D.Gray-man / First Impressions

Summary:
In the town where Allen and Lenalee are recovering, the Millennium Earl is hard at work getting people to help him create Akuma. At the hospital, Allen wakes up under the watch of Komui, who tells him about Lenalee getting acupuncture. Allen figures out that Komui isn’t just here for him and Lenalee’s sake, but when he proceeds to ask about the Noah family, Lavi interrupts to explain that this is what Komui came to ask them about. He explains that the Noah family frequently shows up at the turning points of history, but that it’s never written down in reference books. The one who knows all about them is Bookman, who arrives by interrupting Lavi with a kick to the face. Bookman notes that Allen is known as the Destroyer of Time and then introduces himself. Examining Allen’s injured left eye, Bookman finds it regenerating on its own, meaning that his acupuncture needles aren’t needed. And since they can’t do anything until Lenalee wakes up, Bookman suggests that Allen get some rest.
Going for a walk, Allen reveals to Lavi that he’s 15 years old, which means that Lavi is older since he’s 18. Lavi calls Allen moyashi (bean sprout) because that’s what Yuu uses (Yuu referring to Kanda’s given name). Still, Lavi feels that they won’t be seeing Kanda for a while because the missions from now on will be of a long war since the Earl is making his move and the Noah family has appeared. This, however, triggers Allen’s memories of Road and causes him to declare that he became an Exorcist to destroy Akuma, not to kill humans. He walks off alone, but then becomes afraid when he finds himself in the middle of a crowd during a festival because he can’t tell who’s a human and who’s an Akuma without his left eye. A little girl comes up and offers him flowers, but her face suddenly morphs into a gun. Allen is saved when Lavi crushes the Akuma with his hammer, but a second Akuma soon attacks. Lavi increases the size of his hammer, bats away one of the Akuma’s attacks, and then smashes the Akuma. It is also by using Lavi’s hammer that the two are able to leave this crowded area.
Back at the hospital, Bookman has finished telling Komui what he knows about the Noah family. He notices that all of this is making Komui’s chest ache, but Komui feels that the Exorcists are the ones going through the most pain. Bookman responds by saying that the only thing equal in war is suffering. By this time, Allen and Lavi have made their way to the forest where Lavi figures out that Allen doesn’t think humans are Akuma just because they look like humans. Allen doesn’t want to suspect all humans of being Akuma, but Lavi points out that Allen is scared of them right now. Lavi personally suspects all humans to be Akuma because he, like other Exorcists, doesn’t have the convenience of Allen’s eye. Thus, they see all humans as the Millennium Earl’s allies. To keep from killing random humans, the Exorcists wear the Black Order uniform so that Akuma will come to them. This causes Allen to remember how he had once asked his teacher Cross Marian about wearing that coat. Cross had told him that it makes them targets so that they can suspect anyone who gets close to them. He had questioned if Allen was ready to become a target in order to protect those who should be protected.
Allen and Lavi are eventually found by the crowd from the festival who have brought three policemen with them. When one of the policemen raises his gun at Allen, Lavi takes action and the policeman suddenly turns into an Akuma. The other two policemen turn out to be Akuma too and the two Exorcists are forced to deal with a barrage of bullets until Lavi crushes them with his hammer. When the people in the crowd also turn into Akuma, Allen finally starts to understand what the other Exorcists go through without an eye like his to lessen the fear and uneasy feelings. With Allen’s help, the two of them manage to destroy almost all of the Akuma, but there still remains one that’s holding a little girl hostage. After Allen shoots the Akuma, the girl runs to him in tears, but when he kneels down to check if she’s ok, he finds a gun pointed to his face. Allen is already prepared for his and shoots the Akuma before it can shoot him. In the aftermath, Allen’s eye bandage falls off and he finds his left eye healed. As the snow starts falling, Allen has decided to continue walking along this path with this coat.

Preview

Wait wait wait, Allen’s eye isn’t supposed to get better just like that. And I don’t believe the next episode’s material is from the manga, so it looks like we’re headed for some anime originals. It would seem that they healed the eye so that Allen doesn’t have a bandage for every episode from now until when they finally decide to do Arystar Krory (which I had been looking forward to since he’s in the OP). Still, it feels odd they spent all this time talking about Allen having to suspect everyone because he doesn’t have his eye and then just give that eye back to him at the end of the episode.
From the preview for next week, it seems that it’ll be Allen, Lavi, and Kanda against Skin Boric and Akuma.

49 Comments

  9. Well i too saw the future episode titles and thought that it was strange seeing that they don’t seem that familiar from the manga….though the fact that they are going into filler isn’t too surprising seeing that the manga is only about to get to its 10th volume…and each arc is one whole volume. So they’re on book four out of ten, and i guess that TMS probably wants to make d-gray at least 52 episodes (if not more depending on popularity) this happened to MAR too around this time that they started doing fillers cause MAR too was only on like book 4 or 5 by the time that the anime started. So i think we’ll be getting out of filler quickly but….

    BTW…anyone heard about a new ending theme yet?

    Bleach will have a new ending by Mai Hoshimura (Forgot title of song)
    Gintama’s new ending from episode 38 on is “Candy Rain” By Hitomi Takahashi.

    Bomber D Rufi
    Reply

  13. That’s funny, cause last time I’ve checked, it has a good rating from quite a number of people. This is of course, not comparing it to the ‘biggies’ of this season, but the ‘others’.

    And as for the filler episodes… I like to think of them as more of… alternate way of telling the story. Also, may I remind you guys that like CODE GEASS, you shouldn’t judge an episode just by what you see in a preview… It’ll be a big joke to drop a show if it’s getting good.

    Chaos2Frozen
    Reply

  14. The next episode looks like it is from the 1st Reverse Novel so it may not be an actual filler. The story seems to be based on Kanda’s chapter except they added Allen, Lavi, and Skin.

    riki
    Reply

  18. Never mind. I just read another summary and I was somewhat wrong. ^_^;; It is from the 1st Reverse Novel, but it is Allen’s chapter. They just added Kanda, Lavi, and Skin.

    The anime will not follow the manga word-for-word. It is called an adaptation for a reason.

    riki
    Reply

  20. Wow, Skin appeared earlier than expected o___O But, Chaos2Frozen is right. Previews can totally mislead a reader -ahemsuzakugettinggeassahem- xD People were totally spazzing out about that and I just laughed my butt off when it didn’t happen (although what did happen made me laugh harder)

    Kanki
    Reply

  22. Hmm…On one hand I’m happy they seem to have deviated quite a bit from the manga storyline, and on the other the handling of Allen’s eye getting healed was a little sloppy. Well, at least the show doesn’t “suck” as much as Gundam Seed Destiny or the like. =P

    Still, I got a feeling they probably stole one of those later chapters to integrate it here, with a little mix and match. Not that I mind, of course. The episode is quite a decent piece of development for Allen’s character, though, and that was one thing they did well.

    F.A.I.T.H
    Reply

  23. Actually, I myself had suspected that they might introduce Skin early, otherwise they wouldn’t have included him in the ending video.

    Also, I thought it was funny why they had Kanda’s image in both op and ed when he played very little purpose for the first part of the story…

    Well, this explains everything…(But damn, they fixed his eye already? Would be weird if they have to bust it again, lol!)

    Chaos2Frozen
    Reply

  29. Now that I think about it, it may be a combination of Allen and Kanda’s chapters in the novel.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    This is just a theory so don’t take my words on it. ^^;;

    riki
    Reply

  36. @Garten: about allen’s eye

    Show Spoiler ▼

    soltaire_rev
    Reply

  38. @tensai_otaku

    No offense, but your an idoet. Manga does not suck, you do realize without manga anime in the first place wouldn’t even exist…go do a study on manga and anime and learn about it before your a fan of it…

    Besides D.Gray-man, Death Note, Bleach, Naruto, etc. wouldn’t exist without the manga and the original creators so be thankful to manga and not say it sucks.

    Kurosaki Ichigo
    Reply

  39. I think I will go back to my first guess and say that the writers may use Kanda’s chapter. It is hard to predict what will happen based only on the preview. LOL

    Show Spoiler ▼

    riki
    Reply

  42. FILLERS!? *dies* And I thought those wouldn’t come into the series so soon. T_____T Since the animators have a lot to work with. And Death Note eps are behind too…are the rumors flying around that some anime’s will be pausing for a while true? D:
    @ Riki: Show Spoiler ▼

    Shii
    Reply

  45. QUOTE : (Kira at 7:27 pm on December 26th, 2006 D.Gray Man sucks! just my opinion..among the anime showing this season this one is the lamest.)

    I was lookin for some d.gray-man pictures and i suddenly saw this. kira in my opinion ur an asshole tat has no taste in anime so stfu. u should comment about how ur such a fag and buzz off from d.gray-man if u have no interest for it, y the hell r talkin stuff related about this anime?

    unknown
    Reply

  46. D.gray man really is a good series, though the fillers svck.
    The manga is much better though, and if you want the whole story I suggest you stick to that… Unless you want your opinion of it ruined.

    I personally like the manga and the anime is okay.

    Mandy
    Reply

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