D. Gray-man Hallow – 02-03

Wow, Persona 5 is looking pretty good!

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve tried to blog a long running manga/anime franchise, but I’m going to give it another go, I guess.

Cross Marian’s death was pretty suspicious, even though the episode seemed to forget about it pretty quickly. What’s interesting though was how the director knew it was someone above him that carried it out without notifying him. The Generals seemed pretty important and powerful, so being able to do all of this must call for a lot of power (both politically and in actual strength). Everything new that seems to be introduced about the Order seems to have some sort of secret. Like with the new unit in the Order that could somehow bypass an Akuma barrier and absorb attacks into their arms. Sure the war is harsh, but creating human monsters isn’t commonly the best way to go about things in anime.

But for now, at least Allen’s spot within the Order seems less precarious. Sure, the Exorcists have orders to kill the 14th if he’s going to be a threat, but it seems like this hasn’t diminished anyone’s trust in Allen too much (the director doesn’t count). Everyone seems to be treating him the same, and Allen seems okay with them killing him if that’s what the situation calls for.

…Though of course, in the most recent episode, the 14th came out anyways. The Level 4 Akuma recognized it, as well as Crown Clown. Since Crown Clown only cuts evil things, does that mean that Nea is recognized as such? Or is it just because he’s a Noah? In either case, who knows where Allen’s consciousness was during that time, but Kanda seems to have brought Allen back for now. The Noah seemed to have some kind of reaction to Nea, and they’ve been pretty quiet in these first few episodes, so it should be interesting to see what happens if they actually meet.

I guess there’s another good reason why picking up the plot here is a good idea. Since Timothy learning about his Innocence is a good ease back into the story. It’s like how the beginning of D. Gray-man involved Allen travelling around, finding people with strange abilities, encountering Akuma, and then recruiting the new person into the Black Order. Of course, there are new elements like Akuma levelling up, and the introduction of the Crows, but for the most part these past two episodes felt very reminiscent of how the plot first began.

Aside from being an interesting new power as opposed to another weapon, Timothy’s Innocence should be pretty useful to the Order too. He’s limited to taking over Level 2 Akuma for now, but once he gets stronger, he should be a really powerful asset. The main characters struggle with Level 4 Akuma even now, so if Timothy could control them well, he could do a lot of damage in battle. Especially since he seems able to use whatever the Akuma’s special ability is. Of course, having his body left behind is a bit of a liability, but the Innocence itself can move it, and there’s probably some kind of strategies that they could use to minimize the threat of something happening.

The whole story with Timothy and the orphanage was touching. …Though it’s very convenient plot-wise that the Akuma decided to attack then, as opposed to if Timothy had refused and the Order had decided to leave for the day or something. What better to display the threats that might attack than said threats actually attacking. Of course, they probably could have explained the Akuma thing sooner, which might have been a convincing reason why he should join them. But then that might have ruined the tension of Timothy not wanting to leave his surrogate family behind.

It’s nice that D. Gray-man hasn’t lost it’s sense of humour. There were funny bits, but they didn’t seem too intrusive in the fight scenes. Plus the first episode was pretty devoid of humour, so hopefully that means that the anime adaptation will be serious when it needs to be. I forget a lot of the jokes and such from the manga (seeing how they’re more than likely just taking the jokes straight from there), but I remember them not being too intrusive. As for how the rest of the episodes went, it’s interesting to see Timothy’s ability actually animated. Back when I read these chapters, I remember not really acknowledging Timothy’s Innocence’s potential (probably because the manga was just coming out of hiatus again and I was far more interested in the whole 14th thing), but seeing it again, it could be really useful. Though the story is going to focus more on Kanda from what I remember…

About Karakuri

University student and the one at Metanorn who's known for wearing glasses. Likes blood, insanity and plot twists, but also plays otome games and adores cute romance anime. It balances out... somehow.