D.Gray-Man 192nd Night

One Winged Angel?

「 192 – The Apostle, Revealed 」Kanda’s flashback continues and is finally reaching it’s climax, as both he and Alma discover more of the horrific origins of an Apostle. With Allen and Road strapped in for the ride, Kanda’s past as well as the Order’s dark era is revealed as the Noah continue to toy with their minds.

D.Gray-Man「 ディー・グレイマン 」

192nd Night – The Apostle, Revealed
Read Online @ ONEMANGA

Summary: The chapter begins with a dream sequence through an unknown person’s eye, as he reaches up to grab the sky. The dream is soon interrupted, as Kanda soon wakes up in the middle of a sealing circle, as people scuffle about him trying to keep him secure. After overhearing a conversation by Chang about Fo, which triggers a memory of an earlier chat with Alma about who he thought was the mysterious ghost in the apostle room, Kanda releases an eerie laugh as he realizes what everyone is trying to do.

As he discovers that all the hallucinations were real, and were in fact memories from a previous life, he demands answers from the lab workers. Knowing that he had in reality been killed off by an Akuma, he wanted to find out who he was and how long had it been since he was killed. Chang soon reveals that since Kanda regained too much of his old memories, he had to be put to sleep forever. When Sirlins Epstein gave the cue, the seal surrounding Kanda activates as surges of electrical current channel through his body, rendering him immobile as he writhes in pain.

As soon as Kanda was electrocuted, something triggered in Allen’s mind as he too felt the agony that Kanda is feeling at that moment. Just before it got out of hand however, in comes Road to snap him out of it, as the flashback scene soon changes as the two are brought into Alma’s memory. Alma had previously escaped from Edgar’s grasp and is heading towards the innocence shrine to save Kanda. As soon as he got in contact with an innocence, the Crows surround him with their Wings of Restraint technique and subdues him by releasing fire through the seals. Even as his body is burned to a char, Alma doesn’t give up and still attempts to sync with the innocence. As the Crows realize that he plans to use the innocence to resist them, they attempt another fire wing attack but it was too late as the synchronization was a success, as Alma gained control of an innocence.

A strong beam of light was released from his innocence and easily kills all the Crow members in one fell swoop. After the ruckus is over, Allen and Road realized what Alma was witnessing, as he stood there frozen in front of a mummified body hidden behind the innocence. Road reveals that apostles are just bodies created to host the brains of previous exorcists who died in battle. As innocence is only compatible with the one exorcist, the plan was created to have the innocence synchronize with the new artificially created body in order to preserve innocence for the holy war. What Alma was seeing was their previous bodies. This was the “Second Exorcist Project”.

The scene changes onto the battlefield, where a radio communication reports that an exorcist had died in action due to a fatal blow to the head. The communicator requests that the body be preserved and taken in for participation in the second exorcist project, but the kicker came next as it was revealed that Noise Marie was the victim in this case. Back at the lab, after the suffering, Kanda too had died in the sealing chamber, as everyone tries to come to terms with yet another lost life due to the failed experiment. Alma realizes everything about the project and all hell will soon break loose.

Bass’ Thoughts: I initially came into this impression post a little skeptical, since I really had no idea what was going on in DGM at the moment. That all changed though when I realized that the reason nothing was making sense was because I had missed two previous chapters (189 and 190). I could have sworn that I read it so either I didn’t or I completely forgot what had happened after a quick skim read.

Anyways, after reading every chapter post-hiatus once more, I am loving the direction the story is going. Not only is it getting darker and much more gory, but I’ve noticed that the latest chapter’s art had been steadily changing into a much better style in my opinion. I can definitely tell the difference between character art in 192 and 187 and I am loving this new style. It is a blend of both the new style I had hated previously and the style I loved in the past, and with this blend I am in awe again with how everything is drawn. It seems like a monthly is just the thing that DGM needs, as the attention to detail, shadows and textures on each of the pages are just outstanding. DGM had always been this intricate in the details but it seems like the jump to Square has given Hoshino more time to add more to the art, and for that I am truly flabbergasted.

As for the story, this whole story regarding Kanda’s past is genius. Not only is it tragic, as we know what will eventually happen to Alma Karma, but it is also dark as the plot takes a turn as it reveals the true gruesome origins of the Second Exorcist project. With the inevitable Alma massacre as well as the Kanda-Alma faceoff to come within the next chapter or so, the climax will be pretty damn exciting. This flashback is definitely a success (barring any sudden implosions ie. another hiatus lol).

The way that it was executed was also great, as there was enough mystery and vague flashbacks added in between the reality that it was tough to figure out what was real and what wasn’t. Whatever confusion gained in the past was easily wiped clean in this chapter, as everything is revealed, like the origins of Kanda’s dreams as well as the illusions he has been seeing. This was all in fact suppressed memories of his previous life, as his brain is actually extracted from the body of it’s previous owner. I can only imagine the shock that Kanda felt when he realized all this and that sinister laugh in the sealing chamber was a perfect touch to the madnes that overcame him. It must also have been extremely hard on the staff members to kill off another person they care for, as it was apparent that whenever apostles begin to regain their memories, they had to be disposed of in case an outbreak happens. They succeeded with Kanda but what they failed to realize is that Alma is in a weaker state of mind and he will turn batshit insane in the next chapter after the fact that Kanda is now dead compounds with whatever else he had discovered in the innocence chamber.

The perfect comparison I can find to this Alma Karma-Kanda story is with Sephiroth and Zack from Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core. While their personalities are different, Sephiroth is definitely similar to Alma in that he was a created to be the perfect embodiment of his source gene (Jenova in Sephiroth’s case and the previous Exorcist in Alma’s). As they were the first of their kind that could be considered a success without any setbacks, the realization of where they came from snaps a chord in their minds, leading them to go nuts and kill off everyone that they deem responsible for all this. Kanda can be seen as Zack, as they are both previously friends with their fallen comrade, and now has to face off with them to put an end to their misery. Where Zack had failed, Kanda obviously triumphs but since Alma is still alive, albeit in a comatose state, the story continues as I can see Alma being manipulated by the Earl into doing his bidding. (I also noticed that Alma had one wing on his shoulder due to the innocence, similar to Sephiroth’s one angel wing. Another excellent similarity)

This tragic hero story is compelling no matter how you spin it. I am loving the parallels between the two (hell, we could even compare Alma to Sasuke when he realized what Itachi’s true past was) and with the addition of Kanda’s personal mission along with Allen as he fights off against the 14th, DGM has managed to climb up in my mind as one of the best manga plots in recent memory.

Morri’s Thoughts: Boy does Hoshino know how to cocktease us with these cliffhanger chapter endings. I was a bit surprised to see how fucking angry Kanda was in this chapter. Granted his general state of being is “pissed off”, but its usually more of a pissed-off-at-the-world-and-cba-to-care-about-anything sort of teenage angst moodiness. Maybe its because he has something specific to focus his massive RAGE against, but, damn, is he crazy!scary.

It’s chapters like this that make me warm up to the Noah more. (Not that the Noah don’t do bad shit, but the process of making Akuma isn’t any worse than this. At least the Noah don’t pretend to be self-righteous.)

I love how attached Alma is to Kanda. Its pretty heartbreaking since we know how their relationship ends. Zhu mentions the Order forcing the two to fight to the death, and I can definitely see Alma allowing Kanda to kill him in order to “save” his friend. Very tragical. No wonder Kanda mentally blocked it out. (Is it just me or was anyone else reminded of how Road looked after she went through the barrier around the Rewinding Town when they saw Alma all burned by the Crow’s fuda?)

Its interesting the contrast between Edgar and Twi (or whatever the fuck her name is) in their reactions to how they have to handle Kanda and Alma is interesting. I’ll admit, I was pretty pissed at seeing how Twi and Zhu almost calmly carry out their orders against poor Kanda. (Okay, she did seem sad about it after the fact, but still…) In comparison, Edgar is obviously conflicted about their work. I wouldn’t be surprised if half the members of the Asian Branch suffer from PTS because of all this.

On a final note, I greatly enjoyed the interaction between Allen and Road in this chapter. Their relationship is the most interesting of all the characters in the series (except maybe the one between Allen and Tyki, but maybe I’m biased because Tyki is my favorite Noah). They way he tugs her hair to get her attention is adorable. Then she gives him this warm look and he’s all “Er, what is with that look?” (WTF is wrong with the way Hoshino drew his mouth there?!). I would say that she’s sweet on Allen because he “hosts” the essence of the Fourteenth, but she’s shown a preference for him long before that was revealed.

I know a lot of people don’t like Hoshino’s “new” art style, but that panel of Road is my favorite. She looks positively beautiful there. I guess maybe its easier to see her as a gorgeous young woman, instead of a cute little girl now that I know that she is really much older than she appears. I wonder if the trauma of the Fourteenth’s defection made her body stop developing.

/ 9 Commentsleave a comment /

• Thebes says:

  March 4, 2010

  Fantastic blog, you two, I had no idea this was here! I'm so bookmarking this!

  Reply
  • Bass says:

    March 4, 2010

    Thanks Thebesy ^_^

    We've only been up for 3 weeks so we're still kind of finding our feet. Hopefully we can grow further :D
    My recent post D.Gray-Man 192nd Night

    Reply
  • morri says:

    March 4, 2010

    OMG Thebes! <3

    Reply
• blindability says:

  March 5, 2010

  About Allen being the Fourteenth, Road might have known that before it was revealed since she's the "oldest" Noah in current existence (aside from the Millennium Earl). Or she just might like Allen for Allen.

  It's interesting to see the depths of the Black Order and what they do to produce Exorcists (even going as far as melding humans and akuma to make the Third Exoricsts). I get the feeling that the relationship between the Noah and the Exorcists isn't as black and white as it initially seemed.

  (I'm so glad you're reviewing D.Gray-Man!)
  My recent post The Who’s Watching What Chart – Spring 2010

  Reply
• Bass says:

  March 5, 2010

  Yea, the relationship between Allen and Road seems to be very unique, even when compared to his relationship with Tyki. This is one of the main reasons I love DGM, you feel as attached to the villains as you do to the heroes.

  And yea, with the revelation of human experimentation, like morri said the order isn't too far removed from the Earl with his creation of the Akuma. That's why both sides have their own M.O., since the Earl clearly sees himself as righteous.

  I see that you've also created an ID account lol, nice. Hopefully you like the format of our post for DGM. Since the chapters are long our reviews and summaries will probably be around this length as well XP.

  It's quite sad that not many people are reviewing this manga anymore D:
  My recent post Naruto ch485

  Reply
  • blindability says:

    March 5, 2010

    I do like the format; I like how there's more than one writer's thoughts on a chapter.

    And I didn't really create an ID account… I don't know how it happened, to be honest, haha. I write for another blog that uses WordPress and whenever I comment, it says I'm "logged in".

    I'm happy.
    My recent post The Who’s Watching What Chart – Spring 2010

    Reply
    • Bass says:

      March 5, 2010

      Oh that's probably because of the new ID update which allows WordPress accounts to be synced as well.

      And great to hear that it's to your liking :D
      My recent post Nolan North in Resonance of Fate

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