D.Gray-Man Anime Review
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Hey everybody, I?m back from college exams and ready to serve you another warm, flaky anime review. Now before I get started I?d just like to say how very, very thankful I am to all of you who enjoy my antics and gave me all that positive feedback, it really makes me fell all warm and fuzzy inside. So perhaps I should tell you a bit about myself. I?m originally from Michigan but have moved to Tempe, Arizona to go to college for game design, which is awesome. However it?s now summertime and while the representative lady I talked to before I came here told me it was a ?semi-tropical? climate, it turns out she was bullshi**ing me. This is THE DESERT, okay, scorpions, cacti, buzzards circling our heads IN CLASS, the whole nine yards. I mean, how should I put this? If you?re in Tempe and it?s not December, the sun doesn?t come ?out?. It comes out TO GET YOU. Not that guy. Not that other guy. YOU. Especially YOU. But anyway, I?m well past due to get on topic here, and I?d better, because this time around I?m talking about D.Gray-Man, which is a popular shonen show, which means that it has a few hundred episodes and a few thousand chapters, and I have a 10-minute youtube time limit and a lot of s**t to cover, so let?s get this show on the road. *ahem*
Now normally I would start off by telling you about the origin of the show?s name, but I can?t do that this time because D.Gray-Man is one of those shows like Bleach where the name of the show has absolutely no apparent relation of any kind to the show itself. There is no noun in the series that has to do with D?s or gray-man, so I suppose I should just skip to the premise, which goes that when someone close to you unexpectedly dies and you are busy grieving about it, you just might be approached by this character called the ?Millennium Earl?, who is basically this show?s very silly-looking version of the devil, who will tell you that he can bring back your loved one as long as you just call out to them. However, when you do this, your loved one comes back as an ?akuma? (a demon), kills you, takes your form and then serves the Millennium Earl in his plan to ?get revenge on God?, which of course involves taking over the world. Not surprisingly there is a secret organization of people trying to stop this, and while Naruto has ninjas and Bleach has shinigamis, the good guys in Gray-Man are all themed as ?exorcists?, who?s akuma-fighting superpowers all come from this strange glowing substance called ?innocence?, which is supposedly bestowed by god and is used by being crafted into various supernatural weapons for the exorcists to wield, so let?s go through who they are, shall we?
First off, the show?s main character: Allen Walker. Allen is one of those goody-two-shoes-boy-scout-ridiculously-polite-types who has ?boku wa? stamped on his forehead. He?s a kid who turned his own adoptive dad into an akuma and only survived because he was mysteriously born with a piece of innocence in his arm, which is surely prophetically important though still unexplained, and his ability is to turn his arm into a huge metallic claw or gun (or sword, though he never does it), though now his innocence has evolved into a cape and freddy kruger claw that he can pull off and turn into one of those ridiculously-sized swords main characters love so much.
Then there?s Kanda, who?s innocence is a katana called Mugen (which means infinite), and he?s also Sasuke from Naruto???.no, seriously, the parallels are unignorable. He?s the talented, irritable, angsty rival to the main character, he also has the cursed seal, and he even says the ?I can?t die until I kill that person? line. Who is that person? Well of course, it?s Itach?.Bob. It?s Itachbob. Shut up.
Up next is Lenalee, who has the ?Dark Boots?, which allow her to fly around and kick things really hard. And the thing about Lenalee is that for a long time into the show she prettymuch plays the role of smurfette since she is the only main female character and is dressed up like a sailor scout, which for me is a huge turn OFF. And while I do have to hand it to the show for having virtually no fanserivce, every now and then it insists on showing her in a teddy. Now, eventually Miranda shows up but she doesn?t get near as much screen time and Lenalee?s role as ms. Smurf is already so established that Miranda doesn?t make much of a dent in it. However, Lenalee IS a well-grown character and while she?s also a crybaby, she still holds out as one of much better done, more filled-out female characters I?ve seen.
As for Miranda, I do have to admit I find her more attractive than Lenalee, but that?s mostly because of her eye lines, which remind me of ABA from Guilty Gear, whom I heartily glomp. Miranda herself, though, has an ability that allows her to fix wounds by reversing time, making her the group?s healer, and she has a textbook case of ?white mage syndrome?. Tertiary character, can only heal, has no backbone and can?t go 4 seconds without breaking into tears, etc., etc.
Other characters include Krowly, who?s innocence is vampire teeth and who, as his hairdo implies, is also an emo. He also speaks with the Japanese interpretation of a foreigner?s accent, which is to punctuate all his sentences with ?de aru?. And Lavi, who uses a hammer version of the monkey staff and is a member of the ?Bookman? tribe, who?s job is to watch and record the untold histories of the world, though while he?s always around he doesn?t really get much development.
Now as you would expect form a shonen show, these exorcists go on various adventures and fight a lot of increasingly powerful akuma, which are numbered by level, the highest so far being level 4 (in the manga). And while the Millennium Earl is probably the final boss in the show, the obligatory ?big group of themed powerful villains? is the ?Noah Clan?, who all work for the Earl, have gray skin and stigmata on their forehead, and are indeed supposed to be descendents of the guy with the boat. So this show, like a lot of anime, takes Christianity very lightly, since in the show there was apparently some kind of conspiracy with God and Noah, and there is supposedly a good (though unrevealed) reason for all of Noah?s descendants to hate Jesus?..and puppies. Each of the clanmembers embodies a memory of Noah like ?rage? or ?dream?, and has a matchingly themed ability, and they also have some very oddballed names, like ?Skinn Bolic?, ?Tyki Mikk?, ?Jasdero and Devit who become Jasdevi?, though my definite favorite of the bunch and probably the show is ?Road Camelot? and?.ah,ah,ah, I know where your brain is going, and NO. I am NOT Michael Jackson, alright. Though?.if he were a Noah??that would explain a lot?.in fact?..that would??..oh my god. (see video to get joke)
As far as the overall production of the show, it?s pretty nice. The art style is a respectable quality and while not distinctly serious, the villains and akuma do look creepy in an ?evil clown, mad hatter? kind of way. The voice acting is all very well casted and preformed, as this is a high-grade shonen series, and each voice actor does a very nice job of playing the character they?re supposed to be, so none of voices felt forced or out of place to me. D.Gray-Man?s soundtrack is also a ways more sophisticated than most shows with its demographic. There isn?t really much in the way of typical ?action music?, but the sound is mostly composed of more orchestral, dramatic, and occasionally creepy tunes that are well implemented throughout the show. The animation levels have managed to stay consistently good so far through the show, and the directing isn?t too shabby either, with episodes number 11 and 56 in particular being so well done that they really just make the show for me. The storyline also has some nice twists and turns to it, and at times the show becomes a bit darker than you might expect.
A few things I should point out about this show, though:
For one, the characters in this show cry A LOT. I mean a whole lot. If you thought the good guys in Naruto were sensitive, you haven?t seen anything yet. Seriously, I?ve known emo kids who complained and wept less than this (two emo references for the price of one). Granted they do gradually lay off it but at times I started liking Lavi just because he was the only one who would get something done without whining about it first.
For two, while in most shonen shows you see the character as they grow stronger and get new stuff, in this one characters will just whip out new powers on the fly that we never knew they had gotten and it comes as a total surprise when we find out that any of the characters got a new ability. I?m pretty sure this is done on purpose by taking out all the zillions of ?training scenes? that shonens usually have to improve the pacing of the show, since there is only one such scene in all of D.Gray-Man so far, which does accomplish that but also leaves us wondering exactly when the character got that power and perhaps why they didn?t use it sooner, like say, the last time they were in trouble.
For three, in comparison to the manga (drawn by Katsura Hoshino) the show actually does a very good transition and I actually find the anime to be better than the manga on this one. Why? Well, the art quality was very inconsistent and it had a bad habit of trying to cram too many happenings onto a single page, but lately it seems that Katsura has been working to fix that so in recent chapters I?ll hold them at right about even with each other. That is as long as the anime isn?t dicking around with filler, of course, which it did do to a surprising level in the first two seasons but lately has been right on track, so that?s good.
Overall, this is definitely one of the better shows out there and you can tell that they make a deliberate effort to try to avoid some of typical pitfalls that shonens often fall into, and it has a charm to it with how it?s obsessed with filling out its character?s rather than seeing how long they can do a power-up scream, and if you liked Fullmetal Alchemist, you?ll probably like this show, too. I?m actually a bit surprised that this hasn?t been licensed yet, but then again I imagine the only thing keeping it from that is it?s a younger-aimed show and soccer moms don?t often take kindly to their kids watching shows that freely mock the bible, but I guess we?ll see if it ever shows up here or not. D.Gray-Man is currently up to 87 episodes and 162 chapters (okay, I lied), and I really hope that they manage to avoid the biggest shonen pitfall of all, which that the show takes so long to finish you have to be cryogenically frozen to see the ending and it keeps getting drier staler the longer it drags on, but in the meantime it?s a great show and I do hope you try it.
Now normally I would start off by telling you about the origin of the show?s name, but I can?t do that this time because D.Gray-Man is one of those shows like Bleach where the name of the show has absolutely no apparent relation of any kind to the show itself. There is no noun in the series that has to do with D?s or gray-man, so I suppose I should just skip to the premise, which goes that when someone close to you unexpectedly dies and you are busy grieving about it, you just might be approached by this character called the ?Millennium Earl?, who is basically this show?s very silly-looking version of the devil, who will tell you that he can bring back your loved one as long as you just call out to them. However, when you do this, your loved one comes back as an ?akuma? (a demon), kills you, takes your form and then serves the Millennium Earl in his plan to ?get revenge on God?, which of course involves taking over the world. Not surprisingly there is a secret organization of people trying to stop this, and while Naruto has ninjas and Bleach has shinigamis, the good guys in Gray-Man are all themed as ?exorcists?, who?s akuma-fighting superpowers all come from this strange glowing substance called ?innocence?, which is supposedly bestowed by god and is used by being crafted into various supernatural weapons for the exorcists to wield, so let?s go through who they are, shall we?
First off, the show?s main character: Allen Walker. Allen is one of those goody-two-shoes-boy-scout-ridiculously-polite-types who has ?boku wa? stamped on his forehead. He?s a kid who turned his own adoptive dad into an akuma and only survived because he was mysteriously born with a piece of innocence in his arm, which is surely prophetically important though still unexplained, and his ability is to turn his arm into a huge metallic claw or gun (or sword, though he never does it), though now his innocence has evolved into a cape and freddy kruger claw that he can pull off and turn into one of those ridiculously-sized swords main characters love so much.
Then there?s Kanda, who?s innocence is a katana called Mugen (which means infinite), and he?s also Sasuke from Naruto???.no, seriously, the parallels are unignorable. He?s the talented, irritable, angsty rival to the main character, he also has the cursed seal, and he even says the ?I can?t die until I kill that person? line. Who is that person? Well of course, it?s Itach?.Bob. It?s Itachbob. Shut up.
Up next is Lenalee, who has the ?Dark Boots?, which allow her to fly around and kick things really hard. And the thing about Lenalee is that for a long time into the show she prettymuch plays the role of smurfette since she is the only main female character and is dressed up like a sailor scout, which for me is a huge turn OFF. And while I do have to hand it to the show for having virtually no fanserivce, every now and then it insists on showing her in a teddy. Now, eventually Miranda shows up but she doesn?t get near as much screen time and Lenalee?s role as ms. Smurf is already so established that Miranda doesn?t make much of a dent in it. However, Lenalee IS a well-grown character and while she?s also a crybaby, she still holds out as one of much better done, more filled-out female characters I?ve seen.
As for Miranda, I do have to admit I find her more attractive than Lenalee, but that?s mostly because of her eye lines, which remind me of ABA from Guilty Gear, whom I heartily glomp. Miranda herself, though, has an ability that allows her to fix wounds by reversing time, making her the group?s healer, and she has a textbook case of ?white mage syndrome?. Tertiary character, can only heal, has no backbone and can?t go 4 seconds without breaking into tears, etc., etc.
Other characters include Krowly, who?s innocence is vampire teeth and who, as his hairdo implies, is also an emo. He also speaks with the Japanese interpretation of a foreigner?s accent, which is to punctuate all his sentences with ?de aru?. And Lavi, who uses a hammer version of the monkey staff and is a member of the ?Bookman? tribe, who?s job is to watch and record the untold histories of the world, though while he?s always around he doesn?t really get much development.
Now as you would expect form a shonen show, these exorcists go on various adventures and fight a lot of increasingly powerful akuma, which are numbered by level, the highest so far being level 4 (in the manga). And while the Millennium Earl is probably the final boss in the show, the obligatory ?big group of themed powerful villains? is the ?Noah Clan?, who all work for the Earl, have gray skin and stigmata on their forehead, and are indeed supposed to be descendents of the guy with the boat. So this show, like a lot of anime, takes Christianity very lightly, since in the show there was apparently some kind of conspiracy with God and Noah, and there is supposedly a good (though unrevealed) reason for all of Noah?s descendants to hate Jesus?..and puppies. Each of the clanmembers embodies a memory of Noah like ?rage? or ?dream?, and has a matchingly themed ability, and they also have some very oddballed names, like ?Skinn Bolic?, ?Tyki Mikk?, ?Jasdero and Devit who become Jasdevi?, though my definite favorite of the bunch and probably the show is ?Road Camelot? and?.ah,ah,ah, I know where your brain is going, and NO. I am NOT Michael Jackson, alright. Though?.if he were a Noah??that would explain a lot?.in fact?..that would??..oh my god. (see video to get joke)
As far as the overall production of the show, it?s pretty nice. The art style is a respectable quality and while not distinctly serious, the villains and akuma do look creepy in an ?evil clown, mad hatter? kind of way. The voice acting is all very well casted and preformed, as this is a high-grade shonen series, and each voice actor does a very nice job of playing the character they?re supposed to be, so none of voices felt forced or out of place to me. D.Gray-Man?s soundtrack is also a ways more sophisticated than most shows with its demographic. There isn?t really much in the way of typical ?action music?, but the sound is mostly composed of more orchestral, dramatic, and occasionally creepy tunes that are well implemented throughout the show. The animation levels have managed to stay consistently good so far through the show, and the directing isn?t too shabby either, with episodes number 11 and 56 in particular being so well done that they really just make the show for me. The storyline also has some nice twists and turns to it, and at times the show becomes a bit darker than you might expect.
A few things I should point out about this show, though:
For one, the characters in this show cry A LOT. I mean a whole lot. If you thought the good guys in Naruto were sensitive, you haven?t seen anything yet. Seriously, I?ve known emo kids who complained and wept less than this (two emo references for the price of one). Granted they do gradually lay off it but at times I started liking Lavi just because he was the only one who would get something done without whining about it first.
For two, while in most shonen shows you see the character as they grow stronger and get new stuff, in this one characters will just whip out new powers on the fly that we never knew they had gotten and it comes as a total surprise when we find out that any of the characters got a new ability. I?m pretty sure this is done on purpose by taking out all the zillions of ?training scenes? that shonens usually have to improve the pacing of the show, since there is only one such scene in all of D.Gray-Man so far, which does accomplish that but also leaves us wondering exactly when the character got that power and perhaps why they didn?t use it sooner, like say, the last time they were in trouble.
For three, in comparison to the manga (drawn by Katsura Hoshino) the show actually does a very good transition and I actually find the anime to be better than the manga on this one. Why? Well, the art quality was very inconsistent and it had a bad habit of trying to cram too many happenings onto a single page, but lately it seems that Katsura has been working to fix that so in recent chapters I?ll hold them at right about even with each other. That is as long as the anime isn?t dicking around with filler, of course, which it did do to a surprising level in the first two seasons but lately has been right on track, so that?s good.
Overall, this is definitely one of the better shows out there and you can tell that they make a deliberate effort to try to avoid some of typical pitfalls that shonens often fall into, and it has a charm to it with how it?s obsessed with filling out its character?s rather than seeing how long they can do a power-up scream, and if you liked Fullmetal Alchemist, you?ll probably like this show, too. I?m actually a bit surprised that this hasn?t been licensed yet, but then again I imagine the only thing keeping it from that is it?s a younger-aimed show and soccer moms don?t often take kindly to their kids watching shows that freely mock the bible, but I guess we?ll see if it ever shows up here or not. D.Gray-Man is currently up to 87 episodes and 162 chapters (okay, I lied), and I really hope that they manage to avoid the biggest shonen pitfall of all, which that the show takes so long to finish you have to be cryogenically frozen to see the ending and it keeps getting drier staler the longer it drags on, but in the meantime it?s a great show and I do hope you try it.