D. Gray-man

''D.Gray-man'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. Set in an alternate 19th century, it tells the story of a young Allen Walker, who joins an organization of exorcists named the Black Order. They use an ancient substance, Innocence, to combat a man known as the Millennium Earl and his demonic army of Akuma who intend to destroy humanity. Many characters are adapted from Hoshino's previous works and drafts, such as ''Zone''. The series is noted for its dark narrative; Hoshino once rewrote a scene she thought too violent for her young readers.

The manga started serialization in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' in May 2004. Production of the series was suspended several times due to Hoshino's health problems. ''D.Gray-man'' made the transition from a weekly to a monthly series in November 2009, when it began serialization in ''Jump Square''. In January 2013, the series went on indefinite hiatus. It resumed serialization in July 2015 after the release of '' Jump SQ.Crown'', a spin-off from the magazine ''Jump SQ''. After ''Jump SQ.Crown'' ceased publication, the series was switched to '' Jump SQ.Rise'', starting in April 2018. The manga's chapters have been collected in 28 volumes as of October 2022. The manga is licensed for English release in North America by Viz Media, which has released 28 volumes by November 2023.

A spin-off novel series, ''D.Gray-man: Reverse'' by Kaya Kizaki, explores the history of a number of characters. A 103-episode anime television series adaptation by TMS Entertainment aired from October 2006 to September 2008. A 13-episode sequel anime series, '' D.Gray-man Hallow'', also produced by TMS Entertainment aired from July to September 2016. Several items of merchandise have been produced, including two video games about the series.

The manga has become one of Shueisha's bestsellers, with over 25 million copies in circulation. In Japan and North America, several individual volumes have appeared in weekly top-ten lists of best-selling manga. Although most reviewers found it similar to other manga, they compared its moments of originality and well-developed characters favorably to other series of the same demographic. Hoshino's artwork has received mostly positive reviews; most critics have commented that her characters are visually appealing and that the Gothic elements in her art are pleasant to look at. However, one critic of her artwork has said that Hoshino's fight sequences can be difficult to follow.

Synopsis

Setting

Set in an alternate 19th century, the story focuses on an organization of exorcists, named the Black Order, as they defend humanity against the Noah Family, reincarnations of Noah and his twelve apostles whom bear hatred towards humanity and God led by a man known as the Millennium Earl. The exorcists' main weapon against the Noah Family is sentient holy artifacts called Innocence. Innocence comes in a variety of forms, varying from everyday objects such as boots to grandfather clocks, to weapons such as swords and guns; regardless of their form, each Innocence possesses unique offensive and supportive abilities and will only work for the wielder of their choosing. Out of the 109 Innocence hidden and scattered throughout the world, one of them is the master Innocence; whichever side obtains this Innocence first will win the war. In contrast to the Innocence, the Noah Family's weapons are derived from a power source known as Dark Matter. Dark Matter grants the Noah superpowers, along with the ability to create and control demons.

Plot

The central character is Allen Walker, a new recruit to the Black Order who started training to control his Innocence after it destroyed the Akuma of his late guardian, Mana. The story begins in a villain of the week fashion, where Allen teams up with various members of the Black Order to search for Innocence while battling Noah's demons on the way. Later, Allen and his friends are ordered to track down exorcist General Cross Marian, Allen's missing teacher. Their search concludes with them stealing one of the Noah's transportation device, referred to as the Noah's Ark; this was made possible since Allen has been instilled the consciousness of Nea D. Campbell, the brother of Mana, and the exiled 14th member of the Noah Family, who the Earl wishes to have back. Cross reveals that Nea plans to use Allen as host upon reincarnating, effectively erasing Allen eventually. During the Third Exorcists insurrection story arc, Nea's consciousness begins superseding Allen's body. Now hunted by the Black Order, the Noah Family, and a humanoid Innocence called Apocryphos, Allen goes into hiding as he searches for a way to end Nea's resurrection. During his journey, he realises that his late guardian, Mana, alongside Nea, has a strong link to the Millennium Earl. He then decides to journey to the place where Mana and Nea grew up to learn the truth about them, and their connection to the Earl. Following his escape, Allen is tracked by the Black Order, Apocryphos and the Noah. When Apocryphos is distracted by the Noah, the Earl finds Allen who is possessed by Nea. During this encounter it is revealed that the current Earl is Mana D. Campbell, Nea's brother. Both were once the original Millennium Earl but were split and became enemies.

Production

After graduating from high school, Hoshino was unsure what job get: animating or writing manga. When drawing manga, Hoshino saw herself as a failure when trying to draw manga, series aimed towards young girls. As a result, she decided to focus on manga aimed towards male readers, manga. After sending a one-shot to Shueisha, the response from the editorial was positive much to Hoshino's surprise. ''D.Gray-man'' originated from a one-shot that Hoshino developed during her youth, where she aspired to write the Earl as the main character of her own works. However, finding the character unsuitable for a manga magazine aimed at teenagers, she instead created Allen to be the protagonist. Hoshino sent a draft of ''D.Gray-man'' to Shueisha on an unspecified date. She had mixed feelings about writing the series, since she had been offered other jobs (such as developing video games). However, Shueisha liked the draft and the staff asked Hoshino to go ahead with the series in 2004 believing it would be popular. She had originally intended to write a story about zombies, but was discouraged by her editor T-shi and decided to abandon the idea during the third chapter. Asked about her inspiration for writing about the supernatural, Hoshino said that she feared the supernatural after seeing the 1973 film ''The Exorcist''. Although the horror film frightened her, it also inspired the author to design the manga's Akuma. The area in the series known as Noah's Ark was based on science fiction ideas rather than the supernatural ideas that had influenced the Akuma. After conceiving of the Ark's role in the series, Hoshino decided to write a song when Allen is rebuilding it through a piano. She requested help from her editor, a university graduate, but decided to use her own lyrics. She blamed it on her own ego.

Elements of ''D.Gray-man'' first appeared in Hoshino's one-shot title ''Zone'', in which the Akuma, the exorcists, and the Millennium Earl plan to end the world. Although Allen Walker is male, his character is based on ''Zone'' female protagonist. Lavi is based on the protagonist of Hoshino's planned series, ''Book-man'', that she originally wanted to write. Other characters, such as the Millennium Earl, Lenalee Lee, and Komui Lee, are based on real people whom Hoshino has not specifically identified; some are well-known scientists, and Komui is based on Hoshino's boss. The character of Yu Kanda, based on a samurai, was created to vary ''D.Gray-man''s Western setting. Hoshino found the design of some of the characters difficult early in the series. In 2011, the author visited New York City for research, and believed that the city had greatly influenced her work. Hoshino visited cemeteries, and was deeply impressed by her guides' comments at Ground Zero of the World Trade Center (left after the September 11 attacks). She said that she would like to spend more time in New York City to gather data for the series.

After beginning ''D.Gray-man'', Hoshino considered continuing to use the name ''Zone'' and also contemplated naming the series ''Dolls'' or ''Black Noah''. She chose "D.Gray-man" for its several meanings, most referring to the state of Allen and the other main characters. Although the title's meaning was not completely explained, Hoshino said that the "D" stands for "dear". According to the author, she got most of her ideas for the series while sleeping in her bathtub for six hours. One exception was the second-volume plot, based on a Noh story entitled "Koi no Omoni".

When the manga moved from weekly to monthly serialization in 2009, Hoshino heard concerns from readers about its possible cancellation and reassured them that the series would continue. She set up Kanda's backstory by introducing the Third Exorcists, characters related to him and Alma Karma. In Hoshino's original drafts, Kanda's past had a number of plot holes. A rewritten, published version had a young Kanda walking along a path surrounded by dead people who had cared for him. Due to its violence, the image was replaced with one in which Kanda learns that Alma Karma had killed them all. When the chapters were collected into a volume, Hoshino added a small chapter which included the corpses.

Writing

At the time of drawing, Hoshino often finds herself rewriting sketches to the point the final images does not match her original ideas. When writing titles, Hoshino attempts to think of something bright in order to contrast the series' dark narrative. Fellow writer Takeshi Obata claimed that Hoshino's art continues to improve the more she writes but she replied to him that she is not aware of her own change. Due to the intense development of the storyline, Hoshino believes she can no longer write simple eyes. When drawing the series, Hoshino entrusts her storyboards to her editor, which was initially complicated for her due to ''D.Gray-man'' being her first series. She faced difficulties with the initial weekly serialization of the manga resulted in multiple changes due to how the storyboards changed across this period. Following Hoshino's change to a three-mestral serialization, she uses digital from the storyboard stage. In bringing this style, she looked after manga author Tite Kubo, famous for writing ''Bleach'', who uses a similar style. This allowed her to add more details to her illustrations and made the faces of her characters more unique. Including Hoshino, there are three people working in the manga, but at times the number increases for the last spurt. Since moving to a trimestral magazine, the author has some leeway with time, so her assistants stay at their homes and work from there with what Hoshino send them. However, Hoshino expressed regrets of this idea of working as it often causes misunderstandings. In the making of fights scenes, Hoshino has claimed in an interview that she lacks the ability to properly draw them. However, manga author Osamu Akimoto has praised some of her compositions such as the handling of Lenalee Lee before Noah's Ark, or the handling of Jasdevi's guns.

Characters

When designing the characters, Hoshino first imagines their lives even though some parts might not be featured in the story. Their personalities are then written down along with their habits or eating preferences. She has admitted she does not have written details about a number of ''D.Gray-man'' characters. In designing the Earl, Hoshino gave him a colorful look to contrast the exorcists' who wore black instead. This look was meant to give the idea of a gentleman related with the tragedy he causes as Hoshino linked him to a poisonous flower. In designing the Black Order exorcist, Hoshino feels that their first uniforms were easy to draw so she like them. The second uniforms were brought the artist problems due to the idea of giving each the clothing zippers. For the third uniforms, the color remained black but Hoshino decided to them red too as a reference to blood because she thought such grotesque looks would fit the themes of ''D.Gray-man''. In other early colored chapters, Hoshino experimented with giving Allen gothic lolita style clothing and color style referencing American comics. Other early colored illustrations were meant to give the idea of symbolism such Kanda's being seen as a puppet or Allen being covered by threads of Akuma and later the idea of his Innocence returning to his body, giving him a shocked appearance.

The author noted that the character of Lavi was popular with fans, placing third in a poll (behind Allen and Kanda) despite infrequent appearances in later story arcs, and she promised that Lavi would return. The story arc involving Alma Karma, featuring several characters, was difficult for the author; as a result, the next arc in which Allen leaves the Black Order contained fewer characters per chapter due to its different format. The character of Apocryphos was introduced to hint at the Heart, a plot element briefly described in a past storyline which would later reappear. Due to ''Jump Square'' (the manga's magazine at the time) readership, which consisted of older men rather than children, Hoshino found Allen the most difficult character to write. She does not want Allen's problems in recent story arcs to lead to portraying him as a troubled teenager, preferring to show him as a cheerful person with a balance of strength and sorrow. After ''D.Gray-man'' dark narrative, Hoshino plans to write more lighthearted series in the future.

Themes

According to Hoshino, the series' main theme focuses on tragedy. Many characters such as Allen across the series suffer poor fates such as losing a loved one and being tempted to revive them by the Earl. Although this works, the people are revived as Akuma who consume the skin of their loved ones. This has led to her to state that an initial theme is that people should not be brought back to life. Although some characters like Kanda express unconditional love to Alma, their happiness is short-lived due to Alma dying shortly after this with another writer finding fitting for the series' dark narrative. Additionally, Allen's life becomes sadder across the series as he is forced to abandon the Black Order due to the Pope removing his rights as an exorcist and he is treated as Noah due to his connections with these characters. Nevertheless, Hoshino still tried to make it fun for the readers, stating that Allen will always have allies.

Another common theme of the series is the lack of black and white morality. Although Allen initially starts as a hero in the Black Order, their group are revealed to have created actions that might question the readers' thoughts in regards to whether or not the Order is good. Additionally, the Noah clan starts showing hidden depths despite their evil nature with the antagonistic Earl showing his care for the Noah Nea D. Campbell while Tyki Mikk questions Allen about whether or not the Exorcist should return to his "home" due to the way he has been treated as a result of being the Nea's vessel.

In the book ''Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels'' Jacob Birken states another theme set in the series is identity. This is reflected in Allen and the exorcists familiarizing themselves with their own supernatural powers in order to become more humanize themselves. On the other hand, Allen's revelation that he is the 14th Noah which makes him less human. Another theme is grief, as seen in the Millennium Earl's appearance as a tired, middle-aged man who is constantly searching for a former comrade, Nea. Hoshino believes that the Millennium Earl, the series' main antagonist, would fit the manga's demographic. In the book ''Anime and Philosophy: Wide Eyed Wonder'' Josef Steiff and Tristan D. Tamplin discuss how ''D.Gray-man'', alongside ''Spriggan'' and ''Ulysses 31'', focus on the "end of the world" with ''D.Gray-man'' and ''Spriggan'' taking references from the blibical flood.

Hoshino's illustration involving Allen often have threads related covered with threads as she aims to show the fact that he is not only related to the fact that he is always associated with God as well as the fact that he is bound to exorcise Akumas. Similarly, Kanda was first illustrated in color pages with multiple threads in a symbolic way to say he is a puppet as the person he has been searching for his entire life but has been unable to reach his objective.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino, ''D.Gray-man'' started its serialization in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' on May 31, 2004. The series went on hiatus several times due to issues with Hoshino's health. Publication resumed on March 9, 2009. The series' 186th and last chapter in the magazine was published on April 27, 2009. The series reappeared in the seasonal magazine ''Akamaru Jump'' on August 17 of that same year, and later resumed publication in the monthly manga magazine ''Jump Square'', where it ran from November 4, 2009, to January 4, 2013. After an over two-year hiatus, the series was transferred to the quarterly '' Jump SQ.Crown'', running from July 17, 2015, to January 19, 2018, when the magazine ceased its publication. The manga moved to the then brand-new quarterly magazine ''Jump SQ.Rise'' on April 16, 2018.

Individual chapters have been published in format by Shueisha. The first volume features Allen Walker and the Millennium Earl together. In original revisions of such cover, both were drawn from the back but the editorial demanded Hoshino to make Allen more visible as he is the main character. In the making of each volume, Hoshino originally wanted each cover to be focused on a single character. However, after the ninth volume Hoshino changed her mind and instead decided to try different types of covers that feature multiple characters. The first volume was published on October 9, 2004. As of October 4, 2022, 28 volumes have been released.

At the 2005 San Diego Comic-Con, ''D.Gray-man'' was licensed for English-language publication in North America by Viz Media. The company published the first collected volume of the series on May 2, 2006. The 28th volume was released on November 14, 2023. Viz Media reissued the series in a 3-in-1 format, publishing eight 3-volumes-in-1 editions from July 2, 2013, to November 3, 2015. Madman Entertainment published the Viz's 27-volume English edition in Australia and New Zealand, from August 10, 2008, to November 15, 2021.

Anime

A 103-episode anime television series adaptation, animated by TMS Entertainment, was broadcast TV Tokyo

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