Ok the hype down down so I'll grumble a bit about chapter 258 and other things in retrospect, cw for negativity
I have very mixed feelings about last chapter. We got important story beats like (a very lukewarm) Lavi-Allen reunion, Joe&Allen grieving Bookman and Cross&Road return but the execution of them feels weirdly paced and clumsy.
I can let go of not seeing Allen enter the Campbell mansion, of seeing him grapple with hallucinations of the past in the previous chapter. See Nea’s childhood home where this mess began, see Mana and Nea while they were still together. I looked forward to seeing something like that but even without it, the chapter was extremely satisfactory with centering Lavi after his one and half decade of absence from the story.
Seeing Lavi and Allen's reunion be so much less emotional than Link and Allen stung a bit, I've been looking forward to it for 15 years but with both Lavi and Allen being in different circumstances I can get behind the standoffishness. Allen recovered memories of his former self and is actively getting eroded by Nea, Lavi meanwhile inherited the role of Bookman and saw Gramps die to protect him, they can't go back to who they were even if they wanted to.
But for the life of me I don't understand the decision to have Naaga be crossdresser who copies an 8 year old girl??? That's so unneccesarily convoluted and is irresonpsible on Naaga's part, as someone of the Bookman Clan he may incur people’s greed or wrath, isn’t he afraid he'd put Lucia in danger, dressing as her carbon copy? Lucia could have been tied to the mystery around the Campbell mansion and especially Cornelia, since this was the location the Millennium Earl split 52 years prior to the plot. And if it were a location with magic, Allen could have recovered the memories of his former self *here* instead of introducing the poison as a mechanism. I understand introducing the Seed of Truth as a shortcut in the story, there is no time for Allen or the manga to have Allen retrace his former life and recall memories as he revisits those places. But having the price Allen pay be life force that Link resupplies to him and Naaga then purging it feels like a cheap way to raise stakes. As readers we could surmise the Bookmen wouldn't allow Allen to die, not only because Allen can't answer if he is dead, it goes against their Clan's entire creed - so the danger and sacrifice Allen is faced with just feels hollow because it's not truly a lasting consequence for him??? I mush rather we saw Cornelia, thet magical tree characters whisper to do some wacky thing. Have Allen prick his finger on a shard that killed Tim so he can have his symbolic death by the same object that destroyed Tim, possibly split the Earl and is closely tied to Nea.
When Naaga was introduced in chapter 251 in her after-chapter stream Hoshino said she was excited to draw a girl after so long??? Why hype us up for a new female character who was promised to play an important role and then drop "he's a crossdressing guy actually" in a manga where only two female characters are regularly recurring and get any focus??? We had so few already and it was mostly Lenalee, followed by Road and everyone else had essentially negligable focus since the series got off weekly publication. Hevlaska is as old as the Order and may even be able to help Kanda investigate Apocryphos and the Innocence, yet she was not even mentioned in the chapter 248 talk about the Cube - but won't miss the chance to randomly namedrop Lenalee - and had like 5 total appearances, despite the fact that the Order literally wouldn't exist without her. Klaud is the only living female General who has a Parasitic Innocence wielded outside her body - she spoke approximately 5 lines in total. Maria possesses a very useful Innocence ability and she is reduced to a corpse tied to Cross’s will. The Head Nurse isn’t even properly named and Mother is likely not the name of Mother. I'll be lucky if I get to catch a glimpse of the rest!
I was so excited to see a female character who could have expanded the world of D.Gray-man to beyond the Noah and the Order, let us have a female representative of the Bookman Clan, who actually seemed to have some authority but no! I wouldn't even care that Naaga crossdresses if Hoshino didn't hype us up about a new female character playing a large role. Like goddamn, girl, you heard your assisstant say Naaga posing as Lucia is so cute he'd marry her and decided to turn Naaga into a guy because people can only want Lenalee's hand in marriage apparently!
And this, right after seeing how Hoshino will talk about the Cube without ever mentioning Hevlaska, but not missing the opportunity to namedrop Lenalee again - I can’t give Hoshino the benefit of doubt anymore, there are already so many weird choices and moves on her part: going from crying that Kanda was called Katou to act mean-girl since she made him canonically queer, Sokalo the only dark screentoned Exorcist being Like That, making cutesy art about Bak's parents to rehabilitate their image then tell us they used orphaned babies for the Second Exorcist Project, having Johnny abandon everything and risk his life to run after Allen and then have Allen refuse Cross's offer because he remembers Lenalee's crying face and seemingly forgets Johnny is in mortal danger as he tries taking them away from the Earl. The writing can get so unsettlingly weird around Lenalee, sidestepping interesting plotlines like Lenalee and Link mutually disliking each other over the other's view on Leverrier, but instead we get them brewing fucking tea because Lenalee has to be this "good girl" archetype Allen pines after through his misfortunes, she can't be a person who is flawed and can't get along with everyone! Hosino please stop just namedropping Lenalee all around to be the one every guy, including men twice her age swoon over and let her be just another character who has to face and overcome her personal battles!
I still love Naaga for being so silly, but this twist feels really unneccesary and I find it very weird how it got more focus than the magically enclosed room that couldn't be opened for more than 35 years. Valuable time was dedicated to sheningans that add nothing while this mystery gets glossed over. How could Allen open this door? Did Johnny and Link who are versed in magic try open it? Did the place register Nea's Host was present and automatically unlocked? Did Allen have to rely on Nea’s Memory to use the neccessary spell to undo it? Who knows! We can't even really think because the door is open right on the next page! The story took a backseat because Hoshino had to clarify that Naaga was in fact, not a girl actually, see you 3 months later for the plot!
At the very least I hope that next to the Cross-Allen reunion, Cross potentially noticing Allen is no longer the person he knew, a possible Nea-Allen interaction - that we get to have some attention on Road, she's another very important character who helped a lot in the background and now we may finally get to know her better.
