D.Gray-man ep.23

March 14, 2007 | 16 Comments

I really like the artistic decision that the animators made in this episode. There are several frames which clearly an attempt to present the episode in an experimental manner, something which I never thought I'll see from a Shounen series. I guess they're trying to make the series look slightly different from other Shounen series. This, however, also causes a slight inconsistency in the style of the series. As a result, unlike series like Death Note, the art style in this series is not as memorable. Death Note anime tends to use blue, red, and yellow as its primary colours in most of its episode. As a result, there's an immediate sense of familiarity the minute you watch a new episode. On the other hand, D.Gray-man is a lot harder to identify due to its lack of consistent art style.

The episode begins with Krory narrating about how his grandfather is a peculiar man who likes to collect artefacts in his castle. Amongst his collection was an ancient plant which has tendency to attack the castle's guest, as a result, they were rumoured to be 'vampires'. After his grandfather died, he was left alone amongst the collections causing him to realise that he too is a possession of his grandfather. Since everything in the castle belong to his grandfather, he can't help but wonder what thing in the castle belongs to him. He believed back then that no one will accept him or love him. However, Eliade was different. Eliade was the only person who accepted him. Because of this he believes that he loves Eliade. Meanwhile, Allen and Lavi are in panic because the man-eating plant are ready to eat them. Lavi tries his best to jump around inside the plant's mouth so that he doesn't get eaten. Allen, however, asks Lavi to calm down and listen to him.

Allen remembers that he used to take care of this kind of flowers when he was with his teacher. The flowers apparently won't kill humans who show affection to them. Because of this, the two proclaim their love for the flowers over and over again. At the same time, Krory finds that his attack against Eliade Akuma has little to no effect. To make things worse, he seems to be running out of energy due to the attack. Eliade thinks it was wise of Krory to back away since the bubbles appearing in front of her are her power. She then throws them down, asking Krory if he can dodge them. While attempting to dodge the projectiles, Krory notices that the surrounding man-eating plants wither as soon as they come into contact with the projectiles. Soon, Krory have problem dodging the projectiles and one of his hand hit it, causing his hand to wither and wrinkle. He immediately realises that the projectiles evaporate water content from anything it comes into contact with.

Krory tells Eliade that it's unforgivable to destroy his grandfather's flowers but she simply laugh at him, saying that it doesn't matter on way or the other. She also points out that the reason he can't get out is because of his grandfather's fault. Despite this, Krory admits that although Eliade is an Akuma, he still loves her. This is why he doesn't want to see her looking like this. Because of this, he promises to make her disappear without a trace. Meanwhile the two bozzos known as Allen and Lavi are still proclaiming their love for the man-eating plants. Their profession of love ends when they see Eliade's projectile killing the man-eating plants. Allen immediately realises the danger of the projectiles and drags Lavi away from the area. Meanwhile, the projectiles manage to trap not only Krory's remaining hand but also his legs and later on his body. Eventually all of his body is captured by the projectiles, causing him to fall dead on the spot.

Eliade transforms back into her human form, looking sad. When she gets closer to the corpse, however, the head suddenly animates and pounce on her neck. At the same time, Allen and Lavi are still escaping from the man-eating plant when they see Krory sucking Eliade's blood. While this happens, Eliade remembers how even in the olden days, she's always wanted the thing that made other women beautiful. However, because she's an Akuma, she can't have this since she always ended up killing the men who got close to her. What she wants is to be loved. What she needs is a man that she loves and can't kill. Meanwhile, Krory's body somehow returns to its original shape due to sucking all of Eliade's blood. At the same time, Eliade mentions that she knows this man would destroy her. Soon enough, Krory regains his consciousness and starts crying while Eliade reveals the truth: the she always loved him. Eliade then turns into sands and her soul is released.

After Eliade disappears, Allen and Lavi are surprised because it suddenly rains inside the castle. Krory, on the other hand, is devastated that he just killed the person that he loved. Upon seeing this, Allen tells Krory that if he's that devastated, he suggests Krory becomes an Exorcist. Worst recruitment campaign ever, Allen. Anyway, he explains how the Exorcist's job is to destroy Akuma and how today he's just destroyed an Akuma called Eliade. Allen tells him that if Krory continues to destroy Akuma, then that'll be the reason why he destroyed Eliade. If Krory has a reason, then Allen believes the guy can live. This means Krory can continue living for his own reason. After all, Krory is just another apostle of the Innocence, the same as the rest of them. Upon hearing this, Krory cries his last tear for Eliade. Later on, Krory informs them that General Cross did come to his castle, and introduced himself as a friend of Krory's grandfather.

Krory also informs them that General Cross's purpose was to return what he had borrowed: an offspring of the man eater flower. Allen immediately recognises the pot which the plant came from and asks whether the plant is 'Rosanne'. Upon hearing Krory's confirmation, Allen gets a horrible flashback of the time when he was still with his master and was forced to take care of the flower, which always chomped on his head. Allen ends up feeling traumatised for the next few minutes after remembering his past. While Allen feels sorry for himself, Krory explains that this flower was a little bit oodd and at one point actually bit him. All of a sudden, it started to wither and die. Not long after the incident, Krory felt burning sensation on his body and all of his teeth were destroyed. In its place, a set of fangs grew quickly, giving him a vampiric look. Now that he thinks about, Krory realises that the flower must be the Innocence that Allen and Lavi were talking about.

Ever since then, Krory started to attack Akuma and then bit Eliade. As for General Cross himself, Krory remembers that the guy said that he wants to go to the East Country so he asked Krory to lend him money. After saying this, Krory asks the two to wait for him outside the castle because he needs to prepare himself for the journey. Outside, Allen is a bit depressed since General Cross is not around but Lavi points out that they got a comrade so it's not a waste. All of a sudden, Bookman makes an appearance and as he and Lavi start getting into fight, all of a sudden there's an explosion from the castle, followed by a heavy fire. The three immediately assume that Krory is roasted inside but much to their surprise, the guy is alive and well. Krory assures them not to worry because from now on, he's an Exorcist. The episode ends with Krory telling Eliade that he'll destroy Akuma from now on because otherwise he wouldn't know for what purpose he destroyed her.

Impression:

Allen and Lavi screaming "Aishiteru, aishiteru, aishiteru!!" was really funny to me for some reason. It's just so absurd that Allen and Lavi would say it to a group of man-eating plants. Equally amusing were Allen's traumatising flashback and the real-time effect it has on the current Allen. Additional point goes to Timcanpy for re-enacting the man-eating plant snacking on Allen's head. On the other hand, by making Allen this comedic, I think it also makes him loses a couple of cool points. Another thing that bother me in this episode was his reaction to Krory losing Eliade. I just felt it was a bit abrupt to ask Krory to be an Exorcist but I guess there's no other way to do it in the confine of a half-hour show. I also don't like that Krory somehow comes back to life after near death. However, I did like the way he turned into 'Vampire' due to the plant's bite. I guess the plant was trying to 'taste' Allen when it bit Allen back then.

Preview

On next week's episode: another anime original/filler.

© memento 2003