninWa]

I just watched the most recent batch of Ashita no Nadja episodes from AC. This show is getting better and better. I'm posting mostly because of a surprise that I realized after seeing The Secret of the Black Rose in episode 19.

Spoiler for Episode 19:

I have suspected that Francis is the Black Rose for ages, just as I'm sure that everyone else has. Naturally enough I also suspected that he was the knight who helped Nadja just after the orphanage burned. After Nadja met Francis and thanked him for helping her in the woods, strangely he insisted that the Knight wasn't him. I've been wondiering about that ever since. After all, why would he lie? Perhaps Francis has a twin brother that was separated at birth?

Then we got to episode 19.... talking with the Black Rose, Nadja mentions a good nobleman that she met. She says the words, "noblesse oblige" and he reacts like she stabbed him with a start and a gasp. An surprisingly strong reaction. If he remembers saying them to her, then he shouldn't be surprised to hear them repeated back. If he didn't say the words, then why should they mean anything to him?

Just after that she mention's Francis' name. Once again he starts and gasps. Why such a strong reaction to something so trivial? I now have a new theory as to what the secret of Kuro Bara is. A theory that also includes the mystery of why Francis insisted that he wasn't the Moonlit Knight.

I think that Francis might be a split personality. He honestly doesn't know that he's met Nadja in two other guises. Similarly Black Rose might not know that he has met Nadja before either. I'm a bit hesitant to believe this since it seems so unusual for a show of this genre, but it does explain why Nadja's words were so disturbing to Kuro Bara. He knew them only inside his head, from the part of himself that isn't himself.