Label:

Manga Entertainment

Certificate:

12

Discs:

2. (13 episodes)

Running time:

296 mins approx

Video:

Widescreen 1.85:1 Anamorphic

Sound:

English 5.1, Japanese 2.0

Subtitles:

English

Release date:

12th April 2010

RRP:

£22.99 - Amazon - Play

Brief synopsis:

Now that Allen’s settled into his role as an Exorcist for the Black Order he finds himself being sent out on a number of missions with is new comrades to recover lost innocence before the Millennium Earl can get his hands on it. But with every instance of innocence that the Black Order retrieves, the Earl steps up his plans against humanity, summoning ever more Akuma to do his bidding. The battle to decide the future of mankind may now be in full swing but the majority of the human race is blissfully unaware that it’s even begun. Should Allen and the Black Order fail, humanity’s fate will be sealed… forever.

Comments:

The second half of D. Gray-Man Season One rolls onward ready for Season 2 and, while it’s not ground-breaking and there’s generally nothing to write home about, there’s nothing about it that sucks the big one and it’s generally entertaining throughout which is more than can be said for a number of other shows.

The dub’s OK though can occasionally sound like the voice actors wanted to get it all over and done with before lunch. Allan’s voice actor’s still doing a sterling job though and if anything, has settled into the role better than the original Japanese seiyuu.

Story wise, there's a number of short stand-alone arcs that show Allan and his companions out on missions that are quite interesting though when this show decides to head into silly territory – which is pretty much whenever the Exorcists get back to home base – then it goes really silly. There’s a couple of tales that have somewhat of a weird twist to them, which this show does well. One being about a beautiful young girl being kidnapped by a hideous monster and requiring rescuing; the twist being that he’s not a hideous monster and tat she doesn’t want rescuing. Another being about a beautiful woman being kidnapped by a vicious vampire with the twist being he’s neither a vampire nor the one the Exorcists should be hunting. OK, so some of these stories can get a bit predicable after a while but it doesn’t stop them being entertaining.

Extras:

Textless opening and closing titles sequences; Audio commentary for ep 18.

D. Gray-Man: Series 1 - Part 2 is available now from most high streets and online retailers. Our previous SFL review for this series can be found here.