The Black Order faces its Darkest Hour.
"From Tiedoll's Unit: Daisya Barry. From Socalo's Unit: Kazaana Reed, Chalker Laboun. From Klaud's Unit: Tina Spark, Gwen Flail, Sol Galen. A total of six Exorcists, all dead. Including the Finders, that's a total of 148 confirmed casualties."
— Reever Wenhamm detailing the casualties suffered in the attack of the Earl
Coverage: Chapters 041-44; Episodes 025-040
Short Summary
Kevin Yeegar, one of the General Exorcists of the Order, ends up killed in an ambush perpetrated by the Millennium Earl and his most powerful allies: the Noah Clan. With eight Innocences destroyed by the Earl, Komui reveals Allen the main objective that both sides in the Holy War are trying to get: the Heart of the Innocence, a particular fragment that keeps the rest of Innocences active and will take them with it if it is destroyed. Suspecting the Earl targeted Yeegar under the belief the Generals have the Heart in their possession, the Black Order movilizes its Exorcists through the world in a race against time to bring them back to the headquarters. Allen and Lenalee travel together to Liverpool trying to find clues of Cross Marian, whose whereabouts have been unknown for a while, whereas Kanda goes with his squadmates to Barcelona, Spain, in order to escort their General safely. Meanwhile, the Earl and the Noah gather for the next stage of the play the Earl has prepared for the sake of getting the Heart, intending to close the scenario with a pitch black curtain...Main Summary
The Order in Crisis Arc has the following tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: The arc in the anime gives focus to several side characters while Allen keeps searching for Cross through the arc. Some of them include:
- Episode 28 is devoted to Krory during his first mission as an official Exorcist investigating the dissappearance of several people in an area surrounding a certain village, where he comes into contact with an apparently friendly Akuma and he gets firsthand the harsh, ungrateful reality of being an Exorcist.
- Episode 31 is about how Miranda (who was Put on a Bus after her introductory arc) returns to the anime trying to find the location of the Black Order to become an Exorcist. Due to her clumsiness and bad luck, she ends up lost and having to get help from a family of street performers and even gets to meet Moore, the policewoman from the very first episode.
- Episodes 33 and 34 (taken from one of the light novels of the manga) deal with Kanda (who wants to reunite with his squadmates to search for his General) investigating a certain village in Germany where a legend about a sinister witch has made everyone avoid the place. There he meets a cowardly Finder name Gozu and gets to learn from the legend of the witch from a young woman who lives alone in the village. It also serves to add foreshadowing of his background.
- Episode 35 features Lenalee and Exorcist Suman Dark in a quest to rescue the sick mother of a little girl in a forest where wolves controlled by Akuma have forced the villagers to abandon their homes. The episode delves into Suman's character and his friendship with Jessica (the daughter of the mother they rescue), showing that despite his sour exterior he has some good in him.
- The climax of the arc is almost focused in Tiedoll's squad fighting against the Akuma who have invaded Barcelona, with Allen playing a mostly supporting role.
- A Death in the Limelight:
- General Yeegar is quite fleshed out in the anime unlike his manga counterpart, with the viewer getting to learn about his character, background, regrets and Innocence, and he even establishes a friendship with Allen (whom he never met in the manga). An episode later, he meets his gruesome canon fate and dies shortly after being driven mad by the Noah.
- Daisya Barry has an entire episode of the anime focused completely in his past and how he became one of Tiedoll's disciples, and his character gets to have more lines and presence than in the manga. Two episodes later he's mercilessly killed by Tyki like in the manga after he runs into him in Barcelona.
- Adaptational Badass:
- General Yeegar benefited a lot from the anime. Whereas in the manga he was a Posthumous Character killed off-screen and was promptly forgotten after his death, in the anime his personality is shown, his backstory and what motivated him to be an Exorcist is revealed and he's portrayed as a very skillful and wise warrior who knows how to use well his Innocence. He also gets to impact Allen enough that unlike in the manga he never ever forgets about the General.
- Unlike in the manga, Suman does gets to show the power of his Innocence and proves to be a skilled Exorcist who dispatches Level 2 Akuma with the power of the wind.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: In the anime, Jasdero and Devit appear for the first time in this arc to receive the instructions of the Earl about the person from the Order they have to kill. In the manga they appear in a scene during the Edo arc confronting Tyki after he failed to dispose of Allen, that in the anime wouldn't get adapted until more than twenty episodes later.
- Adaptation Expansion: And how! The anime took a few chapters serving as the opening for the Fallen One arc and expanded into a long 15 episodes arc delving into the events leading to Kanda's team fight against the Akuma in Barcelona and the death of the Exorcists and Finders following Suman's betrayal (which is not known till later). The anime also takes this as a chance to flesh out certain characters that in the manga get mercilessly killed before having the chance to show more of themselves (such as General Yeegar and Daisya Barry) and even adapt some of the chapters from the light novels of the series.
- The Bus Came Back: Miranda appears for the first time ever since her departure in the Rewinding Town arc in the 31th episode of the anime, looking up for the Black Order's headquarters to begin her job as an Exorcist. She quickly disappears shortly after that until episode 57, that marks her canon return. In the same episode, officer Moore Heese, who wasn't seen ever since the very first episode, also makes a comeback, aiding Miranda in her search for the Black Order (remembering her encounter with Allen)
- Early-Bird Cameo: Lulu Bell (in her cat form), appears in a blink-and-you-miss-it shot in episode 39 during a montage showing the Noah preparing for their mission. Her human form is briefly seen in the next episode before being properly introduced in episode 41.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Upon finding Daisya and confirming he's not his target, Tyki attempts to leave Barcelona and avoid a fight with him. However, when Daisya deems him suspicious and confronts him again, Tyki's Noah instinct cannot be held back any further and he proceeds to sadistically kill the Exorcist.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Following the many casualties of the Earl's Akuma attack, Komui completely drops his irresponsible fool behaviour and acts as a cold-hearted leader when a group of Finders pleads him to take the remains of their captain with his family, denying the request and arguing that by bringing the corpse to his family and letting them know that he died they risk the chance of creating more Akuma if they decide to bring him back with a deal with the Earl. A scene later shows that acting so heartless broke Komui, but it had to be done in order to avoid the creation of more enemies.
- Out of Focus: Lavi is mostly absent from the arc compared to the other three main characters. After Krory's first mission episode he doesn't appears until eleven episodes later at the very epilogue of the arc, where he along with Krory join Allen and Lenalee to continue the search for Cross.
- Sacrificial Lion: General Yeegar is shown as a wise, patient teacher, very caring and protective with his disciples, treats Allen with kindness compared with the rougher Cross, and is also a skilled Exorcist able to easily deal with Akuma by himself. He ends up forced to watch again and again the incident where his Akumatized student killed the rest of his class by Road, is crucified by the Noah after having both his main Innocence and the shards under his care destroyed, and is driven mad and forced to sing the Earl's song about the Heart until finally dying from his wounds. This serves to chillingly show that the Earl isn't fooling around anymore.
- Token Heroic Orc: Cruelly subverted in episode 28. The episode shows a a clumsy yet endearing Level 2 Akuma resembling a tadpole who has abandoned any desire of killing people and instead helps the family of a village in their daily activities, being some sort of a symbol of pride for the village. Lavi at first suspects if the Akuma is as affable as he seems, as there have been reports of neighbouring villages wiped out by Akuma, but Krory, identifying with the Akuma due to being an outcast, decides to give him a chance to prove he's innocent and that the attacks have been perpetrated by another Akuma. Unfortunately, it is revealed that the only reason why the Akuma was so friendly was because an Innocence hidden in a stained glass from the church of the village acted as a barrier to keep Level 1 Akuma unable to enter the village, while Level 2 could enter but had their nature twisted and turned docile. The tadpole Akuma was supposed to destroy the village and take the Innocence, but was affected by the barrier and thus ended up adopting his current personality, while every night he went outside and returned to his typical Akuma personality to rampage in the near villages. During the climax of the episode, the stained glass of the church is broken and the barrier stops affecting the Akuma, forcing Krory to destroy him.
