Crosses, Demons and the Holy War: The D.Gray-Man Thread!

@emythos yes!! deadly plus elegant equals guhhhhh. Power is sexy.

 

hell yes
and that's why d gray man is filled with so many hot people.

 

hilarious anecdata: I didn't think Kanda was sexy until I started RPing Alma. Then it was like getting hit in the head with a brick. It was kind of hysterical.

 

yea same but even sixteen is still mildly cringe worthy for me because like. that me lil baby brother's age. whut. no. why.

yes that is the perfect summary for why i love all of these mass murdering pretty people.

i only realized kanda was hot when he pulled the SAD AS FUCK SMILE for the first time and then I was just hhhhHHHHHH?????????????????????????????????????????????

 

ladies gentlemen and everything inbetween beyond and outside, we have a new chapter
and it explains a few things
via gratuitous hair porn and topless shots of a dude.
Y'all are welcome.

 

am I the only one who is having alma flashbacks wrt "it doesn't matter if you remember or not, because I'm going to kill you anyway"?

 

... yeah it does have that vibe
also I'm raising my eyebrows that right now it looks like Mana is 'Misguided not technically evil and made a decision that ruined his life' and Nea is 'bonkers and out for vengeance'. I'm not convinced this isn't more of the set up for 'The Noah are Not Actually Evil, Just Weird.'
not that massmurder is in any way okay but I wonder how it's gonna get justified if it's gonna be.
Also what is it with the whole 'Christianity is evil' trope in japanese media.

 

Short version: Backlash against western imperialism, esp missionaries. It's a more complex historical issue than that (they also have an outsider-culture-fascination with it roughly analogous to the Western fascination with Inaccurate Buddhism), but being Christian in Japan is actually a Dangerous-to-be religious minority, iirc.

 

wowzie okay. Suddenly I wish japanese history was even remotely touched upon in my history classes u_u
I mean I was suspecting backlash against imperialism. That's not actually hard to guess.

 

We don't directly get Japanese history but one of the benefits of being on the west coast is that we get Japanese language classes, which of course always have some cultural component.

 

And at least the 'outsider's fascination' is something I can kinda understand! I'm definitly an outsider to catholicism and arguably to christianity as a whole because I don't really... do the believe system.
And I have to admit, christian iconography has a compelling aesthetic! the whole angels vs demons/devils thing and the cultural tropes surrounding that especially are really neat! Lot's of opportunity for pretty characters with dramatic looks. Nevermind that neither devils nor angels are actually very sexy in the bible itself but who cares people started making them goodlooking anthropomorphic dudes and dudettes a long time ago, s'not like it's a new thing.

 

Christian imagery is so dramatic. All the symbolic violence makes a great basis for telling dramatic stories of good and evil, and catholicism's traditions just take it to the next level. Drinking blood(wine), confession of sins, penance, glorifying the suffering of a dying man, martyrdom... From the outside it all seems super morbid.

I am once again blown away by Katsura's artwork. Oh my god, it's like I'm getting sexed up in the eyeballs. The detail and textures and the anatomy and the design sense... guuuuuhhhhhhh. Mana's hand on the mirror is so beautiful. And the hair, the hair... so much beautiful hair... just... hngh.

I hope everything works out for Johnny Gill and his scrunchie. They've had a roller coaster of a day.

 

Also, can we talk about how weird the Earl is as a villain? Even for a kinda imminently-getting-replaced-as-Big-Bad kind of villain, the amount of emotional vulnerability he shows is really interesting and even refreshing in a way. It complicates things in a way that I like a lot. Normally an evil nobleman type like him would be far too cold-hearted and self-absorbed to show any regret or sorrow when bad things happened to the people around him. But the Earl comes off as actually being kind of a softie, which throws the whole "evil" thing into shades of gray. He cries when the other Noahs get hurt, and here at the end of the new chapter he seems extremely shaken at the idea that he killed Nea. Or maybe he's more upset at how his identity just got thrown into question? Probably both, Nea's really dropping the truth bombs left and right here.

Man, I just noticed how Allen's body shape is still apparent under his jacket on the last page.

 

NEW ANIME NEW ANIME MY BABY'S GONNA GET FUCKIN ANIMATED also some other stuff I guess

 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NEW ANIMEEEEEEE

 

[grabs @emythos and twirls them around] GET HYPE GET HYPE MY CHILD IS COMING

 

:happy flail: I CANNOT WAIT THIS IS GONNA BE GREAT
I AM SO HYPE

 

Spoiler: big alma picture under here

from hoshino's instragram. look at this child. he's perfect.

 

oh no presh baby so adorbs

 

*POINTS* *SCREAMS*
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
*also lowkey readies the tissues bc alma arc*