D.Gray-man / First Impressions

Summary:
Road sends her remaining Akuma against Allen and Lenalee, but their attacks are ineffective against the two Exorcists. Allen is about to use his claw arm to crush one of the Akuma, but his earlier wounds suddenly appear and cause him great pain. Realizing what’s happening, Allen has Lenalee hold off the Akuma while he goes back to Miranda to get the wound taken care of again. He returns to the battle just in time to save Lenalee from being blasted and explains to her that when they get separated from Miranda, time returns. After Lenalee also gets back from getting healed again, Road calls off her Akuma, and Allen introduces her to Lenalee as a human, not an Akuma. Road meanwhile seems to know a lot about Allen, including that he was cursed by his father and that he became an Exorcist to save Akuma. That’s why she had decided on him if she was going to meddle in anyone’s business. Road orders one of the Akuma to self-destruct, explaining that if an Akuma were to be destroyed without using Innocence – such as self-destruction – then its soul will disappear into dark matter and thus can’t be saved. Allen makes a desperate attempt to destroy the Akuma before this can happen, but Lenalee holds him back right as it explodes. Able to hear the soul’s cry for help, Akuma’s left eye starts bleeding and he yells angrily at Lenalee for stopping him. In response, she slaps him and starts crying since she did it because they’re friends.
Road starts clapping happily after having witnessed all this and then points out that her Akuma is now going after Miranda. Although Allen’s gun attack doesn’t defeat it, Lenalee’s succeeds by slicing through it with her Dark Boots. With her Akuma gone, Road decides to leave, though she notes that she had more fun than she expected. Allen stops her by pointing his gun arm at the back of her head, and Road knows that he hates her. She also knows that his arm is also a weapon, which goes back to what she said previously about weapons being used for humans to kill other humans. Road claims that it’s no good for Allen to be an Exorcist who cries over the disappearance of an Akuma because that will make him isolated from others. As she walks through the door that she created, Road wishes to play with Allen again, though next time it’ll be in the Millennium Earl’s scenario. After she’s gone, the entire place starts crumbling, and Allen can’t make it back in time to Lenalee and Miranda. He finds himself falling in a world of wrapped presents, but then wakes up back in Miranda’s apartment. When he hears Lenalee calling for him, he finds her and Miranda still together, except Miranda in under the heavy strain of keeping her Innocence active. She knows that if she stops it, all of the time would return and their injuries will come back too. To her, this means that their Thank Yous from before are meaningless.
Allen and Lenalee, however, see it differently. It is because of Miranda that they are still alive, and that alone is enough. And since they’re alive, those wounds will get to heal. A crying Miranda finally consents and allows time to return, and the first thing she does as the clock strikes midnight is to get medical help for the injured Allen and Lenalee. Waiting outside the town, Toma hears Miranda yelling for the Black Order’s Finder and goes after her. Back in Miranda’s apartment, a bloodied Allen thinks to himself that the wounds can heal if he lives, but there will be scars. He wakes up sometime later in the hospital to find Komui standing over his bedside, ready to repair him with a large drill. As for Lenalee, she suffered nerve damage, but someone by the doorway claims that she’ll be fine because his grandfather is helping her. This new voice belongs to a red-haired Exorcist who introduces himself as Lavi. He also has a letter from Miranda which starts out by apologizing for not being to be there when Allen and Lenalee wake up. She explains that when she stopped the clock’s Innocence, the town returned to normal, and the people did not know that they had gone through the same October 28th thirty-four straight times. She now feels that what happened in the town was the Innocence testing her. It had always been silent, but had helped her protect Allen, and thanks to it, she had found where she belongs. For now, Miranda is off to her new place of employment and hopes to meet them again. Next time, she’ll help them as an Exorcist.

Preview

This episode actually started out feeling like it was more about Allen (and to an extent Lenalee) than Miranda. That’s not really a complaint since we see how devoted Allen is to saving Akuma souls and how angry he got at Lenalee. And maybe it’s just me, but her slap and tears really seemed to show how much she cared for him, making me wonder how far they will go in terms of AllenXLenalee (or if that’s even a possibility at all).
As for Miranda, her transformation from this to this is really quite amazing. Not counting the bulging eyes, I think the effect is all in the hairstyle and the smile. And since she’s an Exorcist now, I’m sure we’ll eventually get to see more of her. For now, the introduction of Lavi should mark the beginning of a new arc, which means that I should probably get around to reading volume four of the manga.

As a reminder, episode 12 will air next week on the normal schedule, but then there will be a week off before D.Gray-man returns for episode 13 on January 9th, 2007.

33 Comments

  7. When first reading the manga, I absolutely adored the scene where Allen charged the Akuma to try and destroy it before it self-destructed. I wish anime-Lenalee had punched Allen instead of slapping him though–it’s less wussy (it seemed like she punched in the manga, but it wasn’t clear). Exorcists can get busted through stone walls with no problem, so Allen can take a little punch.

    It kills me all over again seeing Miranda transform from wretched to good-looking. I found it quite amusing watching them change the character design.

    Next episode will have some good scenes…looking forward to it.

    GDP
    Reply

  9. It’s a shame that they didn’t translate it correct it is Nächstes mal not Nachtes mal, they forgot the two poits anyway the epi was really awesome! I canot wait for the net one hehehe after al the dark things start now with the arrival of our dear hammer-guy ^^

    RickaZ
    Reply

  28. Now that Miranda’s an exorcist-in-training and has more control over her Innocence abilities, she can manipulate time where she doesn’t look all old and bug-eyed? If one could control the flow of time over things, places, and people, that’s what I would do. Heh, just a thought. That or now that she has friends, a job, and a purpose in life, she finally bothers to wear make up (she has eyebrows now! wth?). 🙂 Either way, Miranda does look cute!

    Hope Ravi’s arc is more entertaining. As much as I like Miranda’s transformation, her arc (along with Rhode’s battle – the spelling of Rhode seems so much cooler than Road) was a little padded and drawn out, though the touches at the end with time and injuries returning to Allen and Lenali were neat. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but Ravi’s voice actor also reminds me of Rakushun, the scholarly rat guy from Twelve Kingdoms. Edit: I was right, he did voice Rakushun! I knew he sounded familiar, lol.

    Ryuma
    Reply

  30. New Miranda pwns.. she looked like she was 60 years old now more like late 20s to early 30s. I think it was a side effect though of her being in the time reversal world for so long.

    Ninjikiran
    Reply

  32. Hello,I’m french! I don’t speak english very well,So, sorry if you don’t understand,I will talking in french !!! :
    Y a t-il des français ici ??? Quelqu’un qui pourrait me répondre et me comprendre car je voue un IMMENCE culte a D.Gray man !!!!Depuis que je l’ai découvert,je ne peux plus m’en passer!! Par dessus tout,je remercie le ciel de m’avoir fait connaitre Allen.Je l’aime!!!
    I love him!!I love Allen!!!!Hey girls,what about Allen ? Hey les filles,que pensez vous d’Allen ? English and French ! Anglaises et françaises !Bien sur,meme si je m’adresse particulièrement aix filles,les garçons peuvent aussi donner leurs avis !!!
    Pour ma part,en deuxième perso préféré,je dirait Tyki,il est du mauvais coté mais je l’aime bien quand meme!En plus il est d’origine portugaise,et moi je le suis a moitié! J’aime bien Road camelot aussi;elle est tantot drole,tantot maléfique et sans pitié !!lol! Cela me définirai bien car dans la vie,je me sent irrésistiblement attirée par le mal et quelque fois (je dessine) je dessine des personnages qui font froid dans le dos comme le manga “goth” et des foit je dessine des personnages ultra joyeux a la “Sakura” ou a la “Tokyo mew mew” !!C’est drole,non ?Bien sur,j’aime bien aussi Kanda pour sous courage sans faille et Lavi pour son humour!!!!

    Allen4ever
    Reply

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