D. Gray-man Hallow Episode 2: [Lonely Boy]

Lavi, Lavi, why ur so sexy?

The-not-so-good at-their-job-guards who were supposed to guard Cross Marian’s door felt asleep. After seeing Cross Marian’s bloody body once, they go reporting the news of his supposed death to everyone but OH SNAP! The body disappeared! Allen is brought to the scene by Timcampy and realizes  it’s most likely Cross’s blood since there’s also his mask lying next to the window. According to Lveille Cross’s assassination was the Central Agency doing, but nobody really knows what happened, except Lveille I’m sure he knows, he knows everything.

During a mission, Allen remembers Cross’s words, telling him to stop wearing Mana’s mask and to walk on his own.  I can’t possibly imagine how hard it must be for Allen who has to deal with a loooot of shit currently. But yo, my boy Allen might have some identity issues but he remains strong willed. He’s decided to remain himself, to create his own future and not to follow anyone’s directions, especially not the 14th’s ones. Furthermore, he’s also ready to die if the 14th awakes and becomes a threat to the Black Order. But rather than being all dramatic and tragic like “I WILL DIE TO PROTECT YOU ALL!” my boy is more “But that won’t happen since I’ll stop him. Why? Because I’m Allen Walker and your kids call me Daddy”.

Now, an important part of the episode was dedicated to the new Arc:
Phantom Thief G or Timothy arc, whatever you want to call it.

Phantom Thief G, who is actually a little boy called Timothy, has the ability to mind control people, and happens to take over Link’s body who actually has some good damn fighting skills. This makes Kanda realize that Link is part of the Central Agency’s combat unit: the Crows. So he’s not totally a good guy, but not a total dick either… actually we don’t really know that for a fact, Link is rather secretive.

After defeating Timothy, they explain everything to the Orphanage where he is living. They also plan on making him an exorcist since he is a possessor of innocence. He apparently got that innocence because his thief of father forced him to swallow. He forced him to swallow some sort of jewel in order to hide it. I call that parenting goals, a nice way to make your kids useful and to teach them at the same time how the world works.
So they try to “convince” him to join the Black Order as an exorcist. I said “convince” but apparently Kanda has a different meaning of that word, I guess “forcing” him or “beating him to death if he refuses” would be more accurate here.

But we ain’t got not time for this because there’s an Akuma’s invasion. Everything quickly turns to shit and the mother superior and other kiddos are turned into creepy dolls. Link fights well but at the end, he is turned into one too. Now, it is Timothy’s time to shine in order to defend what he cares about.

I feel like this fight, which is not over yet by the way, was maybe a bit rushed and wasn’t as epic as I wanted it to be. I guess it was a question of dynamism this time, everything felt a bit static, compared to the manga and also, less dark. I remember Mother Superior playing a bigger role in that fight thus making this experience more traumatic for Timothy, and dear lord I love when characters are suffering, I wouldn’t be reading D.Gray-Man if that wasn’t the case fufufu.
But eh yo, it is understandable that they want to rush things since the anime is only 13 episodes. Honestly, I prefer to hem to spend more time on the Alma Arc since I think it is more important than the Phantom G one.

It also seems like they continued to adapt the chapters in a strange order, it is quite disturbing if you know the manga very well (which is not really my case). I had the manga on my knees and as the episode was going on I was turning pages and pages, trying to find out in which order they were adapting things. But overall it kind of makes sense in this order too. I don’t really understand why they changed it but I don’t really have any relevant complaints to make.

However, I was pleased with the funny parts, the comedy was top notch in this episode, especially when Allen “penetrates” Link’s body with his sword….

What?
Don’t look at me like that.
It’s exactly what happened.
I’m not the one to blame if you have a dirty mind.
Furthermore my English is too limited, I don’t know any other words to describe it.
“Stabbed” maybe?
Yeah that’ll do

So the part where Allen stabbed Link’s body with his big sword was funny. Especially when you know how strict and collected Link is, seeing him crying like that, quite unusual and hilarious at the same time.  I also witnessed an improvement regarding the “funny faces” of the characters, they were more close to the manga than during the previous episode. But maybe that’s just me, it’s probably because I got used to the Art style. I’t’s nice to have a good laugh while D. Gray man is still “light”. I put some parenthesis here because it isn’t that “light” at all but compared to what’s to come… yeah… Better enjoy those happy moments man…

Finally, the animation quality, well, remained the same. The background characters are a bit derpy but honestly, I got used to it. I now find it quite funny and I prefer not to bitch about the graphics too much. Maybe that’ll encourage the studios to make another season, who knows? If everyone keeps on shitting about the graphics I doubt they’ll want to produce another season, and if that happened to be the case I’ll do it myself, then people will have a good reason to complain about the animation.

So yes, as a reviewer I’m not very objective here. Maybe it is more appropriate to say that even if I acknowledge the anime’s flaws I’ve decided to forget them for the time being, in order to fully enjoy this new anime. This is maybe the last time D.Gray-Man is going to be adapted on screen so better enjoy this while we can.