The calm before the storm.
Coverage: Episodes 041-050
Short Summary
An anime only filler arc set as a preface of the Fallen One incident. Following the crisis of the Order, Allen, along with the group assigned to him (composed of Lenalee, Lavi, Krory and later Bookman), follow the footsteps of Cross Marian, whose location seems to be somewhere in the Far East. However, their journey will not be peaceful. The Earl, fearing that the Exorcists may gain an edge if they find Cross, sends one of his most dangerous enforcers: the shapeshifting Noah Lulu Bell, who along with her Akuma maid Mimi will put lots of obstacles and dangers for Allen and his friends through their mission.Later in the arc, our heroes reach China, where they find that a nasty drought is devastating the region. Investigating, they meet a mysterious girl named Mei Ling, who has a relation with the drought and a connection to the Innocence, that eventually brings Lulu Bell back into action.
Main Summary
The Lulu Bell Arc has the following tropes:
- Adaptational Early Appearance: For Lulu Bell, to unsuspected limits. While in the manga she initially made a small cameo in the first appearance of the Noah Clan along with Skinn, Road and Tyki in chapter 18, she's not fully introduced in the story until chapter 132 at the end of the Noah's Ark arc. In the anime, Lulu Bell appears properly for the first time in this arc during the 41th episode after a brief debut in the previous one and a cameo in the episode after that, while the scene where she debuts in canon happens in the 92th episode, which means that there are 52 episodes of difference between her anime debut and the canon one.
- Arc Villain: Lulu Bell acts as the main threat of the arc through its run, appearing in most episodes except in the Kanda episode of the arc and the beginning of the Mei Ling story. As she's a canon character that appears later in the plot of the manga, she gets to survive the arc (after fulfilling both of her missions, even).
- The Bad Guy Wins: Lulu Bell manages to fulfill both of the missions tasked to her by the Earl. Not only she successfuly manages to stall Allen's group enough to make them unable to reach Cross's location before he departs from China, but also destroys Mei Ling's Innocence at the end of the arc (at a the cost of Mimi's life, however).
- Bittersweet Ending: With more emphasis on the "bitter" than the "sweet". Lulu Bell's multiple traps and assaults against Allen's group manages to delay them enough before they have the chance to meet Cross in China (that they don't learn about until the beginning of the next arc), and later at the end of the arc she also succeeds in destroying Mei Ling's Innocence when she was already on board of becoming an Exorcist. And not even Lulu Bell herself ends unscathed, as she loses her loyal servant and friend Mimi in the final fight of the arc, ending up devastated. The only reason why the arc doesn't ends in a full blown Downer Ending is pretty much because Mei Ling manages to survive despite losing her crystal ball and is able to return with her grandfather to a life of peace.
- Breather Episode: Despite the constant threat of Lulu Bell and a rather intense final fight, the arc overall feels more lighthearted and less grim than the one preceding it and especially the ones following it. Our main characters have many chances to rest from the battles, deepen their bonds and except for the last four episodes the plot of the arc is mostly episodic. Compared with the arcs after, the Lulu Bell arc really comes as the last point where our heroes can relax and have some fun before the Fallen One incident changes the series forever.
- Foregone Conclusion: If you read the manga first, it's easy to predict that Mei Ling won't join Allen and his friends as an Exorcist, as she's an anime only character with no counterpart in the manga. Likewise, as Lulu Bell later appears as an antagonist in the manga, it becomes obvious that the main characters aren't going to defeat her for good there.
- The Heavy: While the Earl is behind the entire operation of delaying Allen's group from finding Cross in China, he takes a supporting role and remains in his headquarters while Lulu Bell and Mimi execute the mission, only appearing from time to time to help the Noah by giving her new Akuma. Mimi's case as an antagonist is noteworthy, as she's one of the few Akuma who survive her first battle against the Exorcists (most of them are destroyed during their first fight with them) and proceeds to remain as a major villain until she's destroyed in the climax of the arc.
- Ship Tease: Episode 44 of the anime includes some Lavi x Lenalee scenes where he takes care of her after she was poisoned by an Akuma two episodes ago, with him treating her delicately and acting super protective of her and she saving Lavi at the last second from Mimi when the Akuma steals his Innocence.
- Sick Episode: Lenalee spends the entirety of episode 44 sick thanks to the poison one of Lulu Bell's Akuma injected her two episodes before. As such, she's stricken with strong fevers and force Lavi to take care of her while they await to meet Bookman for him to aid the Cross mission and also heal Lenalee, while Mimi, possing as a simple human maid, takes the chance to try to steal Lavi's Innocence. Despite her state, Lenalee manages to save Lavi from death when Mimi takes his hammer using her remaining strength, which buys time for Bookman to appear and save the day.
- Sixth Ranger: While in the manga he was always part of the Cross's search team, Bookman in the anime doesn't joins the group properly until this arc in episode 44, remaining a permanent member from that point on.
- Spot the Imposter: Thanks to her Noah ability, Lulu Bell exploits this in two instances by turning into friends of Allen to confuse him and his group and attack them when they're vulnerable. In both cases Allen manages to see through her guises by testing her into reacting like her friends would.
- She first turns into Lenalee in episode 42 to drive away Krory (who got lost in a big city) from the rest of the group and lead him to a trap where two Akuma are waiting to attack him, using the excuse that she saw an Innocence in the outskirts of the city. Despite not bothering to act like Lenalee at all (instead behaving in her usual cold, stoic persona), Krory, being Krory, doesn't realizes that something is off with her friend until he fights the Akuma and realizes Lenalee isn't helping him like she would do. Fortunately for Krory, Allen and the rest arrive to save him, only to discover there is another Lenalee. After her initial plan fails, the Noah then has each of the Akuma to take her and the true Lenalee to different directions to separate the Exorcists. Lavi finds the true one, while Allen and Krory are left with the imposter. To see if the one they followed is the real Lenalee, Allen offers her to escape with him while Krory deals with the Akuma who "kidnapped" her. When the fake Lenalee accepts, Allen pushes her away and announces her as the impostor, as the true Lenalee would never abandon a comrade to their luck. This prompts Lulu Bell to escape.
- The second happens in episode 46, where Lulu Bell takes Krory's shape to confuse Allen after she made them get lost in the Himalayas. This time Lulu Bell provides a better acting and copies Krory's mannerisms more effectively, making Allen doubt about who of the two is his friend. Not willing to shoot both of them at the same time, Allen fakes to complain about how useless Krory is and how much of a hurdle he is to them, who makes the real Krory cry about how they never believed in him as a comrade, while Lulu Bell stares in utter shock at the reaction of the Exorcist. This indicates Allen that the Krory who is not crying is the pretender, attacking him and forcing Lulu Bell to escape once again.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: After Lulu Bell separates Allen's group into two (Allen and Krory in one place and Lavi and Lenalee in another), the focus of the episodes rotate between one duo and the other trying to regroup before they finally meet in episode 46. Meanwhile, episode 45 instead centers around Kanda and his squad escorting General Tiedoll, likely to give him some screentime as he wouldn't have spotlight for a while.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Lulu Bell's modus operandi through the arc basically amounts to overwhelm Allen and his friends with a combination of Akuma numbers and diverse tricks. However, when they fail to take them, she opts to retreat to think about a new strategy. Justified in this case, as she's not ordered to outright kill Allen's group, but just make sure they don't find Cross.
