D. Gray-Man Season 1 Part 1
By: Jason Allen, 1.30.2010
The Movie Itself:
The quote ”Destroyer of Time - Time Destroyer. I don’t know what it means but it sounds amazing!” pretty much encapsulates my feelings on the show. I really don’t know what D. Gray-Man is about on any intellectual level, but it seems like fun! D. Gray-Man establishes a religious background using Noah’s Flood and the destruction of the world as the premise of “The Three Days of Darkness,” however, the actual Noah’s Flood from the Bible was 40 days, and 40 nights. So while I find the use of religion to be an interesting plot tool, it’s used lightly in D. Gray-Man, and doesn’t really bring any significant historical background or religious philosophy to the story as has been done with other anime series. However, don’t get distracted by this minor detail, the series is a mixture of light comedy and noir, very similar to xxxHolic or Trinity Blood.
D. Gray-Man is an amalgam of Katsuro Hoshino’s past works, and borrows many of the characters from her past manga series. The main character Allen Walker is a member of The Black Order, and works as an exorcist in the battle against the Millennium Earl, a seemingly immortal villain who seeks to bring about the destruction of the world by destroying the Crystals of God via his minions, the akuma. To make matters worse, the family of Noah, super powered humans with almost God-like abilities, has also sided with Earl for reasons unknown. Allen acts as an ‘accommodator’, a type of host for a Crystal of God which grants him unimaginable power via his symbiotic weapon. Allen, however, is not alone. Accompanying him are Lina Lee, another exorcist with magical boots of destruction, Tincampy, a sort of flying video camera, a science team, and a group of Finders who act as blood hounds for the Black Order. How can you lose with a team like that?! Characters tend to pop in and out from story arc to story arc, such as Kanda and Miranda, giving me the impression that they’ll become more important later on in the series. The story isn’t all about finding the 109 Crystals of God, and fighting demons and monsters. D. Gray-Man explores themes of light vs. darkness, where the characters over time evolve through self discovery, gaining powers and understanding of themselves, as they’re enemies in turn become stronger.
I enjoyed the character of Allen, even liked him, but Todd Haberkorn’s voice acting tends to drive me up a wall, as it sounds like he’s almost playing an Erkel or Screech. I see Allen as a more serious character, and I keep seeing (as I’m hearing) Watanuki from xxxHolic. Ironically, both the main voice actors from, Watanuki (Allen) and Yūko (Maranda), are in the show, so maybe it’s not such a strange correlation. I know, I know, voice actors get recycled often, but I just wish they tried something different from show to show. The show didn’t grab me with raw intensity the way Naruto did the first time I saw it, or suck me into a world of darkness and ass kicking like Berserk, but it does a good job of keeping you entertained as the show progresses.
The mood of the D. Gray-Man can shift drastically, ranging from a serious discussion about familial loss, to light hearted banter about Allen’s insecurities about his age and height. While the subject matter never reaches the level of serious as what you might experience with a series like Berserk, the show does broach some pretty powerful topics. Like many anime based on Shonen Jump manga, D. Gray-Man is a very long series, so while this is only the first 13 episodes, the show could extend well into the 100’s or more, so don’t expect it to come to any decisive conclusion anytime soon. But like most long series, the rewards of watching the series are growing with the characters and experiencing the long journey that awaits.
Rating: 7/10
The Presentation:
The video quality of D. Gray-Man, like the show, was a battle between light and darkness. I noticed many instances of banding, especially in some of the more dark and shadowy areas. The first thing I noticed when watching the first few episodes is how washed out some of the frames were due to some strange light gradient effect. I’m sure there was a purpose, but I felt it overwhelmed many of the early episodes and washed out much of the colors in the cells unnecessarily. Aliasing was a persistent problem throughout the show, namely visible in areas of contrast between whites and blacks, such as Allen’s hair or tuxedo shirts. Artifacting was also a minor, but nothing as severe as the aliasing issues. I didn’t find most of the video issues so distracting that I couldn’t watch the show, but I was disappointed in the overall presentation and quality of the production. I suppose it could be a bit demanding to expect so much from a TV show by FUNimation, given that it’s likely the show was originally filmed in SD, thus an upscale. HD anime TV shows like Naruto didn’t start showing up on TV Tokyo until December 2008, so it’s unlikely D. Gray-Man was filmed in HD prior to that given the shows 2006 release. It is always possible that FUNimation redid the series in HD, but I’m very skeptical.
D. Gray-Man offers you the choice of an English Dolby True HD 5.1 and a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 track. I felt the audio ranged from very dynamic during battles, to very subdued during moments of heavy dialog, which is to be expected. While there were no LFE tracks I could detect, the overall range of the show was very bright and punchy. Directional sounds such as trains passing across the screen come across as crisp and distinct. I felt the audio tracks were at their strongest during the battles scenes, where you have lots of sounds coming from all directions to keep your ears busy. The native Japanese language track utilizes a less impressive Dolby Digital 2.0, which is pretty common for TV shows out of Japan. So pick your poison whether to sub or dub!
Rating: 7/10 (video score: 7/10, audio score: 8/10)
The Extras:
The extras on D. Gray-Man are on the skimpy side, and are like getting an order of french fries served without ketchup. FUNimation includes the textless opening and ending, as well as a hand full of previews. However, FUNimation also forces you to watch the same trailers when you first stick the disk in, something I really hate, so there’s really nothing new there, and by the end of the series, you’ll know the Japanese theme songs well enough. There is also commentary for episode 2 by Todd Haberkorn, who was the assistant voice acting director and Luci Christian, who did some of the scripting for the dub. Most of the commentary isn’t about episode 2, however, and is mostly a discussion between the two about the trials and tribulations of voice acting. Ironically, Todd Haberkorn points out in the commentary that he did sound like Watanuki in certain areas of the show, which is something I also observed more often than not.
Rating: 2/10
Overall:
I really like D. Gray-Man, despite it being lighter, less serious fare than I typically enjoy. The darker seriousness of the show balances out well with the comedic and explores themes typical of Japanese anime: relationships, camaraderie, and making difficult moral and ethical choices. If you can forgive the dodgy video, the show is worthwhile endeavor.
Rating: 7/10
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