D.Gray-man (Manga)

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsura Hoshino. 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 initial serialization was in Weekly Shōnen Jump since 2004, 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 light novel series named D.Gray-man: Reverse authored by Kaya Kizaki, which explores various histories of the characters. Viz Media releases since May 2010 the first nineteen volumes in the United States.

The manga series has also been adopted in a 103 episodes anime series that aired from October 3, 2006 to September 30, 2008 in Japan. The anime got licensed by Funimation Entertainment since 2009.

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.

Production
Some concepts in D.Gray-man initially appeared in Katsura Hoshino's one-shot Zone. It includes the same concepts of the Akuma and their creation, Exorcists, and the Earl's plans for ending the world. The main protagonist Allen Walker of the D.Gray-man series is based of Robin from the one-shot. In addition, Lavi is based on the protagonist of one of her planned series, Book-man. Other characters such as The Earl of Millennium, 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. fter 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 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.

Growth and Popularity
As of 2007, the series ranked as the ninth best seller of Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. In 2008 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. Since the creation of D.Gray-man it has spawned a large number of fansites that contain detailed information, guides, and active forums. Zassosha's manga magazine Puff ranked the series as the seventh best long story manga series 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.

The anime was also a popular topic, which the anime DVDs sells was extremely poplar knowing they have ranked high in several Japanese Animation DVD Rankings. Although high hopes that the series would spanned towards it's current in the anime, fans believed that it mostly comes to Hoshino's illness which she has quit the series for almost a year and a half.

Several of big names in the manga, anime and game sections are giving good reviews of the series. 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 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 deemed awkward.

Plot
D.Gray-man follows the adventures of 16-year-old Allen Walker, whose left arm can transform into a monstrous claw and destroy Akuma, evolving machines created by The Earl of Millennium 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.