Forum - View topicWas D.Gray-Man Actually Any Good?
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malvarez1
Posts: 2212 |
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It’s genuinely sad for anime-only fans; the manga only updates like four times a year, and with very short chapters. It’s a really good series, but it’s hard to recommend for that reason. We’re not getting an ending anytime soon.
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1612 |
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I like how the author of this piece uses the term "soft boy protagonist" to describe Allen, because honestly he feels like a precursor to incredibly popular shonen leads like Tanjuro or Deku, characters who subvert the archetype of loud brash protags like Luffy or Naruto. I feel like this type of hero is more popular than ever nowadays and D. Gray-Man feels like a forgotten early adopter of that trend.
In general I think D.Gray-Man would have benefited from a shorter serialization, as I get the impression that Hoshino tried to keep the series running as long as possible by introducing tons of new plot points and not resolving them, and now it has backfired on her and she's stuck trying to resolve all this stuff in a satisfactory way while being physically unable to produce more than a few short chapters per year. This isn't necessarily the author's fault, as some Jump editors really pressure their authors to keep popular series going and going, but it is a shame that the story wasn't written in a more straightforward, concise way. All that said, it's not a bad series at all, and has some real standout elements. The Earl of Millennium has one of the all-time great villain designs, and the tragedy of the Akuma is something that manages to resonate even after our heroes have fought lots and lots of them. Hopefully the series can stick the landing once it finally reaches the end, whenever that is. |
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NobaraBG
 Posts: 21 |
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D. Gray-Man took my by surprise. I started watching it because I was running an anime club for teens and they ask me to have it on at our meetings. It seemed fine at first with the typical shonen tropes but something about its gothic atmosphere kept me interested. When the story covered Yu's backstory and delved more into the Noah family, I finally became hooked. I still read the the manga chapters that come out and am in the camp of praying for a solid conclusion. It's become such an interesting commentary on good and evil and sin and "innocence" and I wish more people read/watched it.
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2276 |
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1000% this. Allen's "do good at all costs" mentality is absolutely what made him a stand-out character at the time, and I've always thought it a shame this series basically flew under the radar for all but the most die-hard fans. And Hoshino's health seems to be just as bad as Hunter x Hunter's Togashi's, just not as widely publicized.  It also doesn't help that the anime, production quality and length aside, has a sort of middling dub to boot, and I say this as someone who is usually very supportive of dubs. But I always got the impression that this was sort of a rush job on Funi's part; everyone involved is very skilled, obviously, but there are some parts that are just jarringly miscast imo that just made it feel like no one had any real faith in this series.
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rahzel rose
 Subscriber Posts: 838 |
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I am still a DGM enjoyer, although I haven’t checked for any new chapters in the last couple of years. There were times when it seemed to have a misery for the sake of misery feel to it at certain points, but I always loved the overall story and most of the characters.
I’m still sad to this day that a physical release for Hallow was cancelled because I would have loved to own even just the JP version of the series. Kanda is my favorite and that’s one of my favorite arcs. I even liked all the new voices, especially Sato as Kanda. They all did a great job. I hope Hoshino can make it to the end one day. I would love to see the conclusion to this story. |
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Minos_Kurumada
Posts: 1214 |
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The series has 2 problems:
- I swear we have HXH or Berserk chapter more often than D.GM. - The art after the long hiatus... it's not bad... its so clean and the faces are so alike...it's hard to follow what is going on. And it's a shame, I hope that when it's over we get a reboot. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2230 |
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I read the entire manga and have mixed feelings about the anime. Nevertheless, I'm amazed by its popularity as the manga keeps making the series sell around 22 millions despite the rdiculously slow serialization it has been suffering since Hoshino left the Jump Square. The original TMS anime was had high rating and sold a good amount of DVDs to the point it was referenced in Gintama's first year.
The more I read Hoshino's interviews, the more obvious it feels she hates Allen. The amount of suffering the poor guy goes is ridiculous even in comical fashion. There's a common cliche about abusive teachers in anime like Hiko Seijuro from Rurouni Kenshin or Izumi Curtis from Fullmetal Alchemist, but in Cross Marian's first appearance in the manga, he hits Allen with a hammer so that he will never know where is he. This actually becomes relevant when Cross Marian makes his first legit appearance outside a flashback saving Allen from Tyki, but the anime was running out of ideas so they wrote Cross as a torturer whose training on Allen was ridiculous. On the other hand, TMS' anime helpe Yu Kanda's characterization become more threedimensional even if by the end they didn't explore his arc. Kanda's story is explained in Hallow but sadly such series to be poorly made even when comparing animation to the 10 year older anime to the point it's obvious why they cancelled Blurays. The fact that Hallow ends on a bigger cliffhanger than the first anime doesn't help. The last scene of the first anime was Allen travelling with determination to face the Earl. Hallow ends with Allen alone suffering from an identity crisis while the Noah spy on him if he really can become Nea. He is all alone and the author who revised the story didn't try at least to give him an alternative closure. Hoshino said in a guidebook she hates Allen as a philanthropist (which probably it's the keypoint of his trauma of acting like Mana) and prefers him and writing him as brute especially when he finally punched Cross Marian in revenge so I have no idea what will happen to his story. |
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kgw
 Posts: 1220 Location: Spain, EU |
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I remember I read the manga, bought some volumes... then I get bored of the "oh, actually, there was a bigger baddie, after this one", so I sold them all.
I am surprised the manga still goes on. Last edited by kgw on Thu Jan 30, 2025 5:31 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Cho_Desu
 Posts: 248 |
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Will more or less second everything Wyvern said. I think D. Gray-Man was good stuff, but it kept going when it should have ended a long time ago. I feel in a lot of ways, Demon Slayer accomplished what D. Gray-Man set out to do. I think Gotouge deserves a lot of credit for ending the series back in 2020. It would have been extremely easy to reach the natural conclusion, and then go, "By the way, there is a league of, say, eight REALLY super powerful demons above the ones we've defeated; Muzan is chump change compared to them, so let's have another few hundred chapters so the money keeps pouring in."
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Glordit
 Posts: 710 |
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Yes, yes it was. Sadly, the newer season wasn't very good and lacked all of the charm the original had.
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2409 |
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Though it doesn't seem to have retained its reader base nearly as well as Hunter x Hunter has. According to the Oricon numbers archived on MangaCodex, back in 2008, volumes 15 and 16 each sold over 500,000 copies in their first three weeks. When volume 27 came out in 2020, it only did about 180,000 in the same period, and volume 28 seems to have dropped off the charts after just one week. Hunter x Hunter, by comparison, actually improved from the early 2010s to 2017 if we use the same metric: #26 (2008): 757,270 #27 (2010): 811,139 #28 (2011): 729,872 #29 (2011): 897,139 #30 (2012): 856,868 #31 (2013): 894,344 #32 (2013): 963,013 #33 (2016): 1,052,701 #34 (2017): 1,104,156 #35 (2018): 819,134 #36 (2018): 793,638 #37 (2022): 721,080 #38 (2024): 632,188 Declined a bit in recent years, but still more than half of its peak, and over 80% of what it was selling in 2008. (One Piece #110's first three weeks in 2024 sold about 41% what #61 did in 2011 -- though to be fair, it's still about 81% of what #50 sold in 2008. 2011 was after the Strong World surge.) |
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tintor2
Posts: 2230 |
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Yeah. Hunter x Hunter's popularity is undeniable especially when it further promoted by none other than Furuhashi who directed the first Kenshin anime and also Spy x Family. Even the second anime was an impressive adaptation as it was made by Madhouse who are now showing off with one of their greatest works ever: Frieren.
In contrast, the anime adaptation of D.Gray-man was quite weak in visuals or action sequences but I don't know about Osamu Nabeshima's other works. Probably one of the good points about the D.Gray-man fillers is that they tried adapting the first two light novels. Still, about the chapters that were written after Hoshino left Jump Square it was kinda mindblowing the sudden twist of spoiler[[the Earl literally being Mana Walker driven insane by the Noah after Allen attacked as a child in the circus. The Earl's villain personality was caused by Allen's innocence and in a similar case to the novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Mana's mental and physical change was caused during the whole Nea betrayal. I guess that makes Allen a character similar to Sento Kiryu from Kamen Rider Build due to his dual identity but it keeps it confusing with what direction is the manga gonna take] Still, Hoshino is open in social media and in one series of question that was transcribed to reddit, she claimed she plans the series to end with its 50th volume.... That sure is gonna take a while... |
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Oggers
 Posts: 384 Location: Ontario, Canada |
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When I tried getting into D.Gray-man as a teenager, I felt like it was similar to Fullmetal Alchemist, only it relied more on typical Shonen Jump tropes and dragged out its plot way more. Which, yes, was a pretty biased opinion since I'd discovered Fullmetal Alchemist first, and when it comes down to it there are differences.
If I tried it nowadays, I'd probably be more charitable...but considering how slowly the manga's chapters come out now (which I know is due to the creator's health issues) and how burnt out I've become on most battle shonen series, I don't think it's likely I'll revisit it again. |
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Darklordmyke
 Posts: 19 |
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I think given what the most recent Chapter had revealed this story has transcended what it originally set out to do and has made it all the more compelling and people really should go back and give it a chance. Some of the newer chapters are quite big and have really delved deeply into the complex story of Allen Walker, and who and why he is. It is still by far my favorite Manga, and I check in on occasion to read when new chapters are released. Plus, the artwork has gotten so gorgeously breathtaking lately. She really has outdone herself and keeps me on the edge of my seat, waiting quarterly, (though sometimes bi-annually) for this masterpiece to continue onward.
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SaneSavantElla
 Posts: 259 Location: Philippines |
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I was a massive fan of the D. Gray-Man manga when it first came out, way back in my teenage years. And really it was for a very superficial reason -- the art is just so beautiful. From the get-go it has a certain polish that earlier shonen manga just don't have. The character designs are topnotch, and what I loved most about it is it mixes the beautiful and grotesque seamlessly. And for that reason, it was the first series I bought the tankobon for, even if I could only afford a single volume.
I remember several of Hoshino's hiatus coincided with Togashi's, and since then I would always associate D.Gray-Man's situation with that of Hunter X Hunter. However, when she came back from one of her longest, Hoshino's art changed drastically. I don't know if it's because of the injury to her wrist, but her lineart has become "softer" and the general flow of the panels harder to follow. I slowly fell off the fandom, and the unremarkable anime adaptation(s) certainly didn't aid my waning enthusiasm for it. All in all, it felt like it could (and should) have ended at a certain point, but it introduced plot points that generated more questions than answers, and the last time I checked, it's still dragging on (admittedly I haven't seen the last several dozens of chapters so I don't know what's going on). |
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