#mana walker

[nimiten]

[reeuln]

it was hard

[fylavi]

katsura_5600: 遅れたけどアレン誕🎂

[commytator]

work in progress

[frankencanon]

D.Gray-man - Official Art by Hoshino, Katsura

[fruitsjellies]

mana, look at this!

[arslanaart]

I'm sure someone has done it before me but here it is

[wingfril]

My last page— an iconic moment for the red & mana arc, for @dgm20thproject

I got too excited about drawing red and mana and especially the apo guy that I completely forgot about cosimov and the ringmaster and the potion and ahhh so much. By the time I realized it was two days from the deadline and I had no will power to do so much drawing in ~1.5 days. This is also the first time I’ve drawn two characters interacting with each other!

I really wanted to have apocryo guy towering over everyone else and for him to look very unsettling. Maybe I succeeded too much..? He’s the one literally pulling the strings. And to contrast that with a very warm but sad hug between red and mana. Road and cross are looking behind both suit and red and mana because they’re both just observing the situation. Red’s arm is to the side because it important but what’s more important is the love that mana has for red 🥹

I should’ve add cosimov holding the viel ToT

This is my favorite piece personally, but I think most people liked page 112 more :’)

Looking at it again in two month, I cannot get over how out of place the apo guy looks, so here’s some remixes and close ups (the canvas is 4.2k by 6.2k pixel lol) because the details got crunched

[sidsinning]

How else to describe D. Gray-Man but gently yet devastatingly heartbreaking

[surrealsunset]

my page for @dgm20thproject that i forgot to post...! i worked on the glitch effects on this until the very anguish of this page was screaming at me straight into my burnt out retinas lol

[dearloonies]

Why I think that Mana was in fact truly an Akuma and not some form of false memory

Dgm is filled with mysteries and paradoxes, and the relationship between Mana and the Earl of Millennium is one of those. On the surface, it is contradictory that Mana could have been turned into an Akuma when he is later revealed to be the Earl. However, the narrative provides subtle hints that may reconcile this paradox. (Bear with me guys)

1. Dual Identities and the Split of the Earl

The Earl of Millennium isn't a singular, static entity, this we already know. Over 52 or so years ago, Adam split himself into two infants in front of Katerina who would adopt and name the infants 'Mana' and 'Nea', raising them as twins. Mana and Nea were both integral parts of the Noah family, and there's this suggestion that Mana might have been a vessel of Adam's memories and thus was the one who became the Earl of Millennium while Nea could not, because he likely lacked something. When Mana lived as Allen’s foster father, he have suppressed/lost his memory of being the Earl due to his grief-stricken mind and deteriorating mental state. This allowed him to exist as a separate individual while being consciously aware of the Earl's existence.

2. The Akuma Creation Mechanism

The Akuma creation process involves a soul being bound to a body after someone calls it back from death. If Mana’s "human side" died and was mourned by Allen, the Akuma process could have targeted only that fragment of Mana’s identity. If the Earl of Millennium that appeared in front of Allen is indeed Mana at that time yet still present for when "Mana" was turned into an Akuma, there's a possibility that the Earl at that time was simply the Golem Suit, Mana himself but his body usurped or, as mentioned above, because the Akuma is Mana's human side.

3. Mana’s actions as an Akuma

The corrupted Mana attacks Allen, since his human persona was overridden by the Akuma’s violent instincts. However, his plea for Allen to "keep walking forward" does suggest that Mana's original personality wasn’t entirely lost. One is free to think of Allen's cursed left eye, which gives him the ability to see the souls of the Akuma, is a punishment but i saw a theory that the eye is the Earl's eye(?? I forgot the exact wording or speculation/theory but I got some of it from: @poppystheories ) although in a sense that Mana's curse serves to warn Allen of the presence of Akuma, of the tortured souls and also of the fact that the Earl's "arms and legs" (or was it "eyes and ears"?) are near. And we know from Alma that Akuma are offshoots of the Earl, which is how he knew that Allen was a Noah.

4. Foreshadowing and Symbolism

Hoshino frequently employs themes of duality and identity in DGM. Mana’s transformation into an Akuma while also being the Earl symbolizes the conflict between the Noah and humanity, as well as the tragic cycle of grief and that drives the story. This paradox could serve as a microcosm of the series’ central conflict, also the duality of having humanity and an inhumane identity can also be seen in this.

In Short: Mana’s transformation into an Akuma despite being the Earl of Millennium is because Allen called for Mana Walker rather than his Noah identity as the Earl of Millennium. Thus why the Akuma Mana could exist at the same time as the Earl's, his curse also have warned and er- "protected"? Allen more than once. It's also undermining if the Akuma summoned by Allen turned out to be some rando soul that the Earl used, since it doesn't make sense. The only plausible reason my mind could come up with is that the Akuma Mana summoned was the human aspect known and remembered by Allen.

[poppystheories]

Allen's in serious trouble. He was already in bad shape from everything that's happened so far, considering the hits to the head he's taken and bite Krory took out of him. But just as he can't find the strength to continue fighting...

My first thought was: Allen's Innocence has activated on its own again! But that’s wrong; it doesn't seem to be activated. Something just made Allen's hand move to catch the axe.

A certain someone has awoken!

This isn't an illusion, or a hallucination. This is not in Allen's head. This actually happens, as Eliade sees it. Akuma!Mana is right here.

First there's the Spiral, and then the entity has the D from the logo too, though we don't have a clue as to why. Mana D. Campbell? Something to do with what the D stands for?

You'll also note that the skulls is incomplete, and its right side references the spiral again. Souls can be called back from the Spiral by their bonds with the living, so long as they have an anchor: the upside down star that represents matter prevailing over spirit, which Allen has carved in his face.

The curse evolves right in front of our eyes, then retreats back inside him. Akuma!Mana even talks to him, saying "I'm back". Back from being temporarily destroyed by Road, or is this the first time the consciousness with the curse has awoken at all?

We've seen these black eyes on the Earl and Nea. Allen's star is also now filled in. Was its shape before indicative of some kind of incompleteness? Meant to represent that before, it was empty, but now it is properly housing something?

When Akuma evolve from Level 1 to 2, they become a lot more sentient, with their own thoughts and personalities. Allen's eye is doing something similar; Allen himself even points that out, with the Dark Matter evolving to the next stage within him. Still, the whole-ass consciousness that came with that evolution does not get acknowledged enough.

Allen's thoughts are presented to us like this.

This:

is someone else entirely. There's an entity inside the eye now, with its own separate thoughts.

Allen recognizes that Mana is the one speaking to him, somehow using the Spiral of Life. We see them them standing together within it, at least.

Allen tells Mana the conclusion he's come to: he has finally found a place to belong, a path to walk. The tragic fate of an exorcist is his choice. He appreciates Mana's gift to him (Mana's desire to protect him), but he would've chosen the path regardless, even though it's dangerous.

In this moment, there's no doubt that this "Mana", whatever part of the original he is, knows Allen is his own person, the child with Innocence, not Nea or a dog.

He is also dressed like "Mana Walker", nothing like the youthful Mana D. Campbell's more casual clothes or the beige suits the Earl wears.

All of this makes me think that Akuma!Mana is the "soul" of all the memories from in-between meeting Red and Mana "dying" that the Earl wanted to discard, alongside any inconvenient sentiments like fatherhood that may hold him back.

If that turns out to be true, that might mean this remnant of Mana doesn't even know who Nea is.

Don't get up on the "fall" wording here, the translations vary. I think "sink" might have been a better choice.

Akuma!Mana encourages Allen, and even gives him what could be some advice or a some kind of hint. Did Mana also see the world of black and white, when he was alive? Is that one of the Earl's abilities? The ability to see the souls is leading Allen to some kind of answer; he definitely grasps at least some of that truth when he uses the knowledge to take his body back from Nea much later.

This whole scene is one of the most interesting in DGM, but I really don't think its discussed enough. Again, this is not some symbolic or metaphorical meeting of Allen connecting with his own grief, this very much happens. Eliade witnessed the skull and everything.

Mana is somehow using the curse as an anchor and connecting to Allen from or through the Spiral or something like that. He is conscious and aware and "back". Maybe Road's candle really did do something that allowed him to gain so much consciousness, and even move Allen's body.

Regardless, this will not be the last time this entity within the curse interferes. He doesn't talk much, but he is very much present going forward, and saves Allen on several occasions.

The names of these chapters are "return" and "merge", by the way.

So yeah. Akuma!Mana is in Allen's eye and he's along for the ride. Neat.

[reeuln]

Save me! Will you?

---

btw i am currently thinking about opening commissions. what do you think about it?

[arimiaromage]

thinking about him today

[commytator]

Starwatching

[funkyboxofinterests]

Allen got them gifts

Bonus: featuring Nea