I love Hisoka Morow so much 💖 Multi fandom HxH , Berserk , Naruto/Boruto , Monster , Death note , Attack on titan, Steins gate .. . anti any abusive ship 🌟-.-💧 My favorite characters : Hisoka , Eren jaeger , Itachi , Yagami light , Griffith , Oikawa , Guts, Johan liebert ...
Happy Valentine’s Day to the ship I’ve loved for thirteen years.
I’ve been shipping Allen and Lenalee since I was ten years old. Although my interest has significantly waned, admittedly, I still have lots of love for this piece of media. I didn’t even fully comprehend romance in media yet—I was just starting to notice the difference (and the blurring) between friendship and something softer, something quieter, something human in spite of oneself. How it was often between a girl and a boy among other patterns fed to us, how they sometimes must end up together with or without our investment. So, I just went along with it, consuming. Yet, to that younger version of myself, in the middle of gothic cathedrals, hyped up akuma battles highlighting their complementary styles as a power duo, and end-of-the-world dread, these two gentle, stubborn, spiritually linked kids carved out a permanent space in my heart.
What always got me is that they were never loud about it, it was just quiet devotion. Considering each other in small, compassionate ways. The mutual sensitivities to each other’s struggles and the unspoken agreement to always try to do right by each other, learning from each other. A peer relationship.
Lenalee worrying herself sick when Allen tries to carry the world alone. Allen looking at her like she isn’t just strong or capable, but precious. A reason to keep going. A reason to come back.
When I was a kid, I didn’t have the vocabulary for why it mattered so much. I just knew the way he said her name felt different. The way she reached for him felt different. It wasn’t flashy romance but instead tenderness forged in shared trauma. Two children turned into weapons by the world who still somehow protected each other’s softness when they could.
And that shaped me more than I realized at the time.
They showed me that you can be fierce and still gentle, powerful and still in need of someone’s hand in yours. It’s about living in your trauma, together, even when apart. To keep walking even when the universe is seemingly conspiring against you.
This ship is woven into how I understand relationships and characters, into how I write intimacy, how I believe the softest bonds are often the strongest.
The Bookman Clan's secrets - more Theories & Updates
What I want to address this time:
Blood Connection / The Clan's Powers
The new Bookman & The Junior
Wisely and the Bookmen
Lucia's Role, The Family Staff & Joe
Noah Powers & The Helix / Dark Matter & Innocence
Allen's Role as 14th & Noah Abilities
Includes spoilers up to that chapter of course; leading up from older posts like
DGM Theories afer CH 256
Who is the Bookman waiting at the Campbell Residence (Spoilers up until Ch 249)
Spoilers Ch 251 +
DGM 253.5 - More Theories
This chapter gives us a lot of lore regarding the Bookman Clan, their interaction and some hints for Characters to give them more depth. And you know the deal I avoid posting panels from the newest chapter and replace them with own drawings or use older panels instead.
But let's begin:
Before I hop into the new topics a quick conclusion over older theories I won't go deeper into as they were either resolved or weren't adressed at all.
Wisely released Bookman (this was also pointed out by a lovely person before that it was mentioned in the Manga as Mana/Nea (Allen) met
Access of the Campbell Manor = still pretty much a mystery as Wisely drops (new) Bookman at the Zoogle Bookstore and not at the Manor
We still don't know why PLavi was the "Black Sheep" even before leaving the Clan
Which leads us to the things addressed this chapter
Blood Connection / The Clan's Powers
We do learn that the Junior is born with a seemingly hollow eye, which is the mark of being a heir of the Bookman Clan. At least the last Junior had this specific mark.
For now Hoshino avoids to show how the mark looked like for the former Junior as she only draws him with both eyes closed or his glasses reflecting. Later on he has a scar over his eye. As said we don't know why he is the "Black Sheep"/"Child of Calamity" and why "the folks back home" state things that bother him in his role way before he meets Nea. It could be because of his mark being different or him being a direct blood relative to the now deceased Bookman.
I think i addressed it in an older post already that I am pretty much certain he injured the eye himself to get rid of his connection to the Clan.
As we learn the leadership and knowledge of the hidden history is passed on by a ritual fueled by blood. The drop of blood, a part of the former Bookman's helix, fuses with the hollow eye, the shell of the next Bookman.
Lucia already said the Clan is connected by Blood. This is most likely another reason Bookman sr told his Junior not to even think of becoming a Crystal Type and that they need to leave the Order once he showed signs of turning into one as it would contaminate their blood line and could destroy the overall connection, the records could become faulty.
We yet have to learn how much this ritual changes the Junior / his personality.
But this mark could also be specific to a Junior not being directly blood related to the current Bookman. We certainly don't know, I do think there is a difference.
In Volume 27 in Komui's Lounge Cross points out the Bookmen are more durable and their bodies differ from normal humans, he also points out that their Language is similar to the ancient ones. Which means the Bookmen exist for several centuries, maybe even since the Millennium Earl came to be.
It's also said all Bookmen are trained in all kind of weapons. Both of them were limiting their abilties and powers to the bare minimum to survive but not to change the outcome of battles as they are superior to regular humans. Which means the Bookmen could have turned most likely every war around to someone's favor if they wanted to, but they didn't because they only record the happenings.
The new Bookman & the Junior
As he has become the next Bookman the former Junior whose last record name was Lavi ceased to exist. The persona that was the Exorcist has stopped being important.
To note it again, 'Lavi' confirms in Komui's Lounge in Volume 26 that the name of the current Record, the one about the Holy War, is "Lavi". The name of the Junior changes with the war they record to keep them sorted. Aka when they revisit a war they same name is used (that's the reason the former Junior was also named "Lavi" as they recorded the Holy War).
He now is Bookman, he doesn't have a "Name" anymore. Aside the fact that the Junior is the one who has to invent a persona for every Record while Bookman remains Bookman, a nameless Guard of the hidden History. This duty was now passed onto the new Bookman.
And his duty will be to pass it on to his next Junior, someone who will be born soon with the passing of the former Bookman. He will have to take this person under his wings and teach them to be a Bookman. Depending on how things are this person either has to be unrelated to him or in fact be his own child, we are kept in the dark regarding this.
We know new!Bookman struggled with his role, this is most likely why he is so lost and afraid to take over, he is lost in the helix, as he is now also a mixture between different persons. He is not this one person anymore, he carries several lifetimes within himself now. Plus of course he lost the person who was his mentor, teacher and father figure all at once, as we don't know how old he was when Bookman sr took him in. We can assume it was short after he was born.
I will come back to this in a later part of this post, but Allen is also part of the Bookmen due him being fused with the former Junior and will have his role in this.
As Lucia told they are connected by blood, but also through their Helix, they fuse. Similar to Allen and PLavi, but within one "blood line", aka their lives add up and up to build an enormous archive collected over several lifetimes. This is what gives the Bookman their special rang in this world.
They are their own species of human, with abilties we don't know yet. They have their own language, they can connect with the Noah of Wisdom (see next paragraph), they can manipulate their own Helix to be able to accomodate Innocence, they can influence it to fuse with other people (PLavi filling Allen's helix with his own).
Wisely and the Bookmen
We have the next bigger secret dynamic, which is Wisely and the Bookmen. I have been playing with this special connection a lot during my times as fanfic author and have my HCs in Wisely being important but he plays a much bigger one than we thought.
Wisely is the one who stops the other Noah as Bookman sr - in his last breaths - ask him to. And he is the one who rescues the new Bookman and brings him to the Zoogle Bookstore.
Wisely is - aside Road (and Nea) - the only Noah who knows what happened 35 years ago.
Bookman undertook Nea (the german translation said he took him in I am not sure if that is correct, I will post the panel a bit more down for another paragraph), he lost his Junior to "him". I am very certain there is a special connection going on and there is a much heavier reason why Wisely was incarnated last.
It's either that his death was much more intense than the other Noahs or he was ... killed last. Because either Bookman or even pastLavi had their saying in Nea acting against him; as Wisely is connected to the Bookman Clan.
It also could be that Wisely's incarnation is dependend on the Bookmen Clan being intact. As the circle was broken by the Junior dying/someone else had to be born, the circle for Noah's Wisdom could have been interrupted too. But maybe that is a bit too far fetched... possible still.
A little hint for this is the image of the Helix we got a few chapters ago. The helix behind Allen interwines - of course - but if you look close enough a person who has Wisely's handband is in fact not on the Noah side. He's on the Bookman side. In fact there is even two people who could be a former incarnation of Wisely and they both lead to the Bookman side of the helix within Allen.
Anyways I think Wisely is tied with the Bookman Clan, the whole world is not as black & white and even more gray than we had assumed. The borders between them are blurred.
Also Wisely - as he brings newBookman to the Zoogle - has his eye hidden and glowing just like newBookman's during the ritual as his eye formed. Another hint for a deeper connection.
As mentioned before he is also able to talk to Bookman through their language / Wisely can be reached by Bookman through ... a hive mind? (please notice I am using this word for my fics and I do think the Noah have a hive mind) I know Wisely can freely talk with other Noah, like he talks with Allen, but Noah also can talk to all Akuma.
Wisely is not part of the Noah who captured the Bookmen and keep them imprisoned (those are first front Sheryl, then Tyki and Fiedla who used his parasites on newBookman).
Looking up Komui's Lounge from several Volumes Wisely also knows why both Bookmen are able to accomodate Innocence. Yes, of course, he could have picked this up due mind reading, but as said he is not around as both are held by Sheryl and he only can read it when they think about it.
Picking up from the "Clan's powers" information about the Bookmen speaking a language from ancient times, which could mean they speak the language from the days of the great Flood, aka they are tied with the Noah; they could be a branch of Noah with lesser powers but also able to implant their memories through the ritual.
The Noah all can access the memories of their former human shells, which also the Bookmen can do once the ritual was performed.
Oh and Wisely is the only Noah who is able to talk to Road after she was injured by Apocryphos, he does so in Volume 25 while he was about to guard the Earl (and failed as he was too engaged in their conversation).
Another thing happens during the Ark Arc. As Lavi is about to find the Key Jasdero and David mention that the Bookmen are on the Enemies side "this time". But they remain quite relaxed, almost too casual about this. Thing is though their memories from 35 years ago are sealed they don't know exactly what happened last time. They remember there was Nea and that he went berserk but don't have details. This could imply the Bookmen are actually interacting with the Noah more often. The german translation here is more like "currently on the enemies side" ("Momentan seid ihr auf der Seite des Feindes") which gives a deeper implication; also they know that a Bookman has such abilities to find a Key among all those fake ones, the Bookmen abilities are known quite well by Noahs.
Something different is: why did the Noah let Bookman & Junior close to Mana & Nea in the first place? Noah aren't known for keeping humans around unless it's for a disguise or it's fun for them (Tyki & his friends, Sheryl & Tricia), they would not let in some human chronist unless they hold respect for said man. Which leads back to Bookmen are around since the great flood/are tied to the Noah closer than we assumed.
In this panel Bookman even says the Earl asked him to take Nea in. Bookman is good with words he like to twist stuff around or play dumb when he doesn't want to give any hints, but this?
I am pretty sure there is something more to the relationship of Noah and the Bookmen, we will learn more in the future I guess.
Lucia's Role, the family Staff & Joe
What brings us to another connection.
We do assume according Allen's speech towards PLavi that Bookman was his father by blood. As we learn that Joe is PLavi's sister and Lucia is her daughter this means ... Joe potentially could be Bookman's child and Lucia his grandchild (Hoshino confirmed this in a Livestream but she doesn't want us to use that information as canon but I think it's more than implied already). Unless they had different fathers which is possible but Lucia just looks like her Uncle with a different haircut, I think this is intentional.
Hoshino also said she wants them to look like they all belong to the Clan there is an intention behind that.
Joe is also the person we got teased for a few chapters, the "precious" person PLavi got his staff from. This also resolves my question how Lucia got the staff it is not a replica, it is most likely her mother's staff.
Which still underlines my theory that the clan uses such weapons in general. Another information from Komui's Lounge is that the Junior is taught to use all kind of weapons but prefers weapons that are handled like a staff. It seems to be their prefered weapon.
If Joe is indeed blood related to Bookman this opens up the question for me if in former generations the Junior always was the Bookman's child. And that the balance got overthrown by PLavi leaving the Clan/dying and then a not blood-related Junior had to be born.
We do not know if newBookman is blood related, we don't know Bookman's nationality. The people shown during the birth scene could be Zoogles and involved with the Clan. How could a Clan like the Bookmen who act in the shadows and record the hidden history be known in a random village that the elder can call in Bookman to tell him his new heir is born?
Joe's role here is being a housekeeper of the Campbell Manor, but as I pointed out in my Theory post about Ch 256 the Manor is not accessable without an Ark Gate, which Nea left in the Zoogle Bookstore.
We know that both Bookman & his former Junior lived with Nea & Mana, also with Road as we see her with Mana and Bookman is watching in a Flashback (first time we see younger Bookman sr). This could have been in the Manor. There is also a possibility that not only Bookman & PLavi but also their extended family/the Zoogles lived there for some time and therefore took over the Manor before shit hit the fan.
We still don't know what happened to Katherina (she was attacked by the Earl yes, but we don't know if she survived) and Cross most likely has his role here too. Cross also knows way too much about the Bookmen and we have more secrets to unlock about him.
Noah Powers & The Helix / Dark Matter & Innocence
In the preview of Ch 257 we see Sheryl attacking with Dark Matter beams that do look like a spiral, the spiral we know as Helix of Life.
I don't think this is coincidence as usually the attacks look more like straight beams or are round. They do change when the impact has a different intention than just injuring someone though.
This could imply not only Wisely but the other Noah know that the Bookman are different from normal humans and destroying their core, their 'Helix', would hurt them more than anything.
Keeping Nea's past a secret is so sacred to Bookman that he risks to die himself to save his Junior, as he knows the keeper of the secret will not be killed.
We also see Dark Matter acting like Innocence back in Volume 25 as the Earl attacks Allen (controlled by Nea), the Dark Matter spirals like Innocence does when it's called by Apocryphos. It also almost turns into a spiral here, it is the second time Nea remembers pastLavi and the importance of the Spiral is pointed out.
We also learn that the Earl eats the Soul - which is a part of the spiral of life - of his victims, something that we didn't know in before. And what is the gruesome hint in the direction of what happenes to Nea's original body.
Allen's Role as 14th & Abilities
Allen has several roles in healing newBookman. First and foremost he is a Noah, the one who carries Nea's Memories and therefore is the 2nd half to the Millennium Earl. Which means he can neutralize the other Noah's powers like Fiedla's poison.
Nea's powers are unknown so far, we know he had the sword the Earl now carries and Allen has the same sword but made of Innocence. We know he was able to transfer his memories into a human and was able to heal Allen from injuries as he was about to die as Nea appeared. And he can control the Ark.
We know Nea has no Noah Memories on his own as he is an "addition" to the Family, the Memories of the Earl are sleeping within Mana, Nea has no access to them. (Well Mana doesn't as well as he got brain zapped by himself way too much and then by Allen but that's for another time).
But Allen is not only a Noah but indirectly a part of the Bookmen due him fusing with the deceased Junior. He holds a part of his records in his veins, a part that is missing from the Bookman archive.
He carries the memories what happened with the former Junior, why he left the Clan originally and the secret on how he used his own Bookman abilities.
Allen also got enhanced by PLavi as ever since he remembered that his hair turned silver due him helping him his eyes have star shapes in them.
I do wonder if these are maybe a hint towards how PLavi's eye looked like, because he didn't cover it. Hoshino will tease us longer with this secret I guess. I still think it was different from the hollow eye we now know. And I hope we will learn the reason why he most likely himself removed his eye (I went into that in an earlier post already).
It's also possible newBookman will now be able to make the connection between the spirit that helped him as he got shot as a child, the person who pulled him back from the Helix as he already remembered him as he met Allen for the first time.
We certainly can't say how newBookman will react upon meeting Allen who is a Noah but also the carrier of the Helix of the passed Junior, the son of his mentor.
That "Lavi" and the Exorcist "Allen Walker" were friends is not helping here as it only complicates their relationship, for the new Bookman all ties to the persona of the Lavi-Record will be cut, unless he decides to keep the record the one he will work on until the war is over to finish what the deceased Bookman started. But he is not supposed to carry the Persona of the Record anymore. In theory he could decide not to continue this record as the Clan suffered enough already.
I know people want to see heavy implications for their relationship going onto another Level but I don't see that. Bookman isn't supposed to have friends. They are allowed to have children as we know but even then attachment is only allowed within the Clan.
A Bookman isn't supposed to help with a war, he is a bystander. So we will see what happens the next chapter if the new Bookman keep up the former Persona or the mask will drop and we will meet his true self, the one he hid all the time, the self of a Bookman who now has the blood of his predecessor in his veins.
⚠️Despite this just being a loose theory/rambling of mine instead of a full-fledged analysis, I'm tagging this under DGM spoilers in case anyone is avoiding spoilers for Chapter 256 as I mention an important reveal from that chapter.
The images from translated chapters are courtesy of Kougeki Scans (Chapter 245) and an uncredited source (Chapter 214 & 222).
Now, I'm not usually the type of person who's into major theory-crafting when it comes to DGM; no matter how solid a theory can be, there are certain things with which Hoshino's writing so skillfully leads us by the nose that we can never be too sure about the gaps we fill on our own (the reveal of who Lavi Sr was is a pretty good example of this).
But this hit me while I was discussing the latest chapter with my spouse yesterday, and while it may be a little far-fetched, I wouldn't know peace until I put this in my blog.
I'm not trying to make much sense here, I'm mostly rambling; so of course do take this with a grain of salt, grab your tinfoil hats, and amuse an overworked guy with your attention for a moment, if you may.
(This intro has taken long enough, so let's go!)
Thanks to the latest chapter, we now know thanks to Lucia that Cross Marian's actual identity is Cyrus van Campbell - head of the Campbell house.
(Raws kindly provided by a friend of mine. Translation goes:)
Lucia: The head's name is Cyrus van Campbell. It's the true name of your Master, before he became an Exorcist.
Johnny: Eh- Then- You're saying-
"Stupid apprentice!" (Text on the left: "Hand over the money")Allen: Master is...
This information aligns with the first - and only - mention of Cyrus in the story so far (if I recall correctly):
(from The 214th Night: Searching For A.W. - Awakening)
Nea says that he "is now" the head of the family, meaning this hasn't always been the case. Hold onto this information for a second while I go over the main point of this post.
There's a scene I've been mulling over for a while now, and it's this one:
(from The 245th Night: Saying Goodbye to Allen Walker - Red and Mana ⑨)
This one interaction stood out to me, not only because this is the most expressive we've ever seen Maria be, but also because her gesture seems to remind Cross of someone.
Many people have theorized that Maria's true identity is Katerina Eve Campbell; however, I do not believe so myself.
What we know about Katerina, in the present, seems to contradict this: she's implied to be still alive, and we already know Grave of Maria is a corpse whose Innocence and body Cross is able to control through magic.
(Cross mentions Katerina, and confirms the mansion's status in the current day. From The 222nd Night: Searching for A.W. - Hypokrisis)
Now, back to Cross's identity as Cyrus. With this recent reveal, we can infer he was Mana and Nea's adoptive uncle; which, in turn, would mean he's actually related to Katerina by blood, being her brother. This is the most sensible conclusion we can draw at the moment.
Since he became the head of the Campbell family, as far as hierarchy inheritance goes, this must mean a passing took place - the previous head passed away.
We would assume who passed was their parent, so by logic, either the male sibling or eldest sibling inherits the role as the head of the family. But what if - and this is the tinfoil moment - I told you there's an alternate possibility to this?
Cross might not be Katerina's brother, but instead, her brother-in-law.
What if Maria was Katerina's sister, and Cross's former lover/spouse?
This might sound crazy at a first glance, but the more I think about it, more it kind of makes sense.
If Katerina's sister was the former head of the Campbell house and Cross had married into their family, following her passing, he as the spouse, would inherit the title of head.
The way Nea talks about Cross with disdain ("that weirdo") feels to me like he might not be originally from their family as well. Another insteresting thing to note that could be a nod to this, is the "van" in his surname; while "von" is a preposition which indicates nobility, "van" is considered to be the commoner version of it.
As for Grave of Maria, we have never gotten an explanation as to why Cross carries an animated corpse around either.
We can safely assume it's not solely for self-defense; Judgment is a very strong Innocence as it is. This seems to imply Maria is not just anybody, and with the way she acts paired up with the way Cross himself reacts to her gesture in ch245 really does seem to hint at them having been romantically involved.
People were quick to draw the association to Katerina because of what we could see from the woman's appearance, but like I said earlier, there are just too many things contradicting Maria being Katerina.
If Katerina had a sister, however, this would very much explain their physical resemblance. Heck, they could even be twins for all we know.
And if we stretch this only a bit further: what if Maria was the reason why Cross became an Exorcist?
Thanks to Bookman intel, we don't know the details as to how, but it's possible for one to "force" becoming an Accommodator (just like Lavi claimed in a Discussion Room that he and Bookman simply "became" Accommodators once it was time for them to record history from the Order's POV).
We also know Cross has undeniable ties to the Bookman Clan, so he very likely is privy to (at the very least, part of) their knowledge.
As the head of the Campbell mansion, we can easily see why Cross would be an important part of the Third Side of the Holy War - but then why become an Exorcist too? He used to be part of the Science Division before, but seeing how he has always clearly hated the Order, while powerful, he's not exactly responsible toward his duties as a General, so it doesn't really feel like it was a position he particularly coveted.
But differently from Equipment-type Innocence (the one that can be presumably forced into accepting an Accommodator), Maria's Innocence is a Parasitic-type lodged in her vocal cords, so it's not like she could have chosen this, which could potentially have lead to Cross joining the Order for personal reasons related to her.
That missing left arm of hers is also extremely suspicious, especially now that we know how Allen got his Innocence. I don't mean to say there is inherently a connection between these two, since Cross didn't even know who Allen was at first and didn't know the details as to how he had that Innocence, but it's still a coincidence that does make us raise an eyebrow.
And to add the last nail to the coffin and make myself sound even crazier: it's interesting that everyone in the Campbell family so far have different surnames - Mana and Nea D. Campbell, Katerina Eve Campbell, Cyrus van Campbell.
This makes me believe that these don't just hint at ancestry, but also nod at a specific role they must play within the story.
It's too much of a coincidence that Katerina, whose middle name is Eve, was the one to meet the Millennium Earl, Adam, before he split into newborns Mana and Nea; all by Cornelia, a tree important to the point of being considered lowkey sacred.
We know DGM has a lot of biblical and religious symbolisms, so this very much is a reenactment of the Original Sin.
So where would a possible sister of Katerina come into play in the biblical symbolism of DGM?
While not recognized by the regular Bible, there used to be another woman in the Garden of Eden, even before Eve: Lilith, who was supposed to be Adam's wife instead of Eve, but was banished for her disobedience.
Do you see what I see?
A figure that came before Eve, but was then banished. Just like an older sister, maybe twin, of Katerina who then passed away and became the Grave of Maria.
To boot, Maria is a name that holds great significance in a biblical setting too, but also comes with a certain duality: it may represent either Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, or Mary Magdalene.
One was the virgin who birthed Christ, while the other was a woman healed by him and his devout disciple; both witnessed his crucifixion as well as resurrection. There are deviations to how it went due to different translations and iterations of the Bible, but this is the one I personally know and have learned as a Christian myself.
There's definitely some food for thought there...
...but my head is already fuming as is |D
So thank you for humoring me for this long, in case you read until the end of this lengthy post! ❤️ Hope it was an enjoyable read 😊
The conflicting natures of Noah's and their hosts are very interesting, but kind of difficult to understand, as the audience. Had Tyki not awakened as a Noah, he probably wouldn't be a killer, right? And yet, the human side of him finds it so exciting.
When he's actually doing the act of killing, Tyki really enjoys it. But that kind of scares him, so when he looks at this long list of people he's meant to kill, he makes an almost despairing face.
The fear of losing oneself to the Noah memory will come up often, but it's hard to conceptualize what that's actually like because the only character we know before their awakening as a Noah is Allen, and his situation is decidedly unusual, even among the Noah. The closest we get is Skin, who goes from what seems like a pretty normal guy to a very unstable Noah. Even then, we don't really get to know either side of him well.
Tyki seems like kind of a hot mess at this point in the story, almost careless. The threat of getting swallowed up by the Noah memory is very real, and it does scare him, but he's also prone to a sort of hedonistic enjoyment of losing himself in it too.
Later on, though, we'll see that Tyki does screw his head on tighter after his fight with Allen, taking his own situation much more seriously, enough to even give some advice to Allen on it when the time comes.
Now, Tyki having this black and white motif going on in his character is super important. For most characters in DGM, their internal conflict comes from their love versus their duty, an internal division of priority, rather than a division between opposites. Being trapped between opposites is specifically Allen's thing (and by extension, Mana and Nea's thing). Kanda even pointed it out recently; in this war of black and white, the "Walkers" are decidedly gray.
Tyki is an exception, getting to share the black and white motif, since he's Allen's usual Noah opponent and the character we follow when we're with the Noah. He gets protagonist privileges.
He also gets Nea's face, but we don't know all the details about that yet.
The relationship between Punpun and Aiko-chan is a key point for the story as a whole.
It’s a toxic love that does not spare either of them, but with particularly devastating effects on Aiko Tanaka. Why? What brings the two protagonists to not be able to experience a “normal” relationship? Is their one an authentic love?
First of all their dynamic moves by an obsession: their love is not beautiful nor pure, but their deeper obsession. Two dark rooms can not create a light of hope, and moreover they have both grown separate from each other and so they do not know anything about their existences. They are simply obsessed with a childish love on which they have poured out all the discomforts of their existence, in two parallel but opposite ways:
- Aiko-chan saw in Punpun the one who would save her, thanks to the very strong promise that Punpun made at the school time;
- Punpun finds in Aiko-chan his original sin that he needs to destroy: he did not take her to Kagoshima that day.
That’s why they ended up idealizing each other. Neither one really cares about the person of the other, not even being able to perceive the partner as figure with feelings and a soul. This seems to be underlined when with Aiko’s death Punpun drags her corpse around talking to her. He doesn’t even care if Aiko is dead or alive, in a total objectification of her body:
By the way Aiko Tanaka embodies the dark side of Punpun’s personality, his repressed wishes and his innocence, but also a way to escape this pain by espiation. He hoped to be killed by Aiko-chan and when he finds an Aiko who can’t do that he ended to become her murderess:
That’s also why he wants to torture his original sin, in the person of Aiko Tanaka. Thanks to hide all these parts of his personality for a long time Punpun starts to destroy himself, ended up to express his emotions in a violent way.
We can maybe also define Aiko-chan as the real antagonist from the beginning: not a “bad” one, but a person with completely opposite interests of the protagonist ones and which hinders his journey. All that Aiko cares about is a normal life, which Punpun still to refuse. What’s more, even as a child Punpun was searching for Aiko’s affection, but what interested to Aiko was an help in a selfish consideration of their relationiship:
So… Aiko-chan represents what Punpun tries to fight in his inner world every day, every time and every hour. The sin that must be eradicated but also sometimes the lessons Punpun learnt during his journey, like to not bè pathetic still whishing for something more:
Killing Aiko-chan will prove to be like the final act to defeat his own inadequacy and then be able to reborn. Aiko is the guilt that does not allow Punpun to improve himself, while Punpun for Aiko is the help that she would have to find in herself.
Another important key concept for their dynamic is Kagoshima, which remains a strong presence throughout the manga and one of the saddest consequences of their failures. Kagoshima is the place of hope and salvation, like a Godot that never comes. Even when they finally arrive to Kagoshima they find the most complete nothingness. This is why if you do not solve your problems you’ll drag them with you wherever you go:
