open/close all folders
The Earl of Millennium
Voiced by: Junpei Takiguchi (JP, 2006 anime), Yutaka Aoyama (JP, Hallow), Jason Liebrecht note & Todd Haberkorn note (EN), Antonio Villar (SP)
True form (spoilers)
Original form (spoilers)
The main antagonist of the series, the Earl of Millennium (mostly known as the Millennium Earl to Western fans) doesn't look very dangerous due to his cartoonish appearance and cheerful attitude. However, looks are deceiving and this guy is responsible for the death of millions because of his Akuma.
He usually appears before a person grieving the loss of a loved one and politely offers to bring back the deceased back to life. If the offer is accepted, however, the Earl imprisons the soul in an ominous-looking black metal skeleton. The captured soul will then usually berate and curse the person who agreed to the deal...until the Earl completely takes control of the new Akuma and orders him/her to kill the other and wear their skin as a human disguise. Only Allen's cursed eye is able to see who's really an Akuma in a skin.
Tropes about the Earl in general
General tropes
- Affably Evil: He's basically a father figure to the Noah, is extremely polite and seems to forgive all of Allen´s actions because of the fact that he has the 14th´s memories. He also shows in the Destruction of the Order arc that he is perfectly capable of wiping out the hero faction if he chooses to, yet doesn't, although he has become a lot more active as of late.
- Attention Whore: In chapter 188, Road and Wisely are seen commenting on the Earl's need to always be the center of attention.
- Casting a Shadow: While fighting, he likes to create spheres of dark energy that he throws at his enemies both from close and long range. The strongest versions of these is a Sphere of Destruction able to destroy a city.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Yeah, he might be utterly insane, but he's also a genuinely jolly old fellow who loves his family. His Person of Mass Destruction family, but his family nonetheless.
- Evil Sounds Deep: His voice in the first anime is lugubrious and deep, befitting his status as the main villain of the series. In Hallow, his new voice actor (Yutaka Aoyama) zigzags this, sounding high pitched and silly when the Earl is behaving erratically, then suddenly dropping his voice like a rock when the Earl gets serious.
- Exact Words: A minor example, the Earl says "I'm not fat" in what is assumed to be just his odd sense of humour to Tyki. Turns out he wasn't lying; the fat man look is just a bodysuit.
- Fat Bastard: He is noticeably plump and is trying to destroy the world with killer machines created using human souls and dark matter. Greatly subverted with his true form, that it is instead slim, meaning that only the suit itself is fat.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Hoshino stated he is based on a historical figure, but has not revealed exactly who. However, judging for her description of him as an immortal alchemist who spoke many languages and said prophecies, it seems that the good Earl is based on the legendary Count of St. Germain (their very names are a hint, as the Japanese translations for earl and count both use the same word, hakushaku). However, while the historic Count of St. Germain was never known as anything more than an adventurer and an artist, the Millennium Earl is an evil schemer who wants to destroy mankind.
- I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: Lulu Bell points out the Earl is crying after the White Ark is seemingly destroyed, which the Earl then is confused as to why he is crying.
- Immune to Bullets: Three shots to the face barely break skin.
- Implacable Man: He has yet to suffer an injury of any kind; even the fake version summoned by Jasdevi that fought Krory and Allen showed no signs of damage during the entire fight.
- He takes his first real injuries in Chapter 221 when when an Order agent shoots his human form in the face three times (though he is barely fazed and simply spits out the bullets) and later in chapter 222 when Link actually manages to "put him on hold" for some time using his talismans.
- In-Series Nickname: The Noah Family members generally refer to him as “Lord Millennium” (“Sennen kō”).
- Luke, I Am Your Father: He's none other than Allen's adoptive father Mana... sort of.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: His cartoonish appearance belies how powerful he really is.
- Person of Mass Destruction: The first attack he was ever shown using completely leveled Edo. And he hadn't gotten serious yet.
- Really 700 Years Old: He's been alive since before Noah's flood and for at least even thousand years and since his real name is 'Adam', may have been around a lot longer
than that. - The Reveal: The Earl is actually both Mana and Nea, who were born after the past Earl, their former incarnation, disappeared. And later that the Earl we have known thus far is actually just a sentient golem suit, who forcibly usurped his host to keep the Earl's legacy alive where Mana refused to.
- Satanic Archetype: Has very clear aspects of this. He's a ruler of demons who tricks people who mourn for their dead friends or relatives into making a Deal with the Devil to resurrect them, turning them into Akuma that he can then control.
- Soul Eating: He has the ability to devour souls. He appears to relish the taste.
- Sphere of Destruction: During the fight in Edo, angry at the audacity of the Exorcists to attack him in his turf, he unleashes a huge explosion of Dark Matter strong enough to level up Edo, the explosion being spherical and destroying anything on its path, with the Exorcists barely surviving the blast of the explosion.
- Split at Birth: At the end of his first life, he split in two to give birth to the entities of Mana and Nea. His suit seems to have gained sentience in the process as well.
- Stepford Smiler: It turns out in chapter 218, he has a lot of instability and hatred behind his jolly attitude. Although as of recent chapters, he shows much more emotions than he did previously particularly when it comes to the 14th and Cross.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- Losing control of the White Ark and the Egg to the Exorcists is the first time his plans have suffered a major setback resulting in a terrifying Nightmare Face.
- In chapter 218, he LOSES it completely and for no reason other than meeting Allen again, convinced he's Nea. He doesn't just become upset, he literally goes insane and his form become even more monstrous than usual.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His past revealed by a sudden flash of memory seems to suggest he has a lot more reason to hate Exorcists and Nea than simply Evil Is Petty.
- Confirmed in later chapters where it's revealed that the current Earl, Mana, used to be a genuinely loving, if griefstrucken and a little confused individual who was so conflicted about his nature as the Earl that he developed something close to a Split Personality. Losing his Living Emotional Crutch, having 30 years of memory wiped and waking up in the body of a middle aged man, people close to him getting massacred and asassinated and finally getting Mind Raped by his adoptive son wound up shattering his mind to the point where some character discuss killing him as a Mercy Kill at this point.
Tropes about the suit
Earl's suit
The true form of the current Millennium Earl. A sentient golem armor who usurped the previous Earl after he rejected his part of the Great Scenario. The suit is named Adam, like the first memory of Noah.- All There in the Manual:
Katsura Hoshino confirmed in the D.Gray-man’s art exposition of 2020 that the suit is named Adam, just as the first memory of Noah. - Ax-Crazy: While the Earl is weird, when acting malicious, he comes across as this especially in his true form. In chapter 218, he is literally unable to keep a solid form.
- Acrofatic: He is quite plump, yet it doesn't seem to impede him from happily levitating and hopping around.
- Big Bad Ensemble: One of the top villains in the series, but he's losing ground to the 14th and Apocryphos. In chapter 218, he's not even able to keep his composure once he meets Allen again.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: His first meeting with Red involved the Pierrot trying to make jokes to comfort him. I tdidn't work at all.
- Combat Breakdown: If someone gets him angry enough, he'll forego the mind games, the magic, and the weapons, in favor of beating them to death with his bare hands.
- Demonic Possession: Implied to do this to his hosts, being capable of materializing separately from them and forcibly enveloping their bodies like a coccoon. His current host, Mana, actually managed to escape him for a whole year and expresses clear and staunch opposition of his goals.
- Dramatic Irony: Adam died for the first time in 7000 years and was reborn into the body of a Friend to All Living Things who very openly Refused the Call and currently poses a greater threat to "the scenario" and the Suit itself than the whole Order.
- Empathic Weapon: With a dash of Adaptive Armor. The Suit, while definitely capable of expressing rage, is seemingly incapable of communicating or acting independently of Mana and is dependendent on Mana's will being broken to act of his own accord.
- Friendly Enemy: His looks and demeanor transmit a sort of friendly, comedic light, but he is still the first Big Bad of the series and a thoroughly evil man.
- Large and in Charge: Rules over the Noah and is a big dude. Although his vertical height can vary depending on the medium, he is consistently drawn as not short, and his top hat makes him look even taller.
- Monster Clown: With his caricaturesque physique, extravagant attire and makeup-looking grey skin, he somewhat evokes a classic circus clown. However, it doesn't hide that he is a powerful and cruel villain under the giggles.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Very unlike the rest of characters, he is drawn in cartoonish, almost grotesque proportions, implying from his very appearance that there is something deeply wrong with him. Still, it's not clear how much of it is an artistic resource for the viewer's sake and how much of an in-universe physical semblance, as close-ups to his face
◊ show more humanlike features. It's later revealed he is a costume and not the Earl's actual body.
- Opaque Lenses: His pince-nez spectacles are opaque except in very close shots.
- Parasol Parachute: He tends to use his umbrella-like golem Lero as a way to move himself in the air. Of course, Lero being a magic being, he always stays afloat no matter how much time he spends mid-air.
- Perpetual Smiler: He has a static Cheshire Cat Grin even when he's angry, which looks shocking to say the least. Some chapters play with this trope as his face distorts into very bizarre shapes and more varied emotions, and he does open the mouth in the manga and Hallow, but the smile itself never vanes.
- Please Keep Your Hat On: Under that hat, the Earl has horns when he's in his nonhuman form.
- Red Right Hand: Not that he needs it, but those hats are to cover up his horns.
- Say It with Hearts: In nearly every single one of his speech bubbles. If the hearts are missing it's a tell that Mana is in control.
- Slasher Smile: Although he's always smiling, his smile looks like this when he's mad.
- Split Personality: As a result of his current host actively rejecting him in the past, he's come to see himself as someone, or something, separate.
- Split-Personality Takeover: Mana briefly escaped him 6-9 years ago and the Suit seems to have little memory of the years lost. This is because the Suit has to feed on Mana's soul to be capable of independent thought.
- Technically a Smile: His face is frozen in an enormous, semi-perpetual toothy grin, but some details, like him barely moving his mouth when talking or eating, hint that it is actually a mask.
- Weapon Wields You: To an even greater degree than Crown Clown. He completely usurped his host; body, mind and all.
Tropes about his true identity (WARNING: Heavy spoilers)
Mana Walker / Mana D. Campbell
Voiced by: Fumihiko Tachiki (JP, 2006 anime), Yutaka Aoyama (JP, Hallow), Mark Stoddardnote & Charles Campbellnote (EN), Jesús Maniega (SP)
With clown make-up
Without make-up
In his youth
Allen's father figure, Nea's twin brother and the first half of the Millennium Earl. After Allen called Mana back as Akuma, his father cursed him, granting Allen the power to see Akuma's tormented souls. Allen's innocence activating and destroying the akumatized Mana led Allen to become an Exorcist. Before his death Mana worked as a traveling entertainer. Despite Allen thinking about him every now and then during the series, very little is actually known about him until later chapters. He is the deuteragonist of the Farewell to Allen Walker arc.
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: He retains none of his memories of killing Nea and being usurped by the Earl and is one of the nicest characters introduced in the series.
- Archnemesis Dad: Since Mana is one half of the Earl, the current Earl who is only made of Mana, lacking his other half, is technically this to Allen.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: The loss of his twin brother Nea did a real number on his psyche. Especially since its implied either he or the Earl's Suit killed and devoured Nea.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Of love. Mana represents the conflicting, nascent emotion of love within the previous Earl and is childish, frail, corruptible and dependent as a result. The pay off is an individual so compassionate and kind at least four people are ready to fight a god to get him back.
- Death of Personality: The Suit of the Millennium Earl is trying his damndest to erase Mana's sense of individuality through an Identity Breakdown. After realizing that Mana, having grown up loved and cherished, doesn't share his hatred of mankind despite being his host; he kills Mana's loved ones, forces a conflict between himself and his brother, forcibly changes Mana's appearance to the point where he's unrecognizeable even to himself, and limits his self expression by usurping his body whenever he expresses grief or rage about his situation. Furthermore, after Allen accidentally shatters Mana's mind, the Suit wastes little time before convincing the confused, amnesiac Mana that he is nothing but an aspect of himself and that Mana isn't him but a separate entity that murdered their brother, then winds up suppressing Mana's consciousness for years. The end result can be seen in Chapter 218 through 220 when a Brainwashed and Crazy Mana talks about himself in 3rd person and claims to have "always looked like this". Even more poignant when it's revealed that the Suit needs to do this to persist as a sentient being.
- Determinator: He pushed through and survived a lethal illness as a child and continued to look for Nea for years after he "disappeared" despite never getting any result. He is also capable of fighting the Millenium Earl's, essentially a God's, Demonic Possession.
- Disappeared Dad: He died when Allen was around ten, leaving him with no one but his master, Cross. However, it's later revealed Mana apparently didn't exactly die and was absorbed by the Earl.
- The Faceless: His face is almost never shown in full without make-up in the manga. We get a single panel silhouette of him (as a boy) in normal clothes in the manga with his brother until chapter 214 in a flashback as a small child. He looks exactly like a younger version of the Earl's human form.
- Fatal Flaw: His pacifism and fear of conflict is eventually what "kills" him. He tries to prevent a raging Red from killing one of their circus colleagues, subconsciously afraid of seeing a repeat of what happened between himself and Nea, which just winds up escalating the conflict since the man in question has consistently shown himself to be a violent, selfish and irredeemable person who has done nothing but harm Mana. Red takes his defense of him as a sign of support of this behavior and attacks him with his innocence, shattering his mind.
- Flower Motifs: In one of Hoshino's Instagram's posts, she mentioned how poppy flowers represent Mana and his brother.
- Friend to All Living Things: He was infinitely patient and kind to animals and people alike and outright claims to enjoy working as a clown because he gets to make people smile. It's part of what puts him in conflict with The Millenium Earl.
- Gentleman Adventurer: Has some air to this, mainly for wearing Victorian clothes and having an eccentric personality.
- Posthumous Character: He died long before the start of the series and we only see him in Allen's flashbacks. However, if revelations much later on indicate this might not be true at all.
- Sanity Slippage: According to Cross, after Mana's brother was killed by Millennium Earl he kind of lost it. Which is a huge understatement after the author gets into detail about Allen's backstory in Reverse Novel 3. Turns out that Allen didn't actually have a name in the beginning. He takes up that after Mana calls him Allen, mistaking him as his dead dog. It gets even worse, in chapter 220 a younger Mana is shown crying at his reflection in a mirror, thinking Nea is there and apologizing over and over again for devouring him. Mana proceeds to scream and claw at his face till the skin is torn and smashes his hands against the mirror, rejecting how things turned out this way, to the point where the Earl/Adam persona took over and said that 'Nea' and 'Mana's' existence were illusions and that there was only the Millennium Earl, before using a ball of dark matter to destroy his face and memories so they wouldn't be reminded of 'Nea' and 'Mana' anymore.
- Split at Birth: He and Nea actually form the Earl together, they were just two halves of him born separately.
- Split Personality: Implied. Mana seems to be in conflict with his Earl persona, and is unstable because his other half is missing.
- Unable to Cry: Mana mentions when he first meets Allen, he no longer has any tears left even though he's sad. Chapter 236 clarifies that this isn't true. He was actually restraining himself from crying out of fear of the Earl coming.
- Walking Spoiler: Due to the reveal that he is not actually dead, but succumbed to his Noah memories and took on the guise of the Earl.
- Younger Than They Look: Played with. Mana looks old enough to be Allen's biological father or even grandfather, but is actually, at least mentally, no more than 17 years old when they first meet. After Nea's death, Mana's other persona couldn't bear the sight of his own face and destroyed it, leaving Mana unconscious for around 3 decades, unaware that so much time had passed.
