D.Gray-Man

Yesterday, I reposted my impressions of D.N.Angel from back in 2006, in which I discoursed about shoujo series that in outline seem like shounen, and made mention of some shounen series written by women. Well, since then a few more important series have appeared, and continue to blur the line at the centre of the two. There has been Reborn!, which has all the attributes I gave to battle shoujo, including hapless and childish yet adored main character, homoerotic love interests and cutesy mascots, yet is published in Jump and is popular with a male demographic. There has been also been Kekkaishi, following Fullmetal Alchemist in having a main character who is both vulnerable and yet capable of great power, and who has a very slow-burning but important romance with a female character who is formidable in her own right. And then there is D.Gray-man, which has managed to become one of the biggest series in Jump and full of inventive characters, action and angst.

Its pilot manga chapter was a little more obviously created by a woman than the anime, if we are to follow the tell-tale tropes that I by no means want to claim are absolutely universal, but which are certainly prevalent. The first incarnation of Allen Walker was extremely effeminized, even being made to cross-dress, and Linalee fell into a damsel in distress pigeonhole.

Thankfully, the final product was rather more mature and idiosyncratic. There are a lot of very familiar elements to D.Gray-man, but it offers a very striking and complete world with a cast of quirky but likeable characters and some fascinating adversaries. Set in a Victorian-era world, principally in Europe but also incorporating Asia, it tells the story of an exorcist called Allen Walker, blessed by God with ‘Innocence’, a substance that transforms into a powerful weapon to fight demons, or ‘akuma’. Along with other innocence-users in a Christian organization called The Black Order, Allen fights against the rather mechanical demons sent forth by the grotesque Millennium Earl.

It’s a neat set-up, complex enough not to be dismissed offhand but simple enough that it can be easily understood and the development of its characters become the focus. Initially, I thought it was a terrible idea to give Allen such an underwhelming power – that of having a big sharp arm – but over the course of the series, his anti-akuma weapon is developed in the most intriguing ways, until final designs are extremely impressive. Every one of Allen’s comrades is interesting and possessed of a well-developed power, and the stakes always seem higher than in most shounen. There are some real tragedies in this series, and everything seems a little more mature than most of the titles that come from Jump.

As with so many manga adaptations, though, it ends before its time. Running two full seasons, the first of 51 episodes and the second of 52, it wraps up a huge arc, then spends ten episodes hanging a final mini-arc on the end that despite showcasing the awesome generals, does not give any sense of closure.

But it has been two years now since it ended. It doesn’t look like there’s going to be any more D.Gray-Man animated. Of course there is still manga to go to, but if I’m honest, of the big Shounen Jump series, I’d honestly rather this was running on and on and on than almost any of the other, far bigger titles.

But perhaps the added layer of complexity was the undoing of this series. A shame, because it has so much to offer.