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D.Gray-man   
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Description
From Viz:
A born exorcist, Walker's primary anti-akuma weapon is the cross that's embossed on his red, disfigured left hand, which contains Innocence. But not only does Walker destroy akuma, he sees the akuma hiding inside a person's soul! Together with his fellow exorcists fighting under the command of the Black Order, Walker leads the battle against the Millennium Earl, the evil being out to destroy mankind.

Type
Manga

Related Series
D.Gray-man Reverse (Novel) (Side Story)
Continue (Spin-Off)

Associated Names
D-Grayman
D. Gray Man
D. Grayman
D.Gray Man
DGM
D·格雷少年
Dī Gureiman
Dグレ
Ди Грей-мен
Ди Грэй-мэн
ดี.เกรย์-แมน
ディー・グレイマン
驱魔少年
디 그레이맨
디 그레이맨(D.Gray-man)
디그레이맨

Groups Scanlating
Binktopia
Whatever
Yamitsuki Anime
MangaStream
More...

Latest Release(s)
c.249 by T Group 2 months ago
c.248 by Kougeki Scans 7 months ago
c.247 by Kougeki Scans 10 months ago
Search for all releases of this series

Status
in Country of Origin
28 Volumes (Ongoing)

Completely Scanlated?
No

Anime Start/End Chapter
Starts at Vol 1, Chap 1 (S1) / Vol 17, Chap 165 (S2)
Ends at Vol 16, Chap 158 (S1) / Vol 23, Chap 208 (S2) - skips Chap 159-164

User Reviews
D.Gray-man by Akari

Forum
45 topics, 373 posts
Click here to view the forum

User Rating
Average: 8.5 / 10.0 (2157 votes)
Bayesian Average: 8.47 / 10.0
10
 
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Last Updated
March 8th 2024, 3:58am


Genre

Categories

Category Recommendations

Recommendations

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year
2004

Original Publisher

Serialized In (magazine)

Licensed (in English)
Yes

English Publisher
Viz (28 Volumes - Ongoing)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)
Weekly Pos #574 increased(+37)
Monthly Pos #900 increased(+123)
3 Month Pos #1173 decreased(-140)
6 Month Pos #1245 increased(+17)
Year Pos #1271 decreased(-223)

List Stats
On 7925 reading lists
On 1488 wish lists
On 255 completed lists
On 486 unfinished lists
On 785 custom lists

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User Comments  [ Order by usefulness ]
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The author became lost and the whole plot became convoluted as a stream of consciousness  
by Lokin
July 17th, 2023, 7:11pm
Rating: 4.0  / 10.0
Yeah the plot early on was pretty streamlined...

Now it's flashback, flashback, sparkle, sparkle.

Feels like I'm reading a fcking doujin where nothing progresses much.

The author went on to destroy or minimize the interesting parts of the series -> the horror monsters, monster of the week formula.

The larger conspiracy and plot is not weaved in a natural nor engaging way. Just dumb dumb.
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Surprise! You're now reading gay manga  
by reyesmaryjoy92
April 1st, 2021, 9:26pm
Rating: N/A
From a good compelling adventure manga to readable gay drama. I don't mean gay as a derogatory word, I mean it as the story becoming about homosexual romance. Female lead shelved, no more meaningful fights, just guys eloping, and bonding, and showing some quality emotions. I understand that authors are free to make what they want but here should be rules against this. A mangaka shouldn't just be allowed to go: "surprise! you're now reading gay manga!". There should be a build up allowing people to transition or quit altogether. Genre switching is nothing new with manga but shoving a changed almost unrecognizable continuation is downright unethical. Imagine if after 2 years Luffy returned but wanted to be the king of farmers instead. Lived a slow life, haggled with merchants, hid from the law, and lives in with Usopp always looking each other all feminized and yearning? well that's what happened here. Don't get me wrong, it WAS and IS good, my only beef with it is the abrupt change.

... Last updated on April 1st, 2021, 9:31pm
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tags.  
by Gennie.in.a.bottle
April 21st, 2019, 10:38pm
Rating: N/A
By the way guys a lot of these tags are just assumptions not all of them are confirmed in the actual story line. (even if they have close to 100 up votes)

... Last updated on April 24th, 2019, 9:30pm
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Fun shonen series.  
by Rinshi7
March 6th, 2019, 9:50am
Rating: 9.0  / 10.0
Really enjoy this as a child, the dark, bring people back to life taboo was always fun and interesting. The characters are fun, all the same. The anime was great. Enjoy a lot of this series. The artwork has changed a lot.
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D. Genericman  
by Immortal bear
June 11th, 2017, 12:53pm
Rating: 5.0  / 10.0
A person who liked shonen once told me to read a manga because it was so different from other shonen. They told me that it was mystery manga that paralleled the likes of Fullmetal Alchemist and the works of Naoki Urasawa (Monster, 20 Century Boys, Pluto) and very different from the "stereotypical shonen" faire. The first 100 chapters were decent with a standard theme of "deal with the devil". However, as the story became more arc based, I started to get progressivly more frustrated as the story's flaws became apparent. Some people have had problems with the author's recent art style changes but to be honest I am not bothered by it. Art is never as important as plot or character content. Unfortunately, D. Grayman doesn't have much of either.

It sticks to cliche manga archetypes.
Many of the protagonsists I like in manga generally tend to be flawed in some way or another. Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul switched to emotional extremes. Eren from Shingeki no Kyojin was vengeful to the point of disregarding caution. Allen, on the other hand, is optimistic to the point of being insufferable. The world is ending and people are being transformed into hideous monstrosities but let's all believe that it will be cured through love and friendship! Ugh, how did this series last so long with an unoriginal character like this? Allen's dialogue is really, really, corny. It’s so predictable what he is going to say or do at any given moment. Blah, blah, blah friendship, blah, blah, blah, peace, blah, blah, blah, understanding. Let's just form a circle and sing Kumbaya already.

Most of the time, Allen is a reactive protagonist. Actions like figure out mysteries of the Noah, try to sneak into Black Headquarters, and find out why they are hiding research, as well as figuring out effects of Innocence and how they are connected to an ultimate piece that could destroy them all if shattered, are all way too complex for our depressive hero. Instead the audience gets treated to one of a dozen scenes of Allen angsting alone in his room about my dead clown dad. In the latest arcs in the series, Allen does scarcely anything but lose, get beat up, and by some miracle, escape to get beat up again in the next conflict. Most other manga try to examine the characteristics of their main character or try to challenge the characters to be more morally flexible. That’s not the case with Allen. He just gets pushed from story arc to story arc and stays more or less the same.

Lenalee is your typical female lead in the confines of a shonen. She’s kind, sweet, and has a crush on the romantically, dense, protagonist. Beyond that, there really isn’t much else to say about Lenalee. This is a classic trap shonen tend to fall into. They introduce a strong female character and then realize they reserved all the drama for their male characters, so the female lead tends to fade into the background during important scenes. Having a powerful female character isn’t the same as having a well written female character. Lenalee could suddenly gain the power to destroy all the Noa forever, but it wouldn’t matter because Lenalee does not have enough personal conflict to justify the panels used to do it.

Kanda is the jerkish rival. He is a belligerent, condescending tool that treats Allen with no respect for 150+ chapters. Some people say his snide remarks toward Allen are funny, but I fail to see how. If anything, his verbal abuse makes Allen look like a weaker character. Rather than dedicate a few chapters to these two hashing it out, instead Allen throws ineffectual arguments and threats that Kanda promptly ignores. Some might argue
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
his arc with Alma
improves him for the better but that doesn’t change that readers have to stomach his anti-social attitude until then. After the arc, he graduates from a jerk to normal human being and that’s about it. The problem is when the jerk part is removed he’s just a guy who cuts things. In making Kanda no longer a jerk, the author exposes his lack of characterization.

The plot is unimaginative.
Unimaginative? How does an author make a Victorian mystery about zombie machine monsters unimaginative? By taking away from that premise and focusing a bunch of dark skinned pretty boys. The fanservice overshadows any attempt at horror. Can the author at least try to the keep the pretense that this is supposed to be a gothic, mystery, horror story?! These, bad guys, the Noah, really kind ruin any sort of tension the story has going. They are all immortal, powerful, and as of the latest chapter still impossible to permanently kill.
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
Only one of them has killed
within the hundreds of chapters since they have been introduced and even that
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
one is eventually going to get revived.


Not that the author of this so-called horror manga, has guts to do any lasting harm to any of the main cast. So the story pits a group of villains that the author is unwilling to kill off against a group of heroes the author unwilling to kill off. What’s the result? Something akin to G. I. Joe. No, really. The Noah swoop in to cause trouble, Allen rectifies an emotional disturbance with whatever problem is occurring, and then the Noah, sort of just fly away until they can decide what bad things they’ll do next time. Rinse and repeat. Sadly, Tyki doesn’t shout “We’ll get you next time, Joes!”

As I said before, D. Grayman touts itself as a mystery. Only problem is that mysteries are only compelling when the protagonist is trying to solve them. Allen is not a proactive protagonist. Bad guys always have to provoke him or the organization he works for before he actually gets involved in situations. Instead the plot just builds up constant amounts of cryptic dialogue before simply telling the audience via expositional devices (memory melds, mind jacks). Compared to Fullmetal Alchemist which gradually answers mysteries at a steady pace and had the main protagonist Edward Elric actively trying to figure them out. D. Grayman’s pacing is an uneven rollercoaster that leaves the audience unsatisfied and motion sick at the end.

Odds are you’ll forget there is even a Victorian setting by chapter 140, as greater emphasis is placed on fighting in the hero’s enemy’s home base. By having a larger focus on the Noah and Black Order War, the story cuts out the human element of the setting, rendering it utterly pointless. Considering the DBZ level power ups the main characters get over the course of the plot, any struggles through lack of technology are easily surpassed.

Lacks a theme.
The commenter, Baniita wrote
“In no way is this manga religious, thankfully. It centers around religious themes, but as Lenalee so accurately addressed God, "to the God whom I hate so much" (I love that line), none of them are actually religious.”

Ironically, this story would better if it was religious because I would feel like the author would have some groundwork to add some stability to this train wreck of a plot. I struggle repeatedly to grasp what the message of D. Grayman‘s story. It can’t be about people making the wrong decisions leading them down the wrong path. Simply put, none of the main cast ever made the wrong decision in a moral dilemma.

Above all, D. Grayman is absolutely terrible at showing gray morality. The main cast is pure and selfless to the point of a lack of realism. How can a story focus on gray morality when the author never has the characters act in selfish or cruel ways? The only main character that is capable of doing something remotely uncharitable was Kanda, pre-character development, but he never did because Allen always restrained him. Rather the gray morality comes from the heads of the Black Organization. In other words, an ominous council that has no characterization whatsoever. This is your standard conflict ball trope that I have seen in a dozen other manga. One Piece, Naruto, Bleach and practically any shonen manga that has broken a 100 chapters has done this. For D. Grayman to get a gold star for doing this is absolutely ridiculous.

The same goes for the Noah. They are the bad guys, but they care for each other and have certain moral values. Again, this has been done. Tyki may be nice to the occasional human extra, but he still wants to exterminate them. Road may have a crush on Allen, but that doesn’t stop her tormenting everyone else. They understand the moral consequences of genocide, but choose to do it anyway. That beyond anything should invalidate them from being morally gray characters.

D. Grayman tries to be a lot of things, but ends up being none. The action scenes are mixed around and often difficult to comprehend, the characters stick to stereotypical archetypes with borderline fanaticism, the plot is redundant and confusing, the horror is often neglected in favor of fanservice, the mystery is just a bunch of trumped up cryptic dialogue followed by heavy exposition dumps, and the story never really challenges the characters’ moral reasoning nor does it ever pit them against each other in some meaningful way,
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
aside from Kanda kicking Allen around during the Alma arc like an underpaid stagehand on the Maury show.


No review I’ve seen fully describes the flaws of this manga but no one really talks about it on anime forums either. Maybe most people subconsciously realize there isn’t much to talk about. D. Grayman is one of the most generic shonen manga I have ever read. An age old relic that styled itself as being different, but too often took the safe route.

... Last updated on June 8th, 2021, 2:13am
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Great series  
by Hanatarot
August 26th, 2016, 10:12pm
Rating: 10.0  / 10.0
I remember this series as a dark theme. I don't get where the shonen AI comes in as there no gay themes with in the series. Or even shoujo for that matter. It not even consider yaoi. It a very fun comedy series that has it very sad a dark moments. It's a great one that I enjoy reading and still great. The artwork was very unique and changes drastically after the mangaka goes on hiatus. I personally loved her older art style but it still beautiful to look at. Story is nothing new but a very fun read.

... Last updated on August 26th, 2016, 10:13pm
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A Different Kind Of Manga  
by scorcher
July 27th, 2016, 5:38pm
Rating: 5.0  / 10.0
Relatively speaking, D.Gray Man is a Shounen manga. However, its content is mainly comprise of a shoujo manga theme, or rather a Shounen Ai theme. What makes it unique is that despite its Shoujo influence, it doesn't lose its Shounen quality. That is something which is very hard to pull. Manga like Karneval and Hakkenden are attempts to do the same but doesn't quite reach it. I think that alone is the only thing that is unique from D.Gray Man to other manga.
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Love the characters  
by sakirol
April 19th, 2016, 7:01pm
Rating: N/A
I have always loved the world setting, art, and characters of D.Gray-Man. I don't personally think the story is groundbreaking by any means. Often times, it feels very generic. You'll see the typical nonsensical shounen genre standard for having characters break off to fight 1 v 1 against an enemy for no good reason. But the plot twists and characters are spot on. Each character has a unique design and are incredibly memorable despite the fairly large cast of characters. This is not to mention, you'll get quickly attached to the main character and how he develops through the series. Allen Walker is just one of those MCs you can't forget.

The plot, as of lately, has deteriorated though because it's starting to not make sense.
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Appearene changes and character development  
by kurokiikat
October 11th, 2015, 11:20pm
Rating: 9.0  / 10.0
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
This is one of my favorite manga. But its making me kinda mad when people are saying this manga got bad because the drawing style changed and stuff like that. Of course the drawing style would chamge a bit. The charcters are growing. Literally. The main-ish characters (Allen, Lenalee, Kanda, and Lavi) are all slowly maturing. Theyre getting older so of course theyre appearence would change slightly. This isnt pokemon where the characters can be around for like 50 years and not age even a year. Allens appearence is changing more than the other characters cause hes slowly becoming the 14th. Hes changing into a noah. And its not like the time in the series only goes on for like 2 months. Its probably been at least a year after the ark arc because by then Lenalees hair grew back by the time Allen disappeared. So its been about two to three years since Allens
been in the black order. And for those of you who are complaining about not enough character development there is plenty. Allen and the gang has gone through a lot throughout the series. Lenalee gets more emotional now and it feels like shes a bit insecure after the ark arc. Allen at first is all gentalmanly and isnt a very loud person starts to be a more loud person and isnt as formal as he was before. Hes also developing cause he has to deal with turning into the 14th. Kanda is obviously developing. In the beginning it was clear that he completely hated Allen. But when Kanda stays behind to fight Skin it is shown that he actually at least slightly cares for him and the rest by staying behind and sacrificing himself. It is also clear that he doesnt hate Lenalee or his master and fellow apprentices. He also displays a developing friendship with Allen at the end of the series by going with Johnny and looking for Allen and helping him deal with turning into the 14th. Lavi develops at bit by being able to relaxe a bit with his new friends whereas before he didnt really make friends because he was constantly changing his identity and moving from place to place. Even Johnny develops just by going out and searching for Allen. Throughout the series he didnt have much screen time but now he can be considered one of the main characters for the current arc.
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It's taken over my life. Literally. (If tl;dr, read bold)  
by Baniita
March 12th, 2013, 4:57am
Rating: 10.0  / 10.0
It's definitely not perfect, but this series has completely captured my heart and soul. Being a part of this fandom is heart-tearing, painful, and absolutely wonderful, and I've enjoyed all 8 years of my fandom. Its tragic moments clobber you with feels, and the comedy (though often disruptive to the mood) is hilarious. The worst part, is of course, the constant hiatuses and cliffhangers and mysteries solved only to create more mysteries. The author deals with tendonitis. The series has suffered in quality ever since the editor changed (think of Y-sensei as Hatori from Bakuman in terms of competency, and her current editor as Miura). Everyone around me surfs from one main fandom to another, from DGM to KHR to Ao no Exorcist to Magi... Each time, leaving behind the previous, but with me, this has remained my absolute favourite series.

D.Gray-Man actually has a real theme, not just only of friendship, and isn't all ultimate good vs. ultimate evil. It's centered around the idea of the "grey" between the black and white of good and evil. It doesn't seem so at first, but gradually you realize that the villains aren't completely evil and they have human sides to them. Then, the "good" sides starts showing signs of evil. It reminds me of Dorian Grey, with the same theme, with all the gay and UTS between the two protagonists, and sometimes I wonder if that's what the D stands for... (Kanda is Henry, Allen is Dorian? Pfttt)

I've never read anything else with characters so deeply lovable and endearing. The character designs (pre-v18, anyway, before the Noahs went gay disco) are flawless. The art is absolutely stunning, and it often takes me half an hour just to read a monthly chapter because I'm savouring the art. The art is ever-changing, which is unique to this series alone, I believe--each art style has its own appeal, and personally I love them all, but I especially like the art styles during v8-10, and v18-23+ best. Hoshino-sensei's weakness is drawing battle scenes (they're usually unclear), but she's improved a bit. There's this one battle scene in chapter 182 that literally took my breath away (Allen and Kanda, with how well they don't get along, sure fight together in perfect sync.)
The character designs are so flawless, they even happen again and again. (see: the protagonists of No.6 and K)

The relationships are deep and have real foundation, each bond has their own flavour. Instead of One Piece, for example, where the bonds are mostly all hearty and light, simple and straight-forward.
Allen and Lavi are best buddies, like Harry and Ron. Allen and Lenalee have a weird "love each other but not IN love" kind of thing, while I think Lenalee's the only girl Lavi is seriously interested in. Kanda loves her like a sister, and he's only really somewhat tame with her. Kanda and Lavi have a subtle friendship, they mostly don't communicate much, but Lavi thinks he's interesting (to tease). Lenalee is like the mother hen of the three.
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
Kanda has a very deep and extremely tragic love for Alma. So deep, it transcended from his previous life before his artificial rebirth. A lot of people fuss over the gender of Alma. Her soul is female. Her artificial body is male. Either way, who cares. Love is love.

...As for Kanda and Allen. Well, Kanda is Allen's foil character, rival, arch enemy, reluctant partner, and they are each other's salvation. They have by far the most interesting relationship. They absolutely hate each other because, as Marie put it, they're so similar. They're very much alike, and yet exact opposites. They don't hold back with each other. Allen never puts up his gentlemanly facade with him. Nevertheless, they care way more for each other than they would ever admit. Also, their bickering scenes are absolutely hilarious, and the funniest parts of the series.
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
The salvation comment--Kanda and Alma were both saved because of him. And Kanda is to bring "salvation" to Allen--by being the one to kill him, should he turn into the 14th completely. The others love Allen too much to do it, and apparently Kanda's different, so it's practically an unspoken promise between the two. He's even possessive of this exclusive right of his. Of course, we know Kanda likely won't go through with it... Either way, I find it ridiculously romantic. Remember Guzol and Lala? Lala wanted to die only by Guzol's hands. "Kanda came back for Allen's sake", just to do this. He chose hell for Allen. My point is, their relationship is absolutely beautiful, regardless of its nature.

The main idea of halting the apocalypse and recreation of the world isn't anything new in terms of plot. There's the "item collection" trope, too, since they're scouring the world in search of Innocence. This manga has many cliches, but there's nothing wrong with cliches if the author manages to rock them--and rock them she did and beyond.
There are some original aspects of this manga I really, really love, such as the idea of akuma. Demons are a common theme, but she took that and completely made something new and interesting.
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
The idea that the akuma are borne out of love--humans wishing back their dead ones, trapping their souls in the machinery, which then crawl into the host human's body, is very romantic, dark, and super interesting. The fact that they evolve, too, is kind of cool.
Her monster designs are grotesque, unique, and absolutely sick. I really like her pop-goth style for Yoshi and the akuma. The form the Ark takes is completely different from what you'd imagine Noah's Ark to be (a ship)--it's sci-fi, and super cool. There's science, alchemy, and sorcery all in there in a perfect blend. The spells are different from the typical magic you usually see. The science is more advanced, and thus makes it an alternate history. There's manga like Toriko, where the attack names are just plain stupid, and then there's D.Gray-Man, with cool names like "Cross Grave" and "Edge End". And we've seen nyoinbo staffs, but this is the first time I've seen a nyoinbo hammer! Fusing bodies isn't new, either, but the way Jasdero and Devit shoot each other to combine is awesome.
This gothic neo-Victorian world that Hoshino created is wonderful. This manga is very much character-driven, and each arc is very touching. Miranda is my favourite female character from this series--and she's extremely relateable, and quite inspirational. Krory is a bad-ass "vampire"--why can't vampires these days be like him when he's in bi-polar mode? The Ark story has a lot of mixed reviews, but I absolutely loved it. The zombie filler arc was friggin' hysterical, and it's even better than Kuroshitsuji's Titanic-Zombie arc. The idea of the Noahs, how they each embody a different Noah memory, is extremely interesting. D.Gray-Man does resemble FMA in a lot of ways, actually, as many people have noticed. But to comment that it's a copy is completely asinine, as each manga has their superior elements. And for another, the memories aren't all sins. "Dreams", "Pleasure", and probably eventually "Love". "Love" seems to have its own meaning in this series, too, when Hoshino talks about it. I'm sure it has to do with the Heart.
In no way is this manga religious, thankfully. It centers around religious themes, but as Lenalee so accurately addressed God, "to the God whom I hate so much" (I love that line), none of them are actually religious. How could they be, after all, when they've gone through so much despair. The fact that they've all forsaken god, and are just fighting for each other, has me shaking in feels.

I'm sure I'll still be in this fandom until the end. (Unless Lenalee and Allen become a couple.) Hopefully, it will end properly, without a rushed ending, or have it get axed. This series is very dear to me, even if the fandom is so inactive. In the end,
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
I don't care if Allen dies. Actually, I'd rather if he and Kanda died together. Neither of them have much time left, anyway... Well, if I could have it the way I wanted, I'd make them immortal together, but that's not just not going to happen.
I hope Lavi finds the answer he's looking for. I hope Kanda can find peace with no regrets. ...I hope Allen keeps walking up to his very last step.

... Last updated on March 12th, 2013, 6:02am
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