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D.Gray-Man – Anime First Impressions

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D.Gray-man is another one of the shounen anime out this season. I guess it’s supposed to be one of the more popular series. Death Note, another shounen anime, actually ended up looking pretty good. Can D.Gray-man escape the lameness that most shounen shows exhibit?

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Allen Walker is a young exorcist whose job is to destroy the “akuma” threat to humanity. Akuma is the Japanese word for “demon,” but in this context they’re like half machine half soul killing machines. Apparently there’s a stupid looking fat guy named The Earl of Millennium who is trying to destroy humankind with these akuma.

The first episode has Allen saving a hot British policewoman from the akuma threat. The policewoman wants to investigate the disappearances tourists that have been reported in the old abandoned church. Her investigation ends up costing the lives of just about the entire police force! Allen just happens to be in the area and destroys the akuma with just one hand. Mind you, it’s a gigantic robo-hand, but yeah…

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To me, the premise of this anime is just stupid. So there’s an evil “Earl of Millennium” who wants to destroy humanity for no good reason? And somehow akuma can be created just by having an emo guy whine about his life? I understand that stuff might be explained in future episodes, but this is just lame…

D.Gray-man seems more like the antithesis to Death Note. Whereas Death Note has some actual thinking going on, D.Gray-man asks you to forego all that and let your brain cells die. While I can appreciate mindless fun, D.Gray-man is asking too little in terms of rational thought.

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The character designs are not too bad. Allen has the cool kid with gray hair look. That policewoman is hot, though I bet she’ll never appear in the anime again. The Earl of Millennium is way too stupid looking to take seriously. If the designers were trying to make a snack food mascot, that’s fine. Evil incarnate? Not so much.

The animation seemed fairly good. I appreciate that fact that they went into super deformed mode a few times. This isn’t enough to save the series, though.

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The OP and ED are both your typical J-Rock shounen anime songs. The OP is actually pretty catchy. The ED is really unique. They’re both good; unfortunately the anime isn’t.

Download the OP: “INNOCENT SORROW” by abingdon boys school
Download the ED: “SNOW KISS” by NIRGILIS

D.Gray-man is just stupid. If you value any kind of logic or thinking in your plot, I suggest you avoid this anime like the plague. I’d suggest something like Death Note as a remedy to this kind of dumb anime.

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31 replies on “D.Gray-Man – Anime First Impressions”

I never really caught on to other shonen titles like Naruto, Bleach, etc. But I did like the characters in D.Gray-man. I do understand your reasoning of not liking it based on the first episode. I don’t think they did a good job of explaining things. Think it might be the fact that it airs at 6PM? Dunno for sure. Oh well.

Before watching the first episode I read the first volume of the manga. Forgive me for not knowing any good ways to hide spoilers, but if you don’t want anything spoiled that may be explained in a later episode, stop reading here. The Akuma are basically created when the Earl tricks people into binding souls to them, after which they become his slave. Also, Allen’s hand isn’t robotic, the cross in his hand is a stone that is basically holy matter, it has the power to destroy the akuma, who are made of the opposite, basically evil matter. I’m hopeful for the series, I enjoyed the first volume and I think that so far they’ve done a good job putting it into animation.

I wish the cat had lived, it was the best part of the episode…Gray-man doesn’t really stand out as good in any way, but I’ll probably catch the first few episodes whilst waiting for something better to take its place on my viewing schedule.

eh…watched the second episode. I can confirm that it’s a typical shonen anime.Like Bleach and Naruto. Little thinking is needed for this anime. It’s just like a fictional fantasy book. Just for fun and some comedy too. I don’t know if it just me or something, the anime give me a slight sense similar to Fullmetal Alchemist although deep thoughts aren’t needed. Can you get me?? Just like mecha animes produced by Xebec have some kind of similarities in the sense of style.

I suggest, very highly, that you actually understand the plot, and more of the character designs, before calling it mindless…

D. Gray-man has some of the more recognizable character designs of the new anime out lately, and the plot gets anything but humdrum as it continues forward. The manga has a huge following, and frankly, your readiness to insult this anime has left me quite baffled.

I thought it was very good, and it’s going to continue to get better.

yeah..you’re right!
Don’t insult this anime by just reading its first episode.
Try to watch this anime until its episode 70+ or read further in manga,let’s see… what you can say about this.

This anime is awesome.It has a lot of twist and thrill in the series.Just fighting the noah’s clan,in this series made me shocked!

I just write about my impressions from the first episode. And really, shouldn’t the first episode of an anime make you want to keep watching? The plot seems dumb as it was presented to me, so that’s I wrote. In essence, the anime has failed to engage me to want to watch more of it.

Maybe the anime will end up being better than any Miyazaki ever! Lemme know if that’s the case.

Honestly, its not surprising that you call the anime lame. I find the art itself so-so compared to the manga. Don’t bother comparing Death Note, it’s a different thing all the round.

I’m an avid follower of D.Grayman – its more worth picking up the manga. The plot suspense is good and its a totally new plot. Anime’s pretty much okay but I’m biased. XD;

But really, do understand the side details – it gets better I assure you! 🙂

Although I agree with the fact that the first episode wasn’t exactly overwhelmingly amazing, you should really do some more reading into an anime/manga before dismissing it as completely worthless. You just ticked off a seriously large D. Gray Man fan-base.

I agree.
I’m also a fan of this anime!
So that,when I read his comment’bout D.Gray-Man
I kinda got insulted or something.

Hahaha o dear, I’ve been reading the manga for sometime and I think its pretty good, although I can say that what wrote is completely true. The first episode was kinda… um dont worry, try a couple and see how that turns out.

I really like how the anime always ruins the manga. And turns the characters emo-ish. BOO PERVERTING CHARACTER’S MINDSETS! :O They made Light a bit TOO emo in the anime Death Note, but it still is good. Plus, the songs are catchy for both the opening and the closing. ;D

i havent seen the anime but the manga is not that bad!
(o_O”) XD its actually pretty good! and in one part it make me feel like FMA!

well the anime is rather bad (filler attack ala naruto)
but the manga is actually pretty well done but the recent chapters are getting close to the “ok im going to say a huge speech and destroy you in a blinding flash of power gained from the heart!!” type thing.

so basically

anime? bad
manga? good

ummmmm i donno honestly death note is cool but besides i mean you shouldnt diss this anime I mean to be totally obssessed over death note means u just like emoish style of anime. Plus u only saw the first episoide it took me 3 -4 days to actually completly watch that episoide it was hella boring …=/ It doesnt get good until they do the first mission with a guy named Kanda.
This really isnt that sad until later in the series. Its not like Naruto or DBZ i mean the fighting is similar to that and of Bleach but in this series if a character dies they die and stay dead.

Unlike naruto – none of the main characters die

DBZ – THe main characters always get revived somehow by the mighty powers of the dragon “BAllZ”

Really its gone to my top 10 list like #3
its getting to # 1.

Naruto (manga )
Bleach ( anime )
D. Gray man ( anime/ more of the manga )
Death note ( anime)
Eurkea Seven( anime )
Full metal alchemist
Samurai Champloo
Gundam series
etc

really this show does make me feel like reading/ watchin FMA and a sence of Bleach.

I am glad I didn’t give up on this series after the first episode. After the episode 1 I thought the show was aweful.
The Akuma with their Evil Bullets was just way too over-the-top and ridiculous.

I watched the next couple of episodes just for kicks, and it got much better. I kept watching it, and it just got better and better, and now I am caught up.

It is actually very well written. The Akuma’s riduculousness doesn’t seem to matter after a while. They are kinda like the foot clan soliders in TMNT after a while. They are just there for Excorists to blow up. The character devloplement and background and background stories regarding the innocence fragments they are recovering has been very well done. It’s got good action and comedy, and bad guys evil enough to make you hate them.
Not to mention the artwork in this anime is hard to beat.

when i first known dgrayman i was just reading naruto shippuden when i accidentaly clicked dgrayman at first the first chapter wasnt good for me but i just continued reading it becauz i think the main character was cute but when i got to chapter 4 i kinda started to like it but when i had finished dgrayman at chapter 161 i think thats the time when i started to read another manga then i remembered the manga fullmetal alchemist then i thought dgrayman is kinda similar to FMA and deathnote. but i think dgrayman is much more better than FMA and deathnote is kinda cool too. but im still reading the manga that have mentioned i wish the dgrayman manga wont never end. but ithink the anime was stupid of dgrayman.

Ei..Ms.
Please just watch it or if you dont want,fine.
I think it’s better in anime ‘coz you can see the actions and fightings,it seems that you can fully understand the story..and also with the opening and ending songs are very good.It fits the anime.
I’m also reading its manga,I can’t identify clearly their movements and how things happened so that,I tried to watch it.

read the manga on onemanga.com. its a lot better, trust me. THE MANGA IS AMAZING! the only reason i like the anime is becuase it might mean that hot topic/borders/B&N might get some DGM stuff in stock… *drools*

We’re the same.
I’m reading this series in onemanga until this website stops their online reading.
That’s too bad!

…oh yeah and his arm isnt robotic, you would have to read the manga to get it but its actually his actual arm… yeah

I totally agree that the anime was pretty LAME, I think the reason for that is because the pace of the anime is so slow unlike when your reading the manga, the chapters tend to flew buy.

My only wish is that someday it’ll have a remake like FMA, only this time with much better animation and a faster pace.

When I first picked up this anime series I thought it would be good but after 50 eps all I see is the same Akuma fighting over and over, there isn’t really even much challenge [Only rarely with the level 2 akumas]. The Pirate filler episode was horrible.

E.g Allen uses his arm and kills akumas in less than one sec, same goes for Lenalee and her boots, Lavi and his hammer. It’s all too repetitive, but I have a feeling it might get better with the Noahs moving into action. That’s the only thing that’s making me want to keep on watching, besides the hot guys.

Also, stories like these, the manga’s almost always better. I should probably give that a go instead of wasting my time on the anime.

P.s. Code Geass is way better.

I have to admit, I laughed when I read your description of the Millennium Earl as a “stupid looking fat guy.” I read reviews in the hopes that they’ll be entertaining, and this blunt assessment was really great. XD

i am almost done with the series. i found it fairly interesting at first and kept going because a friend loved it. soon enough i got sucked in, it improves, and a whole other level of plot appears. it just keeps getting more and more interesting, so i would suggest to those put off by the first few episodes to keep going…

This anime is AWESOME;
& if u dont like it, u must be crazy;)
but this anime reminds me VERY MUCH of Soul Eater.
i mean, kishins/akumas,
weapons tht are people/weapons on the person,
millenium earl/ kishin ashura,
academy/ black order,
girl with pigtails(lenalee)/(maka)
guy with the bandana hairstyle(lavi) / (soul)

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