Review for D. Gray-Man: Series 2 Part 1

Introduction

The way things are in the UK industry at the moment is that Beez usually inherit the titles that Bandai licence, Manga distribute the titles that Funimation and Viz get, and both are trying to cut down the gaps between Japanese and US release, as well as US and UK release. MVM on the other hand have been focusing more on those classic titles that missed the UK by the first time around. But in some ways, MVM have got it easier. At least when they start releasing a title, they know that it has been released in its entirety elsewhere to the English-speaking world, and the UK release will be complete as well. Manga on the other hand often have to take a chance with an anime series, hoping that the US company licensing it will get the show and dub it in its entirety. That's the situation with D. Gray-Man, as Funimation are dubbing and releasing the 100 plus episode series in the US, or at least they were. They have released the first four instalments, half the series over the space of a year, but the show has been on hiatus since January. There's plenty of speculation as to why, but Funimation hasn't licensed the second half of the series as yet. I'm only guessing, but the six months gap between parts 2 and 3 from Manga could have been a pause to see what happened in the US.

It's not the end of the world of course, as many shows don't get a conclusion. And as Berserk has proven, it's the journey more than the destination that counts. If D. Gray-Man gives good journey, then the DVDs should be worth buying regardless. Also, with the current vagaries of the anime market, the lack of a dub needn't be the impediment to watching anime that it used to be. Of course this wool gathering and random speculation is pointless when there are discs to be reviewed.


It's the end of the 19th Century, and a 15-year-old exorcist named Allen Walker comes to Britain to join the Black Order, a group of exorcists tasked with keeping the world safe from Akuma, or demons. Long ago in the mists of antiquity, there was a war between the ancients and the Millennium Earl. The Millennium Earl sought to destroy the world and he did so by creating Akuma, mechanical demons, fusions of machine, a soul and a tragedy, feeding on human souls to evolve into ever more powerful killing machines. The only thing that could stop them was a fantastic substance known as Innocence, and weapons fashioned from it were the only things known to destroy Akuma. 109 fragments of Innocence were scattered around the world during the Great Flood, and now the Black Order searches for it to use in their fight against the Millennium Earl, while at the same time, the Millennium Earl seeks it to destroy it. Allen has a piece of Innocence embedded in his disfigured left hand, giving him the ability to sense and destroy Akuma. Together with the Black Order, he joins the battle against the Millennium Earl.

In the previous volume, the Millennium Earl finally made his move, going after the Heart of Innocence. It's the key piece of Innocence with which all the other pieces can be controlled. His thoughts are that if someone possesses it already, he or she would be a powerful accommodator, which is why he and the Clan of Noah attacked General Yeegar of the Black Order. As this set of episodes commence, it becomes clear that all the generals of the Black Order are potential targets for the Millennium Earl.

Manga Entertainment releases the next 13 episodes of D. Gray-Man in a two-disc collection.


27. My Mentor, General Cross
Realising the potential danger to the generals of the Black Order, Komui orders that the exorcists be recalled and reassigned to protecting each of the generals. Since Allen is already acquainted with General Cross, he and Lenalee are assigned to find and protect him. Of course General Cross has vanished off the face of the Earth, although Komui believes that only means that he is shirking his duties as usual. It's an assignment that sends shivers down Allen's spine, but orders are orders. Their first clue to Cross' whereabouts is in Liverpool, and Allen takes the time during the crossing to describe his upbringing and training under Cross, in excruciating detail.

28. Exorcist Krory
Arystar Krory, the craven would-be vampire accommodator of Innocence has graduated as an exorcist, and his first mission is to protect a cluster of rural villages from a marauding Akuma that is reaping the unsuspecting villagers. But when he, Lavi and Bookman get to the village, they find a community that have befriended an Akuma, a gentle beast who plays with their children, and helps in the fields. Could Arystar have located a good Akuma?


29. The One Who Sells Souls, Part 1
30. The One Who Sells Souls, Part 2
Allen and Lenalee arrive in the Lake District, hoping to find a few leads to General Cross' whereabouts from his sponsor, Mother. But the peaceful little village has become a bustling town in the last three years, full of new arrivals, and dominated by a grand hospital. With the population explosion comes Akuma, as Allen and Lenalee realise when a funeral cortege turns nasty. Mother tells them that it's only been in the last six months that the Akuma menace has grown, and suspicions fall on that hospital when a grieving young girl pays Mother a visit for advice. Liza is in love with Lenny, but Lenny is a terminal patient. It's part of a pattern that has been repeated once too often, and it becomes clear that someone in the hospital has made a deal with the devil, or in this case, the Millennium Earl.

31. Lost Miranda
Miranda Lotto is the accommodator of Innocence that Allen and Lenalee discovered previously, and invited to join the Black Order as an exorcist. Since then, the morose girl with terminally low self esteem has been travelling to the Black Order, and has got completely lost in the process. It's been so bad that Komui has recalled Lenalee to go and find her again. But at least she's in the right country, even if she's unable to ask for directions, lugging a grandfather clock with her, and having had her pockets picked. She's at least run into a kindly nomadic family of magicians who are giving her a lift. She's beginning to think that maybe the exorcist business is overrated, and she'd be better of as a magician's assistant.


32. Mysterious Ghost Ship
Allen's next stop on his search for General Cross is a port where he waits for a liner. But there's been trouble, a spate of sea wrecks that are seriously cutting into shipping in the area. Everyone thinks it's down to bad weather and the reefs, but a local gang of kids are sure it's because of pirates. They have a plan to hunt the pirates down, but they'll need help, someone older than them, stronger, tougher, but at the same time young enough to be more gullible and open-minded than the adults. Enter exorcist Allen Walker.

33. The Village Where A Witch Lives, Part 1
34. The Village Where A Witch Lives, Part 2
Yu Kanda is supposed to meet the exorcist Daisya to look for another general of the Black Order to protect, but his journey takes him through a fairy tale forest and some idyllic villages where some rather odd events have been taking place. There are bad rumours about the forest, that people who venture in don't come back, and that it's come to be known as the Forest of No Return. Indeed, three of the Black Order's Finders vanished into that forest. Kanda is only focussing on his mission, which means getting through the forest, and if it happens to be full of Akuma, he won't take too long to deal with them before continuing on his way. The last thing he intends to do is to investigate the Dan Kern village, around which all of the Akuma are centred, but when he encounters the sole survivor of the Finders, a nervous man named Goz, he gets drawn in regardless. But there is something very strange going on in the village of Dan Kern, centred on the ominous Witch's Shed.


35. Exorcist Clad In Wind
Lenalee is on her way to meet up with Allen again in Spain, while Goz has been assigned to meet another Exorcist named Suman Dark. They wind up travelling together for a while, which is good for Goz as the forest they are now in is rumoured to be infested with man-eating wolves. Those rumours are confirmed when they run into a bunch of refugees, escaping from a beleaguered village. A little girl named Jessica runs into trouble when she gets separated from the group, but fortunately it's the perfect time for Suman Dark to show up and save the day. Jessica was trying to get back to rescue her mother, who was left behind because she was too ill to travel. But now that Suman Dark has arrived, she's found a hero to rescue her mother. Except Suman Dark isn't the hero type.

36. Shroud of Darkness
37. Charity Bell
38. Froi Tiedoll
39. Silent Coffins
It's time for the Millennium Earl to make a move against the generals of the Black Order. He's set forth an army of Akuma to hunt each of the generals down, and it isn't long before Allen and Lenalee get a preview of what is to come. All over the world, Akuma are gathering, and heading for where the generals are rumoured to be. It becomes a race against time as the Finders gather to fortify any potential targets, and the Exorcists gather to find and protect the generals. General Tiedoll is rumoured to be in Barcelona. He's the General that found and recruited Yu Kanda, and it's Yu Kanda along with his fellow exorcists Daisya Barry and Marie who are put in charge of defending Barcelona and the General. But this will be a battle on a level that the exorcists haven't experienced. Sacrifices will have to be made, and friends mourned. When Allen and Lenalee learn of the import of the situation, they race to Barcelona to help, but they are too late. What happens in the city is echoed all over the world. But this is just the opening salvo in the Millennium Earl's war on the exorcists.

Picture

D. Gray-Man comes in a 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen flavour, as all modern anime are wont to do. It's an NTSC-PAL conversion of course, although it's a relatively benign one, light on ghosting and judder, although you can't get away from the softness of image. The animation itself lacks the sophistication and detail that shorter series usually get. On the other hand it's certainly not as crude or limited as long running shows like Naruto or Bleach. Certainly there is a far more robust continuity in character design, and the action sequences aren't scrimped on. All in all, D. Gray-Man is a very pleasant watch. And the creepy, spooky nature of the story is well reflected in the atmospheric world design and darker palette. Although with seven or six episodes to a disc, you won't be surprised to see a tad more compression than usual, especially in the frenetic action sequences and the opening credits.

Sound

You have a choice between DD 5.1 English, and DD 2.0 Japanese with optional translated subtitles and a signs only track. The surround is quite nice in an action show, but the dub is nothing too spectacular. It consists of energetic and lively performances of the sort that you find in anime aimed at a younger demographic. Although I have to admit that my gratitude is infinite for the blessing that is the absence of the usual Dick Van Dyke accents applied to anime set in Blighty. In fact, most of the denizens of this alternate British Isles are thankfully neutral American in accent. Of course I opted for the original Japanese dialogue as always, and while the stereo isn't as emphatic as the surround track, it does its job well enough. There are new themes book-ending the episodes in this collection.

Extras

Both discs get static menus and a jacket picture to look at when the disc isn't spinning. The only extras this time around are the new textless credits on disc 2.

Conclusion

The second instalment of D. Gray-Man was a bit of a disappointment after the explosive debut, settling for repetitive tedium instead of pushing the story along apace. Of course given a run of over a hundred episodes, you can see where the repetitive tedium comes from. This is hardly Fullmetal Alchemist when it comes to a convoluted and expansive storyline. But that second volume did perk up at the end, as the story seemed to change gear, offering something of a little more import and gravitas, by introducing the first of the Black Order Generals, Yeegar, and also revealing something of the Millennium Earl's plans.


With this third collection of D. Gray-Man episodes, we hit the ground… sauntering. Yes, it is more of that repetitive tedium that was so wearying in the previous set, but somehow given the greater background to the story, the impending danger of the Millennium Earl's plans, there is a greater sense of momentum to these episodes, even if they are just as stand alone and ephemeral as before. For much of the run, it's still a case of an exorcist arriving at a certain location, and having to deal with an Akuma flavoured menace before allowing the end credits to roll. This collection of episodes then is used more to catch up with those characters that we met the last time around, as well as introducing more of the exorcists who will play a part in the episodes yet to come.


There is a deceptive air of haste and panic in the first episode on the disc, with Komui and the other members of the Black Order realising the meaning behind the General Yeegar incident, and extrapolating that danger to the other generals. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the next episodes will involve protecting those generals from the Millennium Earl, getting straight into the thick of the fighting. But actually, the exorcists have to find the generals first, and Allen's own mentor, General Cross is particularly talented at remaining hidden. You won't be seeing him any time in this collection, hence all of the episodes with exorcists wandering and searching, and dealing with Akuma as they go. Allen's own search for General Cross takes him to Liverpool, the Lake District (for a two part Akuma mystery), an unnamed port town, and then to Barcelona.


We also get a couple of episodes catching up with those exorcists that were recruited in the previous collection. We see that Arystar Krory, the Innocence derived vampire has qualified as an exorcist, and he has as his first assignment a mission that reminds him of his own circumstances. He's still a terribly annoying character I find, but the episode does have this collection's sole appearances from Lavi and Bookman as well. The episode is pretty interesting too. Then we meet up with Miranda again, and while Arystar has been through his training and qualified, Miranda is still searching for the Black Order, and we join her on journey through England, morose and bemoaning her fate, wavering over her commitment to becoming an exorcist. I did get one moment of glee, as it sees the return of Moa, the policewoman from the first episode, although her appearance is fleeting, and not as impressive as before.


Yu Kanda gets an intriguing two part story, which on the surface looks like another 'visit village, deal with Akuma infestation, and move on' episode, but it does introduce an interesting and craven Finder in Goz, and it has at its heart a pretty tragic tale of twin sisters that results in a rather unique Akuma. Then we meet a new Exorcist named Suman Dark, a rather forbidding and silent figure, whose heart typically melts when a little kid's lower lip wobbles with a hint of tears. He and Lenalee have to deal with a pack of wolves, led by Akuma. This is also an episode that I just couldn't take at all seriously. Suman Dark is an exorcist who wields the power of the wind. His special move is "Break Wind!" It's not what you think, but the poor voice actor has to yell it out loud every time he unleashes it.


As I said, these episodes are pretty much par for the course when it comes to D. Gray-Man. It's when the final four-episode arc begins that we get a glimpse of where the story is heading, with the Millennium Earl's plans beginning to unfold, an army of Akuma unleashed on the world, and the exorcists of the Black Order hard pressed to defend. We get a full on battle sequence over Barcelona, a magnitude greater than anything we've seen thus far, and the show takes on something of an epic air. We also get to see something more of the Millennium Earl and the Clan of Noah plotting and scheming away. The Noah clan member Tyki Mikk is certainly an interesting character at this point, trying to exist in both worlds simultaneously, with a dark Tyki and light Tyki. His day job is world domination with the Millennium Earl, while when he's slumming, he's a factory worker, with a bunch of human friends that he likes to spend time with. It's a question of whether he has a psychopathic personality disorder, or if he could potentially be a weak link in the Millennium Earl's plans.


The third collection of D. Gray-Man episodes is marginally better than before, and the story is beginning to show something of what the first collection promised. There's not a lot to it, it's still only a fun little shonen action show. But the operative word here is fun, which is reason enough to give D. Gray-Man a try.