“Allen, I want to see one of the lions…go bring me one.” 

As we join Allen Walker on his quest to rid the world of Akuma, he gets a mission to find his old master, General Cross. Lately the generals of the Black Order have been under attack, and a few have been killed. Since General Cross has been missing for a while the Black Order assumes that he is either dead or causing “trouble.” Joining Allen on his mission is his good friend, Lenalee as he travels across the sea to Liverpool. If any one will know where General Cross is it will be a old women called Mother who lives in Liverpool. Will Mother know the location of General Cross? More importantly, what’s with all of the Akuma in Liverpool?

Highlights

General Cross is a cruel and sadistic slave driver that makes Allen work like a dog to pay off his debts and to top it off, Cross always gets the girl. One of the women Cross is involved with is the Empress of India. When Cross is with his lover, Allen hangs out with the first friend he has had since he started being taught by Cross. One day, after Cross had taken all the money that Allen had earned, a group of Akuma attacks the town center. Unfortunately for Allen, he had just complained to Cross about not training, so Cross shoves Allen into battle. Allen is basically useless at this point so Cross steps in and destroys all the Akuma in one blow, taking down some buildings in the process. As Cross and Allen prepare to leave India, Allen’s friend meets him in front of the train station. He tells Allen the story of how his sister died when a building collapsed after an explosion in the town center. Allen soon realized that he has turned in to an Akuma and Allen is forced to defeat him.

Overall 

Although this is a weaker part of D. Gray-man than the past volumes, it is still entertaining. I did like that almost all of the main charters appear this time. Some new characters were also introduced, and one of them is a finder that has a problem with crying. He cries almost every 30 seconds, but when he isn’t crying he seems like the macho type. He was by far the funniest of the characters in this volume. The story line does progress instead of being filler episodes, and I appreciate that, although there were some episodes that are more or less  pointless and could have been left out. One episode was all about one exorcist and his childhood, but he dies right after that episode. The story is made a little sadder when he dies, but that episode could have been replaced with something more influential. All in all, D. Gray-man: Season 2, Part 1 is very good and fans of the series will be pleased.

ComicsOnline gives D. Gray-man: Season 2, Part 1 4 out of 5 exploding Akuma