D.Gray-man/Headscratchers

• Seems I'm the first person here.... oh, well. Anyway, does anyone else find it strange that even though the Earl has taken over Japan and wiped out almost the entire population of Japanese people, that he nor any other Noah notice the fact that Kanda is Japanese? You'd think they'd wonder how he got away.
  • The author stated that the characters are talking in English, so the Noah don't know that Kanda's Japanese.
    • Kanda's a homunculus. He just looks Japanese.
    • Until I remembered about the Artificial Human thing, I thought you were talking about FMA. Makes you wonder which one he would be... Maybe Wrath...? Or... No, maybe he'd be... ...You know, I think this probably belongs in the WMG. If it's not already there.
• Jasdevi's hair...how the hell does he do it?
  • Noahs are just that cool, maybe. But he does have the power of imagination/materialisation (etc) so he can surely create hair that doesn't get tied in knots.
• Why haven't we seen a Level 4 Akuma's soul yet? Yes, I'm aware it was horrific enough to make Allen throw up, but that's exactly WHY I want to see it. I want to see the suffering so that when a Level 4 is destroyed by an Innocence, I can understand just how much of a save it is.
  • We actually do, when Allen and Kanda are forced to fight one in the Phantom Thief arc. It is every bit as horrifying as you think...but it actually becomes underwhelming, compared to Allen's Noah Soul form which is standing right next to it.
    • Actually, we don't see it. It would seem that the Akuma evolved in order to subvert the power of Allen's eye, at least until it evolved a second time.
• What's with all the Kanda Character Development? I honestly don't really care, and it seems to have very little to do with, you know, the war to save the world. Wouldn't be a little better to spend the time figuring out the 14th's back story, or something?
  • Some fans love Kanda, so Hoshino wanting them to know his back story, or somethin'. Actually I've started to like him a bit more, after finding out what he is such a Jerkass. Also, mind you this a Shounen manga, so it'll probably be long and it'll eventually cover the 14th's origin. Hopefully.
    • Correction: An EXTREME majority of fans love Kanda. A 2 month trip to Japan surrounded by teenage Japanese girls (I was teaching English) proves this. Only one character came out of their mouths :Kanda. Kanda is so cool. Kanda is hot. etc etc (Allen was a close second)
  • It kinda does have to do with the present. If this flashback wasn't happening you wouldn't know what the hell the Second Exorcist Project was, who Alma was and frankly if the Noahs are planning on using Alma, I'd like to know who on earth he was
  • I agree, but it's true that to Kanda's fans(and I'm sure his placing in the popularity contest despite his lack of appearance tells of the magnitude of his fandom), his past seems to be way overdue. Before this arc, he's pretty much the only person in the main cast without a concrete past. That said, D.Gray-man has been terribly dull for me in the past few months. I really wish that it would get a move on and tell us a bit more about the 14th and the third side of the war.
  • Good news: The "Kanda's past" arc seems to be over and everyone is back in the present. Awesome, now we can get back to the good stuff. Bad news: No new D.G.M. next month, you'll have to wait until July for the next chapter. Son of a-
  • Kanda's past answered a FEW questions but it seemed to raise more. However we now have a general idea of who 'that person' is that he spoke about oh so long ago. I would be mad if that was never (generally) answered.
• The third exorcists, or whatever the hell they are. Why are there? Why do I care? Couldn't we have gotten Kanda's backstory without all of these extra, meaningless characters running around and making Allen angst? Besides, their mere existence makes it so hard to root for the Order anymore. Honestly, because the Order are such douches, I'm switching sides and rooting for the Noah. They're assholes but at least they admit it.
  • The creation of the Thirds could bring up the question "If these are thirds...then doesn't that mean there were seconds?" ?
  • That's kind of the point, if you're following. In fact, I think the Earl uses that argument almost word-for-word...
  • Actually, the Gray And Gray Morality was likely intentional and the fact that the order is full of assholes was made clear at least since Lenalee's backstory was revealed. We're technically supposed to root for Allen and some of his friends, not the order as a whole.
    • Not necessarily while Lenalee's backstory did introduce us to the idea of there being jerks in the black order, it was negated by the existence of Komui, and the science division who were all pretty nice guys overall making the Order seem like it wasn't that bad a place(especially true so if you watch the anime). This is why the third exorcists were needed. They needed to show that there were in fact still jerks in the order, and that they really didn't care about the exorcists, so that we wouldn't root for the Order itself.
  • That's the way is going now, specially with the mentioning of the "third" side of the war, the Noah's kill humans, Innocence was alright until it's discovered by the Fallen One inccident that it is 100% on the side of The Black Order which is run by a bunch of assholes (making that guy look like Hitler and practically forcing people to fulfill their duties as exorcist didn't help at all) so my guess is that the third side could be something new, or simply a side that knows that both others while opposite are both bad.
• Bookman is always going on about how he and Lavi are supposed to be neutral in this, and are only helping the Exorcists because they were closer. ...He does realize that the Earl'd kill him and Lavi too, right?
  • Another thought; what if his Innocence won't let him leave and pulls a Suman Dark on him?
    • I think it's highly unlikely that both Bookman and Lavi have the ability to use Innocence naturally and with the way Bookman spoke about leaving if Lavi's tries to go Crystal on him, they might be using some magic to make Innocence recognize them and are actually able to distance themselves from it. Plus, Suman could have been saved if he hadn't been parasitic-type. Not only it's possible to stop Innocence from acting insane by forcibly removing it from the user (as Allen demonstrated), there is clearly some time between the Exorcist's 'betrayal' and them becoming a Fallen One, during which the Innocence can be destroyed.
    • I think he meant they were "closer" by the fact that they are exorcist, if there were a way to alie with the Noah's while being human (and not have innocence) they may had taken their side because of their Duty Before Reason.
• With all the panic about Allen turning into the 14th Noah, why doesn't the possibility of Allen becoming a Fallen One or otherwise being punished by the Innocence ever come up or gets addressed? For one thing, Allen has a hole in his heart and the only thing keeping him alive is a chunk of his Innocence patching that hole. True, his own Innocence has caused him pain (as in chapter 182 when he was impaled by Crown Clown), but the Innocence hasn't turned on Allen the way that Suman Dark's innocence did. Is it that the Innocence is judging Allen by his intent -- i.e., Allen's not held responsible because he's not in control of the 14th's actions? Or is it that forming a third side in the battle between the Black Order and the Millennium Earl is not considered a betrayal of the Innocence or God?
• Is it just me, or has the art lost the charm that made it so unique at the beginning of the series?
  • I think so also.
    • I do too, to some extent.
    • Fourthed.
      • I think the opposite happened.
      • I'd like to take a third option and say that it didn't permanently improve or become worse. At first, the art sometimes looked shaky and the comedy scenes looked extremely generic, then the mangaka seemed to have grown out of that for a while and the art became cleaner and stunningly beautiful, but very similar to other not-quite-shounen series. Then she became sick and the evolution only lasted for a few chapters. Ever since then, it's constantly changes between great, decent and too messy to understand what's going on. Sometimes all three options in one chapter.
• Is it just me, or is there a glaring time discrepancy around the time the team departs for Japan? Okay, so they attempt to leave China, but are stopped by that huge army of Akuma. Allen loses his Anti-Akuma Arm, and is left for dead by Tyki. The Asian Branch rescues him, but the remainder of the Exorcists and the crew depart for Japan anyway. It is then stated that it will take 5 days to reach Japan by boat(Although it only takes them about three due to Chomesuke's arrival). Allen, meanwhile, works with the people at the Asia branch to restore his arm, which he successfully does, and then arrives in time to help with the fight in Edo. But wait! Allen's training with Fou is clearly shown to take much longer than five days, much less three, especially thanks to the arrival of that Lvl 3 akuma. So how the hell did he get to Edo in time to help them out?
  • After the fight with the Level 3 the akuma told Allen to use Noah's ark to travel to Edo because the Noah ordered the akuma to bring Allen to Edo. And since the ark is teleport device it only took a couple of minutes to get to Edo from China.
• It's stated and shown in the series that the Black Order and their fight against the Millennium Earl are both kept secret from the general populace. But if it WERE known to the general populace...wouldn't that make their fight against the Earl 100 times easier? The Earl creates Akuma by preying on the weak and downtrodden after the death of loved ones. So, if the order sent a message to the governments of the world saying "Please inform your citizens that there is a supernatural being who wishes to destroy humanity. If someone appears offering a way to bring back your recently deceased loved one, DO NOT LISTEN." No more new akuma are created, all you have to do are whittle down their current numbers. The Order has existed for over 100 years, and no one has figured this out?
  • Hmm.. Good points you raised there. I have been thinking about it too. That it stuck me. Akumas are robots wearing human disguise. You Do Not Know It Until One Of Them Pop Guns In Your Face.By the way, Allen is the one only who can 'see' their soul and can figure out who is the Akuma. In other words, there is no freaking way to know that your friend, family, schoolmate, a guy at the bus stop or chatty aunty at the supermarket is Akuma. That's right, folks! You can be killed without knowing what is going on. I am sure that they are keeping it low just to prevent the panic among people. If the government or Vatican release the word that says, " Hi. Your Mom is Akuma " or something like that, there is going to be another witch hunt for akumas or humans.
  • But they wouldn't even have to mention the Akuma, they could just say that the Earl is an evil being who wishes nothing more than to kill you (which, in all honesty, is entirely true). People would know enough to not accept his offer, but not enough to create a mass panic.
  • In the first volume of manga, there was this boy who knew about the Akuma and the Millennium Esrl but he still made deal with the Earl to go and make the AKUMA of himself. Either he was too dumb to live or the temptation was too strong to resist. If a boy could fall for this, I dont think saying the Earl is a bad guy will not work. Also, don't forget that one of the Noah is freaking Minister of a nation. Do you think the Earl is stupid enough to leave those who screams out that he is a villain?
    • Plus normal weapons are said not to work against Akuma and even if they could Innocence is probably the only way they could combat Akuma regardless what with certain ones giving them superhuman strength, speed, etc. I mean we even see the non-combat innocence users and they can't fight. From the average populace to trained soldiers no one would stand a chance.
  • One should also note that the people of the current human race are all decendants of Noah. This means that any one of them could be turned into a vessel for the Noah at any time. If the order revealed the war, the Earl could simply counter with telling everyone that they are his puppets not currently being used. Would you be able to walk around knowing that at any moment you could be turned into a vessel for an evil soul and loose your free will?
• Just wondering.... Anybody notices what happened to the old guy mentioned at the chapter 137. He was said to be related to the 14th but he was not mentioned after a few moments of panel.
• Can Noah Become Akuma? like say if one died, could the other Noah bring him/her back that way? and would that Akuma be stronger than other Akuma?
• Why 109 pieces of Innocence? It seems kinda arbitrary...
  • 108 is holy in Buddhism and one more for the Heart? I can only guess. It does seem kinda arbitrary though...
  • Well not everything has to be based on something, it's pretty clear that we wont see even close to the 109, specially since a few have already been destroyed, so it was probably picking a high random number.
• I noticed while rereading the series that in the Rewinding Town Arc, Miranda's clock has thirteen hours, not twelve...
  • The clock was the raw form of her innocence and was causing the groundhog day loop, so it being off by an extra hour is at least plausible
• When reading chapter 206, I noticed Cross said Neah died thirty years ago, yet earlier in the manga it was stated that Neah sealed a part of himself or whatever in the nearest living thing before he died. If Allen was ten and Neah died before he was even born, how did the fourteenth come to be planted in Allen in the first place?
• Why is Johnny not dead? Why does Johnny avoid death every single time? All he does is lament his uselessness and cry for other people. Didn't we already have Chaoji for that? I'm sure we were supposed to bond with him after he loses the life of Tapp but even then, Tapp appeared in five panels and maybe twenty minutes of anime. Sure, death is tragic but how can I feel sorry to someone who hasn't had any screentime or bond with a character who's only purpose is to cry about his friends?
  • Chapter 207 is hinting at some character development for him.
    • To our dismay...
• We know that it takes quite a few kills for an Akuma to evolve to level 2. Even more to level 3, and it took a insane number of level 3 piled up together plus a few scientists to make one level 4 − and during the attack of the North American branch there were a good dozen of level 4. Considering the sheer number of level 2 and 3 Akuma, plus the level 1 who killed dozens and the people used to make them, the total number of their victims over a century (of which the entire population of Japan is only a small portion) must be well over the hundred million mark. Even with Akuma disguising themselves as humans, how the hell did no-one notice something was wrong? If a virus killed a hundred million people, I think nations would probably start to worry a little and seek for the cause…
  • Especially when you consider that the world's population was only 1.7 billion in 1900, less since the series takes place around 1891. And considering the population was only 1 billion in 1800, and since the war started a little before that...there should have been a significant decline in population growth. Hell, if the previous troper's assessment of 100 million casualties total over a century is correct, it's not just the entire population of Japan, that's the equivalent of the entire population of the United States at the time being completely wiped out plus another 25 million on top of that. The entire European continent at least should be significantly depopulated.
• The level 3 Akuma in the Edo arc are drawn as thin armored humanoids with a height between 2 and 2,50 meters; in the later volumes they have become extremely muscular, bull-like, 4 meter tall monsters. The level 4 have also got more muscular and have grown huge hands with strange spheres on them and their shoulders. What with those unexplained changes in design?
  • It is possible that those Level 3 and Level 4 are more powerful than their brethren, particularly the Level 4. The one that the Black Order fought was a newborn Level 4 Akuma, while the Akuma in the Phantom G and Third Exorcist arc are older.
• Am I the only one who finds it a little odd that even though the Black Order is supposedly run by the Vatican, that few to none of the characters could plausibly be Roman Catholic? Granted, each of their countries of origin would have Catholic minorities, but the odds of them all fitting into that minority seem slim. Allen is English, so he'd most likely be Anglican, Komui, Lenalee, Lavi, and Bookman are all Chinese so they'd most likely be either Bhuddist, Taoist, or Confucian, Kanda is Japanese so he'd be Shinto, Miranda could be Roman Catholic depending on what part of Germany she's from, but she could just as easily be Lutheran. And Krory's from Transylvania, which, despite being part of Catholic Austria-Hungary in the 1890s, had a mostly Orthodox population. The one Greek exorcist would also be Orthodox. Hell, the order has branches in largely non-Catholic countries (The aforementioned China, and the United States, which had a mostly Protestant population at the time.) It just seems odd that an organization that seems to be directly tied to the Catholic church seems to be oddly non-Catholic. Neither the Pope nor any of the church heirarchy are even mentioned by any of the order's higher ups. Why aren't there any French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Austrian, Irish, or hell, Polish members of the order?
  • Actually, D Gray Ark revealed that Tiedoll is French and Marie is Austrian...
  • Because Christianity Is Catholic? Anyway, in D.Gray-man's universe the biblical mythology is apparently the "real" one, so you're more or less forced to believe in it once you discover Innocence, Akuma and all that stuff. Then again, one can indeed wonder why the pure and benevolent Innocence would chose people that are definitely not the incarnation of Catholic pureness like Cross, or even utter psychopaths like Sokalo... also, even though the Order is tied to the Vatican, the mythology invoked is nearly exclusively that of the Old Testament. We see Christian crosses and even crucifix (Tiedoll's Innocence for example) but Jesus Christ or the New Testament are never mentionned. I would say all that mess is a mix of Did Not Do the Research and She Just Didn't Care.
    • Well, Samson in the Old Testament wasn't pure or benevolent, but he was still given incredible power. I just figure that the series follows Old Testament rules, and that "Pope" and "Vatican" are just titles completely unrelated to Jesus or New Testament.
      • A bit related to that, this person is wondering why no one seems religious AT ALL, even if its a religious organization and connected to the Vatican. They don't pray, or ANYTHING.
      • In the anime, we see a brief glimpse of Miranda praying. I just assume most of them do it offscreen. It's actually easier to remember that it's Anime Catholicism and not think too much about it.
  • Am I the only one whos wondering what will happen when the 14th takes over Allen? How will the innocence react? Could the Noah in him beat it, or the Innocence let him keep shred of himself in there for a I Know Your In There battle? Or could it be corrupted making it more powerful? It would be most interesting if that were to happen, or am I the only one?
• Lenalee instantly recognizing the Fallen as Suman...I mean, did you see how far away she was and there was so many Akuma around!