One thing that I like to do when I’m not listening to awesome, under-appreciated music is watching anime. Now, this isn’t entirely an anime review. But, it was the anime that made me want to buy the manga. With that said, the topic of review: D. Gray-Man.
D. Gray-Man was a shonen manga written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino that ran from 2004 to 2012. It tells the story of a young exorcist named Allen Walker who has the ability to transform his cursed and deformed left hand into a super weapon used for slaying demons known as “akuma”. Very early in the series he joins the Black Order, a society of exorcists whose sole purpose is to find and protect a substance known as “inocence.” Inocence is used to create weapons capable of completely obliterating akuma. The substance also happens to be embedded in Allen’s hand. Together with his fellow exorcists, Allen leads the battle for the Inocence against the Milleniun Earl, who plots to find and use the substance to destroy mankind.
But that’s enough about the story; let’s move on to the art style. You can tell by the way D. Gray-Man was illustrated that it was meant to have a dark and dramatic feel. Katsura achieves this by paying attention to detail in the climatic moments. Visual imagery compliments many flashbacks. The stories are set in 19th century England, so many of the characters have very dark and flashy Victorian-style clothing. Katsura’s choice of the characters’ clothing, facial expressions, and physical appearance make the characters look wicked-awesome, to say the least.
The D. Gray-Man manga is available from Viz Media. An anime based on the manga, animated by TMS and starring Todd Haberkorn as Allen in the English dub, is available from FUNimation Entertainment.
