D.Gray-man / First Impressions

Summary:

While Allen and Lavi are making their discoveries outside, Krory is inside the castle standing in front of a giant portrait of his grandfather. He feels that he’s a vampire hated by the villagers, so he has no friends, and that he’s destined to live and die in this castle. Krory then starts to cry even though he knows that he’ll always have his beloved Eliade by his side. He wonders if this is his grandfather’s curse that turned him into a monster because he was always drawn to the outside world. Eliade then comes into the room in tears and pretends that the Exorcists attacked and burned down the man-eating flowers. Because she doesn’t want to let them leave the castle, Eliade urges Krory to fight and feeds him some of her own blood. Back outside, Allen and Lavi have discovered that each of the coffins houses the metal skeleton of an Akuma. The two realize that if Krory was only attacking Akuma all along, then this isn’t a vampire extermination. Before they can finish this thought, Krory appears and punches Lavi into a wall.

Facing against an angry Krory, Allen is immediately sent on the defensive by Krory’s violent attacks. To get Krory to listen to him, Allen returns his arm to its normal, non-weapon form. He explains that all of the villagers’ bodies turned out to be Akuma and questions if Krory is really a vampire. As if to prove it, Krory bites Allen’s neck and says that he only cares about living in this castle forever with Eliade. Proclaiming that he’ll kill anyone who interferes, Krory knocks Allen into the castle wall. However, Krory is then attacked by Lavi who has woken back up. A battered Allen meanwhile stumbles his way through the castle until he accidentally triggers a hidden door to a secret room. Inside, he sees the shadow of a monster on the far wall, but that shadow soon disappears. Reappearing behind Allen is Eliade, and she pins him against a bookcase. As his chest is getting crushed by Eliade, Allen finds himself getting weaker and sleepier. In an attempt not to fall asleep, Allen starts talking about how Krory isn’t a monster or vampire but rather the Exorcists’ ally because he killed only Akuma. This causes Eliade to laugh and punch Allen repeatedly because she insists Krory’s a vampire and won’t let him be taken away.

Outside the castle, Lavi is telling Krory that he’s their comrade since he was sucking the blood only from Akuma. He’s concluded that Krory has a parasitic-type Innocence similar to Allen’s because Akuma poison is ineffective against him. In other words, Lavi thinks that Krory is an Exorcist like them because Krory has been unconsciously targeting Akuma due to his Innocence. For now, however, Lavi plans to knock Krory out with one of his hammer’s seals, and a large column of flame rises up as Lavi attacks. Back inside, Eliade decides to cut off Allen’s head with an axe, but his left arm instinctively acts to stop it even though he is unconscious by now. The arm then grows huge and almost smashes Eliade, but she manages to get out of the way in time. Allen’s face also suddenly starts to go through a transformation where his injured eye projects a skull above his head. The skull, which has Mana’s voice, tells Allen that he’s back and that the darkness has returned. This causes Allen to remember that when he was young, he told Mana that he would continue being an Exorcist even if he couldn’t see with his left eye. The skull then gets absorbed into Allen’s head, and a gear-like monocle appears in front of Allen’s left eye. Able to see with it again, Allen finally realizes that Eliade is an Akuma. For him, the black and white world has returned, and he has his reason to fight.

Preview

I always find the end of this part with the reappearance of Mana as the skull pretty interesting. It would seem to show that Mana is always with Allen and can help when Allen really needs it. That scene also reminds me of the question of the “D” on Allen’s eye that’s just like the “D” in the title. I dunno if this has been explained in later chapters of the manga that I haven’t read yet, but I’ve always wondered if that letter stood for something. I remember the author mentioning in volume three that D.Gray-man has a lot of meanings that have to do with Allen and other characters, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything more specific than that. In any case, the return of Allen’s eye in this new form finally brings to a close the situation the anime brought about where they gave back Allen’s eye too early.
Next week’s episode should reveal Eliade’s background, and it should probably bring us close to the end of this arc.

26 Comments

  14. Amazingly, they intend to drag it for two more episodes =P

    Show Spoiler ▼

    I assume episode 24 would be the ‘train’ scene… I can imagine that leading up to an arc with the ‘doomed’ general, as seen in the ending theme…

    Chaos2Frozen
    Reply

  16. @Chaos2Frozen
    I agree with you about episode 24. Show Spoiler ▼

    Anyway, a new opening has been announced. It is called “Brightdown” which will be sung by Nami Tamaki. The new opening will air in April according to her website.

    riki
    Reply

  17. @riki
    For some strange reason, I was expecting UVERworld to be doing the new opening… Oh well, they should be changing the ending again to I guess…

    I just realize why his eye evolved to that new form… Mana’s curse must have wanted to protect it from ever getting injury again! =)

    Chaos2Frozen
    Reply

  22. @Chaos2Frozen
    I hope I didn’t spoil what happen to Allen. *sweatdrop*

    There should be info about the new OP in this week’s Shounen Jump so maybe they will provide information about a new ending?

    riki
    Reply

  25. Aww…am I the only one who liked Allen’s old eye better? The red pupil just looked so much cooler in my opinion. I mean, this new gear-looking one looks pretty cool too, but it doesn’t have that same sinister appearance that the red one did. =(

    MM
    Reply

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