D.Gray-man

"Akuma: monsters born from dead souls mistakenly recalled by their loved ones to the living world." "Exorcists: those who aim to destroy akuma and retrieve the Innocence scattered around the world." So. At first look D.Gray-man may seem like a typical shonen anime. The main character is probably going to be a hot-head who wants to get stronger and stronger for a certain purpose... usually to protect his friends. But. D.Gray-man is not like any shonen anime I've ever seen. In fact, it's got something much more than most. --STORY--You may be thinking "Hmm... a guy with a deformed arm... Full Metal Alchemist?" Well, no, actually. D.Gray-man's plot may seem like it's going on the same path as FMA at first, but it transforms into something completely different. I love the plot. At first (since I don't normally watch horror anime) I thought it was a little creepy, but it was an addicting kind of creepy. I couldn't get enough of it. Though in the beginning I thought it was going to be typical shonen since there's talk about "finding all of the Innocence", I was a little skeptical about watching DGM. But, after a while, that passed and it grew into something much more. Of course, there's that issue of fillers. Darn fillers ruin a lot of anime sometimes, but I couldn't tell when there was a filler when I watching DGM. The fillers are actually good. Really. I don't want to spoil the series, but let's just say that once you start watching DGM, you'll never want to stop. --ART-- I loved the animation. At first, it starts off okay, but during the third and fourth season, it really kicks into gear. The characters match the manga really well, and stayed true to Hoshino-sama's character design. The lighting and scenery are utterly beautiful. There are too many beyond words places that this anime visits. --SOUND-- The sound is good, but I found the background music boring at times. It's used over and over again--but the background music is still good. The OP's match the anime extremely well. At first when I heard the ED's, I really didn't like a lot of them. Listen to the ED's a couple of times, and you'll fall in love with them. --CHARACTERS-- First of all, the main character,Allen Walker, is the exact opposite of most main shonen anime and manga characters. Allen Walker is the polite and klutzy type who just loves to eat, but there's much more to him than meets the eye, just as there is with the other characters. Of course you have to have the comic relief, Lavi, who can still fight. You have a guy who just seems to make you laugh every time you seem him, Yu Kanda. You have a girl who can kick some serious butt, Lenalee. You have a really... weird but cool adult figure, Komui. And, of course, there's kick-ass villains who you just want to love--but you have to keep reminding yourself that they are evil, and WILL kill your favorite main characters. I found it extremely hard to NOT hate any of the characters. And... there was something else that caught my eye about these characters. They seemed REAL. This anime focuses on the characters more than the plot, even though the plot is almost as interesting as the characters. --OVERALL-- I really enjoyed this anime. I think that every anime or manga fan should watch/read DGM. It's my favorite anime--and D.Gray-man always makes me sit on the edge of my seat, tear up, and put a smile on my face. I hope that D.Gray-man does the same to you.

Note: This review has been completely changed and thought over. To be honest, I was extremely iffy to watch D. Gray-Man. I mean, a series over 100 episodes screams out filler and something more mainstream like Naruto or Bleach. I began to watch it because I already had it and the holidays had come by. With nothing else to do, D. Gray-Man was the better option out of the rest of my anime storage. This anime is really quite a typical shounen with action, a set enemy and a love interest. It goes more into the dramatic side though. Of course, D. Gray-Man follows the exorcist AllenWalker. It depicts his time at the Dark Order. DGM shows struggles within one's self and such. Once you get to about episode 40+ you are thrown onto a roller coaster of emotional struggle. It's really good, it gets to ya sometimes but it's not a tear jerker. It just makes you feel for the characters. That's the main plot of the story. The idea is great but it's been seen before, most obvious example being FMA. It's the directing that let's DGM down at times. Some points in the plot is plain boring itself, it's nothing you haven't seen before really. The pacing is inconsistent and it bugged me. You get really tedious 4-5 episode long arcs at the start which are somewhat important to introduce characters and the idea of Innocence to the audience. It just could've been handled better and without the 2-3 episodes to get to the main point. After you're introduced with everything, nothing big happens until about episodes late 30's early 40's. Feel free to skip anything you deem filler and come back to it later. It's what I did and if you come to be obsessed with the characters in the end like I was, you'd be glad for them fillers you get to watch once you actually do have some sort of appreciation towards the characters. I skipped about 10 episodes, majority were filler and the rest were part of the actual plot. Even the original storyline can get boring as well. Art wasn't anything major. It was nice but it definitely wasn't something with a high budget. Only major characters were given a decent amount of detail, but at least the animation was smooth. I was also quite surprised with a scene near the end of the series, which I thought had quite a bit of effort put into it. If the scene was handed down to another anime, I fear that the detail would disappear as it's not something I see producers really caring about. So props to the producers for that. It's not shiny and wow looking, it's just a scene that felt realistic is all. I didn't take note of the BGM. BGM normally doesn't appeal to me unless it's really good. DGM didn't hit that really good standard. OP and ED's were quite normal for me. Catchy, but not something that was really really good. The voice acting I liked. I thought Allen had a too high pitched of a voice at first but it grew on me and is very suitable for him. Everything was up to normal standards and enjoyable. Now I have a thing for characters so this area usually gets a higher mark then the other categories. You get a range in characters and a few main cast ones but I only felt that Allen was the only one given any character development. Yes we find out Lavi's and Lenalee's past a little but it never really stood out. It felt like something thought up to fill in that curious gap, though it wasn't satisfying. That is why I find the characters bland when I seriously think about them. But if you think of them based on enjoyment then yes that would be quite high. The characters are fun to watch, it makes you happy to see them being well, happy with each other. The Noah are great. They're evil yet human at the same time and it's just so fun to watch. To sum it all up, DGM is definitely not a technically good anime. It more bases on its fandom and enjoyment rate for its success, like the mainstream anime. DGM is a little deeper then that though. It's better then mainstream but not good enough. This is really something to watch when you have the time and are bored. It's agonising just look at how many episodes there are. Just skip to about 40 once you watch maybe the first 20 and it should be more bearable. Don't expect something that is breath taking, expect something simply fun and addictive, like how Kuroshitsuji is. Both are dark but it's mainly the fandom which makes them awesome.

To everyone thinking "Oh, joy. Another cliche shonen anime!", you'll be surprised how different and fresh D.Gray-Man is from most other anime. OK, it starts off slow and has a sort of simple, definitely cliche plotline at the beginning. It seems really boring with simple and boring characters, right? Wrong. DGM (aka D.Gray-Man. I'll use this from now on - easier to type up) is definitely a more character-driven anime, instead of the usual plot-driven ones. The characters are all real and tangible; they have emotions and they show them. Each of them have different backstories, which are revealed as the story progresses and each ofthem faces different enemies and situations. Each of them has different abilities that they show as the danger increases and they all play unique and vital roles in the story. But wait, I'm jumping a bit ahead of myself. That's all in the second half of DGM; the first half is simply an introduction to their world, powers and enemies. The story arcs are very short; around 4 episodes max and quite decent. But after the 50th episode mark, DGM shows its true colours. The detailed introduction of the creator of the Akuma and his "family" really kicks off the story and raises the bar for everything to come. The story, as I've said, is more character-based, and is one of DGM's stronger points. It's unique and interesting, but the earlier episodes don't really compare story-wise to the later episodes; all hell breaks loose and it kicks into overdrive after episode 50 or so. Also, whilst watching DGM for the first time, I had no idea most of the episodes I was watching in the first half were fillers; the story arcs are so short they seem to be part of the story and just slot in with the more crucial episodes that introduce important characters. The art and animation quality are top-notch. The special effects and art styles are quite something, and the character models and backgrounds are superb. There's a lot of detail for those who care to look, and there's nothing really I have to complain about. The sound now. The sound's... well, decent. The openings and endings are excellent, but the background music doesn't really do much for the anime. To be honest, I just sort of blanked out the background music and when I saw a soundtrack for DGM in the shops, I thought "D.Gray-Man had background music?" Japanese voice acting is excellent. English? Not so much. Definitely watch in Japanese with subs. The characters in DGM are by far its strongest aspect. They develop and mature as the series goes along, and they have real emotions, emotions which they have to accept and overcome. They aren't afraid to show their emotions, not afraid to cry or laugh, and they do so regularly. It's quite astounding how Katsura Hoshino has managed to make convincing characters and then throw them into different situations, showing them reacting accordingly without the slightest hint of forcing them to, or pushing the story along. So, in conclusion, I think D.Gray-Man mixes a cliche shonen storyline, convincing characters and a beautiful art style to create something completely fresh and unique. Definitely give it a try, no matter what. And if you don't like it, watch on anyway; it gets much better the further along you watch. Feedback much appreciated ;)

Oh my god, if it wasn't for this being part of my childhood, I wouldn't have bothered finishing it, I think I would've legit dropped it. The first 5-10 episodes or so were hype, I really like the vibe and what it's trying to tell and show us, but oh my god, the following episodes after that up until episode 50ish were some endless rollercoaster filler ride. I was watching, right? and then thought to myself "When will the story start picking up?" because every episode is just the same formula, they go to a new place, new side characters get introduced and ooohhh suddenly there'sakuma in this town and then end of the episode. Soooo BORING! although every now and then, new exorcists get introduced, but still... you didn't need to drag the shit out of this because it got repetitive over time, and then when i finally got to around episode 60, finally! the story started moving and it got a little bit interesting. I don't think i even remember the first 50 episodes of this show, i think i can even recite to you the 2nd half scene by scene because that's where the real shit starts to happen. This anime could've been shortened if you cut out the fluffy parts. Again, the story... HYPE! but it had some flaws. What i also didn't like is that, it's trying so hard to be comedy, like wtf? Light comedy would've been fine, but it's really trying to imitate that goofiness that you see in one piece, but it just doesn't check out to me at all, because of the contrast of the story being dark and cruel. Also, how can you take this seriously when the show itself doesn't take itself seriously too, because it kept inserting funny moments in serious scenes, even the enemy doesn't feel scary and intimidating at all because of how comedic they are at times. The characters, most of them didn't even catch my attention at all, no one is interesting because there's not much character exploration that happened at all, so it's hard for me to get invested in any of these characters. I think the only character that really piqued my interest was Marshall Tiedoll, i found him quite interesting, he has some emotional sides to him and his power is so badass. Lavi was that one character that i kept remembering in my head since my childhood because i find his powers amazing, but watching this now, i don't even know what to say and he kept using the same attack as well, we see his hammer having a lot of magic circles, but he still uses the same fire attack, like come on. The animation really shows how old this anime, it's not that bad, it is pretty decent, so if you're looking for amazing sakuga, you won't find it here. The character designs are lit, it's very gothic, the way the world in here was drawn feels pretty same, they made every country look pretty much the same, except for asian countries and maybe some other well known western ones.

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