![]() ![]() Even though Allen exorcises the akuma that John reports, John turns around and subjects Allen to criticism. “Scrawny”, with a deformed arm, white hair, and a curse, Allen can’t seem to go anywhere without being judged and underestimated. Allen WalkerĪllen does not fit the picture of superhero. He looks like a nuisance, and the wolf looks like a sheep, so the problem would have been completely ignored had Allen not taken the cries seriously and come running. The truth of the boy’s cries is overwritten by the low opinion of him. The difference, however, is that this boy calls for help in a truly dire situation, and is dismissed as a prankster in the very presence of the wolf. The classic case of “The Boy who Cried Wolf” is what comes to mind when adult men crowd around and shake their heads at the little kid screaming, “It’s an akuma! It’s an akuma! It’s going to kill us!” (Hoshino 68). Eventually, readers begin to anticipate the deeper dimensions beyond each character’s superficial qualities. ![]() Gray-man punishes assumption, and rewards the search for truth. The akuma mislead with malicious intentions, but these others are the victims of prejudice. ![]() Miranda is an undesirable who can only bring bad luck. Guzol is a doll that lures children like Lala from their homes. John, for instance, is too young to know what he is talking about. Most errors of judgment are the direct result of drawing conclusion before hearing the other side of a story, while others are formed by following false assumptions. Gray-man seems to purposefully mislead the reader in this regard, designing a repulsive or deceptive outer layer to test him or her and expose them to their own biases. I will focus on characters introduced within the first three books who are brilliantly drawn and brought to life as being grotesque, ridiculed, or self-loathing–characters who are more than what they first appear to be. The true message, then, is not that evil can be anywhere, but that people must be aware of their natural tendency to trust their conclusions, and to recognize that perception is anything but infallible. No one can look with their eyes to know the depths of another’s soul. When Allen’s unparalleled perception is missing from a scene, however, reality sets in: that no reader has his spiritual X-ray vision that can expose the truth about others. Allen’s “curse” grants him the ability penetrate the disguise and see the tormented faces of chained spirits. Because they reanimate corpses and blend in with the masses, the average person is deceived by the akuma, discovering the danger only when it is too late. Protagonist Allen Walker is devoted to bringing salvation to the akuma, who have no choice but to serve the Earl’s bidding. This conman is racing the exorcists of the Black Order in the collection of a powerful material called Innocence that will determine the fate of the world. Gray-man surrounds the Millennium Earl, a wicked entity who tricks the desperate into trapping their dead loved ones on the earth as akuma, weapons that easily pass for living humans. On one level, the akuma make it difficult to know who is the suspect and who is the victim, but on another, readers are likely to judge regular characters based off of a false premise. Gray-man, nearly every character with a name is at some point misunderstood or underestimated. Gray-man Challenges Readers to Look Deeper ![]()
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