Allen Walker is a young, cursed boy who fights Akuma (weapons created from a tragedy, forced to destroy humans by their maker, the Millennium Earl). Allen was born with an Anti-Akuma weapon on his left arm, thus he was abandoned by his parents. Eventually he would become an apprentice to the Master Cross – an exorcist general. One day, Master Cross leaves Allen, telling him to go to the exorcist headquarters, called The Black Order.
Allen makes the ridiculously high and steep climb to the The Black Order, but, is greeted not so warmly. He fails the “Human” test and therefor is attacked by the exorcist, Kanda, until they find a letter sent by Master Cross, recommending Allen. The Order accepts Allen and in no time he is sent off on his first mission to find Innocence, a piece of a material given to them by god in order to fight the darkness. Allen’s job, as an exorcist, is to find the Innocence before the Millennium Earl does.
D. Gray-Man: Season One, Part One completely covers the first three volumes and the beginning of the fourth of the manga, following coherently. It’s nice to watch an anime series that really portrays the original manga story line. There are no fillers, but it did take some random moments out that weren’t important to the story line, which was surprisingly neat.
The story is a little dark, and can be depressing. I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone under 14. I enjoyed the mild darkness, and I felt that there was a balanced amount of comedic moments (kinda like what happens in Bleach by Tite Kubo). A good example of this is in the very beginning, when a police officer is investigating an old abandoned church with her partner. A flock of bats comes down and swoops up the officer, leaving her partner. Then, the officer is quick to handcuff to a chair, the one who grabbed her. It’s Allen, and he starts panicking, defending himself by pleading that he was trying to catch the cat, which is sitting in his lap as if it had triumphed. While Allen yells at the cat, saying it’s the cat’s fault, the officer goes back to her partner. The whole scene with the cat almost makes you forget the slight creepiness of the prior scene.
Like I mentioned, the gothic style is quite obvious. It goes along side with a religious theme, too. In the series there is the Noah family (decedents of the prophet Noah), and God is referred to often. The religious theme debates the battle of “Gods”, the decision of who is the real God? Fortunately, for those not big on religion, it’s not he main theme of the series, more of a sub theme. I would have to say the main theme is discovering yourself and proving your sense of justice.
There aren’t many extras, which I am a little disappointed in. On disc one the only extra is commentary of episode two, which is pretty cool. The voice of Allen and the voice of Lenalee Lee – Allen’s friend and a fellow exorcist – talk about making the series on the voice acting level. It’s cool to hear them discuss how one decides who will be a voice of a character and also that there was not a typical audition to the job. The other two “extras” are: 1) a textless opening: Innocent Sorrow and closing: Snow Kiss, 2) Trailers. The textless songs intrigued me. They make you stop and really appreciate how awesome the opening and ending are, like watching a music video, they allow you get a deeper meaning of what the song is trying to say.
I was really excited to hear that D. Gray-Man was being released in America. I have been reading and enjoying the manga for a while. I think Funimation did a nice job of bring the series to life for Americans.
D. Gray-Man was released on March 31, 2009, directed by Nabeshima Osamu, character design by Hideyuki Morioka, produced by TMS Entertainment, and distributed by Funimation in the U.S.
ComicsOnline gives D.Gray-Man: Season One, Part One 5 out of 5 Pieces of Innocence.
