I have never read D.Gray-man. I heard lots of things about it since its debut back in 2004 but I just never got around to reading it, save for a small preview of the series that was published in the Shonen Jump magazine years ago. From what I saw, the premise seemed interesting and the Millenium Earl looked funny. A few years later I did get acquainted with Allen Walker and Lenalee Lee when playing Jump Ultimate Stars on the DS. Both characters were pretty fun to control with some neat moves. By the time I was done reading this book, I’d figured out how they got those powers in the first place.

D.Gray-man is set in the fictional 19^th century. Fifteen year-old exorcist Allen Walker spends his time seeking malevolent beings called “Akuma”, damned souls who turn into weapons of mass destruction courtesy of the Millennium Earl, a mysterious figure who makes Faustian deals with people who have fallen upon misfortune for his own benefit.

With the help of his left arm and left eye, Allen exorcises a few Akuma in England, he finds his way into the headquarters of the Black Order, an organization dedicated to combating Akuma and retrieving “Innocence”, a holy substance that can be used destroy Akuma.  Teaming up with Japanese hot-headed swordsman Yu Kanda and Chinese cutie-pie kicker Lenalee Lee, Allen and company set out to different locations around Europe in order to search for the remaining Innocence before the Earl and his Akuma retrieve them first. However, retrieval won’t be easy, as another faction known as the Noah have aligned themselves with the Earl to stop the exorcists at all costs.

The art in D.Gray-man is stunning. The overall mood is dark and as such, the art reflects on this with a lot of black and white contrast. The backgrounds are drawn meticulously well and the Akuma have a healthy variety of bizarre and grotesque designs. The human characters look rather underwhelming in comparison to the Akuma, but their cute, colorful and sometimes off-beat personalities are what counts. The Millennium Earl has them all beat, with his really silly character design and his devil-may-care personality. He’s a bit like the Joker but with some Doctor Eggman thrown into the bowl. There isn’t a lot of physical combat either, but powerful techniques and weapons are used in a lot of the battles, which is visually impressive. The story has great pacing, thanks to this volume’s three-in-one format. It also eliminates those annoying cliffhangers that you read in single volumes, but now that I think about it, while the first three volumes are more or less self-contained, the story looks to become a lot more exciting after the climax of volume three. Thankfully, the 3-in-1 editions are readily available and inexpensive, making them a great value.

Whether you’re a new reader like me or a longtime reader who doesn’t want to carry all of your volumes everywhere you go, the D.Gray-man 3-in-1 edition is a great addition to your manga collection. There’s a lot more story for you to read for your dollar compared to the single volumes, and it’s really easy to carry anywhere so it’s a great way to get started on something new to read. Just don’t let Allen, Kanda or Lenalee exorcise your hearts while you read.

D.Gray-man 3-in-1 volume 1 is available from VIZ.com!

 by Ray N.