D. Gray-Man: Series 1 - Part 1

Label:

Manga Entertainment

Certificate:

15

Discs:

2. (13 episodes)

Running time:

296 mins approx

Video:

16.9 anamorphic

Sound:

English 5.1, Japanese 2.0

Subtitles:

English

Release date:

22nd February 2010

RRP:

£22.99 - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

In ancient times there existed a mythical object known as “innocence”, a rare and powerful substance that could be used to fashion tools and weapons that would vanquish evil and obliterate demons. It is believed that during the time of the Great Flood, this Innocence was split into 109 parts and swept away to the four corners of the globe. In the late 19th century, two separate powers search to unite the scattered innocence. One, an ancient being know as the Millennium Earl wants the Innocence in order to cleanse to world of all humanity while the other, a shadowy and secretive organisation known only as The Black Order, search for the Innocence in order to thwart the Earl’s plans.

The Black Order entrust the duty of retrieving this Innocence to their teams of Exorcists, all highly trained in cornering the activities of the Millennium Earl’s hordes of demonic servants. One such Exorcist, Allen Walker, has a fragment of Innocence embedded within his disfigured left arm that he can transform into a powerful anti-demon weapon of devastating potential as well as a cursed left eye, a permanent reminder of his own tragic past, which allows him to hunt out with a single glance any demon that may be hiding behind a disguise as a normal human. Along with his fellow Exorcists, many of who also wield Innocence powered supernatural abilities, Allen must locate and retrieve any remaining Innocence before the Earl beats them to it no matter the cost.

Comments:

Adapted from a long running manga of the same name, D-Gray Man is a Gothic horror set in the late 19th century. This twin pack comprises of the first 13 episodes of this show’s first season and is mostly about setting the scene and introducing the characters in preparation for the rest of the episodes that make up this rather lengthy show. This show brings to mind several other offers of recent years such as Full Metal Alchemist and Soul Eater - to both of which it shares a striking number of similarities - as well as shades of Bleach and the like and even The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Even though it’s set in England of the late 1900s don’t be expecting and chronological or geographical accuracy as there’s more anachronisms than you could shake a stick at. This is most obvious regarding fashions, clothing and equipment which are often more akin to the late 20th century than the late 198th century, especially the cat-suits and miniskirts. But no one ever said anime was ever 100% accurate so let’s move on.

While it’s never going to win a “scariest anime ever!” awards it’s certainly never going to get itself a showing on mainstream UK TV as it’s often darkly morbid and can at times be quite depressing. Many of the episodes have to deal with grieving family members who’ve made a deal with the Earl to drag the souls of their recently dearly departed back from the afterlife and into the living world. What they don’t realised is that they’ve unwittingly cursed their loved ones to an eternity of mindless slavery as part of the Earl’s un-dead army. Neither do they know that the first order that the Earl will be giving his shiny new puppet is to not only kill the person that brought them back but also to clothe themselves with their victim’s skin so they might blend into society and hide away from the Black Order.

So it’s dark, but is the script any good? Well it’s not ground-breaking stuff but it’s definitely better than average I’ll give it that. The animation’s about average, the music’s about the same and the Dub... Well I think we know where this is going by now. Actually, while I’m mentioning the Dub I do have to point out that Todd Haberkorn, who I’d dissed during one of my previous reviews, here proves that his awful performance as Claymore’s Raki was probably more to do with miscasting or bad direction than a lack of talent as here, playing the lead Allen Walker, he actually pulls off a perfectly decent performance. His portrayal of Allen is noticeably different from the Japanese version in that Todd plays him with much more backbone which helps to make him a more likeable character. The rest of the dub could probably have done with a bit more work and it can occasionally fall into “reading off cue cards” territory but on the whole it’s fairly passable and at times actually goes into greater depth and detail than the original Japanese version.

The anime ran for two years in Japan and totalled 103 episodes and you don’t get that far without being entertaining. And entertaining it certainly is even if you can’t help but get the feeling that you’ve seen much of it somewhere before.

Extras:

Textless opening and closing titles sequences; Audio commentary for ep 2.

D. Gray-Man: Series 1 - Part 1 will be available from most high streets and online retailers from 22nd February 2010.