User blog:.Seshat./Chapter 208: We Live Lives of Doubt

Alright, so I'm gonna take a stab at doing blogs again, and this time it's gonna be a monthly review of the DGM chapters~!

This one, though, will cover this month and last month's chapters... So, summary of it all:

After Tyki and Road busted Allen out of the Order, Road getting injured and disappearing along the way and Tyki leaving Allen behind when Allen refused to cooperate with him, Allen decided to set off on his own, some angsty fluff goin' on between him and Lenalee before he used an Ark Gate to flee to Mother's house, Apocryphos not far behind.

Back to the Noah, Sheril gives himself yet another Road-induced ulcer when he learns that Road has disappeared, ignoring Tyki's attempts to assure him that Road can't be dead (because if she was, their Noah empathy would feel it) and taking his anger out on Lavi as he redoubles his efforts to get Bookman to talk about the 14th (who Bookman apparently knows more of than he lets on because he knew the previous generation of Noah fairly well).

Three months later, Link is apparently dead, Lvellie has himself a new lapdog (this one not as well drawn as the others and thus probably not as important), and Johnny is trying to leave the Order to 'take care of his grandma and take over his homestead' (*cough*go after Allen*cough*). Then, on their way back from a mission, Lenalee and Marie (after the typical discussion about 'nakama' [please, we've never used Japanese terms before, why start using them now, translators?]) run into *Le GASP!!* Kanda, who is *dies* smiling.

Kanda comes with them back to Asian Branch, saying he wasn't following him, he just remembered where the Ark Gates were (though considering all of Hoshino's previously provided evidence, Kanda is about as dumb as a box of rocks, he probably was following them around). Kanda gets groped by Komui, tells Lvellie off, then goes to see a dying Zu Mei, who reveals the Second Exorcist Project had been his idea. (Actually... didn't see that one comin', though considering it's been said that Zu Mei was a Central official at one point, I should have seen it.)

Kanda shows Zu Mei the flowers, crystallizes Mugen (while raping Lenalee's hand, much to Bak and Komui's horror), and as Kanda shows his new resolve, Zu Mei passes away.

Back to the 'Johnny ditching the Order to go join Team Allen' thing, Johnny is still begging Reever to let him resign (which Reever won't let him do in order to protect him). Johnny comes out and says that Science Division members are supposed to be there to support the Exorcists (...actually, I was pretty sure that Volume 5 listed a bunch of other crap that they needed to do, but everyone likes labcoated cheerleaders, ne?), and Reever tells Johnny that the reason he had taken Johnny to the North American Branch to see Alma Karma was because he saw the same determination to help the Exorcists in Johnny that he had seen in himself (as well as Komui; basically, they all have a sister-complex curly-headed idiot in them ^.^). Reever then tells Johnny that, because of this, he gets why Johnny wants to leave (definitely to go to Allen's side), and that he (Reever) feels the same way, and thus can't tell him not to go. Science Division join Team Allen, nyan? Eh, who knows...

And, in two pages, we see Apocryphos still being a creeper and Allen (still struggling for control with Apocryphos nearby and all) hiding behind some garbage; though he'd been compared to Cross earlier in the chapter, like Cross would ever hide behind garbage. Allen has yet to master his Master's finesse...

Opinion of it all? While I can't say I don't like it, it doesn't feel like the DGM we started with at all. The black and whiteness of who's good and who's bad is all melding together to form large gray areas, and while I likes me some gray areas (Tales of the Abyss), it's not what we've come to expect from DGM. We've come to expect clear baddies and clear goodies, who belong to their appropriate sides regardless of backgrounds we readers can sympathize with. WHERE IS MY BACKGROUND?! GIVE IT BACK!!

Also, I find myself missing the other Exorcists; seriously, give 'em some panel time. We all love Allen and Kanda (and the areas in-between... <.< >.>), but if you keep throwing them at us, no matter how fanservice-y the scenes may be, yer gonna run out of logical things chains of events, and then ya start making plot holes and inconsistencies...

At this point, though, with all of the gray areas and dragging... I'm kinda scared that Hoshino's gonna end the series with something like a "We haven't beat them yet... but one day we will", where Allen and the Earl have an epic battle, they both seem to 'die' but don't really, and while someone (Lenalee) thinks the above line, we're shown a picture of Allen winking and pressing his finger to his lips in a shushing motion as he watches the others from afar... Actually, this was a bigger fear of mine a few chapters back; it's kinda fading a bit, though whether that's because of the spaced updates or not I can't tell...

Overall, though, I like it~! And now I have to go to work... If you comment (if anyone comments, really. ^.^'), please keep it clean, and no speculating, nyan? It just encourages people to add dumb things...