D.Gray-man, Vol. 5

D.Gray-man #5

by Katsura Hoshino

Announcement

Allen starts to question the Black Order about the "Clan of Noah" and the reason he became an Exorcist. With his left eye injured and incapable of detecting akuma, he has come to understand the constant fear of not knowing whether the person he is talking to is truly human! Despite his confusion, Allen is sent on a mission to seek out his master, Cross, one of the Marshals of the Black Order, and find out why the akuma have suddenly started targeting leaders of the Order.

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Shonen, Horror, Comics, Fiction

185 pages, Paperback

First published July 4, 2005

About the author

星野 桂

Katsura Hoshino ((星野 桂 Hoshino Katsura) was born on April 21, 1980, in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, as the younger of fraternal twin girls and the second of three children. She drew her first manga at twenty-one. In 1998, Hoshino moved to Tokyo. She dreamed of bringing her mother to the city and was able to in 2006.

She made her debut with her comics in July 2003 with the publication of her first manga series Continue and is known for her work, D.Gray-man, which began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in May 2004.

Reviews

[Nocturnalux]

This volume is somewhat uneven. It brings closure to the Alistair arc, in an not entirely satisfactory manner, and then proceeds to developing the Noah clan while flowing into the upcoming arc. Perhaps because it is something of a go-between very momentous segments of the narrative, volume 5 is not quite as excellent as those prior even though it remains very good.

My problem with Alistair's whole arc is that it both feels rather rushed and yet long-drawn. I am not entirely sure if it is because it was split across volumes as opposed to condensed in one, as was the case in better accomplished Miranda's arc, but be it as may, I had the feeling that Allen and Lavi spent ages fighting Alistair and Eliade even though, in reality, it must have taken a couple of hours at most.

But more to the point, narrative demands end up working against the overall coherence of D.Gray-man. Alistair must have a solo battle with Eliade, it is pivotal to his growth as a character and linked to Allen giving him a motivation to join the Black Order as an Exorcist is the sole means of giving meaning to his killing Eliade. It follows that Lavi and Allen must be elsewhere engaged and unable to take part in the conflict. It is here and I find fault as what ends up stopping them on their tracks and entirely disarming them, is a bunch of giant carnivorous plants that can only be appeased if one speaks tenderly to them. It is the kind of thing I expect in a filler chapter, right there with Komui's berserk robot, but somehow presented in a serious context. Allen's arm is nullified as the plants wrap themselves around him and Lavi actually drops his hammer and is thus rendered entirely useless. When we consider that Allen was fighting a Level Two recently and that Lavi held his own against Alistair, even being able to going easy on him, it all becomes a little bit hard to swallow. The carnivorous plants are not Akuma, they should not be able to completely overrun two Exorcists like this.

For the first time, we get to see things from an Akuma's point of view. She has a higher level of self-awareness, introspection and ability to think of her own nature as a weapon. It gives her plight an actual poignancy.Arguably, Eliade wanted Alistair to destroy her and one can make a case for her genuinely loving him. She wonders how much of her identity partakes from her human 'skin', so to speak and wanted to fall in love. All these are cares, concerns an an emotional scope that we have yet to see Akuma have. Her death manages to pack quite a punch, perhaps even more so than anything relating to Alistair himself. His arc is almost subsumed in hers even though it is visually impressive. A dried up, frayed, terribly wounded Alistair managing to get close enough to bite Eliade dead, is quite an image. No so much because se empathize with Alistair but because Eliade, despite being a literal killing machine, has gained a status as a person in our perception of her. 'Her', not, 'It'.

If the previous volume focused on the inherent advantage of Allen's ability to see Akuma, this one tackles it from a different perspective as Lavi, who was able to also see Eliade's soul, reaches the conclusion that he would not want to see the world as Allen does. It is so sad and horrible that in Lavi's words, 'it's hell'. Allen's newly recovered and evolved eye is a source of concern as it reminds him of how an Akuma evolves. He now has a much wider range and can pinpoint Akuma from a greater distance but he worries about his humanity.

It is details like these that this manga shines. Usually, power-ups are allow the hero and to a smaller extent his nakama to win a battle. Becoming stronger is cool and while it may present dangers, the hero can lose control over his new abilities, this tends to be confined to the fighting proper. Once the battle is over, all is well, or, at any rate, the hero's baseline identity is unchanged.

But D.Gray-man gives us a world of shades of grey and the stronger one becomes, the closer one comes to entirely losing track of oneself. This afflicts most characters, to greater or lesser degree, and is very eloquently exemplified in its protagonist, Allen.

Speaking of Allen, we get to see a new and very fun side of him in his cheating at cards. Allen is the epitome of the absolutely nice guy, that he can be cunning and scheming when need be makes him seem more human and is genuinely funny.But of course, here too the manga
mixes comedy with very serious issues because as it turns out, Allen was playing at cards with none other than Tyki Mikk, one of Noah's clan, in his human form. This episode is handled very well as we are first introduced to Tyki very much as a bedraggled fellow with an untidy mop of hair, unruly 3 day beard and goofy glasses. He comes across as affable and, horribly enough, he is precisely that. The way in which he mocks the Earl to his face as he crossed under a bridge and emerges on the other side as a smooth, tall hatted Noah gentleman, is Tyki to a T. Of all the Noah clan, Tyki is the one more in touch with his human side and he actually likes the pals he made on this 'other side'. He gives a kid the silver button he took from the General he killed, which is one of those things that define him as a character. Tyki is friends with this kid and is quite annoyed that thanks to the Earl he has now to give up his human attachments for who knows how long. As he remarks to himself upon running into an Exorcist whom he kills, if he doesn't watch out, he will not be able to back to the human side.

Tyki visits Road and the Earl and actually helps out with her homework. The Earl is very aware that Tyki is somewhat divided and that it may be difficult for him. Road remarks that on it is plain scary. They are both very right.

As the blurb expresses, this volume covers heavy casualties in the Black Order. This is done unevenly again.The way we first hear Komui being briefed on the deaths and then pan out to seeing the rows and rows of coffins, filling up the entire chapel and two pages, is nothing short of perfect. But Daisya Barry's death is so rushed that we barely have time to register it. That may be deliberate, this is, after all, a war and soldiers die suddenly all the time. But he died before we as readers had much of an idea of who he was, so much so that it is difficult to truly care. One has the impression that the manga is pacing itself somewhat, not yet at the stage when everyone can die but still eager to show that Exorcists do indeed get killed. And since it is not yet time for us to learn about Tyki's abilities, Daisya does not even get a battle but is killed offscreen. All this goes into diminishing the impact that his death could have had.

Komui get fully elevated to an actual character, the weight of responsibility as the leader of his branch takes its toll. It also places his slacker ways in a different light. It is easy to see how his duties cause him great grief all around as they include the disposal, within the Order, of all those who die, without allowing the bodies to be sent to their family, despite how much friends may beg otherwise. As he explains, bereaved relatives are fodder for the Earl who manipulates them into making Akuma out of beloved dead ones. Exorcists being turned into Akuma is essentially smearing their memory on top of everything else.
Taking such a hard stance is not easy for Komui which makes him very relatable.

Meanwhile, Leenalee is having visions in some kind of Gothic Escher ruined cityscape. I cannot remember if it is ever explained why Leenalee is able to have these glimpses into a possible future but it as it may, these are visually very cool. The stylized oversize moon over brittle, spidery buildings and water all combine to create a sense of impeding doom. She can just barely see part of Allen's submerged body for extra dread. I am unsure why she does not tell anyone about the visions. Perhaps she thinks they are not important or does not want to worry her friends but I suspect she will regret it in the long run. Odds are these are meaningful in one way or another and it would be better if everyone was aware of them.

The volume ends with a bam, getting the reader hyped for volume 6.

[SwedishGeekGirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Im always suprised how dark this series actully is and why it is not as popular as it should be...
D.gray-man volume 5 by Katsura Hoshino get a 10/10 stars.

[Yuli Atta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tyki has arrived

[Michelle Kobus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the creepy vibe from this one surrounding the deaths of key members of the Black Order. A very compelling read.

[Fred Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first D Gray Man manga I've read, but it was pretty good and interesting. It was also kind of depressing because the exorcist are fighting against the Akuma (Demons), and the exorcists are losing horribly and their mortality rate is rising tremendously. The quote, "Including the finders, we've suffered 148 confirmed mortalities." shows how terrible the exorcist are loosing and that they're starting to lose the hope of victory in the war against the akuma. Overall, I recommend this book, but read the first 4 books before reading this one.

[Daichi Ishii · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are a lot of things that I felt same in this manga. Especially I totally understand what Komui said when a bunch of exorcists were dead.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mala idea: leerse un tomo que es continuación directa de otro que se leyó hace mucho (otra vida, prácticamente) sin recordar cómo había terminado aquel. Aunque eso me perdió un poco al principio, tampoco es que el guion sea particularmente complicado de entender, ya que sigue la tónica de siempre, con las habituales vueltitas de tuerca. La traducción sigue siendo buena pero una cosa es segura: cómo se nota que ya no tienen corrector. El contraste en el cuidado de la edición es casi obsceno. Pero bueh, allá ellos y su política reduccionista. De momento no cuenten conmigo poniéndoles un peso.

[Michelle Kobus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the anime, filler and all, but it is a little surprising that this volume ends with material that took the anime 50-ish episodes to reach. Filler is commmon when an anime is started before the source material is finished, and both D.Gray-man incarnations are fun, so it's not something I'm angry about, just taking note. Overall, another solid installment.

[Mehsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It keeps getting better and better. Poor exorcists though. :(

[Leigh Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book literally just propelled the reader through so much storyline. In fact, in the animation, the storyline (up until now) was drawn out over 50 episodes.

But, in this one volume literally, it covered Krory (Aleister Crowley) becoming an exorcist, destroying Eliade and his home to leave with them; it featured Allen, Lavi/Rabi and Krory/Crowley's train journey which only took a chapter in this volume (in the anime it took an episode); it featured Kanda and his team being attacked and Bell Boy/Deesha/Deysha die from the hands of Tiki (a member of the Noah family); the death of over 100 exorcists (which in the anime you actually saw, but the Manga glossed over); the attack on Summons team (which you had no idea who that was in the Manga, however, the anime gave him and Kanda their own story so you could get to know him - giving his later death more meaning); it showed Kanda and Marie/Mari joining with General Theodore/Tidal (why the heck did they change the name and make it so different in the anime??! - Unless I'm wrong??); Lavi/Rabi, Allen, Renali/Lenalee, Bookman and Krory/Crowley all suddenly make it to china randomly (even though the anime showed their journey) and they go to the Brothel only to find out General Cross isn't there and has in fact sailed to Edo (now Tokyo) in Japan.

I am not even kidding - all that above, that was portrayed over the course of 30-40 episodes, whereas the Manga just gets straight to the point. To be honest, i'm actually glad I watched the anime first before reading this otherwise I would be so lost and confused right now. There was ALOT covered in such a short amount of time. And, what strikes me as odd - this is only volume 5 out of 25 volumes...so i'm wondering how the next 50 episodes are going to be translated in the Manga. And, I wonder whether the author spread out the storyline a little more or whether there is storyline that hasn't been told in the anime (although judging by how thorough they were I highly doubt it).

What I do like however, was the progression of Allen's weapon. So far it's upgraded twice in only 5 volumes and now it is crumbling too pieces. You can actually follow Allen's storyline a little easier because of how quickly the story has reached this point. In the anime, it was easy to forget that Allen was going through this, until you were reminded of it every now and then.

I'm actually really interested to see where the story goes from here and how it develops, because heck it's rushed through so much already! And, I know I cannot wait to read about Allen becoming the destroyer of time. I know the manga series has only just begun entering this storyline...so I can't wait to catch up too read about it.

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arystar Krory III’s tale comes to a bittersweet conclusion, only for a new one to begin for him as a “vampire” exorcist, and Allen, Lavi, and Lenalee’s companion. All four of them, along with Bookman, hurry after General Cross, following his trail across Asia. For someone is hunting exorcists, finders, and many of the Black Order are falling at the hands of a Noah as dangerous and deadly as Road Kamelot. Allen doesn’t realize it, but he’s met the gentleman before, only Tykki Mikk was acting like a very different person when they played cards…

In this volume, readers meet Tykki, a villian with considerable style, sex appeal, and a nature even more dualistic than Allen’s reveals his own to be. Their first encounter is light, funny with Allen seeming like the more frightening one, until Tykki shows his other side, leaving some artistically arranged (and not so artistic) corpses behind him. The Earl, Road, and Tykki behave almost like a family at times when they’re together, without losing any of their menace. The book ends on a cliff hanger, giving readers the sense that the battles and deaths we’ve seen are only the beginning. Now things are going to get truly terrifiying with the Exorcists revealing some of their own dark secrets, secrets Allen is only just becoming aware of. For all these qualities, I give this four stars.

[Meredith Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume finishes the rather lacklustre Vampire arc and moves into what I remember to be the stunningly devastating Edo/Suman Dark arc.

Some fun questions Hoshino wants us to be asking at this point:
- Can akuma love if they have an ego (the answer: maybe? They can certainly want to.)
- Is it actually a good thing to motivate someone to become an Exorcist?
(-> this leads immediately into a man exploding into a giant devastating piece of innocence)
- What's up with the Noah

Some other fun details in this volume:
- Nice, sex workers are treated like just normal people
- there's a hot butch
- Lenalee blushes at a pretty girl along with everyone else, nice
- Kanda loves his team and he's so bad at showing it sdgh

onward to me crying ig

[Isaiah Wofford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume continues the fight with the vampire and his manipulator which was awesome and we are also introduced to a new villain with not much known about him other than he likes to live a double life. I like that Allen’s eye gets an upgrade like the akunma does which makes me think that Allen is becoming more akunma than human. I also thought it was dark when a soldier asks the leader of the black order if he can send a fellow captain who died back home to their family but the leader of the black order says no to that request since a family member could wish the captain back to life to become an akunma by the earl. The book also leaves off with the crew still looking for general cross with leaves me feeling Naruto chasing sasuke vibes, always one step behind.

[Alexis Hubsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Character 3.5| Setting 4| Plot 3.5| Art 3.5| Enjoyment 3.5

Rating: 3.6

We've finished the Vampire arc! I like that this volume seemed to talk about an Akuma who had agency. I think If I rememeber correctly Akuma get more agency the more evolved they get? I can tell the art is evolving in this manga which is what I loved the most! We could see Hoshino's art go from good to amazing!!

I never thought about it, but we get to see a sex worker who is not demonized and everyone things is pretty and I love the butch femme rep!! She left Allen and Lavi like they were nothing. Love this!!

I am excited to get to the Edo arc!!

[René Esteban · Rating 4 out of 5]

¡Cuantas cosas pueden pasar en un tomo! Sabemos la conclusión de la trama de Arystar Krory, tenemos un personaje misterio relacionado con el Conde del milenio. La acción nunca falta pero esta vez vemos algo de tragedia, por una decisión de la orden los exorcistas buscaran a sus generales ¿Como podrán encontrar al general Cross? todo parece que Allen y los demás tendrán que emprender un largo viaje para encontrarlo.

[Kelsey Hanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know I say this every time, but once again there are new characters that are surprisingly interesting and well-developed. Tykki might be the first Noah family member to have something vaguely resembling a conscience. I also felt for Crowley in this one. Poor heartbroken little vampire. This is a transition article that is shifting from one story arc to the next so it always feels a little disjointed to me, but overall it has an intriguing set up for the next story line.

[Hannah Belyea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allen just wants some answers about the Clan of Noah - no on said anything about hunting down a vampire that is more than he seems! Hoshino gives readers a humorously morbid entry with this fun continuation of a growing mystery. What more does Walker and his team need to know about their latest target?

[Thelma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few things to point out in this one I feel. First I love how different the power set is for each exorcist. It goes beyond each one having a sword/hammer/weapon, they all have very specific powers. I think it's interesting. I also like how the serie introduces slowly important players, like the 'Marshalls' (?) but also the enemies.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 I love the Road Kamelot cover on this volume. Continuing Allen and team’s search for General Cross. This volume starts out by wrapping up the story ark involving Arystar Krory and Eliade. After we wrap that up the hunt continues and we are introduced to another “Child of Noah” Tyki Mikks. Another mysterious and cool character.

[Josi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covers Chapters 37-46

Allen’s eye has healed and evolved. He has new abilities. A new member has been added to the black order and to Allen’s team. Into to another member of the clan of noah, Tyki ❤️ again I’m enjoying this series so far, I definitely enjoy the atmosphere and the stakes are getting higher as the earl gets ready to wage war! Love the art style too!!

[Carolyn Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Crowley and Eliade's story. It was very good. Very nice. But I only wish they went into Barry baskstory subplot because I actually really enjoyed it in the anime and it gave so much utility. Hoshino could do some work fleshing out some of these characters more the ways in which she did the Aria of the Land arc. But 4 stars just for Eliade.

[Sedna Dragon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had two good stories with a bitter sweet and tragic end. That showed what was really going on. In the vampire story. Yet I loved the aftermath of what was going on and showed that not everyone is to be trusted. Yet I also found the strip poker part hilarious. Yet I was shocked that Allen was good at this.

[Kirsten Simkiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wrapping up the vampire arc, they continue on their journey to find Cross. Meanwhile, exorcists and field agents are dying in a record number after a Noah is given a list of people to eliminate. It's a good story line book, but it's not as much fun as others could be.

[Natilin Alpaca Saurio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, esto se está haciendo cada vez mejor ejejjejeje me gusta como puede pasar de ser muy graciosa a que te hagas bolita en el piso:(
El dibujo sigue siendo muy bueno.
Se nota que mis estrellas son muy aleatorias? Son más por como me entretuvo en libro que por calidad la verdad jahaj sorry

[MajesticalLion · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new member of the team! And a new villain as well! An eventful volume, to say the least. Lenalee's visions are a bit concerning, but the story has new direction. We're off to Japan by boat. And there we'll definitely for sure actually find General Cross this time. 100% no doubt.

[lobelyys · Rating 4 out of 5]

holy shit so many things happened and i’m so lost. the anime from what i remember was so much slower! anyway it’s so good, i can’t stop reading this series, i’m marathoning through it! also, my love for tyki never vanished <3

[gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! This was so fabulous! These endings though!

[Sora · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG!! You won’t expect what would happen here. I am impressed of how the weapons develops and evolves, specially Allen’s.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tyki Mikk's grand debut.

[thi · Rating 3 out of 5]

official comment on the art style: I love it