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ディー・グレイマン
(Dī Gureiman)
Genre
Dark fantasy, action
Manga
Written by
Katsura Hoshino
Published by
Shueisha
English publisher
Madman Entertainment
Viz Media
Demographic
Shōnen
Magazine
Weekly Shōnen Jump (May 31, 2004-April, 2009)
Jump Square (November 4, 2009 - ongoing)
Original run
May 31, 2004 – ongoing
Volumes
23 (List of volumes)
Light novel
D.Gray-man: Reverse
Written by
Kaya Kizaki
Illustrated by
Katsura Hoshino
Published by
Shueisha
Original run
May 30, 2005 –December 3, 2010
Volumes
3
TV anime
Directed by
Osamu Nabeshima
Studio
TMS Entertainment
Licensed by
Madman Entertainment
Funimation
Entertainment
Manga Entertainment
Network
TV Tokyo, Animax
English network
FUNimation Channel
Original run
October 3, 2006 –September 30, 2008
Episodes
103 (List of episodes)
Game
D.Gray-man: Kami no Shitotachi
Developer
Konami
Genre
Action-adventure
Rating
CERO: A
Platform
Nintendo DS
Released
March 29, 2007
Game
D.Gray-man: Sousha no Shikaku
Developer
Konami
Genre
Action-adventure
Rating
CERO: A
Platform
PlayStation 2
Released
September 11, 2008
Anime and Manga Portal
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D.Gray-man (ディー・グレイマン Dī Gureiman?) is an ongoing
Japanesemanga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. The series
tells the story of a boy named Allen Walker, a member of an organization of
Exorcists who makes use of an ancient substance called Innocence to combat the
Millennium Earl and his demonic army of akuma. Many characters and their
designs were adapted from some of Katsura Hoshino's previous works and drafts,
such as Zone, andContinue, and her assistants.
The manga began serialization in 2004 in the Weekly Shōnen
Jumpmagazine, published by Shueisha under their Jump Comics imprint, and to
date, 23 collected volumes have been released. It made the transition from weekly
to monthly series in November 2009, when it began serialization in Jump Square.
There is also a spin-off novel series titledD.Gray-man Reverse, authored by
Kaya Kizaki, that explores the history of various characters. As of May 4,
2010, Viz Media has released the first nineteen volumes in the United States.
The manga has also been adapted into a 103 episode anime series that aired from
October 3, 2006 to September 30, 2008 in Japan. The anime is licensed by
Funimation Entertainment in North America.
The manga series has become one of the best-sellers for
Shueisha. During its second release week, the 15th volume of the manga ranked
as the second best selling comic in Japan. Although most reviewers compared it
to other series from the same genre, they praised its moments of originality
and its well-developed characters and their personalities.
Plot
D.Gray-man follows the adventures of 15-year-old Allen
Walker, whose left arm can transform into a monstrous claw and destroy Akuma,
evolving machines created by the Millennium Earl to help him destroy humanity.
As ordered by his master General Cross Marian, Allen becomes an Exorcist,
people who can destroy Akuma, for the Black Order, an organization attempting
to stop the Earl. He becomes a powerful asset for the Order because he can
detect disguised Akuma with his left eye. Allen is sent to recover pieces of
Innocence, a substance that gives the Exorcists the ability to destroy Akuma.
The Earl decides to call together the Noah Family, superhuman descendants of
Noah who can destroy Innocence. Both sides start the search for the Heart, the
most powerful piece of Innocence that will ensure victory to the side that
finds it.
During his search, the Earl begins killing the Generals, the
Order's most powerful Exorcists. To protect them, the Order attempts to bring
the Generals back to headquarters, and Allen and three other Exorcists are sent
to search for the missing General Cross. During the search, Allen and Lenalee
Lee are nearly killed, but they are saved by their Innocence, leading the Earl
and Bookman and his apprentice Lavi, who are chronicling the war, to believe
one of them possesses the Great Heart. Meanwhile, the Order learns that Allen
is to succeed Nea Walker, a Noah that betrayed and was killed by the Earl, as
the 14th Noah. This leads the Order to suspect that Allen might betray them,
and he is eventually confined. The Noah frees him to rescue Allen from the
Apocryphos, a sentient Innocence that guards the Heart, causing the Order to
revoke Allen's rights as an Exorcist and treat him as a Noah.
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 some of 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-manseries, Hoshino considered
continuing to use the name Zone. She also considered naming the series Dolls or
Black Noah. The word "D.Gray-man" is meant to have various meanings,
most of them being the state of Allen and the other main characters.
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 the 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 inWeekly Shōnen Jump by Shueisha.
Since its premiere on May 31, 2004, over two 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 Shōnen Jump announced that Hoshino was again putting the
series on hold due to an injured wrist. Publication resumed on March 9, 2009.
The series once again went on hiatus starting May 11. The series reappeared in
the seasonal magazine Akamaru Jump on August 17. Following the release in
Akamaru Jump, D.Gray-Man resumed serialization on November 4, 2009 in the
monthly-release Japanese manga magazine, Jump Square. D.Gray-man has been
licensed for anEnglish language release in North America by Viz Media.
The individual chapters are published in tankōbon by
Shueisha. The first volume was released on October 9, 2004, and as of June 3,
2011, twenty-three volumes have been released.Viz released the first collected
volume of the series on February 5, 2008, and as of November 1, 2011,
twenty-one volumes have been released.Media
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 first 51 episodes have been
licensed by Funimation Entertainment.
As of February 2009, twenty-six DVD compilations have been
released by Aniplex between the first on February 7, 2007 and the latest on
March 4, 2009. The first thirteen compilations contain episodes of the first
season, and all successive compilations have episodes of the second season. The
first thirteen episodes of the anime were released in the US, dubbed, on DVD on
March 31, 2009 and also Blu-ray on January 5, 2010. The final 52 episodes have
yet to be licensed for release in North America.
The series made its North American television debut when it
started airing on the FUNimation Channel on September 6, 2010.
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 the first opening theme of the
series and the first two ending themes as well.
The second soundtrack containing thirty-two tracks,
D.Gray-man Original Soundtrack 2, was released on December 19, 2007. It
includes the second opening theme of the series, as well as the third and
fourth ending themes. 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. It
includes the third and fourth opening themes of the series, as well as the
fifth to eighth ending themes and the insert song "Hands Sealed With a
Kiss" (つないだ手にキスを Tsunaida Te Ni Kisu o?) sung by Sanae Kobayashi.
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-manare featured in the
Nintendo DS game Jump Super Stars and its sequel Jump Ultimate Stars.
Books
Three novels, one fanbook and two art books. Based on the manga series, three novels titled D.Gray-man: Reverseand 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.The third one was released on December 3, 2010. The D.Gray-man Official Fanbook: Gray Ark was released June 4, 2008. On September 4, 2008, the TV Animation D.Gray-man Official Visual Collection: Clown Art was released.They were followed by an illustration book titled D.Gray-man Illustrations Noche on February 4, 2010.
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 Shōnen
Jump magazine. On December 31, 2008, Comipress reported that the first fifteen
volumes from the series had sold 14,000,000 copies.During its second release
week, the volume fifteen of the manga ranked as the second best seller comic in
Japan, in that week.The anime DVDs have also been popular; they have ranked
high in several Japanese Animation DVD Rankings.Zassosha's manga magazine
Puffranked 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.
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 Millenium 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 fromAnime 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 deemed awkward.
