D.Gray-man ep.22

March 8, 2007 | 11 Comments

This turns out to be a rather long arc after all. I really thought that this episode will be the end of the story but that doesn't seem to be the case. At any rate, this is one hell of an interesting episode because not only it offers the usual arc-based storyline but also because it develops the mystery behind Allen's cursed eye. I now feel like catching up with the manga because I have no idea what's the implication of this plot development. I have heard rumblings about bad things happening to Allen but I never know if I should take it seriously or not. After watching this episode, however, I wonder if there is some truth to the rumour. Anyway, the animation in this episode is not bad at all and I'm glad that the character design remains consistent most of the time.

Continuing from the previous episode, Eliade tells Allen that he's really a nasty brat who torn apart her dress. In response, Allen tells Eliade that as he suspected, the Akuma he saw yesterday was her. He also asks her if she's not going to transform her body into that of Akuma. Eliade informs him that she likes her human form because she hates her ugly Akuma form. However, in this case, she has no choice but to transform into her Akuma form. Outside the castle, Lavi is still engaging in a one to one combat with Krory. Lavi tries to hit the guy with his huge hammer but unfortunately Krory manages to catch the hammer with his own hand and uses it against Lavi instead. Just as Krory about to finish him off, however, the vampire suddenly screams in pain and convulses on the ground. He thinks he's running out of fuel and wishes he had drunk Eliade's blood some more. Lavi, however, can't sympathise less and decides to attack the guy again.

He quickly summons innocence second opening stamp: maruhi - 「火」which effectively summons a large fireball which attacks Krory. The fireball immediately slams the vampire sending him crashing through the walls of the castle. At the same time, Allen is in the middle of battling Eliade when Krory and the summon blast through the wall, taking Eliade down along the way. This also causes Allen to fall out of the window but Lavi manages to catch him before he falls to the ground. In the process, he notices that Allen's eye has healed itself. Meanwhile, Eliade realises that the big fireball that hit her was actually an injured Krory so she decides to turn back into her human form. When Allen and Lavi manage to catch up to them, however, Lavi is shocked to know that he's able to see a soul hovering on top of Eliade's human form. Allen is shocked to hear this because this means other people apart from him can also see the Akuma's soul.

A flashback then shows Eliade saying how because of a woman's mistake, she ends up becoming an Akuma. Cue a story about a woman who called upon Eliade's soul due to her grief, enslaving Eliade as an Akuma who ended up killing the woman and took over her body. Eliade narrates how the human form that she took is very beautiful. Because she was allowed to keep her sense of self, Eliade ends up obsessing with beauty, dance, and party. And due to her look, men want to get close to her. However, because she's an Akuma, she kills those who get close to her. All the men who got close to her died easily. Eliade thinks that the self that killed men is very ugly. It was then that Eliade realised that she wants to become a real woman. She, however, realises the impossibility of this because she is an Akuma. A machine, which can't betray its program. At one point, however, she was sent by the Millennium Earl to obtain Innocence from Krory.

Eliade was unhappy that the Earl never praised her beauty no matter how pretty she became. She thinks this is because the Earl has no interest in this kind of matter. Despite this, Eliade continued her desire to be pretty and objected when her colleagues reminded her to stop doing her make-up and find Innocence already. Eliade then told herself that from now on she'd kill a lot of people and then she'd evolve. While pondering about this, she got attacked by Krory who pinned her down effortlessly. Upon seeing Krory's fangs, Eliade felt that she has a bad feeling about it. True enough, Krory sank his fangs on Eliade, causing her to think that she'll be dead for sure. A few minutes later, however, Eliade woke up and found Krory crying not far from her. She decided to ask him why he didn't kill her. As it turns out, his consciousness came back to him. Eliade admitted that although the fang repulsed her, she was attracted to it as well.

She then moved in to kiss Krory. Eliade narrates that it was then she and Krory met. She knows well that Krory is an Innocence-compatible human: Akuma's enemy. When Krory drinks Akuma's blood, he gains a superhuman strength. However, due to that blood, Krory desires more blood. He tries his best not to bite her nor kill her. As a result, he ended up killing the Akuma villagers and Eliade's own subordinates. Despite this Eliade doesn't mind. She just wants to be with Krory in this castle. Always. In the present time, Krory regains his consciousness but he's horrified when he too can see the soul on top of Eliade's body. When Eliade looks behind her, she too can see her Akuma's soul in pain. At the same time, Lavi realises that this is probably due to Allen's left eye. Allen understands that his left eye is becoming stronger. In other words, Mana's curse is becoming stronger. Lavi uses this opportunity to inform Krory about Eliade.

A doubtful Krory asks Eliade if this is the truth. Before she can answer, her blood falls onto her hand but instead of red, it's oily brown. Eliade suddenly gets up and tells Krory that she'll smash him to death. She then transform into her true form and sends Krory flying into one of the pillars in the castle. She claims that she was hoping she could use him but now she doesn't care and doesn't want Krory to become an Exorcist. Before Lavi and Allen can help Krory, however, the man-eating plants attack them. Meanwhile, Krory cries and tells Eliade that he loved her from the first time they met. Therefore, he wonders why she didn't just kill him if she's his enemy. Eliade claims that she's just using him so she prevented herself from killing him. In response Krory licks Eliade's blood and tells her that he too always want to kill her. The episode ends with Eliade saying that it seems they both felt the same way before they leap into the air to fight each other.

Impression:

First thing first, who was that woman that called her soul back? I can't remember her identity being mentioned at all. I suspect it's someone close since this is not just a random killing but a murder of the person who called upon the soul of a person and placed that soul into the Akuma machine. I suspect it's a relative or a friend but there's no way of knowing for sure. Anyway, there are actually two main story here. The first one is Eliade's obsession with human's body and her love for Krory. It's kind of strange to see an Akuma obsessed with human body. This means that despite being controlled b the Millenium Earl, some Akuma actually has control over their own mind. Despite Eliade's lie at the end of this episode, it's obvious that she loves Krory and wanted to stay with him. In fact, she went out of her way to let the guy prey upon other Akuma in the village. I do wonder why the Millenium Earl has not done anything about it.

The second plot is mostly about Allen and his ability leakage. This is an exciting plot development, in my opinion. This means that everyone near Allen can see whether someone is an Akuma or not. My question is the extent of this leakage. Does someone needs to be near Allen in order to be able to see the Akuma? Obviously it can be a few feet away since Krory was also affected and could see the Akuma as well even though he's a bit far from Allen. The problem with this leakage happens when many people in the village can see the Akuma as well. I'm sure panic would ensure and there would be more killing of the villagers by the Akuma. In addition to this, I wonder what would happen once the curse reaches its full potential. Would Allen turns into Akuma? Although the curse came from Mana, he was an Akuma while cursing Allen with it. The mark on Allen's eye suggests that the ability is indeed, Akuma-related. At any rate, I hope there will be more development about this.

Preview

On next week's episode: The man-eating plant gets to watch free porn courtesy Krory and Eliade.

© memento 2003