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D.Gray-man
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is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. The series tells the story of a boy named Allen Walker who is able to use an ancient substance called Innocence, and becomes an Exorcist in order to collect all the Innocence that is lost in the world alongside other Exorcists and to defeat the Millennium Earl who possesses an army of akuma. Many characters and their designs were adapted from some of Katsura Hoshino's previous works and drafts, such as Zone, and Continue, and her assistants.
The manga was first serialized in 2004 in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, published by Shueisha under their Jump Comics imprint and currently sixteen volumes have been released.
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Encyclopedia
is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. The series tells the story of a boy named Allen Walker who is able to use an ancient substance called Innocence, and becomes an Exorcist in order to collect all the Innocence that is lost in the world alongside other Exorcists and to defeat the Millennium Earl who possesses an army of akuma. Many characters and their designs were adapted from some of Katsura Hoshino's previous works and drafts, such as Zone, and Continue, and her assistants.
The manga was first serialized in 2004 in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, published by Shueisha under their Jump Comics imprint and currently sixteen volumes have been released. There is also a novel series called Reverse, authored by Kaya Kizaki, that tells the characters' backgrounds. As of February 3, 2009, Viz Media has released the first twelve volumes in the United States. The manga has also been adapted to an anime series that aired from October 3, 2006 to September 30, 2008 in Japan for 103 episodes. Novels and video games of the series have also been released by several companies.
The manga series has become one of the best-sellers of Shueisha. During its second release week, the volume fifteen of the manga ranked as the second best seller comic in Japan. Most reviewers compared it to a typical shonen manga but praised that at some moments it became more original as well some of the characters have solid personalities.
Plot
Set during the end of a fictional nineteenth century on Earth, D.Gray-man mostly centers around 15-year-old Allen Walker. In his childhood Allen was abandoned by his parents due to a 'deformed' left arm and was adopted by a man called Mana Walker. At some moment Mana died and Allen tried to revive him with the help of a person called Millennium Earl. Allen revives him but Mana reappears as a that is ordered by the Millennium Earl to kill him. During that moment Allen is gifted with the ability to control a weaponized form of a divine substance from ages past, called Innocence and accidentally kills Mana. Before Mana dies, he curses Allen's left eye, which later gives him the ability to see the souls of akuma. After that Allen discovers that the Millennium Earl tries to trick those who have lost loved ones to turn their dead souls into akuma and decides to train himself in order to stop him. Soon he becomes an Exorcist from the Black Order, a secretive organization which aims to stop the plan set in motion by the Millennium Earl and to save the souls trapped as akuma. However, the Earl has raised an army of akuma, created by taking advantage of grief over a loved one's death, and summons the direct descendants of Noah himself, the 13-strong Noah Clan, to aid him in his second attempt. Because of the akuma's ability to wear a human's skin, they are nearly undetectable by any human. Allen proves to be a powerful asset as his 'cursed' left eye is able to detect the akuma.
Characters
Many of the series characters are Exorcists, who aim to destroy akuma and retrieve the Innocence scattered around the world. The Millennium Earl and the Clan of Noah, the descendants of Noah, act as their opposition. However, both sides carry out what they believe is the will of God and claim the other follows a false god or the devil.
- is the main protagonist of the series. Allen was abandoned by his biological parents because of the supposed "deformity" of his left arm and later adopted by Mana Walker. Later, Mana died and Allen turned him into an akuma, hoping him to be fully resurrected. However, Mana cursed Allen, whose left arm first awakes as an anti-akuma weapon and instinctively, destroys the akuma. He fights for the souls of the akuma and for his friends. As the story goes on, Allen slowly gains more power and has more and more painful experiences with akuma. He is voiced by Sanae Kobayashi.
- is an 18-year-old Exorcist from Japan. Kanda is the first Exorcist that Allen meets at the Black Order HQ. He can recover much faster than ordinary humans due to a mysterious tattoo above his heart. He and Allen have an ongoing hate for each other. He is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai.
- is a 16-year-old Exorcist, whose parents were killed by a akuma when she was very young. Due to her ability to use the Innocence, Lenalee was forced to become an Exorcist by the Black Order bosses to use her strength. However, her brother Komui decided to stay with her to not leave her alone. Therefore, she fights for her brother as well as her friends. Her perception of the "world" consists of her friends and family; whenever one of her friends dies, it seems to her as if a part of her world has been destroyed. But as the story goes on, Lenalee starts to become stronger and more reasonable. She is voiced by Shizuka Ito.
- is a cheerful 18 year old, red-haired Exorcist of mixed race, who aims to become a Bookman and is working along the Black Order just to be close to the events that must be seen. However, he is slowly becoming more attached to his Black Order friends, and his original Bookman self is constantly being clouded by his growing care for his friends. He is voiced by Kenichi Suzumura.
Production
Some of the concepts in D.Gray-man first appeared in Katsura Hoshino's one-shot title, Zone. This earlier work includes the same concepts of the akuma and their creation, Exorcists, and the Earl's plans for ending the world. Allen Walker, the main character from the series, is also based from the previous series's protagonist, who is a girl, but Hoshino changed some of his characteristics to make him look more masculine. In addition, Lavi is based on the protagonist of one of her planned series, Book-man. Other characters such as the Millennium Earl, Lenalee Lee and Komui Lee are based on real people, although Hoshino has not confirmed who those people are. She has mentioned that some of them are famous scientists, while Komui is based on her boss. After beginning work on the longer D.Gray-man series, Hoshino considered continuing to use the name Zone. She also considered naming the series Dolls or Chronoa.
Hoshino commented that she got most of her ideas for the series while asleep in the bath for 6 hours. One exception occurs in the plot of second volume, which she based on a story called Koi no Omoni.
Media
Manga
Written and drawn by Katsura Hoshino, the chapters of the D.Gray-man manga series have been serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump by Shueisha. Since its premiere on May 31, 2004, over one hundred chapters have been released in Japan. The series was put on hiatus twice in Japan due to Hoshino falling ill; however, the series continued a few weeks after each incident. In November 2008, Weekly Shonen Jump announced that Hoshino was again putting the series on hold due to an injured wrist. Publication resumed on March 9, 2009.
D.Gray-man has been licensed for an English language release in North America by Viz Media. Viz serializes the chapters in its monthly manga anthology Shonen Jump; the first chapter appeared on May 2, 2006.
The individual chapters are published in tankobon by Shueisha. The first volume was released on October 9, 2004, and as of September 4, 2008, sixteen volumes have been released. Viz released the first collected volume of the series on May 2, 2006, and as of February 3, 2009, twelve volumes have been released.
Anime
The episodes of the D.Gray-man anime are directed by Osamu Nabeshima and produced by Dentsu, TMS Entertainment, Aniplex and TV Tokyo. TMS Entertainment produced the animation and Aniplex was responsible for the music production. The episodes began airing on October 3, 2006 in Japan on TV Tokyo. The first season of the anime, known as the "1st stage", aired for 51 episodes, finishing its run on September 25, 2007. The second season, known as the "2nd stage", began airing on October 2, 2007, and finished its run on September 30, 2008, lasting 52 episodes giving a total of 103 episodes over both seasons. The English adaptation of the series has been licensed by Funimation. The first thirteen episodes of the anime are set to be released March 31, 2009.
As of February 2009, twenty-five DVD compilations have been released by Aniplex between the first on February 7, 2007 and the latest on February 4, 2009. The first thirteen compilations contain episodes of the first season, and all successive compilations have episodes of the second season. Aniplex has announced the release of one more DVD compilation on March 4, 2009. The first thirteen episodes of the anime are set for a DVD release from Funimation on March 31, 2009.
Soundtracks
All of the music for the D.Gray-man anime series were composed by Kaoru Wada, and so far three CD soundtracks have been released in Japan by Sony Music Entertainment. The first, D.Gray-man Original Soundtrack 1 that contains thirty-four tracks was released on March 21, 2007 with musical production and composition, which includes several of the series opening and ending themes. Portions of the eighteenth and nineteenth verses of the hymn Dies Irae are sung by Hoko Kuwashima in the fifth episode of the anime and are included on the soundtrack. The third and fourth lines of the eighteenth verse are repeated twice and only the first line of the nineteenth is sung.
The second soundtrack containing thirty-two tracks, D.Gray-man Original Soundtrack 2, was released on December 19, 2007. All opening and ending themes were also collected in a CD called D.Gray-man Complete Best that was released on September 24, 2008. Its limited edition includes an extra DVD that contains credit-less footage of the videos and a large number of anime illustrations. The third soundtrack, which contains thirty-one tracks, was released in Japan on December 17, 2008.
Video games
A D.Gray-man video game for the Nintendo DS was released in Japan on March 29, 2007. The game is titled D.Gray-man: Kami no Shitotachi and was released by Konami. In the game, the player interacts with characters from the series and destroys akuma using the touch screen and stylus. A second video game titled D.Gray-man: Sousha no Shikaku for the PlayStation 2 was released on September 11, 2008. Additionally, characters from D.Gray-man are featured in the Nintendo DS game Jump Super Stars and its sequel Jump Ultimate Stars.
Novels
Based on the manga series, two novels titled D.Gray-man: Reverse and written by Kaya Kizaki are published by Shueisha. The first of them was released on May 30, 2005, while the second one was released on July 4, 2006. Each of them are spin-off stories and several anime episodes are based on these novels.
Reception
The D.Gray-man manga has been highly popular in Japan; as of 2007, the series ranked as the ninth best seller series of the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. During its second release week, the volume fifteen of the manga ranked as the second best seller comic in Japan. The anime DVDs have also been popular; they have ranked high in several Japanese Animation DVD Rankings. Zassosha's manga magazine Puff ranked the series as the seventh best long story manga of 2006. The series has also picked up attention in France as it was awarded the prize for best manga series 2006 at the Anime and Manga 2007 French Grand Prix, which was organized by Animeland. It was also awarded the prize of manga of the year 2006 by Webotaku. Even the novel adaptions were well-received. The second novel adaption was the third bestselling novel in Japan in 2006. But it has received criticism too. In his review of volume one, Carlo Santos of Anime News Network stated that certain plot points "come out of nowhere" and that the story was kept from its full potential due to "generic character designs and sparse backgrounds." The quick moving story plot and the series' exposition and back-story received positive comments. A.E. Sparrow of IGN also reviewed the first volume and compared the series' antagonist to three of Batman's villains. He also said that "Walker is a solid hero with a dark past, the Millennium [sic] Earl is a menacing villain you'll love to hate" and the supporting cast shows enough potential to hold interest into future volumes. Carl Kimlinger, also from Anime News Network, gave his thoughts on the first episode of the anime. He stated the series was very derivative and there was "absolutely nothing original". However, Kimlinger said that it was not a boring anime. Mania.com commented that series becomes better as it continues, remarking that some elements seemed derivative but it has developed its own unique identity. However, they criticized several changes made in the Viz Media edition, such as the fact that the Japanese sound effects have been replaced by ones that make fans detract while viewing it and some translations of the names of the characters that the reviewer felt it was awkward.
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