The dangerous mission in the Land of the Rising Sun.
"When you close your eyes and think about the world, what do you picture?"
— Lenalee Lee
Coverage: Chapters 057-089; Episodes 057-075
Short Summary
After discovering what happened with Suman and Allen, Lenalee and the other Exorcists tasked with finding Cross are contacted by one of the members from the Asian Branch of the Black Order, who tells them that Allen survived, but they will have to leave him behind for their mission. As a replacement, he brings back a new Exorcist: Miranda Lotto, who uses her Innocence to repair the damaged ship, allowing the group to continue their travel to Japan. Meanwhile, Allen wakes up in the Asian Branch, where he meets the head of the branch, Bak Chang, who announces the boy that there is a way to restore his Innocence, who was previously thought to be lost forever. As Allen trains to recover his destroyed arm and his friends cross the treacherous sea to arrive to Japan, the Noah gather in the capital of the country, Edo, to restore an ancient relic of their clan. The battle in Japan comes to a turning point.Main Summary
The Edo Arc has the following tropes:
- Big Damn Heroes:
- As Lavi's group has trouble dealing with the Giant Akuma and Tyki takes Lenalee hostage, Kanda along with Marie and Tiedoll arrive at the battlefield, save Cross's unit and destroy one of the mechanic colossus, engaging into a fight with the Noah.
- When the Earl is about to kill a defenseless Lenalee while his allies deal with the other Exorcists that came to Japan, Allen suddenly appears out of the Ark gate used by the Level 3 Tyki sent after him, saving Lenalee and engaging the Earl in a one on one battle.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Miranda, who was absent since her introductory arc in the manga (and ever since the Order in Crisis arc in the anime), returns in this arc as a full blown Exorcist with a mastered Time Record.
- Kanda also reappears at the very end of the arc after being absent for practically the entirety of the Fallen One arc and not appearing for a lot of chapters and episodes. From this point on he becomes a regular character in the manga.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After the Akuma that Tyki sent to retrieve him to Japan appears in the Asian branch and starts destroying everything, Allen finally realizes that the reason why he couldn't activate his Innocence again despite really wanting to return to be an Exorcist and aid his friends and why his cursed eye had been acting on its own is because he needed an Akuma in order to return to the battlefield. More exactly, what Allen needed was to remember the promise he made to himself after he destroyed Mana that he would save Akuma too, as his continuous exposure to his friends made him center only in humans. After he reaffirms his oath, Allen finally re-synchronizes with his Innocence and activates its true form Crown Clown, proceeding to defeat the Akuma without problems.
- Fusion Dance: Annoyed by the audacity of the Exorcists, the Earl orders all of the Level 3 Akuma he summoned in Edo to combine into a single, gigantic Akuma. The Akuma proves to have huge firepower and proves to be incredibly tough, but becomes slow and unintelligent as a result.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Lots through the arc.
- Seeing how her attacks don't work on Eshi, Lenalee decides to try what is basically a suicide move by taking her Dark Boots to the 100% of synchronization and neglect the Dark Matter on Eshi's gravitational chains with her Innocence to add their power to her attack, falling on Eshi like a meteorite and expecting to die with him. Fortunately, she manages to both destroy the Level 3 and survive thanks to her Innocence protecting her in a crystalline structure before the friction of the impact could kill her.
- When the Level 3 Akuma that Tyki sent to find Allen breaks in the Asian branch, For attempts to sacrifice herself to buy time to Allen and the others to evacuate by taking his shape and confront the Akuma alone. As she's not an Innocence user, she gets easily defeated by the Akuma. Just when the machine is about to finish her off, the true Allen (who convinced Bak to let him help For) appears and challenges the Akuma, saving For's life.
- A truly fatal case happens during the fight in Edo against the giant Akuma, when Chomesuke, about to fully succumb to the Earl's commands and knowing she will self-destruct thanks to the program Cross Marian uploaded in her (something that will not only kill her, but also destroy her soul), decides to give Lavi, Krory and Bookman a last ride to ascend to the head of the Akuma (its weak point). Sadly, she gets gravelly wounded by the attacks of the Akuma and self-destructs just as the Exorcists reach the head of the colossus.
- Immediate Sequel: The arc starts just a few minutes after the previous ended, with Lenalee and Lavi searching for Allen after he disappeared in the bamboo forest with Suman.
- Out of Focus: Despite being one of the main Noah, Road spends most of the arc downloading the old Ark into the new one. As such, she doesn't gets to participate in the fight in Edo.
- Next Tier Power-Up: By fighting the Level 3 Akuma that went to the Asian headquarters to bring him to Tyki, Allen successfully materializes his Innocence again and releases the genuine shape of his arm, a sleekier yet more powerful version of his old Innocence named Crown Clown, which he uses to purify the Akuma and allows him to return as an Exorcist.
- Secret Test of Character: When Allen tries to leave the Asian branch to return with his friends after waking up without his arm, he's confronted by Bak, who asks him that he can perform other duties in the Black Order even if he cannot be an Exorcist anymore. When Allen breaks down and bitterly tells Bak that he can only been an Exorcist because it's the only path that will make him feel alive, Bak then reveals that his Innocence is still alive and they can try to restore it, but he first needed to test if Allen still had the resolve to be an Exorcist after knowing the truth about the Fallen Ones and being so close to dying.
- Taken During the Ending: At the very end of the arc, just as the Exorcists are about to continue with their mission after the Noah return to the Ark, a dimensional gate activated by Lero appears below Lenalee (who is unable to move well due to the sequels of her fight with Eshi) with the intention of sucking her into the Ark, with Allen, Lavi, Kanda, Krory and Chaozii rushing into her rescue and getting sucked by the gate too. The next next arc reveals the Earl did it in order to leave Lenalee trapped in the arc and kill her after her Innocence acted suspiciously and raised hints of being the Heart.
- Time to Unlock More True Potential: Played With. The crux of Allen's plot during this arc involves him trying to reform his Innocence into a physical form, but not as much because he reached the ceiling of his power but because his arm adopted the shape of mist after Tyki destroyed it. When after lots of failed attempts he finally manages to restore his arm, it unleashes his full power and gains a new form instead of its previous humungous arm, effectively reaching his true Innocence.
- Token Heroic Orc: Cross Marian reveals during this arc that he has the ability to turn Akuma into docile beings through some unknown method, using them as messengers and allies for the team coming to rescue him to Japan. Unfortunately, the process is not perfect, as the Akuma eventually have to self-destruct after the modifications become unable to contain their natural bloodlust. Three of them appear in the arc, including Chomesuke/Sachiko, her friend Kawamura and a third bee-like Akuma that leads Tiedoll, Kanda and Marie to Edo, all of three ending up dead by the end of the arc.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The arc follows two different plotlines during its run. One follows Lenalee and the other Exorcists during their journey to Japan to complete the mission of finding Cross, while the other shows Allen’s stance in the Asian branch trying to restore his Innocence to return to the mission and aid his friends. Finally, both plots cross at the climax of the arc when Allen appears in Edo with the Noah’s Ark to save Lenalee from the Earl, now wielding his Crown Clown.
